Dissolving edges only.

farss wrote on 3/7/2005, 3:10 AM

Current project has over 1000 stills, all hi res and at differing ARs. No problem with any of that. I've created soft backgrounds to fill the rest of the 16:9 frame.
Only thing is I'd like to soften the edges of the stills so the egde merges into the background. I can get close to what I want with the border FX set to soft except that affects all sides of the frame. Also that's just blurring the edge of the frame not fading it out (i.e. changing the transparency).
I COULD achieve exactly what I want by creating a soft edge mask but that's a lot of work as I'd need a different one for each frame size, I guess I could resize the mask for each event.
Hm, maybe I could copy the frame to a new track, force it all to white with HSL and apply GB horizontal only to blur the vertical edge and add Mask Generator. Will try that tomorrow.
In the interim, anyone got any better / simpler ideas?
Bob.

Comments

PeterWright wrote on 3/7/2005, 3:39 AM

Sounds like you've got most bases covered Bob. I'd have chosen Bezier mask, for the following reasons -

* feathering can be switched in/out/both and graduated in size

* I don't know how many different size pics you have, but if say there's half a dozen, each Pan/Crop/Bezier setting can be given a preset name and saved.

* there is no third reason

farss wrote on 3/7/2005, 4:49 AM

Thanks Peter,
I'll try that tomorrow. Haven't really tried Beziers as yet, might be time to expand my knowledge in that area.
Glad to see you cracking the whip over in another pasture, our old mate HDV might have been a few cards short of a full deck but the more I read elsewhere I'm getting the feeling there was some grains of truth in where he was coming from.

RafalK wrote on 3/7/2005, 5:26 AM

I think you can play around with the cooki cutter effect to accomplish this

farss wrote on 3/7/2005, 5:41 AM

Problem with Cookie Cutter is you cannot change the aspect ratio I think.
Just tried using Beziers, work a treat once I got my brain around it.

busterkeaton wrote on 3/7/2005, 6:10 AM

Would using a gradient help? You could create a track of gradients below the images and use transitions between each gradient.

Spot|DSE wrote on 3/7/2005, 6:16 AM

Bob, I often use the Extensis masks for this. http://www.extensis.com/en/products/product_family.jsp?locale=en_US&id=1022
Rather than processing them in Pshop, I just drop the masks on in Vegas.

farss wrote on 3/8/2005, 5:36 AM

Had a quick look at the Extensis masks, would be great but not for what I'm doing here. I just used the Beziers to create a cutout about 5% in from the vertical edges with feathering and got what i wanted. 1200 3000x2000 px stills all composited is kinda making Vegas feel like I'm working in a vat of custard but it hasn't crashed once. Rendering it out as uncomp 1080 24 p those stills look so real on the 23" monitor, blows the Z1 clean out of the water, probably even give a F900 a serious run for its money.