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I'd like to transform a clip in the VSE. I want it to look smaller on the right side, like the example, and of course, to be keyframeable.

Example:

example image transformation

I tested the Transform Tools Add-on without success and haven't found any useful info so far.

David
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eephyne
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    Just position it (via an Image Empty) in a 3D Scene with a transparent background and import that back into the VSE. – Samoth Jul 01 '16 at 14:55

1 Answers1

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Unfortunately there is no way to do this within the VSE.

The way you can deform an image (or video) is by tracking four points and making a plane track. Then in the compositor use the Plane Track Deform Node and add the image over your background.

Now step by step.

  1. Open up the Movie Clip Editor either by changing one if the windows, or switching the layout to Motion Tracking.
  2. After importing your background (I'll assume from now on that it is an image) set the start and end frame to 1. That will make it so that when you put out the trackers, it doesn't have to track anything.
    start and end frame in the timeline
  3. CtrlLMB LMB to add the markers you will need four of them to make a plane track. (because we aren't really tracking it does not matter where they are.)
    animated gif - showing the placement of the tracking markers
  4. Select all the trackers with AA then go to the Solve tab and under the Plane Track heading press the Create Plane Track button. Then just drag the corners in to place.
    animated gif - showing the plane track

  5. With the plane track in place head over to the compositor, and set up your nodes like this.
    Three important things to note:

    1. The Plane Track Deform Node, that is where all the data from the tracker gets in to the compositor. Make sure you fill out the Camera and Plane Track fields, there should only be one of each, unless you made more then one plane track.
    2. The image to be overlayed through the plane track goes in the bottom socket of the Alpha Over node.
    3. You should not have a Render Layers node, if you do blender will try to render your 3D scene, and not just work with two images. compositor node setup

  6. Make sure your render resolution, over in the render tab of the properties window, matches the dimensions of your background image. Now just press render, or push F 12 you will get something like this.

final result

I do know about the corner pin node, and what I described above is pretty much exactly what that node is used for. Except it is a pain to use, this method is much easier to position.

David
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    Or bring the image as plane on the 3D scene deform it there (or set the camera to the correct perspective). then create a scene strip with alpha over and render both of them together. –  Jul 01 '16 at 15:32
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    true, but you don't get the interactive real time distorting of the image. – David Jul 01 '16 at 15:33
  • thats an awesome answer, I did know about using 3d scene but I did'nt found it really easy to use. this one is way more close to what I want. Thanks – eephyne Jul 02 '16 at 07:32
  • for using in vse i simply did not add the bg for having a transparent one, and added the scene in the vse, it do the job, I just miss the preview but I can work with that. But I have another issue, the plane track is keyframable but not the same way other things do, If I move it at frame 100, its not moving gently from key 1 to key 2 it just wait frame 99 and at frame 100 it change. Is there a way to use the "classic" keyframe system ? (i key did'nt work) – eephyne Jul 02 '16 at 08:00
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    Or you could use openGL render of 3D scene and hooks on the verts of the plane for real time animated distortion. This will play in the VSE assuming you have transparency checked and alpha over with openGL active in preview window. Only drawback is that you have to render it via the openGL render button. Pretty fast though. – 3pointedit Jul 02 '16 at 12:22