[Mike Smith]

Though you could make it work in AE. You’d want a neat, attractive drawing – ditch all those explanatory labelling lines? – and you’d want to take care the lines weren’t so thin (1 pixlel, no blur) that they flicker on alternate fields on video out.

Then you’d want to separate out the drawing elements onto different layers, mask around the shapes, and animate the layers together … as an alternative to a straight mix to bring on the photo image (which you’ve pre-checked aligns with the drawing, right?) you could experiment with custom gradient wipes or other transitions.

So long as you keep it short and the expanded drawing lines up properly when brought together with your photo, it should make an adequate little trick ..

[Mike Smith]

Using the original footage will be much better – since it’s yours, why not return to the source and recapture ..?

[Mike Smith]

That may not be too tricky for PPro, if you have access to a graphics program (like Photoshop, Paintshop Pro, whatever) that can make images like .tga or .tif, with an alpha channel and a mask. This should work for you ..

You might be able to get your freeze to work by exporting the frame to freeze as a still image – i like targa format – the inserting the still in the timeline. Should be OK provided there’s not a lot of movemement going on causing flicker between the video fields.

Then add the shot you want to introduce in the layer above.

In Photoshop / whatever, open the freeze image you saved and draw a mask shape around the area you want to keep – the subject outline you talked about. In photoshop, draw a selection (mask) using the selection tools. Save the selected area as an alpha channel, and save the file. If you like you can use a new file name. make sure to save to 32 bit.

Now you want to put the freeze frame still where it belongs, and position the copy with the alpha channel, 2 layers up. Set the transparency of the top layer to alpha if you need to, and reverse the mask if you need to.

Place the incoming shot you want in the layer between the two stills / freezes. You should now see the full-size incoming image behind the selection / mask shape you drew.

Resize and reposition the incoming video start point so it’s fully hidden. However long you like down the timeline, scale it up and reposition it so that it is fully visible, clear of your mask shape – you may have to keep it quite small, and push it to one side of screen.

Then another second or whatever along the timeline, set the scale and position to normal.

If you scrub through the effect you’ll see the new image appear from behind the shape you drew, come clear of that shape, and grow to full screen, but still masked by your shape. You’ll want to shorten – trim the outpoint – of the freeze frame still on the top layer so that, when the incoming image would be blocked by the mask at it comes around it, the still and its mask are gone – probably just a little after your first rescale point for the incoming image.

If you can, it’s nice to set smooth bezier curves for the motion and scale keyframes …

That’s it. Hope it works out …

[Mike Smith]

There’s lots you can do to personalise and customise the built-in transitions, and if you have After Effects installed too you can use a lot of its plugins to create something special to you.

The gradient wipe effect will let you choose your own custom-creatd images and use those as a basis for a transition – which can look good. There used to be something called SpiceRack from Pixelan to help with that, but haven’t heard of it for a good while. Might be better to make your own gradient images in Photoshop or similar ….

Om the 3D transition side, Canopus do a standalone called XPlode (which I understand will work with PPro though I haven’t tried it), which has a lot of fast presets but will also allow you to customise quite a big variety of transition styles.

Further down this board, someone recommended WinMorph, which could be used for this kind of thing.

On another level, it troubles me a little to get TOO concerned about the transitions … this is “just” a way to get from one interesting, arresting, moving, sparkling, fresh, insightful image, right …?? Smart transitions won’t do much to rescue poor material, and if you sprinkle too much of this stuff over your work, a little care might be needed to keep it from looking like a techniques catalogue. I personally can find it tiresome if the same lengthy transition keeps butting in to the action, but quite appealing if the transitions seem to grow out of the visuals or story … What sort of stuff do you like?

[Mike Smith]

but there is something at https://www.debugmode.com/winmorph/

[Mike Smith]

From here, winmorph.com seems to be down today …

[Mike Smith]

How would it work out for you if you “nested” your edit in a new composition, and then cut the front of that …?

[Mike Smith]

Hi, shadows.

Not quite clear how it comes to be your responsibility to carry out standards conversion for one friend, to pass on to another friend … are you being dumped on a little here?

To do it yourself you need software – like eg procoder 2, which isn’t cheap – and then a recorder that will record in PAL … remind us why you’re doing this again? Why not give your friend(s) your edit as a computer file, on a DVD ROM, and let him / her / them sort

Good luck with it.

Mike

[Mike Smith]

Hi Robert

One approach might be to imagine yourself in the position of a buyer in the corporate video field – they are amazingly varied, but mostly want a good job, well done, at a fair price, by someone pleasant and professional. Then, some want specialist subject knowledge or at least empathy with their field; some want glossy effects; some just want a technician to record and edit under their direction.

So what would convince you, as a buyer, that you as a potential supplier would fit the bill? When you have a good answer to that, and can support it with the kind of visual material / showreel / whatever that you think might help, you could try contacting potential customers and pitching what you have to offer. Advertising will help, too, once you have enough business to justify it.

Oftentimes people (corporate video buyers) buy on price and confidence, without even asking to see showreel – so what do you need to do / have / offer, so that you can you build that confidence?

Good luck with it; now how would you advise a specialist in another area on how to break into weddings and special events ..??!!

Mike

[Mike Smith]

Hi Willie

Thanks for the input. I have audition – have used Cool Edit Pro since version 1 – and agree it has greater power. However I edit video, and would like a neat way to get something like the cep / audition dynamic range processor to appear in the PPro mixer – which accepts VST plugs. This will allow me to set an overall compression for a whole audio track in the video ( with a large number of audio clips recorded in similar circumstances) with a single compressor set-up – fast and easy video edit workflow …

Many of the jobs I handle just don’t have the time / budget allowance to export 200-300 clips to audition and sweeten them all individually, and taking out a mixed track would mean that editing the picture further becomes problematic – and clients are prone to changes right up to and beyond the last minute.

Hence my wondering whether the audition dynamic range processor might be a dll which could be copied into a premiere plugin folder, or whether another third-party plugin might do a similar job – with that very neat, intuitive visual se-up …

Any more thoughts appreciated.

Mike