Apply motion to multiple tracks at once

Anthony-Burbury wrote on 12/4/2022, 7:26 AM

Hello, I am running Vegas Pro 19.

I am trying to apply motion to multiple tracks at once--I have multiple images that appear on various parts of the screen, and I want to move them off-screen at the same speed. Imagine holding a camera at bird's-eye view of a messy desk, and you are slowly moving from one side of the desk to the other, so that the items on the desk appear from the left-hand side, then disappear on the right-hand side.

I know how to achieve this effect. I can open up the pan and crop for each image, make sure the image starts off-screen to the left and then ends up off-screen to the right using keyframes. However, this is going to be incredibly tedious to do for 40+ images, each with different sizes and rotations (and most will actually appear in the middle of the screen instead of from the left). It will also require a lot of trial and error to make sure all images move at the same speed.

I have tried using an adjustment track to apply a constant rightward movement, but track motion applied to it doesn't apply to other tracks.

I have tried applying the motion on one image, then using track motion and applying the movement from that image to the others through picture in picture. However, the secondary images are partially cut-off because the movement of the first image usually doesn't align with the locations and movements of the other images (the aspect ratios are all the same so that isn't the issue).

Is there really no easy way to do this Vegas? I am happy to look at plug-ins too if anyone has any suggestions.

 

Thanks.

 

Comments

jetdv wrote on 12/4/2022, 7:34 AM

Try this: Make a parent track above all of those tracks and all of those tracks children to that parent track. Then use Track Motion on the parent track.

Anthony-Burbury wrote on 12/6/2022, 8:36 AM

Thanks, I thought that adjustment tracks were what parent tracks were called in Vegas 19 (googling seems to come up with guides for old versions). But once I knew they were different I probed a bit further and was able to find it. I didn't realise there was an icon for it under the Solo button.

jetdv wrote on 12/6/2022, 8:52 AM

Yes, Parent/Child is different than "Adjustment" - not to say an "adjustment" track can't also be a parent (or child, for that matter). In newer versions of VEGAS, these options are often hidden by default and you need to turn them back on to get them to show on the track header or access them through the header menus.

Anthony-Burbury wrote on 12/18/2022, 7:39 AM

So I've found a problem with this solution: The track motion which is applied to the parent track essentially creates a "box" which slides across the screen. All child tracks appear to move along the screen as per the parent track motion, however if part of the images in the track fall outside the box, they get cut off. This also means that eventually the "box" will slide off the screen and you won't see any of the images on the child tracks, no matter where you place them.

So the solution only works when the images are small enough, and you also have to create a new parent track every so often to bring the "box" back. It's better than nothing but a bit unfortunate that it works this way.