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alexa3692253
alexa3692253
Participant
October 13, 2017
Answered

Stretch/Change layer settings when changing composition settings in After Effect.

  • October 13, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 371 views

Hello guys. I'm new to the forum, so I hope I chose the right place to post my problem.

Here it is:

I've done video for a client 2 years ago - it includes many different animated layers and some text layers that the client wants to change in accordance to his needs.

The video was done for 4:3 broadcast. Now the client is moving to 16:9 broadcast and needs the same project "converted to 16:9.

I keep the original project. Problems is - there are too many layers that need changing (and too many keyframes, some of them affecting size and/or position of certain elements). I think It will be better to do everything from scratch, but it will take time and the client is in a hurry.

So, any easy and fast way to "convert" the project into 16:9? Most of the layers are solids or text layers, but I also have few masks, with keyframes affecting their size and position...it looks a bit tough.

Thank you for any help or advices!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer alexa3692253

    I decided what to do, but I'll give some explanation in case someone has better idea or in case someone has similar problem. I can't show you the project I'm talking about, cause it's on external drive I had to give to a workmate, but I'll show another one with the same parameters and problems. First I'm going to upload 4 pictures.

    The first picture shows the presets at the compositions settings. The original size of the project is 720:576 (D1/DV PAL). In fact I had to do it on D1/DV PAL square pixel, cause later I had some issues when exporting, but I already had spent long hours of work on it and didn't want to go back. On the second picture you can see how my original project looks. I tried to move it to widescreen by changing the preset to D1/DV PAL widescreen - you can see the result on the third picture. It bothers me, because you can render the video with the proper resolution and size, but it's hard to work when everything looks "compressed" and you can't figure out what looks ok and what not. Then I tried to change the settings to D1/DV PAL widescreen square pixel.  You can see the result on picture 4. The work area is properly stretched and the events are stretched just a little bit and the way they look doesn't bother me. This way it was very easy to figure out how much the background elements need changing. Some elements need to stay the same and some other elements need some changing (size, position, movement, effects). It can't happen with few clicks and I realize that - all elements have connection with each other according to the size of the whole video. When the size is changed, this connection looks strange and needs changing. What I mean is that it is very easy to stretch the background and leave the other elements in the center. But it doesn't look so good, so I started to move some of them on the sides, cause now I have more empty space there.

    This is it.

    Thanks!

    3 replies

    alexa3692253
    alexa3692253AuthorCorrect answer
    Participant
    October 14, 2017

    I decided what to do, but I'll give some explanation in case someone has better idea or in case someone has similar problem. I can't show you the project I'm talking about, cause it's on external drive I had to give to a workmate, but I'll show another one with the same parameters and problems. First I'm going to upload 4 pictures.

    The first picture shows the presets at the compositions settings. The original size of the project is 720:576 (D1/DV PAL). In fact I had to do it on D1/DV PAL square pixel, cause later I had some issues when exporting, but I already had spent long hours of work on it and didn't want to go back. On the second picture you can see how my original project looks. I tried to move it to widescreen by changing the preset to D1/DV PAL widescreen - you can see the result on the third picture. It bothers me, because you can render the video with the proper resolution and size, but it's hard to work when everything looks "compressed" and you can't figure out what looks ok and what not. Then I tried to change the settings to D1/DV PAL widescreen square pixel.  You can see the result on picture 4. The work area is properly stretched and the events are stretched just a little bit and the way they look doesn't bother me. This way it was very easy to figure out how much the background elements need changing. Some elements need to stay the same and some other elements need some changing (size, position, movement, effects). It can't happen with few clicks and I realize that - all elements have connection with each other according to the size of the whole video. When the size is changed, this connection looks strange and needs changing. What I mean is that it is very easy to stretch the background and leave the other elements in the center. But it doesn't look so good, so I started to move some of them on the sides, cause now I have more empty space there.

    This is it.

    Thanks!

    Dave_LaRonde
    Dave_LaRonde
    Inspiring
    October 13, 2017

    There really isn't any good way to do this.  You're going from one aspect ratio to another.  If you just scale up the layers as they exist right now, all the animation will happen at the center of the screen.  There will be some design considerations you'll have to make.

      Roei Tzoref
      Roei Tzoref
      Legend
      October 13, 2017

      what's the original resolution and what is the new one? Show some screenshots so we can see the complexity and the video if you can.

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