HookWise
Automatic zoom in/out

Automatic zoom in and out that keeps talking-head video moving

Auto Zoom cuts a long clip at each sentence, scene change or fixed interval, then gives every piece a different zoom move. The zoom is aimed at the speaker's face.

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What Auto Zoom does for you

1

Cuts where they make sense

Cut per sentence from the Whisper transcript, at every scene change, or every 2 to 10 seconds.

2

3 moves, mixed for you

Punch in, slow push in and zoom out. Mix picks the moves at random and never uses the same one twice in a row.

3

The zoom goes to the face

HookWise analyses the faces in each clip and centres the zoom around the eyes of the largest face in the frame.

4

One Undo

All the cuts and zooms land as one step, so Cmd or Ctrl+Z puts the timeline back as it was.

Auto Zoom

How Auto Zoom cuts and zooms

From one long clip to zoomed pieces

Auto Zoom is in a clip's right-click menu and in the reel inspector, below Auto cut. It starts by cutting the clip. Per sentence uses the start of each Whisper transcript line. Scene changes uses FFmpeg scene detection, the same as Auto cut. Fixed interval cuts every 2 to 10 seconds, 4 by default. Cuts that would leave a piece shorter than the minimum (0.5 to 5 seconds, 1.5 by default) are skipped.

Then each piece gets a start and end zoom. The first piece always stays at normal size. Punch in jumps straight to a closer frame, slow push in grows over the piece, and zoom out does the reverse. The pieces join with plain cuts, and the other effects of the original clip carry over to every piece.

Intensity, and working with Advance Crop

There are 3 intensities. Subtle zooms up to 108% and leaves one in every 3 pieces at 100%. Medium goes up to 115% with one in every 4 pieces at 100%. Strong goes up to 125%, and every piece after the first is zoomed. For a long podcast or online class, start with Subtle or Medium.

Keep the zoom on the face is on by default. HookWise runs an offline face analysis of each clip, reuses analyses it already has, and takes the middle position of the largest face in each piece. That point is worked out through the clip's crop. When a clip is already cropped with Advance Crop in Follow face mode, the zoom pushes toward the same face inside that crop.

What to know

Auto Zoom runs on your computer and does not use Gemini, so it needs no API key. Per sentence needs a transcript. When a clip has none yet, HookWise runs Whisper offline first, with a progress bar and a cancel button. When no Whisper model is installed, the model downloads and the transcript runs in the Queue, and you run Auto Zoom again once it is done.

A zoom crops part of the picture and enlarges it, so the bigger the zoom, the fewer source pixels are used. Audio clips and compound clips are skipped. You can change each piece in the Zoom section of the inspector with the Start and End sliders, and its reset button puts the size and zoom point back to the centre. The dialog remembers your last choices while the app stays open.

How to use Auto Zoom in HookWise

  1. 1

    Open the video in the editor

    Make sure the talking footage is on the main video track.

  2. 2

    Start Auto Zoom

    Right-click a clip and choose Auto Zoom, or use the Auto Zoom section of the reel inspector for the whole timeline.

  3. 3

    Set cuts and style

    Choose the cut points, intensity, zoom style and minimum piece length. Leave Keep the zoom on the face switched on.

  4. 4

    Click Create zooms

    HookWise cuts the clip, adds the zooms and shows the clip count before and after. Play it back and fine-tune in the inspector.

Tools often used together

Auto Reframe 9:16Vertical crop that follows faces, split screen for two peopleMulticam EditingCameras synced by audio that switch to whoever is speakingVideo to Text TranscriptOffline Whisper on your computer, about 99 languages, per-word timingMulti-track Video EditorKeyframes, 20 transitions, color grading, multicam and reel templates
See all tools

Frequently asked questions

No. Cutting, face analysis and zooming are worked out on your computer. The transcript for per-sentence cuts is also made offline by Whisper.

Yes. Open it from the clip's right-click menu and choose Selected clip. Choose Whole timeline for every main video clip at once.

The first piece always stays normal. On Subtle one in every 3 pieces stays at 100%, and on Medium one in every 4. On Strong every piece after the first is zoomed.

The zoom follows the largest face in each piece. For a two-camera podcast, use Multicam so each piece shows one speaker, or switch off Keep the zoom on the face so the zoom aims at the centre of the picture.

Advance Crop decides which part of the video fills the reel frame and can follow a face. Auto Zoom adds zoom moves inside that frame. You can use both together, and the zoom focus is worked out through that crop.

Yes. Each piece has Start and End zoom sliders up to 200% in the inspector. The whole Auto Zoom result can also be undone at once with Cmd or Ctrl+Z.

Try it on one of your own long videos

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Try Free for 7 Days See pricing