All footage squashed

[erika.paprika]

Suddenly all my footage gets squashed horizontally after I drag it into the composition. When I try to resize it to fit the composition and render it out it looks like I wasn't supposed to resize it at all and it's stretched!!! I've reinstalled & updated my After Effects to the latest version but didn't help. 

Has anyone experienced this – and, if so, do you know how to solve it?! 

[Andrew Yoole · Accepted solution]

It sounds like a Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR) issue.  If your footage uses square pixels and you composition uses non-square pixels, or vice versa, the footage will look "squished" or stretched.

Check your composition PAR, your footage PAR, and try toggling PAR preview in the main preview.

[erika.paprika]

Thank you, Andrew!