Sony Vegas 5 Manual
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CHP. 13USING VIDEO FX, COMPOSITING, AND MASKS 219 4.Adjust the selection area to change the viewable area of the track and its position in space. Guides are displayed in bold to indicate how the track will be moved or rotated: 5.Use the buttons at the top of the dialog to allow or prevent movement or scaling. For more information, see Changing editing options on page 221. Tip: Right-click the workspace to display a shortcut menu that displays commands to restore, center, or flip the selection box. You can also force the box to match the source medias aspect ratio or your projects output aspect ratio. Matching the output aspect ratio can prevent black bars from appearing when you use source media (such as photographs) that does not match your projects aspect ratio. 6.The 3D track motion occurs instantly, and the results are updated in the Video Preview window. 7.Use the keyframe controller at the bottom of the Track Motion window to establish distinct track motion settings throughout the duration of the track. During playback, immediate frames are interpolated to create smooth motion. Expand the Keyframe interpolation heading on the left side of the window and drag the Smoothness slider to adjust the interpolation. For more information, see Using keyframe animation on page 237. Moving closer to or farther from viewer. Drag across corners to flip the track.Dragging the track.Rotating left to right around the Y axis.Rotating forward or backward around the X axis.Rotating counterclockwise around the Z axis.
220 USING VIDEO FX, COMPOSITING, AND MASKSCHP. 13 Composited group 3D motion 1.Click the Make Compositing Child button ( ) on the tracks you want to group to create a compositing group. For more information, see Understanding the parent/child track relationship on page 214. 2.Click the Parent Composite Mode button ( ) on the parent track and choose 3D Source Alpha. 3.Click the Parent Motion button ( ) on the parent track. The Track Motion window is displayed. Parent track motion affects the parent track and all child tracks. In the sample track list, parent track motion on track 1 will affect tracks 1 through 6. Parent track motion applied to track 4 will affect only tracks 4 through 6. 4.Choose a setting from the Layout drop-down list to choose the workspace display you want to use. The Layout setting allows you to see your track from various points of view. 5.Adjust the selection area to change the viewable area of the track and its position in space. Guides are displayed in bold to indicate how the track will be moved or rotated: 6.Use the buttons at the top of the dialog to allow or prevent movement or scaling. For more information, see Changing editing options on page 221. Tip: Right-click the workspace to display a shortcut menu that displays commands to restore, center, or flip the selection box. You can also force the box to match the source medias aspect ratio or your projects output aspect ratio. Matching the output aspect ratio can prevent black bars from appearing when you use source media that does not match your projects aspect ratio. 7.The 3D track motion occurs instantly, and the results are updated in the Video Preview window. 8.Use the keyframe controller at the bottom of the Track Motion window to establish distinct track motion settings throughout the duration of the track. During playback, immediate frames are interpolated to create smooth motion. Expand the Keyframe interpolation heading on the left side of the window and drag the Smoothness slider to adjust the interpolation. For more information, see Using keyframe animation on page 237. Moving closer to or farther from viewer. Drag across corners to flip the track.Dragging the track.Rotating left to right around the Y axis.Rotating forward or backward around the X axis.Rotating counterclockwise around the Z axis.
CHP. 13USING VIDEO FX, COMPOSITING, AND MASKS 221 Note: When you have a 2D track in the track list, tracks below that track are rendered in 3D and then composited as a 2D image. In the following examples, both text tracks have been rotated in 3D. In the first example, the two tracks intersect along their rotation axis. In the second example, adding a 2D track above the “cool” track causes it to be rotated in 3D and composited as a 2D image so the “hot” text is displayed above it without intersecting. Changing editing options Use the toolbar at the top of the Track Motion window to change your editing options. Icon Command Description Enable Rotation Select this button if you want to be able to rotate, or spin, the video. When the button is not selected, video is locked so you can move it along the X, Y, or Z axis, but the event will not rotate. Enable Snapping to Grid Select this button if you want your editing to snap to the grid. Edit in Object Space Select this button if you want to edit in the objects space rather than the cameras space. For example, if a video object is rotated, its X axis may not correspond to the X axis of the of the Video Preview window. Selecting the Edit in Object Space button in conjunction with the Prevent Movement buttons allows you to move the object along its own X, Y, and Z axes. Prevent Movement (X) Select this button if you want to prevent horizontal movement of the track. Prevent Movement (Y) Select this button if you want to prevent vertical movement of the track. Prevent Movement (Z) Select this button if you want to prevent movement of the track along the Z axis (closer to or farther from the viewer). Lock Aspect Ratio Select this button if you want the selection box to retain its aspect ratio during resizing. When the button is not selected, the height and width can be resized independently. Scale About Center Select this button if you want the selection box to retain its center point when you resize the box by dragging its edges. When the button is not selected, the opposite side of the selection box will remain anchored when you drag the edges to resize it. Prevent Scaling (X) Select this button if you want to lock the horizontal dimension of the selection box. Prevent Scaling (Y) Select this button if you want to lock the vertical dimension of the selection box. Prevent Scaling (Z) Select this button if you want to lock the Z-axis dimension of the selection box.
222 USING VIDEO FX, COMPOSITING, AND MASKSCHP. 13 Creating masks Masks are used to create overlays, limit the effects of a filter, and to create transparent titles. In their simplest form, masks work by making a particular color in an image or video transparent. More complex effects can be created with gradients (smoothly blending transparent areas together) and by altering the sensitivity of the mask. Parent/child video track grouping using the Make Compositing Child button is only available in the full version of Vegas software. Creating image masks You can use media generated by Vegas software to create simple masks. You can also create masks from just about any image file. 1.Create an image of a solid white circle on a black background in any paint program. This will be the mask. 2.Add the mask image file as an event into the top-most track on the timeline. 3.Insert a video event just below the mask track. This is the background video behind the mask and is the event that is masked. 4.Click the Make Compositing Child button ( ) located in the track list of the background video (lower) track. This makes the lower track the child of the mask track (the parent track). In the following example, the white circle is a BMP image file. Black is 100% opaque and white is completely transparent. Masks can also be partially transparent. By using gradients and grayscale images, you can achieve smooth blending. Black is still 100% transparent and white is opaque, but the grays in between are only partially opaque. Masks created using color gradient generated media events Compositing Compositing Child indicator Child button
CHP. 13USING VIDEO FX, COMPOSITING, AND MASKS 223 The effects of the masks are very clear in these examples, but this is not how they would actually be used in a real production. Masks are commonly used to isolate a portion of the video from an effect. Masks do not need to be black and white, or grayscale, nor do they need to be still images. Tip: It is best to use images that are the same size as your project’s frame size. You may also need to change the pixel aspect ratio of an image file to get it to display correctly. For more information, see Correcting images for DV pixel aspect ratios on page 193 and Modifying media file properties on page 204.
224 USING VIDEO FX, COMPOSITING, AND MASKSCHP. 13 Creating video masks You can also use video files to create masks, although the process can be more complicated than using an image as a mask. The key to any mask is contrast. You can increase the difference between the light and dark areas of a video file using video effects plug-ins. 1.Insert the video that you want to use as a mask into a video track. 2.Drag a Black and White plug-in from the Video FX window to the event to remove the color. For more information, see Adding a video effects plug-in on page 208. 3.Drag a Brightness and Contrast plug-in from the Video FX window to the event. 4.Adjust the Brightness and Contrast to create the mask. Watch the Video Preview window for a real- time preview of the mask. Adjust the effect so that parts of the video are completely black (opaque) and other parts are completely white (transparent). This can often mean increasing the contrast while decreasing the brightness. 5.If necessary, mask areas can be inverted (reversing the black and white areas) with an Invert plug-in or by selecting the Invert check box in the Mask Generator window. For more information, see Using the Mask Generator on page 226. After you have created the mask, place it in the highest track. Add another video event to another track below the mask and click the Make Compositing Child button ( ) on that track. Any video that appears in a lower track below the Parent mask track and its Child shows through the areas outside of the mask. The entire setup is pictured in the following illustration. Original color eventBlack and White Invert plug-inBrightness and Contrast plug-in plug-in Mask track Masked video Background(Parent) (Child)
CHP. 13USING VIDEO FX, COMPOSITING, AND MASKS 225 Fine-tuning masks Depending on the source material, creating a clean mask can be a tricky exercise. There are a few tools and tricks you can use to fine tune a mask. Solo the track: Click the Solo button ( ) in the track list to isolate the masked track. This allows you to concentrate exclusively on the mask. Toggle effects: Turn individual plug-ins on and off to isolate effects in a plug-in chain. Keep in mind that the order of the plug-ins in the chain is important in determining the final composited output. Isolate channels: Isolate individual color channels in the Video Preview window by clicking the Overlays button ( ). Click the arrow on the button to select the specific channel to be isolated and whether to display this channel in grayscale only. Then click the main button to toggle the channel display on and off. The Alpha as Grayscale option isolates the alpha channel mask and displays it in grayscale. For more information, see Understanding the Video Preview window on page 253.
226 USING VIDEO FX, COMPOSITING, AND MASKSCHP. 13 Using the Mask Generator The Mask Generator is a plug-in that controls the transparency of events to be used as masks when you use events that are not grayscale. Apply the plug-in to an event (or a track) in the same way as any other plug-in: just drag-and-drop. The Mask Generator plug-in can be found in the Video FX window (from the View menu, choose Video FX). The Mask Generator and parent/child video track grouping is only available in the full version of Vegas software.
CHP. 13USING VIDEO FX, COMPOSITING, AND MASKS 227 How the Mask Generator works The following illustration demonstrates some of the effects of the Mask Generator. The background image is the original mask. There are five ellipses on the mask: white, red, green, blue and an invisible alpha channel. Note especially the checkered ellipse in the lower left of the mask; this is the alpha channel. You can base the alpha channel on a color or define the alpha channel in a graphics program that supports alpha channel creation. Masks with alpha channels must be saved in a format that supports this method of transparency, such as PNG or TGA. As in this example, the alpha channel may be invisible in the actual mask. The top-right example uses luminance to determine the transparency in the mask. The white area is completely transparent. Since white is made up of 100% values of red, green, and blue (255,255, and 255), those three colors are all 33% transparent as well. In the lower-right example, blue is the selected transparent index. The blue area is 100% transparent and so are all areas that have a value of 255 for blue (0,0,255), including white (255,255,255). Luminance BlueMask track (Parent) Masked track (Child)
228 USING VIDEO FX, COMPOSITING, AND MASKSCHP. 13 Chroma keying Chroma keying or bluescreening is a special case of overlay transparency. A color key is a specific color or a range of similar colors in an image that are made transparent, allowing a background video to show through. The idea is to take a video subject and film it against a solid, uniform background color. It is critical that the color be smooth and uniformly lit with no shadows, and that the color chosen for the background not be used in the subject. The most important factors in successful blue screening happen during shooting, well before the footage is imported into Vegas software. Compression of the source video is also an important consideration. While almost all video is compressed in some way, highly compressed video does not key well because colors can be smeared together and edges tend to not be very sharp. If your source footage is good and the captured video file is also of high quality, color keying is an easy process. 1.Insert a video with a blue (or any solid colored) background into a track. This is the overlay video. 2.Insert the background video that will show through the blue areas into the next lower track. Note: You do not need to set the lower track as a child track when using the Chroma Keyer plug-in as you would with a mask. 3.Click the overlay video (foreground, higher track) to select it. 4.Drag a Chroma Keyer plug-in from the Video FX window onto the overlay video. The Video Event FX window displays. 5.Click the down arrow to the left of the Split Screen View button ( ) on the Video Preview window and choose FX Bypassed. This will bypass the effect of the Chroma Keyer plug-in until you are ready to view the effect. Magnified area Uncompressed video Compressed video