Just sent Frigid an emai, I'll send you one asap.
Bob.

Does the "2-Cat" tute use this? - G

Grazie's reference:

Cat Demo

. .and I was referring to Dave's reference above . .. G

Anyone claim the cash ? As a half empty kinda a guy,, looks like a per frame job to me,,,, or maybe a super duper motion tracker to keep hold of the couple.

No one yet - here's the deal

When I replace the clips on the sample project included with Mathew Chabouds demo - I get the desired result.

When I replicate it EXACTLY in a new project I get some crazy stuff that you see when you look at the "result" jpeg.

but I get perfectly good results if I just replace the media - so that is what I'll have to do - I'll nest the project - but the money is still out there for anyone who can show me how to do it before monday, or in general really - Monday is just when I have this done.

Dave

Robert Grant - gets the money (but graciously turns it down - what a man) - the little arrows next to effects that need to be on there are facing the wrong way - they must be set to "post composite" IE - the arrow next to the name of the effect must face towards the keyframes on all the effects instead of away from the key frames.

G was right - it was just a simple slight setting that was entirely skipped passed - I didn't even know that was an option.

Thank you very much mister Grant.

You are a wonderful person :)

Dave

I don't get it - can you [pst the final veg or explain what was wrong?

I'll try but please bear with me.

The Difference Mask calculates a new frame based on the difference in RGB values for each pixel. For example if pixel from Track 1 is 16,197,35 and pixel from Track 2 is 14,200,100 then new frame contains 2,3,65. Some oddball color. For any two pixels that are the same value the answer is 0,0,0. The smaller the values the closer the pixels are.
Now you can't use some form of bizare colored pixels as a mask, you need to turn it into a mask using the Mask FX such that anything that's exactly the same comes out black or tranparent, anything greater than 0 comes out white or solid. Due to several factors lots of other FX in the Two Cats veg are used to smooth things out.

However and this was the key. To generate the mask you apply the FXs to the top track (Track 1 in Problem.veg). Using the default way the Vegas FXs work you're applying the Mask FX to the track BEFORE the Difference composite, result, it just don't work. What you wanted to do was apply the Mask FX to the OUTPUT of the Difference Mask.

Just where an FX is applied is determined by a little triangle next to the FX name in the header of the keyframe timeline in the FX window. When that triangle (actually I think it's an arrow) points left then the FX is being applied to the source (the default), when it's pointing to the right, it's being applied to the composite output. In most cases the direction of the arrow makes no difference which is why it's not mentioned much and easily overlooked.

Hope I've explained this clearly.


Bob.

Dave,

Thanks for the fun project challenge, and thanks to Bob for a good explanation.

Trying to figure this out has greatly helped me understand compositing in Vegas.

Why don't you come up with one every week or month and call it something like "Dave's Dilemmas". Trying to solve the puzzle makes a good adjunct to a tutorial.

Thanks!

Tom

Fridge, how did it turn out , was it useable when dropping in another background ?
I'm such a pessimist, I'm workin hard on it though.

Rockie? - "I'm such a pessimist, I'm workin hard on it though." . .wot? your pessimism? LOL! !!

I've been playing around with it for most of today. Too GOOD! - And yes, Dave HAS made a real fist of it.

During the next few weeks I'm going to review all my approaches to Vegas FXs . .

- g

Thanks Grazie, your positive attitude is a real inspiration for old grouchy dudes like me !!,,,, And I am workin on it !!!!! just today i told the wife how much i enjoyed watching figure skating with her.
there is hope !!!!

" . . for old grouchy dudes like me !! . . . " Hey?!? I didn't see you down the Club today? Must've missed yah!

And THAT'S another thing! - Socks! How come my knees don't bend anymore?


-g

it works great - *especially* for a non green screen - varying shadow and light BG Key. I was able to make a fine key (for DV, and For what I was doing), however - and this makes it all that much better ;-) - WE WENT IN A DIFFERENT DIRECTION!!!! - ARRGGHHH!!!!! - LOL !!!

It was my first OTSE (over the shoulder edit) in a while and the guy I was working with wasn't really my style of person - and so it was like we ketp butting heads a bit here and there. (another story, another time).

Thanks again guys - if you want a solution .Veg I'll be happy to post one for ya. Hasta.

Dave

I'd certainly like to see a nice simple .veg showing the working version of this solution. (I find the twocats example too complicated to work out exactly what is happening where.)

Mark

This stuff is not simple, conceptually the way it works in Vegas is kind of counter intuitive. Well no, that's not really fair, no complex compositing is ever easy to understand unless it's something like in Combustion etc where you use flow charts. The track paradigm makes it hard to visualise what is going on. Perhaps if Vegas had Rewire for video it'd be easier to work with, now there's a thought!

Bob.

Well Dave, I still haven't gotten it to work properly, but it's just my dumb.

I can get what looks like a proper mask, but it isn't masking the video properly. I think I've got a parent/child relationship screwed up somehow, but in principle I see the technique, and it has encouraged me to keep experimenting to find out how far you can take this .

I had originally dismissed the whole thing, as I thought that there was no way to overcome the fact that "difference" only produced a resultant diference in pixels, and I couldn't figure out how to make that into a mask. I totally forgot about the levels filter, so right there I learned something new again.

It's a fun time!

Keep those "Dave's Dilemmas" coming!

Tom