Hello all,
I have a problem with adding a picture in my time line that is sized 4:3 to display as a 16:9. When this happens I usually go to pan/crop and change the ratio to 16:9 which works fine, except that doing so usually will cut off the head of my subject and for whatever reason I cannot re position the picture in pan/crop without losing the 16:9 ratio. I've tried everything I could think of to no avail. What am I doing wrong or is it a limitation of Vegas Pro 2?
Thanks in advance,
No, it's a limitation of geometry.
4:3 and 16:9 are different shapes of rectangles.
You can:
Crop top and bottom and zoom (you can change the center so it doesn't chop heads )
Stretch the image horizontally
Change the screen aspect to 4:3
Have black bars, or fill them with an annoying background.
Those are the only options I've found in forty years in the industry.
There is one cheat I used to use with mixed aspect projects. Encode the 4:3 at 1.0 PAR, instead of .9091. it stretches a bit horizontally, reduces the width of the black bars, without making the subject look too squat. I did say it's a cheat.
Vegas Pro 2? Do you mean Vegas Video 2?
There's an upgrade special on VP16 that just started yesterday. Or, even a recent version of MS Platinum will open far more video formats than VV2, a legacy Sonic Foundry product.
When this happens I usually go to pan/crop and change the ratio to 16:9 which works fine, except that doing so usually will cut off the head of my subject and for whatever reason
Maybe it is better to check this option and use the pan/crop to choose what you want to see?
the classic "Pan and Scan" . Empirically adjusting such , easiest way using Track Motion . watch the digit boxes there , and Zoom( x and y )locked , until the width fills the 16:9 Viewer . The top\bottom are off screen . Now Pan Vertically to get the Center cut that you want . Yes , the entire image has been Zoomed . Thus things will look Larger . This "larger look" is also a side effect when converting 4:3 to 16:9 . The above assumes menu project-->properties is set to 1920 x 1080 with 1.0000 . double check the FPS setting too .
I have used , many different aspect ratios :
720 x 486 with 1.2000 gives perfect 16:9 ,... 720 x 486 with .9000 gives perfect 4:3
720 x 480 with 1.1852 gives perfect 16:9 ,... 720 x 480 with .8889 gives perfect 4:3
704 x 480 with 1.2121 gives perfect 16:9 ,... 704 x 480 with .9091 gives perfect 4:3
Video CD is 352 x 240 , then DVD was 4x resolution at 704 x 480 DV Tape too , I guess .
Vegas has always liked to use 704 x 480 with 1.2121 or .9091
the True DVD .ios spec is 720 x 486 with 1.2000 or .9000
some more stuff , I left out : some cameras , such as Cannon , take images such as 720 x 480 using Square pixels . this image is NOT meant to be viewed as a 4:3 image . It is meant to be viewed using Square pixels such as 720 x 480 1.0000 ( square ) as would be seen in Vegas media import properties . Right click on the image , and choose properties at the bottom of that long context menu . Thus , such an image has a Total Aspect that is half way between 4:3 and 16:9 , at 1.5
as with any 4:3 style DVD footage going into Vegas , make sure , be sure the Media Properties as Imported is using the proper\correct aspect ratio in the digit box . Vegas loves to use .9091 even when the source footage is 720 x 480 . However , .9091 is only appropriate for 704 x 480 source footage . Instead , manually set the source media aspect ratio digit box to .8889 . Then since going to 1920 x 1080 , set menu project-->properties settings to 1920 x 1080 with that aspect box using 1.0000 .
Going the other way , 16:9 converting to 4:3 . Requires a horizontal Pan , to get the needed center cut . WIth both left\right sides truncated to black . Rendering can be done at 4:3 to get a True 4:3 video result such as 1440 x 1080 or 720 x 480 . Or , a source of 1920 x 1080 with Black sides can be rendered out at 1920 x 1080 ,...the image then appearing as 4:3 .
In Vegas , watch those aspect ratio digit boxes . they occur in many places . Properties of the source media . in Project-->Properties menu . In the Render templates . Also , the digit boxes in "Track Motion" interact with the aspect ratio digit boxes . Certain "image aspect ratio" scenarios can be bone chilling at times , to get the perfect looking "aspect correct" image .
"Track Motion" dialogue Trap , that always gets me . When there , I may move the Play Head . Then when adjusting x y z ,...( that makes keyframes ) . which might go un-notice . Upon time line play back ,...What ? I need to go back into Track Motion dialogue and remove those junk keyframes , being careful to keep the ones that are actually needed .
IMO VP doesn't have any good tools that will correct Aspect Ratio issues on a Track-FX level or Output-FX level. So will other 'Aspect Ration' plugin like from NewBlue run into the same VP-internal problems. One would expect a 'remove letterbox' or 'remove pillar box' with a 'stretch to fit' option, which doesn't exist.
I've tried this when I was doing different version, including Instagram which is square, 1:1, see thread https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/vp16-248-new-crop-offers-no-answers-to-square-insta-formats--112581/
I'd say your best option apart from those mentioned in the thread above might be to create a choose preset in your pan/crop event fx. You then could selectively copy/paste across all other events. Beware the keyframes and lock.
Vegas 2 ?? If I recall correctly there was Vegas Audio 2.0. The video version at that time was just 'Vegas Video', which I never used. In any case, that was a long, long time ago... in computer years, the Neanderthal age.