Custom Pan & Zoom problems

[Lorraine58]

Hi, I hope you can help.

I'm quite new to creating videos so please excuse my ignorance. I'm using my upgraded VS for making photo slide shows (with the odd iphone video slotted in between), however, I'm experiencing problems with the custom pan and zoom option. The yellow 'grab handles' on each corner of the moveable zoom area, completely disappear under the black edges surrounding the photo so I'm unable to move this around to the required zoom position. Before upgrading last month, I was on VS 2017 and didn't experience this problem; the 'handles were always visible on both the photo and the black surrounding area.

Is there a setting that I need to change somewhere?

Thank you so much for your help.

[lata]

Lorraine, and welcome to the forums

I do not have 2017 installed so cannot compare the P & Z but think I understand.
I do not think you are missing anything, just things have changed with the later versions,
Are you working with portrait images as landscapes would practically fill the screen and not such an issue.
We can move the zoom selection by dragging the center + , or using the Position anchor points.
The yellow handles are used to resize the zoom area other than using the Zoom Ratio slider, not particularly used to move the selection.
As I say I do understand and can be a little disconcerting when you are used to seeing the handles.
I do have 2021 installed and that shows the same, X 10 is an earlier zoom version with grey background, handles being visible.
I must admit that I have not noticed the missing handles and do believe this is unintentional, a bug.

[lata]

Lorraine.
There is a Video Pan and Zoom filter via the FX Adjust library

That shows the yellow handles against the black background

[Lorraine58]

Ahhh, thank you so much for your help.

I've just found the Adjust in the FX library and that works fine. As you say, the yellow handles are there to move and adjust the zoom area when using with portrait photos.

I really don't know what I'm doing (trial and error most of the time), so I appreciate your help.

Thanks again.

[lata]

Try using Customise Motion

right click a clip for Motion - Customise Motion

A little more involved but does more than just zoom in etc, worth the effort to get used to this tool.

[Davidk]

Lorraine,
Altho there is a P&Z facility in the Fx filters "adjust", the main way of using this feature is the pan and zoom icon in the main timeline toolbar: screenshot with a clip and image from the library to illustrate

In either case, use of the P&Z controls is the same.

You can select P&Z for any item in the TL or an overlay track. If it's in an OL track - as this case - the picture in picture effect in the preview window allows you to using the sizing handles to position and either enlarge or reduce the size of the PiP image. The TL tool bar P&Z icon is highlighted in the screenshot above

Clicking the P&Z icon for the selected clip, you get a control panel as follows, screenshot:

In this screenshot there are 2 panels: LH one is what you are working with, and the RH one is the result of any action. Below them are a number of controls, the main ones being highlighted in the image. These allow you to adjust the position (horizontal or vertical) and degree of zoom for each key frame you have included in the set: by default there are 2: start and finish, but you can add delete others as needed using the time marker (drag to position or an existing keyframe) and use the + or - buttons. So, discussing using these controls to a) zoom in to an image, and b) scan across an image.

a. zoom in.
click on the start key frame (KF) on the extreme left. The default zoom box is shown dotted in the LH pane and the result in the RH panel. Use the zoom control to reduce the degree of zoom to zero - ie drag the control fully left. The RH pane shows the image as it is in the vsp.
click on the finish KF, on the extreme right. Now adjust the zoom control for the degree of zoom you want (probably not much, its sensitive), and use the horizontal and vertical sliders to position the zoom box over the part of the original image you want to zoom in on. Done? click on the start KF, and then the play arrow to assess the result. Adjust as needed.

b. scan/pan across an image, L to R
click on the start KF, and adjust the zoom control to give the degree of zoom required. Note not 0, or there will not be any scope for panning, so to start, just leave the zoom control at default, but note what the setting is (the numbers). use the horizontal control to position the zoom box so it's LH edge is at the extreme left edge of the image.
Click on the finish KF, and us the horizontal control to position the edge of the zoom box so it's RH edge is at the extreme right edge of the image. Make sure you have the same zoom numbers, unless the effect you want also involves a zoom. Click on the start KF, and then the play arrow: the zoom box should scan/pan across the image.

Once you have the basics, you can adjust the controls to give any effect you want, like panning from R to L, top to bottom, or top left to bottom right.

[Lorraine58]

Thank you both, so much for your help again. I will give both a go and see how I get on (practice makes perfect, so they say) (or knowledge more than perfection, in my case) !! When I adjusted the zoom area with the older version (2017), it was so easy to pick out an FX icon, then click customise. The dotted line - with yellow corners - was in view all the time so I could control the zoom from going too much off the picture and the path for it to follow (more so for iphone portraits). Moving onto this new updated version, the box/yellow corners, were disappearing under the borders (after clicking customise) so I couldn't make the 'zoom box' smaller. Very frustrating. I was probably doing the whole process totally wrong anyway so I shall look at how to use the Customise Motion method (don't think I've tried that one before) and will also follow the great step-by-step (with pictures) instructions given above. I'm determined to conquer this silly problem ha ha.