Newbie Q: black bars around odd-shaped photos

Doug_Marshall wrote on 12/22/2009, 10:43 AM

Hi everyone,
I've made simple videos before with Vegas and done lots of audio editing, but just started fiddling with keyframes to create movement with still photos. That's no problem, but many photos are tall or wide and don't match the aspect ratio of the screen. If I have a tall photo, for example, how do I get Vegas to zoom/crop/pan (whatever term) so that the output fills the screen - no black bars when I'm zoomed in - without messing up the aspect ratio of the photo?

Here's a scenario: tall photo; initially show the whole thing (black bars on the sides, so be it); zoom in to an area near the bottom while, at the same time, the photo grows to fill the width of the screen so the black bars disappear.

I assume there has to be a way to do this, but it eludes me. Thanks for all help.

Doug M.

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 12/22/2009, 10:53 AM

In Pan/Crop right-mouse-button click inside the cropping frame and choose "Match Output Aspect". After that you can resize and move the frame all you wish, as long as you don't change the aspect of it. Making sure the 'lock aspect ratio' button on the left edge is activated helps a lot.

Terry Esslinger wrote on 12/22/2009, 11:00 AM

Open an event pan/crop. Right click in the work space and select 'match output aspect'.

JackW wrote on 12/22/2009, 11:39 AM

Another "solution," more aesthetic than technical, is to reduce the size of the picture slightly (in pan/crop) so there is black all around it. Then insert generated color below the picture, creating the effect of a matted photo. This is useful when matching the output aspect crops important detail (like the top of someone's head) from the picture.

You can use the eye-dropper tool in the generated media control panel to match a predominate or perhaps a contrasting color in the photo to use as the "mat" color too, so the mat isn't necessarily black.

Jack

Doug_Marshall wrote on 12/22/2009, 1:23 PM

Thanks guys, for all your help. Problem resolved!