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Still images, pan-motion & overlaps, etc.
Hi, new to the forum, and very much a Premiere novice. I would appreciate any-and-all assistance.
I have a small video project that I am editing. There are a couple sections where I want to use still image montage ~ I suppose the easiest way to describe is to think of the Ken Burns baseball and jazz docs, with narration overtop still images and the camera slowly panning and zooming into the still, with overlaps (is that the correct usage?), etc. I hope that makes sense.
When I asked one filmmaker who uses Premiere how to do that, he recommended to me a software program called Canopus Imaginate.
I downloaded a free 15-day trial on that program, and mailed them my query a couple days ago and haven’t gotten a reply.
The Canopus Imaginate works wonderfully for single still images, but I can’t edit the sequences together in Imaginate with fades and overlaps. If the function is available, I can’t find it, or don’t know what I am supposed to do.
I am guessing that the individual clips can be exported to Adobe Premiere and edited with fades and overlaps there.
But that makes me wonder, wellll, can’t I do all the workload in Premiere? If so, then I don’t need to waste my time with Imaginate.
Does Premiere have a function to allow me to pan a camera with a still image?
If so, does anybody have any critical thoughts about doing this in Imaginate versus Premiere?
Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.
Cheers, Dave
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3 Replies
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I panned images for one of my recent videos. When you click on the image on your time line and look at the transformation properties there is an option to change the position and scaling of the picture. If you keyframe these properties you can move and scale your picture around to get a similar effect. Make sure your images are larger than your video resolution or else distortion could occur when scaling. If you don’t know how to keyframe you can google it, its a simple concept.
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Standard definition video is 720×480 pixels. If you start out with an image this size, then try to zoom in, it will not look good. As mentioned in the other post, start with a larger still. I believe Premiere will accept up to 4000×4000, but bigger is not necessarily better, it may bog down the system. Use just as large as needed to get quality results, depending how far you want to zoom in.
To create the moves, use the Adobe Motion Effect which is in the Effects bin. Keyframes are the trick to controlling the moves, check Adobe HELP file for directions, and also consider “Ease In/Ease Out” on keyframes to avoid abrupt starts and stops, you want images to speed up or slow down naturally.
If details in the image flicker during moves, right-click the image, go to Field Options and check Flicker Removal.
Another trick is to use Photoshop and add a slight amount of Guassian Blur, just .1 or .2 will do it. Can make an amazing difference in the final quality, eliminating nasty flickering and buzzing. Save to a different filename so as not to alter original image though, in case you need to go back.
I use the Matrox RT.X2 hardware, so I have a preview out to an actual TV monitor and can immediately see results for proofing (no render!). I don’t know how apparent flickering might be on the non-interlaced computer preview window, you may not see issues until you burn a DVD.
Have fun with your video project
Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers -
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