Track Motion Reduces Quality of Photos

[Jim Prisby]

Thanks, guys, but I already had set the match output aspect and there are only two keyframes used. One at the start and one at the end for both the Track Motion and the Event Pan/Crop, in fact, they both fall at the same time on the timeline. I think this may have something to do with the Track Motion only allowing for a 720 x 480 window and the Event Pan/Crop zoom setting falls outside of it partially.

Maybe you could try a similar motion with your own photo. The Track Motion starts (keyframe 1) with the photo rotated mostly about the y-axis(-37)and a small amout about the x-axis(-5). It ends (keyframe 2) with all values at 0. The Event Pan/Crop starts (keyframe 1)with match output aspect with 0 angle and zoom expanded to include the complete photo. It ends (keyframe 2) with 0 angle and zoomed into the approximate center of photo.

[Jim Prisby]

This isn’t a bug. I’ve come to realize that the simple fact is when you zoom into a photo using Event Pan/Crop you are actually cropping off the photo. You don’t notice it because the photo has filled the viewing window. But if you use Track Motion and set it to 3D you can move the photo in the minus Z direction and expose the photo as being cropped off. This is why using Track Motion for rotation and Event Pan/Crop for zooming is not a solution to the original problem of loss of photo quality from just using Track Motion for rotation and zoom.

What a shame that Track Motion reduces the photo resolution to the project properties resolution. Photos can be displayed in motion in much more interesting ways using the 3D effects of Track Motion but the quality loss to high resolution photos restricts it’s use. I found a bit of a work around for my problem by increasing my project properties from 720×480 to 1080×720 and incorporating the Sony shapen filter but of course the render times increased dramatically.

Maybe Sony will consider modifying the Track Motion tool to allow it to maintain the event resolution as does the Event Pan/Crop tool. Until then I may need to have to jump in and out of After Effects to create more interesting slideshows…what a pain and waste of time, Sony.

[Brad Miller]

That’s quite a shame that Vegas limits you to the project setting with Track Motion. A simple work around would be to allow larger size projects, which Vegas 9 does, but it’s still only double the Vegas 8 2048×2048 resolution. For now I guess we’re stuck only being able to handle motion within the project setting’s boundaries like this: https://www.vimeo.com/5936542

[Jim Prisby]

As I mentioned above, after I set up the photos with track motion I changed the project resolution to 1080 x 720 to render it. Unfortunately, I was using photos that were of very low quality scanned from a 1963 high school yearbook. Scanning them in very high resolution prevented further quality loss but then the track motion reduced it. Adding a few photos in 3D motion can make an otherwise 2D slideshow a little more interesting. Here is some of the motions I added with Track Motion.