Working In 16:9 In PI

[Jeff Polster]

Thanks to all your replies. I’ll try everything and look forward very much to Aaron’s reply. I’m traveling right now and can’t attempt any of this for a couple days.

By-the-way it also may be I’m just dense.

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

OK. Here’s the deal.

Since particleIllusion works only in square pixels, you must find out the Sqaure pixel equivilent of your non square footage, comp, or project, so that when you drop your pilluisoin footage in there, it fits properly.

I guess the question of the day is are you working in NTSC or PAL.

For 16:9 NTSC the square pixel equivilent of 720 x 480 (1.2) is 856 x 480.

Set up your pillusion projects at that resolution, and depending on what program you are dropping your rendered pilluison footage into it will either correct for the un-matching PAR (as After Effects does), or you will have to do it manually.

If you want to use widescreen BG footage in pillusion, then you need to export the video from your NLE (Non-Linear Editor) in square pixels – at the same resolution I mention – 856×480. Otherwise, pillusion will think that the footage is actually 720×480 in SQUARE PIXLES, which it;s not – everything will then be squished.

Make sense?

Aharon

Aharon Rabinowitz
arabinowitz(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

correction. It looks like it’s 864×480. I looked it up and it’s supposed to be the number I gave previously, but what I’m actually seeing is that it’s 864×480. Can anyone confirm or deny?

Aharon Rabinowitz
arabinowitz(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Jeff Polster]

Aaraon,

Thanks very much for your through reply. I’ll try when I get home.

Best to your father. Hope all goes well.

Thanks again,

JP

[Jonathan Decker]

Sorry, I sounded like an idiot there… I wasn’t looking at the program at the time of that post. Alan is right, there is no current support for non-square pixels…

Not that you should listen to me after that, but…

I would recommend doing your compositing in After Effects so as to avoid the trouble of pixel correction formulas and such. Again, sorry for the misleading post.

gesamtkunstzwerk

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

I’m not usually into shamelss self-promotion (OK, that’s a lie…), but on my DVD I cover working with non-square pixel aspect ratio footage in pIllusion. Even if you aren’t using After Effects, it’s one of those things that you may find usefull if you are working with anytyhing other than square pixel footage.

Aharon

Aharon Rabinowitz
arabinowitz(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Jeff Polster]

For those who are interested – I got the 16:9 clips from Liquid Edition 5.62 to work with Particle Illusion 3. It turned out to be simpler than everyone seems to have thought. I exported either an AVI or a fused sequence into PI 3 (either worked), did the effect and rendering work on the clip (which has now been changed in the process exporting from LE 5.62 to PI 3 from 16:9 to 4:3 which precipitated my original question), reimported the finished PI 3 clip back into LE 5.62. I put the new 4:3 clip with PI 3 effect on it on the LE timeline, went into the new clips properties and changed the aspect ratio back to 16:9. The clip re renders itself back into 16:9 with all proportions and perspectives exactly correct. The finished clip with the effect seamlessly works with the original. I’ve tested it with several clips and they have all worked. Happy ending.

Thanks to all for their comments and help. I learned quite a bit in the process.

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

Sounds great!

Like I said, you need to have your footage exported as square pixles, or pIllusion won’t read it correctly.

Take it easy.

Aharon

Aharon Rabinowitz
arabinowitz(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[David Strelitz]

I would offer a different approach. Having experimented with various methods…..IGNORE the 16×9 issue.
Import the BG image or AVI as is – it will be squished but dont worry.
Work over that BG and remove BG (I prefer to bring alpha’d AVI’s over my original footage) – Save and render TGA. Import TGA sequence to AE within a 4×3 composition render AVI in 4×3 YES 4×3.
Now when you take the AVI – in my case a Canopus Lossless with Alpha, into the Editing App, simply change its properties to 16×9
DONE! In Edius this is two mouse clicks.

I realise I am in the company of some real graphics Gurus here -dare I suggest my way is 16×9 for Dummies -like me!