When I put the settings to widescreen it just makes it a small sqaure???

[Tony Jucin]

Ok so I have vegas 6 and dont know nearly enough, but Im getting the hang of it. Any how I would like to make some widescreen movies but whenever I render it, all it does is has black on top and bottom, then on the sides too, like it just made it a smaller sqaure. Whats up with that?

[Jarrod Whaley]

Are you starting with 16:9-native footage and simply having trouble rendering it back out as such, or are you trying to crop 4:3 video down to 16:9? Give us a little more info about your source footage, your project settings, and render settings (as they pertain to aspect ratio).

[John Rofrano]

It sounds like you are trying to convert 4:3 footage to 16:9. First I would change the project properties to DV Widescreen. I always like to keep my project properties in the same format as my render so what I see is what I get. Next, you need to apply a 16:9 Pan/Crop setting to all of the footage (i.e., each and every clip!). While you are doing this make sure you don’t cut off anyone’s head or any information at the top of the 4:3 image that you want to keep. Adjust the 16:9 crop vertically to compensate. Finally render using a DV Widescreen template and everything should come out OK.

~jr

[Tony Jucin]

Any easy steps? Im not really that great at this stuff. Thanks!

[Dan Measel]

That's interesting. I have had a similar problem. I am shooting in 16:9 with an FX1 (dwonconverting to SD). I am also having some special effects composited on some shots. But when I import those frames it does the same thing you are describing. Very frustrating. Ultimately the only fix I found was having the frames rendered cropped at 720 x 405 then they match the video which has the normal widescreen appearance. Somehow Vegas seems to get confused. I cannot figure out why but it's a pain.

As for what you are doing. Click on the little tic-tac-toe looking icon on the event which will open a new window. From the drop down menu select convert to 16:9 or widescreen (whatever it says). That should do it.

[Jarrod Whaley]

Originally Posted by Tony Jucin

Any easy steps? Im not really that great at this stuff.

Steps to do what??? You still haven't told us exactly what you're trying to do. Did you shoot in 16:9? Converting 4:3 to 16:9?

[John Rofrano]

Originally Posted by Tony Jucin

Any easy steps? Im not really that great at this stuff. Thanks!

Here are three easy steps:

1. Use the menu item File > Properties... then on the Video tab select the template NTSC DV Widescreen (obviously if you are targeting PAL select PAL DV Widescreen)
2. Press the Event Pan/Crop button on the 4:3 event
3. Under Preset, select 16:9 Widescreen TV aspect ratio

That’s it. Do this for all of the events and they will correctly display in 16:9.

~jr

[John Rofrano]

Originally Posted by Dan Measel

I am also having some special effects composited on some shots. But when I import those frames it does the same thing you are describing. Very frustrating.

It sounds like you are processing the video in an external program and then rendering in a format that is not 1.2121 pixel aspect ratio. Probably all you have to do is tell Vegas the correct aspect ratio of the clips but without more information about exactly what you are doing it’s hard to say.

~jr

[Dan Measel]

John Rofrano,

Yes, that's right. A CG artist renders the frames on another program. The aspect ratio of the rendered frames is 1.0. I can change that with Vegas to 1.2121 but it ends up stretching the composited frames, as you would expect, and if I recall correctly the perceived "frame size" was still different than the original video (ie the viewable image changes between the composited frames and the original video). This was the case for the GSProxy files as well as the Cineform files. It's been a while since I messed around with this and gave up settling for the cropped 720 x 405 frames (which look great, they're just cropped). I'm not at my workstation right now but I'd love to find out exactly what I'm doing wrong, so if you don't mind I'll update you when I can get more precise info. I guess I should've just presented this issue to the forum originally but frankly I don't understand the technical stuff real well and was afraid I wouldn't be able to explain the problem sufficiently. Do you think I should start a new thread for this or just continue here? Thanks

Dan

[John Rofrano]

Originally Posted by Dan Measel

A CG artist renders the frames on another program. The aspect ratio of the rendered frames is 1.0.

Does your CG artist know you are using Widescreen? If their CG program cannot render 1.2121 aspect, then they should be increasing their render size so that you don't have to crop yours and potentially loose quality. For example: when I use Cinema 4D to render, I set the render format to 16:9 in C4D and it does the right thing so that it looks great in Vegas. I believe it uses 853x480 with a pixel aspect of 1.0.

Originally Posted by Dan Measel

Do you think I should start a new thread for this or just continue here?

That's up to you. If you want more people to focus in on your particular problem then I would start a new thread. If you realize that your CG person is the problem because and they need to render for widescreen then perhaps not. ;-)

~jr

[Van Zijl Loots]

For example: when I use Cinema 4D to render, I set the render format to 16:9 in C4D and it does the right thing so that it looks great in Vegas. I believe it uses 853x480 with a pixel aspect of 1.0.~jr

Cinema 4d ROCKS!!!

Regards
Van Zijl

[Tony Jucin]

Thanks guys it was easy enough,
YOU GUYS ROCK!