Bricks in Motion
We are a friendly filmmaking community devoted to the art of stop-motion animation using LEGO® and similar construction toys. Here, you can share your work, join our community of other brickfilmers, and participate in periodic animation contests!
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I didn't see a thread about this, and I'm kind of curious about what you all think about aspect ratios in brickfilms.
I dislike 4:3 a lot. I feel like it's far two squished. 16:9 seems better, but for my two films "Plant" and "Breathing Space" I used a 2:1 aspect ratio, which I thought worked well with the proportions of a minifig. However, my Archimedes trailer was done in 16:7, which I actually liked a lot. What aspect ratios do y'all use and why?
- Leo
16:9 it fills up a wide screen TV and you can cut it to fit a regular TV.
Hmm...I would think using non-standard aspect ratios like 2:1 and 16:7 could be a little undesirable, if only because it can cause confusion when it comes to video resolutions and formatting.
Personally I'm quite partial to 2.35:1, it's great for landscape shots with a large scope. Sometimes it begins to look a little iffy with closeups, though. When I parody something I tend to follow its aspect ratio (my infomercial Magic Edge IV is in 4:3 like a TV infomercial would be, my Star Wars videos are in 2.35:1, and my Godfather parody The Pepperonis is in 1.85:1) but generally I like 2.35:1 if I want to make something look really cinematic. If I'm entering something to a non film-related contest I compromise with a 16:9 ratio so they won't be freaked out by the large black bars on the top and bottom that a 2.35 ratio creates.
1:2 isn't so uncommon; I think Apocalypse Now uses it.
I've used 1:1.85 on most of my films. It's pretty standard, and the wide format is good for both set building and framing purposes.
On Night of the Tater, I used 1:1.33, both because I wanted to have more vertical compositions (though I don't know how effective that was) and so the film would look more like something from the 1920s or 30s.
I used 1:2.35 on Hastings and Narrow Escape because of the wide landscape shots.
I use 4:3 on most of my things, but Race is gonna have a 16:9 Aspect Ratio. I shot it with extra space up top/down below for the cropping.
How wide the image is. Like, a TV has a taller, squarer shape than a movie in the theater. It's notated by the numerical ratio of the picture's width to the picture's height. So, a movie in 2.35:1 is 2.35 times as wide as it is tall.
Night Owl, you're right that 2:1 isn't unheard of, it is one of the experimental ratios used in the 50s and 60s. (and, yes, Apocalypse Now, that's an anomaly I guess) There are a lot of others that various studios tried during the same time, going as wide as 2.76:1 in Ben-Hur and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. However, today, anything besides 4:3, 2.35:1, or 16:9 is pretty rare in new film/video work.
It's worth noting that a lot of people say 16:9 when referring to the NTSC and PAL standards that are very close (1.85 and 1.66, respectively, or something around there), 16:9 itself being a compromise halfway between the two.
I am fond 16:9 myself but I often make 4:3 becouse most of my stuff is a blantent rip off of old B-Movies which typically don't use a wide format.
I use 2:1 on the moment, and for my next project i'll use it again. It just looks as a proffesional film.
I always use a 16:9 ratio.
If I use monkeyjam and export my videos in 4:3 then edit them in Movie edit pro 14 what can I do to get 16:9 format?
I prefer the look of 16:9 way over 4:3 (like my videos are in) however, I dont know how to do it.
from now on I plan to keepall my videos to 16:9 because they look better on TV/monitors and youtube has 16:9 as there default so they look good
I usually get ticked when people automatically associate 4:3 (or even 16:9) with poorer-quality films.
I think I had a fair amount of trouble early on when it came to using widescreen effectively. I made a small matte for my camera's LCD that has lines to denote 1:1.85 and 1:2.35 aspect ratios; it works quite well.
16:9 works best for me. (although none of my finished films have it. 
)
If I use monkeyjam and export my videos in 4:3 then edit them in Movie edit pro 14 what can I do to get 16:9 format?
I prefer the look of 16:9 way over 4:3 (like my videos are in) however, I dont know how to do it.
My digital camera and QCP9000 captures frames only in 4:3. The capture programs I use have 16:9 masks (black bars at top and bottom) so I can simulate the part I'll be cutting off to get my framing right when I'm filming. I then import all my 4:3 JPGs into VirtualDub (for PC) to crop them down to 16:9 and then resize to either 1280x720 (HD) or 856x480. You can also export AVIs from VirtualDub, but I usually import my re-sized images into MonkeyJam to do some frame manipulation and mouth movements editing. At that point, MJam has no problem exporting whatever size images you import into it.
I experimented a little with 2.35:1, but found that it forced me to make my sets wider than I wanted to just to fill all that extra width. 16:9 is so close to even most theatrical releases (1.85:1), I figure it's good enough for most things. Monster epic films are great at 2.35:1 though.
16:9 is my favorite.
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