Using PhotoShop CS2 to make graphics for use in PE4...

[boogieted]

Using PhotoShop CS2 to make graphics for use in PE4...

I am running into problems while trying to make my own graphics, backgrounds, etc. using PhotoShop CS2. Basically the sizes aren't matching up. I'm sure it's an issue with the way i'm setting up my document in PS, and I'm hoping someone can help me with the appropriate settings, resolution, etc.

First of all, I work only with the widescreen SD videos in PE4. So let's say that in PhotoShop i want to make a graphic that fills the screen to place in my video timeline. When I start a new document in Photoshop, there are some presets such as "1024 x 768", "NTSC DV Widescreen 720 x 480 (with guides)", etc. I am attempting to use that 2nd option, which was my best guess. Attached is a pic of the presets dialog box.

presets.jpg

I would also like to know the appropriate method for saving-out my PhotoShop graphic for use in PE4. Save as PSD? JPG? TIF? GIF? And beyond the file format, would there be other specific save settings (like quality settings?) that I would need to adjust at the Save dialogs?

What seems to always go wrong when i've tried doing all this before is the size of the image ends up being too narrow in PE4 once imported, and usually the quality is not that great.

Also attached is a screen shot of the lower-third graphic I'm trying to make in PS, and thus use in PE.

lower-third.jpg

Hope all this makes sense, and I'm looking forward to being educated on this. Thanks!

[Chuck Engels]

As far as what format to save as so you can use the file in Premiere Elements, PSD is always best. Premiere Elements will recognize the transparent background and all will be wonderful

In After Effects it will even recognize the layers and set them up on separate tracks if you want to, I think Premiere Pro might do that too. Premiere Elements won't separate the layers in a Photoshop file but it does let you use the transparent areas.

[Bob]

That document preset, "NTSC DV Widescreen 720 x 480 (with guides)", is fine. That will match your NTSC SD widescreen video format. The guides will show you the motion safe and title safe areas, as usual. You should be able to get excellent results with this setting.

If the size is too narrow (i.e. gets squished) when you import it into Premiere Elements, that means the pixel aspect ratio setting is not being retained when you saved the image. How did you save the image and what type of file did you use? Also check your image mode. Make sure you are using RGB, 8-bit.

I'd recommend that you save as either PSD or PNG. Both file formats support transparency and retain the pixel aspect ratio setting. My preference is PSD and it works well with PrE4. JPEG does not support transparency. Don't use GIF.

[Steve Grisetti]

I would also recommend the PSD. Especially if you're using odd-shaped graphics (like guitars) and graphics like your lower thirds with a transparent background, PSDs are a great choice because they'll maintain that transparent "alpha" channel when you open the file in Premiere Elements!

[boogieted]

That document preset, "NTSC DV Widescreen 720 x 480 (with guides)", is fine. That will match your NTSC SD widescreen video format. The guides will show you the motion safe and title safe areas, as usual. You should be able to get excellent results with this setting.

If the size is too narrow (i.e. gets squished) when you import it into Premiere Elements, that means the pixel aspect ratio setting is not being retained when you saved the image. How did you save the image and what type of file did you use? Also check your image mode. Make sure you are using RGB, 8-bit.

I'd recommend that you save as either PSD or PNG. Both file formats support transparency and retain the pixel aspect ratio setting. My preference is PSD and it works well with PrE4. JPEG does not support transparency. Don't use GIF.

Thanks to all for the replies and advice. I was trying this saving my images as jpg or gif. I had not been saving as PSD because i thought the file size might slow-down my PE4 work, but I will begin using PSD's now.

Bob--it is true that my artwork is getting "squished" a little on the right and left sides for some reason, and as you suggest, it may have something to do with the pixel aspect ratio settings. Currently the setting looks like this...

pixel_aspect_ratio.jpg

You can also see that (and other document settings) in my first post above. It also shows that I am using 8-bit RGB Color. And speaking of those settings: i'm wondering too if 72 dpi is ok for a project like this (it was the default), or if i need to change that to a higher number?

I should also mention that every time I re-open this PSD file, I get the following dialog box...

correction.jpg

Thanks again, and I look forward to your responses.

[Bob]

You can safely ignore dpi for video applications. It's not used in video where the actual size of the image in pixels is what matters.

The dialog box about pixel aspect ratio correction is normal. All it's telling you is that Photoshop is applying the pixel aspect ratio to the displayed image. The image will be shown as it will appear in your video and not be distorted. If you turn off pixel aspect correction, the pixel aspect ratio is still applied to your image, but the pixels will be displayed as if they were square and your widescreen image will look squished. I personally can't imagine why I wouldn't want to apply the pixel aspect ratio correction. I check the "do not show again" box and don't worry about it.

I noticed that you have the background contents set to white in the new document dialog. If I am preparing lower thirds or other overlays with transparency, I set that to transparent. That way I don't have to delete the background layer later.

[boogieted]

Now that I have tried using the PSD file, the image seems to fit correctly in PE4.
However, there is a small loss of image quality that I still can't explain...

[Bob]

Are you seeing the loss of image quality in the PE4 monitor window or in the finished product?

If you have set the dimensions and pixel aspect ratio of the photoshop image to be the same as your video project, you have a one to one pixel correspondence. If you made no change to the format when you exported your finished product, there should be no noticible degradation unless you applied some effect or overly compressed the output (for example, to squeeze more video onto a DVD by lowering the bitrate). You may see some flicker resulting from interlacing the image if you have thin horizontal detail .

If you are seeing degradation in the PE4 monitor window, try pressing enter to render the preview. Also, if your monitor window magnification is not 100%, you could see some degradation in the monitor window that results from PE scaling the image in the monitor window. This only effects the monitor window and not the encoded exported final product.

If the Photoshop document preset doesn't match the video project preset and you have scale to frame size enabled, PE will scale the still image and that can add some image degradation. The scaling in PE is not the best. I get a much cleaner result when I do my scaling in Photoshop.

[boogieted]

I wanted to follow-up on my thread and say thanks for all the assistance with this. As it turns out, my lower-thirds looked fine. I don't fully understand why they don't look very good in PhotoShop while they're being made, but look just fine in the finished video. But the main thing is that it does look good in my video. Thanks again!