changing the edges of your video

strilla wrote on 1/29/2005, 2:29 AM
I spent several hours tonight trying to figure out how to round the edges of my video. I know there has to be a simple solution other than creating a mask in photo shop and covering my video with it. I've done it before in the past but for the life of me could not figure it out tonight how to do it. I thought the answer would be in the plug in packages. Maybe the border or cookie cutter effect but neither one of those gave the option of curving the edge of my video. I know it is probably something simple I'm over looking but it just wouldn't come to me. Any suggestions would greatly be appreciated.

Sincerely,
Strilla

Comments

FuTz wrote on 1/29/2005, 12:43 PM

If you're talking about softening the borders, not rounding the corners, the FX is "Sony Border", set to Blurred and you can adjust the amount of blurring around the image. Like "feathering" the frame, in fact.
Spot|DSE wrote on 1/29/2005, 2:47 PM
Don't forget the Bezier masking tool, either.
http://www.digitalanimators.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=30174
strilla wrote on 1/29/2005, 3:36 PM
Okay... I thought there was a filter or something that rounded the edges of the video. I could have sworn I used it before but I couldn't find it last night. Thanks for your suggestions.

Strilla
FuTz wrote on 1/30/2005, 7:18 AM
Do you have a illustration of what you mean by "rounding the edges" ?

Like spot just said, you'll be able to round the corners, add feathering, etc... ie make exactly the shape you want with bezier mask...
strilla wrote on 1/30/2005, 8:09 AM
I'm glad you asked. Okay say you are doing a Picture in Picture type of composite like in a news cast for example. With the embedded image above the talking head instead of it be completely rectangular you want the 4 corners to be rounded instead of 90 degree angles. I could have sworn there was a way of doing this with a plug in of some sort. I know you can use the feather tool but that just softens or blurs the edges. I'm more interested in making them look more circular. Its no big deal really. It just seems like I've done it in the past without having to create mask or some round about technique. It was driving me crazy the other day because I couldn't figure it out. I just wanted to know for future reference. By the way, I'm using Vegas 4.0 so I don't have the Bezier Mask (bummer). I hope somebody in the programming department is taking notes for future versions. I think there should be away to geometrically change the shape of the plain old rectangular frame by clipping or smoothing out the edges. The Bezier Mask seems cool but it still seems very manual for such a basic task. Anyway, got long winded. Thanks for your assistance.

Strilla
glk7243 wrote on 1/30/2005, 8:12 AM
I use the cookie cutter oval. Blur the edges. I like the way it looks for the pic in pic.
strilla wrote on 1/30/2005, 8:22 AM
maybe I'll give that a try.

Thanks,
Strilla

FuTz wrote on 1/30/2005, 2:52 PM

Then, your best bet is making a mask in Photoshop and save it in PNG with alpha for further edits.
Spot|DSE wrote on 1/30/2005, 4:50 PM
I'm still not understanding why the Borders filter with the blurred/soft edges won't work?
FuTz wrote on 1/30/2005, 6:20 PM

Because he wants to round the corners of the frame, not blur/feather/soften the whole frame borders.
At least, I was confused at first but that's my understanding now.

And he uses V4, which doesn't provide the bezier mask. That would have been easy with that but my guess is: go Photoshop/Paintshop/whatever illustration app with alpha and round these corners to put on top track after as a mask.

Spot|DSE wrote on 1/30/2005, 7:06 PM
A gradient with a square frame, then blurred edges into transparent would also work, even without Bezier.
snicholshms wrote on 1/30/2005, 7:37 PM
There's a plugin for After Effects named "Bull Nose Mask" that is used a lot on TV news casts. The corners are rounded about 10-15 degrees. Another poster mentioned using Photoshop (or Illustrator) to make the mask...and that's probably your best bet.
FuTz wrote on 1/30/2005, 7:49 PM
the corners would then be kind of rounded but the frame itself would be blurred, no?
My idea is he wants a crisp, linear frame but with rounded corners.

A little bit like this:
http://www.peeron.com/pics/inv/custpics/374px2.jpg
smhontz wrote on 1/30/2005, 8:28 PM
Try this: drop a square cookie cutter on your video, and then drop a circle cookie cutter on it. Adjust "Feather" and "Size" of each until you get the rounding you want. Then, you can use track motion to move the PIP where you want, and if you add a drop shadow in track motion, it looks very nice...