Love the Layout Tool

[JimJulian]

For those of you new to Edius, here is a tool to play with.

I've never seen a still that didn't need some cropping.
3d Picture in Picture is one way, but the scaling will cause the photo to lose quality.

Instead, right click the still and select "Layout".
The window on the left will let you crop sections of the picture while the window on the right will let you place the cropped area anywhere in the frame. This is great for things like large maps or groups of people when you only want to isolate a smaller section of the photo. Once you have "pre-zoomed" you can apply your 3d PIP with no loss of quality.

This also works great for logos with an alpha...especially when you want to blow it up or move it around the screen.

Happy thought on this Friday the 13th,

Enjoy,

jim

[GrassValley_KH]

Thanks for the praise Jim.

You will like it even more, before the year is out..

[Khoi Pham]

Thanks for the praise Jim.

You will like it even more, before the year is out..

Yeah sound like we will get keyframing for it.

[Alade]

yeh...nice tool, but you are kinda late with it...lol.....been using it a long time....especially when the talent is not framed correctly, e.g.....not enough room in front, or too much head room....yeh....neat tool.

[antonsvideo]

are you happy with the zoomed quality?

I tried zooming a 1440x1080 clip in 720x576 16:9 project to 100%

the resulting clip looked out of focus and showed artefacts on the brickwork of buildings

[Khoi Pham]

No I'm not happy with the zoom, I mentioned this year ago, even made 2 picts comparison between Layout zoom and Photoshop zoom to show that something is not right with Layout zoom but nobody cares, I'm just hoping that now they are looking into it, they might see it and fix it along adding keyframe to it then we can ditch Imaginate, if not then I will still have to use Imaginate, but I'm so glad that you see it, hopefully more will see the problem and they will fix it for us.

[GrassValley_KH]

even made 2 picts comparison between Layout zoom and Photoshop zoom to show that something is not right with Layout zoom but nobody cares,

You do understand that applying a bicubic resize on a still image is a much easier task than to apply the same to 24-30 still images a second?

Simply put, to scale video in realtime is not a trivial task.

[Rusty]

Thanks for the praise Jim.

You will like it even more, before the year is out..

KH,
This is the closest to a "hint" we've heard yet!

So... when's the press release due? ;~)

[Khoi Pham]

You do understand that applying a bicubic resize on a still image is a much easier task than to apply the same to 24-30 still images a second?

Simply put, to scale video in realtime is not a trivial task.

The still that I made was from a video clip from the timeline of the layout tool and when it was not moving , layout tool zoom start to distorted at about 65% of a HDV clip when zoom in on a SD timeline, why can't I see a undistorted 1440X1080 clip on a 720X480 timeline zoom at 100%? is it because layout tool is not resolution independant?

[biopic]

You do understand that applying a bicubic resize on a still image is a much easier task than to apply the same to 24-30 still images a second?

Simply put, to scale video in realtime is not a trivial task.

That sounds like a case for a tick box - realtime/draft quality or not-so-realtime/best quality.

[JimJulian]

are you happy with the zoomed quality?

I tried zooming a 1440x1080 clip in 720x576 16:9 project to 100%

the resulting clip looked out of focus and showed artefacts on the brickwork of buildings

Here is some zoomed-in P2 footage from a Panasonic HVX 200 using the Edius Layout tool. I'd be happy with this result. Video is very good...and very surprising. Nobody would know unless I told them.

I'll try to find some 1440 clips.

jim

[Claire]

That sounds like a case for a tick box - realtime/draft quality or not-so-realtime/best quality.

I'd vote for that!

In my opinion, the quality of zoom in layout tool should be the priority, way more important than having real time operation for this item.

I notice the problem with Layout tool that Khoi Pham refers to, for me it varies, quality will jump better or worse if I just move or scale in layout by one or two pixels. I think at present that even though it's head and shoulders over 3D PIP (except for lack of keyframing) that this is not a precise tool and not in my opinion for professional use.

If there is a programming decision to make regarding the new layout tool, then PLEASE give us quality over speed on this occasion.

[biopic]

I am submitting a formal request!

[Khoi Pham]

Here is some zoomed-in P2 footage from a Panasonic HVX 200 using the Edius Layout tool. I'd be happy with this result. Video is very good...and very surprising. Nobody would know unless I told them.

I'll try to find some 1440 clips.

jim

it looks soft to me, but this is not what we are talking about, we are talking about putting a HD clip on a SD timeline, or using a larger scan image than one of 720X480 so that you can zoom and pan on it without losing resolution, just like you would use a large scan image on Imaginate to zoom in without losing resolution, right now if you open a SD 720X480 project, and put a HDV clip on the timeline, go into layout tool you will see that i has to zoom out to 44.4 % so that the "larger" video can fit into a smaller "frame", otherwise it would have crop some out, now if you click on original size it the preset tab it will zoom to 100% its original resolution, it suposed to not lose any quality because you are not going beyond its resolution but it does in this case, the picture is noisier and a little softer, we not asking it to do better than what it is not supposed to, only maintain the quality of the original resolution, but I found that you can still zoom in to about 60% and get decent quality and so if keyframing is coming that would be great.

[Crespel]

I used it recently the other way around - a SD clip on a HD timeline.I was impressed by the quality.If one don't know it you will notice no quality difference.
Great tool.