After Effects Movie Size

[pmaric]

Hello,

 

I am compositing an animation in After Effects and my rendered stills are 1280x720 pixels. I used the HD 720 preset in Maya for the rendered stills. When I output my quicktime movie, the final movie's aspect ration is not the same as the rendered stills. It looks like the entire animation is squeezed and I am getting a large black band on both sides.

 

My composition settings in After Effects are 1280px Wide x 720px Height. I'm not sure why the final movie's aspect ration does not match the rendered stills aspect ratio. Is anyone familiar with this and know how to correct the final output of the movie?

 

Also, for an animation, would 720x480 pixels be a better size to work with?

 

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[Lester_Masterson]

Import the footage with the pixel aspect ratio set to 1.0

 

0.9 is the default

[pmaric]

Thanks Lester!

 

The 'import file' dialog box in After Effects does not have an option to set the aspect ratio while importing.

 

Would I have to go into Composition- Composition Settings, and set the aspect ratio after importing the files? I tried this route and cannot find an option to set the aspect ratio to 1 as you indicated.

[pmaric]

found it!

 

composition- composition settings. Preset: HDV/HDTV 720 25

 

(Checked) Lock aspect ratio to 16:9 (1.78)

 

this solved the problem. now the final movie output matches the rendered stills aspect ratio, no more black bands on the sides.