Zoom & rotate not smooth! What am I doing wrong?

Jay Gladwell wrote on 3/9/2004, 6:39 PM
I have a still image that I'm trying to zoom in on. After a couple of seconds into the zoom, I want the image to begin to rotate as the zoom continues. However, as I key frame this, when it reaches the point that the rotation is to begin, there is slight pause. I'd the zoom and rotate to be one fluid motion. I've tried this with both Track Motion and Pan/Crop. Both are giving me the same results. Have also tried adjusting the keyframe points with "Smooth," "Slow," "Linear," etc. No go!

What have I over looked?

J--

Comments

jetdv wrote on 3/9/2004, 7:03 PM
What if you USE both Pan/Crop and Track Motion? Use Pan/Crop to zoom in and Track Motion to rotate?

Or maybe do the zoom in, render, and then do the rotate on the rendered file?

Otherwise, you're going to have to really mess with the keyframes. For example, add a first keyframe and then, way farther down the line, add the second keyframe for the zoom. Now back up a short distance and add another keyfram to adjust the rotation. Of course, you now will need to adjust the second zoom keyframe to be the proper rotation.
farss wrote on 3/9/2004, 7:11 PM
Have you tried setting 'smoothness' to zero?
Jessariah67 wrote on 3/9/2004, 7:17 PM
Smoothness to zero should correct this problem.
Jay Gladwell wrote on 3/9/2004, 7:23 PM
Jetdv, I tried both and you're right it is messy. But even more odd is that the zoom becomes accelerated.

Farss, yes I had the smoothness set at 0 as you suggested.

J--
Jay Gladwell wrote on 3/9/2004, 7:43 PM
It's a bit smoother once it's rendered, but there is still a brief pause in the zoom just before it begins to rotate. Very frustrating!

J--
BillyBoy wrote on 3/9/2004, 7:44 PM
You can rotate zoom and pan all in one motion. The key is setting key frames. Most use TOO MANY or don't know how to place them. It takes a little practice. Once you have keyframes on the key frame controller timeline you can click and drag the diamond markers into positoin or nudge them.
Jay Gladwell wrote on 3/9/2004, 7:50 PM
BB, I went back and did it all in Pan/Crop. I only have a total of 4 keyframes in the timeline:

1. at the beginning, first frame;
2. frame 03:00 (zoom begins);
3. frame 05:00 (rotation begins as zoom continues);
4. end frame 12:00, zoom and rotation complete.

J--

BillyBoy wrote on 3/9/2004, 8:11 PM
Is it smoother now?
Jay Gladwell wrote on 3/10/2004, 4:56 AM
BB, see post below.

J--
Grazie wrote on 3/10/2004, 5:59 AM
" . .zoom becomes accelerated." . .well this is very intresting . . it's math- Thang! . .It's most likely to do with the inverse square principal. The actual zoom isn't accelerating, in actual fact the zoom is constant. The "area" which you are viewing is becoming "samller" on the actual squared area. You can see this when ever you see an object's eye view of falling to Earth. Earth appears to be rushing or accelerating up to the object - I'm not speaking of the terminal velocity thing here either. I've seen this with the descent of a parachutist . .from their point of view they appear to be "rushing" towards Earth. I suppose to get away from this acceleration "effect" one would need to "deccelerate" by an equivalent AND constantly altering amount. Hey guys .. help me out here! My Calculus is very very rusty .. and I REALLY don't wanna go back to first principles of dy/dx . .etc etc etc . . . to hget this across . .

Grazie
JJKizak wrote on 3/10/2004, 5:59 AM
VideoCurmudgeon:
You have to "bracket" the keyframes where the zoom makes the change. Actually its a piece of cake. Just before the first zoom ends put one keyframe and just after the other zoom starts add another. Set them to smooth ---I think its smooth as its been a while--. The width of the bracket dtermines how things look.

JJk
Grazie wrote on 3/10/2004, 6:20 AM
JJ . . this must be where the math comes in . . hmmm... Grazie
Jay Gladwell wrote on 3/10/2004, 6:57 AM
To everyone--

Thank you for your input and your time! Grazie, you force me to expose my ignorance... the mathematical concepts you shared are beyond me (that's why I majored in art!).

Although I don't think this is perfect, but what I wound up doing was this:

First, I did the zoom alone, using the Pan/Crop tool and rendered it to an .avi file.

Second, I took that file and did the rotation, again, using the Pan/Crop tool. The first key frame was set to "slow" in an order that the rotation's start would not be too sudden. That seemed to work. Afterward, there were keyframes set about every 2 seconds to keep the corners of the frame from going beyond the edges of the frame into the black. These keyframes were set to linear in hopes of keeping the motion constant. It appears to have worked.

If you're at all interested in seeing the results, go to

Thanks again, guys, for your help!

J--
jetdv wrote on 3/10/2004, 8:41 AM
I think it turned out nice!
Galeng wrote on 3/10/2004, 9:11 AM

Wow! Great job! You given me some ideas on a project I am working on!!
Thanks.

Galen