How to make a speed ramp peak on the action instead of the dead space
Tell Vizard Agent which moment the ramp is for. It samples the source across its timeline to find where the action genuinely starts and finishes, checks a finer set of frames around that window, then locks the ramp's slow point to the take-off and the landing. It doesn't apply a curve to the whole clip and hope the peak lands somewhere useful.
What do you type into Vizard Agent?
Describe the beat rather than the effect. "Ramp this clip" is an instruction about a curve. "The ramp is for the jump" is an instruction about a frame, and the frame is what the whole thing hangs on. Say how long the finished cut runs too, because Vizard Agent sizes the ramp against that length.
Prompt
What does Vizard Agent actually do?
It finds the frames first and builds the curve second. Deciding where the action window sits is a decision about the footage, and everything after it is arithmetic. A coarse sample is enough to find the jump but not enough to place a ramp on it, so it goes back finer. In the session behind this article it:
- Checked what the source contained, sampled frames across its whole timeline and looked at them to confirm the action was the right one.
- Refined the action window so the ramp would peak on the jump and the landing of a ten-second sports cut, not on the run-up.
- Sampled that window more finely, because being half a second out is the whole failure, and locked the ramp points against those frames.
- Built the ramp around the locked points, with an optional impact sound on the peak.
- Rendered, pulled a contact sheet and checked the pivot visually rather than trusting the curve, then had the finished cut watched back for how the ramp read.
When does this not work well?
A ramp needs frames to stretch, and Vizard Agent cannot invent them. Footage shot at an ordinary frame rate has a hard limit to how far it can be slowed before the motion turns into a slideshow. Very short actions have nothing to ramp into, slowing a whip pan looks broken, and dialogue over the ramp goes with it.
Common questions
How slow should the peak be? As slow as the frame rate allows. Vizard Agent will say what that is.
Does the audio slow down too? By default. Tell Vizard Agent to keep the sound at speed if you prefer.
Why did mine peak early? Because the curve was applied to the clip rather than to the moment. Vizard Agent starts from the moment.