Video Editing for 3-Panel Display

This is a multi-step instruction for editing a single video so that it displays evenly and upright across a 1 x 3 panel display where the screens themselves are in portrait mode. This is useful for stretching a video across a large surface area for custom event displays. The methods used in this tutorial can be modified with know-how to accommodate other display configurations.

• Video Editing Software (Such as Adobe After Effects)
• Video Codec Converter (Such as Handbrake)

These are the instructions for the segmenting portion of the tutorial, where you will be slicing a video into equal parts to later arrange on multiple screens.

• Start a project in your video editor (after effects) with a canvas size that is 3840 x 2160 which are the pixel dimensions for 4K resolution 
• In Composition Settings, set the Duration to your desired video time length

• Drag your video file into the Composition Panel, you may need to resize the video to fit the canvas

• At the bottom of the Composition Panel, press the Select Region of Interest  button

• Using the XYZ coordinates on the right side of the Composition Panel, start at X: 0 Y: 0 and
• select an area that measures 1280 x 2160, this is 1/3 of the original video (in landscape mode)

• At the top toolbar go to Composition > Crop Composition to Region of Interest

[You have now cropped your video to a region 1/3 of the original dimensions]

• Make sure that your video is aligned so that the left border is at the start of the newly cropped composition canvas

• Go to Composition > Add to Render Queue, this will render our the first 1/3 of the video

• Once rendered, select the Mover Tool and, using the XYZ coordinates as a guide, move your mouse until it is at X: 2560 , Y: 2160
• Select the video at this location and drag it until the coordinates read X: 1280 , Y: 2160
• This is now the 2/3 portion of the video, repeat the Composition > Add to Render Queue step
• Do this again to render out the 3/3 portion of the video
• Your video is now divided into three equal segments

• Begin a new project with the same dimensions of 3840 x 2160 and insert the test_pattern_v001.jpg file

A graphic like this is helpful in seeing how your video will align across your displays. The arrow will indicate which directions your videos need to be aligned beforehand so that the are displayed in the correct orientation, and the orange border around each of the four panels will indicate whether or not your video has been sized down or up to fit the screen.

• Insert the three separate video segments into the project, make sure to lock each layer individually when adding so they stay separate
• Starting with the 1/3 video segment, rotate 90 degrees and align with the top left panel

• Rotate the 2/3 video segment 90 degrees and align into the top right pane

• Finally, rotate the 3/3 video segment 90 degrees into the bottom left panel
• The bottom right panel will not show on a 1x3 display setup, so it is not necessary to block it out

• Once you have everything aligned, you may try to render out the video with the correct codec settings within After Effects, however this process is not always successful.
• In the event rendering the video with correct settings through After Effects was unsuccessful, render the video normally (as with the previous video segments) and you will need to use a program (such as Handbrake) to convert it from an .mov to an .mp4
• Make sure you use the correct codec for rendering, change it from Animation to Apple Pro Res 4444