You can improve the look of your video in Rush by cropping, changing the size of an image and by repositioning the clip's action in the frame.
I'll create a new project and give it a name.
I have a Media folder on my Desktop, so I'll quickly select these clips in the order I want them to appear in a new sequence and press Create.
I'll select the first clip in this sequence and then make sure the playhead is right over the primary action or the subject.
In this case, it's a moving airplane.
Now, I'll go to a Crop and Rotate to open the Transform panel.
The basic controls let you adjust the Position, Scale and Rotation of the clip.
I like to start with Scale because that will affect how I want to position the subject in the frame.
With Maintain Proportions checked, I'll drag the Width slider to the right to increase the size of the image.
You can also type a numeric value and press Return.
Unchecking Maintain Proportions lets you adjust the Height and Width independently allowing me to stretch or squeeze the image.
Before adjusting position controls, I'll move the playhead again so it's parked right where the primary action ends in this clip.
In this case, that's where the plane leaves the frame.
Now, I'll click the image in the Preview Monitor and adjust the monitor size to make sure I can see the thin blue boundary that outlines the edges of the clip.
I don't want the action of the plane to end too soon so I'll go to the Vertical Position controls and drag the slider left to raise the video image higher in the frame.
As I drag the Vertical Position slider, I make sure the bottom corner points end up below the bottom of the frame, so my video fills the frame and there won't be black at the bottom of the clip.
I can see this position change bought me another second of action before the plane leaves the frame.
I'll drag the Horizontal Position slider to the left too making sure the plane stays fully visible in the frame and that the blue boundary lines stay just outside of the image area.
Rotation controls allow you to spin the clip up to 180 degrees in either direction.
When you rotate a clip, you may need to readjust the Scale settings to keep black from showing around the edges of the frame.
The original video files are never permanently changed so you can restore the image anytime by pressing Reset to Default.
Here's a cool tip: you don't even need to open the Transform panel to change Scale and Position.
If the clip is selected in the sequence, just click on the Preview panel and drag the clips white corner point or edge point to change the scale.
Drag near the center of the clip to change its position.
Place your cursor near any white corner point or edge point until you see the Rotate Tool, then click and slowly drag to adjust rotation.
You can always press Command or Control Z a few times to undo these changes.
Let's look at the advanced controls in the Transform panel.
I always reset the Basic controls before cropping.
Under Crop, I'll type a value of 12 and press Return for both the Top and Bottom to create a widescreen look.
I want to continue this widescreen look in the next clip.
In this clip, the camera pans and tilts from the city skyline up to the subject's faces.
Their heads are fully visible when the playhead is about a quarter of the way into the shot.
I'll repeat what I did for the last clip and apply a value of 12% for Top and Bottom cropping.
Uh-oh, it now looks like I've cropped off these guys heads.
If I drag the playhead, you'll see their faces eventually come back into frame, but not until playback is halfway through the clip so I'll try something different.
I'll reset the Advanced controls and instead of taking 12% from the Top and Bottom of the clip, I'll take 24% from just the Bottom of the image.
Now, I'll have to adjust the Vertical Position of the image, so it matches the previous clip.
I'll center this image by typing a vertical value of 670.
You might wonder how I figured that out.
I'm no mathematician.
I used the Opacity controls.
At the bottom of this panel, under Appearance, I'll slide Opacity left about halfway until the image darkens.
Back in the sequence, I'll drag this clip up and to the left and drop it on top of the previous clip.
Then I'll play with this clip's Vertical Position until the two clips are perfectly aligned.
I'll reset Opacity back to 100.
At this point, I could feather the edges and change Basic Scale and Position settings to create a picture in picture.
But that's not what I have in mind, so I'll press Command or Control Z to undo, then drag this clip back to its original position in the sequence and play across the cut point to check my work.
Practice adjusting the scale, repositioning and cropping some of your own clips in Rush.
