Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Aspect ratios
Before we go ahead and start creating any new camera views in our scene, however,
there are a few critical pieces of information that really need to be input into both
SketchUp and V-Ray before we can attempt to set up any kind of final composition for
our render views. One such critical piece of information would be the choice of aspect
ratio at which we want our final images to be produced.
For those of you who are a little unfamiliar with this particular term, aspect ratio is
a numerical value that describes the proportional relationship between the width and
height of either an image or video frame. More often than not this relationship is de-
scribed by two colon separated numbers such as 16:9 and 4:3, which are themselves
two common ratios used in video and broadcast production.
Perhaps in a slightly confusing manner, this exact same relationship can also be cor-
rectly represented in a slightly different format, this time using the values 1.777:1 and
1.333:1, respectively. These numbers represent the smallest values at which the ratio
can be described while using a value of 1 for the height setting and are derived from
dividing the width of an image by its height. So for instance, if we divide 1024 by a
value of 768 we get 1.33 recurring. When expressed using the smallest whole num-
ber possible, this becomes a ratio of 4:3.
It is important to be clear on the fact that these numbers describe a relationship and
not a fixed size or measurement. The actual size of a 16:9 image could be measured
in inches, meters, pixels, picas, or any other valid form of image measurement. What
makes it a 16:9 image is the fact that its width and height measurements always main-
tain a ratio of 16:9 across the width and height.
This means, for instance, that a printed image could be the output at either 48 x 27
inches or 4 x 2.25 inches, and both, despite their being completely different in terms
of size, would correctly be described as sharing an aspect ratio of 16:9 (or 1.777 to
1).
Which aspect ratio we need to use will most likely be determined by our client, based
on the output devices that they are going to be targeting with your images. Some com-
mon ratios you may be asked to render would be as follows:
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