I am at the pan crop fx, but I cannot seem to get the effect I am going for. When I use the pan crop i keep losing the center of what i want---i end up with one side or the other of the video---what am i doing wrong?

thanks,

fleeper

Remember that Pan and Crop works "backwards". Think of it this way, the picture remains static and you are moving the screen around it.

I can get the picture smaller or 1/2 my screen size, but I end up with black on the right and left---I need my video jsutified to one side so I can do the same thing with the other video to the other side.

I am missing something here----so darn close and yet....well you know the rest.

Fleeper

Note that in the Pan/Crop screen there are buttons on the left to control certain things such as whether you're free to be able to move the image in all directions. You may need to mess with these to be able to do exactly what you want. I found Pan/Crop a little tricky at first but with a little practice it becomes almost automatic. It's very powerful - some things I've done that look the biz wouldn't have been possible without P/C (for example, zooming out from an extreme close-up while simultaneously rotating 180 degrees clockwise - it's simple tools like these that give you the power to create really pro-looking video).

There is a limitation to Pan/Crop that you cannot crop and pan at the same time. It just simply cannot be done. You can have the picture fill the frame or be smaller than the frame and move the dashed frame line around to pan. However, as soon as you try to make the image larger than the frame line (or make the frame line smaller than the image) you can no longer pan and the image will sit in the middle of the output frame.

Another annoyance of Pan/Crop is that if you change the frame line to be a different shape than the image it effective masks the image to the largest size rectangle of that shape that will fit within the image. Moving the frame outside that rectangle shows black rather than the image that exists there. I still have yet to think of any useful reason why this happens.

In the full version of Vegas the method for doing this is to use Pan/Crop to make the image the right shape to fit in the part of the screen where you want to display it and then use Track Motion to move it to the right spot in the output frame. Does Vegas Studio 6 have Track Motion?

An alternative if you want to go through the effort and don't have Track Motion is to simulate it by first cropping your video to the right shape and rendering to an output file of that shape. For example, to fill half the width of the screen you would render to a 360x480 file instead of 720x480. You can then bring this new file in and use Pan/Crop without cropping (since the cropping has already been done) to position it on one side of the screen. When you open the Pan/Crop window on this new file you'll have to set it's shape to 720x480 or you'll still suffer the black areas problem. It's a little more work, but it gives you all the control you need.

Anyone know how to move the vidoe to one side? I still have it just in the middle. I need it on one side so I can overlay the other video to the other side.

Thanks,

fleeper

fleeper, read my post just above yours.

If you were going for 4 smaller images, each the full frame of the original file, it would be trivial because you wouldn't be cropping. You can't combine cropping and moving in a single operation.

Okay, lets say you have two clips, "A" and "B".

If you want "A" and "B" to each show in their entirety, but just be shrunk down so they can both fit on the screen at the same time, you should be able to do it with pan/crop alone. (But see below if you need to zoom in on each clip...)

Put "A" on a video track and put "B" on another track directly above or below it. Activate the pan/crop tool on "A". Drag the corners or edges of the "fame" dotted line outward, so that the frame outline is much bigger than the video image. (Use the scroll wheel on your mouse to zoom the whole window out.) This effectively "shrinks" your video image in the rendered output. You should be able to see the results in your preview window.

Now to move your video to one side, move your cursor anywhere inside the frame outline and the cursor changes to a couple of crossed arrow lines. Simply click inside the frame and drag it (or click inside once, then use the arrow keys) to move the frame in the opposite direction that you want your clip to appear. That is, if you want "A" to be in the left half, then drag the frame to the right.

Repeat these operations for the "B" clip, but move it to the right side by dragging its pan crop frame to the left.

As others have noted before, the pan/crop stuff seems really backwards at first, but you get used to it (kind of).

Now, as Chienworks is saying, if you need to both zoom in on your clip and shrink it down so you can fit two different clips on the screen, you'll need to use both pan-crop and track motion. (VMS 6 does have track motion, but only 2D - not 3D.)

In this case, activate the pan/crop tool but use it to zoom in on your subject. Drag the corners or edges to control the amount you zoom, and drag inside the frame to position it. (While we're at it, note that dragging outside the frame results in rotating your image.)

Anyway, zoom in just how you want it using pan crop, then activate track motion to shrink it and position it. Look at the names of your video tracks: the default names are Text, Video Overlay, Video, etc. Just to the right of the track name is an icon that looks like a small white rectangle with a tiny arrow in it, with a small blue rectangle in front of it. This activates track motion for this track.

Now, track motion is controlled just the opposite of how pan crop works. The solid frame outline, with its own X-Y "L" reference, represents your video image. Grab any corner of the frame and drag it to resize your video (by watching the preview window). In this case, drag it smaller to make your image smaller. Now click inside the frame and drag it to wherever you want your image to appear in the rendered output, again, by watching the preview window.

Now the one thing that might mess you up here are keyframes, which are very, very useful things, but which might cause problems if you don't understand them. However, its well past midnight for me, and I have to work tomorrow, so I need to stop here for now.

I hope this helps.

Tim L

Tim,

I have part of what you are saying, but, when I use the scroll mouse to zoom out, it does not zoom out---it starts turning my video instead--it is like it is turning it upside down. Do I need to hold a certain key down or turn something off so that I am able to do this?

Thanks again for the patience,

fleeper

Tim i got it---thanks a ton for the help and patience.

Fleeper