Adjust the framing of shots with pan and scan

Use pan and scan to adjust the framing of your shots for different output formats. You can reposition, scale, rotate, and skew your image to fit best into other frame format.


Use keyframing to make adjustments within a shot or from shot to shot. For more information, see Work with keyframes.

Create a pan and scan track

  1. Drag the Pan & Scan button on the timeline to create a pan and scan track. The Pan & Scan button is on the Timeline panel, under Timeline Elements.

    Pan and scan button

    A green Pan & Scan track appears on the Timeline.

    Pan and scan track
  2. Click the pan and scan track to open the Pan and Scan panel.

  3. Select the output format from the Crop Preset menu.

    Presets

    Note:

    You can enter any other format in the Crop text box.

  4. Use the Pan and Scan widget to position, scale, rotate, or skew the image within the new frame format. The widget works like the Mask Widget. See Apply a Mask to learn more about using the widget.

    Note: The Pan and Scan widget does not have all the functionality of the Mask widget. For example, the feathering and spline nodes are not available.

    You can also apply Pan and Scan adjustment numerically in the Pan & Scan panel. Click the R button to reset to default.

    Numeric adjustments

Change pan-and-scan adjustments along a clip

The pan and scan track is a global track along the entire timeline. Any pan-and-scan adjustments affect the whole clip. Use keyframes to change the adjustments along the clip. For details on using keyframes, see Work with keyframes.

The typical workflow for making pan-and-scan adjustments along a clip consists of the following steps.

  1. Create a keyframe at the beginning of the clip.

  2. Create another keyframe at any position further along the timeline where the settings should no longer be effective.

  3. Create a dissolve from one keyframe to the next by pushing the Record Keyframe button a second time at the second position.

    Dissolve arrow on pan and scan track
  4. Adjust the pan-and-scan settings at the two keyframe positions.

Pan and scan preview options

You can choose from three different preview options from the Crop Preview menu: Normal (crop), Transparent, and Outline. Select the view that best serves your project.

Normal preview
Normal (crop) preview

Transparent preview
Transparent preview

Outline preview
Outline preview