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A
Anonymous
May 14, 2018
Question

Some of the images I import turn out distorted, is it the picture's fault or can I do something about it?

  • May 14, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 7534 views

I recently downloaded the trial version for Adobe After Effects CC 2018, and as I was importing my pictures, I noticed some of them appeared just fine while the other ones are pixelated and have a huge color strip covering a big portion of their surface. When opening the files outside of CC, they look just fine. Is there something wrong with the pictures themselves or do I need to do something on the program to fix it?

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    1 reply

    R
    Community Expert
    Rick GerardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 14, 2018

    If you create or crop an image to a standard non-square pixel aspect ratio frame size like 720 X 480 After Effects will assume that it is nonsquare pixels. All output should be square pixels. All comps should be square pixels and you should never see the word Custom in your composition settings unless you are an expert in video standards, frame rates, and pixel aspect ratios.

    The easiest way to keep things from distorting is to make sure they are properly interpreted and that you are working in a standard square pixel comp. AE will make all the adjustments automatically. DV video is non-square pixels and should be interpreted as such. Older Panasonic HDV formats can also be non-square pixels. Anything you shoot with a modern digital camera or create in Photoshop or Illustrator is square pixels. Check the interpretation by selecting the footage (image) in the comp panel and selecting File>Intrpret Footage>Main. Make sure the interpretation is correct. If it is not, fix it.  Verify in a square pixel composition by rotating the image 90º and checking the dimensions using the rulers or guide layers.

    If you are still having problems let us know. If you don't understand pixel aspect ratios study the help files.

      A
      Anonymous
      May 14, 2018

      Hello Rick! Thank you for taking the time to respond to my question. I tried to see if something was wrong with the interpretation , but when I opened the menu to check, square pixels was already chosen by default. I also rotated the image and it is still distorted. I am starting to believe it has to do with the nature of the images rather than the program, because the majority of my imported footage remains intact. However, I don't think it is the filetype what causes this, because e.g several .jpg images appear fine while certain ones turn into a mess. I don't know how that helps, but I figured I'd put it out there just in case.

      R
      Community Expert
      Rick GerardCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      May 14, 2018

      If your comp is square pixels and your images are square pixels they are not distorted. If your comp is non-square and your images are square pixels they will look distorted but when the comp has pixel aspect ratio correction preview turned on they will not be distorted.

      The only way you can get distorted images is to have created them with a non-square pixel aspect ratio (Photoshop will preview with correction turned on so circles look like circles instead of eggs) and AE interprets the images as square pixels. You have to know wht the footage is to start with.

      An easy check for distortion is to draw a circle mask (hold down the shift key) and see if it looks round. Another easy way is to check the image dimensions when it is selected in the Project Panel, then create a solid that is the same size, Rotate the image and the solid 90º and check to see if they are both the same size. If you have fouled up the PAR they won't be. Unless you apply a distortion effect or you do not scale it uniformly (press the U key twice to check), there is no way to distort an image except to assign it the wrong pixel aspect ratio.

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