Anamorphic/framing question

cortex how to
1

I got some footage that was shot anamorphic 4X3 at 2.8k resolution. The request was to unsqueeze, which results in a 2.66:1 ratio. The request was to deliver 2.39:1 ratio, or 1920 x 803 by cropping the sides.

I created a new 1920 x 1080 deliverable that decoded the picture with anamorphic, using the color tool for framing and added a 2:39:1 mask.

In the color tab, when I opened the footage, I still had to set the aspect slider to 1.5 for it to look close to “correct” (as opposed to too tall and stretched). I adjusted the zoom slider to 0.85 since the edges of the picture should have been off the left and right edges in this scenario. I did not adjust H or V center settings.

My question: how do I use Cortex to exactly deliver what was asked instead of guessing and eyeballing? I tried to do some math regarding ratios but nothing I came up with looked remotely correct.

2

Hi Charles,
A math problem, we like these. I’m assuming you’re talking about a 2880 x 2160 source clip and a deliverable aspect ratio of 1678 / 700, which is what’s typically used to derive 2.39 (actually about 2.397).

Set your deliverable config for a 1920 x 1080 frame size, with the Framing Method set to Fit Height. Then set the Zoom control in the color tool to 0.7416 (which is 1920 / (1080 * (1678 / 700))), and set the Aspect Ratio control to 2.0 to get everything un-squeezed.