Resolution issues

[toonsmith74]

Hey guys/gals,

I need some info on the proper settings for good visual quality regarding video output. I have shot and edited my own shorts(live action/animated) in the past and when dubbed to VHS or DVD for play in a regular television, the quality was really grainy and pixelated. I animated for a commercial earlier this year where each frame was scanned and colored in Photoshop at 150 dpi, but I thought broadcast res was 72 dpi. It all looked great in the end though. Confused....

Also what should my aspect ratio be set to in the editing program. 320 x 240 is what I set for regular quicktime playback or AVI files but this looks pretty crappy when blown up to regular size.

Appreciate the help..........

[Daniel Poeira]

It depends a little bit on the final format, but assuming you'll be using NTSC in the end, the final resolution is 640x480 (pretty much 4x what you're using). This aspect ratio is the same one you're using, only two times wider and taller, so you won't have to fix the compostion of your scenes (whew!!)

All you have to do is render everything on 640x480 and you should be fine =)

Ah, and the pixel aspect ratio should be 1.0 / squared. In case you want to use something else, you have to do the math. For example, you can render your work at 720x480 and use pixel aspect ratio 0.9 because 720 / 0.9 = 640. This would improve your final image quality even more. This resolution is usually referred to as "DV NTSC" (the same used on mini-DV cameras).

Hope this is enough :) let me know if you have any more doubts!

[toonsmith74]

A very much belated thanks for the reply.

I haven't checked back in a while and just found that I had a response. What happened to the automatic email letting you know??

Anyway, it's for a wedding photo slide show that I'm putting together so I wanted it to look nice and all. At this point I'm ready for it to be done with so I can get on with moviemaking and storytelling.

Thanks again!