I'm working on some effects for a show that my company is producing, Our final output is either HD or 35 mm depending on cost and a number of other factors. I know what the HD output size is, I've used it before. But I don't know what the image pixel dimensions need to be at for 35 mm. Does anyone know? Does the DPI matter? Any info on this would be helpfull. Thanks. Chris

Your best bet would be to get in touch with the vendor that will actually do your film recording. Find out from them their specs. Theoretically, the resolution of HDTV is similar to that of 35MM film, but there are so many factors that will come into play at the transfer house. The one thing I can tell you that's a constant is that 35MM film runs at 24 FPS. That'll save some time on the render.... Hope this is helpful. - Dex

And to answer the question about DPI, no it doesn't matter. It's something that I don't even understand why it's there! If you are specifying in resolution, then you are specifying all of your dots. DPI doesn't relate to specified resolution, only to inches/centimeters/picas. I know your asking about 35mm film, so it would seem to make a difference, but since you can't specify size in Carrara (i.e. 35mm,) then dpi doesn't matter. Follow Dex's advice, and contact your film transfer house for what they want to receive. (I would guess sequential TIFs, without compression, @ 4K pixels wide minimum!) Good luck, and let us know what they tell you. :>

DPI is a print concern. Different print media are printed at different resolution; the newspaper in San Francisco, for instance, requests that any images (digital photos, illustrations, whatever) be 162 DPI (dots per inch) with the longest dimension being 10 inches (or 1620 pixels). A glossy postcard printer we use requires that files sent to them be 300 DPI. The more dots you put on paper per inch, the higher the resolution will be. TV, on the other hand, doesn't increase the number of dots or pixels per inch as the screen size increases. (This is actually a generalization, but for purposes of this discussion, it's correct.) An NTSC image will be 640 square pixels by 480 square pixels, no matter if it's on a 4" TV hanging under your kitchen cabinet, or the 56" projection TV on which you're watching the baseball game get snowed out. If you're creating an image for film projection, you want the image resolution to be as dense as it would be if it were originated photographically. I think your later post put this at 1280 x 740 -- so you're cramming 1280 dots of information onto a piece of film that's, well, 35mm across. That's a lot of information in a really small space. You could calculate the DPI, but why bother? I've probably rambled on long enough. Hope this is helpful to someone somewhere.... - Dex

I do understand about print media requiring an image to be XxXxDPI (8.5x10x300) but, as you said, that equates to 2550x3000. Since Carrara DOESN'T allow you to specify inches (or cm, or picas for that matter,) just dotsxdots, then DPI is irrelevant. Or am I missing something? One of HD-TV's spec's is 1280x740, but 35mm film is, theoretically, up to 4000x4000! I depends on film stock, processing accuracy, the phase of the moon, was it made on a Friday, or Monday. ;>