Blending video into background

tabacg7 wrote on 8/24/2010, 7:38 AM

I'm doing all the sports videos for my college, and have decided to use Sony Movie Studio HD Platinum. I love it, great software, but my nagging problem is, I have these great overlays and backgrounds, but when I try to fit the video into them it looks so obvious that its just placed right on top. Does anyone know a way to make the video look like its naturally supposed to be inside a overlay or background? Thanks!

Comments

dogwalker wrote on 8/24/2010, 7:54 AM

I'm away from my desk, can't look right now, but I'm pretty sure you can use Track Motion to do this. With track motion, you can add a drop shadow (looks nice).

You might be able to feather it as well, which would look nice (blends, softly fades to the background).

So, first look at track motion. If that doesn't work, you could also use a feathered mask around the whole event. I'd use the mask inside the Pan and Zoom tool, or look at the Cookie Cutter Fx, and choose rectangle.

TeetimeNC wrote on 8/24/2010, 8:52 AM

Can you post a screen shot from one of your attempts so we can see what you are dealing with?

/jerry

farss wrote on 8/24/2010, 3:43 PM

" Does anyone know a way to make the video look like its naturally supposed to be inside a overlay or background?"

That's a quite profound question.
Try to look at the problem in terms of "justified" or "motivated". Sorry my answer is as profound as your question however any of us could tell you "how" to cut, paste, mask, blur and move visual elements. Explaining why two visual elements look natural or not when put together is the art side of the craft and that's not so easy to explain.
Try looking at work done by the pros that you feel works well, look at the work that does not work well. Working out why some work and some don't might help your understanding.
Once you know what you want to do and cannot fathom how to do it, ask away, that's generally much easier to answer.

Bob.

A. Grandt wrote on 8/24/2010, 4:40 PM

Bob, he's using Movie Studio, it doesn't have the mask feature if I recall.

I do agree though, that the elements have to be related and work with each other for a blend to work. Figuring that out is where the talent and experience comes in.

JohnnyRoy wrote on 8/24/2010, 4:48 PM

First, you are using Vegas Movie Studio and this is the Vegas Pro forum. You should probably post your question in the Vegas Movie Studio forum to avoid confusion on your part since one answer to your post here as already suggested using Masking in Pan/Crop which Movie Studio doesn't have. (this is just to avoid us telling you to try things that you cannot do with Movie Studio)

Second, you should probably post a picture of what you are looking at and that will give people a better understanding of what you are trying to bland into the background. Without a visual reference it will be difficult to say what you should do.

As Bob points out, your question alone with no reference is very profound if not provoking of my favorite line in the movie My Cousin Vinny... "Oh yeah, you blend" ;-)

~jr