I’ll start out by showing the end result so you know what you’re aiming for.

Setting Up the Footage

For this example, I’ll be using some footage of the Washington Monument from StockFootageForFree.com. Registering with them is free and allows you to download all the sample clips you want.

Create a new project and insert two video tracks by going to Insert > Video Track or hitting Ctrl+Shift+Q twice. Using the Explorer window or other method to add media, bring in the video you want to work with and put it onto Track #1. Vegas will create an event to hold your video. We need two copies, so hold down Ctrl on the keyboard while you click and drag the event down to Track #2. Per Windows conventions, clicking and dragging an event in Vegas moves it; Holding down Ctrl while clicking and dragging an event makes a copy.

So now we have two events with exactly the same content. And if that didn’t have enough potential for confusion, I want you to select the event on Track #2, place the cursor somewhere in the middle of it, and hit “S” on the keyboard to split it. (If Vegas splits the event on Track #1 as well, then you didn’t select the other event first. Hit Ctrl+Z to undo and try again.) This gives us three events with exactly the same content.

“But, Rob,” you say, “the two events on Track #2 have different content — one has the first half of the video, the other has the second half of the video.” To which I reply, “Back to Vegas 101 with you! Both events have the entire video within them since an event is just a window into the video file. We just happen to have each window small enough so that you can only see part of what’s inside. If you drag an edge of an event to lengthen that event, more of that video will be revealed.”

I know that sounds nit-picky, but it will be important a little later. For now, just understand that we now have three events that point to the same video. Before we start working with these events, let’s do a couple things that will make the following instructions more clear:

1. Let’s give ourselves an easy way to refer to each event on the timeline. Go to View > Active Take Information and make sure that it’s enabled. Once it is, you will see a label at the head of each event. Now instead of saying, “Select the second event on Track #2, I can simply tell you the name of the event to select. Hm, but wait. The default take name for an event from a video file is the name of that file. And since all three events are based on the same file, they all get the same take name. That’s not very helpful, is it? Which leads to workflow tip #2.

2. Luckily, you can change the take name for an event in your project, and it will have no effect on the file from which it comes. Right-click the event on Track #1 and choose Properties. In the Properties window, type the words “Swipe” into the box labeled “Active Take Information,” and click OK. Using the same method, name the first event on Track #2 “B&W” and the second event on Track #2 “Color”.

Figure 1: Editing Take Names

There. Those two steps alone will make the rest of this simple for you to follow (and for me to write!).

The Media

Create a new project and set it to the properties you want for your final video. I’m still working with standard definition, so I’ll stick with the default 720×480 NTSC properties. Insert a video track by going to Insert > Video Track or hitting Ctrl+Shft+Q, and then do it again for a second video track.

In the Media Generators window, select Solid Color from the list, find a preset for the color you want, and drag it to the second video track. Adjust the color if you’d like – I’m going to use the Orange preset, and I’ll hold down Shift when I add it so I can bypass any options.

That’s our color. Now we need some texture. Still on the Media Generators window, select Noise Texture and find the Charcoal Scribbles preset. Drag that to the first track and drop it directly above the solid color event. We need to adjust options for this one, so allow the Video Media Generators window to open (don’t hold down Shift).

Figure 1: Added Media

When we change the composting mode later, it will “mold” the solid color event based on the value of this noise texture event, with the result appearing 3D-ish. Pure black will form valleys, pure white will form peaks, and shades of gray will form the slopes. The default Charcoal Scribbles preset is too harsh for a “pool of melted Crayons or plastic,” but it’s closer than any other preset.

The most important settings to change here are the Noise Parameters. These essentially determine which of the texture’s two colors will dominate and how smooth the gradients between them will be. Here are the Noise Parameter settings I’m using:

• Min: 0.600
• Max: 0.900
• Bias: 0.250
• Amplitude: 0.500
• Grain: 0.000

Next, change Color A to pure black and Color B to pure white, and you’ve got a wavy black and gray gradient. You can adjust it so there’s more white, but keep in mind that a lot of white is going to give you flat bluffs instead of smooth peaks. So now we’ve got something that looks like it might “ripple,” but it’s doesn’t yet because we haven’t gotten to the “animated” part.

We do that by adding a keyframe to the end of the keyframe timeline and adjusting the Progress setting at that keyframe. Using a larger value produces faster movement (because it’s trying to make that much progress in the allotted time — kind of like when you’re on a deadline, and the boss keeps giving you more work). I feel like working slowly, so I’ll change the Progress value at the second keyframe to two (2). We’re done with the Video Media Generators window for now, so close it.

Figure 2: Softened Noise Texture

(Note: If you can’t find the keyframe timeline in the Video Media Generators window, Vegas probably hid it. Hover your cursor near the bottom of the window until it becomes two horizontal bars with arrows pointing up and down. Then click and drag up to reveal the keyframe timeline.)

What is a Keyframe?

Simply put, a keyframe is a point in time where you define one or more settings. When you create multiple keyframes, Vegas interpolates what needs to happen to get from one keyframe to the next. Not only that, but you can define the speed in which the transition from one state to the next takes place. You do all this using the Keyframe Controller, which you will find at the bottom of the window for several Vegas functions. We’ll examine each of those windows in detail later. But first, let’s have a look at the Keyframe Controller.

One point to make before we move forward: Much of this information is not relevant to the ProType Titler that was added in Vegas Pro 8. The ProType Titler interface is very different from that of, well, most of the rest of Vegas. Do not attempt to apply the instructions here to the ProType Titler. While it does use keyframes, their usage is very, very different from anything you’ll read here.

Blur it. Or pixelate it. Easy enough, but how do you censor just part of a video in Sony Vegas while leaving the rest of it clear as day? Let’s find out.

The Pixelate FX is a good candidate for this trick, but like the rest of the effects, it doesn’t have an option to only affect one area of the screen. The trick is to add your media twice, one instance above the other, apply the effect to one instance, and then use masking to make sure only part of one those tracks is visible.

For this example, I’m using stock footage of a horse drawn carriage from Stock Footage for Free. If you want to follow along exactly, download the clip from them (registration is required but free). Alternatively, use your own footage and adjust your settings accordingly. I’ll be demonstrating how to censor an object that moves within the frame, so it would be helpful if you have something similar.

Figure 1: Duplicate Tracks

Once you’ve chosen a video to censor, drag it onto a Vegas timeline. If you don’t already have a video track where you drop the video, Vegas will create one for it. If you need to crop it, add any other effects, or adjustments, do so now. Once you have it generally looking the way you want, we’re going to create a copy on the track below. Do this by holding down Ctrl on the keyboard, clicking the event with your video, and dragging it to an empty area below the track you already have. You’ll end up with two duplicate tracks. (In fact, you will get the same result if you right-click the track header and choose Duplicate Track.)

Figure 2: All Pixelated

The first thing I’m going to do is apply the “censoring” effect to the copy on the upper track. Go to the Video FX window, select Pixelate from the list, and drag the Medium preset onto the event. You can see in the Preview window that the entire frame looks blocky. Adjust the settings in the Video Event FX window to make the image as pixelated as you like (scrub through the timeline so you can see how it looks throughout the whole video) and close the Video FX window.

Now we’ll isolate only the area we want censored. There are a few ways to mask out areas in Vegas. The driver’s face is a pretty basic shape, so the quickest way is to use the Cookie Cutter FX. Go to the Video FX window, select Cookie Cutter, and drag the Circle Center preset onto the event on the upper track. This preset cuts away everything from this event (which, remember, has the Pixelate FX applied to it) except for a large circle in the center. For the rest of the frame, this FX reveals our unpixelated event below. This puts on the road to what we really want: a circle that is about the size of the driver’s head and that moves along with his head throughout the video.

I want the difference between my censored and uncensored areas to be more obvious while I work, so I’m going to temporarily add another effect. If you think this will help you as well, select Color Curves in the Video FX window and drag the Night preset onto the event on the upper track. To return to editing the Cookie Cutter FX, click the “Cookie Cutter” button in the FX chain at the top of the Video Event FX window. (Be sure that you don’t deselect its check box, though, or you won’t see the effect any longer.)

Figure 3: First Keyframe

Now, let’s get down to business. As mentioned above, we have a circle where the upper event is pixelated. It’s too big and in the wrong place. On the left of the Video Event FX window is a box with a square inside it. By dragging that square around, you can move the center of the circle around the frame. You can also type the X and Y coordinates for the center in the appropriate textboxes on the right. Try to center the circle around the driver’s head if you’re following along with my example. Then adjust the Size of the circle so that it covers his head but not a whole lot more. After some work, I’ve found that the following settings work well for the first frame of this video:

• Size: 0.010
• Center X: 0.650
• Center Y: 0.470

There, that censors the driver’s face in the very first frame. Of course, if you play the video, that pixelated circle stays the same size and position the whole time — it doesn’t follow the driver, who is going to be very upset that we only hid his face very briefly. Luckily, Vegas makes it relatively easy to change a Video FX’s settings over time through the use of keyframes. Every “animation” requires at least two keyframes — one with one collection of settings and a later one with a different settings. Vegas then interpolates the frames between and “animates” what it can in order to get from one state to the other. You could go through the video frame by frame and add a keyframe for each state you need, but it’s less work if you start out by putting keyframes in the places you are absolutely sure will be different. Then check the frames in between to see where you may need to fine tune.

By changing the size and position above, we’ve edited the first keyframe that Vegas includes by default. Now, below the keyframe timeline at the bottom of the Video Event FX window, click the Last Keyframe button. This puts the cursor at the very end of the keyframe timeline and, in the Preview window, displays the very end of the event. By using the left and right arrow keys on the keyboard or hunting and pecking with your mouse, find the frame just before the driver’s head leaves the screen. Around 00:00:09:04 is good. (That’s nine seconds and four frames into the event.) Below the keyframe timeline, click the Create Keyframe button — it’s a diamond with a plus sign in it. Now, adjust the size and postion of the circle to again cover the driver’s head. These settings should work well for the frame I indicated above:

• Size: 0.045
• Center X: 0.000
• Center Y: 0.210

If you preview the video, you’ll see that Vegas “fills in” between the two keyframes. The pixelated circle moves from one place to the other and increases in size. But the driver must not be moving at an entirely steady pace — because the circle gets ahead of him at first, and then he catches up by the end. We’ll need more keyframes to keep them in sync. When it comes to adjustments like this, I like to divide in conquer. I’ll first find a spot around the middle of the video, create a keyframe, and adjust the size and position of the circle. Notice that when you create a keyframe, it defaults to keeping whatever settings Vegas interpolated for that moment in time, so you should only need to tweak each one a little rather than having to start from scratch. To fine tune this, I’ll preview the video and, for each area where the pixelated circle drifts off of the driver’s head, I’ll put a new keyframe halfway between two adjacent ones and make any adjustments I need to the Size and Position of the circle. I ended up with seven keyframes to follow the driver accurately.

Figure 4: Last Keyframe

One last adjustment to the Pixelate FX needs to be made. You may have noticed that if you play the video, there remains a pixelated circle on the screen even after the driver has gone completely out of frame. This is because in order to follow the driver off screen, we would need to give our circle’s Center X a negative value, and Vegas won’t let us. The lowest value we can use is 0, which puts will always leave half of the circle on screen. To remedy this (and still censor the driver’s face until it’s completely out of frame), find the frame at which the driver’s head has gone completely out of frame. There, create one more keyframe and set the circle’s Size to 0. Beginning with the previous keyframe, Vegas will shrink the circle as the driver leaves the screen, leaving a full and uncensored scene. Lastly, if you added Color Curves or some other FX as a temporary aid, make sure that you click on that FX in the FX chain at the top of the Video Event FX window and hit the Remove Selected Plug-In button to the right.

When you’re all done, you should have something similar to this:

Bad news first: That ain’t how DVD menus work.

Good news: You can fake it.

What many people don’t realize about DVD menus is that they are very, very simplistic. A DVD menu has an image or video as a background and a single layer of three colors. In most menus, the layer of colors is used to highlight the currently selected or active item. The highlight can’t be more complex than that, and images on the screen can’t be controlled individually by the viewer. So, how does one achieve this often sought style of menu where a full color image is used to indicate the selected item?

Figure 1: Default Theme

By using what I have begun calling the “inverse selection” method. To follow along with this tutorial, you’ll need the Wedding 3 theme that comes with DVD Architect Pro 4.0 and above (it may be included with DVD Architect Studio as well) and this image of a bell. Feel free to use a different theme / background and images, but keep one thing in mind: The “icon” must be over a solid color for this method. You’ll see why later. To get started, create a new DVD Architect project, add your media buttons as normal, and edit the button text and menu title as needed.

Figure 2: The Icons

If you’re following along exactly, now apply the Wedding 3 theme. This background image is white and has a flower arrangement on the right side. Buttons are laid out on the left side, and text is a light blue using the font Arial. Like most DVD Architect themes, the button for each item consists of a thumbnail from its linked video and a frame around that thumbnail. Let’s get rid of those. Choose the Selection Tool from the set of icons to the left of the menu workspace and select all of the menu buttons. This will switch the Menu Page Properties window to the Button Properties window where you can now edit the settings for all selected buttons. Select the Media tab of that window and cancel out all the settings we don’t need. You can do this by highlighting a setting, clicking the down arrow to its right, and choosing Remove. Do this for Mask (beneath Thumbnail Properties), Frame Media, and Mask (these last two under Frame Properties). Then click the down arrow to the right of Thumbnail Media and choose Replace. DVD Architect will present you with the Open Media dialog where you can browse for the image you want to use as an “icon.” In my case, I’m going to locate this picture of a bell and click Open.

So, now your menu items all have the same image next to them acting as a button. The menu also has the default behavior of highlighting the selected item with a semitransparent color. What we really want to do, though, is to hide all the other items on the menu while letting the selected item show through. This is where the “inverse selection” comes in. First, with all of the buttons still selected, go to the Highlight tab of the Button Properties window. For the Style setting, choose Image Rectangle. Then click an empty area of the menu so that no buttons are selected. This switches the Button Properties window back to the Menu Page Properties window. On the General tab, we’ll need to change the color sets that are applied to the menu’s buttons. Adjust the settings as follows:

Selected Button Colors: None (all transparent)
Active Button Colors: None (all transparent)
Inactive Button Colors: Color Set 1

(Really, you can use whichever color set you want for Inactive Button Colors — just make sure you edit that color set in the next step.)

Figure 3: Color sets

To hide the inactive buttons (the ones that the viewer does not currently have selected), we “highlight” them with a solid color that will blend into the background image. In this example, the background immediately behind the “icons” is white. So, we’ll go to the Color Sets tab of the Menu Page Properties window and change the Fill color for Color Set 1 to white. Expand Color Set 1 if it’s not already, select the Fill Color setting, and click the down arrow to its right. This gives us tools for adjusting this color — including a color picker. To get this color just right, let’s click the eye dropper icon and then select a color on our menu that is in close proximity to the “icon” we’re trying to hide. This will give us a highlight that is that same color, but it will probably also be semi transparent — which means the “icon” will still be partially visible To remedy that, let’s raise the Alpha Channel setting all the way up to 255, thereby making the color opaque. We can do this by typing 255 into the “A” textbox or by dragging the Alpha channel slider all the way up.

Figure 4: Previewing the Results

Preview your menu by hitting F9 on the keyboard or clicking the Preview button above the menu workspace. You should see the image next to one of your menu items, and nothing but empty space next to the others. As you use the navigation buttons on the remote, you should see the image “move” from one item to the next.

Addendum: There is one hazard in using this method. Most DVD players stop displaying all of a menu’s highlights as they switch to another menu or piece media. This isn’t much of an issue when you’re simply using a single highlight to indicate the chosen menu item — it just returns to its usual deselected state. But when you’re using those highlights to hide one or more items that you don’t want the viewer to see, suddenly they see them all! It’s only for a moment (depending on how long the player takes to change media), but it can interrupt the illusion. I don’t know of a way to prevent this from happening, but this brief peek behind the curtain looks more intentional, I think, if each of the “icons” is different.

Thank you, Paul L, for pointing out this issue in the comments.

First thing’s first, you’ll need the third party plug-in. It’s a transition called SMLuminance, which you can download from the author’s website. Once the plug-in is installed, load Vegas (or exit and reload Vegas if it’s already open), and you’ll see new item in your Transition window — Luminance. This transition blends one clip with another based on luminance values — either that of the clips involved in the transition or that of an image that you provide. It’s this second method that we’ll be using.

For this tutorial, I’ll be using two video clips (Times Square and Caribbean Beach) from Stock Footage For Free. I’m going to create a transition made up of random shapes. One by one, each shape will reveal another part of the incoming clip. I will be using Adobe Photoshop to create the image, but you should be able to create something similar in most graphics applications. Load your application and start a new image appropriate for your Vegas project size. My Vegas project will be 720x480, so I’m making my image 655x480. (Read up on pixel aspect ratios if that sounds strange to you.)

Figure 1: Creating the Mask

This next step will be familiar to anyone who’s taken more than a couple Photoshop tutorials: Set your foreground and background colors to the default of black and white (by hitting “D” on the keyboard) and go to Filter > Render > Clouds. That gives us a random mix of black, white, and shades of gray.

To turn that random mix into something a little more structured, go to Filter > Pixelate > Crystalize. Set the cell size to whatever looks good to you; I’m using 75. When you’re ready to apply the effect, click OK. Save this image to a file and start up Vegas.

Figure 2: The Media, Crossfaded

In Vegas, start a new project with the settings you want, add your two clips, and overlap them on the same video track for the length of time you want the transition to last. Then go to the Transitions window, find Luminance in the list (you did download and install the SMLuminance plugin, right?). Grab the Bitmap present and drop into on the overlapped area of your clips. This applies the transition and presents you with the Video Event FX window to adjust the Luminance transition settings.

Figure 3: The Transition

Make sure that the Use Bitmap radio button is selected, since we’re using an external image, and then hit the Browse button next to the Bitmap textbox in order to find the image you just created. After locating the image and clicking Open, you can tick the Show Bitmap checkbox to see a thumbnail of your image just to be sure the correct one is loaded. We’ll keep the rest of the values in this window as they are. Close the Video Event FX window and you are done. Preview your new transition and make any changes you like. Here’s is an example video using the image mask we created as well as a couple others.

Using the SMLuminance plug-in and your imagination, you have an endless supply of transitions you could create. Here are a few image masks you can try out and perhaps take inspiration from:

The transition I want to achieve is similar to a linear wipe. But while a linear wipe in Vegas can have a soft edge, it’s still rather tidy. I want a deeper and more random blend between the two clips — something that resembles fog or smoke. For this, I’m going to combine two types of generated media, a standard Vegas transition, and some parent-child track relationships.

To begin, insert two video tracks by hitting Ctrl+Shift+Q twice. The top track will be for a noise texture that will make up the “edge” of the transition. Go to the Media Generators window, select Noise Texture from the list, and drag the Plasma preset onto Track #1. Vegas will open the Video Media Generators window for you to edit the new piece of media.

Make Color A transparent by entering 0 for its Alpha value (beneath Color A’s color picker, textbox labled “A”) and set Color B to white. The “smoke” is a bit too heavy for my taste, so under Noise Parameters, I’m going to raise the Min value to .250. I also want this mask to be much brighter, so I’m rising Amplitude to 2. You can tweak these and other settings if you like, but this is essentially what we need for the edge to look like smoke. Not let’s make it move like smoke, too.

At the bottom of the Video Media Generators window is a keyframe timeline. It takes a minimum of two keyframes to animate something — Vegas has already given you the starting keyframe with the settings you just adjusted. To animate this media, click the Last Keyframe button to move to the end of the keyframe timeline. Now change the the Progress setting to 10. Vegas will add a new keyframe to the end of the timeline (which represents the end of this media’s event) and give it the new setting. If you preview your video, you will now see that Vegas animates the event, making this resemble billowing smoke. You can now close the Video Media Generators window.

Figure 1: Settings for Smoke

We also need the smoke to move across the screen. We’ll do this with a linear wipe. Hover the cursor over the top left corner of the smoke event until you see the Fade Offset indicator (a quarter circle) and click and drag all the way to the end of the event. Then go to the Transitions window, select Linear Wipe from the list, and drag the Left-Right Soft Edge preset onto the smoke event.

So now we have a mask made of “smoke” that gradually fills the screen. If we applied this to our clips, we’d be left with relatively equal parts of them. That’s not exactly a transition, is it? No, what we’re trying to achieve is a wipe where only the edge of the wipe is smokey. Let’s fill in the rest of this moving mask.

Figure 2: The Completed Mask

On the second track of your Vegas project, add a Solid Color from the Media Generators tab. Use white to match the white for the smoke. Using the same method as before, apply a linear wipe transition to the entire event. If you preview your moving mask now, you may notice that the “edge” of the wipe is still awfully clean. That’s because the wipe for the solid color on Track #2 is filling in quite a bit of our nice smoke on Track #1. This is because they start and finish at the same time. But if we shorten the solid color’s event, the smoke event will have a chance to “pass” it up, therby giving the edge a smokier look. Grab the left edge of the solid color event and drag it further in. With both events originally being 10 seconds, I shaved two seconds off the solid color’s event. This completes the mask.

To apply a mask, we need to use parent-child track relationships and compositing modes, which can get a bit tricky when your mask uses more than one track itself. Luckily, current versions of Vegas Pro have the ability to nest projects. Save this file as smokemask.veg. Then create or open the project with your two clips. Put the two clips on separate tracks with the incoming event on the upper track. Also line up the incoming clip where you want it to first start coming in.

Now let’s get that mask in here. Insert a track above your incoming event and add smokemask.veg to it. Line the nested mask up with the incoming clip. This puts a white mask above your incoming clip, with your outgoing clip completely hidden during the “transition.” To use this properly, click the Compositing Mode button on the mask’s track header and choose Multiply (Mask). Then on the incoming clip’s track header, click its Make Compositing Child button. Now if you place the cursor on the timeline between the start and end of the mask event, your preview should show the incoming clip where the mask was white and the outgoing clip where the mask was transparent. Play your project, and you should see one the smoke transition we’ve been trying for.

Figure 3: The Mask Applied

Unfortunately, what you will probably also notice is that when the mask event ends, so does the incoming clip. This is because the track with the Compositing Mode determines which of the lower content is visible. In the case of Multiply (Mask), white will completely reveal its child track(s). The catch here is that when the mask event ends, the track is no longer white. No white, no child track(s). You have a few options to fix this, each of which essentially adds a solid white to this track following the end of the mask event. The options are:

1. From the Media Generators tab, insert a Solid Color of white. Make it as long as you need in order to reveal the child track.
2. Grab the right edge of the mask event and drag it out for as long as you need to reveal the child track. Then right-click the mask event, choose Properties, and uncheck Loop. What this does is extend the last frame of the event, which was solid white.
3. Right-click the track with the mask event and go to Insert/Remove Envelope > Fade to Color. By default, the colors for this envelope are black (lower) and white (upper). Add one point to the envelope exactly at the end of the mask event and add another to the envelope soon after. Grab the second point, drag it all the way to the top of the track and then shift it over so that it’s above the first point. If, for some reason, you need to return this track back to normal (but remember, it’s only masking its child track — it has no effect on any other tracks), then add two more points where necessary and drag the line back to the vertical center.

Using these techniques, you can build your own aresenal of transitions to use in Vegas.  Combine noise textures, text, gradients, any kind of generated media. Apply transitions and add video FX to twist that media into a mask that works for your content. Lastly, use compositing modes (usually Multiply, but go ahead and experiment with the others) to use this mask to combine multiple tracks in interesting ways. As interesting or, quite possibly, even more interesting, than this:

This is the beginning of a series on creating your own custom transitions in Vegas. In part one, we’re going to use a still image to cover up our cut and animate that still using Bezier masking and Vegas’ native transitions.

Figure 1: The Media

If you haven’t already, insert the two pieces of media you want to transition between. Butt them up against one another on the timeline. We won’t be applying any fades or native transitions between them, so they don’t need to overlap. I will be using clips from Stock Footage For Free — video of a trolley and video of someone jet skiing. Feel free to use your own footage, still images, or even Vegas generated media.

Insert a video track above your existing events by hitting Ctrl+Shift+Q or going to Insert > Video Track. Directly above the two events, insert a still image. I’m using a texture from stock.xchng. Again, feel free to use another image. After adding your image, size it to the length you want your custom transition to last. This includes not only the amount of time for the image to enter and exit, but also the amount of time for the image to stay on screen. My image will take half a second to enter, half a second to exit, and will be still for 1 second — for a total of two seconds.

Figure 2: Top Mask

Click the Pan / Crop button for the image’s event. First, we want to make sure this image fills the screen. Right-click inside the Pan / Crop window and choose Match Output Aspect. Now, on the bottom left, enable Bezier masking by checking the box labeled “Mask”. Enable the Anchor Creation Tool by hitting “D” on the keyboard or clicking the tool’s icon on the left side of the Pan / Crop window — and mark points in the Pan / Crop window to create your mask. I’m dividing my image into a top and bottom, so I’m going to follow along some of the diagonal lines and then finish around the top edge.

Figure 3: Bottom Mask

When you’re done creating the mask, close out of the Pan / Crop window. Now we need a copy of this image to act as the other half — in my case, the bottom half. Insert another track, then copy and paste the image’s event onto the new track. (The quick way is to hold down Ctrl while clicking and dragging the original event up to the new track.) Click the Pan / Crop icon for this new image. Under the Path heading, if the Mode is set to Positive, set it to Negative. If it’s Negative, set it to Positive. You have now cut your image in two. One half is displayed on one track and the other half on another track. You can close out the Pan / Crop window.

The last step is making the two halves move. For this, we’ll use Vegas’ transitions. Add fades to the beginning and ends of both of the images’ events. To do this, hover the mouse over the top corner of an event until the cursor becomes a quarter circle and click and drag towards the center of the event. Make this fade as long as you want the entrance and exist to last.

Figure 4: Transitions

Next go to the Transition window and choose transitions appropriate each piece of your image. The texture I’m using has been split into a top half and a bottom half, so I’m using the “Slide In, Top-Down” transition for the top half to enter, “Slide In, Bottom-Up” to bring in the bottom half, and the opposites of these two for the exits. Drag and drop the transitions you want onto the fades for both images’ events.

And that’s one way to create a custom transion in Vegas using a still image. Start there and experiment with different images, more complex Bezier masking, and other Vegas transitions. If you were following along, you should have something like this:

Figure 1: Added Media

Start a new Vegas Project by going to File > New and use the Properties settings appropriate for your video. The clip I’m using is in standard NTSC DV format, so I can leave everything at the default. So can you if you’re using the same clip. Activate the Explorer window, browse for the video you will be altering, and drag it to the timeline. Vegas will create a video track and add an event with your video.

Next, activate the Video FX window, find Color Corrector (Secondary) in the list, and drag it onto the video event you just added. For the least hassle, do not use any of the existing presets. Either drag the FX directly from the main list or use the Reset to None preset. You want to start off with a blank slate here. Vegas will display the Video Event FX window.

Figure 2: The FX, Default

The first thing to do is select the color to adjust. This is done using the tools on the bottom half of the Video Event FX window. You’ll need to be able to see and interact with the video preview, so be sure that the Video Event FX window is fully visible but not covering up the preview window. Now click the eyedropper icon labeled “Select effect range,” and use it to draw a rectangle around an area of your image that contains the color(s) you want to change.

Now comes the cool part. You have a range of colors selected as indicated by all of the sliders in the lower half of the Video Event FX window. You can either tick the Show Mask checkbox to have Vegas display a mask based on your selection — white for the affected colors, black for everything else — and adjust all those sliders until you have a black and white image; or, for instant gratification, you can go ahead and start changing the color now and then fine tune those sliders.

3. The FX, Adjusted

I’m going for instant gratification. I like to see the output and work from there. If you’re with me, grab the Rotate Hue slider and find a color you like. If you left Show Mask unchecked, you will immediately see the change in the Video Preview window. I’m making the grass turn brown, so I’ve set Rotate Hue over to 298. Most of the rest of the image was not affected, but there are some areas that were. Furthemore, some of the grass that extends into the water was not affected. This is where fine tuning comes in. Adjust the sliders back in the lower half of the Video Event FX window until your intended area is affected, and the rest is not. For the fishing clip, I’m using these values:

• Rotate Hue: 298
• Limit Saturation
  • Low: 0
  • High: 162
  • Smooth: 8
• Limit Hue
  • Center: 216
  • Width: 0
  • Smooth: 128
• Limit Luminance
  • Low: 70
  • High: 124
  • Smooth: 8

Lastly, preview your clip to be the appropriate color change is consistent throughout. Since you’ve been making adjustments just based on a single frame so far, other areas of the video may introduce a color variation that wasn’t present in that frame. Fine tune as needed, and you’re done! Below is an example of this technique (with an added visual aid to show the clip before and after the Secondary Color Corrector FX was applied).

Often, Sony Vegas users create their lower thirds in other programs or buy pre-made ones, but we’re going to make one entirely in Sony Vegas. It won’t be the flashiest lower third you’ve ever seen, but it will be attractive and functional. So, here we go.

Start by giving yourself three video tracks to work with by hitting Ctrl+Shift+Q three times. The first two tracks will be for text, and the third is for the background. I will be using the standard Text Media Generator and creating two lines of text. If you’re using the new ProType Titler, then feel free to use just one track and create multiple text blocks there. Just note that I’ll be saying “Track #3″ to refer to the background track and “Track #1″ and “Track #2″ to refer to the text tracks.

First we’ll add the lower third’s background. I want this to look a bit three-dimensional, so let’s make something that has highlights and shadows. A quick and effective way to do that is to use gradients. Go to the Media Generators window, select Color Gradient from the list, and drag the Fancy Wooden Board onto Track #3. (Remember, that’s Track #2 for you ProType Titler folks.) We don’t need to make any changes to this, so close the Video Media Generator window.

Figure 1: Color Gradient

At the moment, our lower thirds graphic is looking more like a middle half graphic. If we put this over our video, we’d hardly see any of the main content. Let’s resize it and move it where it belongs using track motion. Click the Track Motion button on Track #3’s header. In the Track Motion window, be sure that Lock Aspect Ratio is not enabled.

For the Height setting, type 125. You can leave Width as is. (If the width changes automatically, you didn’t disable Lock Aspect Ratio like I told you.) Then, within the Track Motion workspace, drag the selection box down where you want your lower third to appear. Ideally, this is at or just above the bottom edge of the title safe zone (the inner dotted-line box in your Video Preview window). (If you don’t see the safe zones in your preview, there is a button at the top of that window for toggling them.)

Figure 2: Track Motion

I like the general look of of this gradient, but I’m not wild about the color scheme. I could have changed each of the colors one by one back in the Video Media Generator window, but let’s try something a bit quicker. Find the Video FX window and select Color Corrector (Secondary) from the list. Grab the Reset to None preset, and drop it onto our event with the Fancy Wooden Board gradient. Vegas will open the Video Event FX window. Start by moving the Rotate Hue slider to find the color you really want for your lower thirds background. I want a blue, so I’m using a value of 200. You also may need to adjust some of the other settings. By default, this blue was a little too blue for my taste, so I dragged the saturation down to .500. I also dragged the Gamma down to 0. When you’re through adjusting the color for your background, close out the Video Event FX window.

Figure 3: Color Corrector (Secondary) FX

Okay, this is starting to shape up. You should now have what kind of looks like a blue tray. But you know what? Our text’s not going that long, so we don’t need this graphic to run all the way across the screen. Let’s show a little more of the screen by way of of Bezier Masking. Right-click the event for the background graphic and choose Pan / Crop. In the Event Pan / Crop window, enable the Mask tool (bottom left, checkbox next to the word Mask). Select the Anchor Creation tool (hit D on the keyboard or click the icon that looks like a pen tip) and create a mask around part of the background graphic. Leave the left half (and a bit more) and make the right edge slanted. Imagine you’re creating a rectangle but with a corner sliced off. Now soften up that edge by changing the Feather Type to Out and give the Feather (%) a value that looks good to you. I’m using 30%. What I want is for the background graphic to fade out on one side. Once you add the fade, you may need to adjust the mask’s points so that the graphic extends as far as you want. Once you’re done, close out the Event Pan / Crop window.

Figure 4: Masking using Pan/Crop

(Note that the Event Pan/Crop window will still show the orange-ish “fancy wooden board” graphic instead of our new cool blue tray. Don’t be concerned — the Event Pan/Crop window just doesn’t know about the Video FX we’ve applied.)

The last thing we’ll with the background graphic is add some texture and motion. Go to the Video FX window, select TV Simulator from the list, and drag the TV Look present onto your background’s event. This effect has animation “built in,” so we don’t need to add any keyframes or adjust any settings. But feel free to play around with the settings if you like. When you’re finished, close out the Video Event FX window.

Figure 5: TV Simulator FX

Finally, we’re getting to the text. Return to the Media Generators window, select Text from the list, and drag the Default Text preset up to Track #2. In the Video Media Generator window, replace “Sample Text” with the text you want on the bottom line of your lower thirds graphic. This could be a company name, or the interviewee’s title, or the name of a website. Adjust the font so that it can be read easily and that you can fit it (and another line of text) over the background graphic. Ariel Black, 16pt, and bold works very well. Now go to the Placement tab and choose “Bottom Left” from the dropdown box. This will place your text just inside the title safe zone. To fine tune the placement, click once on the text’s textbox within the Placement tab’s workspace and use the arrow keys to move it in small increments. Once the bottom line looks right, add another Text event to Track #1 and create the first line of text in the same way. This could your name, the interviewee’s name, or — for example — the name of a tutorial being given. When it comes time for the Placement tab, you can still use the Bottom Left option and then adjust as needed with the arrow keys.

Figure 6: Adding the Text

And with that, you’re essentially done. Go to File > Save, and save this as a Vegas project (VEG) file. Through the magic of nested VEG files (introduced in Sony Vegas 7), you can drop this VEG file into any project, and Vegas will treat it as an event. So when it comes time to add your lower third to a video, just create a new track at the top of that video, locate your lower third VEG, and drag it to that new track. To make the lower third fade in, adjust it’s fade offset as you would any other event — or add a transition to make its entrance a little more interesting.

Your results may look something like this (though with better encoding):