TOPIC:

Hello,

Can anyone point out how to get the letterbox effect in FCP to display the 17:9 aspect ratio? or is it another way to achieve this?

Many thanks in advance.

//Pushed into the right section of the board. 'free plug-ins' is for …ehm, free plug-ins, not requests, discussions et al. The grumpy janitor //

The built-in Letterbox won't, but there are a number of other ways to achieve this.

You could mask each clip directly with a simple shape mask, or use a single adjustment layer that spans the timeline. The letterboxing layer could be a simple .png that's the size of your desired output, or a masked color generator.

OR, you could just set the timeline dimensions to your desired aspect. For typical HD you'd be looking at 2040x1080 or 1920x1016.

Thanks @dmetz for your helpful and quick reply However, iam a FCP beginner (don't know how to mask).

Is there a way to change the resolution, so that I retain a 4K picture quality with a 17:9 aspect ratio?

Thanks!

The default Letterbox effect excludes the 1.89:1 (aka 17:9) aspect ratio.

I "hacked" together an effect that will work for any aspect ratio — you basically *assign* the ratio you want (who says it has to be a "standard" aspect?)

You can download it here:
fcpxtemplates.com/?smd_process_download=1&download_id=26168

(Install as an Effect.)

There are two parameters:

Aspect: you need to set the aspect "reduced" to 1. 16:9 is 1.78: 1 [The display only shows 2 digits and it rounds what you enter, but you can enter a value like 1.7778 for more accuracy and if you double click on it later, you will see the more decimal places.]

Fit: once you set the Aspect, use this slider to "fit" the rectangle on the screen.

Using a slider can be "iffy", so if you need to be absolutely accurate:

Multiply the Vertical height of your project by the Aspect value ("product"). Divide the width of your **CLIP** by the product and multiply by 100.

As an example, I want to letterbox at 3:1. My project (and clip) is 1920 x 1080.

1080 x 3 = 3240.

1920 ÷ 3240 x 100 = 59.259259. You would enter at least 59.26 (rounded) for Fit. (Normally this is accurate enough).

This effect works for vertical video formats (pillarboxing) as well, but the Fit will always be 100.

If you use the "custom" letterboxing frequently, save your settings as an Effects Preset and name it something like Letterbox 17-9, etc.

HTH

Note, if you letterbox a 3:1 on a 9:16 clip in a 1080 project height, then the width of the clip is 608. You would divide 608 by 3240 (and multiply by 100) which would result in approx. 18.77. ... if you have any questions...

PS - you can use the calculater widget on your mac and copy/paste the value into Fit.

Many thanks for your help! I installed the effect. Can you please tell me what to put in the fields? Aspect & fit so it will be 17:9 in 4K?

Ok - the aspect ratio you're going for is 17:9. That's literally a fraction: 17/9 so divide the two numbers:

17÷9 = 1.89 (technically, it's 1.888888888... forever, but rounded up to 1.89)

This *reduces* the aspect ratio to a divisor of 1 as 1.89 to 1.

1.89 is the number you put into the Aspect parameter.

Then, just move the Fit slider until you can see the outer (left/right edges) and move it back until the edges just touch the frame size.

Or, for more accuracy, you can do a little math to derive the scale value. (The reason you need to do this manually is because Motion "doesn't do division" — at least not with a variable divisor.)

The Aspect is multiplied by Vertical Height of your project. In this case, it is likely 2160. This will get a calculated Width of the new designated aspect.

If you divide the original clip width by the calculated width and multiply by 100, you get the Fit (scale) value that will exactly match the left/right edges of the clip.

So, for this example, you have: 2160 * 1.88889 = 4,080.0024 (round to 4080 if you like). The original clip width is likely 3840 and you would use: 3840 ÷ 4080 = 0.94117647 and multiplied by 100 gives you 94.12% scale (Fit). Just type in the 94.12 value in the Fit parameter (much easier than trying to make the slider conform.)

You use the clip width because you can use something like a vertical video clip in a 16:9 4K project and if you want to fit the letterboxing effect in the vertical video format, then that's what would be needed. Otherwise, you could just use the Project Width — it just depends on what you trying to fit the effect onto.

This effect can be used on Titles and Generators, in which case you would use the Project width in your calculations.

The Aspect and Fit parameters will always be the same value regardless of the project size for the letterboxing effect. To avoid having to redo the math every time you use the effect, it's worth saving the settings as an Effects Preset.

HTH

Not to confuse anyone with the math, but I kind of shortcut things by going a slightly different route...

3840 x 2160 = 16:9

To get a 17:9 ratio to fit into a standard 4K width, I divide 3840 by 17 (225.88) and multiply the result by 9 (2032.94) to get the height. In this case, I'd round down to 2032..

To make it fit the original height, divide 2160 by 9 (240) and multiply that by 17 (4080) for the final width.

Any reason I shouldn't do that?