I get a flicker on photos if I zoom in or pan. anyone know how to solve that? does it have to do with how photos are imported? what settings should I use?

thanks

 Don't import them. Create high resolution files of them, place the files on the desktop and use the Pan and Zoom effect, which will point to those files. This will give you resolution independent moves on your material.

Larry's right - Use Pan & Zoom with the 'B-Spline Catmull' option or higher.  If you're still getting flicker after that, one option is to edit the original image in something like Photoshop or The Gimp and add a very small gaussian blur - somewhere between .3 and .6 pixels.

Hi Larry, first of all what do you mean by "create high resolution files"? what resolution? and also I don't have a Pan and Zoom effect, I have Pan and Scan.  is that the same thing? and how do you tell the effect to point to the picture on the desktop.

I forgot to tell you that I also get flicker on rolling titles. what do I do about them?

Chad I will try the PS advice too thanks

 Do you have the original photographs? Can you scan them into your computer at a high resolution?

You do have a pan and zoom effect - I am not in front of the system, but it may be in the IMAGE menu of the effects list. What you do is apply this effect on a place holder (I like to use the actual image, but imported into Avid), then go into the effect and through the options locate the original photograph file, wherever you have it stored, and select it. You then will be working with the original resolution of your scan.. as opposed to the video resolution import.

The resolution is really dependant on how far you wish to zoom in.. I find 300DPI is quite sufficient, but some folks prefer higher again, depending on their use.

In regards to your rolling titles, are you in full quality (green) mode?

 What?!? You don't have Pan and Zoom on Composer? Yes you do, it's in the image group at the top. The effect editor will have a button in the upper left that will bring up the navigator. I assumed you had Photoshop and knew how to use it to create a hi-rez image. Doing so allows you to create an image with a frame much larger than TV proportions and move around on it as you please. Hopefully, someone can show you how to use Photoshop - you should learn it ASAP - it's a critical support tool for the editing process. Also, when you use pan and zoom, you will need to change the display from source to target to see you moves as you create them.

Pan and Zoom is pretty much the same thing as Pan and Scan in Avid Xpress Pro but, if you're using MC 3.0, it should be called Pan and Zoom. 

Now, what I think Larry means as to making a high rez version is the following:  If you want to do zooms and pans, you need a picture that is going to be a higher resolution than your current video resolution so you don't end up with some pixelated mess.  So if you're editing at 720p then you want a picture that is bigger than 1280x720 if you plan to zoom.  You can either scan the picture in at a higher resolution or, if that isn't possible; take it into Photoshop and enlarge it there since Photoshop should have better tools for making a higher-rez version (better sharpening, noise reduction, and artifact removers).  I can't really tell you everything you need to know about Photoshop but a quick way to get a decent high-rez image is just to increase the dimensions in the "Image Size" box under the "Image menu."  Once it's big enough, apply sharpening filter and a noise/artifact reduction filter.  This should give you something you can work with.  Once you've got a big enough file, it's time to bring it into Avid.

First create a placeholder video on your timeline.  I personally like to create a title called "image placeholder" and use that for all my images.  Once that's there, go ahead and delete the text effect on it in the timeline and drag the "Pan and Zoom" effect onto the file.  Then highlight it and bring up your "Effects Editing" menu.  At the very top left of this menu, there's a small icon to the left of the words "Avid Pan & Zoom."  Push that and you can then tell Avid what image file you want to use.  Once that's done, you can chose how zoomed in you want to be, whether you want it to move accross the picture, animation keyframes, and a bunch of other stuff.  All this is covered in the manual.  One thing you do want to pay very close attention to is the "filter" menu.  This lets you chose how much work you want Avid to put into rendering the picture and the animation.  The lower level options will render fast but give you a lot of shimmer and artifacts.  The higher level ones may take a while but will yeild much better results.  As Larry said, you want to use at least B-Spline Catmull or higher if you want your photo to look good.

 And keep in mind that with Pan and Zoom, since it is not using an Avid media file, that hi-rez image file must remain on your platform for the duration of the project, even after the effect is rendered, because only the ballistics of the effect itself are saved, NOT the image - the image is still "live" on your desktop. Further, if you were to move this project to a different platform, that image file must be moved with it and a new path defined for it on the target platform.

Larry Rubin:

 And keep in mind that with Pan and Zoom, since it is not using an Avid media file, that hi-rez image file must remain on your platform for the duration of the project, even after the effect is rendered, because only the ballistics of the effect itself are saved, NOT the image - the image is still "live" on your desktop. Further, if you were to move this project to a different platform, that image file must be moved with it and a new path defined for it on the target platform.

Good advice.  One gets so used to Avid's Media Management and how it brings everything in that it's easy to overlook this one example where it has no control over the media.

If you think you may lose it, go ahead and render the animation as soon as possible so it becomes part of Avid.

thanks a lot for the advice, the problem is that I don't have Pan and Zoom, and from what I undestand this Pan and Scan is not the same thing as it has no icon left of its name in the effect editor and it doesn't have a function to link to a photo. anyhow i looked into how my folders are set up and it's kind of a mess. this is how it is. C:>>programs>>Avid (here I have different folders like Avid Media Composer, Avid Media log and also AVX Plugins which contained the Pan and Zoom plug in not readable by Avid) from here if I go into my Media Composer folder I have another AVX2 plug ins  which contained the plug ins that I can read in Avid.  so I simply copied the plug in Pan and Zoom from AVX plug ins to AVX2 plug ins but that didn't work. so  which plug in folder is the correct one and how do you tell avid to "grab the plug ins  from a certain folder"?

I know I should reinstall everything but since I'm going to Serbia tomorrow to start shooting a documentary and everything works fine except some plug ins I don't want to risk it

I'm starting to learn photoshop which I need also for Avid dvd but for the time being I have a friend of mine who does any photoshop stuff I need.  I've only been learning  to use Avid (through this forum mainly) for a few months, photoshop is next.  thanks a lot for your advices, very precious

 The Pan and Zoom.avx file lives in the AVX_Plug Ins folder, NOT the AVX2 folder. The only thing in my AVX2 folder is Sapphire. P & Z is in my AVX_Plug Ins folder along with IllusionFX, RGB keyer and many other .avx files including the BCC continuum groups. At some point, if you want Pan and Zoom to work, you should re-install your software. It's VERY ODD that P & Z is not working on your platform. It should be.

Milco:

I don't have Pan and Zoom

That's not possible (as explained above) P&Z has been included with Avid editor products since XDV 3.5 at least.

1)  Open your Effects Palette

2)  Look under the Image category

and about the flicker on the rolling title. yes i'm in full quality. I also see the flicker on a dvd I made. this flicker happens on the horizontal part of any letter as it moves up. I guess it's some kind of interlacing problem but I don't really have a clue any ideas?

Kenton, I looked there, it's not there. I have

Blur

Color correct

Color effect

Flip

and a bunch of others but Pan and Zoom isn't there. it's in the folder but not in Avid. by the way I have 2.8

Very strange.

It should be located at:  C:\Program Files\Avid\AVX_Plug-Ins 

Do a Search on your system for AvidPanAndZoom.avx 

BTW, did you install from a disc or did you do an upgrade of some sort?  Where did you get the installer?