effects question

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Postby CrackTheSky » Sun Oct 15, 2006 8:01 pm

Hmmm...I'm thinking maybe Vegas 5 (which is not a "wrong version") might indeed be different than Vegas 6, so that may be why the scrubber doesn't show up. Try clicking on the timeline in the effects or pan/crop window to see if it shows up; if not just keep doing what you've been doing since it seems to be working.

As for how to plan out your AMV, well, that's all about preference. Personally, I don't storyboard or anything. I get a general idea of what I want my AMV to look like and go with it. For example, if I hear a song that has a line or two that I think applies really well to a certain anime, or better yet a certain scene within an anime, then I'll rip the footage and work around that idea. I'm all about telling a story with my AMVs, so I try to think ahead a little and put in scenes that match the lyrics but also help advance my story. A lot of the time this doesn't work so well, but it's all a part of the process.

If you mean actual physical organization on your computer, what I do is I rip clips from my anime that are about 30 seconds long and separate them into numbered folders that are named after whichever episode the clips come from (i.e. clips from the first episode are in a folder called "Episode 1", etc.). I number my clips from 1-whatever, keeping them in chronological order. I try not to rip footage that i know I won't be needing, thus making my folders less cluttered and keeping my hard drive a lot less cluttered as well.

The most important thing though is to have a conept. Don't just do an action-oriented AMV whose scene selection is completely random unless you absolutely know what you're doing; generally those are the kinds of AMVs that are looked down upon and have no point. Try to tell some sort of story with your AMV and choose only the footage that goes with that idea; even if there are some genuinely kick-ass scenes that you want to use, if they have nothing whatsoever to do with your concept then don't include them.

I never use the media pool, I always use the Explorer to drag-and-drop clips onto my timeline. The media pool gets too cluttered and I generally don't re-use clips that I've already imported, so it's useless to me anyway. If you want to get it back, though, you should be able to do so by going to the "View" menu at the top and checking "Project Media".
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Postby salemshady » Sun Oct 15, 2006 8:17 pm

i was thinking that an action packed amv with some effects would be a good start for a rookie like me who has no experience with movie making... i was only thinking in terms of doing an amv with lots of action that would sync in well with a good fast paced song! i thought that once i get done doing my first amv.. it'd give me more confidence to work on an amv with a story! oh well..
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Postby CrackTheSky » Sun Oct 15, 2006 9:05 pm

That's a good way to look at it, I suppose. The bottom line is that as long as YOU like whatever you come up with, that's ALL that should matter.
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Postby salemshady » Sun Oct 15, 2006 10:03 pm

CrackTheSky wrote:That's a good way to look at it, I suppose. The bottom line is that as long as YOU like whatever you come up with, that's ALL that should matter.


ok so now that i found the scrubber for vegas 5 ( !!!! ), i can form keyframes anywhere on my timeline. but the easy ride is over from here on.. i am finding it extremely hard to get what i want out of pan and crop. like for example: the earthquake effect or a quick zoom in and then out effect!
[img=http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/4551/hhrn9.th.jpg]

there the red circling shows i found the scrubber.... the black marker shows i've made keyframes!
but as u can see.. there are 2 layers ... keyframes on teh top layer and then the bottom layer! what is the difference?!
iam getting terribly confused on how to use those dotten lines and the F !! iam playing around with it right now to figure out whatever i can.. but is there a thread on this already that i can look up?!
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Postby salemshady » Sun Oct 15, 2006 10:13 pm

another question: how do i reset the changes i've made to the keyframe? i mean yea offcourse if u delete the keyframe, then i assume the effect is deleted too... but on the preview screen the F is altered. how do you i bring it back to default settings on pan and crop?
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Postby CrackTheSky » Sun Oct 15, 2006 10:38 pm

Keyframes on the top layer indicate changes you've made in the clip's position; keyframes on the bottom layer indicate changes you've made to the clip using a mask. See all the way to the left, how "Postition" is above "Mask"? Those correlate to the two layers of the timeline. Though I'm puzzled as to how you've managed to make a mask without realizing it. If you accidentally clicked on the pen tool on the toolbar to the left and started a mask with it, that would explain it.

As for the dotted lines/F part, the F is merely there as a guide (as far as I know) so you can more easily tell where the clip's position is and whether or not it has been rotated at all.

I'll explain the dotted box as best I can. The box is like the screen and the clip is within it. If you reduce the size of the box the picture will zoom in; if you make the box bigger the clip will appear smaller and smaller (go ahead and try; you can see the results in the preview window). This can be used to get a "picture-in-picture" effect by making another video track and putting two clips at the same position on the different tracks, and increasing the size of the box in the pan/crop window of the one on top. When you do this, the clip's size will decrease and you'll see the edges of the clip below behind the smaller clip.

If you can understand that, try it. Even if you don't use it in your video, it's a good way to understand a part of how the pan/crop functions work.

In order to reset the box's position back to the default, go to a keyframe and right-click on the clip and select "Restore". The size and position of the box should go back to normal. Deleting a keyframe will NOT reset the position. If you're doing the earthquake effect I explained earlier, the box moves from one keyframe to the next, it doesn't just jump there. Therefore deleting a keyframe will just make the box move from the keyframe before the one you deleted to the one after it.

I converting d2v files to .avi files right now so I can't give you a visualiziation because the conversion's taking up quite a bit of my computer's resources as it is, but if you need the visuals just let me know and I'll get them up when my computer's done.
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Postby salemshady » Sun Oct 15, 2006 11:06 pm

that helped yeah and i dont need the visuals.. i think i got it, because i was playing with teh whole F thing. the only thing that gets me is that i unintentionally rotate teh screen .. basically i am still feeling weird controlling the F thing! but what is masking anyway? dont bother with the visuals .. i can understand you perfectly fine.. and when i need it i'll let you know
thankx !!!
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Postby CrackTheSky » Sun Oct 15, 2006 11:17 pm

Always keep your fingers on Ctrl-Z, in case you make any mistakes. Pressing them undoes the last thing you did.

Masking is when you want to cut out a section of a clip, basically, and put it onto another background. There's a pretty comprehensive tutorial on masking in the Vegas guide at the top of this page. It can get to be a pain when there's a lot of motion because you have to make a new mask for every individual frame, but you can make some cool effects by practicing with it.
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Postby salemshady » Mon Oct 16, 2006 12:46 am

CrackTheSky wrote:Always keep your fingers on Ctrl-Z, in case you make any mistakes. Pressing them undoes the last thing you did.

Masking is when you want to cut out a section of a clip, basically, and put it onto another background. There's a pretty comprehensive tutorial on masking in the Vegas guide at the top of this page. It can get to be a pain when there's a lot of motion because you have to make a new mask for every individual frame, but you can make some cool effects by practicing with it.


i think i'll just avoid using masking and all of that stuff.. start off with something simple.. but i'll definitely try and use pan and crop! very useful stuff
thanks for helping out
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Postby salemshady » Mon Oct 16, 2006 2:30 am

got another one for you guys!!

i am trying to create a clip where i have two videos going together ( i think pip is the technical term for it) but yea.. i am trying to get one guy to talk (which i am trying to sync with teh audio) and other video in the background has some action scenes going on! now how do you do that? you put the two vidoes on two different video tracks? i am talking vegas here.
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Postby CrackTheSky » Mon Oct 16, 2006 9:23 am

Right-click on a video track and select "Insert Video Track". You should now have two video tracks. On the lower one place the clip that you want to be in the background, in the one on top place the clip that you say you're going to be lip-synching.

On the clip on top go to the pan/crop window and increase the size of the dotted box, and move it around in order to get your clip in the correct position, or just keep it in the middle.

Voila, picture-in-picture!
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Postby salemshady » Mon Oct 16, 2006 5:24 pm

CrackTheSky wrote:Right-click on a video track and select "Insert Video Track". You should now have two video tracks. On the lower one place the clip that you want to be in the background, in the one on top place the clip that you say you're going to be lip-synching.

On the clip on top go to the pan/crop window and increase the size of the dotted box, and move it around in order to get your clip in the correct position, or just keep it in the middle.

Voila, picture-in-picture!


so thats what PIP meant!! it all makes sense now!! lol ( i really didnt know )
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Postby salemshady » Mon Oct 16, 2006 11:32 pm

got some questions:
1) i remember reading the answer to my question somewhere in the forum but i cant remember anymore but the question is ... once your project is complete, how do you compress it to around 60 mb without losing quality?! because when i render the project, it comes out to around 200 mb (iam barely into my second minute! i have 2 more minutes to go)

2) i thought i had this figured out but its not working like it did the last time. the transition duration!! how do you change that again? i tried stretching the quarter circle thing from clip A to B! I got it to work before a couple of times when i fooled around with the transition effects, but its not working anymore... i am not doing it right!

thankx
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Postby Kariudo » Mon Oct 16, 2006 11:40 pm

for number 1. compress it with xivd in virtualdub(/mod) as set forth in EADFAG

for number two...I dunno, but I think I remember hearing that you click and drag the edge of the transition on the timeline(I don't have Vegas...but I'm fairly sure I've heard this somewhere)
ImageImage
Image
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Postby salemshady » Mon Oct 16, 2006 11:46 pm

Kariudo wrote:for number 1. compress it with xivd in virtualdub(/mod) as set forth in EADFAG

for number two...I dunno, but I think I remember hearing that you click and drag the edge of the transition on the timeline(I don't have Vegas...but I'm fairly sure I've heard this somewhere)



i tried opening the rendered file using virtualdubmod, but somehow it comes up with this error that says:

couldnt locate the decompressor for format 'dsvd' (unknown).
VirtualdubMod requires a Video for Windows (VFW) compatible codec to
decompress video. DirectShow codecs such as those used by WMPlayer, are not suitable. Only 'Direct Stream Copy' is available for this video


SO .... i hit ok and tried using xvid to compress it anyway, and somehow the compress option was disabled!! any ideas?
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