Anchor Scale

Hi,

My name is Austin Kelley. I’m a commercial director and editor, and there’s a feature I’ve wished existed for probably 15 years: Anchor Scale.

Post-production zooms created with Scale keyframes are extremely common. For example, I may create a subtle push-in from 100% to 105% over the duration of a shot. That 5% change represents a very specific creative choice—the speed and intensity of the zoom.

Today, however, if I later need to reframe that shot for vertical, 1:1, another resolution, or simply a tighter composition, I have to adjust each Scale keyframe individually while trying to preserve that exact 5% relationship.

With open-gate acquisition and increasingly high-resolution footage, editors are scaling and reframing constantly. Social deliverables have made this even more common and more challenging.

The Solution: Anchor Scale

Anchor Scale would act as a global offset for all (Scale Only) keyframes on a clip.

For example:

Original animation:
100% → 105%

If Anchor Scale is increased by +5:

Adjusted animation:
105% → 110%

The original 5% difference remains perfectly intact, meaning the speed and feel of the post zoom remain exactly as the editor designed them.

The same would work in reverse:

100% → 105%
Anchor Scale: -10
90% → 95%

The only thing affected would be scale.

Interface

Ideally, Anchor Scale would be a simple slider located underneath the normal Scale controls, - OR - beneath Anchor Position - similar in concept to an offset control. I would not call it Scale Offset, but Anchor Scale.

The neutral position would be 0.

Moving the slider +1 would add 1% to every Scale keyframe. Moving it -1 would subtract 1% from every Scale keyframe.

So:

100% → 105%
Anchor Scale +5
= 105% → 110%

The values could update live while dragging so the editor can visually find the framing they want without touching the underlying animation.

A generous range—potentially ±500—would accommodate everything from subtle reframing to extreme-resolution workflows.

Why It Matters

The important distinction is that Anchor Scale separates framing(position) from video scale.

The existing Scale keyframes define the creative movement.

Anchor Scale defines where that movement lives within the available image.

That means an editor could freely reframe a shot while preserving the exact timing, speed, easing, and artistic intent of the original zoom.

For commercial workflows—especially when adapting a finished 16:9 edit into vertical, square, social, alternate-resolution, or open-gate-derived versions—this could eliminate an enormous amount of repetitive keyframe adjustment.

It would also make experimentation much easier. Instead of rebuilding or modifying the animation simply to see the shot slightly tighter, you could drag Anchor Scale and immediately audition different framings.

This has been one of those deceptively simple features I’ve dreamed about for about 15 years. I genuinely believe it would integrate so naturally into an editing workflow that, within a generation, editors would wonder how anyone ever worked without it.

Sincerely,

Austin Kelley