All posts tagged Premiere

2.35:1 Cinemascope (Anamorphic) Aspect Ratio Tutorial

by Michael on August 29, 2011 in Tutorial, Video with 4 Comments

A 90 second tutorial on exporting 1080p widescreen (16:9) footage to Cinemascope aspect ratio (otherwise known as Panavision or Anamorphic Scope – 2.35:1 ratio).

In this example, I used 100 pixels on the top and bottom. TRUE 2.35:1 aspect ratio would be 132px on top, and 131px on bottom (or vice versa). The final output would be 817px tall.

Please bestow a ♥ like or leave a ✉ comment if you have questions!

☞ ASPECT RATIO CONVERSION METHOD:

To convert from any aspect ratio to a wider format (such as 2.35:1 or 1.85:1), all you have to do is

DIVIDE the WIDTH of your SOURCE footage (1920 in this example) by the final aspect ratio desired (2.35 in this example).

So,
1920
DIVIDED BY
2.35 = 817 pixels tall

Your final output would be 1920×817.

✏ To find the amount to crop off the top and bottom, subtract your pixel number (817px here) from your source footage height (1080px) and divide it by two. If it is a decimal number (such as 131.5), even it out to whole pixels (i.e. – crop 132px from top, 131px from bottom).

✏ Here are some examples of aspect ratio conversion methods. These are all assuming 1920×1080 footage. If your SOURCE footage is 1280×720, your width would be 1280; if your SOURCE footage is 720×480, your width would be 720; and so on.

☞ 16:9 to 2.35:1 / Cinemascope / Anamorphic / Panavision Aspect Ratio:
SOURCE footage width (1920) DIVIDED BY 2.35 = 817px tall
Crop 132px off top, 131px off bottom.

☞ 16:9 to 1.85:1 / Academy Flat / “Flat” Aspect Ratio:
SOURCE footage width (1920) DIVIDED BY 1.85 = 1038px tall
Crop 21px off top, 21px off bottom.

As a ‘bonus’, here is the method for converting your 4:3 aspect ratio video to regular 16:9 widescreen (assuming 640×480 footage):

☞ 4:3 to 16:9 Regular Widescreen Aspect Ratio:
SOURCE footage width (640) DIVIDED BY 1.778 = 360px tall
Crop 60px off top, 60px off bottom.

★Other Tutorials:★
Slow Motion from pictures tutorial – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJmhIQjPVKQ
Color Correction tutorial the RIGHT way! – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EutVgTck6U

To learn more about aspect ratios, Panavision, Cinemascope, Anamorphic Scope, and much more – go to http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/aspectratios/widescreenoram…

Audio: Zoom H4n and Redhead Windscreen

Slow Motion From Pictures! (After Effects Tut)

by Michael on July 8, 2011 in Photography, Tutorial, Video with 12 Comments

Create a super slow motion effect from images in After Effects! All you need is two or more photos to create this effect. Pixel Motion is used in After Effects.

Please bestow a ♥ like or leave a ✉ comment if you have questions!

0:18 – Slow Motion From Photos Example
1:00 – Tutorial Start (tips and important information)
2:51 – How to Create Slow Motion From Pictures (method explained)

☞ TIPS:

✏ Rotate around your subject – your axis of rotation should be around the subject in the photo.
✏ Choose subjects with little background detail to achieve the best Pixel Motion effect.
✏ Keep the motion between images very, very subtle. Practice rotating around your subject once or twice before you take the picture.
✏ Remember to have your camera on manual EVERYTHING: Aperture, Shutter, Focus, and White Balance. This will ensure the fastest multi-burst from your camera (DSLR or point-and-shoot). If you are shooting at a higher ISO, turn off in-camera noise reduction.
✏ Rename your files to numbers or alphabetical order – After Effects sometimes won’t create a proper JPEG sequence with filenames such as “IMG_9738.JPG”. In this example, I renamed my photos by chopping off the first 5 characters (making the filename “738.JPG”) with a file renamer.
✏ Resize your images to your output WIDTH (1920 for my project). I created an action in Photoshop that automates everything. This will speed up your overall production and processing time.

☞ You can also use this method by zooming into your subject (instead of rotating) while shooting the images. Do this by either zooming with the lens, or physically stepping closer to your subject. Remember your manual focus here.

UPDATE: How to resize your photos/images:
✏ Download my Photoshop preset
✏ Follow the included instructions

REMEMBER that the photos you run through this Photoshop action WILL be overwritten. What I do is create a new folder called ‘resized’, copy my originals into it, then run the Photoshop action on the ‘resized’ images folder. After that, I chop off the first five characters of the filename with a file renamer such as File Renamer Basic (http://bit.ly/​File-Renamer-Basic).

Audio: Zoom H4n + Redhead Windscreen

How to Color Correct in After Effects (The RIGHT Way!)

by Michael on March 31, 2011 in Tutorial, Video with 7 Comments

An in-depth tutorial on color correction using Curves inside of After Effects and Photoshop.

This method explains how to color correct most any footage “by the numbers”. It’s a bit of a science that requires only a minimum amount of understanding of RGB values.

Please bestow a ♥ like or leave a ✉ comment if you have questions!

You can skip the introduction if you so choose:
0:45 – Before and After
1:09 – Tutorial Start
12:37 – Edit your color corrected footage in Premiere! (Dynamically Link the CC’ed Footage)

Using Photoshop for color correction is really a lot easier than you may think. In this tutorial, the method is very simple and fast – NO rendering multiple frames, NO importing video files into Photoshop, and easy access to making color changes.

This tutorial is a tad long at 15 minutes – please bear with me as I fully explain the techniques here! :) Hopefully you will find the techniques helpful.

☞ TIPS:

✏ Choose areas that are large enough to sample and don’t contain color casts or Chromatic Aberration
✏ Remember to use common sense. If the colors are just not looking right, either sample a different area or adjust to your liking.
✏ Your footage may have different areas of brightness or color shifts throughout the video. Animate your Levels for differing brightness, and animate your Curves for differing color where needed.
✏ Sometimes having crushed blacks or blown highlights are okay – especially in video. Keep this in mind when working with the Levels effect and don’t worry if you have either of those in your final result.
✏ If you have the opportunity, use a gray card somewhere in the image – so that later in post, you can reference that neutral gray midtone for color correction.
✏ IMPORTANT: If you are using CS5, make sure you are using the Eyedropper Tool, NOT the Color Sampler Tool. Thanks to Ryan Yakich for the heads up.

RGB Color Correction Values Reference (also at 9:54):
Highlights ✏ 245
Midtones ✏ 135
Shadows ✏ no less than 12