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Format Size for Festivals

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Format Size for Festivals

Hi Gang,

I'm in pre-production with a project I would like to shop around to the Animation/Short Film Festivals when it's finished.

Typically I work 720 x 480 (standard DV) but I've heard that using a bigger format is better. Sooooo...
1440 x 960?
2160 x 1440?

Anyone have an idea what is the preferred format size? I'd appreciate the help! Thanks :)

could you link the white paper here?

Common Pixel Aspect Ratios

LINK:
http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/PremierePro/3.0/help.html?content=WSbaf9cd7d26a2eabf53ab041041081290f-7ffd.html

Also I got a very detailed response from a guy over at Creative Cow (a great resource, by the way) that I'll share here in case anyone else can use the info. He is talking about scanning my pen and ink drawings for use in an animation being composited in After Effects for HD. Thanks. :)

__________

Do 1920x1080. That way, if anyone wants 1280x720, you're already set.

Now, regarding dpi: you want 1920x1080 pixels. DPI is PPI (the terms are interchangeable), which is pixels per inch.

To find the desired dpi for scanning, you shouldn't look for a standard DPI, since there isn't one for video work. DPI is only relevant when scanning print work to digital, or printing digital files to paper. When dealing with video, all you care about is pixel sizes such as 1920x1080.

But we need to convert the paper (inches) to pixels (digital file). The answer lies in the size of the paper image, and a bit of math.

If the paper were 16 inches by 9 inches, then to convert that to a digital file 1920x1080, we'd have to scan at this dpi: 1920pixels/16inches = 120 pixels/inch, or 120dpi.
You see? Digital pixels / paper size = scanning dpi.

Note that I conveniently chose a paper size which is 16x9 inches. In your case, you should only use part of your 11x8.5 page, so it matches the 16x9 HD ratios. So you should only use this portion of your page: 10.67x6.00 inches, or 11x6.1875 or thereabouts. Let's say you were using the second one. Use the 11" measurement to calculate the dpi:
1920pix/11 inches = 175 dpi approx.

If you have to choose a higher dpi, no big deal.

I was recently told that 1920 x 1080 is what the studios are using, and that's for HD.

I've never looked into festivals but I would imagine they would have specifications that would tell you what they need for their displays.

Thanks for the info!
It looks like 1920 x 1080 is the standard for square pixel aspect ratios and HD. I found a great white paper on it at Adobe.
:)