Animating small stills

Kered5 wrote on 10/29/2002, 1:27 PM
Ok...this seems like it should be very simple but I've spent a few frustrating hours on this and thought I'd turn it over to the experts !

I have a bitmap of a Map (VV3 btw) and I want to animate a small image of a Plane from one part of the map to another to give the sense of "travel". My initial thought was to get a small clip-art image of a plane, use pan/crop to zoom out so that the plane looked really small and then use a couple of key frames in pan/crop to move the image across the map. Thing is...if I zoom out to make the plane small I cannot get enough movement...I seem to be restricted by the grid size in the pan/crop tool. So I thought...OK...I'll make the Plane image really small in Photoshop and then use that. But when I do this...Vegas blows it up to try and fit the output and I have the same problem again.

Any ideas how I can either make the "grid" bigger or retain the "smallness" of the imported image ?

Thanks

Comments

tserface wrote on 10/29/2002, 1:37 PM
You should put the plane on it's own track and use track motion to move the image instead.

Tom
Kered5 wrote on 10/29/2002, 1:44 PM
I do have the plane on it's own track...I am moving the plane...not the map.
FadeToBlack wrote on 10/29/2002, 1:51 PM
Kered5 wrote on 10/29/2002, 1:55 PM
Ok...now I get it...track motion...not pan and crop.

Thanks guys...much appreciated.
groskouik wrote on 10/30/2002, 1:37 AM
STOP -
I did the same project (with a car following a road)
The fact is VV3 is resizing your object to fill the frame. I was facing the same problem than you.
The good way is to edit your image file with your plane in the middle and a lot of empty (transparent) space around it.
Then when you will import the file in VV3, the plane will look smaller and will be closer that the desired size ( and you won't reach the vv3 zoom/pan limit)

Thanks again to VV3 to get this keyframe option, but please it will be very nice too had a trajectoire ( be able to draw a curve that the object will follow) tool, like in ParticleIllusion !
thanbks SONIC
TorS wrote on 10/30/2002, 3:52 AM
I’ve done a short example for you:

mapflight.wmv (540 kB)


The plane came from a Microsoft font called Webdings (Alt+0241). I added it on the top track with the text generator. Gave it the blue colour with Properties. Gave it the shadow with Effects. Had to offset the shadow a bit more than default – set both x and y to 330. Then I had to change that when the plane turned (Didn’t really have to, but once I’d done the silly thing and set the sun at North West(!) I might as well keep it there :-))

So I used a combination of track motion and pan/crop to get the plane to move roughly where I wanted it. Basically I used track motion to turn the plane and pan/crop to move it. A bit tricky that, because it moved when it turned – not being in the centre. You can put a lot of work in here or you can make it simple. You could even run a car along a curvy road, but it would be a lot of work.

You’ll want to try different settings on the keyframes – like hold and smooth etc. Sometimes you get unexpected movements that are very beautiful. Like the little westward curve the plane does at the beginning of my example.

All this is exactly like tserface and GG have told you already, except for the plane that came from the text generator and gave me the shadow for free.
Also, with the text generator you have more room to move with the pan/crop function.
And you have better control over the size – just set the point size you want and you're ready for take-off.

Tor
Kered5 wrote on 10/30/2002, 6:59 AM
Thanks guys...great advice.

I like your clip TorS! Exactly what I am trying to do !