How can we change the aspect ratio to cut Portrait social media pieces? We have a ton of stuff in MC that needs to be reformatted. I'm sure it's easy.

Thank you!

nymills:

How can we change the aspect ratio to cut Portrait social media pieces? We have a ton of stuff in MC that needs to be reformatted. I'm sure it's easy.

Thank you!

I think this is a good topic with different possibilities. (see bottom note)

*Also be careful if a "dual" ratio deliverable is being edited using Frameflex.

I can only suggest that you determine what specific ratio is required based on the deliverable. If your existing normal-ratio Project is online, go to Settings> Format tab > Presets: > My Presets. That's where you want to find it. If not there, or "My Presets:" doesn't exist-- you'll need to make your own preset. 

What I have done on v2022.4 is: Close out to reveal the Select Project interface; select New Project; select Format: and navigate to bottom of dropdown to Custom; in Raster Dimension add your desired ratio...e.g. 1080 x 1920; Select Save Preset; Add your custom Preset Name; select OK:

You do not have to press CREATE unless you want to have separate projects... but that is not always required. Your saved custom Preset should now become available in your existing, normal-ratio Project, under My Presets.

Beyond that, I believe you then get involved with FrameFlexing your masterclips and * here you decide based on whether you have already Frameflexed some or all your masterclips in service to your original normal-ratio sequences. If that's the case, you may very well want to use a separate Portrait-sized project, and bring Bins into it. I am *pretty* sure you can then easily do mass FrameFlexing on many clips into the narrower Frame Aspect Ratio without disturbing the FrameFlexing you may have done on the same clips in the original normal ratio project. * BUT: please do a test on one or two clips first...go back to your original normal-sized Project and inspect those clips to see if they also become Portrait-ratio. You tell me, after testing OK?

So one way or another, inside your original project (using the new Portrait ratio Preset), or while in the new Portrait-ratio Project ...a Frameflexed clip on a timeline permits further careful individual repositioning within the narrower view. 

Do a test Export to your deliverable to make sure everything is hunky dory.

EDIT: I'm on v2022.4 PC with Quicktime installed. It looks like I can also now do an Export to MOV which will "Crop to Mask Margins".

Did a quick test after adding a 9:16 Black Mask.

Seemed to do the trick just showing whatever was visible inside the mask... not sure about any sidebars though ...better check that by Importing back to MC.

There is probably a way to use a different, Custom Mask size and Crop. 

The resulting file in Media Info displayed;

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : VC-3
Commercial name                          : DNxHR HQ
Format version                           : Version 3
Format profile                           : RI@HQ
Codec ID                                 : AVdh
Codec ID/Info                            : Avid DNxHR
Duration                                 : 1 s 34 ms
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 220 Mb/s
Width                                    : 1 080 pixels
Height                                   : 1 920 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 0.563
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:2
Bit depth                                : 8 bits

If you have "normal" landscape HD then scaling for 9:16 is going to be a quality compromise.

You have too many pixels in width so will need to crop and too few in height so you will add black letterbox ING bars or scale that will lower quality and further reduce the width.

If you want portrait outputs you really need to aquire in portrait. 

Pat Horridge:

If you have "normal" landscape HD then scaling for 9:16 is going to be a quality compromise.

You have too many pixels in width so will need to crop and too few in height so you will add black letterbox ING bars or scale that will lower quality and further reduce the width.

If you want portrait outputs you really need to aquire in portrait. 

Hi Pat,

While we are waiting for OP to mention deliverables & original shooting specs,

I just saw that I could also Export a 607 X 1080 file from my test timeline which was normal from an HD project with a 9:16 Black Mask added. All I did was unlock the Export equal scaling icon and type in 607 X1080. Is that going to look so horrible on a social media site, which I suspect is for viewing on phones? I viewed the result in QT Player and saw no sidebars.

from Mediainfo:

What is surprising to me is that although I am Exporting from a 1080i Project, my codec Family choice is limited to DNxHR 444 (Compression = 10bit or 12bit ), with no other HR option or a DNxHD option showing in the drop-downs.

Video

ID                                       : 1

Format                                   : VC-3

Commercial name                          : DNxHR 444

Format version                           : Version 3

Format profile                           : RI@444

Codec ID                                 : AVdh

Codec ID/Info                            : Avid DNxHR

Duration                                 : 1 s 34 ms

Bit rate mode                            : Constant

Bit rate                                 : 139 Mb/s

Width                                    : 607 pixels

Height                                   : 1 080 pixels

Display aspect ratio                     : 0.562

Frame rate mode                          : Constant

Frame rate                               : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS

Great thread for this PITA - I'd far rather people turned their phones 90 degrees and then the video still works on all platforms!!

I dont sense any quality loss with going tall and narrow  9:16 is the aspect but it retains its full 1080 in height Pat. Just loses the sides?