Cropping clips

The Crop effect allows you to reframe the viewable area of a clip.


  1. Select the clip you want to edit.

  2. Click the Clip button below the timeline and choose Crop from the menu.

  3. In the Inspector, use the Clip tab to view and edit crop settings for the selected clip.

    For more information, see "Using the Clip Inspector."

    Item

    Description

    Position

    The drop-down list displays the current position of the video in the frame. Click to display an edit control you can use to frame your video.

    Click Match Timeline Aspect to adjust the Position controls to match the output frame aspect from the Timeline Inspector.

    Adjusting box position

    Drag the point in the edit control to set the position of your video in the frame. Double-click the point to reset it.

    When you type values in the Dimensions tab, you can set an anchor point and specify the position of the box using X/Y coordinates. For example, click the top-right corner of the anchor control and use the coordinates 0.5000, 0.5000 to move the top-right corner of the box to the center of the control.

    Adjusting box dimensions

    You can drag the corners of the rectangle in the edit control or type values in the W and H edit boxes to set the size of the frame.

    When you type values in the Dimensions tab, you can set the size of the box using W/H dimensions. Click the Lock button to preserve the aspect ratio of the box so changing the width or height will automatically update the other value.

    Adjusting box edges

    You can drag the edges of the rectangle in the edit control or type values in the Edges tab to specify the position for each edge of the box.

    Drag a corner of the rectangle to preserve aspect ratio while resizing.

    Hold Shift while dragging the corners of the rectangle to resize and adjust aspect ratio.

    Hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) to resize the rectangle from the center.

    Hold Ctrl (Windows) or ⌘ (macOS) to adjust the controls in fine increments.

    When a corner is selected, you can use the arrow keys to adjust the selected corner, or press Ctrl (Windows) or ⌘ (macOS) + the arrow keys to adjust in fine increments.

    Drag the edges of the rectangle to resize the rectangle.

    Drag an edge of the rectangle to preserve aspect ratio while resizing.

    Hold Shift while dragging an edge to resize and adjust aspect ratio.

    Hold Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) to resize the rectangle from the center.

    Hold Ctrl (Windows) or ⌘ (macOS) to adjust the controls in fine increments.

    Drag the center of the rectangle to move without resizing, or double-click the point to reset it.

    Hold Shift while dragging to constrain to horizontal/vertical/45-degree movement.

    Hold Ctrl (Windows) or ⌘ (macOS) to adjust the controls in fine increments.

    When the rectangle is selected, you can copy the position of the rectangle to paste to another clip.

    Angle

    Type a value in the box or drag the slider to rotate the crop frame.

    Flip horizontal

    Click to invert the video horizontally.

    Flip vertical

    Click to invert the video vertically.

    Zoom

    When Zoom is on, the output frame aspect ratio matches the crop rectangle you set using the Position rectangle, allowing the cropped clip to fill the output frame.

    When Zoom is off, the video is cropped using a transparent background.