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Mike_Abbott
Mike_Abbott
Legend
January 24, 2023
Under Review

Rework set / scale to frame size

  • January 24, 2023
  • 14 replies
  • 3163 views
The menu commands 'Scale to Frame size' and 'Set to frame size' must win the award for the most badly named commands in Premiere Pro. I teach PrPro and they are almost guaranteed to generate a look of quizzical incredulity on any new users face when I tell them that the command with 'Scale' in its name doesn't adjust the scale parameter, but the one without 'Scale' in the name does...

It's time to grab the bull by the horns and fix this.

In addition...
Frame sizes ain't what they used to be. 16x9 isn't the one and only. We have social media: Square formats, portrait formats, whatever format you like. These commands need flexibility for different formats.

My suggestion:
These commands are grouped under a 'Transform' sub menu as follows:


'Set to frame size' is broken down into three components, named as follows:

Scale to Fit Frame
Scale to Frame Width
Scale to Frame Height

and, as a fourth sub menu entry...
'Scale to frame size' becomes 'Resample to current size'

...and this works in a slightly different way to the current version: When 'Resample to current size' is selected, the content maintains its current visual size, but is internally resampled to 100% scale - with 100% showing is the Effects Controls > Motion > Scale property.

    14 replies

    P
    Pierre Louis B.
    Known Participant
    February 18, 2023

    @MisterAdvent Do you know about the Excalibur plugin?  It can do what you need instantly.  Check out the Fill Frame gif on the main page here: https://knightsoftheeditingtable.com/excalibur.

      M
      MisterAdvent
      Inspiring
      February 18, 2023

      Here I am again, having to touch about 150 still images of varying sizes, because I still don't have a SCALE TO FRAME WIDTH command.

       

      Annoying.

       

      And this is a pro bono project so I can't charge for the hour it takes to do it all.

       

      PLEASE FIX!

      Francis-Crossman17221443
      Community Manager
      Francis-Crossman17221443Community Manager
      Principal Product Manager
      January 24, 2023
      This is a good suggestion.  I agree this needs work.
      Sergio Venturini
      Sergio Venturini
      Inspiring
      January 24, 2023
      Also, when trying to upscale a sequence already transformed, this vital and confusing setting determines wheter if you are going to spend a weekend correcting scales or not.
      Warren Heaton
      Community Expert
      Warren HeatonCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      January 24, 2023
      Mike's suggestion is a good one.

      I'd rather see it more closely match After Effects with the options being Scale to Sequence, Scale to Sequence Width, and Scale to Sequence Height. So, essentially the same thing, but using "Sequence" instead of "Frame".

      In the meantime, I'd like to see Scale to Frame Size renamed to "Scale to Frame Size (Scale value remains 100%) and Set to Frame Size renamed "Set to Frame Size (Scale value changes).

      I use both of these and would not like to lose one over the other and I'd find it helpful to have what happens plainly stated.
      B
      Baffy19
      Legend
      January 24, 2023
      I support the author of the article and it is really necessary to release flexible settings for different aspect ratios. Now it is outdated and does not work as we would like to see without self-correction and fitting media into the sequence frame.
      B
      Baffy19
      Legend
      January 24, 2023
      Set to frame size - reduces the frame to the size of the sequence only in proportion to the correct display on the screen. This changes the Scale parameter from 100% to 50%. This option does not cut pixels from the image, allowing you to get a better result if you want to scale this image back to 100%. The image remains in its original quality.
      Scale to frame size - reduces the frame in accordance with the size of your sequence, while the Scale value remains unchanged 100%. This means that this parameter cuts out extra pixels from the image, making it from the original resolution in a reduced version. You will not be able to return the image to its original state. This method is used only when there is no need to subsequently enlarge the images for the Zoom effect.
      hellopaul4
      hellopaul4
      Inspiring
      January 24, 2023
      It took me a LOOONG time to learn that "Set to Frame Size" actually means "Scale to Frame Size" and "Scale to Frame Size" is just something weird to be avoided.
      Mike_Abbott
      Mike_AbbottAuthor
      Legend
      January 24, 2023
      Great to hear this is 'Under Review'.
      C
      Christopher Noah
      Participant
      January 24, 2023
      "Scale to Frame Size" is basically only useful when working with proxy files, and then swapping out to full resolution files. With it, we are able to make scale adjustments on clips and adjust the frames how we will want them, and then swap the proxies out with camera raw clips and keep the same framing and scaling.

      In my experience, many productions are shooting at higher resolutions than the final video will be rendered in, to allow for zooming in and/or stabilization during editing. It is assumed that we can zoom in (for example up to 200% on a 4k clip in a 2k sequence) without losing image quality.

      By rasterizing the image to the resolution of the timeline, it takes away the only use I can think of for "Scale to Frame Size" as a feature. I can not imagine why anyone would use "Scale to Frame Size" as opposed to "Set to Frame Size" with the rasterization happening.

      Please change "Scale to Frame Size" so that it keeps the video scale settings the same across multiple resolution source files, but without rasterizing the image to sequence resolution (the way Resolve and Final Cut have done it for years).
      Show more replies
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