Cropping Anamorphic Footage in ROCKETCINE-X

[Tims Johnson]

Does anyone know a way to crop 16x9 center crop out of anamorphic footage directly out of ROCKETCINE-X?

The anamorphic footage I have was shot in anamorphic mode with anamorphic lenses, so the files are 2816x2304 with anamorphic squeeze. I need to export a 16x9 center crop of the unsqueezed image, cutting off the image on the right and left side of frame.

ROCKETCINE-X appears to only have a 2x Fit Width setting to un-squeeze the anamorphic footage, and the crop tools seem to be applied prior to the unsqueezing of the anamorphic image.

Is there a way to crop into the image after the 2x unsqueeze? Or maybe something in REDCINE-X

 

[Tims Johnson]

To accomplish this easily it would be cool to have a selection for Fit Height 2x in ROCKETCINE-X Output window. It would work like the Fit Width 2x, only it would fit height after a 2x unsqueeze.

 

[Jordan Livingston]

I think you'd be better off doing a full-debayer in REDCine-X down to the 'final' height of your 'workprint' or deliverable (i.e. 1080px) using a decent codec (i.e. ProRes 4444). Then, use the geometry feature in Color (or even Final Cut Pro) to center crop within a 16:9 timeline (i.e. 1920 x 1080px).

This workflow also gives you some wiggle room to pan and scan left and right, re-framing as needed. As long as you full-debayer to the correct pixel height first, you will not have to re-scale any of your pixels and thus won't loose any noticeable detail in the final output.

Best,

- Jordan

 

[Deanan]

 

[Tims Johnson]

Jordan,

Thanks for the suggestion. This is the workflow we ended up using. The ability to pan left and right in post works well with the anamorphic footage, and FCP handles it well.

Deanan, these are the settings I eventually arrived at. The output panel in RocketCineX is not helpful in understanding the order of operation for cropping. Your screen grab from RedCineX makes more sense from top to bottom Crop, Scale, Fit.

I ran across a potential bug on this project. 2k anamorphic footage is rendering with red and blue flash frames in RocketCineX Build 1740. Deanan, I sent details and log files to your direct Email.