Using ArtBeat Transitions

[Julie Hill]

Hi Anthony,

I was on the Cow and ran across your post in the Sony Vegas forum. I’m not sure if this will help but the following is info we have on our site regarding using Transitions Volume 1 and Grand Openings in Premiere and FCP.

“There are sample projects for several common apps on the CDs in the Extras folder, but the basic method is that you use multiple layers in your timeline. Put your footage on the lowest layer, with a hard cut from one clip to the next. Then place the Transitions or Grand Openings color clip and matte on the layers above, lining up the completely white frame of the matte with your hard cut. Whether the color clip or the matte goes on layer 2 or 3 depends on which application you are using. Consult your video editing application’s documentation for specific details.

For instance, in Adobe Premiere, the matte goes on layer 3 and in Apple Final Cut Pro the matte goes on layer 2. Then, in Premiere you set the color clip’s layer transparency setting to “Track Matte” and it automatically uses the next higher layer–in this case the matte. In Final Cut Pro, you set the color clip’s Composite Mode to “Travel Matte-Luma” and it automatically uses the layer below it. Other applications will have similar settings.”

HTH

Julie Hill
Artbeats. Your Creative Footage Resource

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Julie Hill
Artbeats
1405 N Myrtle Road
Myrtle Creek, OR 97457
Phone: (541)863-4429
Fax: (541)863-4547
http://www.artbeats.com

[Anthony Uccello]

Hi Julie,

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, a lot of the terminology is way over my head. I looked up definitions for matte and hard cut, but it still doesn’t quite make sense for what it seems to say I need to do with Sony Vegas Pro.

I have tried putting the transition in between the two clips (overlapping) but all that does it make it transparent and you see a mix of the transition (and its black background) and the video footage.

Perhaps you could rephrase “matte” and your last paragraph for the options available in Sony Vegas Pro?

Thank YOU!!! Your help is appreciated!

[Jeremy Rasnic]

Once you have your clip that you want to be partially transparent on the top-most layer, right click on it and go to “properties”. Once there choose the “media” tab and change the “alpha channel” property to “premultiplied dirty”.

See if that does it for you. Just remember that anytime you want something to have a transparent property, it needs to be at least one track above the footage you want it to cover.

j razz

[Anthony Uccello]

Hi Jerry

Thanks for your post. I tried what you said, but unfortunately it had no effect.

Here is an example of the footage I have. An egg drops on to the screen and the yolk covers it up as it spills. However, other than the egg dropping, there is a black background. When I put this image above the clip I want it to transition over, the black background (which is part of the whole egg falling clip) ALSO goes in front of the clip and all you see is the egg falling on the black background. Is there a way to remove the black background?

[Jeremy Rasnic]

What is the artbeats file format? Avi? Mov? Mpeg? etc.

Try playing with the different options under alpha. Again, make sure it is above the track you want to show through the event with the black background.

[Anthony Uccello]

It’s a .MOV (quick time) file.

[Allen Zagel]

I’m not familiar with Artbeats stuff but I do have and use Digital Juice and Digital Hotcakes. Vegas works different from Premiere in regards to alpha and the post above mentioned how to change that.

Have you contacted ArtBeats about this?
Allen

ASX Media Group, Inc.
https://www.asxvideo.com

[Julie Hill]

Hi Anthony,

I’m still working on this for you. Unfortunately, the tech guy (Bob Hayes) that can probably answer this is out of the office today. He’ll be back tomorrow. I do have a copy of an email that Bob had sent a while ago =) to another Vegas user, maybe it’ll help.

“Place your clips on the timeline’s lowest layer with a hard cut (where two clips meet with no transition where it would be just a hard jump to the next scene, which is where you would want to use something to cover it up, such as TRA103) from one clip to the next. The layers above that will have the TRA103 effect to “cover up” the hard cut you made in layer 1. You need to find the completely white frame in the TRA103M matte clip and make sure that frame lines up exactly where your hard cut occurs. The TRA103M matte defines the transparency for the TRA103 color clip, so that the area inside the curtains shows your footage beneath. When the curtains are completely closed, it hides the hard edit from your clip #1 to clip #2.

In Vegas, the color clip (TRA103) goes on layer 2 and the matte (TRA103M) goes on layer 3, the uppermost layer. Then, in layer 3, set the Compositing Mode to “source alpha.” Hopefully these instructions will “translate” to Video Factory with only a small amount of experimenting.”

If this doesn’t help, let me know and I’ll continue to research it for you.

—
Julie Hill
Artbeats. Your Creative Footage Resource
Phone: (541)863-4429
http://www.artbeats.com

[Anthony Uccello]

Thanks Julie

Well, if Bob can’t figure it out I guess I’ll just have to grab a copy of adobe if I want to use these transitions!

[Julie Hill]

No need to do that, we’ll get it figured out!

—
Julie Hill
Artbeats. Your Creative Footage Resource
Phone: (541)863-4429
http://www.artbeats.com