Jumping Solid Colors with Crop Tool and Copying Text

David-Wigfield wrote on 6/13/2025, 12:42 PM

Hi, I have two questions. I am using Movie Studio 17, Build 223.

First, if I am cropping a solid color, to use as a background for text, and I am using the Video Effects Crop tool, the color that I am cropping will bounce around the screen, sometimes elongate and just won't stay where I want it. This happens no matter what anchor point I have set in the Crop Effects toolbox or if I am using the little yellow handles or the sliders in the toolbox. Any ideas why this would be the case? I am not sure if it only happens on solid colors that I have copied from the timeline to a new location or on newly generated solid colors. Really annoying when trying to size it to fit my text.

Second, if I have a text template in a bin, EG, text, red, scale 0.7, and I drag that to the timeline and then edit it, it changes my template text to whatever I wrote on the timeline and changes the name in the bin. Is there an obscure setting somewhere that automatically makes a copy of my text template when I put it on the timeline and leaves the original template alone? Would it leave the template alone if I drag it from the Custom Bin instead of the All Media area? Of course, when I copy text on the timeline and paste as new media event, it just adds that new text to the bin. I want to preserve my template.

Still like MovieStudio 17 but the crashes I get when I use the JKL keys to fast to scrub are really driving me crazy. Did a clean install and wiped everything from the registry and got crashes down to just a couple per session, down from every 5 minutes or so.

Wish there was a fix for this. Been eyeing DaVinci as a replacement. Oh well.

Anyway, thanks in advance for any suggestions you have on my two questions.

Comments

EricLNZ wrote on 6/13/2025, 8:36 PM

With your first problem I suspect you may have created several keyframes which is causing the size and position to bounce around your screen. But without seeing a screen grab of your FX window it's difficult to be sure. Personally having cropped the solid colour I'd use the Picture In Picture FX to position and size it. Both Position and Size can be animated.

EricLNZ wrote on 6/13/2025, 8:55 PM

With your second problem to my knowledge using "Titles and Text" you cannot create templates. You create Presets which become available in the drop down list list when you drag any text item from Media Generator 'Titles and Text' to your timeline. I find if I subsequently alter this it doesn't alter my preset which is available unaltered for any new text items.

Anyway as you've discovered if you copy and paste a text item on the timeline you get the below Paste Options box which by using the first option solves your problem.

EricLNZ wrote on 6/13/2025, 9:13 PM

With you last problem please post Media Info on your most used media https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/faq-how-to-post-mediainfo-and-vegas-pro-file-properties--104561/

VMS17 is now a few years old now and technology moves fast so it's possibly struggling if you have files from an up to date camera or phone. So the fix may be to move up to Vegas Pro. There's a 30 day trial available from Magix. Whilst more complicated than VMS VP is a familiar layout and editing system and will open your existing VMS 'vf' files.

EricLNZ wrote on 6/14/2025, 3:55 AM

Playing around further with problem number 2 - Text Presets (Templates) I find:

Presets aren't only available in the Drop Down list in the Preset list in the Video Media Generators text adjustment window but also in the Media Generator Titles and Text window showing thumbnails of all the Presets (Templates). I'm sure a new one I created earlier wasn't there previously but now after restarting VMS17 it has appeared.
Dragging a Preset thumbnail from there to put the item on the timeline gives the preset correctly even if I've previously added the preset and altered it
But this doesn't work if I alter a preset on the timeline and then with its Media Generator text window still OPEN drag the preset again to the timeline. On the timeline the new item shows the preset correctly in its thumbnail but in the Preview window you can see it has actually acquired any alterations you previously made in the still open Media Generator text window. So it's important to close any such windows before adding a preset to your timeline.