VV5: Import Pictures

Valeo wrote on 6/20/2004, 6:04 AM
Hello,

I like to import several small pictures and place them on a Backgroud Picture which is in Project size.
How can I import Pictures to VV5 ? The Pictures should allways stay in the original resolution.
Of course, I could resize the Pictures after import. However, this is no solution....

Thank you for helping me.
Sincerely
Valeo

Comments

randy-stewart wrote on 6/20/2004, 9:57 AM
Valeo,
Not sure if this is what you mean but you can automate several of the steps you are taking by setting up a couple of options before importing the pictures. First, number the pictures by renaming them in the order you want them to appear. Bring them into your media bin. Go into options, preferences, and click on the editing tab. There you can set your still picture length (I use 8 seconds), set to automatically overlap stills, and set the transition length (I use 2 seconds) as the default. Makes for shorter works with a project. Now you can select multiple pictures and, if you have them numbered sequentially, you can drag them all up to the timeline collectively and they will be in order. Once you have the pictures on the timeline, you can do a track motion to size and position that line of pictures as needed. Use a separate track for each position of pictures so you don't have to keep repositioning every event with multiple smaller pictures. To summarize, lay your background pictures on one track with set lengths and lowered opacity, setup a different timeline for each position of smaller pictures with track motion, and then load the pictures you want at that position on that timeline using the same picture length as you did for the background picture. Should save time over doing each one individually. You could also do a picture-in-picture FX (called cookie cutter) to display your overlay pictures that will give you options for feathering the edges or showing different shapes of the picture. You can also key frame the overaly picture to show lots of special effects (pan crop, 3D movement, etc.). Options are endless. Hope this helps. I'm sure others have more ideas as well. Lots of ways to do things in Vegas.
Aloha,
Randy
taliesin wrote on 6/20/2004, 10:16 AM
The problem Valeo is pointing to is that imported pictures are strechted if they have a smaller height and width then PAL resolution. For example if you import a pic which is 120x170 into Vegas 5 then Vegas does stretch that pic to 407x576.

But what Valeo wants in this case is Vegas to keep the original size of 120x170 WITHOUT applying any enhancements AFTER import. Some kinds of preferences which disables Vegas from scaling the pic to fit PAL resolution on width or height.

In Vegas 4 this could be done by preparing a whole track, applying TrackMotion there and selecting both "Match Source Aspect" and "Match Output Aspect". If you place imported pics onto that track the pics do keep their original size. But this does not work in Vegas 5.

In Vegas 5 it seems there is no way at all to keep the original size of imported pics if them are smaller than PAL resolution.

Marco
B_JM wrote on 6/20/2004, 10:29 AM
i have wished for the same on occasion .. when doing collages and such - my pics are already the correct size and i do not want them resized ....

and having to "resize" them back to the original size is a pain when there are 100's each a different size ..

in those cases -- i will use another app - though it hasn't come up to much
Chienworks wrote on 6/20/2004, 2:58 PM
Here's what i've found in Vegas 5 (this was simpler in 4) ... Open up Pan/Crop, under "Position" enter the project frame size "Height" (480 for NTSC, 576 for PAL), expand "Source", set both "Maintain" and "Stretch to" to Yes. The image will now be displayed in it's actual size in the frame. Drag the "F" frame marker around to position the picture, remember that the movement is opposite (up for down, right for left, etc.)

I seem to recall that the "Stretch to" option worked the opposite way in Vegas 4.
taliesin wrote on 6/21/2004, 2:39 AM
Yes, I know this works with Pan/Crop. But this would mean adjusting each single Pics, if them have differing sizes. What we are looking for is a method to prepare adjusting only once before importing to then have no further adjustments to be done. Methods which work on single events are no help unfortunately. If this would work with TrackMotion it would be fine. But it doesn't in Vegas 5.

Marco
Jay Gladwell wrote on 6/21/2004, 3:51 AM
Why not simply create the photo collage in Photoshop and import that image into Vegas?

Jay
Chienworks wrote on 6/21/2004, 4:30 AM
Or, for that matter, don't bother pre-preparing the pictures before importing them into Vegas. Use Vegas' Pan/Crop as the only cropping step.
taliesin wrote on 6/21/2004, 10:29 AM
This is exactly what we want to avoid. We are aware of several ways to pre- or postprepare the single pics. But all these are workaround for something which worked pretty fine before in Vegas 4. Vegas 5 misses one function in the TrackMotion tool which would make this work much easier and faster.

Marco
jetdv wrote on 6/21/2004, 11:03 AM
Can't you just run the "Match Output Aspect" script that modifies that Pan/Crop setting? It would adjust them all in one step.
taliesin wrote on 6/21/2004, 11:26 AM
No, it does vice versa as what intended. But using Pan/Crop is no solution anyway because this means adjusting each single picture. What we are looking for is a way to adjust a whole Vegas project to be prepared to handle imported pics with each of it having a different size natively.
Say we have 25 pics needed in a Veggie. All of the pics are smaller than 720x576 (it's PAL here) and all of same are different in size. We want to preserve this small size because all the pics will be used as a PIP effect in Vegas and they have perfect size just as they are now.
So perfect it would be to have an option to simply import the pics as they are - without further adjustments to each single pics - place them onto the timeline and they would appear as PIP because of the small sizes.

The only way to manage this in Vegas 4 was to prepare one video track, applying Track Motion to it and using "Match Source Aspect" AND "Match Output Aspect". Only using both of this settins worked. And - if I am not wrong here - this was the only way at all to manage this in Vegas 4. Though this way was pretty fine. Once a track was prepared this way all the pics put onto this track was shown in original size. No further adjustments or pre-processings needed.
But this does not work in Vegas 5. There is no "Match Source Aspect" option no more. Instead there is a "Match Square Aspect" option but this does not the same as what "Match Source Aspect" did in Vegas 4.
So now in Vegas 5 - it seems there is no way at all to prepare a track to handle pics in the way desired.

Nevertheless - all your comments are very welcome. Sharing such infos are always helpful in many ways.

Marco
jetdv wrote on 6/21/2004, 11:36 AM
You COULD use Pan/Crop to achieve this effect and it COULD be scripted. It would take a modified version of that script but it could calculate the proper size to make the pictures remain at their original size.
logiquem wrote on 6/21/2004, 11:36 AM
I must also mention that this new Vegas behavior (automatic resize) sounds completly stupid to me. It worked so well in the past, why change this ?
taliesin wrote on 6/21/2004, 11:41 AM
Argh - I overread you mentioned the script, sorry. Wait - let me test what exactly the srcipt does. Maybe that's it ...

Marco
taliesin wrote on 6/21/2004, 11:46 AM
Mmh, the script does it vice versa. It enlarges the picture even more, makes it fill all the 720x576 frame instead of bringing it down to it's original (smaller size).
Having tried some ways with Pan/Crop I even doubt it is possible to do it with Pan/Crop if not manually set the sizes. "Match Output Aspect" is not the way to go.

Marco
taliesin wrote on 6/21/2004, 12:01 PM
Edward, the direction you were pointing to was very right!

Scripting can do it. But used in a different way. For PAL the need is to set width and height to 787x576 (to match the square pixel properties) in the Pan/Crop tool. Then applying Pan/Crop to each selected event.
Don't know if I am able to modify the existing script in this way but I will try.

Thanks for your help!

Marco
taliesin wrote on 6/21/2004, 12:26 PM
Now after Edward showed the way to go and I tried - but failed - to modify the existing "MatchAspect" script maybe somebody could help us with scripting. What we would need for that process is a script which affects all selected events, apply Pan/Crop onto them and set the value of width to 787 an the value of height to 576.
Would be great if somebody could do us a favour to make this script. I think it's not only us but also some other people who would appreciate this.

Maybe it's not the right place here so I gonna post this to the scripting forum too.

Marco
jetdv wrote on 6/21/2004, 1:57 PM
Marco, can you send me an e-mail? I'll try to help you out. However, I need a lot more information.
taliesin wrote on 6/21/2004, 2:32 PM
Sure.

Thanks!

Marco