SUMMARY
Sometimes, an editor might receive panels published from Flix which don’t conform to the expected aspect ratio. This article will explain when this occurs, why it’s expected, and how to quickly check if you are within the expected scenarios.
If you realize your case doesn’t fit in any of the ones listed here, please open a ticket with Foundry Support.
MORE INFORMATION
If you get panels published from Flix that are framed oddly, these are the things to check:
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Were the panels imported to Flix from Storyboard Pro (SBP)?
You can check this by looking at the Origin section of the Properties pane for those panels in the Flix Client. -
If they were imported from Storyboard Pro (SBP), is there a camera move on them?
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If they were from Storyboard Pro (SBP), but there isn’t a camera move on them, is the SBP project set to use the same aspect ratio as the Flix show is?
You can check a show’s aspect ratio by hovering over it with the mouse while on the Flix homescreen.
The reason these are the things to look for, is that there are two cases in which Flix will publish panels with an aspect ratio other than the one the show is set to. In both cases, the panels with the seemingly incorrect framing come from SBP.
1 - Panel originating from Storyboard Pro with camera move keyframe
When importing panels, along with the artwork, Flix receives the canvas size information from SBP, as well as any keyframes for the camera move. If there is a camera move, SBP sends Flix the full canvas, meaning artwork containing the framing displayed on the first keyframe + the image displayed at the last keyframe + the framing of the in-between frames; this results in the canvas size having a different aspect ratio compared to the one set in the SBP project, and the Flix show.
In the case of the gif above, looking at the original SBP project the panel came from, the camera animation on the panel was a left-to-right pan, which is why the panel appears as it does in Avid. In the image below, the yellow box highlights the full canvas result of first keyframe + last keyframe + the framing on the in-between frames.
This is to give editors the ability to frame the panel as they see fit, and potentially re-apply the camera move with their own timing, instead of being restricted to the animation that was set in SBP.
2 - Panel originating from a Storyboard Pro project set to a different aspect ratio than the Flix show
In the gif above, the panels appear to be centered in the Avid viewer, with black bars on the sides and the top and bottom letterboxing being considered part of the artwork.
These panels do not have a camera move in the SBP project, however, the canvas size SBP sent to Flix for them does not follow Flix’s show’s aspect ratio, just like in the first scenario with panels containing camera keyframes. The SBP project was set to use 1.33 aspect ratio, to cater for the letterboxing being present, while the Flix show is configured to be 1.85.
At import time, SBP tells Flix that the artwork is 1920x1440 (1.33 aspect ratio), and this information is stored in the Flix database as panel metadata. When publishing, Flix takes this into account, as it needs to publish the full artwork, ensuring Editorial is not missing any part of the artist’s work.
If panels are imported manually or come from Photoshop, they won’t have this metadata, and Flix will calculate the correct aspect ratio during publish without adding the metadata as a factor. This is why letterboxing isn’t an issue in those cases.
This scenario is not common, but if you do find the artist has set up the project in this way, please talk to them about the implications and ask them to consider changing the project settings.
Why do the panels have incorrect framing in Avid, but look correct in Flix?
Flix will use the same logic it applies to panels imported any other way when rendering thumbnails for the Panel Browser, no matter the origin, and will do the necessary cropping. If there are keyframes on the panels, it will use them to determine the correct framing.
FURTHER HELP
If the above scenarios don’t seem to pertain to your case, please open a support ticket. If you are unsure about how to raise a ticket with Foundry Support, you can refer to Q100064: How to raise a support ticket.
Please include the following information in the ticket, to ensure we have the full context and can efficiently assist you:
- Flix version used. If unsure, you can check by clicking on Help > About at the top of the Flix Client.
- Editorial tool used and version (for example, Avid Media Composer 2018.12.0)
- Where were the panels imported from? (Photoshop, SBP, manual import…)
- Do all the panels that come in with the odd framing come from the same artist, or different ones?
- Are all of the panels in the sequence published with incorrect aspect ratio, or only some?
- Do the panels also have incorrect framing in Flix, or only when they’ve been published?
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