Work with 2 Aspect Ratios

blaku92 · Post by **blaku92** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 1:22 pm

When creating an amv from animes with different aspect ratios, which is better: Cutting off edges of 16:9 to fit in a 4:3 or keeping all of the footage of both by having black bars at the top and bottom of the 16:9 footage whenever it's used? Or is there an alternative method? I hate cutting any part of the original footage out of the original material, but I really don't know which way to go about this since I want my amvs to look aesthetically pleasing. Your thoughts are appreciated.

Jnzk · Post by **Jnzk** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 1:30 pm

I would use the aspect ratio most of the footage is in. Cropping tops and bottoms tends not to be as noticeable as cutting out the sides, so I usually prefer 16:9. Or you could choose an aspect ratio somewhere in between.

Melanchthon · Post by **Melanchthon** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 2:25 pm

You could also try using the aspect ratio in the vid (only example I can think of is the instrumental in Engel), or even deliberately alter the aspect ratios (say, cutting some parts down to 2:1) so that the changing aspect ratios become an artistic choice rather than a matter of necessity.

Cropping everything to 16:9 is probably easier than cropping everything to 4:3, as it's more common for 16:9 footage to have things going on all the way across the picture than it is for 4:3 footage to have things going on up and down the picture, and it's the method I default to.

blaku92 · Post by **blaku92** » Tue Aug 08, 2006 3:06 pm

Ahh crap. I got moved -- I thought since this involved aesthetic qualities that where I put it was fine

Thank you guys for the tips I think I'll probably crop everything to 16:9 because it's true that film motion vectors tend to be horizontal rather than vertical. Never would have thought of that.