Masking Questions for Vegas

Kero777 · Post by **Kero777** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 3:27 pm

I just spent about 15 minutes in Vegas masking out a frame. When I go to the next frame, I know there is going to be movement, so I have to change it. I go to drag the anchors, but they do something weird: a bar comes in-between it and I can't really move the anchors that need to change (moving hands). They kind of glitch out.

Am I supposed to start completely from scratch on the next frame or is there a way to move the anchors that need to move?

Also, I would really like a black border around my mask so it looks better. I tried using a chroma keying way that someone suggested: setting everything but blur to zero. It doesn't really work that well. Is there a way I can do this too?

Thanks for reading.

NS · Post by NS » Sat Aug 11, 2007 3:30 pm

<_<... Pic of what you mean by bars appear?

JaddziaDax · Post by **JaddziaDax** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 3:36 pm

do you mean the dotted line between them sticks in place?

pretty much all you need to do is make sure you select the anchor and not the bar and then you can move them freely... i usually just click on nothing and then attempt to click on the anchor again...

if you want a "stroke" around your mask, then the easiest way to do that is to do your masking in photoshop... with an image sequence O.o which is a bigger pain in the butt than doing it in vegas imho

Kero777 · Post by **Kero777** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 4:08 pm

Sorry, I knew I should have snapped a picture. This is my second frame and you can clearly see that I need to change the outline of the arm is because it moved up, but I just can't seem to get the hang of it:

I tried just selecting the square and not the bar, like you suggested, but it made no difference. I'm going to laugh at myself when I figure out what I am doing wrong. I'm not great at learning how to mask... I couldn't even get the hang of it in Photoshop.

JaddziaDax · Post by **JaddziaDax** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 4:49 pm

oh those things, i hate those things XD

take the dots at the end and drag them back into the anchor and it will go away XD (or at least not make your other lines squiggle..)

NS · Post by NS » Sat Aug 11, 2007 5:24 pm

yah...

First select the pointer tool.. the arrow thing. then a hand'll show up when you're over a part that isn't the anchor path.. click outside it once(left click)(the cursor doesn't show up on the picture taken by screenshot... but you can figure it out XD)

anyway.. after you do that. the path'll look like above, then you click where one of the ancors are.. or just on the path somewhere

And you should be able to move individual anchors. =O.

P.S. if anybody cares.. I'm not doing this for a project it was just the one it automatically loaded up so I used it

NS · Post by NS » Sat Aug 11, 2007 5:25 pm

Or when you accidently mess up and you make the big oval ones.. you can just undo it by hitting Ctrl+Z

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 6:02 pm

Those things are annoying as all hell (get them in AE all the time). AFAIK, practice is the best method here. Once you get good at playing with the curves you can become quite adept at using them too.

Kero777 · Post by **Kero777** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 6:18 pm

Thanks everyone! I'm getting the hang of it now.

Those pictures helped a lot. I realized I had accidentally enabled snapping earlier and that's partly why I couldn't get it to go where I wanted.

Kero777 · Post by **Kero777** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 6:25 pm

Oh, and is Photoshop really the only way to get a nice border around the mask? Has anyone found a way in Vegas