Animated border?

kirsol wrote on 1/30/2004, 8:11 AM

I know how to use the "cookie cutter" effect to create a static colored border around a still or video image.

But what I'd really like to do is have the border be animated with a moving pattern. For example, imagine a rectangular border that consists of a pattern of repeating red hearts moving at a constant rate along the rectangular path of the border.

Can Vegas do this natively (without jumping through a million hoops), or would it require a third-party FX or rotoscoping program (which ain't in my budget - this is a birthday gift for my niece).

Thanks for any suggestions,
Mitch K

Comments

JohnnyRoy wrote on 1/30/2004, 8:26 AM

Getting the animated border is easy to do in Vegas. You’re on the right track with the Cookie Cutter. The trick is adding the background on the track just below the track you want to border so it shows through the Cookie Cutter.

Here are the steps:

Step 1: Insert two video tacks
Step 2: Drop your animated background on the bottom track (generated media noise textures work nice for this)
Step 3: Place your video that needs the animated border on the top track
Step 4: Add the Cookie Cutter to the event on the top track
Step 5: In the Cookie Cutter dialog, select Shape: Rectangle
Step 6: Select Method: Cut away all but selection
Step 7: Adjust Size: to the size of your border.

If you want the pattern to follow the path of your border, you’ll need to generate that with an animation program (e.g., Ulead Cool 3D Production Studio) and use that as the lower video. You could also generate it within Vegas using 4 tracks that each have the media (one going in each direction, up, right, down, left) and then generate an AVI and use that as your background. (I guess that was just a few hoops)

~jr

kirsol wrote on 1/30/2004, 9:05 AM

Thanks, JohnnyRoy. I just tried your procedure. It all made sense and was easy to follow, but the noise texture just laid there like a piece of wallpaper (i.e. it didn't move).

Then it occurred ot me (duh) that I could keyframe the noise properties, and voila, moving noise. Then that got me thinking...I could make my own texture in PaintShop Pro, drop the image on the bottom track, then keyframe some panning/cropping to create a custom moving background. Given the neat things that can be done with moving backgrounds, I'm willing to give my original exact requirement of motion that follows the border. Thanks again.

An aside: Keyframes really are an awesome tool in Vegas. At first they just confused the heck out of me, especially when I didn't understand the mechanics of sync to cursor (and the unintended effects that arise when sync to cursor is in effect but you don't realize it/don't understand it) but now that I've got the hang of keyframes I can never go back to the simpler world of "Begin/End" in Movie Studio 3.

Mitch K.

jdas wrote on 1/30/2004, 6:51 PM

Hi Johnny,

Your step-by-step instructions are easy to understand,especially
for someone new to Vegas. Good work. Hope Spot's new book will adopt this style.

JohnnyRoy wrote on 1/30/2004, 7:57 PM

Sorry I didn’t mention about animating the noise. The best way I’ve found is by adding a key frame at the end and adjusting the Progress (in degrees) just a bit. Of course key framing any of the properties is bound to change something but I find the progress most appealing. Try using the Puffy Clouds preset and adjust the progress just a little on the last key frame to get some pretty convincing moving clouds.

Glad you found the steps useful.

~jr

TorS wrote on 2/1/2004, 1:27 AM

You might want to look at the link given in my first post on this thread.
It describes how to make an animated border from your own video. Very simple. Very stylish.
Tor