Effects liek light-sabers...if not possible in vegas then in what..

duck wrote on 5/9/2002, 11:10 PM
In our film class this student had a film where he had a segment with two people fighting with lightsabers. After I asked him how he did it and he said he figured out how to do it in after-effects. Is anything like that possible in vegas 3.0? If not then what would be a good compliment with vegas to achieve that affect? Anything besides photoshop frame by frame?

coonsch@mnstate.edu

Comments

kkolbo wrote on 5/10/2002, 8:57 AM
VV is for editorial purposes and editorial compositing. There may be a way to simulate it in VV using masks and keyframe track motion, but this is really not the best method. After Effects is a good way to do it although there are a couple of less expensive tools.
duck wrote on 5/10/2002, 10:40 AM
But will after effects be able to use projects from VV or do you just import the rendered avi after your done with it in VV? Basically is after effects compatable with VV?
SonyEPM wrote on 5/10/2002, 10:51 AM
You can open a Vegas dv avi (or uncompressed .avi) in AE, do your AE fx, and then save the file as an uncompressed .avi. Open that back up in Vegas and you are set.
Luxo wrote on 5/10/2002, 7:48 PM
Take a look at AlamDV for making light sabers and other special effects. I've never used it, but the results in the gallary are pretty amazing.

http://www.csb-digital.com/alamdv/

Luxo
pelvis wrote on 5/10/2002, 9:44 PM
Check this thing out.

http://www.mainconcept.com/mainvision/mainvision_info.shtml

There is a free demo.
SonyDennis wrote on 5/11/2002, 2:41 PM
Many of the same tricks that you can do in AE can be done in VV, but I've never tried a light sabre. Perhaps if you started with chroma-key blue and gree sabres, and then pulled masks from those, you could layer on the glow effects, etc. All of the sabre tutorials I've seen are for AE, but many of the steps can be done in VV.

I've seen some good SFX done in VV, including a transporter effect and a "predator" style visible-to-invisible flicker and light bending.

Files (source, rendered, and masks) can be shared between the two apps.

///d@
mbo wrote on 5/11/2002, 8:09 PM
Just matter of interest. Is VV3 DV codec available in AE? Asking because when I pre-render in VV3 using MainConcept 2.04 DV Codec the resoulting material is much brighter than the rest of the project. VV3 codec does not introduce this effect.
Thanks
Cheesehole wrote on 5/13/2002, 5:18 PM
>>>Just matter of interest. Is VV3 DV codec available in AE? Asking because when I pre-render in VV3 using MainConcept 2.04 DV Codec the resoulting material is much brighter than the rest of the project. VV3 codec does not introduce this effect.

from VV3, render using the SF DV codec. from AfterFX, you'll have to render uncompressed to make sure it gets back into Vegas without quality loss.
Luxo wrote on 5/13/2002, 8:07 PM
Can you post some video examples of these special effects? Project files even?

Luxo
SonyDennis wrote on 5/13/2002, 10:29 PM
Vegas "transporter" effect:

ftp://porker.sonicfoundry.com/

username: dude
password: sweet
folder: sample projects

Download the folder: Transporter (34 MB)

When you are finished downloading the the Transporter folder and all contents, open the folder and launch "Beam me up.htm"

The "Predator" effect that I mentioned was in an in-house contest video, and I don't have the project file. The editor did tell me once how it was done, but I'm not sure I remember everything. It was an impressive feat :) It started with a difference mask being pulled to determine the body location, and then using that to key a scaled version of the background for the light-bending part, and then a final overlay of the footage with the person, with an opacity envelope to flicker it on an off. There might have been some other layers to dress it up (as in "transporter"). Some fantastic "loose electrical connection" audio really completed the effect (believe DSE when he says that audio "makes" the video).

Many cool SFX are possible with a good understanding of keying, masks, track grouping, overlay modes, keyframes, all mixed with some cleverness. Just remember, in the world of special effects, if it looks right, it *is* right!

///d@
MCTech wrote on 5/14/2002, 12:28 AM
Hi All,

I was going to create a MainVision lightsaber tutorial, but I can't find any decent footage to use as a starter.

If anyone has a clip they'd like to see lightsabers added to, let me know how to get it. I'll modify it and show you how I did it. It can be a lo-res clip for demonstration purposes.

I once used this effect on some footage of my son batting at a Little League game. It was cool to see him hitting the ball with a lightsaber instead of a bat. But I've lost that footage.

MainConcept Tech Support
SonyEPM wrote on 5/14/2002, 10:11 AM
Light sabre sample:

ftp://porker.sonicfoundry.com/

username: dude
password: sweet
folder: sample projects
Luxo wrote on 5/14/2002, 6:53 PM
Excellent. Thanks, this is a very helpful introduction to difference keying. You should definitely consider posting the results of the contest you had somewhere for us forum lurkers. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to show friends a cool Predator effect -- "see what Vegas can do?!"

I'll take this time to make my monthy plea to have an on-site Vegas seminar some weekend this summer. I'd gladly make the drive from Chicago.

Luxo
pelvis wrote on 5/14/2002, 8:34 PM
Luxo: How about starting a Vegas User Group in Chicago? email drdropout@sonicfoundry.com if you want to discuss this offline.