I'll bet this has already been answered here, but I'm probably just searching with the wrong keywords. Anyway...

I'm trying to figure out what pixel dimensions I should use to create an opening title and graphics to include in 4x3 aspect ratio footage shot with a GL2. And does it need to be in 72 dpi?

Leigh

I don't know that it has to be 72 DPI, but that's what I use. FCP doesn't do such a great job of scaling things, so I try to do all that in photoshop and just feed FCP a 720x480 file.

What I do is create the original photoshop file as 4:3 square pixels - 1600x1200, 1024x768, 720x540 - anything that works out to a 1.33 ratio. Then when I'm happy with that I resize without constraining to 720x480 pixels. That will open up as a full screen clip in FCP such that the program doesn't have to scale it.

What version of Photoshop are you using? Newer versions (I'm using CS) have a built-in preset for a variety of DV sizes. When you create a new file (FILE --> NEW) there's a pop-up "PRESET" dialog box, with choices like:

- LETTER
- LEGAL
- TABLOID
- 2x3
- 4x6
- 8x10
.
.
.
NTSC DV 720x480 (with guides)
NTSC DV Widescreen, 720x480 (with guides)
NTSC D1 720x486 (with guides)
.
.
.


Etc, and so on an so forth. For what it's worth, the "NTSC DV 720x480 (with guides)" setting yeilds this setup information:

WIDTH: 720 Pixels
HEIGHT: 480 Pixels
RESOLUTION: 72 Pixels/inch
COLOR MODE: RGB Color, 8 Bit
PIXEL ASPECT RATIO: D1/DV NTSC (0.9)




Hope that helps!

Thanks for the quick responses! I'll check when I get home re Photoshop -- I think my version of CS should offer those choices.

What confuses me, however, is why I need to create an image in a 1.5:1 aspect ratio to get 1.33:1 in Final Cut Pro.

Leigh

NTSC pixels aren't square. I don't have CS so I can't try this, but just be sure that your version ofphotoshop "understands" the difference between square pixels on your computer monitor and rectangular ones on your TV. It appears that CS does this since it indicates a .9 pixel aspect ratio.

For example, a 640x480 image on your computer monitor will have the same proportions as a 720x480 image on your TV.

Boyd,

OK, thanks. So, do I need to modify the artwork created in Photoshop? In other words, since Photoshop will be saving with pixels at 0.9, will proportons be restored?

Leigh

Leigh, you'll just have to experiment some with the non-square pixels to get used to it (it certainly looks funny when previewed on a square-pixel computer monitor). Personally, I tend to copy-and-paste from either Illustrator or from other normal square-pixel Photoshop files (pics). Regardless of what I copy, when i paste it into a non-square-pixel Photoshop file (either a 0.9 for 4:3 DV work, or a 1.2 for 16:9 DV work), Photoshop CS just seems to "understand" what I'm wanting and keeps the size relationship correct of whatever I've pasted; for example, if I copy a perfect CIRCLE out of a 1.0 pixel file and past it into a 0.9 pixel file, it gets pasted as a perfect circle, and Photoshop automatically scales it however it's supposed to be.

It's really quite amazing how easy Adobe makes it all just work. :-)

Good to know that works as it's supposed to. But if in doubt, use the technique I describe above and just work in square pixels. When you resize to 720x480 it will then scale them properly, as long as you do not constrain proportions (eg: resize 1024x768 to 720x480).

What version of Photoshop are you using? Newer versions (I'm using CS) have a built-in preset for a variety of DV sizes.
I'm using Photoshop 7, and it also has presets for DV video sizes. Photoshop 7 doesn't support non-square pixels, of course, so the presets compensate by adding more pixels horizontally.

Here are the presets Photoshop 7 has:

720 x 540 Std. NTSC 601

720 x 534 Std. NTSC DV/DVD

864 x 486 Wide NTSC 601

864 x 489 Wide NTSC DV/DVD

768 x 576 Std. PAL

1024 x 576 Wide PAL

To be assinine:
If you notice carefully, NTSC DV's pixel aspect ratio isn't 0.9. NTSC 601' pixel aspect ratio is... DV's is about 0.9091. In practice I don't think it's a big deal if the pixel aspect ratio is slightly off (most people would have trouble noticing I would think). However, it may come into play when you have black columns on the left and right sides of your image.