vegas 7 / inserting arrow pointer in highlight film

[Mike Kujbida]

The Wingdings font set has an arrow in it that you could use for this purpose.
You could also make your own arrow using any paint program.
Make the background transparent and save it in PNG format to preserve the transparency.
Add the arrow to a new track above your video track in Vegas.
Open the Pan/Crop window for the arrow to size and position accordingly.

[Douglas Spotted eagle]

If you have either version of DVD Architect installed, you have lots of arrows that are already png files as well. Transparency is there, so just use Pan/crop to size and rotate.
I prefer masks to arrows, myself.

Douglas Spotted Eagle
VASST

Certified Sony Vegas Trainer
Aerial Camera/Instructor

[Eric Pruitt]

Thanks, I did it and it came out well. Thanks for the help

[Eric Pruitt]

Actually, I could use some help on how to do this in DVD architect. I did in Vegas by using a wingding font and colored it but it was very labor intensive moving the pointer to the correct location, it makes no sense when moving a font because the pointer is backwards and to get to the correct location on the film it has no correlation to the final location of the pointer over the film…if that makes sense. Would it be easier in DVD architect ?

[Mike Kujbida]

“Actually, I could use some help on how to do this in DVD architect.”

I think Douglas was referring to using the arrows found in DVD Architect, not actually doing it there.

…it was very labor intensive moving the pointer…

Yes, It is a time-consuming process to do this AND have it look good. You need to decide where to draw the line time-wise (so to speak).
This is where the use of keyframes comes in very handy.

…the pointer is backwards…

Use the tools in the Pan/Crop window to rotate it any way you want.

“Would it be easier in DVD architect ?”

Nope. Vegas is the right tool for the job here.

[Eric Pruitt]

I tried that, and the arrow font in the background didn’t move but the layer thing dotted line F in front did ?

[Helmuth Ramirez]

Have you tried using motion tracking? I’ve found it gives a lot more flexibility when moving things around (similar to Scale and Position in Premiere)