Applying the Ken Burns effect
is a great way to add movement
to your still images,
or even simulate camera moves in your video.
While its very simple and easy to use,
the controls available for the Ken Burns effect
in Final Cut Pro are very limited.
When you need a little more control,
instead of using the built in Ken Burns tool,
the same effect can be achieved
by using Final Cut Pro’s transform tool.
Hey guys, whats up.
This is Serge, and welcome back
to my channel for another tutorial.
Before we get started,
I just wanted to encourage you guys
to ask any questions you have in the comments below.
I will try and get to all of them,
and if your question requires
more than a simple answer,
I may use it for a topic for one of my future videos.
So, keep the questions and suggestions coming.
When you apply the Ken Burns effect
to an image or a video clip,
your options are fairly limited.
You pick the start frame,
and your end frame,
but the rest of the effect is automated.
The effect is applied to your entire clip,
so you can’t choose the speed of your move,
you can’t pause on a specific frame,
or add multiple directions.
There is a workaround that lets you
perform some of these moves on a still image,
but it doesn’t work on video clips.
What you can do though,
is add a Ken Burns effect
by using the transform tool,
which gives you a lot more control over it.
Lets take a look at the clip down in our timeline.
First, let’s set the playhead
at the start of the clip
and open the transform controls
in the viewer by pressing Shift T.
We’ll start with a full shot,
then scale in on our subject.
With your playhead at the start of the clip,
set a keyframe here to the transform parameter
by clicking the keyframe button in the top left corner.
Next, move the playhead ahead about three seconds,
and scale in on the clip
by clicking and dragging out on one of the
corner buttons in the wire frame.
Using the corner buttons
will keep your clips aspect ratio,
and will not distort your image.
Use the center button to re-frame your image.
Just this alone already
makes the transform tool more versatile
than the Ken Burns tool,
because when using the ken burns tool,
you must apply it to an entire clip.
Using the transform tool,
we were able to simulate our camera move
for only part of the clip.
But there’s more.
Lets pause for a second
and add another camera pan to the same clip,
something that cannot be done
with the Ken Burns tool.
Move the playhead ahead about one second,
bring up the transform controls,
and add another keyframe by hitting the keyframe button.
Move the playhead again,
and reposition your clip to simulate a camera pan.
You can repeat this as many times as you want.
What I’ll do is scale my clip back down
to the original size towards the end of my clip.
If you can’t see the control handles,
you can zoom out on your clip in the viewer.
You can also adjust the size and position of your clip
in the inspector by either using these sliders,
or manually entering the values.
Lets turn off the transform controls
and take a look at our clip.
The simulated camera moves
still seem a little bit off.
It seems a little shaky and unstable.
In one of his webinars,
Larry Jordan calls this the drunken sailor effect,
because it looks like a drunken sailor
is operating the camera.
This is because by default,
Final Cut Pro ads smoothing to your keyframes.
But there is a way to fix this.
Bring up the transform controls again
by hitting the transform button.
Now in the viewer,
individually select each keyframe,
control click it,
and instead of smooth, select linear.
If, like mine, your first keyframe
is hiding behind your last keyframe,
you can temporarily drag it out of the way,
set it to linear, and drag your keyframe back.
Lets take a look at our clip now.
Without the smoothing turned on,
the simulated camera pans and zooms
are much more precise,
and no longer look like they
were filmed by a drunken sailor.
Depending on your needs,
using the Ken Burns tool
may be the easiest method for your clips,
but if you need more control,
using the transform tool may be your answer.
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Thanks for watching,
and I hope to see you back here next week.