Crop, trim, and resize video

Adobe Media Encoder provides the following editing options that let you crop and trim video clips before encoding them:

Cropping
lets you alter the dimensions of a video clip. You can eliminate areas of the video to emphasize a particular focal point within the frame, such as highlighting a character by removing ancillary imagery or removing unwanted backdrops.

Trimming
lets you edit the beginning and ending points (the in and outpoints) of a video. For example, you can adjust the trim of a video clip to begin playback 30 seconds into the full clip, removing unwanted frames.

Resizing
lets you modify the width and height of the video frame. You can specify a frame size in pixels or as a percentage of the original image size.

  1. Select a video you want to crop, trim, or resize.

    To select a video in the encoding list, click the video name in the video encoding queue.

  2. Select Edit > Export Settings.

    The Export Settings dialog box is displayed.

  3. If you haven’t yet specified encoding setting for the video clip, do so now. To learn more, see Encode video and audio with Adobe Media Encoder.

  4. The crop and resizing controls are located in the upper left corner of the Export Settings dialog box, above the video preview.

  5. Enter values for the right, left, top, and bottom edges to crop the video, or use the Crop tool button  to visually adjust the dimensions of the video. Guides in the preview window indicate the cropped area.

  6. Click the Crop Proportions pop-up menu, and select an aspect ratio for the crop rectangle.

  7. Click the Output tab to preview the cropped image. From the Crop Setting menu, choose one of the following:

    Scale To Fit
    To eliminate letterboxing and pillarboxing resulting from cropping, or from using video of different pixel size.

    Black Borders
    To allow letterboxing or pillarboxing if you resize the target dimensions larger than the source video.

    Change Output Size
    To automatically set the frame height and frame width of the output to the height and width of the cropped frame. Choose this setting if you want to export content for use with Flash Player or other web applications without black borders such as those used with letterboxing or pillarboxing.
    Note: The minimum size to which you can crop an image is 40 pixels by 40 pixels.

  8. To set the in and out points (the points at which the video begins and ends), drag the in and out point markers below the scrubber bar until you finish adjusting the video clip size.

    The video preview window lets you visually identify beginning and ending frames where you can trim the video clip. You can also use the elapsed time counter (located in the Trim section of the dialog box) to locate specific points in time where you can trim the video clip.

  9. Preview the video by dragging the playhead over the scrubber bar to ensure that it plays appropriately.

  10. When you finish cropping and trimming the video, you can add cue points, further modify the export settings of the video, or click OK to return to the main Adobe Media Encoder dialog box.

    If you are ready to encode your video clips, or want to add additional source video clips to encode, see Encode video and audio with Adobe Media Encoder.

    Note: When you encode the video, the original source video clip is not changed. You can always re-encode a video clip and specify new settings if your initial attempt does not produce the results you want.