Event Pan/Crop question

womanmarine wrote on 8/15/2007, 9:54 AM

There is a dropdown list for each keyframe that offers: linear, fast, slow, smooth, sharp, and hold.

I have done a few videos and can't detect a difference in these?

There is also in preferences>editing: a box at the bottom that gives default track motion smoothness and default pan/crop smoothness with boxes for a numerical value. What do these do?

I'm trying to find a way to make my moves less jerky or prevent them from coming to such an abrupt halt. I have seen where the pan can move and then slow down at the end. Can VMS do this?

I appreciate any help or advice!!

Comments

rustier wrote on 8/15/2007, 11:06 AM

Try something drastic. Try something like rotating a short 5 or 10 second clip 360 degrees over say five seconds with two keys, one at each end. then try the different adjustments to the interpolation. It will be plain to see then. You probably weren't making enough of a difference from your first key to your last.

I made a video one time where I used a butterfly GIF to fly around and land on an object. Adjustments to the keyframing and interpolation made it behave the way I wanted.

have fun with it

whoops must have leaned up against the wrong button previously - I hate it when that happens

womanmarine wrote on 8/15/2007, 12:38 PM

Hi Rustier:

Thanks for that info, I will try it.

Any thoughts on the second question? About the numerical values?

Chienworks wrote on 8/15/2007, 6:00 PM

Let's start with a little thought experiment .... Let's say you've got four dots on a piece of paper in a square arrangement. Now, starting at one dot draw a straight line to the next dot, then the next, and so on back to the beginning. You've drawn a square, right? A square is very sharp, and not the slightest bit smooth. But what if you wanted the smoothest line possible? Well, drawing a circle that passes through all four dots is the smoothest you can get. The square has a smoothness of 0.00% and the circle has a smoothness of 100.00%.

This is what the smoothness setting does. Set at 0%, movement from one cropping or track motion position to another is done with the most direct, straight line possible. With a smoothness of 100% the most circular (or more likely oval) path is chosen. What difference does this make? Well, suppose you've zoomed in on one person's face in a picture, someone sitting down. Then you pan across to the person sitting next to them. And then you pan to the person standing behind. With a smoothness of zero the motion with go through a sharp angle when it passes over the second person. This could be a bit jarring. With a higher smoothness level the motion will more and more gently curve rather than jerking.

Beware though that a high smoothness level can sometimes cause unexpected results. The software will calculate the path of movement, and sometimes this path may go outside of the image! This means that you may have to re-tweak the keyframe positions as you adjust the smoothness in order to keep showing what you want to show.

womanmarine wrote on 8/15/2007, 6:40 PM

Chienworks:

Many thanks, that helps. I guess I have some experimenting to do.

A couple of other seemingly dumb questions:

How high do the numbers go, and how high is too high?

Does it work differently in each mode: linear, fast, slow, smooth, sharp and hold?

Is there a good (safe) number to start with?

Your explanation helped a lot!! I couldn't find anything about it in the help files.

Chienworks wrote on 8/15/2007, 7:57 PM

The settings for linear, fast, slow, smooth, sharp, and hold apply to the timing from one keyframe to the next. Linear means that each frame will have the same amount of movement. Fast means that there will be more movement at first, then less and less as the next keyframe is approached. Slow is the opposite with little movement at first, then increasing speed. Smooth means that it starts out gradual, gets faster, then slows down to gradual again. Sharp i'm not sure about. Hold means no movement at all until the next keyframe, then a sudden jump.

The smoothness percentage refers to spatial positioning in the frame and the path the movement takes, and not the speed with which the movement happens.

womanmarine wrote on 8/15/2007, 8:07 PM

Thanks, I think I have it now. I think I want to use smooth from your explanation. I will try it and see what happens.

I have another question I will post in a new message.

Thanks so much!!