Not stretching stills

SeaJohn wrote on 9/29/2004, 5:02 PM
How do I keep Vegas from stretching stills when I import them? e.g. I created a 100x100 square in Photoshop, saved it as a JPG, and when I put it on the time line Vegas stretches it to fill the screen vertically, keeping its proportions. I'm almost sure Vegas didn't do this previously, so I must have changed something.

I don't want to have to Pan/Crop back down to the size I need.

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 9/29/2004, 6:55 PM
In Pan/Crop, right click and then click on "Match Output Aspect."
jdas wrote on 9/29/2004, 6:58 PM
Right click the still,go to "switches" and uncheck (click)maintain aspect ratio. Does this work ?
SeaJohn wrote on 9/29/2004, 8:09 PM
Neither of these fixes the problem. Am I just dreaming that this used to work properly? It's nice for Vegas to automatically scale a large picture to fit the screen, but I don't necessarily want it to scale a small picture up.
johnmeyer wrote on 9/29/2004, 8:22 PM
but I don't necessarily want it to scale a small picture up

OK, in Pan/Crop, change the "Stretch to Fill Frame" setting.
SeaJohn wrote on 9/29/2004, 9:10 PM
No dice, Stretch to Fill Frame doesn't fix it.

Summary:
I drop a 100x100 JPEG on the timeline. In the preview window, it has been stretched (still square) so that the preview is full top to bottom.

Click Pan/Crop, it shows a width and height of 100. Changing neither Maintain Aspect Ratio nor Stretch to Fit fixes it. If I change the width and height to 720x480, THEN it looks like I want, with a small square in the middle of the screen. Change that keyframe back to Default, and it goes back to fullscreen.

So, I can create a Preset and use that to get things like I want, but it seems like there should be a setting somewhere which will keep Vegas from automatically scaling the thing up in the first place.
Spot|DSE wrote on 9/29/2004, 9:38 PM
Vegas is going to upsample any image to the project template size. If you want a 100 x 100 to stay at that size, create the image in a 655 x 480 image with a transparent background, or plan on using Track Motion to size the original 100 x 100 image where you want it to be and at what size you'd like it to be. Or create a 100 x 100 Project setting. Then you won't see it scaling up. (or down)
rmack350 wrote on 9/29/2004, 9:41 PM
Sorry but Vegas has always resized images to fit in the frame. It's annoying sometimes.

Rob Mack
SeaJohn wrote on 9/29/2004, 10:56 PM
I guess I was dreaming...

Thanks for the info.
Chienworks wrote on 9/30/2004, 2:42 AM
Vegas 3 used to do this right. Unchecking "Stretch to fill frame" would leave the image the original size. Early releases of Vegas 4 also did this correctly. Somewhere along the line Vegas lost this simple switch. Now with both the current releases of 4 and 5 you have to change the size in Pan/Crop to match the project size and set Stretch to fill frame to "Yes", which seems exactly backwards.

*shrug*
rmack350 wrote on 9/30/2004, 10:08 AM
I really don't remember Vegas allowing this in V3. Guess I'll have to go back and install it to look. I really thought that this had bugged me since day one.

Hmmm.

Rob Mack
johnmeyer wrote on 9/30/2004, 10:13 AM
I just created a 100x100 still image and tried it both 5.0b and 4.0d. Wow, this is really screwed up. However, I may have a workaround for you (skip to last paragraph for that).

In 4.0d, it is totally broken. Put the image on the timeline, go to Pan/Crop, and un-check "Stretch to Fill Frame." Now, right click on the pan crop area and select "Match Output Aspect." Then, right click again and select "Match Source Aspect." Then, right click and select "Match Output Aspect." Keep alternating, and watch the preview window. The image just keeps on shrinking and shrinking.

But hey, that's an old version. What happens in 5.0b?

If you do the same thing, the image gets "stuck" and no longer changes shape or size -- in fact it won't even go back to its original shape (probably a bug). However, if you import a picture with more resolution than 720x480 (I'm in NTSC land), do the same steps as I describe for 4.0d, then you get the same "creeping shrink."

The best I can come up with, which may let you use your images as they already exist, is the following (tested in 5.0b):

1. Put your 100x100 image on the timeline and open its pan/crop box.
2. Make sure both "Source" options are set to "Yes."
3. Make sure the "Lock Aspect" button (on the left toolbar in the pan/crop dialog) is NOT depressed (i.e., you do NOT want to lock aspect).
4. Right-click on the pan/crop image and select "Match Output Aspect."
5. In the "Position" section of the pan/crop, enter 720 for width, and 480 for Height (or whatever is appropriate for your project -- match your project properties).

This should give you what you want, I think.