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Hello. First time to forum and first time on TV paint. I'm working on an indie animated film with TV paint that I desire to end up in festivals. This is the first time digital with my indie films, and I'm not so saavy.

So, I jumped right into animating after my animatic and I kind of glossed over specs of resolution and such. I've been animating to the default ratio, but now notice settings for film and such. Is this more output than animating? And what about resolution in regard to BG's and such.

I guess what I'm asking is the best settings for good quality film , both in production and then output. I've found some other posts about this topic, but they are from years ago, and I wondered if there are fresh specs with updated technology?

Any help I can have on this is greatly appreciated. - Joe Murray

Nowadays it's quite easy since nearly all festivals project digitally. So what you use is HDTV 1920 x 1080, either 24 or 25 FPS (doesn't matter anymore). This is called HD or 2K colloquially.

Anything else only gets important if you a) have a budget and output to 35mm film (but no festival requires this), or b) have a client who pays you to produe in 4K instead of 2K

Backgrounds should fit the scene, in any shot without camera move it's just the HD dimensions. BGs for camera moves (pans or zooms) are larger. If you do backgrounds on paper, see that you scan them in adequate resolution, check the dimensions in pixels: normal BGs 1000 x 2000 px or a bit more (doesn't matter). Some years ago I would have said "don't overscan", but nowadays computers are so powerful that it doesn't hurt much to scan the same BG in, say, 2000 x 4000 px. (dpi numbers don't matter here.)

Thank you slowtiger. So if I do all of the backgrounds digitally, the resolution doesnt matter. Just the pixel settings? And I notice the setting for "film" has a different ratio than the 1920x 1080. I believe the HD tv setting was where I was, but when I got into detail, the resolution didn't seem very strong.

Yes 1920x1080 is just fine. I already making 4k if I can. Also possible to use other variations... In Lithuania at moment is popular scope format for short films. But i dont know technical reasons for that.

Sometimes for festival you have to diliver DCP(Digital Cinema Package).

It has this resolutions:
Flat (1998 × 1080 or 3996 × 2160), = 1.85:1 aspect ratio
Scope (2048 × 858 or 4096 × 1716), ~2.39:1 aspect ratio
HDTV (1920 × 1080 or 3840 × 2160), 16:9 aspect ratio (~1.78:1) (although not specifically defined in the DCI specification, this resolution is DCI compliant per section 8.4.3.2).
Full (2048 × 1080 or 4096 × 2160) (~1.9:1 aspect ratio, official name by DCI is Full Container. Not widely accepted in cinemas.)

But I am just saying.. not sure then is better to choose other format...

Thank you. That is very helpful.

HDTV into DCP creates a file with 2 very thin black borders left and right, which nobody notices in projection. As long as you don't have any distribution contract for cinema, HDTV is just fine.

If I have modified the project and there are big grey borders around it with the film smaller within it, does that mean I have been animating it to the wrong size? Is there another modification to the frame size?

Modifying a project can go wrong quite easily because there are so many options.

Case 1: you have started a project in one size and want it to be another, without losing the artwork or artwork not filling the screen.
Check Stretch to new size and Correct aspect ratio. (This seems to be the one you should've used.)

Case 2: you have started a project in one size and want to add more drawing space around it.
Uncheck Stretch to new size, but check Correct aspect ratio.

Thank you. I'll give it a try.

I actually started in HDTV 1080, ( which I have a saved version) and then modified it to a different setting. But you mentioned that HDTV 1080 was fine, so I modified it back. Then that grey box appeared. Should I just go back to my original project file with HDTV 1080. Will that be okay?

If you don't lose any wortk, I'd go back to that original file. (You can always copy & paste layers or frames from a newer/other project into it.)

Okay, great. Thank you.