pan & zoom in fX dialogue obscured by dissolve frames

Digipixel wrote on 2/4/2021, 3:21 PM

I'm trying to find a workable replacement for the now defunct but brilliant ProShow producer & have bought Photostory in the hope that this will see me through some new projects. BUT, it does seem like a minefield for users. There have clearly been a lot of talented programmers involved in making this, pity Magix didn't hire someone to write manuals & tutorials for anything beyond the most basic functions, it reminds me of 1990's fledgling software! Hope this forum can help make the program better.

So here's a question I'm hoping a superuser here has an answer for:

I'm creating a basic fade slideshow and want to edit the pan and zoom for the duration of each frame, but when I use the fx screen to edit, my in and out points show the previous and post frame at the beginning and end of the one I want to edit, so unless I remove the dissolve, I can't see the position and zoom of the individual frame timeline.

Seems illogical, am I missing something?

Cheers,

John

Comments

browj2 wrote on 2/4/2021, 6:06 PM

@Digipixel

Hi,

PhotoStory is the same as Movie Edit Pro but with less tools. Did you look at the tutorials on the Magix.com site? Under Tutorials at the top of this forum? Did you consult the manual?

By "fx screen to edit" I presume that you mean the "fx" tab in the Media Pool? There is no "fx screen." Could you please post screen shots of what you have and the effect that you're trying to use?

It sounds like you want to keyframe movement using Size & Position - panning & zooming or the Ken Burns effect. There is also Camera/zoom shot that was discussed at length in this forum. I'll try to find the thread.

Found it.

And another one.

John CB

Digipixel wrote on 2/7/2021, 2:47 AM

Hi John, thanks, I have Movie Studio which I occasionally dip in to but I'm a stills professional and want a usable program specifically for decent & easy fades, travel maps & captioning with as much help from the software so I can enjoy a life away from the screen! I've attached a screenshot of where I run in to difficulties - top is the 'timeline' from where I select the image I want to Ken Burns (dogs), red arrow shows the 'fx' button to go to the fx screen, middle shows the gentle zoom slope on the animation timeline modifiers, but the bottom screenshot shows what actually happens when I want to edit the start position of the dog frame - because it is crossfaded with the ostriches, they obscure the start position of the dog frame...

Please remember I don't particularly want to switch to a movie program, this is PhotoStory I'm trying to get to work...

Many thanks for taking timeout to help though!

John

browj2 wrote on 2/7/2021, 6:30 AM

@Digipixel

Hi John,

Oh, those on-screen effects. A picture's worth a 1000 words.

Those on-screen tools are fine, as is Storyboard mode, until you want to do anything the least bit complicated. Switch to Timeline mode, the under the fx tab, go to Size/Position. You'll see keyframes in the keyframe area. That is where you adjust, add, delete keyframes. If there is a transition, you'll see a vertical dashed bar near the beginning/end representing the overlap with the other object. The keyframes are the diamonds. Now you can edit properly.

PhotoStory is just Movie Edit Pro with a slightly different look and less tools. However, PhotoStory has those on-screen tools that MEP does not; MEP has an overlay of the the effect screen instead. Both programs work the same way.

Post screenshots when you go to Timeline mode as indicated above and we can guide you from there.

John CB

Digipixel wrote on 2/7/2021, 10:31 AM

Thanks John, I'm familiar with keyframes and the timeline, but my problem is more of a programming/gui tweak - I want to quickly & accurately set a 00:00 to (for example) 05:00 zoom/pan on each frame and cannot do that either on the fx screen nor in timeline with a dissolve in PhotoStory. The zoom/pan must be smooth from the frame's first appearance at 1% in the dissolve, not starting when it is 100% opacity.

I don't have the time to go into timeline & enter co-ordinates for each frame, and the dissolve still obscures the frame I want to edit there anyway, I want to do it visually and intuitively from the fx screen which, I think, is actually an interesting and cool way to work, were 00:00 and 05:00 were not overlayed by the dissolve in preview.

Really what I want is to have a single image 'popout' movement/effect editor, which shows me the in and out without dissolve and returns the movement coordinates back into the dissolved transition show for preview. ProShow was hugely sophisticated in this regard, I guess I have been spoilt.

It seems like this is built in to the Magix way, so I'm heading over to Photopia for their 'next-gen' ProShow in the hope that they haven't broken it or dumbed it down in the takeover.

Really appreciate your time and knowledge John, I think I'm asking too much of the Magix way at this stage!

Cheers, John

browj2 wrote on 2/7/2021, 1:10 PM

Really what I want is to have a single image 'popout' movement/effect editor, which shows me the in and out without dissolve and returns the movement coordinates back into the dissolved transition show for preview.

@Digipixel

Hi,

I'm trying to figure exactly what you are trying to do. Can you post an example?

It looks like you're doing a dissolve (crossfade) but you want the second image to pop up from 0 without the dissolve. There are ways to do this, like putting the second image on track 2 and overlapping.

For the zoom/pan effect, use Camera/zoom shot. This puts the zoom/pan effect over the entire 5 seconds and works with the crossfade. It's fast and simple.

Here is an example of a few types. Which one are you trying to do?

These are quite simple to do. Keyframes can be copied and pasted.

John CB

Digipixel wrote on 2/7/2021, 2:15 PM

argh, back again, no, I still have the same problem, #1 waypoint in a dissolved frame shows the frame before, so I can't see any way to precisely specify (visually) start @ 90% left of frame and finish @ 80% right of frame, for example, as by that stage the zoom editor is covered by the next frame...I just can't see a way round this...!

Digipixel wrote on 2/7/2021, 2:20 PM

I can achieve what I want by creating a new waypoint at the end of dissolve, zooming as I would wish the frame to look at the start, copy the waypoint settings, delete start waypoint, paste the correct settings and then delete the copied original, but that's WAY too much effort for a simple pan/zoom! I just can't see an option to make this happen...

browj2 wrote on 2/7/2021, 3:10 PM

@Digipixel

Hi,

I'm still trying to figure out exactly what you want. Did you look at my video (done with PhotoStory)?

John CB

johnebaker wrote on 2/8/2021, 10:33 AM

@Digipixel

I think the confusion over what you want is due to the terminology you are using.

. . . . by creating a new waypoint at the end of dissolve, zooming as I would wish the frame to look at the start, copy the waypoint settings, delete start waypoint, paste the correct settings and then delete the copied original, but that's WAY too much effort for a simple pan/zoom! . . . .

What I think you are saying is that you are using keyframes (waypoint) to set the size and position of an object, eg video clip or image, at the start of a transition (dissolve) and to start/end at certain screen positions.

Is this what you are trying to do - I see @browj2 has already posted an example - we are also probably using the same method.

If not post a short movie clip of the result you are getting when you follow your procedure - use the media upload button at the top of the comment pane

John EB
Forum Moderator