Preparing a file in Photoshop for widescreen video in Final Cut

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Level 1

9 points

Preparing a file in Photoshop for widescreen video in Final Cut

I have tried two ways; using the the NTSC DV Widescreen setting in Photoshop (exporting w/ PAR turned off as is recommended); preparing the document at 853 x 480 pixels. In Final Cut I am using NTSC DV 48 kHz Anamorphic for my sequence setting. The image prepared using the Widescreen setting in Photoshop looks noticeably sharper in Final Cut than the image prepared at 853 x 480 pixels. I guess this has to do w/ the way the 853 pixels are re-sliced to accommodate Final Cut's resolution? The image using Photoshop's Widescreen setting first displays on the timeline in Final Cut, horizontally squeezed and I have to adjust it's aspect ratio under Motion>Distort from 33.33 to 0. Then it displays correctly. I'm comparing the two images at 200% in the canvas. Will the increased sharpness of the one image over the other that I'm seeing on the timeline in Final Cut translate to the exported video as well and is there some import setting that I need to use so that I won't have to adjust the aspect ratio on the Widescreen images exported from Photoshop, once they're on the timeline in Final Cut? Thanks for any insight anyone cares to offer.

Final Cut Pro 6, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Apr 29, 2011 10:44 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 29, 2011 11:11 AM in response to stopmotion

Are you using one of the photoshop anamorphic presets? If not, do that and see if that works. You may not be setting the right pixel aspect ratio.

you can also, in FCP, select your iamges and go to Modify>conform to sequence

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Answer 2

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

151,004 points

Apr 29, 2011 11:12 AM in response to stopmotion

200% is meaningless for this. You're looking at expanded pixels, which presumably nobody will see. The only way to assess the difference is to look at the rendered output of each on a video monitor. You should also test circles in both to see how they behave.

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Answer 3

Nick Holmes

Level 7

30,018 points

Apr 29, 2011 11:16 AM in response to stopmotion

As Christina says, the correct way is to choose the appropriate Anamorphic preset in Photoshop and then set the Anamorphic flag on the image in FCP . Don't mess around with the distort settings -it's not the solution.

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Answer 4

stopmotion Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 30, 2011 7:32 AM in response to Christina Rodriguez

Thanks for your reply, Christina. I am using the NTSC DV Widescreen setting in Photoshop. I tried selecting the images and then selecting Modify>Conform to Sequence as you suggested but that did not seem to change anything. What did work was editing the item properties for the image in the browser and checking Anamorphic.

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Answer 5

stopmotion Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 30, 2011 7:35 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Thanks Tom. I am using circles in my test image to test for roundness and I'll check the rendered final output and determine which image looks sharper.

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Answer 6

stopmotion Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 30, 2011 7:54 AM in response to Nick Holmes

Nick, thanks for your suggestion. By setting the Anamorphic flag on the image in FCP do you mean checking Anamorphic under Item Properties for the image while it is still in the browser and then placing the image on the timeline? That did work. (It set the aspect ratio to 0 which is what I had been doing manually under Motion>Distort.) In the browser I can only select one image at a time and check off Anamorphic in Item Properties. On the timeline I can select all the images and they show up in a horizontal list under Item Properties and I can check off Anamorphic for each one, but then I have to re-place them on the timeline from the browser in order to see them display in the correct aspect ratio. Is that the way it works?

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