VegasVideoHelp.com

Pages: 1 2 3 4

Creating the Swipe

First thing we’ll do is make the Swipe event earn its name. This is going to be the blue field that floats across the screen. There are a few ways to make this event blue. I’m going to use the Glow Fx for this project, so go to the Video FX window, select Glow from the list. I’m going to change all of the settings once the Video Event FX window opens, so drag any preset you want onto the Swipe event. Start by using the following settings.

• Glow percent: 0.025
• Intensity: 1.000
• Suppression: 0.000
• Color:
  • R: 100
  • G: 240
  • B: 255

Figure 2: Adding Glow FX

To make this a narrow field that moves across the screen, let’s use Event Pan/Crop. Right-click the Swipe event and choose Video Event Pan/Crop or click the Event Pan/Crop icon on the right side of the event. We’re going to crop all but a narrow strip of the event, something we can do with either the standard Pan/Crop tools or Bezier Masking. In order to make this project accessible to Vegas Movie Studio users, let’s stick with the standard tools.

First, in the Source section on the left side of the Event Pan/Crop window, change both Maintain Aspect Ratio and Stretch to Fill Frame to “No.” Now when we crop part of the event, the output will look exactly like we define instead of how Vegas thinks it should look.

While we’re at it, also disable Lock Aspect Ratio and Size About Center — the icons on the far left that are second from the bottom and third from the bottom. These options constrain (or unconstrain once we disable them) the selection box (the dotted line in the Event Pan/Crop workspace).

Finally comes the cropping. Grab the left side of the selection box and drag it towards the right side until the box is about 60 to 70 pixels wide. (You can see the exact size of the selection box by looking at the Width and Height values in the Position section.) Then position the cursor within the selection box and move it to the right of the video’s image. In the preview screen, you should see that the Swipe event is no longer visible. This is good because we want the “swipe” to start off screen.

To make this crop area move, add a keyframe to the end of the keyframe timeline, position the cursor within the selection box again, and move the selection box all the way to the left. Again, actually position the selection box outside of the image so that the swipe moves completely off screen.

Tip: If you don’t see the keyframe timeline in the Event Pan/Crop window, Vegas has hidden it. Hover the cursor near the bottom edge of the window until it becomes two lines with arrows pointing up and down. Then click and drag up to reveal the keyframe timeline.

Another Tip: To keep the selection from moving vertically while you move it horizontally, you can click the button below the Center About Center button. This button toggles whether your actions in the Event Pan/Crop workspace Move Freely, Move in X only, or Move in Y Only.

Figure 3: Cropping the Swipe

If you play your project or drag the cursor within the Event Pan/Crop window, you’ll see your blue field move across the screen in the Preview window. You can also see the selection box move across within the Event Pan/Crop window itself, but you won’t see the Glow video FX there. The Event Pan/Crop window does not display any applied video FX.

Pages: 1 2 3 4

Tags: fx, pan/crop, transitions