Best way to do 2 pictures side by side?

rkhanso wrote on 2/17/2011, 7:00 AM
Hello,
I searched, but didn't quite find an answer to my question.
I"m using VMS Platinum 8.0.

Making a slideshow of static pictures. I have 2 pictures for each person, a baby picture and a graduation picture. I'm displaying the baby picture first, fading to the graduation picture.

What I'd like to add is a side by side of the 2 pictures shown at the same time. I'm not sure the 'proper' or best way to do this. Would the best way to use the Track Motion button? Or just the pan/crop for each photo?

Thanks.

Comments

jetdv wrote on 2/17/2011, 8:46 AM
If you don't need to crop the image, Pan/Crop can work fine for this but it would probably be easier to use Track Motion. If all the images are the same size, it will be simple. If not, you'll need multiple Track Motion keyframes.
rkhanso wrote on 2/17/2011, 9:21 AM
I don't need to crop the pictures since I already did that in Photoshop. The pictures are exactly how I want them displayed.

But, the pictures are NOT all the same size or proportions.

I messed with the track motion feature (I'm can do basic things in Vegas, definitely not an expert) and it did display the photos side by side eventually, but when playing the video from the beginning in Vegas, it slowly shrunk/moved all the pictures I did not want changed also.
rkhanso wrote on 2/17/2011, 10:22 AM
OK. I think I figured out how keyframes work. I watched a couple youtube videos on keyframes.

What I did to stop what I did NOT want to move....added a keyframe just past the end of that picture and adjusted the picture height and X axis so it left it alone, until after the keyframe I added.

Is that the proper way to do it?
jetdv wrote on 2/17/2011, 10:52 AM
Change the keyframe type to "Hold" and then it won't change at all until it hits the next keyframe.
rkhanso wrote on 2/17/2011, 2:49 PM
Spot on.
Thanks jetdv.
Birk Binnard wrote on 2/19/2011, 12:39 AM
I do this a fair amount also but I opted to do it in Photoshop:

1. Open both pics in Photoshop

2. Resize the pics to the same pixel height (I use 1080 because I make Blu-Ray video files) but they only need to both be the same pixel height, whatever it is.

3. on one of the pics increase the canvas size 200%

4. copy/paste the other pic onto the first one's canvas. Use the Move tool to position it properly.

5. Crop the merged pic appropriately & save it.

You can do this in less time than it takes to read the steps above.