Video Studio Pro X3 aspect ratio question

[deathvalleydog]

OK, I'm having a difficult time dialing in how to adjust the aspect ration of my video. I'm sure this is easy to do, but I'm

Some of the clips I'm inserting are wide, and some are standard TV size. I did the "Fit to Sceen Size in Overlay Track" but how do I change what that final sceen size is? I'd like to be able to either make my project wide and have the TV size clips automatically stretch to fit, or make it TV size (is that 720x480?) and have the wide clips squish to fit.

Not sure which way I'm going to go yet, but is there a way to make the clips automatically do either in the window/final product?

The second question: As some of the clips are playing, I'd like to slowly zoom-in. Is that possible to do?

As always, thanks for helping me out with my silly noobie questions...

~Dan

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Dan

Your project properties need to reflect 16:9 widescreen

Any 4:3 video can be stretched to 16:9 shape, you will lose some detail top and bottom.

From the top track choose the Distort Clip option, from the panel t the right “attributes”

Right click the preview screen and select fit to screen, repeat and select Keep Aspect ratio.

Viewing my Quick Guide to Widescreen 16:9 may help

done with VS 10 is still relevant to later versions.

Zoom-In use the Video Zoom filter from FX library, drag to clip and customise

[deathvalleydog]

Thanks Trevor. Your Quick Guide to Widescreen was helpful.

But I must still be doing somthing wrong: When I right-click on the preview screen I get options to do what you said, but the 4:3 image only changes very slightly...it doesn't stretch left and right to fill the wide screen when I choose "fit to screen".

What am I doing wrong?

Also: Why isn't the "Distort Clip" option available for overlay tracks? I'm essentially doing my entire project in the overlay tracks because it has to sync to music very precisely, so I can't have all the clips shifting when I make a change to one of them.

~Dan

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Dan

From your reply I suspect your video file.

Some widescreen video files are created by adding a black border to the 4:3.
We have to identify your video file.

First Right click the clip in the timeline/library and select properties what are they.?
Do this for all types…….

If you watched my Guide you would have changed the background colour to anything but black
This identifies the actual frame within the preview screen.

Now add a clip to the overlay track, it will view as a smaller frame within the screen, does the clip show any black borders?
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With the clip in the overlay track the distort function is already active. So you will be able to resize the video frame. If the video clip contains black borders then you can re-size using the yellow square resize objects.

You will be stretching the video quite a lot and this will reflect the quality.
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Yes you can apply the resize to other clips……..
Resize the first clip, right click and select Copy Attributes---Select the other clips, right click to select Paste Attributes
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A lot going on here we need to identify just what your video frame looks like………..

[deathvalleydog]

A ha...you are absolutely correct ---- The original video had the black borders to begin with. Changing the background is a great trick to making that identification.

One last bothersome noobie question: I'm trying to get my last clip to simply fade to black. Any easy way to do that without creating a solid black clip and cross fading into it?

~Dan

[Ken Berry]

There is already a black panel (and other colours) available in the program to drag and drop into the timeline. It can be found in the icon that looks like an rectangle with a stylised flower on it, second bottom to the immediate right of the preview screen. Then simply insert a cross fade or fade to black transition.

With X4, though, you can actually insert the fade to black transition at the end without a colour panel. But of course it has to overlap with the last frames of the final clip.

[JuanJohnson]

I am having similarly problem with VideoStudio Pro X3 aspect ratio. When I rendered videos and take a snapshot or a picture, it shows two vertical dark color bars. The video frame is 640 X 480. I used the Crop Borders filter. I selected Customize Filter, selected the Fix Overscan filter from New Blue options panel and applied the filter by clicking OK. The two dark vertical bars are still there. I believe I need to disable the aspect ratio (16:9) to prevent the dark edges from showing on the picture. I do not want to stretch the video. Is there an option in VideoStudio Pro X3 that would allow me to disable the aspect ratio?

Thank you for your help.

[JuanJohnson]

Thank you for replying to my question, Ken.

You said, "There is already a black panel (and other colours) available in the program to drag and drop into the timeline. It can be found in the icon that looks like an rectangle with a stylised flower on it, second bottom to the immediate right of the preview screen. Then simply insert a cross fade or fade to black transition."

I used the red color onto my video. Also, I added Crop Borders on top of the color. However, it did not work.

Do I just need to drag the a color onto my video?
After that , do I need to add Crop Borders on top of the color?

Thank you for your help.

[lata]

Hi

Taking a Screen Shot

there are two options to taking a screen shot, one from Project Playback.
this creates an Image using the Project Properties and takes the image as seen within the preview window, so if you see a title then that will be included.
this is probability the best option.

From Clip Playback the image will be taken from the actual video file, using the video files frame size.

To switch between playback modes simply click the words adjacent to the play button.

The results of the different methods really depends on the actual video file being used.

Right click your video file in the timeline and select properties, what are they.
What are your Project Properties?

[JuanJohnson]

I have no problem with screenshot. The problem is with dark edge video. I used the Crop Borders filter. I selected Customize Filter, selected the Fix Overscan filter from New Blue options panel and applied the filter by clicking OK. The two dark vertical bars are still there. I placed a color on the very fisrt video track, but it did not work.

What would be a way of getting rid of the black edge video?

If I need to use color, do I placed it on top of the video on the Video Track or on the Overlay Track?

Thank you in advance for your help.

[lata]

Hi

A little confusion as you mentioned taking a snapshot that created a black border.

Try using the Video Pan & Zoom filter, you should be able to zoom in to your frame removing the black border.

From Customise
Right click the first keyframe and select Copy and Paste to all

[JuanJohnson]

Thank you for responding to my questions, lata.
Drogged and droppped the Video Pan and Zoom filter onto my video. I clicked on Customize Filter and two windows appeared: Original and Preview. In the preview window, I can see two dark vertical bars. I could not find the first key frame. Does Video Pan and Zoom filter provides an option of the first key frame?

Thank you for your help.

[BrianCee]

when the customise filter window opens with the two windows there is a timeline which stretches right across the two of them - at the left hand end is a red diamond under the line - that is the first key frame when the little inverted triangle above the line is aligned with it you are at the first key frame - there is another red diamond at the right hand end, and sliding the cursor or playing the clip will allow you to align the triangle with the right hand one and you are then at the last key frame - you have the ability to add additional key frames and customising the crop at each one.