This test clip, shot with a Canon HV20, shows one way to use HD source to produce SD (or smaller) content. The original HD provides so much information — pixel data! — to work with. Since my output is usually for web or occasionally small-run DVDs for friends, I can do glorified pan-and-scan completely after the fact.This is also handy because my cameraman is usually a tripod or a rock or something.
I’m glad you asked! HD is this big:
The above diagram shows the sizes for different video formats relative to the 1920×1080 pixels of HDV.
But is HDV really 1920×1080? According to Canon’s web site the HV20 has “true 1920×1080 resolution.” Ok… but QuickTime player shows this:
So it’s a little bit hard to understand. “Reports vary,” as they say. I think that it’s stored on MiniDV tape at 1440. If the effective resolution is 1440×1080, meaning the pixels are 133% as wide as they are tall, then the usable areas for smaller formats would be as shown here:
Both diagrams show the smallest size you can grab where pixels aren’t expanded; digital editors do an excellent job of reducing images, but enlarging them introduces blurriness.
I made these diagrams to get a general idea of how much I might get away with when moving and zooming, but the real test is, and can only ever be, “Do you like how it looks?”
Hello David. I´m working exactly as you are and would just like to know how you animated that wide angle distortion when movind the cam. Can you tell me if it is it a plugin or a native AFX function? Today I only do rescaling and repositioning..
Hi Pedro — you will laugh when I tell you. I used a 3d layer, and the pan/zoom is done with camera angling. It’s kind-of strange looking… but in a different way than 2d pan/zoom.
Hey David. I saw your synthetic motion video on youtube over a year ago and I’ve been trying to emulate that for the longest time! I have an HV30 and After Effects CS3 as well.
I looked everywhere for a tutorial or a how-to video or anything without any luck so finally I thought I’ll ask the creator himself… If you can, please show us a video tutorial on how you did that? I’d really appreciate it. Thanks and keep up the good work
Hello David. I´m working exactly as you are and would just like to know how you animated that wide angle distortion when movind the cam. Can you tell me if it is it a plugin or a native AFX function? Today I only do rescaling and repositioning..
Hi Pedro — you will laugh when I tell you. I used a 3d layer, and the pan/zoom is done with camera angling. It’s kind-of strange looking… but in a different way than 2d pan/zoom.
Hey David.
I saw your synthetic motion video on youtube over a year ago and I’ve been trying to emulate that for the longest time! I have an HV30 and After Effects CS3 as well.
I looked everywhere for a tutorial or a how-to video or anything without any luck so finally I thought I’ll ask the creator himself… If you can, please show us a video tutorial on how you did that? I’d really appreciate it. Thanks and keep up the good work