Cropping full screen footage to match widescreen footage

[Sand3]

I'm trying to use footage from both the series and movie of an anime and I want to crop the video on the series footage so that it looks widescreen and doesn't break the visual flow. I don't want to just squish it, I want to cut off the top and bottom of the image. Is there a simple way to do this in Virtualdub similar to the 'resize' filter? I know what dimensions I need to match.

[post-it]

. the secret is quite simple actually however, the trick is knowing "where" to keep
the main character located on the screen:

from her back its pretty easy to notice the amount of space.
the problem is that she is off center and too big for the scene!

. this is the danger when cropping a 4:3 to fit a 16:9 size.
How you would do it is quite simple:
1) de-interlace
2) resize to the size you need.
2a) after you have resized, now you can CROP the unwanted parts
-- and here is where you can have a little fun
.. .. by moving the cropping locations up and down, you are creating scenes
that are totally original to that series.

. say that you want to show the wrist to the head, no problem.
. say that you want to show that 16:9 area slowly scanning-up her body
as her wrist leaves the screen more of her head and face are now showing.
. this will need to be done frame-by-frame but it looks great.

. most 4:3 conversions to 16:9 never take advantage of this scanning affect.

give it a try; you might start a trend

[Scintilla]

I don't want to just squish it, I want to cut off the top and bottom of the image. Is there a simple way to do this in Virtualdub similar to the 'resize' filter?

Add the Resize filter first (if you do need to resize), then highlight it on the list of currently added filters and click the "Cropping..." button.

If you don't need to resize the video first, then do the same thing but with the Null Transform filter instead of Resize. (As its description states, the only reason the Null Transform filter exists is to allow cropping without any other filters.)

Or, if you don't mind using AVISynth, there's always the Crop() command there.

[Savage Frog]

I'm trying to use footage from both the series and movie of an anime and I want to crop the video on the series footage so that it looks widescreen and doesn't break the visual flow. I don't want to just squish it, I want to cut off the top and bottom of the image. Is there a simple way to do this in Virtualdub similar to the 'resize' filter? I know what dimensions I need to match.

I don't have Virtualdub, I crop video using VidCrop - it's a very easy-to-use tool. You can try it as well ^_^

[LoLoka]

Just create an avisynth script and u can crop it there it one go, tough doing it as post-it said is really cool, fun, and lets u create scenes that u might like better, it does take a lot of time, so in case u just want to do it in one go without hav ing to spend much time u can do it that way..
If ur source is .avi u start like this ur script

avisource("the whole path goes here till ur file.avi")...if ur source is not avi u can check This guide for more info about avisynth and scripts to import footage, etc...
then, to crop ur footage just add the following line..

Crop(Left,Up,-Right,-Bottom)

Where the numbers u put are what u want out..not the output..if u don't want to change anything on one specific side just put 0..

and in case ur source is interlaced u probably want to make it progressive...there's a lot of scripts with which u can deinterlace and which one u use depends on ur source..u can check this guide for info about interlaced and progressive sources as well as more about cropping and aspect ratios..then if u just advance further there's also some more about cleaning up footage..
remember to save ur script as .avs...then just open it in virtualdubmod and save ur footage in Lagarith Lossless or import it directly to ur editing software if u can..
by the way...i recommend u to put the scripts to deinterlace and clean whatever u might want to clean before the one to crop...

As another option, tough its not the best choice, you can always "crop" it while editing it in case u don't have any other choice..For example..if ur using Vegas u can go to the Pan/Crop window, select the widescreen ratio and move it to where u want...tough this will make rendering ur video waaay slower and the quality is not gonna be the best one

Hope that helps a lil bit
I'm kinda new in here so I don't know much but i've been investigating a lot recently and cleaning up my footage..