Ken Burns Effect

setchroot wrote on 5/13/2009, 10:54 PM
I have used the Pan/Crop function in Vegas Movie Studio for panning/zooming and it is very manually intensive. Even my PHONE will automatically display slideshows with the Ken Burns effect, not to mention iMovie on Apple -- which I am starting to use more now.

So I paid for Movie Studio and I think it has a lot of cool effects, more than iMovie - but it doesn't do one simple thing as easily as anything else does it - the ken Burns effect. This effect makes such a difference when you are viewing pictures!!

Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions/tech tips on how to *easily* get a Ken Burns effect in Vegas movie studio. Is there a way to create the panning/zooming on one picture then 'COPY' that pan/zoom effect and duplicate it over and over?

If not then please escalate this up to the Sony Development team for review. I would like a free software update/patch for my software :)

Thanks!

Comments

Ivan Lietaert wrote on 5/14/2009, 12:37 AM
For instant Ken Burns movies, use free software like Picasa and then insert it in Vegas.

Or: in Vegas, create one pan/crop event, copy it, and then 'paste attributes' to other still images, then tweak each still image to refine the effect.
jetdv wrote on 5/14/2009, 6:27 AM
Ivan123, another option would be to upgrade to the Pro version and then use Excalibur or Ultimate S to quickly add Ken Burns moves to all images.
Ivan Lietaert wrote on 5/14/2009, 8:41 AM
jetdv, with 'pro' you mean the expensive full version of Vegas, and not Vegas Studio Plat Pro Pack, right?
jetdv wrote on 5/14/2009, 9:23 AM
with 'pro' you mean the expensive full version of Vegas, and not Vegas Studio Plat Pro Pack, right?

Yes I do. The full version that supports scripting (and unlimited tracks and ...) but does cost quite a bit more.
ritsmer wrote on 5/14/2009, 1:37 PM
Ken Burns effect is not about doing some "press 2 buttons"- pointless automated zoom/pan etc. in stills.
No program - not even a phone - is able to identify the parts in a picture that a serious editor would want to apply this effect for.
Ivan Lietaert wrote on 5/14/2009, 2:17 PM
Don't missunderstand me, I love Vegas, but sometimes I too have a feeling that Vegas is missing the 'fun' features of other programmes, like instant slideshows, 'cinemagic' or 'muvee' or whatever it is called, with automated pans and zooms etc. Vegas (and its users, me included) can be so serious, complicated and difficult ...
michaelt wrote on 5/14/2009, 5:17 PM
I agree with ritsmer - the automated zoom/pan effects that you get in the phone are indeed pointless as they arbitrarily decide on which part of the photo to zoom/pan. Sometimes the effect turn out to be Ok, but most of the time it is simply irritating.

VMS has huge capabilities for Ken Burns effects, including rotations that by far not every software has and ability to get a perfect sync with the music. I agree Ken Burns effects make a huge difference when watching the photos. In fact, this was the MAIN reason I bought Sony's VMS: I worked with several programs to do slide shows on DVDs, and none of them had good capabilities for Ken Burn effects. Once I discovered VMS it by far outperformed anything I had seen.

Yes, it is time consuming, but please - you can't compare it with the crap you get from a phone.



Ivan Lietaert wrote on 5/14/2009, 10:01 PM
Some 'smarter' programs like Picasa will zoom in on eyes or other key points in the picture automatically, and sometimes that 's all one needs.
mickbadal wrote on 5/16/2009, 2:47 PM
Disclaimer: I agree with ritsmer and the other advanced users here, that true artists will not apply effects such as the Ken Burns in an arbitrary fashion.

That said, I'll put aside my critic's hat...the questioner asked if you can apply the effect used on one event to others in some quick fashion. The answer is yes. Right click-copy the event that has the Ken Burns effect, and then right-click new events and select "paste event attributes". That should copy the Ken Burns pan/zoom that you applied to the original event. Note this will also copy other FX & attributes from that original event too, which you may or may not desire. So if you really want to do this, I'd suggest creating a template event with the Ken Burns pan/zoom applied and no other effects. Then use the approach I've described to copy it to other events.
setchroot wrote on 5/27/2009, 11:40 AM
Thank you for your suggestions.

I did not start this thread to argue how professional my abilities were as an editor. As a person who forked out money for a product, however, I just made a simple comparison to the free software on my Nokia N95 & iMovie on MAC & their ease of use of this very popular effect. I believe, however, that Apple's iMovie is a little smarter as to where the eyes/faces are in the picture. It has face recognition that influences the automatic Ken Burns Effect, etc.

I suppose if I were a professional then I would probably pay for the full, very expensive pro version of Movie Studio which sounds like it may have an easier to use KB effect but I am not. I do have a couple suggestions here to work with IF I want to dedicate the time to it..... or I may just keep using iMovie. I still think that VMS should add the 'Automatic Ken Burns Effect' as a 'quick & simple' feature to anyone who wants the quick effect regardless of where it zooms. My first video was a 35 minute video with a lot of effects. It still irks me today to watch the movie and have no Ken Burns effect. I went back into the project and started applying some panning/zooming on individual STILL frames to get the KB effect (very time consuming) but because of the 'Manual' nature of it I found the KB effect would occasionally jerk or jump and not be very smooth because I was having to manually work in the pan/crop function and apparently I am not yet very good at creating a perfect, fluid movement. I ended up not rendering the new project video with the new effects because I thought STILLS were better than a jerky KB effect. Plus there are so many STILLS in the movie it would take more time than I have to complete it.

Thanks for everyone's inputs!! I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with me.
~~ Work Smarter, Not Harder ~~




michaelt wrote on 5/28/2009, 4:58 PM
Before I discovered (and immediately purchased) VMS, the software that I worked with to create Ken Burns effects was PictureToTv - I believe now they are called "DVD Photo Slide Show".

I believe this software is exactly what you need.

Some of my friends also don't have time to edit each picture individually, and want just through a bunch and let the software make the movie. They love this software a lot, and totally refuse even to try VMS. Obviously they are not as perfectionists as me, but they are very happy with the software (despite being capable of less than 0.01% of what VMS offers and having almost the same price).

Check it out:

http://www.dvd-photo-slideshow.com/dvd-photo-slideshow.html
michaelt wrote on 5/28/2009, 5:10 PM
Sorry, my fault - the software I was talking about is called MemoriesOnTV:

http://www.codejam.com/slideshow/index.htm
Wizaerd wrote on 5/29/2009, 9:47 AM
I was rather surprised that VMS didn;t have this feature, since a couple other video editors in the same price range did offer something like this. MAGIX Movie Editor Pro and Corels. VideoStudio Pro X2 both have this capability. Corel's also has a really cool feature for painiting over video, and animating the brush strokes as well, soemthing else I wish VMS had...
KHolle wrote on 5/31/2009, 12:31 PM
When I do the KB effect, I render small parts(5 secs or more even) as I go. Then you get the idea of how your key frames are working. Got to Tools after you have selected the frames you want to render and click on the "selectively render" (I don't have the program open - hope I have that part right!)
dogwalker wrote on 6/1/2009, 11:21 AM
I'll second MemoriesOnTV. It's a fantastic program for creating slideshows. After our trip to Philmont last year, I used MOTV to create several slideshows to music. It's incredibly simple and powerful.

You can set parameters, then have the program create your slideshow, then you can easily go edit any particular slide. In fact, you can have multiple keyframes in a slide - such as panning across the crew and pausing at each person's face.

My only gripe with any slideshows is that I still get this "rippling" effect when there's foliage in the scene and I'm panning/zooming. The rippling doesn't show up on any digital screens (including the computer monitor), but does show up if watching on any analog televisions.