Letterboxing in AE 5.5? at DVinfo.net

Paul Frederick · January 11th, 2004, 10:04 PM

Anyone take anamorphic footage and LTBX in AE 5.5? I try but the resulting footage looks very bad. I've tried just changing the Y-scale to 75%. It looks right but when I render there are SEVERE aliasing problems when the camera does any fast motion. I've also tried importing the footage tagged as widescreen and nesting it in a standard 4x3 comp, same look as described earlier.

My other option is cropping in Premiere 6.5 and I can't get that to work AT ALL!

So anyone have any answers? The only reason I need to do it is to send a screener to a client so they can see what it will look like properly framed, (they don't have a 16x9 TV). I want it to look good though so any suggestions?

Rob Lohman · January 12th, 2004, 04:41 AM

In Premiere I think you should do something like this. Create a
new 4:3 (YES, *NOT* a widescreen project) and import your
16:9 widescreen footage. Put it in the timeline. Right-click on the
footage and somewhere in that menu is an option like maintain
aspect ratio etc. I don't have Premiere running anymore, so can't
check what it was called. That should letterbox your footage.

In AE you should somewhere select to use the best rendering it
can do I think. If I remember correctly the default is not set to
highest quality somewhere.

Paul Frederick · January 12th, 2004, 05:26 PM

Thanks Rob,

Part of the problem with the Premiere "Maintain Aspect Ratio" thing is some of the footage was dubbed from DigiBeta to DV. It's squeezed but the aspect ratio is 720x480. So it IS maintaining aspect ratio for those clips.

I did figure a work around. I de-interlaced it in AE by importing it twice, one with Lower field first, the other Upper field first, then stacked them with the Upper field first on top at 50% transperancy. The old way of doing "Magic Bullet" like progressive scan on the cheap. ANyway, it took care of all my problems.

Rob Lohman · January 13th, 2004, 08:32 AM

That is not the aspect ratio. That is your resolution. All widescreen
captured footage will just be in 720x480. The pixel and/or frame
aspect ratio will/should be different! Thus, if not, you need to set
the correct ratio's in Premiere first (check project settings of a
16:9 project to get the good values) on the footage BEFORE you
can do Maintain Aspect Ratio.

This is probably due to the 16:9 flag not being on since the footage
isn't original DV but DigiBeta. Then you need to set the flag
manually (easy in Vegas, not sure how to do that in Premiere).

January 11th, 2004, 10:04 PM	#1
Paul Frederick Major Player Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: WestChazy, NY Posts: 291	Letterboxing in AE 5.5? Anyone take anamorphic footage and LTBX in AE 5.5? I try but the resulting footage looks very bad. I've tried just changing the Y-scale to 75%. It looks right but when I render there are SEVERE aliasing problems when the camera does any fast motion. I've also tried importing the footage tagged as widescreen and nesting it in a standard 4x3 comp, same look as described earlier. My other option is cropping in Premiere 6.5 and I can't get that to work AT ALL! So anyone have any answers? The only reason I need to do it is to send a screener to a client so they can see what it will look like properly framed, (they don't have a 16x9 TV). I want it to look good though so any suggestions?

January 12th, 2004, 04:41 AM	#2
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	In Premiere I think you should do something like this. Create a new 4:3 (YES, NOT a widescreen project) and import your 16:9 widescreen footage. Put it in the timeline. Right-click on the footage and somewhere in that menu is an option like maintain aspect ratio etc. I don't have Premiere running anymore, so can't check what it was called. That should letterbox your footage. In AE you should somewhere select to use the best rendering it can do I think. If I remember correctly the default is not set to highest quality somewhere. __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

January 13th, 2004, 08:32 AM	#4
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	That is not the aspect ratio. That is your resolution. All widescreen captured footage will just be in 720x480. The pixel and/or frame aspect ratio will/should be different! Thus, if not, you need to set the correct ratio's in Premiere first (check project settings of a 16:9 project to get the good values) on the footage BEFORE you can do Maintain Aspect Ratio. This is probably due to the 16:9 flag not being on since the footage isn't original DV but DigiBeta. Then you need to set the flag manually (easy in Vegas, not sure how to do that in Premiere). __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

January 12th, 2004, 05:26 PM	#3
Paul Frederick Major Player Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: WestChazy, NY Posts: 291	Thanks Rob, Part of the problem with the Premiere "Maintain Aspect Ratio" thing is some of the footage was dubbed from DigiBeta to DV. It's squeezed but the aspect ratio is 720x480. So it IS maintaining aspect ratio for those clips. I did figure a work around. I de-interlaced it in AE by importing it twice, one with Lower field first, the other Upper field first, then stacked them with the Upper field first on top at 50% transperancy. The old way of doing "Magic Bullet" like progressive scan on the cheap. ANyway, it took care of all my problems.