Need 'For Dummies' Idea/Solution

[MourningStar]

I have 'landscape' (e.g. 16:9/1.85:1/2.35:1 etc.) image. I want to make an mp4 with aspect ratio of 9:16 and have the image pan from left-to-right and then right-to left. The only thing I could come up with on my own was time consuming and was not happy with results. Using an image editor I set a crop size of 9:16 ratio and starting on the left-most of the image incrementally cropped/saved images until I ended on the right-most of the image. There were a total of about 50 'frames'. Using avidemux I imported the images. I did an 'append' of the same images with the 'reverse order' box checked. This accomplished my goal but the results were choppy/jerky as I expected.

This effort will not be repeated and I may end up simply using my iphone to capture a video of the image mounted on some wheeled carriage and have it just roll across the lens.

I hope there is an easier way to do this. -thank you

[ozymango]

Hi. I'm thinking you could do this pretty easily in Kdenlive -- there's a pan feature, I can't remember the name of the actual effect, dang it, sorry, but basically you just drop the effect on your image, and then you can keyframe the starting point of the image, and the ending point (i.e. where you want it to move, and at what speed) and really you just click on a box and drag the image around and no programming needed. Anyway Kdenlive is free to both Windows and Linux users, so if you haven't already installed it on your system, I'd give that a shot. Then you can just do a web-search on "kdenlive pan still image" and somebody's got a guide out there. Or actually do a search for that effect first, then see if that looks like what you're wanting to do. I *think* this is the effect you're looking for, but doesn't hurt to check first.

EDIT: I found a short YouTube video that demonstrates what I'm talking about, take a look and see if it's close to what you're wanting to do or not. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN5ydyPaL3w Now the video specifically uses this effect to zoom in and out, but you can use the same methods for panning.

[Alwyn]

A video editor is the way to go. Attach your file here or on eg Google Drive and we can do it for you, if you tell us the start and end positions for both pans.

[Alwyn]

Here's a test. 2 seconds long (50 frames), panning from left edge to right edge of a 16:9 video and back. It's going to be jerky because you're panning so far.


[Attachment 90721 - Click to enlarge]

[MourningStar]

A video editor is the way to go. Attach your file here or on eg Google Drive and we can do it for you, if you tell us the start and end positions for both pans.

Thx ...

img00.jpg = complete image
img01.jpg = start frame
img43.jpg = end frame

so, the video will start at img01, go (pan) to img43 (10 seconds) and from img43 go (pan) back to img01 for a total video length of 20 seconds.

-thank you

[MourningStar]

^
IF not too late, replace img00 with this one :

[Alwyn]

Here's 3 to choose from at 60fps.

[MourningStar]

Here's 3 to choose from at 60fps.

awesome, rock on!

That was quick - thank you so very much!

(do you know of a tutorial for this specific effect? I would like to learn and do this myself because I have quite a few projects needing this process, thank you again)

[MourningStar]

Hi ozymango - my apologies for not responding to your reply earlier. The pan.mp4 example so generously provided by Alwyn is exactly the effect I am after. Do you have hands-on experience with Kdenlive s/w and can you confirm that it will produce the exact same result? Please feel free to use the images provided. -thank you

[ozymango]

Hi ozymango - my apologies for not responding to your reply earlier. The pan.mp4 example so generously provided by Alwyn is exactly the effect I am after. Do you have hands-on experience with Kdenlive s/w and can you confirm that it will produce the exact same result? Please feel free to use the images provided. -thank you

Hi, MourningStar, I do have hands-on experience with Kdenlive and as soon as I posted my first response, I thought, "Man, it's a lot easier to show how to do this than to try to explain it, but I'm feeling lazy so maybe I'll just see if somebody has a similar tutorial I can cut and paste a link to, and save myself the work of actually demonstrating this." But I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out what somebody else is talking about when they say, "Oh, yeah, that's easy, just do blah blah blah, try searching the web for the step by step process." Thanks, guy!

So I'm gonna make myself take my own medicine here, and go ahead and actually demonstrate that yes, you can do this (I think) quite easily in Kdenlive, and the trick is, can I make a little tutorial that'll be of possible help to anybody *not* already familiar with editing in Kdenlive? Hmm, there's the challenge.

Anyway here's a link to a video I made, let me know if you can't view it, or if you can view, but still are getting stuck on some steps somewhere. Hope this helps!

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/tndpb3tc6be17y7575rzk/VH-pan-test-kdenlive.mp4?rlkey=ov...=12m9py81&dl=0

EDIT: I seem to remember somebody in the VH forums said they tried to install Kdenlive and got directed to some pay site, which is totally bogus, so do not download Kdenlive from anywhere except their official site -- https://kdenlive.org/download/

[MourningStar]

ozymango, thank you for doing this! I was able to download the tutorial to my pc. I will d/l the s/w as well, give it a shot and report back. -thanks again!

p.s. I d/l and extracted the standalone but where to find the app's .exe?

[ozymango]

p.s. I d/l and extracted the standalone but where to find the app's .exe?

In the standalone package, it should extract in one big folder, named something like "kdenlive-28.2.1" or whatever the version is, and then inside *that* folder, will be a "bin" folder, and the kdenlive executable will be there, so something like "c:\[root or some path]\kdenlive-folder-you-just-expanded\bin\kdenlive.exe." See if that works, I'm going by memory here.

EDIT: I just downloaded the latest standalone version -- kdenlive-25.23.0-B_standalone.exe -- which is really just a big zip file, and when I installed it, I installed it to G:\Projects (but could be any folder you want).

After "installing" it (just unpacking it to one big folder), the path to the executable was/is:

G:\Projects\kdenlive-25.12.0-B_standalone\bin\kdenlive.exe

Hope this helps!

P.S. Oh, yeah, important caveat -- the Windows versions of Kdenlive work very well and are *mostly* stable, but sometimes you can be doing something in Kdenlive and you'll get the good ol' "Not Responding" window in the middle of a project. Don't panic! Don't touch anything! Just wait until the system starts responding again, and 99 times out of a hundred things will resume and all is good. BUT sometimes when kdenlive stops responding, it'll just crash and close out. So definitely SAVE YOUR WORK OFTEN! Which is always a good idea anyway, especially with video projects, but just wanted to harp on that again. USUALLY when Kdenlive crashes like that, when you go to re-launch it, it'll ask you if you want to recover your last project, which is really, really nice -- but don't count on that! Save, save, SAVE! My Linux installs of Kdenlive have been rock-solid in terms of not ever crashing in the middle of a project, but I don't wanna jinx myself, so I still save after pretty much every edit.

[MourningStar]

... and then inside *that* folder, will be a "bin" folder, and the kdenlive executable will be there, ...

found it -thx

[MourningStar]

Anyway here's a link to a video I made, let me know if you can't view it, or if you can view, but still are getting stuck on some steps somewhere. Hope this helps!

Happy to report that your tutorial was great and I was able to accomplish this task with good results.

My only issues were : 1 - Upon start of app the window layout was different and configuring the windows to display per your video example was not easy. 2 - The step where you select 'position & zoom' and drag it to the timeline, the position/zoom control window would not appear. I eventually was able to have it appear but with all the fumbling around I did I have no clue how I did it.

In any case, with more time hands-on it should get easier. Again thanks!

[Alwyn]

Magix Video Deluxe method:

Goooogle Drive file.

Youtube.

[ozymango]

My only issues were : 1 - Upon start of app the window layout was different and configuring the windows to display per your video example was not easy. 2 - The step where you select 'position & zoom' and drag it to the timeline, the position/zoom control window would not appear. I eventually was able to have it appear but with all the fumbling around I did I have no clue how I did it.

In any case, with more time hands-on it should get easier. Again thanks!

Glad you were able to get it to work, and welcome to the wonderful world of Kdenlive! For a first time you're doing great, I've been working with Kdenlive for years and I'm always making windows disappear that I don't want disappeared. Also I have installed Kdenlive for Linux, and the standalone and installed versions for windows -- and each interface is different when you first start them up! There are just so many tools and windows that Kdenlife offers, that they can't fit them all on one screen, but that doesn't stop them from trying, so can make for a heck of a cluttered interface. One thing I didn't mention is that I use dual monitors when working with Kdenlive, and even then I can't quite fit everything on both screens the way I want. But yeah with a bit of practice, I'll bet you'll have things working (at least to get some basic editing down) very quickly.

And there are lots and lots and LOTS of articles and guides and videos on working with Kdenlive, you can easily spend more time searching for how to do something in Kdenlive, that it'll take to actually edit something in Kdenlive!

Again good luck and have fun!

[MourningStar]

I want to take this opportunity to thank you ozymango and Alwyn for the time and effort helping me. You are rockstars in my book, and great representatives of this community. Happy 2026!

[ozymango]

You're most welcome, and I'm glad to be of any help!

[Alwyn]

Pleasure! Enjoy.