Scaling RED fooatge correctly

[Joe Riggs]

Hi,

I could use a little primer on the workflow to properly scale footage when finishing in 1080p.
I have 5k RED footage, edited in a 5k sequence. I worked in a 5k sequence and not 1080 because
I didn't want to "scale to Frame size" for every clip as I make my cut.

Since I'll be finishing in a 1080p sequence, I knew i had some resolution to scale with to push in and recompose shots. Therefore, I blew up a couple of shots by 50%. So in my 5k sequence it's 150%.

Then I take everything into my 1080p sequence, and select all and "scale to frame size".

The shots that I blew up to 150% (are still 150% in the 1080p sequence) look correct but I don't think it's using all the resolution to scale.

What I mean is if I take that shot 150%, and reset everything so that it's at 100%, the image blows up and it's clear this is the 5k image. Then to get the same composition I had, I would actually have to scale down (to like 60%) and manually reposition the frame. This would be correct since I want to scale within the 1080 frame without degenerating the quality.


So I'm assuming for any shot that was blown up, just taking the 5k sequence and bringing it into the 1080 one and doing scale to frame size
is not the proper way?

Is there a way where this can be done automatically, or through some sort of math equation to get the exact numbers for framing or does it have to be done manually?

 

[Med D]

I'm also struggling with this topic. I posted a question in the Adobe workflow section a couple of weeks ago but did not get a response, although admittedly my question sounds confusing even to me. I'm trying to understand when resolution gets reduced and how re-framing 5k into 1080p is managed if you simply cut and paste a sequence. How Scale to Frame Size works in this regard is also of interest.

I have found that slight changes in how the sequences are created can make massive changes to the render times. For now I have found that it is easiest to just build the two sequences independently. The render times seem to be best with this approach.

 

[Deon van Zyl]

Why not work in a 5k sequence and render to 1080p on the final render?
D

 

[Troy Smith]

In premier, if you need to do any scaling other then scale to frame size, you need to uncheck scaled to frame size on that particular shot, then with the motion tool do your resizing, if you don't use the motion tool to do this, you end up with sub quality on those shots because it does the scale from 1080p, not the 5k, this is what I was told at least, then when you render out you need to also select Use Maximum Render QUality.

There is a thread somewhere on reduser about this topic.

 

[Troy Smith]

If you want to be scaling, working in 1080p seq is a good way to do it if you do what I said above.

 

[Justin McAleece]

Troy's right. That's how it works in Premiere.

 

[Joe Riggs]

Why not work in a 5k sequence and render to 1080p on the final render?
D

Because I am blowing up shots by 50%, in order to not lose quality while doing so, I actually need to bring the footage into a 1080p sequence.

If you want to be scaling, working in 1080p seq is a good way to do it if you do what I said above.

Right, but then you have to select scale to frame size for every shot you bring into the timeline as you edit, which I find kind of annoying.
I rather do it at the end, once I finish my edit but from my understanding there's no way to do this automatically.

You have to do it manually to not lose quality:

You have to bring the 5k edit into a 1080p.
You have to uncheck scaled to frame size on the shot you scaled.
Then manually scale and recompose the shot trying to match what you did in the 5k sequence using the motion tool.

 

[Joel Arvidsson]

If you import all clips to a timeline you can select all and choose "scaleto fo frame size". But im with you it would be great if you could ad this to an checkbox for each track or something. Perhaps even as an effect to a adjustmentlayer.

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

We typically treat re-frames as VFX, meaning rendering out full res (or 4K) DPX or TIFF image sequences, importing into After Effects, round tripping back to 1080 "finishing" version. It's a PITA but virtually insures we don't get a "surprise" that has to be dealt with under deadline pressure.

Would love to change this piece of the workflow, especially on projects where they want to push in on every other shot (don't get me started…).

Cheers - #19

 

[William Robinette]

There is a preference option to have all clips added to the timeline default to "scale to frame size" so you don't have to mess with it unless you are manually resizing/cropping a shot.