freakin' me out -aspect ratio - please help!!!!!!

[fluffycharlotte]

okay, i have problems and am a bit new to this after effects buisness.

i have a mixture of 3:4 and 16:9 anamorphic footage that i need to correct to a proper aspect ratio.

so my question is this - if i import a complete edited sequence ( as a single quicktime), with a mixture of 3:4 and 16:9 footage, can i alter the aspect ratio of individual shots as different layers?

if not how do i squish a complete anamorphic 16:9 sequence into a letterboxed 3:4 sequence. i have tried just eye matching and playing with the edges but i get horrilbe lines on the rendered version. is there a mask i can apply that will make the sequence correct?

AND... if i have 3:4 footage can i put a 16:9 mask on it (if so how???) and set it where i want - framing the footage as i go through?? we didn't film it thinking we would cut off the top and bottom, so if it just frames the middle, people's heads will be cut of etc...

any help would be great, as i am stuck in a bad place - with looming deadlines.....

please help

many thanks


catherine

 

[ellipsis]

OK... You can split your QuickTime movie into layers and apply different scaling per layer. Select the layer, move the Timeline marker to the 1st frame of where you want to make your cut, and press command-shift-d . The original layer is split into two at that point.

To scale a layer to fit exactly, select it in the timeline, then hit Command-shift -s, which brings up a numeric dialogue. Use the Units pull-down menu to select pixels, and the Preserve pull-down to select Current aspect ratio, then enter whatever width you need it to be. Don't know why you're getting lines appearing though - are you rendering at best quality and full resolution?

To mask your 4:3 footage, make a new Solid as your top layer, then apply a new Mask to it - both from the Layer menu. Open the layer properties and click on the Shape... link in the Switches/Mode panel to set the top and bottom limits numerically - you'll have to do the maths yourself, it depends on what format you're using, PAL, NTSC, DV etc. If you get a black rectangle in the middle of the image, check the inverted mask box. Now move your footage layer into position under the mask layer.

Hope this helps.

 

[fluffycharlotte]

thanks ever so much. that is really helpful.

one last thing - i am using pal and initially scaled the footage manuelly in the preview window.

do you know what the numbers i should be entering are? i=or where i can find them???

thanks again.

cat

X

 

[ellipsis]

If your footage looks "right", that's probably good enough. What's more important are your composition settings (command-k). There's a pull-down menu of common presets there, what you choose depends on what you are going to do with the finished output. If you're presenting it on VHS, choose PAL D1/DV-Square pixels-768x576, or the 320x240 option if it's going to be shown on a computer (you may have to change the fps to match the footage you've used). If you're transferring to digital tape, camcorder, BetaSP, whatever, choose PAL D1/DV-D1/DV pixels-720x576.