Vertical video in horizontal format: crop and export vertical?

[jeb]

I have a “vertical” video, which is a horizontal video with black bars left/right.
How do I export these videos vertically?

I’m cropping it and changing the resolution under “advanced options” to the same size like the cropping. When I export the video, it still has black bar left/right. I just don’t get it: How can an exported video with a resolution changed from 1280x720 to 400x700 can be still a horizontal video?

Please, can anyone help me.

Thanks in advance.

[Austin]

There are two levels to this:

The “Video Mode” defines the resolution of the timeline. The timeline causes all videos that are dropped onto it to be conformed to the Video Mode’s resolution. So if the timeline/Video Mode is horizontal, the timeline output will always be horizontal. Apparently, your Video Mode is still horizontal rather than vertical.

Then there is the Export > Advanced override. This does not change timeline resolution. It simply rescales the output frame before saving it into the video file. In your case, it takes the horizontal timeline output and resizes it to whatever your override values are. Since the timeline output had black bars baked into it due to being horizontal, the black bars are part of the image that is getting resized to 400x700.

For your purposes, the timeline needs to be a vertical resolution. See this manual entry and note that there are a few vertical presets already built-in. But if you specifically need 400x700, you will have to create a custom Video Mode:

Video Mode

Introduction Video Mode is the project resolution, aspect ratio, frame rate, and color space. It is important to set this as you desire at the beginning of your project. If you try to change it later Shotcut will try to retain the timing of edits, but some users have reported problems, and it is risky. Also, at this time Shotcut will not automatically adjust anything for you related to size and positioning of elements like text and picture-in-picture when changing resolution. You can think of…

[jeb]

Thank you for your help.

Still doesn’t work. If I add a custom video mode with 400x700, enterin this in “resolution” and “aspect ratio”, the video still has black bars left/right, though it just shrinks.

I’m totally new to shocut and english isnt my first language. I assume I cant explain exactly, what I want/need and this just isnt possible with ShotCut.

Thanks anyways.

[Austin]

People make vertical videos with Shotcut all the time, so it is possible. However, changing the Video Mode on an existing project can have many unpredictable effects on filters that were set up for the old resolution.

Try creating the custom Video Mode at 400x700 and starting a brand new project in that mode. Then bring in the vertical video. It should “just work” without any filters needed, unless the vertical video and the 400x700 resolution happen to not be the same aspect ratio. Then the vertical video would have to be cropped to fit a 4:7 aspect ratio which would then eliminate the black bars. This might even be the problem your current project is having. 4:7 is a very unusual resolution and aspect ratio, so I would expect some cropping to be necessary to remove black bars. That, or a pillar blur background in place of the black bars.

[jeb]

As I said. I think I just can’t explain what I want.

I have a horizontal video (16:9), which is a vertical video with black bars left/right and I just want to export this originally vertical video as a vertical video.

This 400x700 ist just the cropping, if I select only the vertical video within this horizontal video.

So, if I do it like you explain: Set up a new project with the resolution needed and import the horizontal “vertical” video, it’ll just be shrinked to fit the projects width.

[Austin]

Oh, I see. Sorry, I did not understand earlier.

We’re still almost there. Let’s say your 16:9 video is 1280x720, and you want to keep the 400x700 center portion. Make the 400x700 Video Mode as usual, and drop the 1280x720 video onto the timeline as usual. Then add a “Crop: Source” filter to the video with these settings:

This filter crops away the black bars, leaving the 400x700 center portion of the video to perfectly fit the 400x700 Video Mode. It should be a direct export from there.

[jeb]

Well, if I do that, again: The video appears shrinked, after I dropped it on the timeline… Also I can’t use the parameters on the filter. I only can enter 44 not 440. However, the video still appears way too small.

[Austin]

The video appears small because Shotcut is trying to make room for the black bars too.

I just gave 1280x720 as an example. What are the actual dimensions of your 16:9 video? If less than 1280x720, then you wouldn’t need the full 440 on the left and right crop.

[jeb]

Here you can see how the video appears too small, after dragged onto the timeline.

[jeb]

yeah, the actual dimensions are indeed 1280x720.

[Austin]

Looks like the Crop values are relative to the Video Mode rather than the source video dimensions, which seems like different behavior than usual to me somehow. I’ll have to research that.

Details aside, here are the Crop values relative to 400x700 that should work:

[jeb]

Thank you, that helped.
Also, I just hit “Center” on the filter settings and this made it perfect.

I am sorry if I was being impatient.

Have a nice day and stay healthy.

[Austin]

No worries!