How to re-scale only the width or height of a video clip

[peatybog]

I have some video clips which which I need to squash vertically (people are too tall / skinny). Using "motion >> scale", adjustment applies proportionally to width and height so the result is no different.

 

Is there another parameter adjustment which will do what I want - or a (freeware) external program or plugin?

 

(VideoPad v3.01, Vista OS)

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

If you want to change the aspect ratio of your image then you will have to use the "Scale" effect by itself.

The default value for both X% and Y% is 1.0 However as you will, in effect be altering the aspect ratio of your image it will no longer be possible to fit it into the VP frame aspect ratio of 16:9. This means that if you don't want borders to appear then you must expect to lose some of your image.

 

With the "Scale" effect...

Increasing the X% value will increase the width of the image but keep the height the same. i.e. Tall thin objects will appear fatter.

The frame, however will retain the same height so you will lose the widened image on each side.

 

Decreasing the X% value will squash the image horizontally but keep the height the same (as above.) Objects will become thinner. but as you are in effect reducing the width of the Image, it will no longer fit in the frame on each side.

 

 

Increasing the Y% value will pull out the image vertically making objects in the frame thinner. The frame will remain full however, but you lose the top and bottom of the now vertically extended image.

 

Decreasing the Y% value will keep the full width of the image but will squash it vertically producing borders at the top and bottom.

 

In short, you can't fit a vertical image into a horizontal frame and still see it all without introducing a border to each side.

 

Your best bet is to use the "Scale" effect and increase the X% value as you will retain the full frame but lose a little of the image to each side.

 

Nat

[peatybog]

Nat,

 

Thank you for your explanation which I understand completely, I think, and it would work as you state BUT I do not see anywhere to set the value for X value nor Y independently: there is only "Scale %" without differentiation of axis. Thus the whole image merely becomes larger or smaller, not the ratio of height to width to affect the aspect ratio.

 

Maybe such differentiation occurs in other versions of VideoPad (mine is v3.01)?

[Nationalsolo]

Hi

 

Hmmm... Well you are probably correct. My post was referring to 3.24 which has both Offset X% and Offset Y%. under "Scale".

I'll check an earlier version but I don't have the setup.exe file for 3.01

..........

 

Version 3.10 has both Offset X% and Offset Y%. which behave as I mentioned. It's the ealiest of the 3.xx I have.

 

There is a Smart resize.vdf virtualdub plugin file that will allow one to change the aspect ratio but my version of VP crashes when I run it. You can, however load it to your PC and incorporate it into VP or use Virtual dub to reconfigure your clip.

 

Nat

[peatybog]

Hi Nat,

 

I have updated to the latest version [v3.28] - probably only temporarily as it seems very slow to load clips and IMHO the gain in program facilities does not justify the requested upgrade fee.

 

Yes, it does do as you say. Thank you. I have now corrected the squashed aspect ratio of the 2 errant clips.