How would you use this principle: The offline is a description, not a source?
Every event in it is a claim about what should happen, and each claim has to be verified against the original. Trusting a relink because it looked right at proxy resolution is how a wrong take reaches a master.
How would you use this principle: Compare, do not remember?
Put the offline and the conform on top of each other in difference mode and step through. The eye is unreliable across two viewings and completely reliable at spotting a difference matte that is not black.
How would you use this principle: Preserve the data, deliver the display?
The version approved in the room is display-referred and standard-specific. An archival master rendered without the output transform is what allows the show to be remastered later without regrading it.
How would you use this principle: Every deliverable is a contract with numbers in it?
Frame rate, active picture, audio channel order, loudness and wrapper are not preferences. Read the spec for the specific platform before rendering, not after QC fails.
How would you use this principle: Fix at the right altitude?
A tracked patch in finishing is cheaper than a vendor round-trip, and a shot that needs a real rebuild is more expensive to patch badly twice than to send out once.
In the dated TikTok feed (In-Feed / For You) guide, what bottom reserve is recorded for the 1080x1920 working canvas?
660 px
The safe area is not a plain rectangle. Above the action rail the right margin is only 120px (11.11%); the 300px (27.78%) right margin applies only across the vertical band the rail occupies, measured at y 840-1260 on a 1080x1920 frame. The conservative rectangle is x 120-780, y 240-1260 = 660x1020px. official-template-measured
TikTok's stated minimum for vertical is 540x960 (9:16); it also accepts 1:1 (>=640x640) and 16:9 (>=960x540), but non-vertical assets are letterboxed and lose a large amount of usable frame (see crops). TikTok's own safe zone templates are authored on 720x1280 (standard) and 540x960 (with-anchor) canvases; all values below are scaled to 1080x1920. TikTok publishes no resolution 'recommendation' beyond the minimum, so 1080x1920 is a production convention, not a TikTok spec.
In the dated Instagram Reels guide, what bottom reserve is recorded for the 1440x2560 (Meta's ads guide recommendation); 1080x1920 is the common production canvas working canvas?
672 px
Meta expresses this only as percentages, so it scales cleanly. On 1080x1920: top 269, bottom 672, sides 65. On Meta's own recommended 1440x2560: top 358, bottom 896, sides 86. Usable box on 1080x1920: 950x979px at x 65-1015, y 269-1248. official
Meta's ads guide for the Instagram Reels placement specifies 1440x2560 and 9:16, with 1% aspect ratio tolerance, min width 250px (500px for assets over 30s), max 4GB, MP4/MOV. Instagram's consumer help center states organic Reels accept '1.91:1 or 9:16' with a 720px minimum and 30fps minimum.
In the dated YouTube Shorts guide, what bottom reserve is recorded for the 1080x1920 working canvas?
672 px
These are Google's own pixel figures, stated on a 1080x1920 reference frame - the only platform in this set that publishes actual pixels. Usable box: 840x960px at x 48-888, y 288-1248. Note the pronounced left-right asymmetry: 48px left against 192px right. official
1080x1920 is stated on Google's own safe zone diagram for vertical video ads. YouTube's Shorts classification is broader than 9:16: per YouTube Help, videos uploaded on or after 15 October 2024 with a square OR vertical aspect ratio and up to three minutes are categorised as Shorts. Google Ads Help adds that horizontal assets 'serve with blurred top and bottoms in the vertical Shorts experience', and that aspect ratios between 16:9 and 9:16 are allowed with the player adapting. So Shorts accepts 1:1 through 9:16, but only 9:16 uses the whole canvas.
In the dated Instagram Stories guide, what bottom reserve is recorded for the 1440x2560 (Meta's ads guide recommendation); 1080x1920 in common use working canvas?
672 px
Identical percentages to Instagram Reels. On 1080x1920: top 269, bottom 672, sides 65. On 1440x2560: top 358, bottom 896, sides 86. official
Meta's ads guide Instagram Stories video placement: Ratio 9:16, Resolution 1440 x 2560, aspect ratio tolerance 1%, min width 250px, duration 1s to 60 minutes, max 4GB, MP4/MOV/GIF.
In the dated Facebook Reels guide, what bottom reserve is recorded for the 1440x2560 working canvas?
672 px
Same percentages as Instagram Reels and Instagram Stories. On 1080x1920: top 269, bottom 672, sides 65. On 1440x2560: top 358, bottom 896, sides 86. official
Meta's ads guide, Facebook Reels video placement: Resolution 1440 x 2560 pixels, Ratio 9:16, MP4/MOV/GIF, H.264, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan, stereo AAC 128kbps+. Distinct from the separate 'Ads on Facebook Reels' OVERLAY placement, which is 1:1 at 1440x1440 - a different format that sits on top of someone else's reel.
In the dated Facebook Stories guide, what bottom reserve is recorded for the 1440x2560 working canvas?
340 px
Meta states this one as a percentage AND a pixel pair - '14% (250 pixels)' and '20% (340 pixels)' - and the two do not agree with each other: 250/1920 = 13.0% and 340/1920 = 17.7%. Both readings are recorded rather than reconciled. Meta gives NO side figure at all for Facebook Stories, unlike the other three placements. disputed
Meta's ads guide, Facebook Stories video placement: Resolution 1440 x 2560 pixels, Ratio 9:16, MP4/MOV/GIF, duration 1 second to 3 minutes, max 4GB.
In the dated Snapchat (Spotlight, Stories, Commercials - one shared spec) guide, what bottom reserve is recorded for the 720x1280 stated by Snap; 1080x1920 in common use working canvas?
672 px
Snap publishes percentages on a diagram, not pixels; the pixel column above is those percentages applied to 1080x1920. The diagram also marks a DEEPER bottom bracket of 45% (864px on a 1920 frame) alongside the 35% one, without labelling which formats each applies to. The right-hand 15% applies only across the lower portion where the action rail sits - the diagram's red safe rectangle is a stepped shape, full width to 6% above the rail and stepping in to 15% across it. Usable box on 1080x1920, taking 35% bottom: 953x1056px at x 65-1018, y 192-1248; taking 15% right across the rail band, 853px wide there. official
Snap's own ad format page states Aspect ratio 9:16 and Resolution 720x1280 for Single Image or Video ads, Story Ads and Sponsored Snaps, with .mp4/.mov/.jpg/.png accepted. 720x1280 is Snap's stated figure, not a minimum-versus-recommended distinction - Snap does not publish a 1080x1920 recommendation.
Explain why this claim is wrong: upscaling recovers detail.
It reconstructs plausible detail using priors learned from training degradations, which is restoration where the information is present and invention where it is not.
Explain why this claim is wrong: interpolation makes motion look better.
It makes motion smoother, which is a different thing. Frames synthesised between long-exposure frames keep the original blur, so cadence and blur stop agreeing.
Explain why this claim is wrong: more finishing passes always improve the frame.
Stacked super-resolution and sharpening compound ringing and overshoot, the exact artifacts a blind super-resolution model such as Real-ESRGAN is trained to suppress rather than to create.
