Quick question: How to crop 9:16 HD to a 3:4 PAL project?
 

Hi. I shot some HD video and I want to edit a project in 3:4 PAL. But I want to crop the sides of the 9:16 frame rather than letter-box. But I haven't been able to figure out how to do that. Can someone please tell me how?

[Edit: The problem has become a bit more complicated. please see post #2 and post #4 for further details. thx]

Thanks

Let me just quickly add to my original post. I've found out how to click the pan/crop button on each HD event on the time-line and then right-click and select "Match output aspect".

But here's the thing...

The final screening of this project will apparently be with a 4:3 projector, but I'd like to keep the video in the best quality possible. There's a good chance it will be screened via laptop connected to projector.

So I want to keep the material 1920x1080 24p as is the source, but viewing area to fit the projector aspect ratio which is 4:3.

This is how I've set up my project

In Project Properties:

Width: 1440
Height: 1080
Field order: None
Pixel aspect ratio: 1 (square)
Frame rate: 24
- - - - -
Pixel format: 8-bit
Full-resolution rendering quality: Best
Motion blur type: Gaussian
Deinterlace method: Interpolate fields
[ticked] Adjust source media to better match project or render settings


Am I doing this right? or should I change something?


[Edit: The problem has become a bit more complicated. please see post #4 for further details. thx]

The few times I've needed to do something like this, I've used the Track Motion to accomplish it.

I'm NTSC, and normally shoot in DV Widescreen. So my pixel aspect ratio is 1.2121, but if I want 4:3, I set it to DV normal, 0.9091 if I remember correctly. Then, for all my WS footage, I use one (or more) particular tracks. In the Track Motion for that particular track, given that my WS footage is 480 high, and I want 4:3 (or 0.75), I divide the width by the ratio: 720 / 0.75 == 960; so the Width option in Track Motion gets set to 960. By default, the height seems to be centered.

This might involve some undesired resampling, but it does give a 4:3 output centered on the 16:9 footage, and you can pan around to select which part of the 16:9 footage gets included.

Has worked for me so far...
Hope this helps,

Updating my original post....

Things have gotten a bit more complicated.

My source material is from two different formats:

1. 1920x1080/24p HD with pixel aspect ration of 1, shot with Canon 5D mark ii and converted to Cineform 1080/24p
2. 1440x1080/50i HDV, with pixel aspect ratio of 1.33, shot with Sony X-1 (if i remember correctly the camera model)

The Vegas project I need to create is as described in my earlier post. It will most probably be screened from a 4:3 projector, yet I'd prefer to keep the project at highest resolution for now and down-convert accordingly when I am certain of the final output format.

The project involves splitting the 4:3 screen to two halves. The HD material will be on one half while the HDV material will be on the other half.

Is this at all possible? I've been trying... but can't understand how to do this. Thanks.

The split is easy enough to do. Each side will be on a separate track, then either using a black/white mask image, or cookie cutter, simply mask off the top layer to only be one or the other side. The cookie cutter is probably the easiest, as it is simply an effect applied to the top track.

If you need something more complex, you can either use the masking tool (if you have Pro) and trace out the appropriate mask, or create a black and white image, and child it to the top track (not the Parent Compositing Mode, the normal one) and set the parent to Multiply instead of Alpha. Then drop a Mask Generator - Luminance Mask FX on the black and white image, and the black bits will be transparent (showing the underneath track) and the white bits will be the top track.

To get the sizing, if you simply change the width in the track motion to adjust the width to match the new aspect ratio. I don't actually think the PAR comes into play at all. Even though the height seems to change, I don't think that's the actual pixel height, but rather the zoom height. The track motion numbers are really quite confusing to me, but enough playing eventually finds the right combo.