A mask effect challenge for you wizards out there

mickbadal wrote on 6/1/2007, 11:42 AM

I'm wondering if anyone knows how to make this type of effect happen in Movie Studio. The best way I can describe it is an illustration:

Imagine a small plane flying across the screen from left to right. As it passes, it leaves text behind it. While this is occurs, other stuff should be able to move across the screen and/or at the same vertical level on the screen where this is occurring without being masked out. An added benefit would be if the plane could move in a path more complex than a simple straight line (for example, an arc'd path, leaving a sentence of text behind it in an arc shape).

I've tried to figure this out using masks and such, but I'm just not clever enough with Music Studio to make this work.

Any wizards out there who know how to do this, perhaps make a test project available???

Comments

OhMyGosh wrote on 6/1/2007, 9:55 PM

Hi Mick,
That challenge is way beyond me, but I might be able to help you a little bit until some of the smarter guys respond. I'm not sure if you are familar with a program called 'Heroglyph', but your challenge seems to be more inline with it, than VMS IMHO. It has a 30 day trial period if you might be interested. I will be interested to see what solutions the other people have to your problem. Let us know how it works out. Take care. Cin

rustier wrote on 6/1/2007, 9:55 PM

1) Use photo shop or something similar to creat the text in the path you wish - save it as a .png file (transparent background).
1a) Create or import your little airplane - if you create it save as .png
2)create a gradient composite mask that you can key frame to reveal text as you "fly by". Depending on the path you may have to play with the mask a bit, but it shouldn't be too hard.
3)Composite this to your video - plane above video, mask above that and text above that - actually you can play with the order above depending on how you approach it.

If you do a search in this forum using the key word "composite" you will find tons of info guys have set out to help you.

Good luck - have fun!

mickbadal wrote on 6/6/2007, 9:18 AM

The first step you mention below I get. It's step 2 I'm having trouble with. How do I create a mask that grows from nothing to the exact shape of the text (especially if the text is a complex shape, like in an arc) over the course of 1-2 seconds?

mickbadal wrote on 6/8/2007, 10:21 AM

Any help on further explanation for that step 2 mentioned above?

I'm clueless as to what a "gradient composite mask" is, how to create it, or what it provides in order to pull off this effect.

Thanks!

mickbadal wrote on 6/8/2007, 11:39 AM

A light bulb finally just came on, and I figured out a way to do this. I don't know if it's the "gradient composite mask" mentioned above (or if that in fact is a different and better way), but for what it's worth here's what I did:

1) Set top video track to alpha, containing a gradient ellipse (looks like a "puff-ball") over a transparent background
2) Second track set to Multiply (Mask), with all-white rectangle the size of the screen
3) Third track set to Alpha (Child), containing the text I want to "appear"
4) Fourth track set to Alpha (parent), containing a desired background image

I simply moved the rectangle on the mask track from off screen to on screen, rotating it slightly as it goes to match the text's arc shaping, creating the "appearance" of the text. Then I keyframed the "Puff-ball" to follow the text's shape and be in sync with how the text appears. (Probably rotating the mask rectangle to follow the text's shape is overkill, since the "puffball" covers it up anyway; so maybe I can get away with a simple linear wipe transition on the child track containing the text, and eliminate the mask track.)

Anyway looks pretty cool, I'll definitely be using this trick for some text intro's to my clips.

Thanks for the help.