While reading my Custom Transition Using Generated Media tutorial, a reader noticed some similarities between the resulting video and an effect she’d seen and has been trying to duplicate. The general idea of the effect is to start out with a video in black and white; have a tinted area “move” across the screen; and for that tinted area to act as a “swipe” that turns the footage to color as it passes over. The visitor does not know what program was used to create the video she saw, but asked if I knew how to achieve a similar effect in Vegas. It took a bit of experimenting, but I believe I’ve got it pretty figured out.
I’ll start out by showing the end result so you know what you’re aiming for.
In the world of hand-drawn animation, an artist would begin a project by drawing several key frames — single images to represent a change in direction or appearance. Once this rough sketch was approved, he (or more often an assistant) would “fill in the rest” — drawing each individual frame needed to get from Point A to Point B. And now we have programs like Vegas which will also “assist” us in filling in from Point A to Point B through the use of keyframes.
So, you’re tired of the standard Vegas transitions. Linear wipe, push, clock wipe — too boring. Page peel, barn door, swap — too cheesy. 3D blinds, 3D cascade, 3D shuffle — too 3D. And yet, a straight cut just doesn’t suit your piece? Then make your own transition.
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.
Lower thirds are those graphics you see near the bottom of videos. They usually consist of a static or animated background and some information such as the name of the person speaking if you’re watching the news or a documentary, or statistics if you’re watching sports.
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.
A common question from new users of Sony Vegas Pro is how to create a “news ticker” — simply a line of text that scrolls across the bottom of the screen, usually over a black background. It’s very easy to do using Vegas’ text generated media, and this tutorial will show you how.
September 15th, 2008 by Rob Strobbe | 7 Comments |
There is one problem that people often run into when turning a collection of photos into a slideshow: Not all of them are quite the right aspect ratio. In particular, when portrait (taller than they are wide) photos are placed into a landscape video (wider than it is tall, and the standard for just about any video), you end up with black gutters on two sides. And that’s just kind of tacky.
(Vocabulary bonus: When the gutters are on the top and bottom, the image is “letterboxed.” When the gutters are on the left and right, the image is “pillorboxed.”)
But what are your options? Crop the photos so that they fill the screen entirely? But then you may end up losing important parts of those photos. Add in a colored background or matte of some kind? Maybe, but how do you find something that looks good with all of the photos in your slideshow?
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