I hope I do not say something wrong.
"Pan/Crop" is not a normal effect. It is more like a root effect to create the project properties. Maybe in the future we rename it "root". Please use the crop (VEGAS crop) effect for cropping.
I give you an idea what happens in both cases.
1 scenerio: photograph (3840x1920) --> tiny planet (3840x1920) --> pan/crop (1280x720) --> good rendering as a hack or work arround
2. scenerio: photograph (3840x1920) --> pan/crop (down scale to project resolution 1280x720 and for the full frame) --> tiny planet (something like 400x200 because of the zoom effect) --> poor rendering
The correct way for 360° would be to keep the resolution of the input video/photograph for the project settings and to change the resolution in the render process... like
3. (VEGAS) scenario: photograph (3840x1920) --> pan/crop (3840x1920 project settings) --> tiny planet (3840x1920, zooming area) --> rendering with 1280x720 resolution
In the 3 scenerio everything is working without poor quality. Please keep evertime in mind that the input is 3840x1920. The preview in 360° only shows a zooming area. The root effect (pan/crop) needs to have the same resolution (project setting resolution) but after the planar transformation (tiny planet) you can use a different resolution for the rendering.
AND... NEVER CHANGE THE ORDER OF PAN/CROP
Does this help to clear your mind? :D
"3. (VEGAS) scenario: photograph (3840x1920) --> pan/crop (3840x1920 project settings) --> tiny planet (3840x1920, zooming area) --> rendering with 1280x720 resolution"
But in the moment rendering to 1280x720 starts, the project properties will automatically be set to 1280x720 even if it was set to 3840x1920 before.
This does not work. The output quality of 3. will be the same as the output quality of 2.
The only solutions I found (except render a 3840x1920 intermediate before downsizing) is to either switch Pan/Crop and the FX or use the FX as Media FX (which in the end is same as the P/C switch in this particular case).
You are right. This is very interesting effect. I need a deeper look what happens.
I had a short team discussion about this. The renderer is changing the project resolution a the point the pan/crop effect is in the effect chain. I will add a bugfix to support the animation in the hack solution (scenerio 1.) for the next update and we will work on a bigger solution to support the expected 3. scenerio. Thanks.
Try Tiny Planet and with Z:2
then render at 1080p or 720p
"NEVER CHANGE THE ORDER OF PAN/CROP"
There are several FX which need Pan/Crop to be used after the FX. One example is "Smart Upscale" where even the manual/help file says it must be used before Pan/Crop (so you'd either set Pan/Crop after or use it as Media FX). Also several kind of compositings/masks would only work correctly when Pan/Crop is used after the FX pipeline, such as if an FX like "Light Rays" should affect the masked area only.
That Pan/Crop thingy is a great tool (including the option to use it before or after FX) but it burries some pitfalls, such like its editing window will always show the source frame which sometimes makes it hard to be used correctly.
Vegas 17
The problem is still the same. 😕
The zoom from the Z cursor in the Tiny Planet plug-in is poor and pixellised compared to the "switched Pan/Crop" result. Is too bad because is boring jumping between two tabs of effects.
And if I compare the result with the legacy software is even dramatic. I am talking about insta360 Studio 2019. The result coming from this small soft is so better. I have already asked to them to make a plugin for Vegas, indeed, they already provide a plugin for Adobe Premier. They just tell me that they give my feedback to their product manager.
I hope it will be improved in a next upgrade of Vegas. 👍
Vegas-Pan-Crop
Vegas-TinyPlanet-Z at 2.26
Insta360 Studio 2019