Media Cropping better than Event Cropping?

joelaff wrote on 6/18/2004, 8:43 AM
I am working on a DVD project which is 720x480. Some of my source footgae is that size, but much of it is 720x486 of course.

I would like to see a way to crop each clip in a media crop, instead of having to crop each event. It would seem that most of the time cropping would be the same for the media throughout the timeline (OK, not always if you want to pan and scan, etc. but whenever you have a media dimensions mismatch).

Is this possible now somehow? If not, could it be added in the future? I would like to see the control right in the media properties. Ideally it would give four edit boxes for entering different crop values in pixels. (top, bot, left, right). It would also display the resulting size. When enabled it would default to cropping the media such that it fit within the project dimensions (taking pixel aspect ratio into account). It would also default to cropping an even number to preserve field order.

Thanks.

Comments

XOG wrote on 6/18/2004, 9:30 AM
joelaff,

If I am understanding you correctly, you can use track motion for this. Apply crop on the track, rather than the event level.

Cheers,

xog
smhontz wrote on 6/18/2004, 10:32 AM
One workaround would be to drag your media to a separate track, apply crop/and fx, then split out the pieces you want and drag them to your real video track. Each time you split an event, each new piece retains the crop properties and fx of the whole piece.
rs170a wrote on 6/18/2004, 10:39 AM
"much of it is 720x486"

Your clips are obviously coming from another NLE. I have 2 dpsVelocity systems here and we regularly export audio/video files for work in Vegas. The Velocity (a 720x486 system) gives us the option to export as 720x480 if we want. Are you sure your system doesn't have that option?

Mike
joelaff wrote on 6/18/2004, 12:15 PM
I am mixing different clips on the same track, though. I suppose I could make a 720x486 track that had the common crop settings...

Not a bad idea. Thanks. I still think Vegas should give you the option to do this for the media non-destructively, and right in the media properties panel. This is where this type of thing belongs. Now that a lot of the world has moved to 720x480 for DVD and DV (presumabley due to DCT needing 8x8 pixel square blocks) a lot of footage is still at 720x486, since that is the NTSC standard.

Sure I could export this stuff at 720x480, or process it some other way. But the point is that I shouldn't HAVE to modify my sources. Computers are for doing meanial tasks, humans shouldn't be...
joelaff wrote on 6/18/2004, 12:19 PM
Nice idea. Thanks.

I still want the feature, though ;-)