How to rotate images while they are distorted

Help/How To
1

I am trying to add a diagonal red line to my video. I added a red box image to the playlist, added it to a video track, and then applied the filter “Size, Position & Rotate“. I then wanted to make the red box thinner vertically to turn it into a line. I discovered that you can do this by setting the size mode to distort. This brings up a knob that you can use to squeeze the box down into a line.

But now when I go to rotate it, the box becomes this weird shape. (pictured below)

How can I rotate an image that has had it’s dimensions changed in this way?

image
image1377×471 154 KB

2

Hi @Golden_Gear

Instead of using an image to create your red line, try a color clip instead

  • In the Timeline toolbar, click the Generate button and choose Color.
  • Select the color of your choice.
  • Send the color clip to the Timeline, above your main video.
  • Add a Crop: Rectangle filter to the color clip.
  • Edit the Size parameters to create your line.
  • Click the Transparent button.
  • Make sure the color clip is centered on the screen;
  • Add a Size, Position & Rotate filter and use it to rotate and position the line.

1 Like
3

Use Generate > Drawing/Animation

4

This certainly helps with the present issue. I can use this to make my diagonal red line, but there is a deeper problem that I am trying to address.

What if I had a complex image. Like an image of someone’s face and I wanted to rotate it to a certain angle. Not as a procedural animation, but as just a static rotated image that stays still on the screen?

5

In that case you wouldn’t need to use the Distort size mode.
Just leave the Size, Position & Rotate filter on the Fill mode. Then resize, reposition and rotate the image.

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6

Forgive me, I forgot to mention that I did still want the image of a face to be distorted to a degree. But I would want it to maintain a rectangle shape and not turn into a rhombus like it did in my original post.

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7

Hi @Golden_Gear - Here’s how I just did it - by distorting the image, putting a colour clip behind it (you can use any colour that isn’t a colour in the image itself) , and exporting the frame. Then I re-imported, and used the ChromaKey filter to remove the colour background. You can then rotate the image without it turning into a rhombus!

This demo is very quickly done. No audio. I hope you can follow what I was doing. Hope this helps!

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