View Full Version : Motion Graphics for LED Screens


Ryan Hansen
November 10th, 2009, 02:20 PM
Hi, I'm not sure where to post this, but considering I'm making it in mac I thought this might be a place to start....

I'm making motion graphics and sorting lyrics for a christmas event in a month or so. It is broasdcast on 2 LED TV Trucks. Without going into too much detail, the IMAG video is 16:9 and the LED Trucks are 4:3, which leaves me the, well, bottom part for Lyrics and Graphics (Using PIP)

I'm not to sure on the resolution of LED TVs, and was wondering if anyone had had to make something for one. With safe zones and all there's not much space, and I can't really test it very easily... I'm worried it will all look like a blur on the screen.

Can anyone help? Or move me to the right folder?

Thanks heaps
Ryan

Lonnie Bell
November 11th, 2009, 02:57 AM
Ryan,
It's a must that you find out the LED's resolution, and convert your project & output to match it for best viewing. For example, if you are exporting from an Apple Motion Project, even though your objects imported into the project may be large jpegs, 1920x1080 HD video, etc... set the actual project settings to match your LEDs resolution. This way you can scale everything accordingly, and see what "plays" and what doesn't while working on it.

One LED I work on for a major restaurant on the strip has a resolution of only 192x128 (a postage stamp in terms of resolution), although the screen itself is approx. 6ft by 4ft.

Also, find out the hardware/software they'll be using to play the loop from, and conform the output accordingly as well. Is it mac or pc, QT or wmv, etc...

And nothing replaces testing before the show goes up for public viewing.

Good luck,
Lonnie

Mitchell Lewis
November 12th, 2009, 05:58 PM
^^^^^What Lonnie said^^^^^^

I was also surprised at how low the resolution was for this huge monitors. One nice thing about it though, the video files are so small that you can just email them! :)

Steve Oakley
November 17th, 2009, 12:06 AM
right, get the dimensions.... and there is no safety area with LED signs. its either on or off the screen... and it will only go off if you mess up the specs.

there can be a hole bunch of different devices driving the screen too, so its very possible they might ask you for SD video too and play it out that way, positioning to fit.