importing to premiere

rizien · Apr 17, 2004

Whenever i import a clip that was not captured with premiere(or something i exported from After Effects) the imported video is like half the size and has this big black square around it..like the screen stays 640x480 but the video is 320x240...anyone know how to fix this?

(sorry if its ultra newb but i suck at editing and am just starting, and i couldnt find another post about it so if there is one already on this sorry)

Zensteve · Apr 17, 2004

Before you import to Premiere, check a few things... this sounds odd.

1) Right-click >> Properties of the movie clip. Is it 640x480 at that time?

2) View the movie clip in Quicktime/WindowsMediaPlayer. Is the bounding box visible at this time?

3) Check the import settings of whatever you originally used to capture the video. It is possible you have original import settings of 320x240, even though your camera source is 640x480. From here, the export settings could be 640x480, but the software is not stretching the dimensions for the export that is used later in Premiere.

4) I don't quite understand the AE point... video exported from AE works fine in Premiere? Or is bounded as well?

5) Don't apologise for being "newb". It can be handy to mention relative levels of experience (it helps to frame replies), but everyone starts at newb at some point and there's nothing wrong with that.

8)

rizien · Apr 17, 2004

hmm guess i never really checked the import and export settings lol...guess that shoulda been teh first thing i did, thanks im gonna go try this

film8ker · Apr 18, 2004

Let us know how it goes, there may be some other things to check out, but it could be several things causing the problem. The first thing I’d check is the project settings in Premiere. If you have the project opened under DV-NTSC (either format), or one of the NTSC video for computers settings, the frame size is 720x480, not 640x480. There is a setting for 640x480 (in version 6.5), but it’s only for video for computers. I think this is because in Premiere you see the entire image including the overscan. That’s why it has the safe matte. So to fix this, you have to output from after effects with a frame size of 720x480. Of course, there should be a standard setting for DV-NTSC. Use that.

rizien · Apr 18, 2004

Well, there were only a couple formats where it let me choose the size of the video,(quicktime and mpeg4) and when i did those i tried 640x480 and 720x480 and both seemed to be too big in premiere...i looked for an import setting but couldn't find one, im going to keep messing around though.

Zensteve · Apr 18, 2004

Why not just capture through Premiere to start with?

rizien · Apr 18, 2004

i do, but when i add effects in after effects, i have to re export(right?) and then import that to premiere, and thats when i get the smaller screen size

Zensteve · Apr 18, 2004

Your issue looks like this? (The orange square being the visible media)

rizien · Apr 18, 2004

exactly

Zensteve · Apr 18, 2004

I'll have some screenshots up in an hour or so, of the panels you need to look at... using AfterFX 4.1 layout. 8)

Zensteve · Apr 18, 2004

Okies... I am fairly sure you are rendering composition outputs in AE at a lower dimension that what you intended... and bringing them back in again to continue, at which point the "borders" become part of the video. 8)

Btw.. I bet if you start again from scratch (but change the composition window's background to purple), you'll have purple borders.

Anyways, here is a link for some things to watch for. You will likely want to head straight to the "MAKE" section, as the plugins are fairly straightforward... I just included them anyway... never can tell.

I hope it helps. If it does, hooray! If it doesn't, I'm sure it will be of use to someone at some point.

www.StevenRichards.com/temp/AEFX.htm

Note that the screenshots are from "AE 4.1". You may have a more recent upgrade of AE, with panels that look a bit different. However, the things to watch for should still be very similar.

film8ker · Apr 19, 2004

Like I said it could be so many things. Do you have the 3d turned on? Check the Z position and make sure it’s at 0. Also make sure the scale is at 100%. You could be exporting the wrong size too, like Zensteve said. I like his advice on changing the background color also, if you export and the boarder is blue (or whatever color you set the background to), it’s a problem with AE. However if it’s still black, it’s a problem with Premiere.

“i do, but when i add effects in after effects, i have to re export(right?) and then import that to premiere, and thats when i get the smaller screen size”

No. Actually, you can import the Premiere file as a composition in AE. Use it as a background layer and apply titles and stuff on top. I don’t know how it handles effects and things that require rendering, so be careful and make sure all your settings (effects, transitions, and corrections) come over properly.