piano keys in vegas

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aznfs
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piano keys in vegas

Post by aznfs » Tue Aug 31, 2004 6:03 pm

ok so i finally found out how to make the paino key effect on premeire.... now the problem is that i dont use premiere in fact it hate premiere (no offense to anyone)

i use vegas 4/5 does anyone know how to make the piano key effect of vegas?

much help appreicatied :)
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Kalium
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Post by Kalium » Tue Aug 31, 2004 6:05 pm

More or less the same way, I would assume. With a mask, setting one color to transparent or using a color key.

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aznfs
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Post by aznfs » Tue Aug 31, 2004 6:24 pm

how come u get a lack of sleep title? -_- i have lack of sleep too :lol: :roll:

i suck at transferring techniques from one program to another :roll: so would it be too much to ask for a step by step way to doing piano keys in vegas?


anyone? i have 20 days left of summer so i want to be able to do something to pass the time... aside for partying... but if i party anymore my body is goin to die on me,,, my gas tank is kind of empty too :roll:
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Kalium
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Post by Kalium » Tue Aug 31, 2004 6:56 pm

aznfs wrote:how come u get a lack of sleep title? -_- i have lack of sleep too :lol: :roll:
Chatting with derobert at 3 AM will do that sort of thing.

Anyway, I don't actually use Vegas, but checking the help files for transparency or color keying should be enlightening.

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aznfs
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Post by aznfs » Tue Aug 31, 2004 7:18 pm

3 years with vegas and i have never cracked open the manuals... even when i got vegas 5 a week or so ago, i havent looked at the manuals... they're sitting on my 'need to read' pile :roll:
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TaranT
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Re: piano keys in vegas

Post by TaranT » Wed Sep 01, 2004 3:06 am

aznfs wrote:...i use vegas 4/5 does anyone know how to make the piano key effect of vegas?
You've lucked out since I am working on a piano key AMV right now...now that I've been inspired by dwchang's amazing - or should I say, "Astounding!" - success with that and other video trickery. :P (Your BS meter should be pegged about now.)

You've probably got the masks already, but for others who may not know, a piano key mask is the same as any other mask: a still picture with a white bar on a black background. I'm using PNG files that have a white bar on a transparent background, but as far as Vegas is concerned, it's the same, black or transparent.

These are the basics for Vegas:
1. Put your background clip on a track. This is what the key appears on top of.
2. Put the "key" clip on the track above the background. This will be the key image.
3. Put the key mask picture on a track above that one.

At this point you have three tracks stacked: from top to bottom, the key mask, the key clip, and the background clip.

4. At the far left side of the middle track, click the right-angle arrow symbol that is pointing up. This creates a child-parent relationship between the top two tracks. Put the timeline cursor on the key mask and you'll see the piano key effect in the preview window.

That's all there is to it. Some further tips:

a. Read the Help menu item called Compositing Video - Compositing and Masks for further info. They have some pictures that show how the parent-child thing works.

b. If your mask has any horizontal edges, be sure the add a few pixels of feathering to avoid flickering horizontal lines when you render to interlaced.

c. If all or most of your piano key points occur at the same interval in the music, set the default still image length before you start placing the key masks on the timeline. You can do this at Options-Preferences-Editing-New still image length. You may still need to fine-tune the image durations, but this will get all of them in the ballpark.

d. The key masks can be made with any picture editor, including MS Paint. But it's better to use something that handles objects which you can copy and control by setting their sizes and locations precisely.

e. That last note suggests two different methods for creating the mask pictures. One method is to create a single picture, put copies of it on the (top) track, then use the Video Event Pan/Crop window to set the horizontal location of the key for each one of these events. The other method is to create a different still pic for each different location, in effect using the picture editor instead of the video editor to locate the keys. You can name the files after the musical notes if you know what they are.

I'm using that second method since I've mapped out exactly how many keys I want and where I want them. It's a lot less trouble than doing motion and placement settings for a couple of hundred still pictures (although ctrl-C copies would simplify this significantly).


***********

That's the straightforward method, but Vegas also has its own generated media which can be used to do the same thing. I won't go into the details since you can experiment with these to see if they work for you.

Click the Media Generators tab in the lower right window (if it's not there, click View-Media Generators).

a. Select Color Gradient - most of these are presets for a general purpose image creator. Difficult to use, but do-able.
b. Select Checkerboard - drag Split Screen on the timeline and experiment with the control sliders. "Checkerboard" is a generic tool that makes more than just that. Although a checkerboard mask animated to the beat might be kind of cool. Or not. :roll:

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aznfs
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Post by aznfs » Wed Sep 01, 2004 12:53 pm

woo hoo!!!

*hugs TaranT*
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bum
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Re: piano keys in vegas

Post by bum » Wed Sep 01, 2004 10:41 pm

TaranT wrote:
aznfs wrote:...i use vegas 4/5 does anyone know how to make the piano key effect of vegas?
You've lucked out since I am working on a piano key AMV right now...now that I've been inspired by dwchang's amazing - or should I say, "Astounding!" - success with that and other video trickery. :P (Your BS meter should be pegged about now.)

You've probably got the masks already, but for others who may not know, a piano key mask is the same as any other mask: a still picture with a white bar on a black background. I'm using PNG files that have a white bar on a transparent background, but as far as Vegas is concerned, it's the same, black or transparent.

These are the basics for Vegas:
1. Put your background clip on a track. This is what the key appears on top of.
2. Put the "key" clip on the track above the background. This will be the key image.
3. Put the key mask picture on a track above that one.

At this point you have three tracks stacked: from top to bottom, the key mask, the key clip, and the background clip.

4. At the far left side of the middle track, click the right-angle arrow symbol that is pointing up. This creates a child-parent relationship between the top two tracks. Put the timeline cursor on the key mask and you'll see the piano key effect in the preview window.
(first of, im using vegas4 but things should be the same in vegas5)

i used variations of the piano key effect heavily in a vid i made for an english project a few weeks ago. i first did it the way taran just explained, but i found out that thiers another way to do it, through vegas alone (without using the media generators).

first off, all you need is the two video clips. the background clip (clip A) and the piano key clip (clip B). anyway....

1 - create two video timelines. insert both clips. put clip A in the lower timeline and clip B in the timeline above it.

2 - now open the event pan/crop window for clip B. this is where the effect will be done.

3 - make sure the lock aspect ratio, zoom edit too and size about center buttons are turned off. normal edit tool and enable snaping should be on.

4 - now for a simple piano key. move your mouse around the left center or right center boxes around the image (the "frame" ) till you see a <-> cursor. hold the left mouse button and drag the cursor into the image untill its the size you want. viola ! theirs your piano key

5 - ok so that just created a simple key in the center of the image. now to get the key at other points in the video. undo step 4 till you get the original image. now move your mouse to the inside of the frame till you see the 4 arrow cursor (but not touching the dot in the center). hold the left mouse botton again and drag the frame half way out of the image. now click on one of the center squars and drag in about half wway (or however you want the key to be.

6 - and thats it. ok so the explanation was long but in practice its realy fast and easy to do.

hints - you may wana add an opacity effect to the piano key, as it makes it look much beter. thier are a few ways to do this. best way ive found is to insert a fade to colour envelope and then give the bottom colout 100% opacity. the fade to colour envelope is prety versatile, but read about it in the help file to fully understand how to use it.

with the method to the piano effect i explained, thiers an issue when working with widescreen footage. when pushing in the frame, vegas streches and zooms in on the footage till it fits the whole frame, then it starts pushing in the actual image. i havent tried this but, the way to get around this would probaly be to use a widescreen template. anyway that little issue can actualy be helpfull if ya wana use a bit of widescreen footage in a 4:3 vid.

the snaping and movement arrow buttons are realy helpfull for geting the key just right. mess around with them, they help alot.

and as with everything in vegas, just mess around with it trying out all the little options and features you can find, read the help file and mess around with everything. and dont stress about using divx files. unlike a certian other program thats well known around here, vegas can handle them fine, no mater what you do.

oh yeah and one last thing. learn how to use keyframes. their easy to use and give you much more control over effects and your vid in general.

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aznfs
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Post by aznfs » Wed Sep 01, 2004 10:45 pm

sigh -_-;;

:D more experimentation to do ^^
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aznfs
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Post by aznfs » Wed Sep 01, 2004 10:49 pm

ok im back;; -_-;;
after trying bum's method i realized i already know how to do his method :lol:

summer skool is bad for u kids; it make u forget things

i stil have yet to try TaranT's method tho

thanks to TaranT and bum *bows down to the gods*
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