effects question

CrackTheSky · Post by **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".

salemshady · Post by **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..

CrackTheSky · Post by **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.

salemshady · Post by **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?!

salemshady · Post by **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?

CrackTheSky · Post by **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.

salemshady · Post by **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 !!!

CrackTheSky · Post by **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.

salemshady · Post by **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

salemshady · Post by **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.