Easy in Avid... Impossible in Vegas?

JG123 wrote on 2/17/2008, 6:42 AM
Someone please tell me I'm not crazy!! I've spent hours tinkering to figure out how to crop, resize and reposition a video clip (to the exact sizing and placement I desire) only to come to the conclusion that Vegas Platinum 8.0 has preset limitations and will not allow me to do it.

Example: In one clip, there are five people posing, positioned center frame. I would like to crop out one person on each end, leaving the center three subjects. I then want to reposition these three subjects to the left side of my frame, leaving the right side free to display a different clip.

This is a two second operation in Avid DV Express, but no matter which settings I try (Maintain Aspect Ratio: yes/no, Stretch to fill frame: yes/no, Match output/source ratio, I am not able to able to reposition the cropped video where I would like it to be.

Is this right or am I crazy?

Thanks!

John

Comments

Harrie_G wrote on 2/17/2008, 7:27 AM
It's one of the things I chose Vegas for.

In each video event you see two controls: one for pan and crop and one for FX. (If you don't see them, activate "video event buttons" in the View menu.) Click on the small rectangular control: in the pan and crop window you can adjust your video event as you like. You can also keyframe the event.

One of the controls on each vedio track (on the Track list) is called: Track motion. Click on the control and in the track motion window you can move your video into every direction and keyframed over time.

I admit, it takes some time to get used to the Vegas feel. But once you've got it, you won't want to work with other video software anymore.
gmes29 wrote on 2/17/2008, 10:01 AM
i agree that for the most part VMS is much more reliable than Pinnacle/Avid but the one thing i don't like about VMS is the pan and crop window. the space it gives you to adjust the 'F' outline is just too limited. Pinnacle is better in that regard in that it uses sliders for Zoom, V Pos, H Pos. when you change one of the settings, you can see the results immediately in the preview window.
Kennymusicman wrote on 2/17/2008, 10:49 AM
Unless VMS is different than Vegas - just use your mouse wheel to alter zoom of the workspace, and drag the frame to adjust V/H pos, and size. Nice and easy, and results do appear instantly in preview window
gmes29 wrote on 2/17/2008, 1:06 PM
excellent.. don't know how i didn't discover that before..
and i knew about the preview in VMS - just making a point about how easy Pinnacle was. thanx..