Using Photostory 2017 to reproduce Ken Burns effects

Novice-John31 wrote on 1/30/2017, 11:26 AM

Dear All,

I have an AMD athlon quad core, 32 GB of RAM and an ASUS HD6570 graphics card, running Windows 7 64 bit OS.

For a number of years I've used Serif's MoviePlus X6 to produce slide shows, which have included pan and zoom operating on still shots. They were easy to produce, if a little clunky.

This year, having read on Serif's site that it was no longer supporting MP6, I thought that I would treat myself to a dedicated slide show editing suite and bought Photo Story deluxe 2017. While I'm pleased with many of the features, I cannot master the panning effect that I used in my old MP6. The zoom is reasonable, but panning is only covered in the Movie Edit suite, it seems.

I get as far as the "Size and position" section, have even nearly mastered "Key frames", but after that...... Using the "Camera/zoom" section, which at first appeared to be similar to the two adjustable frames of a single shot in MP6, merely gave me a single zoom and no panning.

Have I wasted my money and should go back to good old MP6, or is there anyone who can open the pearly gates into Photo Story 2017 and make my dreams come true?

Best wishes,

John

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 1/31/2017, 4:31 AM

See this tutorial for how to do the Ken Burns effect. The principles are the same for Photostory.

HTH

John EB

Novice-John31 wrote on 2/2/2017, 3:44 AM

Many thanks John for the superb video tutorial. I had, more by accident than skill, come to roughly (with the emphasis on roughly) the same result using "Camera/ zoom shot."

I shall now try your method, which is much more refined.

Cheers,

John

PS. John I have tried every way I can think of using "Size and position" to zoom in on part of the initial main photo.

i.e. If I move the dotted rectangle to, say, the top RH corner of the original photo to zoom into on what is there, when I move the Key Frame marker, a smaller, but beautifully formed, original picture appears within the "zoomed area". Altering the zoom percentage or using the zoom button at the bottom LH corner of the Preview Window, simply enlarges the picture back towards the original size. Any thoughts? I have, however, improved my method by using your approach in "Camera/zoom shot"

johnebaker wrote on 2/2/2017, 8:19 AM

You do not have to use the Camera/zoom effect - the tutorial by Terry shows you the alternative method, however there is a step - resizing the image - that is not obvious in the tutorial - Terry does mention it however it is not shown being done.

Here is a short video of how to do the Ken Burns - this was done in Movie Edit Pro - I do not have Photostory installed on my laptop, however the principles are the same - and you do need to be in Timeline mode.

Note - you can change the image size before you start adding the keyframes

HTH

John EB

Novice-John31 wrote on 2/2/2017, 9:08 AM

Dear John,

Have tried the suggestions from your latest video, however there was no "Movement templates" option in my "View and animation" drop down menu.

John

johnebaker wrote on 2/2/2017, 9:52 AM

. . . . however there was no "Movement templates" option . . . .

This was not used, replay the video and you will see that the mouse pointer only hovered over this, one of the disadvantages of using a touch pad, the Effect being applied is still Size and Position - this can still be seen to be highlighted.

HTH

John EB

Novice-John31 wrote on 2/2/2017, 11:20 AM

Dear John,

Since my last missive I think that I have mastered the Pan & Zoom functions through the "Camera/zoom" option. I have got the operation down to eight or less steps, including clicking on the photo in Story board and adjusting the overall time of display. I find the manipulation of the dotted rectangle in "Camera/ Zoom" much quicker and easier to use than adjusting the pixel count in "Size/Position. This explains why you are the expert and I'll remain a novice for a long, long time.

Without your help I would still be struggling, so, very many thanks for all the time and trouble you have taken to provide me with the help that I needed. It is and will be very much appreciated. John