I'm working on a virtual choir video that will have the videos at two different sizes: 384x216 and 320x216. Project is at 1080p. Videos have been scaled down to 384x216.

My problem is that the cropping that is keyframeable seems to depend on the canvas as whole, so the cropping doesn't follow the transform motion of the video smoothly. What I really need is a keyframable Edge Crop. Any suggestions on how to handle this?

I've uploaded a sample project and image that demonstrate what I want to happen. You'll notice that the cropping on each side transitions very differently.

Why do you want to crop? Does the scaled and transformed clip need to fit a certain slot in the final composition?

You are right, the crop applies to the unmodified clip (or image). So I reversed the sequence of the effect and applied the scale (20%) to the crop effect. I then assumed you want/need to crop on both sides equally and applied the max crop to the second keyframe. You need to reset the transform effect and have different start and end coordinates for the movement.
In my test it looks probably more like what you are trying to achieve.
Hope it helps ...

Yes, they have to fit in a grid of 29 videos (6x5 except for the last row).

jonnyA wrote:Yes, they have to fit in a grid of 29 videos (6x5 except for the last row).

Ok, thanks for the confirmation. I just edited my previous post with a possible solution.

berndmj wrote:You are right, the crop applies to the unmodified clip (or image). So I reversed the sequence of the effect and applied the scale (20%) to the crop effect. I then assumed you want/need to crop on both sides equally and applied the max crop to the second keyframe. You need to reset the transform effect and have different start and end coordinates for the movement.
In my test it looks probably more like what you are trying to achieve.
Hope it helps ...

Thanks for the suggestion- that does fix the crop part. What transform values would you then use? When I try to move the object, it seems to cut off at the edge of the frame as if it were at zero (horizontally and vertically).

I'll try to request to make edge crop keyframeable.

jonnyA wrote:What transform values would you then use? When I try to move the object, it seems to cut off at the edge of the frame as if it were at zero (horizontally and vertically).

Not sure I understand that. Based on your grid data I used x=1583, y=216 as the start position, and x=112, y=0 as the end position for the transform effect. the clip/image is moved nicely into its position.
Unfortunately, the combination of crop and transform effect causes the clip quality to drop sharply (almost as if a blur effect has been applied). A bug is already logged with the developers but I don't know when it will be fixed.

berndmj wrote:

jonnyA wrote:What transform values would you then use? When I try to move the object, it seems to cut off at the edge of the frame as if it were at zero (horizontally and vertically).

Not sure I understand that. Based on your grid data I used x=1583, y=216 as the start position, and x=112, y=0 as the end position for the transform effect. the clip/image is moved nicely into its position.

I'm trying to move it to 1583,216 to 1258,0. I uploaded a new project file and render with what happens to Dropbox.

Try this project file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jkohqktkpz0hgwm/testing2.kdenlive?dl=0

I used the same coordinates and it works exactly as I wanted it except for the quality degradation. It is important to have the crop effect *before* the transform effect in the effect stack. kdenlive goes through the effects from top to bottom. You can rearrange the sequence by using the arrow up and down buttons (right next to the red dustbin icon in the effect header bar).

I have fiddled with this problem further as the quality issue is bothering me. Here is a version using alpha shapes: https://www.dropbox.com/s/p91ms7biorc09o0/testing3.kdenlive?dl=0
It is not straightforward and needs a lot of trial and error but i moves the clip from position A to B and crops the vertical edges. You may need to adjust the Size X value in the alpha shapes effect. Let me know what you think.

Thanks for taking the time do these and explaining about the effects stack.

I agree that the alpha shape looks better! I wasn't familiar with that tool.