Hi
@Jack S
Point 1
lol, well, since you asked
why, for efficiency, functionality, simplicity of the action.

i am new at this at VP18 and video editing as a hole, but after spending alot of time using the pan and crop function window, i found some annoying things about it that i would changed if i could changed them.  I am stuck hand tracking, frame by painful frame, an un-usable 6mins of pieces of footage that i shot with my Canon T3i years ago, zoom lens at max, out 100+m away, so tons of movement. its the only footage!   lol, plus i thought it was a good lesson, but while doing all this hand tracking i found a lot of wasted back and forth mouse action.

you select your first target location you want to stabilize around, then down you go click on the timeline, where you want the timeline frame cursor to be, click. you then move the cursor back up and click and move the pan and crop frame to your select location, then back move down to the timeline again click. then move back up and click screen and move again, and down repeat! even if you do it near the the bottom of the screen, there is a lot of wasted movement, thus wasted time doing this.

i asked "is there a keyboard short cut for the horizontal slide bar beneath the pan and corp time line?
answer was no.
i did fine out however that the timeline itself does moves thou, only if you grab and drag it back and forward, no keys options.
 the timeline cursor moves via the arrow keys along the timeline and zoomed you in and out the timeline.

if you use the keys:
on the pan&crop frame window, the keys only move the frame around image, up, down, left and right, great for fine tuning.
on the timeline, thee keys moves the cursor left,right or zoom in and out.
when zoomed in, the cursor wanders off one frame at a time to the either side of the screen left or right using the key.  which you then have to drag it back to the middle bottom of the screen to save chasing it down and mouse movement, which is or should be my center of focus on the screen, where my work is.

when the timeline is zoomed in, i think the timeline cursor should remain anchored in the middle of the screen on the timeline at the bottom, the timeline itself should then move under the timeline cursor a frame at a time

i would like to keep my eyes and mouse cursor on the pan & crop screen near my selected stabilize location, and use the left or right arrow keys to advance the timeline one frame at a time, the only reason i want to move the mouse cursor, is to line up the frame location over my image. but you cant! it would make it easier and faster if their was an option to do so

also other things i noticed
with the pan and crop move tool, make the mouse icon change to show what you have selected from the left hand menu, move X- left & right arrows, move Y-up & down arrows, and leave the omni directional arrows icon as is. right how whatever you pick, the mouse cursor always remains on the omni directional arrow icon.

have the mouse wheel zoom function in the pan&crop window zoom in to the current mouse cursor location, instead zooming straight in.

 not needing to zoom out, to drag the area you want with the hand pan tool from outside the {F} frame circle to where you want it (or close) when you do zoom back in. would be nice

a way to move around the image within the {F}frame area without zooming out beyond the circle and back in to do so, a keyboard hand pan tool, mouse button, or something)

Point 2 - The dot represents the centre of rotation if you rotate the frame. Drag it away, and the centre of rotation moves with it.

cool, any help docs or videos? i will have to play with that

Point 3 - Search for 'interpolation curve' in Help awesome!

Thanks for the info
Drew
 

@Drew-Morris

Unless you are already well-skilled at Photoshop, the Pan/Crop window and controls are difficult to figure out on your own, and even experienced editors need to review certain basics from time to time. First, I suggest learning the Track Motion controls and "graduating" to pan/crop when you are ready.

The two things you need the most to master this are a couple of good tutorials and lots of practice.

Start with the Andrew Davis tutorials #32-35 HERE.

Links to an index of tutorial sites for almost everything under the sun are here:

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/got-questions-consult-the-tutorials-first-please--120282/

It will be helpful to you, as well as the developers, if you learn the pan/crop functions thoroughly as they are implemented before embarking on feature requests. That way, we will all be better informed, and you you may find that some things are more intuitive than they seemed at first blush.

The lack of autoscroll on the keyframe line doesn't affect my workflow. If I click on the horizontal scrollbar first, the L/R arrows move its position quickly. I find the mouse scroll wheel very handy for zooming and locating my cursor and repositioning keyframes. The keyframe cursor merely mirrors your timeline cursor, but repositioning it by hand adds extra keyframes in Sync Cursor mode, so I don't do that.

Above all, practice and make lots of good mistakes! Check back if you get stuck; pan/crop is an acquired skillset.

HI Musicvid

i use PS but no expert by any means. the pan/crop was easy enough to figure out for the most part (other then the center dot, my mistake thou! didnt play enough it seems) lots of vids on that pan and crop out there, so far lolo none mentioned the center dot in them thou, but still lots to learn. still far away from being a expert (lol, like i'm going to be one.) but it is different from the MSP 16&17, it has masking with it, which i haven't gotten to yet. but need to soon since most everything has to do with Mask/matte layers

oh i am into the new VP18 Motion tracking (seen the Track Motion controls in the menu, but haven't gotten into it) as well, but it wasn't doing the job with this jumpy footage i playing with(might just be me not knowing, but that's another story)

Thanks for the Links! i run through them

i haven't seen AD's videos yet but i been thru a lot of videos thou on Vegas, youtube, and whatever other sites have them posted. lots video and reading. Zzzz, the reading puts me to sleep thou, so i am slowly getting thru it thou between naps


"The lack of autoscroll on the keyframe line" i am talking about the timeline,not the keyframe line. is it not called a timeline" or is there a timeline and keyframe line just below it?" i was wondering, the docs refer more to keyframes then a timelines

ok
"The keyframe cursor merely mirrors your timeline cursor",(yes thats a given), but What this? "but repositioning it by hand adds extra keyframes in Sync Cursor mode, so I don't do that." you can only add one keyframe on the keyframe line (below the timeline), so, i am not adding any extra keyframes, {the diamonds?} doing so (lol that i know of!) i have only one keyframe for each frame on the keyframe line
i might be able to do a screen capture of what i doing, lol i will have to learn how to actually, haven't done that yet either, havent need to yet.

i will do my thing and record it and show you what my beef is/was about, turns out it 10min of jumpy video, i am halfway and at 30frames per mins, so lots of practice. i dump in on youtube and send you a link, it will be unpublished.

Thanks for your Input and Time!
Drew