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When you add an image strip to the Video Sequence Editor, it stretches/shrinks your image to fit the full output frame.

How can I add an image at its original resolution? For example, if I add a 60x60 pixel image, it should appear very small in the final 1080p render.

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  • $\begingroup$ do you want it to scale uniformly? Not that in that case clipping would occur or you would still have some empty space. $\endgroup$
    – Vader
    Apr 12, 2014 at 11:22
  • $\begingroup$ @Vader, right, I want a small image to have empty space around it (it will be set to Alpha Over and placed on top of background image). I want it to preserve the original aspect ratio of the image. $\endgroup$
    – Garrett
    Apr 12, 2014 at 20:11

3 Answers 3

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The default behaviour of an image strip added to the VSE is to scale to the render resolution set for the blend file. To change this behaviour in the way you have specified; enable "Image Offset" in the Strip Input panel on the properties bar for the selected image sequence, then use the X and Y value inputs to position the image within the output image space. You also want to set the blend type to "Alpha Over" so that the underlying strip is visible.

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ This works for the final render! But in the composite preview window things still look wrong. Let's hope they sort out this mess in a future version of blender. $\endgroup$
    – Mutant Bob
    Apr 17, 2014 at 16:12
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    $\begingroup$ It look like this issue @MutantBob is revering to is due to the "Proxy Render Size". This did work for me when I did not need the cache-proxy-trick and now with the cache it causes the problems. Now the answer of leon-cheung did work for me in the cache-situation. $\endgroup$
    – gkephorus
    May 16, 2020 at 9:57
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This is fairly easy:

  • Select the imported image/strip, then Add > Effect Strip > Transform;
  • Select the newly added Transform strip, go to the N panel, set X/Y scale by following this rule: original_res/scene_res.

For example, you current scene dimension is 1280x720, want to add a 60x60 image, you can type in 60/1280 for X scale, then Blender will calculate the scale ratio for you. Then type 60/720 for Y scale. Voila.

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ @Garrett, ah, right. Thanks for fixing the silly typo for me. :) $\endgroup$
    – Leon Cheung
    Apr 14, 2014 at 2:09
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks a lot, I've just been fighting the same issue and hit my head on the desk as to why Blender would always auto-crop or square up the image when I'm rotating it by 90 deg (portrait footage for a panorama stitching) and this made it finally return to the proper ratio just rotated. I don't get why it's not doing this by default :< $\endgroup$
    – BloodyRain2k
    May 11, 2017 at 9:26
  • $\begingroup$ For me the scene dimension was 1920x1080, and the mobile movie strip was 720x1280. For this, just applying the rule original_res / scene_res only for X was sufficient. That is, 720 / 1920 was enough. Applying to the Y cropped the top and bottom of the strip a bit. Therefore, I did not do 1280/1080. $\endgroup$
    – HelloWorld101
    Nov 3, 2020 at 10:21
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The easiest way is to use VSE Transform tool which does exactly what you need. When you apply Trasnform to your strip (simply by pressing T) it automatically scales to keep aspect ratio of input image/video. So you don't have to do any manual calculations.

Then it gets even better, because you can rotate, scale and move simply by clicking in preview window so you get instant feedback on what you've changed.

See also my question about VSE proxy and offset+crop.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for sharing that very awesome addon, although it does not directly answer my question - it fixes the aspect ratio of my 60x60 pixel image, but it still appears huge in the final render. $\endgroup$
    – Garrett
    Apr 13, 2014 at 23:36
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    $\begingroup$ @Garrett: You can simply click on the image in preview, press S and scale it as you like. Then press G and move it as you like. Though it won't help you if you want to get exactly 60x60px in the final render (you still have to do the math for that). $\endgroup$
    – elmo
    Apr 14, 2014 at 8:24
  • $\begingroup$ that is just WOW $\endgroup$
    – Bruno Finger
    Sep 5, 2017 at 8:50
  • $\begingroup$ Update for Blender 2.8: First: You need the newer release of the addon from doakey3. Next: ratio and scale adjustment no longer happens automatically - you have to press Alt-S first to reset the ratio and then use S to scale the strip to the desired size. $\endgroup$
    – Oliver Giesen
    Mar 24, 2020 at 13:27

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