Here's the scenario: I have a background image that I've created in Illustrator at 15660px wide (yes, really) and 1080px high. Why so wide? Because the background is going to slowly scroll for the duration of the video. So I export to png, import the png to Camtasia, place it on the canvas...and Camtasia shrinks the image to fit the canvas width. When I scale the image back to 100%, it's horribly blurry. Turns out this is because of a limit on how big of an image you can place.
There is a workaround for this, which can be found if you look in the "problem" threads (basically, you cut the image up into smaller chunks and then stitch it back together in Camtasia).
I'm suggesting that it should be possible to place an image at its original size without Camtasia automatically resizing it. This would make it much easier to create and use long scrolling backgrounds.
Thanks!
There is a workaround for this, which can be found if you look in the "problem" threads (basically, you cut the image up into smaller chunks and then stitch it back together in Camtasia).
I'm suggesting that it should be possible to place an image at its original size without Camtasia automatically resizing it. This would make it much easier to create and use long scrolling backgrounds.
Thanks!
Posted 11 months ago
kayakman, Champion
I don't know which version you are using, but I just achieved this in v8.6 with no workaround. I started with a video and set the editing dimensions to match it (1920 x 1080). Then I placed an image file (4300 x 1080) on a layer below it. The image file was indeed made smaller and would not resize via Visual Properties, but when I used the image handles (or click+mouse wheel) I could make the image large enough. I then set it up to animate horizontally across the screen, timed to the video length. If this is unclear, let me know and I can repeat the process for a screen capture and upload it.
To Kayakman's point: 14 seconds occupies nearly 50MB (using a 75% quality output).
To Kayakman's point: 14 seconds occupies nearly 50MB (using a 75% quality output).
(Edited)
I'm in v9. Resizing is not the issue; it's that the image is badly degraded. I think that your test image was still within the size limits that Camtasia can handle without seriously degrading the image.
kayakman, Champion
for what it's worth, I seem to be able to work with very wide images [25000 x 1080] ...
How To Work With Very Wide Image
http://www.screencast.com/t/cieEvg0LTxIv
How To Work With Very Wide Image
http://www.screencast.com/t/cieEvg0LTxIv
That's exactly what I did in v8.6, although I used an image under 25000px wide (and the controls are different). Of course, either of us would still end up with a gigantic video file if producing a clip of any serious length (and at decent quality).
Yes, that's exactly what I originally did as well. And when scaling the image back up to 100%, it's very badly degraded. I'm not the only person to experience this; there's a separate thread about this as an issue.
Then it is an issue with the quality of an image imported into Camtasia, not necessarily with sizing per se.
It's also a completely unrealistic example, Sorry kayakman, why would anyone take 100 words of text and span it across a 25,000 x 1080 in the first place? Those stroke outlines on the text looked more like blobs than high quality text to me.Your text is so massive, it masks some of the pixelation. But it's there, I promise you that it.
Try that with some smaller text.
Here, here's a 30,000 pixel image with smaller text averaging around 50 pixels high. Open this in Camtasia and tell me how great it looks.
Just right click that sliver down there and download it.
Or don't bother, look at this, here's what you'll get.
Camtasia can work images this large.
But you have to stitch image together if you want clarity.
Try that with some smaller text.
Here, here's a 30,000 pixel image with smaller text averaging around 50 pixels high. Open this in Camtasia and tell me how great it looks.
Just right click that sliver down there and download it.
Or don't bother, look at this, here's what you'll get.
Camtasia can work images this large.
But you have to stitch image together if you want clarity.
kayakman, Champion
well, the "point" of the tutorial wasn't the size of the text [I just quickly added some in to give context]; it was the SIZE OF THE IMAGE that Camtasia handled [for me]; I've worked with some very wide panorama images [from both Lightroom and Hugin] which scaled very nicely when put into Camtasia; I've had good experiences when working with photo images [they do not appear overly pixelated]; maybe small font text doesn't work as well
No kayakman, for some reason you chose to misrepresent on this one and I don't know why?
Here's a screen shot of your video.The canvas is set to 25% Zoom. It really hides just how bad the text looks.
Here's a magnified view of your pixelated text and blobbed out text outline.
I don't understand why you tell everyone this actually worked.
I created a 25,000 x 1080 image in SnagIt.I used the eyedropper to select similar colors to yours. I guessed at font size and outline size.
Here's that image at 25% canvas zoom just like yours.But my text is actually larger than yours. So it fools the eye into thinking it looks better than it does.
Let's see it at 100% zoom level.
It looks terrible.
So does yours.
Here's a screen shot of your video.The canvas is set to 25% Zoom. It really hides just how bad the text looks.
Here's a magnified view of your pixelated text and blobbed out text outline.
I don't understand why you tell everyone this actually worked.
I created a 25,000 x 1080 image in SnagIt.I used the eyedropper to select similar colors to yours. I guessed at font size and outline size.
Here's that image at 25% canvas zoom just like yours.But my text is actually larger than yours. So it fools the eye into thinking it looks better than it does.
Let's see it at 100% zoom level.
It looks terrible.
So does yours.
kayakman, Champion
well, Joe, if you say so, then it must be true
but this thread started with a concern that " ... 15660 ... images" were "horribly blurry"
I haven't found that to necessarily be the case, from, a practical perspective
I suspect you're correct that the result is not good if the image includes small font text; but again, I was just trying to share my experiences from working with photo-based panorama images that were very wide
all this back-and-forth is not worth the effort; from my perspective, I've said what I thought might be helpful; otherwise, Joe, you take it from here
I'll leave this thread with one final observation: when working with a very wide images ...
it seems to help a lot if the image is re-sized, OUT SIDE OF CANTASIA, to width-whatever vs. 1080 high; then, the result seems to scale into the canvas much sharper
again, just my 2 cents worth
have a nice evening
but this thread started with a concern that " ... 15660 ... images" were "horribly blurry"
I haven't found that to necessarily be the case, from, a practical perspective
I suspect you're correct that the result is not good if the image includes small font text; but again, I was just trying to share my experiences from working with photo-based panorama images that were very wide
all this back-and-forth is not worth the effort; from my perspective, I've said what I thought might be helpful; otherwise, Joe, you take it from here
I'll leave this thread with one final observation: when working with a very wide images ...
it seems to help a lot if the image is re-sized, OUT SIDE OF CANTASIA, to width-whatever vs. 1080 high; then, the result seems to scale into the canvas much sharper
again, just my 2 cents worth
have a nice evening
Final follow up.
I cropped my huge panorama "Cropped" not resized. To 15, 660 x 1080. It look terrible in Camtasia.
So I took smaller chunks. 10,000 x 1080. Still not very good.
9,000 x 1080.Soft image, usable but noticeably degraded.
8,000 x 1080.Looks pretty good.
7,000 x 1080. looking pretty good, fine details starting to come through much better.
6,000 x 1080. Still could use some improvement. But not much.
6,000 pixels is miles short of 15,660.
Heres 15, 660 X 1080
And here's 6,000 x 1080. if you look closely at the tree branches.Other fine details.You will see the original image is still a bit sharper. But only the finest of details.
Bottom line, anything 8,000 x 1080 was usable.
Anything larger degraded rapidly.Every additional 1,000 pixels was noticeable worse.
By my standards. Anything above 10,000 x 1080 was unusable.
I cropped my huge panorama "Cropped" not resized. To 15, 660 x 1080. It look terrible in Camtasia.
So I took smaller chunks. 10,000 x 1080. Still not very good.
9,000 x 1080.Soft image, usable but noticeably degraded.
8,000 x 1080.Looks pretty good.
7,000 x 1080. looking pretty good, fine details starting to come through much better.
6,000 x 1080. Still could use some improvement. But not much.
6,000 pixels is miles short of 15,660.
Heres 15, 660 X 1080
And here's 6,000 x 1080. if you look closely at the tree branches.Other fine details.You will see the original image is still a bit sharper. But only the finest of details.
Bottom line, anything 8,000 x 1080 was usable.
Anything larger degraded rapidly.Every additional 1,000 pixels was noticeable worse.
By my standards. Anything above 10,000 x 1080 was unusable.
(Edited)
kayakman, Champion
I'll never argue with trying to strive for perfection, but oftentimes, giving it your best shot with what's at hand, can be good enough
Example Use Of Very Wide Image With Small Font Text
http://www.screencast.com/t/A6qXWt0e
Example Use Of Very Wide Image With Small Font Text
http://www.screencast.com/t/A6qXWt0e
I took some screen shots and created a side by side comparison of what you demonstrated.
I guess to your eyes, the panoramic image is of an acceptable quality level.
Why is a complete mystery to me. If I rendered a video that looked like the image on the right.I would be looking into what went wrong. And correcting the problem.
I guess to your eyes, the panoramic image is of an acceptable quality level.
Why is a complete mystery to me. If I rendered a video that looked like the image on the right.I would be looking into what went wrong. And correcting the problem.
kayakman, Champion
beauty is always in the eye of the beholder; and yes, it's good enough for me, in most situations
this level of zoom is highly unlikely to be seen by any video viewer, and, if the scene is moving, such imperfection will probably never be noticed at all
this level of zoom is highly unlikely to be seen by any video viewer, and, if the scene is moving, such imperfection will probably never be noticed at all
I would loss clients over quality like that.
jmgarroway, the original poster. Has a problem with the quality of his images.
rg, has a problem with the quality of his images.
I'll keep this thread in mind when you address video quality in the future.
jmgarroway, the original poster. Has a problem with the quality of his images.
rg, has a problem with the quality of his images.
I'll keep this thread in mind when you address video quality in the future.
(Edited)
Well kayakman,
I don't see how you can have sharper images and better luck than everyone else does that tries.But if you insist I'm wrong or can't see what's right in front of me, so be it.
Here's my example. Here I have a 21,316 x 3696 pixel panorama I created in Photoshop.
I created a New project in Camtasia. I went with 4K project setting to give Camtasia some breathing room.
An image this large is almost 10MB as a Jpeg. To large to share on this webpage.
However, having two monitors. I can still show demonstrate what's what.
I'll start with the panorama at 9% scale in Camtasia.
The house in the red rectangle will be used as a point of focus.
In this next image,
I have the image scaled to 100% in Camtasia's . The house is very blurry and doesn't look very good.Details are hard to come by.
On the right is a 1920 x 1080 monitor. That same image is open in windows photo viewer. I positioned it as close as I could to match Camtasia's.
You can see fine detail in the original image.It blows away what you see in Camtasia.
Once again,Camtasia fails to import this large image and make it a high quality image.
As I said earlier, Premier Pro is the only software I've tested, that's even up to this task.
It's unfortunate that Camtasia isn't up to the task. But it's predictable. It can't edit 8K video either.
Regards,Joe
I don't see how you can have sharper images and better luck than everyone else does that tries.But if you insist I'm wrong or can't see what's right in front of me, so be it.
Here's my example. Here I have a 21,316 x 3696 pixel panorama I created in Photoshop.
I created a New project in Camtasia. I went with 4K project setting to give Camtasia some breathing room.
An image this large is almost 10MB as a Jpeg. To large to share on this webpage.
However, having two monitors. I can still show demonstrate what's what.
I'll start with the panorama at 9% scale in Camtasia.
The house in the red rectangle will be used as a point of focus.
In this next image,
I have the image scaled to 100% in Camtasia's . The house is very blurry and doesn't look very good.Details are hard to come by.
On the right is a 1920 x 1080 monitor. That same image is open in windows photo viewer. I positioned it as close as I could to match Camtasia's.
You can see fine detail in the original image.It blows away what you see in Camtasia.
Once again,Camtasia fails to import this large image and make it a high quality image.
As I said earlier, Premier Pro is the only software I've tested, that's even up to this task.
It's unfortunate that Camtasia isn't up to the task. But it's predictable. It can't edit 8K video either.
Regards,Joe
kayakman, Champion
jmgarroway