Moving a clip in a drop zone

I'm designing my own splitscreen effect in motion and I'm having a problem. Maybe you all can help.

I've created some shapes that I've turned into drop zones. I'd like to have some control over what part of the clip shows in the drop zone if I crop the zone. Is there a set of controls that allow you to move the media within the drop zone without having to adjust the position of the drop zone or its cropping?

Thanks for your help!

There is a workaround for doing this. Takes some effort the first time but once you know how to do it it's very easy. Here we go:

1. Make sure your Drop Zone is clear (no image is added to it).

2. R-click the Drop Zone in the Layers Palette and choose Group. A new Group will be created with the Drop Zone inside it. Make sure the Group is 2D.

3. Select the Drop Zone and press CMD+D to duplicate it. Select the Duplicate and change its name to "Mask".

4. Select the Drop Zone again and press SHIFT+CMD+M to create an image mask. An Image Mask layer will be created under the Drop Zone layer.

5. Drag the Mask layer onto the Image Mask layer. The Mask layer will become deactivated in the Layers Palette.

6. Drag any clip into the Drop Zone layer. Then select the Drop Zone layer, and in the Inspector click the Properties tab. Now you can resize and reposition the clip inside the Drop Zone as much as you want. Actually you are resizing the Drop Zone, but because of the image mask the boundaries of the original Drop Zone don't change.

Courtesy to Andy Neill who discovered this workaround.

Oh well, while I was playing around with this workaround I found another way to do this:

1. R-click the Drop Zone and choose Group. A new Group will be created with the Drop Zone inside it. Make sure the Group is 2D.

2. Select the Group, click the Rectangle Mask button and drag a Rectangle Mask around the Drop Zone.

3. Drop a clip into the Drop Zone, select the Drop Zone and in the Inspector you will be able to reposition and resize the image.

With this method you can even change the form of your Drop Zone. Just use an Oval or Bezier Mask instead of a Rectangle Mask and give your Drop Zone any form you wish.

There is one drawback to this method: if you want to add a Camera (which changes your Group to 3D) you will have to flatten the 3D Group first. Because shape masks don't work inside 3D Groups unless they are flattened. Image masks on the other hand (as used in my first reply) do work in non-flattened 3D Groups.

That is what I was looking for. And yes, its a bit convoluted at first, but not that I understand it, I'm freed up to move on to actually designing the dang split screen. I thank you and Andy for your help!