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Creating Moving Still Images in Ulead Media Studio Pro 7.0
By Douglas Spotted Eagle
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 | | Apply the 'perform non-square pixel rendering' attribute when starting the project. |
Ulead's newest rev of Media Studio Pro is a fairly powerful DV editing application. Many tools in Media Studio Pro don't immediately jump out and make themselves known, and one of those features is how to create pans/scans on still photographs in Media Studio Pro. Documentaries in particular use pan/scans in showing historical photos, maps, and other imagery. Camera movement may also be simulated on video using the same pan/scan techniques shown in this tutorial.
Open MSP, and in the Project Properties, check the 'display non-square pixels' option. You'll quickly access the project properties in the lower left hand portion of the timeline.
Now, import photos into the Media Library by selecting the 'import images' in the Media Library, usually found in the upper right hand corner of the typical MSP setup. Photos may also be inserted to the timeline via right clicking on a video track and selecting "Image File." Because the 'display non-square pixels' dialog has already been specified, MSP will crop any image to fill the screen based on a center point in the image. Most images will have portions of the top or bottom cropped off during this process. In the Production Library, select the Moving Path menu from the drop-down. A moving path will determine how the photo will be panned/scanned. While any Moving Path may be chosen, for purposes of this tutorial, choose the Picture in Picture file icon, and then drag the Center Moving Path to the image found on the timeline. The Moving Path dialog box will open.
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 | | Import images to the Media Library |
In the Moving Path Dialog Box, select the "Keep Aspect Ratio" box prior to any other input values. This will assure that the aspect ratio of the image is not compromised. Now, input the width of the image in the 'width' dialog box. The width should be a minimum of 720. This forces MSP to resample the image so that it fits the DV specification of 720 pixels. Don't worry about the height of the image; MSP will determine this based on the aspect ratio of the original image size.
You'll immediately notice the image fills out the Preview Window in MSP. Be sure that the first keyframe in the Motion Path dialog is selected, it will be red. Right click this keyframe and select 'copy.' Now select the last keyframe and select 'paste.' This will copy the size attributes to the last keyframe.
Click back on the first keyframe to select it. Grasp the Red "S" node in the Moving Path Motion Control window, and move it until it is in the position that you wish the opening placement of the image to be. Now select the end keyframe in the Moving Path dialog box, and grasping the green "E" or end node, place the image where you'd like it to end it's pan/movement.
Press the preview play button in the Moving Path dialog box to watch the movement on the photograph. If the photo is not moving to satisfaction, try a different placement for the start or ending of the keyframe points.
 | | Setting the values in the width box will determine the manner in which the image fills the frame. Use the keyframe tool to set the position of the start/stop points of the image's simulated movement. |
Images may also be zoomed in or out, simulating camera lens movement. In the Width dialog box, input any number higher than 720. Try 900 or 1000 as a good starting point at the first keyframe. Set the last keyframe at 720, and press the preview play button in the Moving Path dialog box. This will cause the image to appear to zoom out from a close view to a wide or normal view of the image. When working with low resolution images, be cautious of using zoom/width values of greater than 1500. Otherwise, images may begin to pixelate and lose quality. Although in the end, the resolution of a still image in video is only 71 dpi, resolutions of up to 300 dpi may be used for images that will contain deep zooms/close up movement.
Once you are satisfied with the appearance of the pan/zoom on the still image, click the 'add' button in the moving path dialog box. This will allow you to create a unique name for the motion preset and save it for use on other images of similar size. Setting the values in the width box will determine the manner in which the image fills the frame. Use the keyframe tool to set the position of the start/stop points of the image's simulated movement.
Now, insert another image, and repeat the process. When doing pans, try to avoid placing a pan left image next to/over a pan left image. Generally, if an image is panning in one direction, it's best to follow that image with a zoom or pan in the opposite direction. Create several presets if you wish.
 | | Zoom applied/motion applied with moving path |
Zoom applied/motion applied with moving path
Now, place all images on the timeline that you wish to pan, scan, crop, or zoom. Select an image that contains a finished or completed moving path, and right click to select "copy." Now select an image that you'd like to have duplicate the movement seen in the copied image. Right click the new image, and select "Paste Attributes." This will copy the moving path and any filters, and paste them to the new image, duplicating the movement and filters of the first image, but not the image itself. This makes for an extremely fast workflow when trying to apply motion to many still images at one time. Motion paths may also be applied to all media on a given track at once, but this can create a static, and somewhat uninspired video presentation because everything has been made to move in the same direction. Either way, now you possess the tools to make stills move in Media Studio Pro, so go create awesome slide shows or motion video for your projects and clients!
Happy Editing!
Media Studio Pro 7.0
www.ulead.com
More tutorials and reviews by Douglas Spotted Eagle may be found here on the DMN Forums or on the Sundance Media Group website, home of the shared veg files and other training media. More tutorials similar to this may be found in the "Vegas 4.0 Workshop" book available from CMP Publishing, authored by Douglas Spotted Eagle.
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