Keeping the Circles Round...

ArmyVideo wrote on 8/22/2003, 5:06 AM

Have you ever imported a graphic into VV that was round, but then when displayed on an NTSC monitor, it is more oval shaped? If you use Photoshop, especially PS 7, there is a quick fix.

The basic reason this happens is that computer pixles and NTSC pixels are shapped differently. For the sake of time, I'll leave it at that.

To keep those circles round, start your graphic in PS using a 720 x 540 (534 for DVD). PS 7 has a custom template for this. Create the graphic like you normally would, but before saving, go to IMAGE > IMAGE SIZE. Once there, make sure the CONSTRAIN PROPERTIES box at the bottom isn't checked. Finally, change 540 (or 534) to 486, and then save the image. It will look a bit strteched out on your computer monitor, but once you view it on an NTSC monitor, the circles will appear as you intended, perfectly round.

If anyone else has any similar hints or tricks, or a way to do this for those w/o PS, please respond.

Comments

Jay Gladwell wrote on 8/22/2003, 6:41 AM

My understanding has always been that DV pixels are 655x480.

Another thing to consider is (and I learned this from the folks at Digital Juice) to make the graphics using a ppi of 762. Make a graphic 655x480 at 762 pixels per inch and save as a .bmp ala "Juice Drops."

MozartMan wrote on 8/22/2003, 7:05 AM

I create my menus with Paint Shop Pro 8. I use 640x480 pixels size for the graphic. It is perfect 4:3 aspect ratio. Then, before I import my menu pic in the DVD authoring program I resize it to 720x480 because the is the DV frame size.
All other sized will make your circle to look like oval.

Circles must be circles.

Here is good info about frame sizes: http://www.geocities.com/svaussie01au/frame.html

Jay Gladwell wrote on 8/22/2003, 7:10 AM

Actually, it's more an issue of ratio--height to width--not frame size that makes the circle a circle.

John_Cline wrote on 8/22/2003, 7:35 AM

Kabenero,

Make your graphics 720x540 instead of 640x480 and then resize them to 720x480. If you're working in PAL, make them 768x576 and then resize to 720x576. It is always better to resize down than to resize up.

When you pull the resized image into Vegas, make sure that Vegas knows that the graphic is DV aspect (.9091) as opposed to square pixels. Right click on the graphic and go to "Properties."

John

VIDEOGRAM wrote on 8/22/2003, 9:34 AM

Hi Army,

I used to have this "problem" while editing in PREMIERE. I had to produce 2 versions of each graphic: one at 720 x 540 resolution and the second squished at 720 x 480 resolution.
Now with VEGAS, I only produce the 720 x 540 version, square pixels. While editing, I rightclick on the graphic on the timeline, go to properties and make shure that VEGAS reads the graphic as 1.000 multimedia pixel aspect ratio. The circle is a perfect circle.

Gilles

Chienworks wrote on 8/22/2003, 10:40 AM

You shouldn't have to resize at all. As long as Vegas reads the aspect ratio of the picture as 1.0 then it will look fine.

Keep in mind that many televisions aren't properly calibrated and may show the picture as tall and narrow or short and fat. If you have to resize to get the circle circular on your TV then it's probably your TV that is out of adjustment.

ArmyVideo wrote on 8/22/2003, 9:33 PM

I'm glad others have contributed their tricks here as well. I thought I would add one last note..

Kabenaro posted that he starts out at 640x480, and then increases his dimensions to 720x486. I would think that one would run into some resolution loss and possible pixalization issues (especially if panning / zooming).

Thanks for all the input on this and many other posts.. I wish I could contribute half as much a I've learned from this forum!!