Animation Question

[BuddyB]

Alrighty roll, here's another question. Am reading that great MS13 book ; great explanations, but I'm not always sure (since I naturally tend to make things harder than they are) I'm understanding intent. What I'm trying to do is add 5 PNG clips to a clip as a logo. I then want one part to move off the clip stage left leaving the others. I've got a blank media generator on the timeline. Of course when I plop a PNG on the media gen I can size and place on the background where I want it to go. If I do another, even though the background is transparent the clip behind is greyed out. I'm missing something here, but not sure what.

[sidd finch]

They should not be greyed out. PE timeline works very much the same as Photoshop in terms of layers with movement controlled through key framing. I have used multiple layer png files to create motion graphics. do you happen to have a screen shot to see what it looks like?

Sidd

[BuddyB]

Here we go: The way it appears to me there doesn't seem a way to get the individual pieces into the media generator.

[Steve Grisetti]

Buddy, are you literally putting one PNG on top of another? That won't work the way you want it to work.

Put each PNG on its own video track -- one above the other -- to create the composited image you want. Then you can animate each individually.

[BuddyB]

Do I then put a Media Gen on both or is that even necessary?

[Bob]

You don't need a media generator to add a png or jpg to a track.

[BuddyB]

Thanks Bob

[BuddyB]

The next question is that when in Pan/Crop I seem to have a limitation top/bottom. Is there anything I can do widen that so I can move the object further down?

[sidd finch]

just drag it to where you want it and it will automatically create a key frame.

Sidd

[BuddyB]

In the preview screen what it shows is like a bounding box the PNG was saved in and when you move the icon the graphics will disappear.

[Bob]

Have you tried Track Motion instead of Pan/Crop?

[BuddyB]

Bob, I have not but will. Thanks again.

[BuddyB]

I'm going coocoo here. As you can see from the enclosed graphic the toe is cut on the right side, and the head on the left side. Of course centered it is OK. The X/Y button is showing on the left, but it doesn't matter if you stick it on the X path, the corridor is vertical and I can move up and down until the graphic goes off the 1080 side. Owww!

[Steve Grisetti]

Have you tried changing the size of your F frame box? You can do this in the Properties, opened by clicking the top button to the left of the pan/crop workspace in the Pan/Crop panel.

Make sure that Maintain Aspect Ratio is turned off and you can then set the Width and Height of your F frame so that it is size and shape of your video frame rather than the size and shape of your graphic.

Sorry that it seems a bit convoluted -- but, as we've said, Pan/Crop does take some getting used to.

[BuddyB]

As usual you've come to the rescue..success. And thanks much for the input. I really need to bulldog my way through Pan/Crop as I want to be able to work in it quickly and well. As a result I probably spend more time fighting bears than the average. This is simply an amazing place to hang out; of course it's the folks and I'm blessed that you caught me the first time in the Sony forum back when.