After effects CC: How to render a composition without 'square pixels' enabled and not changing footage aspect ratios?

[BrunoFL]

Hi there,
The last time I used Adobe After effects was in 2004 and I returned to use it recently and I forgot about some good practices.

I have a project with 5 compositions with the following settings:

In the preview I manually adjusted the footages scale and it looks like the original image in illustrator and png files.
But when I render with the settings below:

The output file appears with different aspect ratio, with a width higher than expected.

Now I know I should have used 'squared pixel', but if I try to use it in the current composition, every footage gets messed up with sizes and positions.
Is there a way to fix the rendering output without enabling squared pixel and !manually adjusting size and position of every layer?

Thanks!

[Katie Houghton · Accepted solution]

If it is Match Source then the PAR is set by the composition to 1.33. It sounds like you want it to be square. Are you viewing it with PAR correction turned on while in AE? If not your movie will look thinner than it really is. The system reads pixel to pixel without pixel correction toggled on. A 1.33 pixel will look thinner on a Sq PAR system (computer) and a .91 PAR will look wider. If you like the thinner look try changing the PAR on output.

[BrunoFL]

The issue was apparently resolved enabling Pixel Aspect Ratio Compensation in composition window and performing small adjustments on footages that were with different percentages size.

Thanks Katie Houghton and Rick Gerard for the responses!

[Rick Gerard]

OK, first thing - media players, the software that plays back video on computer monitors, expects all video to be square pixels.

If you have non square comps and you drop them in the equivalent square pixel comp they will automatically fit because AE is smart.

You need to spend some serious time learning about pixel aspect ratios and video standards. There is not much in your question that makes any sense in any production workflow. NONSquare formats are all deprecated now - that means no longer being developed or used in new camera designs. Absolutely the only reason to render a project in a non square format now days is to archive that digital file directly to a digital source that matches the original camera footage so it can be played on a digital video tape recorder. I think the last one of those rolled off the production line about 10 years ago.

[Katie Houghton]

Yes. Agree with Rick! Dropping it into a Square PAR comp will work.

[BrunoFL]

Rick, thanks a lot for the learning recommendation on "pixel aspect ratios and video standards" I really perceived I have some gaps to get updated, including to better understand requirements for current TVs like the 4k and new features of current versions of after effects.

Are there any good references on pixel aspect ratio and current production standards you could point me to?

Thanks!