- Displaying Information in the Project Panel
- Finding Items in a Project
- Sorting Footage in the Project Panel
- Organizing Footage in Folders
- Renaming and Removing Items
- Proxies and Placeholders
- Viewing Footage
- Opening Footage in the Original Application
- The Footage Panel
- Cueing Motion Footage
- Magnifying an Image
- Viewing Safe Zones and Grids
- Rulers and Guides
- Snapshots
- Channels
- Viewing Transparency
- Correcting for Pixel Aspect Ratios
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Viewing Safe Zones and Grids
You can superimpose a grid or video-safe zones over an image to better judge its placement. Obviously, these simple visual guides aren't included in the final output. In addition, because video-safe zones indicate the viewable area of standard video monitors, you should display safe zones for images that match television's 4:3 aspect ratio. For more about the safe zones, see the sidebar "Better Safe than Sorry: Video Title- and Action-Safe Zones."
To show video-safe zones and grids:
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In the Footage panel's Grid and Guides pulldown menu
choose the options you want (Figure 3.60):Title/Action Safe (Figure 3.61)
Proportional Grid ( Figure 3.62)
Grid (Figure 3.63)
You can display any combination of zones and guides at the same time.
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Figure 3.60 Choose whether you want to view safe zones or grids in the Grids and Guides pull-down menu.
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Figure 3.61 You can view Title Safe and Action Safe zones...
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Figure 3.62 ...a proportional grid...
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Figure 3.63 ...or a standard grid.
Better Safe than Sorry: Video Title- and Action-Safe Zones
Computer monitors display images from edge to edge. Television monitors, on the other hand, overscan images, or crop the outer edges. What's more, the amount of overscan differs from one television monitor to another.
Because of overscan, only the inner 90 percent of the full screen is considered action safe. That is, you should restrict any important onscreen actions to this area. The inner 80 percent of the image is known as title safe. Because you usually can't afford to lose any part of a title, you need a greater margin of error. If you're going to output your project as full-screen video, you'll need to respect the title-safe zone or suffer the consequences (Figures 3.64 and 3.65).
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Figure 3.64 Ignoring title safe has little consequence for images displayed less than full screen or on computer monitors.
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Figure 3.65 However, the same image presented as full-screen video may result in unwanted editing. In this case, the President gets a demotion to a mere "resident," without a proper election.
Even if you only plan to show your final movie on a computer screen, consider using the title-safe zones anyway. If you, your client, or your boss later decides to repurpose your creation for display on fullscreen video, you'll be safe.
Of course, full-screen video also has a 4:3 aspect ratio (typically). In After Effects, safe-zone guides mark the inner 80 and 90 percent of any window, even if the image doesn't match television's 4:3 aspect ratio. Because their only purpose is to indicate the overscanned areas of a standard video monitor, the safe-zone guides are relevant only in windows that correspond with television's 4:3 aspect ratio.