Ken Burns technique? at DVinfo.net

Alan Rodgers · December 8th, 2003, 03:41 PM

Ken Burns has done a LOT of acclaimed work and successful films. A technique I have always wondered about was the slow pan and zoom done on still photography. I worked with a program like that while at community college but have forgotten the name of it. What are some of the programs that do that?

Ken Tanaka · December 8th, 2003, 04:11 PM

iMovie (on the Mac) has a dedicated effect to perform some of this. It's really not difficult to perform pans and slow zooms on still images from within most current non-linear editors such as Final Cut Pro/Express and Premiere.

Do a Search here, as I recall a lengthy thread on this subject perhaps a year ago.

Robert Knecht Schmidt · December 8th, 2003, 07:10 PM

Hi Alan,

Panning and zooming on still photography can be done in any compositing program--Adobe After Effects, discreet combustion, Canopus Imaginate, etc., as well as many of the popular NLEs.

There are also hardware devices that physically pan photographs, but this really isn't the best way to go about doing this.

Twisted Mojo's Real True History has a great parody of this documentary style.

Alex Taylor · December 8th, 2003, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Twisted Mojo's Real True History has a great parody of this documentary style.

Haha, that was hilarious! I knew it was going to be good when the narrarator said "This is his only known photograph."

James Emory · December 9th, 2003, 12:21 AM

Premiere uses a filter called Image Pan to achieve this effect. You simply pick your in & out points with key frames. VH1 uses this effect extensively in their Behind The Music and Driven series. The downside to this manipulation is that when the image is zoomed in electronically instead of optically, video pixels become magnified and edges dance until it zooms out to normal framing. Of course this is less evident with higher end broadcast formats I'm thinking because of resolution. If it's a quick move, you don't have much time to see any problems in either format.

Robert Knecht Schmidt · December 9th, 2003, 09:00 AM

The problem James refers to is "aliasing"--but the compositing programs listed above antialias resized still images.

Do be sure to scan in your images at a sufficiently high resolution.

Paul Tauger · December 9th, 2003, 09:24 AM

If you use Premiere for this, resize all stills to Premiere's maximum of 4,000 x 4,000 pixels, and import them as TIFF files, not JPEGs. I get liquid smooth pans, and can zoom in up to 5x without pixelation.

An alternative to Premiere is a program called Imaginate, which allows such things as acceleration and deceleration, curved movement paths, perspective shifts, etc.

James Emory · December 9th, 2003, 09:33 AM

Paul. In Premiere where do you resize the image as you described? For instance if I export a still from video in the timeline as a .tif, then what do I do? Can you give me a step by step if it's not too much troubled? Thanks!

Paul Tauger · December 9th, 2003, 09:46 AM

James, sorry, I should have been more clear. I use a stand-alone still imaging editor (Photoshop) to do the resizing. I found that this is the only way to get really smooth Pans in Premiere.

James Emory · December 9th, 2003, 09:54 AM

Okeedokee. Well that makes sense. If your image is high res to begin with, then when you zoom in (blow up) it will still look good. What happens if you try to go higher than 4000x4000. What does Premiere do? Thanks.

Paul Tauger · December 9th, 2003, 10:02 AM

If you try to use something larger, Premiere will choke (elegantly -- you get an error message) when you try to import the still. The higher res is not solely for zooming. Premiere's interpolation routines for scans aren't too good. If you don't resize, pans will jitter. The only problem with resizing is the timeline takes forever to display. My India video has a couple of montage sequences consisting of 20 or 30 stills in a row, all of which were resized and given the Ken Burns treatment. It can take several minutes for the timeline to display on my machine.

Robert Knecht Schmidt · December 9th, 2003, 10:08 AM

And note that Paul is suggesting that images be downsampled in your still image editor (from a larger original scan size) to the Premiere size limit.

There's no sense in upsampling them to that size if they are smaller to begin with.

James Emory · December 9th, 2003, 10:09 AM

Yes, I know all about Premiere choking. It has happened to me in other situations, sometimes for no apparent reason. Thanks for the info.

Brian M. Dickman · December 9th, 2003, 11:30 AM

This is also an integrated effect in Sony Vegas called "Pan & Crop". You can set in, out, and as many integral keyframes as you'd like. You can pan, zoom, and spin.

Chris Sorensen · December 9th, 2003, 01:07 PM

There's also Moving Picture (www.stagetools.com). Costs $199 but handles pix up to 8,000x8,000 pixels and also has a Rotation Option will allow you to spin your moves as well as pan and zoom. There's plugins for every editor plus a standalone app.

December 8th, 2003, 03:41 PM	#1
Alan Rodgers Tourist Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Colville Washington US of A Posts: 2	Ken Burns technique? Ken Burns has done a LOT of acclaimed work and successful films. A technique I have always wondered about was the slow pan and zoom done on still photography. I worked with a program like that while at community college but have forgotten the name of it. What are some of the programs that do that? __________________ Gorilla Commando. Have cameras will travel

December 8th, 2003, 04:11 PM	#2
Ken Tanaka Retired DV Info Net Almunus Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,943	iMovie (on the Mac) has a dedicated effect to perform some of this. It's really not difficult to perform pans and slow zooms on still images from within most current non-linear editors such as Final Cut Pro/Express and Premiere. Do a Search here, as I recall a lengthy thread on this subject perhaps a year ago. __________________ Lady X Films: A lady with a boring wardrobe...and a global mission. Hey, you don't have enough stuff! Buy with confidence from our sponsors. Hand-picked as the best in the business...Really! See some of my work one frame at a time: www.KenTanaka.com

December 8th, 2003, 07:10 PM	#3
Robert Knecht Schmidt Wrangler Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Cleveland, Ohio Posts: 1,933	Hi Alan, Panning and zooming on still photography can be done in any compositing program--Adobe After Effects, discreet combustion, Canopus Imaginate, etc., as well as many of the popular NLEs. There are also hardware devices that physically pan photographs, but this really isn't the best way to go about doing this. Twisted Mojo's Real True History has a great parody of this documentary style. __________________ All the best, Robert K S Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| The best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

December 9th, 2003, 12:21 AM	#5
James Emory Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Atlanta, Georgia Posts: 1,892	Image Panning Premiere uses a filter called Image Pan to achieve this effect. You simply pick your in & out points with key frames. VH1 uses this effect extensively in their Behind The Music and Driven series. The downside to this manipulation is that when the image is zoomed in electronically instead of optically, video pixels become magnified and edges dance until it zooms out to normal framing. Of course this is less evident with higher end broadcast formats I'm thinking because of resolution. If it's a quick move, you don't have much time to see any problems in either format.

December 9th, 2003, 09:00 AM	#6
Robert Knecht Schmidt Wrangler Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Cleveland, Ohio Posts: 1,933	The problem James refers to is "aliasing"--but the compositing programs listed above antialias resized still images. Do be sure to scan in your images at a sufficiently high resolution. __________________ All the best, Robert K S Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| The best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

December 9th, 2003, 09:24 AM	#7
Paul Tauger Wrangler Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Los Angeles (recently from San Francisco) Posts: 954	If you use Premiere for this, resize all stills to Premiere's maximum of 4,000 x 4,000 pixels, and import them as TIFF files, not JPEGs. I get liquid smooth pans, and can zoom in up to 5x without pixelation. An alternative to Premiere is a program called Imaginate, which allows such things as acceleration and deceleration, curved movement paths, perspective shifts, etc.

December 9th, 2003, 09:33 AM	#8
James Emory Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Atlanta, Georgia Posts: 1,892	Image Resizing in Premiere for Image Panning Paul. In Premiere where do you resize the image as you described? For instance if I export a still from video in the timeline as a .tif, then what do I do? Can you give me a step by step if it's not too much troubled? Thanks!

December 9th, 2003, 09:46 AM	#9
Paul Tauger Wrangler Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Los Angeles (recently from San Francisco) Posts: 954	James, sorry, I should have been more clear. I use a stand-alone still imaging editor (Photoshop) to do the resizing. I found that this is the only way to get really smooth Pans in Premiere.

December 9th, 2003, 09:54 AM	#10
James Emory Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Atlanta, Georgia Posts: 1,892	Resizing Okeedokee. Well that makes sense. If your image is high res to begin with, then when you zoom in (blow up) it will still look good. What happens if you try to go higher than 4000x4000. What does Premiere do? Thanks.

December 9th, 2003, 10:02 AM	#11
Paul Tauger Wrangler Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Los Angeles (recently from San Francisco) Posts: 954	If you try to use something larger, Premiere will choke (elegantly -- you get an error message) when you try to import the still. The higher res is not solely for zooming. Premiere's interpolation routines for scans aren't too good. If you don't resize, pans will jitter. The only problem with resizing is the timeline takes forever to display. My India video has a couple of montage sequences consisting of 20 or 30 stills in a row, all of which were resized and given the Ken Burns treatment. It can take several minutes for the timeline to display on my machine.

December 9th, 2003, 10:08 AM	#12
Robert Knecht Schmidt Wrangler Join Date: Feb 2002 Location: Cleveland, Ohio Posts: 1,933	And note that Paul is suggesting that images be downsampled in your still image editor (from a larger original scan size) to the Premiere size limit. There's no sense in upsampling them to that size if they are smaller to begin with. __________________ All the best, Robert K S Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| The best in the business: DVinfo.net sponsors

December 9th, 2003, 10:09 AM	#13
James Emory Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Atlanta, Georgia Posts: 1,892	Choking Premiere Yes, I know all about Premiere choking. It has happened to me in other situations, sometimes for no apparent reason. Thanks for the info.

December 9th, 2003, 11:30 AM	#14
Brian M. Dickman Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 148	This is also an integrated effect in Sony Vegas called "Pan & Crop". You can set in, out, and as many integral keyframes as you'd like. You can pan, zoom, and spin.

December 9th, 2003, 01:07 PM	#15
Chris Sorensen Regular Crew Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: New York, NY Posts: 61	There's also Moving Picture (www.stagetools.com). Costs $199 but handles pix up to 8,000x8,000 pixels and also has a Rotation Option will allow you to spin your moves as well as pan and zoom. There's plugins for every editor plus a standalone app.