Taking off from showing zoom and pan of still image using Vegas Movie Studio, we will do similar exercise with Camtasia Studio.
Using Camtasia Studio is easier than doing the same effect with Vegas, but the sharpness of the zoomed picture is better with the latter than with Camtasia.
In either case, the still is rendered a motion which will make the viewers feel as if they are observing an actual motion video. Apart from improving the overall viewing quality, zoom and pan of both still imagery and a video is essential in many cases for taking closer look at some objects, or for better explanation of the actions therein.
The video below explains the zoom-n-pan effect using Camtasia. The the image of painting from this Wikipedia page is used for the purpose. The detailed steps for doing it are explained after the video.
How To Do Zoom & Pan Using Camtasia
The full view of the interface of Camtasia Studio is given in the image below followed by a close-up image of the Zoom-n-Pan Properties box. Follow the steps described after the 2 images to create zooming and panning to still imagery with Camtasia Studio:
Full view of Zoom-n-Pan properties box open in Camtasia Studio
Close-up view of Zoom-n-Pan in Camtasia Studio
- To start with, drag the still image on to the timeline. Right-click on it and from the popup menu select Title Duration. In the box that now pops up, decide the time and click OK.
- Place the green pointer on the timeline where you want the zoom effect to begin, and then click Zoom-n-Pan link on the left pane under the heading Edit.
- The Zoom-n-Pan Properties box opens up. It has a small version of the same still image, and is surrounded by a green rectangle. The rectangle can be dragged in with or without the aspect ratio being maintained.
- As the rectangle is zoomed in, the image also changes in the view area to the right, which gives idea as to how much you should do it. This is represented by the Scale of zooming and is given by the percentage of the original image size.
- The Duration slider (refer images above) decides how long the zooming will happen before the changed image is finally shown.
- To have the zoom and/or pan of the image at other places on the timeline, repeat the steps 2 to 5. After all works are over, click the Finished button to close the zoom-n-pan box.
- For editing, double-click on the zoom keyframes shown by blue diamond shaped indictors on the Zoom track in the timeline. Play the video after editing to see if the work is up to your satisfaction.
If you use Camtasia Studio for your video needs, you may find the tutorial on creating picture-in-picture video on PowerPoint video using Camtasia useful.
 This article of July 22nd, 2010 is authored by Partha Bhattacharya, who runs this website. Catering to the clients' video needs aside, Partha also writes guest articles for other web publications. |
