Re-sizing while keeping aspect ratio?

[eadams Profile]

Many effects contain a Place and Merge node (example: Stacked photos landscape format 003 by andrewb2012).

I'm trying to figure out how to keep the aspect ratio when re-sizing the stacked images (either in the Effect Editor or in the Effect itself). Other imaging software programs I have used keep the aspect ratio of the image if the Shift key is pressed when dragging a corner of the image to enlarge or shrink it. I haven't been able to get this to work in SPE, but I'm sure it must be possible.

In the Place and Merge Node there are three different Transfer Scale settings (Change Aspect Ratio, Fix Aspect and Clip and Fix Aspect and Pad), but no matter which setting I select, I can't seem to re-size the image without distorting it. What am I doing wrong?

[admin]

Those settings describe what happens when the effect is applied to a different picture. The Place and Merge node obviously has to scale with the picture otherwise overlays would end up tiny on large pictures, but in a completely new picture the width and height could both have scaled by a different amount, so those settings are to set that.

You can maintain aspect ratio in the composite tool by holding down shift while dragging the corners. Unfortunately this doesn't work in the effect editor, but you can do it in the composite tool then merge the composite with an effect you're working on.

Tony