I am trying to create a short feature that will eventually be put in DVD format. What should the settings be for document size? Are there any other output settings I need to consider? Thanks Terry

Render to single image tiffs and then create the movie from the single pictures - this will seat you in the drivers seat in the whole process, dont try to render movies directly in Poser (other than preview), Resolution as high as you want (and your time permits) - but keep to the format.

Message edited on: 09/24/2004 18:09

You would be better to render to the dvd size 720x480 for NTSC and 720x576 for PAL.

xantor, does that take account of the different pixel aspect ratios? I seem to remember reading that you have to render at some particular size and then squash it to another size so that it will look right on TV pixels instead of monitor pixels.

Some programs let you render with square pixels for this type of thing but the difference is hardly noticeable, I know because I have tried it out.

Thanks for the response guys. One more question, is it possible to do a letterbox, widescreen effect? Thanks again Terry

720x306 is the widescreen size for the recent star wars dvds but the screen still has to have the black part at the top and bottom. If you have videomach you could render the screens as 720x306 and resize with centering in videomach to make the screen the right size, other programs will be able to make the screen the right shape and size too.

Thx again, xantor.

Just a thought for anyone who wants an anamorphic image, such as TV widescreen (same number of pixels, but horizontal stretch)... Try using the scale parameters on the camera. I only came across it by accident, but it looks to be doing what would be needed.

antonia tiger that would work but it seems a bit pointless, the picture would look right on a standard tv but it would be wrong with a widescreen tv.

In essence, it's the same process as they use to put a widescreen image onto the film, a virtual anamorphic lens. Over here in the UK, there's very few widescreen DVD releases that don't use the 16:9 format. You still need letterboxing for many films, but it doesn't waste as many pixels. If the US-pressed DVDs I have are any guide, anamorphic-DVD is still unusual over there. Anyway, if you're making computer images for anamorphic widescreen, everything looks tall and thin until you playback in a widescreen mode, either DVD player or software playback. The number of pixels recorded is the same.

I think that tpriest wants the video to look widescreen as well as being widescreen.

Whew! Thanks for the response folks. I'm completely new at this. My original idea was just to do a DVD "production". The widescreen question came to me while I was watching the new Star Wars DVD. Just wondered if it was possible and how to do it. I wanted to get some basic info and not waste blank DVDs doing something stupid. Thanks, Terry