Andrew Lenczycki
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COW Coins
6
VEGAS Pro Coins
Forum Replies Created
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Ryan,
I had a quick go at it, using only Vegas Pro 10. Much like Graham’s sample, this is what I imagine you’re talking about.
If this is close, let me know and I can tell you how I did it. Part of what helps to “sell” the effect, is sound effects. I didn’t take the time to add any, but I’ve found a film projector sound that I would add to this to help sell it.
Andrew Lenczycki
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You would do this using Track Motion on the header for each video track:
Put Video1 on Track 1, Video2 on Track 2, directly on top of each other.
Press the Track Motion button on the Track 1 header to open the Track Motion window. Set the Position|Width and Position|Height to 1/2 the current dimensions (which should be 1280 x 640) or 640 & 320. This will make Video1 “half size” to fit onto your 1280 x 720 screen. You also need to adjust the Position|X from 0 to -320 (which moves Video1 over to the left side of the screen).
Set the exact same things in Track Motion for the Video2 on Track 2, EXCEPT set the Position|X to 320 (not -320). This will move the Video2 over to the right side of the screen.
If you’ve done everything right, you should see the following:
Hope this helps.
Andrew Lenczycki
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Is it possible you have the button above the viewing screen turned “on” which won’t show any FX as applied? This button is to the left of the Preview Quality button and has a small square with a black circle on it, the left side of the square is blue, the right is white. This button allows you to quickly turn on and off the viewing of your project with the FX on or off.
Andrew Lenczycki
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Tony,
I’m not familiar with the Tascam USB-122 hardware. To get help with that, I would suggest you start a new thread, as the more knowledgeable guys that can help you may not read down into this thread.
Andrew Lenczycki
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Tony, I’m not sure you’re truly nesting your two projects. I give a detailed description of how to do this in the thread above.
When you have gotten Part 1 completed (which has extensive edits, overdubs, volume changes and various video effects applied), save that as Part1.veg (or your filename of choosing). Do the same with your Part 2 project. Now open a new instance of Vegas (I assume you are using some version of Vegas PRO – I have 10 & 12), and simply drag the two .veg files (Part1.veg and Part2.veg) into your new project (which will become your Master). ALL of your edits, volume changes, etc. should be encapsulated in the (Part1 and Part2) .veg files, which will only show up as a single video track and a single audio track (assuming you have audio on each). If you find that you need to “tweak” something in Part1.veg, simply right-click on the Part1.veg file in your Master Vegas project and select Edit in Vegas (Part1.veg), which will open a new instance of Vegas in which your Part1.veg file is in it’s fully expanded format. From there, make edits needed, then save the Part1.veg file. You can close this instance of Vegas, and when you return to the Master project, the Part1 edits will be incorporated into this nested project.
The more DIFFICULT way of doing this is to create an empty track for each track used in Part1.veg (as an example, if you have 6 video tracks and 4 audio tracks, you would duplicate all of these in your Master Vegas project). Next, select the first event in each of the tracks in the Part1.veg file, then right-click and select the Select Events to End menu option, then right-click again and select Copy. Now go to the Master project, select the first (empty) track, then right-click and select the Paste option. This should paste all the tracks copied from Part1.veg into the Master project. This is a little bit more trouble and finicky than just using the true nesting method.
Andrew Lenczycki
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After learning so much from several of the experts that regularly contribute, it’s nice to able to help someone else for a change!
Andrew Lenczycki
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When I do this, the left hand side of the video output screen will slowly drift in that direction, eventually taking it partially or completely out of view. So, pan/crop works perfectly. But the original location of the frame (ie, left hand side of the output window) is lost as soon as the panning starts.
If I am understanding the above correctly, it sounds like you have another Track Motion keyframe (possibly much farther down the timeline) that is causing the “drift”. Press the Last Keyframe button on the bottom of the Track Motion window. If it jumps to another keyframe (other than your initial one positioning the frame on the “left”), there’s your culprit.
I would expect Track Motion to compensate for the pan crop settings, so that while I pan left across a frame, track motion compensates in the other direction, so that, in the video output window, it remains in exactly the same position.
There is no direct linkage between the Track Motion keyframe(s) and any Pan/Crop settings so there will be no “automatic” compensation, you have to set up your keyframing in Track Motion AND Pan/Crop correctly. Sorry, that’s just how it works.
Andrew Lenczycki
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Your Pan/Crop window is scrolled down – what setting do you have for your Preset (at the top of the Pan/Crop window)? Examples are (Default), 1:1 Square aspect ratio, 4:3 Standard TV aspect ratio, 16:9 TV aspect ratio, 1.85:1 Academy aspect ratio, or (Untitled)?
Also, I notice that your Size About Center button on the left side of the Pan/Crop window is not enabled. To have pictures show up correctly in the video output, I have both the Lock Aspect Ratio and Size About Center buttons enabled, then select the type of output I am going to have in the Preset box at the top (i.e. Preset to 16:9 TV aspect ratio if I’m creating a Widescreen DVD project). I have run into instances where a picture (or a group of them) have the edge slightly cropped on the left and right side like it appears you are experiencing. What I have done is to disable the Lock Aspect Ratio button in this case, leaving the Size About Center button enabled (like it appears you are set now) and carefully drag the top or bottom handle of the zoom box up or down slightly to get rid of the cropped edges.
Andrew Lenczycki
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I did a quick test to try out your concept. I put sample videos on Track 1 and Track 2.
1) On the Track 1 header, press the Track Motion button. In the Track Motion dialog box, look at the current value of Position: Width. Change the Position: X value from 0 to 1/2 the value of the Position: Width value, but make the value a negative number (in my case, the Position: Width value was 720, so I took half of that or 360 and entered the negative value of -360.0 for the Position: X value. This moves the Track 1 event half a screen width to the left.
2) On the Track 2 header, press the Track Motion button. In the Track Motion dialog box, look at the current value of Position: Width. Change the Position: X value from 0 to 1/2 the value of the Position: Width value, leaving the value a positive number (in my case, the Position: Width value was 720, so I took half of that or 360 and entered the value of 360.0 for the Position: X value. This moves the Track 2 event half a screen width to the right.
3) You can use the individual event Pan/Crop tool to move around each video event, but you will need to have the Lock Aspect Ratio and Size About Center buttons on the left side of the Pan/Crop window enabled. At this point, your video output screen should only show the right half of whatever is in the Track 1 Pan/Crop screen and only the left half of whatever is in the Track 2 Pan/Crop screen.
Below are some screen shots from the Vegas Pro 10 file I used to demonstrate the principle.
Andrew Lenczycki
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What Angelo Mike suggests (overlay the route on the map, then unmask the route) is the method I’ve used with good success. I’ve tried the Route Mapper, but it doesn’t have enough control for me (but is a good basic tool). If you want custom arrow heads, symbols (at start, stop or waypoint destinations for example), the following is the way I’ve done it.
To do the “unmask route”, I used Vegas Pro 10 and Photoshop Elements 9 (PE).
1) Open the picture (map) you want to add route lines to in PE. Using various tools (for a quickie, I just used the line tool, making the line width to what I want the route line width to be – 12 pixels in this case). I drew short line segments “onto” the map, overlapping each line segment, to get the smoothest line possible, even around curves. If your line segments each end up on multiple separate layers (as mine did), when done drawing your line segment(s), I hid the underlaying picture (map) layer then Layer|Merge Visible, which combines all the line segments into one solid oject on a single layer. If you are going to have multiple route lines on your map, you can draw them all, then merge them onto one layer in PE.
2) With the underlaying “map” layer still turned off in PE, I used the Pencil and Eraser tools to tweak my route lines, filling in any small gaps where the individual line segments don’t completely match each other, and erasing any edges that don’t “look right”.
3) Once you have your route lines completed, save the file in Photoshop Elements format (so you can go back and tweak if needed), then save the route layer (with the “map” layer turned off) as a PNG file. I usually name it the same name as the picture map file name, but add “route” to it. EX: My map picture is “Map 7 of 8.jpg” so I named the route layer as “Map 7 of 8 Route.png”.
4) Open a project in Vegas, adding the Your Map Route.png file on track 1, and the Your Map.jpg file on track 2.
5) Select the Event Pan/Crop icon on the right side of the track 1 event (Your Map Route.png). Towards the bottom left of the Pan/Crop window, select the Mask checkbox to turn on masking. Now click a mask around each route line, keeping in mind that it doesn’t need to be exact, and that you want to end up with evenly matched sets of masking points around each route. As the mask progresses during the event, you will be progressively deleting one set of mask points, one on either side of the route to “uncover” your route. You need to set the Path|Mode from the default of Positive to Negative, which will “hide” the route (rather than the areas surrounding the route). I also set the Opacity to 75% and the Feather to 2.4% to get a little softer “reveal”. You may need to read about the masking tools in the Vegas help file. Below is a screenshot of my 1st Masking keyframe.
6) Next move down your MASK timeline some period of time and select the first two mask points (across from each other) that are on the end of the route line you want to reveal first, and right click select Delete|Anchor for each of these two points. This will effectively remove part of the mask (revealing part of your route line). See screenshot below of my 2nd Masking keyframe.
7) Keep adding keyframes down your MASK timeline in the Pan/Crop window, removing successive sets of points (one on either side of the route line) to continue to reveal more of the route line. As you can see in the screenshot below, the last keyframe has NO masking points left (revealing the entire route line). Also note that the keyframes are spaced wider (more time between) at the start and end and closer together in the middle keyframes. I did this to give a “slow” start and “slow” end to the route line reveal, while the intermediate route reveal is at a “faster” pace (because the keyframes are closer together).
Below is a quick video of the final output. If you are going to have more than one route line, using the Masking keyframes you could either reveal one route line at a time or reveal multiple lines simultaneously.
Sorry for the long-winded explanation, but sometimes the more experienced users jump in and give a very basic description of what needs to be done, but for a beginner, it’s VERY hard to figure out what really needs to be done, step by step. Hopefully this helps.
Andrew Lenczycki
