New Feature Request: Better Still Image Handling

Craig-Stern wrote on 4/30/2020, 2:22 PM

I just updated an hour or so ago to Vegas Platinum 17 from the now-ancient Vegas Movie Studio HD 11. There are a lot of welcome improvements here, but I was quite surprised to see that the program still handles the positioning, scaling, and rotation of still images via the same old Pan/Crop event! It's a handy tool, but it's more awkward than it needs to be for a lot of things.

In particular, I would very much like to have a Location tool comparable to the one already present in the Video Media Generator for easier positioning of still images in the frame, with the ability to drag-and-drop in the viewport during editing. It would also be fantastic if we could have the ability to freely rotate and scale text and images in the the viewport in the way that Filmora 9.2 permits.

Thanks for reading!

Comments

Craig-Stern wrote on 4/30/2020, 4:06 PM

So...you combine two different events with an effects plugin in order to achieve that functionality?

Let's put it this way: being able to size and position elements onscreen is a fundamental enough bit of functionality that you probably don't want to gate it behind a combination of two particular events and an effect all used in concert--not when the program contains literally dozens of said events and effects! The odds of the average user stumbling onto the right combo is low--and if your software's big selling point is its ease of use, well, that's not the sort of situation you you should want. Just my opinion.

Craig-Stern wrote on 4/30/2020, 5:29 PM

Your opinion does not interest me

Then maybe don't comment on my thread? I'm sure there are plenty of other places for you to go be rude.

Malix82 wrote on 4/30/2020, 5:31 PM

the picture-in-picture effect does pretty much what you described, apart from rotations.

I would welcome a some rotate features to pip.

 

FayFen wrote on 5/1/2020, 1:23 AM

Craig-Stern don't worry, VMS has a fair share of annoyances that will not get fixed .

EricLNZ wrote on 5/1/2020, 6:27 AM

There appears to be some posts missing in this thread?

@Craig-Stern You Mentioned "Location tool comparable to the one already present in the Video Media Generator". What are you referring to as I cannot any such tool.

vkmast wrote on 5/1/2020, 6:32 AM

Yes, some comments seem to have been reconsidered and deleted.

3POINT wrote on 5/1/2020, 6:58 AM

I just updated an hour or so ago to Vegas Platinum 17 from the now-ancient Vegas Movie Studio HD 11. There are a lot of welcome improvements here, but I was quite surprised to see that the program still handles the positioning, scaling, and rotation of still images via the same old Pan/Crop event! It's a handy tool, but it's more awkward than it needs to be for a lot of things.

Normally I use Trackmotion to achieve repositioning, scaling and rotation. Pan/crop I use for panning and cropping.

Last changed by 3POINT on 5/1/2020, 6:59 AM, changed a total of 1 times.

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j-v wrote on 5/1/2020, 8:10 AM

Yes, some comments seem to have been reconsidered and deleted.

That was me, but I followed this wish of the OP about his thread: "Then maybe don't comment on my thread?" 
@3POINT is telling the same as I did. 😉So nobody misses something.

Last changed by j-v on 5/1/2020, 8:11 AM, changed a total of 1 times.

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Craig-Stern wrote on 5/1/2020, 9:56 AM

There appears to be some posts missing in this thread?

@Craig-Stern You Mentioned "Location tool comparable to the one already present in the Video Media Generator". What are you referring to as I cannot any such tool.

It seems that such a Location tool does indeed already exist, specifically within Picture-in-Picture! I tried it out this morning and it works pretty well. So I'll amend my feature request to the following:

It's counterintuitive that PIP isn't immediately accessible from still image clips with a single click the way Pan/Crop is, given that PIP is a much more useful tool for working with still images than Pan/Crop is. Thus, my request is that you either (a) replace the Pan/Crop button with a PIP button on still image clips, or (b) add PIP as a separate button alongside Pan/Crop on still image clips.

EricLNZ wrote on 5/1/2020, 6:49 PM

But PIP doesn't have rotation. So it's only part of the solution.

Craig-Stern wrote on 5/1/2020, 9:08 PM

Yeah, you're right! I actually had to go and double-check that this was true--I found a video tutorial for VEGAS Pro 16 that clearly supports rotation in PIP as "Angle" (go to 1:52 in the video):

So they already have the feature in-program, it seems. Apparently they just...stripped it out for all the sub-Pro versions for some reason?

I don't pretend to know Magix's business better than they do, but image rotation is such a fundamental transformation that it seems a little silly to make it a "Pro" exclusive--a bit like a restaurant upcharging you to bring out a spoon alongside your knife and fork. (Especially since Filmora 9.2 offers this functionality in their free version.)

EricLNZ wrote on 5/1/2020, 11:37 PM

I agree.

3POINT wrote on 5/2/2020, 6:25 AM

It's counterintuitive that PIP isn't immediately accessible from still image clips with a single click the way Pan/Crop is, given that PIP is a much more useful tool for working with still images than Pan/Crop is. Thus, my request is that you either (a) replace the Pan/Crop button with a PIP button on still image clips, or (b) add PIP as a separate button alongside Pan/Crop on still image clips.

When you take a good look at the timeline of VMS, there is a special track just for PIP's, the PIPfx is added as trackfx to that track, so there is no need in my opinion to add an extra PIPfx button to each event or to replace the pan/crop tool button, which has a complete different functionality as the PIPfx.

I still prefer Trackmotion above the PIPfx, because Trackmotion has a snapping mode and the possibility to rotate.

vkmast wrote on 5/2/2020, 7:49 AM

In future, the users most likely still find that Movie Studio versions continue to be restricted versions of the considerably more expensive Pro, maybe even more so than currently. The opinions of what is fundamental will continue to differ.

Craig-Stern wrote on 5/2/2020, 9:12 AM

When you take a good look at the timeline of VMS, there is a special track just for PIP's, the PIPfx is added as trackfx to that track, so there is no need in my opinion to add an extra PIPfx button to each event

Yeah, I know about the PIP track. The argument for putting a PIP button on each still-image clip isn't a "need" argument, it's a usability argument. By way of analogy: suppose you're in an image editing program and you're working on an image with a lot of different vector objects. What is easier: having each vector object selectable and manipulable on its own layer, or having them all on the same layer and then having to pick them out by hand? From a usability perspective, the former approach is much, much better.