Darby Edelen
Forum Replies Created
-
Try uploading an image of it to:
https://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/
Your mileage may vary =)
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
Welp, I have two words for you:
You’re right.
I know now why I was confused, and apologize if my confusion led anyone astray =)
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
[sam.mltn] “oh yes you do. You never want them different unless you’re distorting intentionally. AE handles the PAR correction perfectly every time as long as the footage is interpreted correctly and the comp is set up correctly. If you want undistorted video the x and y scale values should NEVER the be different.”
The original post was about working with a Square Pixel composition and outputting to a non-square pixel format. This process does not follow the same arbitrary AE rules as you cite above.
If you place a square pixel composition into a non-square pixel composition After Effects will automatically attempt to maintain the correct ‘look’ of your square pixel composition even though it’s in a non-square pixel composition (which I believe is what you’re referring to).
However, the square pixel composition is at a larger resolution than your non-square pixel composition (a square pixel NTSC comp is 720 x 540, a non-square is 720×480). In the case of NTSC DV your square pixel composition will have the top and bottom cut off of it if you DON’T scale one dimension more than the other!
https://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/8.0/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7f10.html
In the case of the HDV footage the original post was about using a 1920 x 1080 square pixel composition. This is the effective resolution that a 1440 x 1080 composition at 1.33 PAR will appear, however if you just put a 1920 x 1080 square pixel composition into a 1440 x 1080 non-square composition it will have the left and right sides each clipped by 240 pixels! The 1920 x 1080 square pixel composition needs to be scaled down by 1/1.33 (75%) in the X dimension in order to be properly displayed at 1.33 PAR.
[sam.mltn] “drop a 648 X 720 square pixel image or solid in a 720 X 480 D1 comp at .9 par and it will fit perfectly every time and X and Y will be 100%”
I’m not sure what you mean by ‘it will fit perfectly’ but your vertical resolution of the image seems large, especially for your horizontal resolution. The aspect ratio of 648 x 720 is 4:4.4 while the aspect ratio for standard NTSC DV should be 4:3 (648 x 486 or 720 x 540). The benefit of using 720 x 540 instead of 648 x 486 would be that you have extra pixel information for the conversion to 0.9 PAR.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
[sam.mltn] “watch out for the fit command and make sure that your x and y scale values are equal. I always use the fir horizontal command instead.”
If you’re putting a square pixel composition into a non-square output you don’t want the X and Y scales to be the same. If they’re the same then you still have square pixels!
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
I’ll give you a simple example for a cube:
The best way to make a cube in my experience is by creating one layer (let’s say 50 x 50 square pixels) and putting the anchor point at one corner of the layer [0,0,0]. Then duplicate that layer five times (for all 6 sides of a cube), orient 2 of the layers 90
-
Another option is creating a final render composition with the proper resolution & pixel aspect ratio, drag your wokring comp in there and use the fit to comp command (cmd-opt-f/ctrl-alt-f).
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
The contract & expand animation preset isn’t a very elegant one, if you select your text layer and pres ‘uu’ (u twice in succession) it will show you all of the properties that the preset has changed. Notice that the Source Text property (which holds the text) has hold keyframes applied, these hold keyframes change each line of text after it has contracted and before it expands.
If you want to have your text change line by line then you need to edit the source text keyframes, I would recommend turning off the Text Animator’s visibility and moving through the keyframes that the preset puts in place to see what I’m talking about. You can then change the text as you see fit (make sure you’re on one of the Source Text keyframes, or create your own in time with the Text Animator).
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
I’m not sure how much of your actor the suit is going to be covering, but I would say that you should definitely consider dressing those parts that are showing in a matte black. To make it more comfortable for the actor you can avoid covering the majority of their face with anything (just use some sort of hood with a hole cut for the face) and roto that in the end.
Chances are that the black you dress your actor in will still reflect some light, so it might become necessary to apply adjustments (Curves or Levels) to the black areas to bring them farther into black. However, this is far easier than trying to accurately roto the shape of the actor out of the armor.
You should still use a green screen to pull the Actor + Armor cleanly.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
As far as I know, an AVI is just a container . If they asked you to output to AVI, chances are that they want the video uncompressed, but I would recommend clarifying with them as an AVI can use any number of codecs.
This is similar to a QuickTime MOV, which I am more familiar with, in that it can employ a wide variety of codecs. Ranging in QuickTime’s case from Animation to Photo JPEG to MPEG to AVC to ProRes 4:2:2 (I just like to throw that last one on there, it makes me feel good).
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA -
Well, my suggestion would be to key them in a standard way against a green screen (as long as green isn’t incredibly dominant in the costume) and then use holdout masks to retain the green spots.
Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA