DVD PAL 16:9 Workflow (par,reso,etc..)
by Cache
on
Oct 16, 2007 at 4:00:49 am
Hello there all ! This is my first post here :)
I need a little help i think.
- I have to create an animation with DVD PAL output.
- The output has to be 16:9.
- The client wants the letterboxes on the final output, and wants to get 720x576 final output.
- I have fullHD (1920x1080 non-interlaced, square pixels) material to edit inside it..
First Question:
Is it okay for me to open a 720x405 sized composition with D1/DV PAL (1.07) Pixel Aspect Ratio ?, And then put the letterboxes onto it after I finished editing ?
Second Question:
Am i doing it right to import the HD footage, and interpret it as D1/DV PAL 1.07 PAR in the project window? This bothers me the most, as I dont want to end up with horizontally stretched footages in the end, as the Footage contains peoples, faces.
Third Question:
Should I turn on PAR correction display in order to see what the client will see on a TV connected to the DVD that contains the final material ?
If i do the last, the faces/people will grow fat, will stretch horizontally. right ?
So, the last, Fourth Question:
Should I scale back horizontally the footage, to make them thinner ?
Re: DVD PAL 16:9 Workflow (par,reso,etc..) by Darby Edelen on Oct 16, 2007 at 5:57:16 am
[Cache]"Am i doing it right to import the HD footage, and interpret it as D1/DV PAL 1.07 PAR in the project window?
This bothers me the most, as I dont want to end up with horizontally stretched footages in the end, as the Footage contains peoples, faces."
I'm not sure if these questions are specific to AE, but I'm going to assume that they are since this was posted in the AE forum:
Do not re-interpret the footage!
Your footage should be interpreted as what it is, this includes the native pixel aspect ratio of the footage. AE does not want to know what you want the footage to be, that's handled later, it wants to know what the footage is.
Create your After Effects composition to have the desired output resolution and settings (PAL DV 720x576, 1.07 PAR, etc). This is what you want your footage to end up being.
Drag and drop your footage into this composition and use the Fit To Comp Width command (Command+Option+Shift+H for Mac, or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+H on PC). This will preserve your footage's native aspect ratio and fit it to the composition.
The last step is to put a black solid behind your footage just to make the letterbox officially exist.
[Cache]"Should I turn on PAR correction display in order to see what the client will see on a TV connected to the DVD that contains the final material ?
If i do the last, the faces/people will grow fat, will stretch horizontally. right ?"
You should turn on PAR correction, this will show you what the footage will look like on a native (PAL in your case) display.
Darby Edelen DVD Menu Artist Left Coast Digital Aptos, CA
Re: DVD PAL 16:9 Workflow (par,reso,etc..) by Eric Steinberg on Oct 16, 2007 at 6:18:23 am
The client wants the letterboxes on the final output, and wants to get 720x576 final output
Just to make confirm: The client wants a 4:3 final output with letterbox? It's pretty common to output 16:9 anamorphic, which also is 720x576. The difference is the pixel aspect ratio, which is 1.07 vs. 1.42. But if it in fact is 4:3 with letterbox, here's how I would suggest your workflow:
1. Import your footage and interpret it just as it is: 1920x1080, non-interlaced, square pixels (and whatever frame rate the footage is.. probably 25fps).
2. Edit your piece in a composition that is the same: 1920x1080, square pixels, etc.
3. When your done, drag that composition into a new composition which is set to regular PAL: 720x576, PAR 1.07, and scale the footage down to fit (I think it's 40%).
4. Render.
There is more than one way to do it, but that's how I do it anyway.
Should I turn on PAR correction display in order to see what the client will see on a TV connected to the DVD that contains the final material ?
Yes, in the final comp you're rendering. This is only for previewing, and doesn't affect the render.
Re: DVD PAL 16:9 Workflow (par,reso,etc..) by epontius on Oct 16, 2007 at 12:58:05 pm
You can add your 16x9 comp to a 4x3 comp, then hit ctrl-alt-shift-h (command-option-shift-h on the mac) to have AE, fit the width of the 16x9 image into the 4x3 space, creating your letterboxing at the top an bottom.
I'd try strongly to convince your client that letterboxing your footage is the wrong way to go. You will further reduce the quality of your image since you are effectively losing a good portion of vertical resolution with the black bars. You might have well have shot the film on DV.
DVD players have settings in which you tell them what type of TV you have connected: 4x3 or 16x9. When the DVD player encounters 16x9 anamorphic content on a disc and it is connected to a 4x3 set, it will automatically add the black bars. The advantage to anamorphic is when dealing with 16x9 sets as the image will fill the entire scene utilizing as much of the vertical image resolution as possible. Letterboxed material on a 16x9 set will have black bars on the top AND the sides of the screen.
4x3 sets are becoming a dying breed and you don't see to many of them in the stores anymore.
If he has requirements from a festival or something that is out of his control and the film must be letterboxed, so be it.
You may also consider outputting a letterbox version and an anamorphic version.
