Aspect ratio

NancySue

I am making a video which will incorporate still photos of original art. The photos have a ratio of 10:6.65; when I add them I see the checkerboard area on each side indicating that they do not fill the screen horizontally. I cropped one to a ratio of 16:9. No checkerboard areas, but when I put it into the video with the other photos and played it back it did not fill the screen VERTICALLY, but left a black band at top and bottom. Would this appear in the export? I will be making a few additional drawings and want to make them to suit the ratio. What ratio should I use? I find the 10:6.65 more visually pleasing; is that acceptable? Is 16:9 preferable? The video will (probably) only ever be viewed on a computer.

Thank you! I have a deadline of under a week, so hope I may hear back soon--

borate

A variety of aspect ratios can be applied. Right-click the clip for drop-down menu choices...

If that fails to meet the need, try ZOOMing your image, to remove any blank/black area which would likely carry through to the export. Let us know if this succeeds.

NancySue

Ok...I see that Change Clip Aspect Ratio offers 3 convenient ways to attain a specific aspect ratio. But WHICH aspect ratio should I aim for, when I am making new art? The 16:10 is close to what I was using before; I assume that this would leave a narrow strip of black on each side of my video. Is this acceptable in what should be a fairly professional 2-minute video, to be viewed on computer?

Thank you, Borate!!

borate

Someone with more expertise may chime in, but this strikes me as subjective: whatever looks best to you. Test several variations. ZOOM effect offers many preset aspect ratio choices, or you can plot your own. And upon export there are also A/R options. It's often best to go with the suggested setting.

If you upload a few examples and link them here (or in private) we'll weigh in...

Upload to a free server, such as Google Drive or MS OneDrive, get a shared (public) link, copy the link and paste it here or to me in a Private Message via the mail envelope in the top-right corner of this forum. When using Google Drive, if necessary change "restricted" to "anyone with link can view."

NancySue

Thank you! Really, what I was concerned about was whether it would HAVE to be 16:9 to look professional, so you've answered that question.

A variation on the question: I have a sequence of photos: the first one I trimmed myself to slightly taller than 16:10; it presents with a narrow black band on the sides. The second I trimmed via Change Clip Aspect Ratio to 16:10; it presents with the checkerboard. The third I trimmed myself. I'm trying to add a crossfade between each. The second, 16:10 to my own ratio, is no problem. The first, however, from my ratio to 16:10, will not permit a "crossfade" of longer than 0.056 seconds. I tried deleting the clip and re-entering it, same thing. Any thoughts on that?

borate

That issue is usually caused by a snippet of a clip or a gap between clips, and likely has nothing to do with A/R.

Expand the timeline and look for an extra frame/clip between the desired clips.

If they are on track one, switch to Storyboard mode where each clip is shown individually. Right-click on any unwanted gap and CLOSE GAP.

Now try your crossfade once again.

NancySue

Perfect!! Thank you!!

[deleted]

Going back to your original problem...

If you have images that are AR 10:6.65 they are not obviously 16:9 and will therefore display areas on each side that are chequered ...

These will be transparent if the image is used on a higher track with clips below. (On Track 1 the chequered areas will be black and export black)

If you Crop the image to 16:9 it will become smaller as you are Cropping it. Some of the image will be lost but what is left will have the 16:9 AR. The original crop frame will automatically be sized to fit the nearest sides of the image being used. In this case it will be fitted from side to side leaving an area at the top and bottom trimmed off. Now what you will see are the transparent sides just as before (The 16:9 frame fitted to the sides so nothing changed horizontally) but the top and bottom will now also be transparent as those areas have been cropped....

You can resize the Crop frame keeping the 16:9 setting and move it about but all you will achieve is a smaller cropped area with a wider transparent border...

If you wish to retain a full frame 16:9 image of your clip/image use the Zoom effect set with AR 16:9. This will enable you to effectively crop to a selected area. Set the zoom rectangle to outline exactly the area required and VP will then enlarge this to fill the frame correctly and there will be no black borders.....

Between 10:6.65 and 16:9 you will lose very little of your image. If everything else is 16:9 (usual videoclips) just export in the file type required (avi/mp4 etc) but setting the chosen 16:9 resolution values (1280 x 720...1920 x 1080 etc)

Nat

NancySue

Thank you for such a thorough response, Nat! But I'm unclear--when I perform Change Clip Aspect Ratio on a 10 x 6.65 image in the Clip Bin, and change it to 16 x 9: then regardless of whether I say "stretch" or "crop" the resulting image fills the 16 x 9 frame, with no checkerboard on any side. In the first case it is a little stretched, in the second, cropped a little top and bottom and then enlarged ever-so-slightly to fill the 16 x 9 format, rather than filling the cropped area with checkerboard.

I'm assuming that the checkerboard will always be black (or invisible) in the export. You say this will be the case on Track 1; do you imply that this may not be the case on lower tracks?

And my real question is, is it acceptable in a professional presentation, for viewing on computer, to have the band of black on each side? Or had I better stick with the 16 x 9?

Incidentally, how do I add a second video track? I think I've had more than one in the past, but can't now figure out how to get a second.

Thank you!

borate

Projects with clips of varying aspect ratios often display some clips bordered by black, which is what will be seen if there is no track below the clip.

In the current release, a right-click on a bin clip, then Change Clip Aspect Ratio, will reveal a BLUR PADDING choice, which might be useful in your situation.

Here's the result...

Higher tracks always take precedence, so a smaller clip on track two will reveal a larger clip from track one as a background. Picture-in-picture...

http://help.nchsoftware.com/help/en/videopad/win64bitpaid/tasks_watermarkspip.html

To add a track simply drag clips to the area just above the existing track (or below, in case of audio only).

NancySue

Yes! Thank you! I knew there was a way somehow. (Nice to see Alfred E Neuman again.)

I plan to be uploading about 100 separate images to make a short animated film. I'll be photographing an evolving drawing. My camera makes images at 16 x 10.64. I'm probably just gonna go with that and accept the black edge, instead of trying to change the aspect ratio on 100 images. I see that there is also a way to change the aspect ratio on the whole sequence as it's playing (I'd been doing it in the Clip Bin) and might try that, BUT it looks like it doesn't stretch the image to fill 16 x 9, but just adds the black stripe along the edge. Would this be helpful in any way?

I opened a new topic to ask a question about the animation, but better I should ask you: the images upload into the track at 3 seconds duration. I will probably want them at 0.5 seconds. Is there any way to group them together and change the duration of all at once, rather than one at a time 100 times?

Thanks!! I guess that's all for the moment--

borate

In the export dialog box there are global A/R choices. Stretch will distort images horizontally, so may not be suitable. Usually it's best to stick with the export A/R recommendation, which should mirror what's seen on the timeline.

Check out the other thread for details on setting duration for multiple images.