HEC

This is possibly the most elaborate video I've ever done using VideoPad, made 2 years ago, to promote a 4-session course on the major cities of Italy: https://www.ergo-travel.com/APICS/GreatArtCities-promo.mp4 Do let me know what you think of this! I hardly make videos but when I do it's mostly as simple ads for social media to promote my travel business, such as this one: https://www.ergo-travel.com/TEMP/FB_ad2306-test3(30fps).mp4 Most are compilations of animated still images with overlaid text.

I have done as you advised and am happy to report that it works. As you say, seemed the A/R effects were conflicting with the separate A/R setting of the P&Z. In any case, I have exported using Smart Max 45fps as well as 30fps. You can see them for youself here: Smart Max 45fps - https://www.ergo-travel.com/TEMP/FB_ad2306-test3(45Var).mp4 30 fps - https://www.ergo-travel.com/TEMP/FB_ad2306-test3(30fps).mp4 Strangely the 30fps video has smoother running text than the Var 45fps despite having a smaller file size, so I'm going for the former. Many thanks for spending all this time with me! ps. I have submitted feedback to the NCH Developer team to do a detailed info sheet on the various A/R settings. It's been incredibly confusing since this can be set in so many different places - for the individual clips in the bin, on the sequence preview, as a separate effect on its own, and within the P&Z effect settings. It's easy to get all these mixed up and I think a summary of what each does to the whole will be very useful.

Yes I did. The green box was simply to show the result you got relative to the frame I saw in Videopad. I just opened the original project Videopad again after rebooting and this is what I have: https://www.ergo-travel.com/TEMP/Screenshot 230625a.jpg As you can see the clip has been cropped down to 1:1 with the 1:1 start frame, but I cannot access the rest of the clip which lie outside of this frame. However, I seemed to have managed to resolve this, finally, even if there are some doubts as to what exactly is need to fix this. Here are 4 screenshots: https://www.ergo-travel.com/TEMP/Screenshot 230625a2.jpg https://www.ergo-travel.com/TEMP/Screenshot 230625d.jpg https://www.ergo-travel.com/TEMP/Screenshot 230625b.jpg https://www.ergo-travel.com/TEMP/Screenshot 230625c.jpg Note that the AR setting for every clip is different from each other, but this time everything seems to work as intended: https://www.ergo-travel.com/TEMP/Test3.mp4 Could there be some conflict between Videopad and some setting or another software in my own computer that is causing all these unexpected hiccups? ps.What I'd like to know is whether you saw the same interface when working the project as I did above. From the screenshot above it looks as if the frame got squashed horizontally (is this actually what you saw?) which is different from what I had (https://www.ergo-travel.com/TEMP/Screenshot 230624a.jpg).

Thanks Borate, but sorry to say, the sequence doesn't actually give the output I want: 1) Clip 3 (fisherman and net) still doesn't show the pan and zoom originally intended 2) The final clip (church over water) is also not framed as originally intended. I understand that the clips should be "Crop to Aspect Ratio", which seems logical. However, when I select the clip and click on the FX button, this is what comes out: https://www.ergo-travel.com/TEMP/Screenshot 230624a.jpg with the start/end frames in 16:9 ratio not representnig the actual frame in the sequence at all (I have highlighted the frame in dash green line). I am starting to think that this could be a bug in Videopad itself. Is that possible?

Hi Borate, strangely when I downloaded and opened up your version of the project the preview sequence actually looks different from theoutput video you generated: 1) The first 3 clips as well as the last were in 16:9 with black bars above and below inside a 1:1 frame. 2) Clip #4 filled the entire 1:1 frame 3) the text "this october" was properly lcated to the right of the frame instead of being in the centre like your video. I've been doing videos in 16:9 format and I don't ever recall problems of the sort. This only started happening now with the current project which I intend to export in 1:1 format. I can still see that the problem in the video you linked me to above in the third clip (the one with the fisherman working on his net) where the start frame is not where I had originally set it much farther to the right. And then there's the position of the text "this October"...

HI Borate, here is the link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1slEm_2DGmJeScq2ikOjmKXTT4uHFflCS?usp=sharing The strange thing is that when I opened the project this morning the problem was gone and the clip looked normal again. However, when I started working on this another clip which was previously normal started showing this problem, which I hope you can see in the project I just shared with you. I am beginning to think that there might be some bug either with my RAM, with my PC configuration, with the software, or in the project itself. Here is a link to the test video generated with the latest problem: https://www.ergo-travel.com/TEMP/Test2.mp4

Borate, sorry to bother you again. After much experimenting I had managed to achieve the proper aspect ratio cropped down to 1:1, but for reasons I cannot understand sometimes a clips will suddenly revert to a a stretched aspect when i am trying to adjust the length of a clip, as shown in this example in the link: https://www.ergo-travel.com/TEMP/Screenshot 230623b.jpg None of the aspect ratios in the bin, the effect window and the sequence panel have been changed when I was adjust the lip on the timeline, but this still happens. Have I missed something out? ps. I had generated a quick test video just before this happened, and everything seemed fine: https://www.ergo-travel.com/TEMP/test1.mp4

Oh sorry, I didn't see this response until after I replied the other one. This is probably the answer i'm looking for. I'll give a try now. Many thanks!

I think this gives you a better idea of what I mean: https://www.ergo-travel.com/TEMP/Screenshot 230623a.jpg

Hi Borate, I replied your other comment before seeing this one. I just tried using "Crop to Aspect Ratio" and it solved the problem of the black bars above and below the image, so many thanks for this. However, I have a question - is it possible to crop to an area which is not in the centre?

Thanks Borate, but right now the problem is that the content being lost is actually less than the frame of the small box. Instead of guessing where the cropped edges are while working on this before exporting, can I work with a 1:1 frame while editing so that I can see what I am working with? I intend to use the 1:1 frame to zoom/pan to different parts of the original 16:9 image (Ken Burns effect) so not seeing the frame means I can never be sure exactly what I'll see in the final video. I hope I'm explaining this properly, but it's like working on photoshop with an image of a fixed size overlaid with a layer of a much bigger size which I can shift around to determine what see in the final image.

I've set my sequence previews to be 1:1 for the eventual output in the same aspect ratio, and I have inserted a 16:9 clip which I wish to crop drop down to 1:1. However, despite adjusting A/R of both the clips (via right click on the clip in the bin) and the sequence, my preview looks cropped down with missing content as shown delow: https://www.ergo-travel.com/TEMP/Screenshot 230622a.jpg There are always these black bars above and below in the preview which I can't figure out how to get rid of! Help!

Thanks, but how do I set the aspect ratio of the video itself? Or do 1 only determine that when I produce the output file? Or is there a way that I can have a 1:1 working frame on the preview panel so that I don't have to guess my way around for the eventual edges?

This may be a silly question but how do you maintain the aspect ratio when importing a clip? I'm trying to do a 1:1 (square) video, but when I import a 16:9 clip it gets stretched or compressed on one side. Have I missed some setting duing import?

Just to add to this. I found that if I wanted to replace a clip that is already in a sequence with a new file, all I needed to do was to right click on the clip in the bin, select "replace file" option, which will open a window to browse and select the file I wish to replace it with. When done, it replaces the sequence with all the previous effects intact (eg. pan & zoom with the same criteria), which is a huge time saver. Glad I found it!

Thank Borate. I'm doing OK with all the workarounds you've shown me so far, so I think I'll leave this until it's officially out.

I have managed to adjust almost everything using "position", with one exception (see below): https://www.ergo-travel.com/APICS/GreatArtCities-promo.mp4 This has been a great learning experience, thanks to you both. I've also discovered that I can also do a lot using png files with transparency, which I used in a few locations. The one instance where this was used in place of a text clip is the word "hidden clues" which appears at 30s. It was just easier to achieve the effect using an image clip from Photoshop rather than try and manipulate a text clip.

Thanks. I tried doing that earlier, replacing a clip of a still image with another one, and found that the duration of the clip automatically reset itself to the standard clip length for images (in my case 3 seconds). Is there a way I can ensure that the duration of the existing clip is retained? I don't want to have all the subsequent clips shifted in time because of this.

How do you replace a clip with one which is already in the bin and not an external file?

Thanks! I have downloaded and installed it, but I have also checked the main download page and I see that it isn't listed. Isn't there a a way to get the latest 64bit version without having to bother you guys every time?

Thanks to both of you for answering this. I'm using the 10.52 64bit version which I think Borate provided the link for on another thread. The text I am referring to are "history" which appears around the 27s mark but become very jittery from 30s onwards, and the word "townscape" which start fine around 31s but becomes jittery after 33s. The thing is, it's supposed to be variable frame rate between 30fps and 60fps so I don't understand why there is all this shakiness. I will try out Nationalsolo's suggestion first to see if it works before sharing the project. Thanks again. BTW, is there a 64bit version of the latest 10.54? The download page doesn't specify anything.

https://www.ergo-travel.com/APICS/GreatArtCities-promo(w text).mp4 I have inserted some text into this video and used the scroll function within the text editor. However, the exported video shows the text scrolling to be very jittery and not at all consistent with the max frame rate of 60fps which I have set. I also found that it was really tedious to reposition the text (and in some case impossible) have not tried using an effect like Pan & Zoom. If this is possible would the panning be smoother. Or is there some other way of achieving this, eg. importing a png file of a text to be treated as an image instead?

This is what I managed to export after following Borate's advice on P&Z and multitracking (some of) the clips for better transitions: https://www.ergo-travel.com/APICS/GreatArtCities-promo.mp4 Strangely, the P&Z transitions originally done using the 5.x show very smooth transitions despite not layering the clips, but the moment I click on the transition to edit or even just look at it, the problem of the zoom starting halfway through the cross-fade will then appear. I've had to cut and paste a few extra clips to an overlaying track to adjust the transitions before I stopped clicking on the rest to save my sanity and time. Ideally, I'd like to see the Zoom effect done away with completely, to be taken over by the P&Z eventually incorporate keyframing to allow for variable speed as well as automatically start at the beginning of a transition. I'm not sure if there ever will be any use of a zoom or pan that starts in the middle of a transition between one clip and another, but if keyframing is incorporated then it could always be achieved using that. Grateful to Borate for the very detailed advice. Thanks!

I was hoping to avoid that, but thanks. Hopefully, one day Videopad will include a toggle to start the effect together with the transition. i'll put in a suggestion.

Thanks for this. Hope they fix the zoom function soon, or else incorporate the key frames into Pan & Zoom/Burns so that it's all integrated into a single function. Sorry I have one more question about the Pan & Zoom: when I include this into a clip, the start frame is start exactly where the clip is located. This means that if I were to have a cross fade transition from a previous clip, this clip will not begin to do the pan/zoom until the middle of the cross fade, which means that the clip itself will begin to appear as a still before the effect begins. Is there a workaround for this so that I can begin a cross fade with the second clip already in the midst of panning/zooming?