How to crop a photo within VS and then use in Pan and Zoom?

[tanguero]

Here's my scenario: I have a portrait photo that I want to use in an opening title for a 4:3 video.

I want to start by zooming in on a part of the photo and then zooming out till I get the entire photo on the left side of the screen (so I have one black bar on the right side of the screen--remember the photo is "portrait") into which I will then fade in a title.

Now I could do all this by double-clicking the photo, and customizing the Pan & Zoom setting on the "Photo" tab.

My only problem is this: The original photo has a white border all around, so when I zoom out all the way, the white border remains between the part of the photo that I want, and the black area on the right into which my title will appear.

So what I really need to do is to Crop the photo (to remove the white border) and have the Pan & Zoom apply on top of the already-cropped photo.

Needless to say, in less time than it took to write this post, I could have used an image editor to crop out the white border and worked with the cropped photo in VS. But in keeping with the philosophy of not touching my source material and having all the editing be non-destructive (but mostly as an educational exercise), I'd like to figure out how to do it within VS.

If I use the Cropping FX, it always seems to apply AFTER the Pan & Zoom, and I want the opposite. Same with Customize Motion (which in addition doesn't let me zoom out to get all the portrait photo in).

[BrianCee]

Surely the quickest and simplest way is to make a copy of your image - crop the white from that - and use that in your VideoStudio project

Your original remains untouched and you have completed the task in no time at all.

no good making rules for yourself if they make life difficult for you - personal rules should make your life easier

In the UK we call that "making a rod for your own back"

[asik1]

tangu you can crop and save the VSP, and load it into another.