I created a lager Photoshop file the image is 40in x 20in. When I bring it in to Avid the image is very blurry. I need to be able to push in on the image but when I get up close it’s all pixilated.  Any ideas what I can do to get a usable image that I can zoom in to and not pixilated.

Look up Pan and Zoom. It allows you to work with full res images. It has a maximum size restriction. Somewhere around 3000 pixels in either height or width

Avid handles stills differently from FCP or Premiere.

Apply the effect "Pan and Zoom" to a clip or some filler in the timeline.

Then click the options button (upper left) and browse to the still you want to use.

Keyframe scale and offset to taste.

By the way. For video you really shouldn't refer to image size as inches. Use pixels instead.

Pan and zoom is a *** to work with, but useful.  Work in UNCOMPRESSED TIFF's and try to keep them 2000 pixels on the longest side.  If you just have one in the timeline, then you can risk bigger, but (and trust me here!) if you have several, heed the above!

D

 Diesele - I agree, I can't get Pan and Zoom to keep it's keyframe to save my life. What is the secret? The same proceedure in Boris Red takes a few seconds, but once one figures out how to get P&S to work it looks phenominal and Red not so much.

To keep your motion predictable in Pan & Zoom, make sure that your Path is set to Linear, and then use the 'Velocity' options to control how Pan & Zoom treats each keyframe.  The Path setting applies globally to the whole effect, and the Velocity option can be set for each individual keyframe.  If your Pan & Zoom seems to weave like a drunken cameraman, this is usually the problem.

DIESELE:

  Work in UNCOMPRESSED TIFF's and try to keep them 2000 pixels on the longest side. 

It really depends on how close you need to go. 2000 pixels wide is really big (for SD, and even HD is some circumstances) and uncompressed tiffs use a lot of memory. If you don't need to zoom in 4X then your file dimensions can be much smaller. Also, a medium to high quality JPEG will yield excellent results in most conditions and use a lot less memory than TIFFs.

Using too much memory on P&S will produce a black frame and you'll need to restart the app.

 Keep in mind that when using pan and zoom, the source of the image is a high resolution file, usually on your desktop, NOT an Avid created media file. So, this image must remain on your system for the life of the project, even after the effect is rendered. Also, if the project is moved to another platform, that image must be moved as well and a new path defined for it.

Larry Rubin:

Also, if the project is moved to another platform, that image must be moved as well and a new path defined for it.

Yes, otherwise you'll keep getting an annoying message to "locate the image file" that is difficult to stop. The file path it's in matters as well so if you can, try to keep it the same.