How do you make a mask for a final 16:9 result with pics, 4:3 and 16:9 stockshot???

FuTz wrote on 10/3/2002, 8:02 PM
I'm working on a short document and I'm using pictures (both vertical & horizontal) and 4:3 stockshot. I'd like to have it blended with my original 16:9 stockshot so everything is rendered in a 16:9 format in the end.
I tried to make a mask in PhotoShop using transparency but there's always a slight amount of the "final" framing (16:9) that gets cropped or that is too large... I'm trying to lay my mask over the 16:9 frame seen in the 4:3 format in the preview window ( one frame of my original 16:9 stockshot, properties set in "0,9091 (NTSC DV)" 4:3 normal view) but it seems I can't find the exact "numbers" with PhotoShop (be it pixels, inches, centimeters, etc...)to have a perfect mask.
Did anyone ever had the same problem and how did you proceed?
Thanks again in advance... :D

Comments

a_v wrote on 10/3/2002, 8:14 PM
i had that problem before....ended up using Adobe After Effects.

its the only way i know of

id render out the whole file in vegas, then open it up in after effects, set it up as 16x9 then process the whole thing.

it was my first time using after effects so it took me a bit of time to figure out

good luck

a/v

FuTz wrote on 10/3/2002, 8:43 PM
GOT IT !!!!!!
I simply "fine tuned" my mask using the Track Motion... Perfect fit AND very easy. Of course, you put your mask on the top line in the timeline.
Thank you a_v (ulrich) anyway. I was looking at the after effects "how to's" on the net and when I came back to my work in VV3 (half discouraged by the way things seem to be complicated in AE) ,it stroke me that I could try the track motion...
sqblz wrote on 10/4/2002, 9:08 AM
I am doing the same. I used a frame capture as a layout, and built a 16:9 mask that works well on an untouched VV video track (4:3).
Then I increased the mask by one pixel on the top band and one pixel of the down band. This means that, if I superimpose this mask on top of a "perfect" 16:9 frame, I am loosing 1 pixel on the top border and 1 pixel on the down border. Fair enough, for safety.
I made one PNG red mask and one PNG black.
I lay the red mask on #1 video track, expand to the length of my movie and reduce its transparency by 50%. This way I am aware if something happens behind the mask (wrongly sized images, transitions, etc).
Then I do my work.
Before rendering I change the red mask with the black mask, 0% transparency.
Render.
Perfect on a 4:3 TV (banded) quite good in a 16:9.
But no anamorphism ... (sigh)
FuTz wrote on 10/4/2002, 10:29 AM
Ha ha ha!!! I too used a red mask reduced to 50% to "monitor" the whole thing! But I'm not yet into the rendering process...
:D
sqblz wrote on 10/8/2002, 2:38 AM
futz, how come not render yet ? you're a older Forum member with a participation much bigger than me ...
Of course you know that you will have to render as 4:3 (not widescreen). You will have a letterbox effect in a conventional TV and a fullscreen in a wideTV.
It is quite tempting to use the bottom black strip to put your subtitles ... don't ! You would loose them all in the wideTV !!! ;-))
I don't think that I will film in 4:3 anymore. My TV is a wide one and this gives me the smallest amplification ratio from the original to the output.
FuTz wrote on 10/8/2002, 12:38 PM
sgblz

... into the rendering of THIS project... :D