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Way to convert 4:3 to anamorphic
I’m looking for a way to take some footage captured as standard 4:3 and simulate a anamophic squeeze on it. Basically I want ot do the opposite of setting the anamorphic setting in the item properties.
This problem has nothing to do with outputting to a 16:9 screen or anything. I was given footage for a project and some is anamoprhic and some is 4:3 letterboxed. I need all the footage to match on the final sequence in as unletterbox anamoprhic. Is there any way FCP can do this without sacrificing too much quality?
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13 Replies
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in the motion tab, open the Distort settings… my initial guess is +33 on the aspect ratio should do what you’re looking for,
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This has been asked and answered sooooo many times.
Do a search of the posts, you’ll find a ton of resources, here’s
just one of many:
https://www.proapptips.com/proapptipsvideotutorials/879F6B61-CFF9-4FD1-8D43-FDF89605611A/6ECEC931-47F1-4BC1-8CD4-41FE4842B45D.htmlEd
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It is a question that many people have asked but it’s a VERY GOOD question. Personally I had a DP that messed up a few times and turned the switch on the Canon XL-2 to 4:3 instead of the 16:9. So I got pissed, I stressed out and I asked a lot of paniced questions.
But you my friend must do neither. It’s actually not a big deal, but DEFINATELY do NOT distort your footage 33%. That’s just a poor solution and I’m sorry someone on COW actually advised you to do so. You want distorted looking faces? Me either.
So..
What your going to do is blow it up, I think it’s around 120% or so, then your frame is going to be larger than the 16:9 frame and you’ll lose part of the top and bottom of your orginal image.
The down side is that you’ll have blown up the footage a bit, and you WILL lower the quality, that’s just life, but it’s nothing to be worry about, you probably won’t even notice it. I’ve taken samples of 4:3 footage, blow up to 120%, and have seen them on a large screen, didn’t notice a thing. I think it’s around 150% or something that you start seeing the quality loss, play around with it, use your eyes and don’t sweat it too much.
My 2 cents.
Will Keir
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Might not be too much a quality loss… remember footage shot in anamorphic is a quality loss in itself. Changing the aspect to +33 should push the black bars out of the way… you MIGHT then want to export and bring it back in and flag it as anamorphic.
I think the video Ed referenced… although I LIKE having my videos referenced… I take a drink each time I find one referenced here on this board… I don’t think this is what OP had in mind.
But watch it anyway – just in case.
CaptM
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Or listen to Will Keir.
CaptM
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Maybe everyone should do a search. You don’t want to distort it 33%, and you don’t want to blow it up to 120%, you want to scale it, and it’s 133%. Search and you shall find (sounds almost biblical, doesn’t it?).
Ed[Will Keir] “But you my friend must do neither. It’s actually not a big deal, but DEFINATELY do NOT distort your footage 33%. That’s just a poor solution and I’m sorry someone on COW actually advised you to do so. You want distorted looking faces? Me either.
So..
What your going to do is blow it up, I think it’s around 120% or so, then your frame is going to be larger than the 16:9 frame and you’ll lose part of the top and bottom of your orginal image.
The down side is that you’ll have blown up the footage a bit, and you WILL lower the quality, that’s just life, but it’s nothing to be worry about, you probably won’t even notice it. I’ve taken samples of 4:3 footage, blow up to 120%, and have seen them on a large screen, didn’t notice a thing. I think it’s around 150% or something that you start seeing the quality loss, play around with it, use your eyes and don’t sweat it too much.”
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[Peterd] “I’m looking for a way to take some footage captured as standard 4:3 and simulate a anamophic squeeze on it. Basically I want ot do the opposite of setting the anamorphic setting in the item properties.
This problem has nothing to do with outputting to a 16:9 screen or anything. I was given footage for a project and some is anamoprhic and some is 4:3 letterboxed. I need all the footage to match on the final sequence in as unletterbox anamoprhic. Is there any way FCP can do this without sacrificing too much quality?”
Peter, its a damn weird request … to do what you seem to want to do, you would have to both distort (apect ratio: +33) and scale (133%) each clip, causing the top and bottom to be cropped and the remaining video to occupy the full 4:3 window (looking tall and thin), then export. on reimporting the footage, and applying the anamorphic flag, it will squish down and appear to be undistorted and 16:9.
But heres the thing, what you thing you want to do is not what you really should do. There is nothing to be gained by this except unnecessary loss of quality.
Do as advised above. Combine the 4:3 and anamorphic footage as is, in the anamophic timeline and scale the 4:3 clips to 133%, now you can reframe those clips as required and get on with the show.Cheers
Andy -
[CaptainMench] “Might not be too much a quality loss… remember footage shot in anamorphic is a quality loss in itself”
the “quality loss” is exactly 25%, no more, not less. how much this shows depends on your scaler. i like to use compressor with frame controls for any conversions which usually creates better results than fcp. after effects also does a good job.
in what way is anamorphic quality loss in itself? it’s 720×480/576 pixels just like 4:3. that’s only a quality loss compared to the native width of 864/1024.
/matt
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Are you saying that stretching pixels results in NO quality difference?
Really?
CaptM
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16:9 is not stretched, it’s squeezed. It’s not a letterboxed image stretched to full height, it’s a wide image squeezed to a narrower width. In the case of converting 4:3 material you have to stretch it though, hence the 25% loss of “quality” i mentioned. /matt
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