Piano Keys in Vegas

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lynit
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Piano Keys in Vegas

Post by lynit » Sun Sep 16, 2007 7:02 pm

I'm interested in knowing how to replicate this effect in Vegas 6. I already know it has to do with the Cookie Cutter, in that you make a rectangle, mess around with the size, but I wanna know a few things..

1. How can you make it vertical? So far, the rectangles only go across the screen, and I'm more interested in making it go down (Best example is TaranT's video and the first segment in the Doomrider MEP)

2. How would you place another video in it? (Again, best example I can find is Doomrider)

3. Now, I understand to sync it, it has something to do with keyframes. Could someone explain this any further?

Thanks :D
<Stirspeare> Otohiko: You guys sure love dongs.

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JaddziaDax
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Post by JaddziaDax » Sun Sep 16, 2007 8:51 pm

here is how you do it with cookie cutters: these can be applied to media generators to have a solid color, or to a video to have video in them...

Vertical:
Image

Horizontal:
Image

to make them fatter/skinnier adjust the square size. you can also adjust the border size/color, how much feathering you want, etc.

play around with the effect its somewhat fun

as for making them move that depends on how you want them to move, one easy way is to cut the image into clips and use the yellow square in it to move it into different places on the different clips, this will make them jump, but to do it with keyframes i believe you just right click on the keyframe and choose "hold" and it will hold till the next keyframe..

otherwise use the keyframes on leniar and they will slide to the places you want them (for example the one i used in the beginning of walking in the butterflies)

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CrackTheSky
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Post by CrackTheSky » Mon Sep 17, 2007 1:23 am

I actually find it easier to make a mask on the top video layer in the shape of a rectangle. (By this, I mean make two video layers - the one on top is the one you'll have the cookie cutter effect applied to). From there you can use keyframes to move the mask around, or if you want the video to move "with the mask", as it were, you can just move the screen around in Pan/Crop.

To do THIS (I assume you know the basics of panning), move the screen to where you want it to start, then move the scrubber at the bottom to the end of the timeline (or wherever) and move the screen to the position you want the piano key to end at. When you play back the clip, the piano key will move across the screen.

It gives you a bit more control over the effect than cookie cutter, I think.

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Post by TaranT » Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:06 am

You mention my Metropolis video where I did not use the cookie cutter for piano keys. It's the wrong way to go if you have many to do - over a thousand, in that vid.

I wanted only a small number of keys in specific (relative) positions on the screen. So I created each key as a PNG pic (white rectangle on transparent background). The picture editing program gave me precise control over size and (left/right) position. And in Vegas, I just dropped them on the compositing track at the correct beat on the timeline. No cookie cutter settings, no keyframing, no messing with the pan/crop to put the key in the right location on the screen.

I went further and took advantage of the fact that most of the piano measures repeated themselves. That allowed me to set up the key pics in groups of 32 each, timed properly and rendered out to a black and white video file. Then that file was placed in multiple copies on the timeline. Saved a LOT of time and work, but you can't do that if you're using the cookie cutter.


Suggestion: don't make the mistake I did and just bang the keys in on a note. I should have added what the audio people call attack and decay; i.e. fade the key in over 1-3 frames, same (or maybe a bit longer) for fade out. I did this with some of the keys, but not enough of them.

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Post by TaranT » Mon Sep 17, 2007 2:15 am

CrackTheSky wrote:...When you play back the clip, the piano key will move across the screen.
Is that a piano key? As I was typing the previous, I was wondering if there is agreement on the definition of a piano key effect.

I would be looking for vertical rectangles that appear specifically on a note - ideally a piano note, but not necessarily - and then disappear. This is different than floating rectangles.

We should ask dW. He's the expert on these matters. :roll:

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Post by JaddziaDax » Mon Sep 17, 2007 6:04 am

ah "hold" on the keyframes ftw?

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