Field Guide

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Compose Window comes with a handy framing tool called Field Guide. It is to help you to see what part of the composition would be included/excluded in the final output frame.

 

 

Field Guide provides user 3 framing choices corresponding to the 3 most used screen formats of today's media: Panavision (2.35 : 1), Wide HDTV (16 : 9) and Standard (4 :3). By default the Compose Window is started in Panavision setting and its aspect ratio (2.35 : 1) is displayed at the lower left corner of the canvas. To change to a different field guide, simply move your mouse over to the current "ratio" mark (the mark is doubled as a button) and click it. Now you'd be in 16 : 9 field setting. Clicking it again you'd be in 4 : 3 field setting. So on and so forth, you can shift through 3 available guides by repeating the click until you get the one you want. In 16 : 9 and 4 :3 settings, the part of canvas excluded from current guide is masked by a transparent gray so that you can compare and compose with reference to the entire canvas.

NOTE: Field Guide is useful in determining what screen ratio to use when you export your movie or still picture (snapshot). See Video Settings in Export Movie chapter for addtional output considerations. Changing the guide on Compose Window does NOT effect the framing of the actual export. The framing of the export is determined by the Screen Ratio settings on Export Movie panel. The Compose Field Guide is only used as your composition reference.