So far i have been lucky enough to avoid the pain that is social media re-edits…but its just cropped up in a discussion so wanted to get ahead of things…
Can anyone point to info or tutorials explaining the best ways to convert 16x9 tvc’s into 9x16 deliverables within Flame?
I have a vague recollection of trying it once and getting into all kinds of resizing hell so any pointers would be invaluable.
thanks in advance
This amazing Logik Live is covering social deliverables: https://www.logik.tv/logiklive/logik-live-episode-11-connected-conform-with-bryan-bayley
thanks Chris…i’ll go watch that one right away!
helpful video…
thats got me a whole lot closer to getting my head around these horrible frames!
Wow, you’re lucky. I have to create them almost for every job. And clients treat them exactly the same as 16x9. So it;s just extra work. In the past I finished mostly on HD and then did a blowup to 9x16, but nowadays I try finish in 3K or higher so I can keep the 1920 vertical resolution at least.
Be careful when copy pasting BFX with actions connected to the back clip and titles in different formats. That will mess things up. If you don’t use back clip, it will work much better. I try to preplan a bit more nowadays, to make sure I can copy/paste/link/connect conform everything… Just my 2 cents.
Work 16x9 with a burn in letterbox set to the social ratio for repos and crop on export ftw.
I was thinking about this just now, and am solidly in Jamie’s camp on this one.
The one thing I’m running into today is my master edit has some push ins that are getting removed for the socials and there isn’t a great way to deal with that. Actions as repos will want to sync across all shots and transforms on gap FX apply a crop.
For the time being I’ve just tied a ribbon around my finger with the words “DONT SYNC YOUR TIMELINE FX” on it.
So, I don’t know who your clients are, but I usually conform all the resized social media timelines in 16x9 (usually with a burned in LBX effect to see my edges). I do all the repos and adjust graphics and whatever. Then I literally just take those timelines into the resize on the desktop and reformat them. There’s only been 1 time that they complained about softness. I added a very minor sharpness matchbox and everything was good. Are your clients super nit-picky? or are you/we just over thinking this process?
Yeah, you have to remove/break those connections on your social versions. It’s not the cleanest workflow. Can create new ones if you have multiple say 9x16 versions.
Make one master conform that’s 8k center-crop. All footage native res. Use gap-FX per-edit to do repos and crop on export.
*may require a computer from the year 2025.
I’m old school and don’t use connected conform.
After a few quick tests today realised its not the problem i expected. I almost always edit the longer duration first, then shorter ones are recut using a duplicated timeline.
Copy/pasting the edits and reworking in a different resolution won’t be too much different…
I’m lucky in that our tvcs don’t really need many variants, and social media versions have not been a big requirement for us. No doubt that will change over time.
I just want to work on footage that’s shaped like this: 
The future of finishing ain’t a rectangle.
I run an in-house post facility for a big toy company, so clients are my colleagues…makes things a lot easier!
Please tell me you work for Lego that would make my day
I do a similar thing but instead of making new files on the desktop I output the master files with a crop. That way I have 1 version of the uncropped master in flame and the output file is cropped. Makes it less complicated when I have to change something.
I’ve done my fair share of social (9x16, 4x5, and 1x1) cuts and I’m also a big connected conform user, but when it comes to the conform stage, I would say the two are slightly unrelated. Even when you use the connected conform, it doesn’t change the fact that you still have to conform the different aspect ratio versions. The connected conform doesn’t make conforming the different aspect ratios any easier, it just makes updating them easier. With the connected conform, if you do have tons of versions (including different aspect ratio versions) then a quick replace on one of the shots ripples that replace to all the connected clips.
That being said, the biggest tip I can share when it comes to conforming different aspect ratios is that if you choose to not go down the path of conforming at a very high resolution, then try to use the Resize node instead of the Action node as much as possible. When you use the Resize node with Crop Edges, and drop that into a sequence that is a different aspect ratio, it will resize the clip relative to the resolution of the sequence. In my experience, this gets you a lot closer than if you were using an Action node, but all of this is relative to how different the editor chose to make the different aspect ratio versions.
Obviously if you run into any scenario where you need a rotation or if you have to layer multiple clips together then there’s no way you can avoid using the Action node, but you can’t win them all!
Sorry…not Lego, although we did a compatible range a few years back!
The 9x16 deliveries are often overthought.
I have done everything from individual timelines with seperate resolutions per delivery, to one 16x9 with 2d transforms and appropriate letterboxs per social delivery on different “version” layers.
If you are a purist… and want all the pixels… work the batch workflow with connected sequences so your fixes re-populate all your different res timeline. I find this to be overkill… because you have to remember how 9x16 is going to be viewed, and ultimately, it is on a phone. I don’t care how big your phone is… I have done the tests to see the difference between a blow up from HD timeline vs the true native 9x16 format at 1080x1920… and dare you to find a commercial client that sees the difference.
Therefore, my recco is to create one 16x9 timeline, with version layers for each of your social deliveries. Do all you fixes on native res, whther you choose BFX or batch… you will be good. Use 2D gap layers for your repos.
Pain in the ass real life observation… social edits often get approved post grade session. Often I find the reframe wider than original 16x9 placements. Make sure to request native res renders with NO transforms from Grade to cover your ass, at ALL times. it’s worth the extra render time.
As a sidenote - Doing it this way also means you don’t have to re-stripe audio multiple times per cut/version.
cheers
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