Preserve letterbox when using Ken Burns

I have I clip where I have applied a Ken Burns zoom. But when the clip is zooming I lose the letterbox. Key framing the letterbox is not an option since I can't sync it. Have tried several times. Also the I cant increase the border size to match my zoom.

Is there any way to preserve the letterbox? Perhaps share the final project in 2.35.1 with Compressor?

I take it the clip has a hard letterbox matte built into it? If I read this correctly, when you're trying to zoom into it, the entire image grows bigger, including the matte. Not sure if that's what you mean by 'losing the letterbox.'

If this is the problem, you can make the clip into a compound clip and apply the letterbox effect onto the compound clip. Now go inside the compound clip and do the Ken Burns on the clip inside. You are applying the matte to the compound clip container but doing the zoom on the actual clip inside.

I'm not sure what a hard letterbox matte is. But I used the letterbox effect in FCPX.
Well, when I'm zooming in the letterbox disappears. So yes, the image grows bigger, including the letterbox. I want the letterbox to stick to the zoom or follow it. In my attempts the letterbox is attached to the edge of the clip, so when zooming it disappears.

I will try your suggestion tomorrow and see what happens.

Thank you for your help!

Edit:
Couldn't go to bed without trying. It was not possible to do a Ken Burns inside the compound clip, but I did a transform with keyframe. Now it works. Not quite sure the technology behind this, but it works!
Thank you!

OK, here's what you do.
Add an " Adjustment Layer " clip above your KB effected clip. Apply the letterbox matte to that.

Another problem. When adding the camcorder effect on my clip, parts of the camcorder disappears between the letterbox. How do I fix this? It's not possible to make it smaller, the camcorder.

This should solve both of your problems. Put your ken burns clip on the primary storyline. Go to generators and place a black color solid as a connected clip covering the entire clip. Put a mask filter on the color solid and match the mask to your letterbox. Basically you should end up with a strip of black at the top and bottom of the viewer. Go into the ken burns clip and turn off the letterbox effect. Now place your camcorder filter on the color solid. If you have the camcorder filter on the ken burns clip, turn it off. This should work.

Nope, did not do it. The difference is that I get the camcorder on top of the letterbox, not under it. The camcorder is still to wide.

Neguah wrote: Nope, did not do it. The difference is that I get the camcorder on top of the letterbox, not under it. The camcorder is still to wide.

Download and install this free adjustment layer

blog.alex4d.com/2012/03/19/adjustment-layer-fcpx-effect/

Remove all the effects from the base video layer. Put 2 adjustment layers above it. crop the top layer, put the camcorder effect on the one below, do your moves on the base layer.

What Plysat said. You don't even need to download the adjustment layer. Just but a basic title above the solid generator you should now be using to make your letterbox. Erase the word title from the title layer, so that it is blank. Put the camcorder effect on the empty title layer. Go into the video tab of the title inspector and slide the scale slider down until it fits inside the letterbox.

Seriously, it won't work. Either I'm doing it wrong or it can't be done. The camcorder effect is still to big. The only thing I can adjust sizewise is the red dot and "REC".

Not the controls in the effect. Adjust the size in the transform controls of the layer. So that the entire layer shrinks.

Daniel Rutledge wrote: Not the controls in the effect. Adjust the size in the transform controls of the layer. So that the entire layer shrinks.

Ahh, that makes sense!
Will try that!

Why do I need the solid generator? What's its function?
I put a basic title above my clip. Added the camcorder to the basic title. Finally I played with the crop sllides in the video section of the basic title until the camcorder fram got small enough. But I couldn't get anything else on the effect to work, such as the amount, size of REC, battery level and scanlines.

The solid is to create the letterbox effect.try creating a new project with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Do what you need to do in there. Turn your sequence into a compound clip also with a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, and then copy it into a 16:9 project. Either that or do it in motion or after effects.

Thanks for your help!
I will save this tread for future projects. I'm done with the one with camcorder effect. Didn't have time to try your last tip.

I'm back.

Have a lot of timelapese-sequences and instead of render the clips to a video, I added all the images to my timeline and made them into a compound clip. I've added a letterbox and I want some pan and zoom. But when I'm adding pan and zoom to the compound clip the letterbox is also moving. Adding the pan and zoom to the clips inside the compound clip is not an option since it is 300 images. The render time takes forever. Is there any other way to preserve letterbox while pan and zoom a compound clip with 300 still images inside?

The two solutions I recommended last time should work. Either use black color solids to create letterbox bars at the top and bottom of the screen or work in a 1.85:1 sequence and then export to 16:9 and choose to letterbox at that point.

Daniel Rutledge wrote: The two solutions I recommended last time should work. Either use black color solids to create letterbox bars at the top and bottom of the screen or work in a 1.85:1 sequence and then export to 16:9 and choose to letterbox at that point.

When it comes to the 1.85:1 sequence/timeline, I forgot about this, and now I have a lot of clips in my timeline, so it's a lot of work starting a new project. But I'm guessing this will work, however, I can not decide the thickness of the bars with this one.

I tried the solids to create letterbox, but it won't work. After adding the images to my timeline, I have to scale the compound clip to get rid of the bars on the side of the images. When doing that I lose parts of the image both on top and bottom, so I adjust the image either up and down. When adding the letterbox or cropping or the solids the effect is not centered. I manually need to center the bar for each clip(compound). This was absolutely not accurate. I might just render the sequence in After Effects to get a video.

Thanks for your help, Daniel!

To make your project 1.85:1 you don't need to start over. You should just be able to open the project settings and change the aspect ratio. As far as the color solids go, this is a basic compositing concept. Put the solids as connected clips above the clip you are animating. They should not be inside the compound clip you are animating. To find the correct placement for the bars: put a video clip on the timeline, apply the letterbox effect to it. Place two black color solids above it, then adjust the color solids so they match with the desired letterbox. This all works.

Use an Adjustment Layer (blank title template) to add the letterbox.

Or, create a generator that has an adjustable letterbox, and place it over the whole Compound Clip.