Can you control the timing of the Ken Burns effect?

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Level 1

40 points

Can you control the timing of the Ken Burns effect?

I've been experimenting with the Ken Burns effect, using it on video clips. By default, the KB effect starts at the beginning of the clip and finishes at the end.

I would like to the KB effect to start at a certain point in the clip and finish at a certain point in the clip, leaving the image zoomed-in (or zoomed-out) at whatever point I choose to stop the effect. Is this possible? If so, how? I would think maybe I could do it with keyframes, but I can't figure out how.

Posted on Mar 23, 2012 5:21 PM

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Answer 1

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Thomas Emmerich

Level 4

3,499 points

Mar 23, 2012 7:00 PM in response to JDLee

The KB effect can only affect an entire clip. Only thing you can do is razor blade the piece you want the effect on so that it is its own clip. Problem would then be matching the exact zoom and position settings for the incoming and outgoing clips where is doesn't move.

I think at this point to do what you want would require manual transform keyframing. (aka manual Ken Burns).

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Answer 2

JDLee Author

Level 1

40 points

Mar 23, 2012 7:43 PM in response to Thomas Emmerich

Hi Thomas--

Yes, I suspected that was the case, and appreciate you confirming that.

I was having a problem trying to do a manual zoom with manual transform keyframing. I couldn't seem to get it as smooth as the Ken Burns effect. When I tried to do it manually and watch the resulting zoom, it looked as though the camera sort of jerked at the beginning of the zoom (instead of one smooth movement like you get with the KB effect). Now it seems fine, though, so I don't know what was causing that.

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Answer 3

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,974 points

Mar 23, 2012 11:50 PM in response to JDLee

Try animating the crop/crop function. That sometimes works better depending on the material.

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Answer 4

JDLee Author

Level 1

40 points

Mar 24, 2012 12:11 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Hi Tom--

I played around with the crop/crop function, but it seemed like it just left black space where I cropped away the footage (instead of zooming in). Maybe I did it wrong?

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Answer 5

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

150,974 points

Mar 24, 2012 12:30 AM in response to JDLee

Sounds like you're using the crop/trim function.

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Answer 6

JDLee Author

Level 1

40 points

Mar 24, 2012 12:55 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

LOL--I just bought some more tutorials. I will say that learning FCPX is vastly easier than trying to learn FCP6 was. For me, there's no comparison. Trying to learn FCP6 was horrible. This is fun. I know it doesn't have all the features many of the pros want, but it is fantastic for my needs. It is much more intuitive, but I guess I still have to put more time in.

I just tried your suggestion, and it works fine, thanks! That's exactly what I was looking for. I really didn't like trying to use Transform because I was having to expand the image beyond the frame size and it just seemed like a very crude way to do what I was trying to accomplish.

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