Compresser resizing video with matte black with mask letterbox method, help!?

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Compresser resizing video with matte black with mask letterbox method, help!?

So heres the just...

I have a short 3 minute action sports video. Ive used the letterbox effect on FCP X for every clip. Now, for the parts of the video that have transitions to white or animated "flash" kind of deal, the transition bleeds onto the black bars of the letter box instead of staying inside the bars only. I researched and figured out to correct this to use a black matte background on top of all the other "layers" and using the shape mask effect. So I did just that by making a rectangle covering everything but the bars and then inverted it. Bam! everything looks perfect on final cut. As soon as I send to compressor, even just in the window where it loads the video the exact parts of the video with the black background method I used, it resizes the video so its just a medium sized rectangle in the middle surrounded by black. Anyone know where I went wrong there?

Compressor, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on Aug 29, 2015 10:32 PM

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Answer 1

BenB

Level 6

12,097 points

Aug 30, 2015 7:44 PM in response to Kenflow

It is "Gist", not "just", my mom was a school teacher.

If you want to letterbox a whole, completed project, I'd not use a mask on each clip. Two ways to do this easer, faster, more reliably.

First method, place an Adjustment Layer across the top of the whole Timeline, and apply the letterbox mask there. To create an Adjustment Layer, launch Motion, start a new FCPX Titles template. Delete all text layers, save and name it "Adjustment Layer", making sure to save it in a Category you'll remember. I put all my custom templates in a category called "Ben's Customs".

Second method is to do it in Compressor, as a Custom Preset, and create a Custom Destination of that in FCPX. Look at how I set this one up in the image below. Look at the settings carefully. Letterbox comes in to play with Crop settings. All video settings should be set to Automatic.

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