EDIT: you posted your second message while I was typing this one ;-)

Second: Vegas *does* have a speed control on transitions. The speed control is the amount of overlap you choose when you lay one end of a clip over the end of a previous clip. If it's short .. then the transition will run fast. If it's long .. than the transition will run slow.

First: What you call "transitions" are not. A transition is a way to change from one video clip to another. Slowly panning up, down, left, right, in or out on a still image are not transitions. They are what is commonly called the "Ken Burns Effect"

The effect you want is very easy in Vegas with the PAN & CROP tool. One way to get to the Pan Crop tool is to right click on the video and choose Pan Crop from that menu.

Check out the help file for tips on using Pan Crop. It's a little hard to explain here. You can zoom in or out. When you are zoomed in you can pan up, down, left, right or even diagonally. You can zoom in/out WHILE you are panning. You can pan over to a spot .. stop .. than pan in a different direction.

Thank you for your reply and again, sorry about the transition/video event confusion before.

I have read the Help on "Pan A Video Event" and I just read it again and its still confusing. I understand everything up until Step #5.

"5. Use the keyframe controller at the bottom of the Event Pan/Crop window to establish distinct settings throughout the duration of the event. The path of the panning is drawn in the Event Pan/Crop window.

During playback, intermediate frames are interpolated to create smooth motion. Expand the Keyframe interpolation heading on the left side of the window and drag the Smoothness slider to adjust the interpolation. For more information about keyframe animation, click here."

I read the keyframe help and, as I mentioned before, I can kind of move it around and get *some* type of panning but only on part of the picture. It seems very complicated to me here!!! The keyframe animation help page and even the tool seems difficult but maybe I am missing something.

This is why I am asking the forum. I have read the Help file already and still need assistance. Thanks again.

Ok ... let me try, but I may not call things by their proper names ...

Open your project and select a photo/image that you want to pan/crop. Open up the pan/crop tool.

The first thing I would do is go to the top of the PC box and click on the down arrow in the "preset" window. Select 4:3 Standard TV aspect radio (I assume you are not doing HD or 16:9) This may, or may not do anything .. but it often helps .. so I do it first.

Second: Go to the first option in WORKSPACE, which is ZOOM. There is a number to the right of the word ZOOM .. click to the right of that number. Three arrows should appear ... an UP arrow over a DOWN arrow, and a Down Arrow to the right of both.

If you click either the up or down arrows the number will change (slowly) .. if you click the large down arrow you will get a slider that you can move to change the value quickly.

Click on the small down arrow 5 or 6 times. You will see the image in the workspace get smaller.

Now go to the workspace and grab one corner point. When you do this you can make the box (not the image) bigger or smaller. You can even rotate the box. Make the box smaller ... about 1/4 of the full image size.

You will notice in the PREVIEW window (not in the pan/crop box .. but in the vegas window) that you have zoomed in to just a part of the image.

Now place your cursor in the (now smaller sized) box .. you should get a 4 way arrow cursor. Click and drag the box over to the left side of the image.

Now go down to the bottom of the pan/crop window .. to the POSITION timeline. Put your mouse cursor over the slider control .. it will be at the extreeme left side .. right at the 00:00:00:00 time. Move it around until you get a left-right arrow .. then drag the indicator to the (for instance) half way point on your timeline (I assume you previously stretched out your image on the main Vegas timeline so that it shows up for an extended time .. like 5 or 10 seconds)

Now go back up to the workspace and drag the box to the right side of the image. When you do this you automatically create a KEYFRAME at that cursor position (the keyframe looks like a square diamond on it's point)

Now move the cursor to the extreme right side of the timeline.

Go up to the workspace and expand the box to the full image size. This will, again, create a keyframe.

To see the animation you can drag the cursor left and right on the timelline and you will see the box move across your image. If you quit the pan-crop box the movement will be saved to the main Vegas timeline.

This particular animation will start zoomed in on the left side of the image .. pan to the right side .. then zoom out to show the entire image. If you wanted to pause at, for instance, the right side before zooming out .. all you need to do is create an extra keyframe on the timeline without moving the crop box.

Of course you can zoom in-out or place the box anywhere on the image .. this was just to get you to see the possiblities. You can add or delete keyframes .. or even move them left and right on the timeline to get the effect you seek.

I really appreciate your help. I tried it and got kind of lost half way through. I will try it again (uugh).

But seriously, this is the *complicated* part I was talking about. I understand that highly configurable programs are usually more complex (seriously, I AM a Unix systems administrator) but this seems crazy for an very well known effect. It should be a Video Effect. I found the checkbox in iMovie & iPhoto to automatically "Enable the Ken Burns Effect". THAT is very nice.

Now once I get this down - assuming I want to use this effect for several photos (this is a 35 minute video!) I am assuming I can save and re-use this effect I am creating somehow. If I had to do this to every image, well...........

You are quite right. I myself am a fan of Vegas, but for stuff like this, I rely on Roxio Wave Editor, which came with my blu-ray dvd burner. Roxio has a neat feature called 'Cinemagic': just throw in still images, choose an edit theme (eg romance (=slow) or sports (fast)) and hit render. Then a slideshow with Ken Burns effects will automatically be rendered. You can even tell the program to zoom in on faces/eyes.
Vegas is brilliant on many levels, but here and there, it lacks the obvious.

I tried it again and even varied a few things each time in case I was interpreting wrong but it's still not working. Here is where I may be getting confused.

After going down to the POSITION timeline you say "Put your mouse cursor over the slider control .. then drag the indicator to the (for instance) half way point on your timeline)"

Ok. I know how to get a left-right arrow on this slider control. You can get it by putting your mouse over the 3 vertical lines on either the left or right end of the slider. So as per your instructions I put the mouse over the slider on the LEFT-END until I get the left-right arrow, then I pull the slider (which looks like its shrinking) to the right until about the middle. I think I got that right.

Next you say to now drag the box in the workspace to the right. Ok, I go up and grab the box that I previously dragged to the left-side of my picture, and I drag it over the picture to the right side of the picture. Seems easy enough.

Next you say "Now move the cursor to the extreme right side of the timeline." Here is where I wasn't sure but I tried it different ways to see if I could figure it out. I went to the POSITION box again and tried moving the curser to the right (but not when my mouse was a left-right arrow). I also tried going to the curser and putting my mouse over the left or right ends until I got the left-right arrow THEN dragged it. Which one did you mean that I should do?

Next you say "Go up to the workspace and expand the box to the full image size. This will, again, create a keyframe." But right now the box is still on the right side of my picture where I dragged it before. Did you mean I should drag it to the middle first then expand it again? (I'm sure this will all seem so simple to me AFTER I know how to do it ;)

To try to see the changes I simply put my cursor on the timeline right before that picture and hit the play button at the bottom to watch it play - but each time there has been no panning.

Watch this sony tutorial: LINK

Ok. I know how to get a left-right arrow on this slider control. You can get it by putting your mouse over the 3 vertical lines on either the left or right end of the slider. So as per your instructions I put the mouse over the slider on the LEFT-END until I get the left-right arrow, then I pull the slider (which looks like its shrinking) to the right until about the middle. I think I got that right.

No .. that's not where I want you to go. Close, but not the right spot. Go to the left side where you were .. and then move your cursor UP until it turns into a HAND .. then move it slowly to the left .. until it turns into a left/right arrow.

Next you say "Now move the cursor to the extreme right side of the timeline." Here is where I wasn't sure but I tried it different ways to see if I could figure it out.

The cursor is what you just moved on the TOP part of this timeline. It is on the SAME level as the numbers are. (it will cover up parts of the numbers if placed in front of them)

Next you say "Go up to the workspace and expand the box to the full image size. This will, again, create a keyframe." But right now the box is still on the right side of my picture where I dragged it before. Did you mean I should drag it to the middle first then expand it again?

You can do it that way ... OR .. you can grab one corner first and expand it until it is about the same size .. then drag it over .. then adjust it to fix exactly .. it works either way.

This is hard for us to explain to you via text. If you could see it done it will be easier (I'm helping a friend who doesn't know much about computers .. not with Vegas .. and I gave up trying to talk him thru it over the phone .. it's very hard for me to visualize what he is describing .. and it's hard for him to do what I tell him to do because he can easily misunderstand what I say .. so I installed a remote viewer program . and now I can just see what he sees .. AND .. actually control his mouse remotely .. and actually SHOW HIM what to do)

Did you try viewing the link that was given?