Yup. That's pretty darn close to the effect I'm trying to achieve.

Thanks!

Actually,

One other question with regards to this. If I'm rolling the credits over a backdrop on another track, how do I have the color gradient effect only the credits, and not the backdrop?

Thanks!

Okay, I think I got it, but this will be kind of complicated.

First of all, you'll need to do "parent-child" compositing with the gradient mask and the credit roll.

Secondly, the gradient mask needs to be a white-to-transparent gradient, rather than white to black.

Heres a brief description -- you may need to access your Help function for details. (This is kind of messy to describe, and I don't understand it all that well myself.)

Put your credit roll on the top track, the white-to-black gradient on the next lower track, and the background image or video on the track below that. (Warning: I'm not sure if the gradient should be on top, or the credit roll, or if it makes any difference. I tried it with the gradient on the second track, and it seemed to work, but it might be worth looking up in the help files under compositing.)

On the gradient track, make it a "child" of the credit roll track above it by clicking the "Make Compositing Child" icon in the track header. This icon is at the right edge of the gradient track header, and looks like a skinny blue rectangle with an arrow pointing down. Click it, and the arrow will change to pointing up, and the gradient track will now be shown indented from the credit roll track above. In simplest terms, this means that these two tracks are processed together (to each other) in a special way.

Now, on the credit roll track, click the green "Compositing Mode" icon in the track header area. It looks like an "a" alpha character in front of a film frame, and should change to an "x" character (multiply). This means that each pixel on the Credit Roll will be multiplied by the same pixel on the gradient, and the resulting "composited" image will then be overlayed on the background track below. Anything totally white in the gradient will keep the other track just as is. Anything totally black in the gradient will result in a black composited result. And anything in between in the gradient will result in a faded (toward black) result.

However, you actually want to fade to transparent rather than fade to black, so you need to change the gradient. To make a white-to-transparent gradient, open the gradient properties of the gradiant event on the timeline (by clicking on the little green "film frame" icon at the end of the gradient event). Click on the control point in the black part of the gradient (it should start blinking). Now, in the upper left corner of the area where the color tools are (to the right of the gradient), you should see a rectangle that is black at the top, and fades to a gray checkerboard at the bottom. The gray checkerboard indicates "transparent". Grab the little white triangle at the upper right corner of that rectangle, and drag it down to the bottom. The gradient picture should now change to a white-to-checkerboard (transparent) gradient. You can now close the gradient Video Event FX window.

Hopefully, at this point, the credit roll will fade to transparent at the point indicated in your gradient mask (where the gradient fades to transparent).

Good luck.

Tim L

Put your backdrop gradient on the bottom track. Scrolling on transparent above that. Linear black to transparent (this is your mask) above that and set the composite mode multiply (the little green box). Click your little arrow on the credit roll so it is up - making the "mask" the parent. Spin the mask (gradient) around so it suites you - by the way you can add control points if you want to enhance how it looks.

have fun with it

Thanks Tim and rustier for the advice.

It seems I'm 90% there witht the composting ider. The only problem is that when I follow your instructions, I cant completely see the text. I know it is there, because when I scrub over the timeline, there's like a "shadow" of something moving up the screen, presumably the text from the credit roll.

However, you cant see what the text says. It seems like I'm missing one element somewhere that will make it work.

I've tried all the possible combination of the parent-child,and the Alpha-Multiply (mask) settings.

I don't know if what I descibed make sense or not.

Any thoughts?

Thanks again.

Keith

Actually the way i would do it is to put the gradient on the top track, the text with transparent background on track 2, and the video on track 3. Set track 2 to be a child of 1 and set the compositing mode of track 1 to be multiply (mask). Now the text will show up wherever the gradient isn't black, and it will be opaque in proportion to the brightness of the gradient. As the gradient fades to black the text will fade to transparent.

Oh, and depending on which version of Vegas you're using, you may have to add the "mask generator" effect to track 1.

Yeah, I think Kelly (Chienworks) and Rustier are right. Whatever is acting like a mask -- the gradient, in this case -- should be on the parent track, with its compositing mode set to multiply. The Credit Roll should be on the track below it, as a child. (And your background video or image should be on the track below that.) The gradient should be black and white, not white to transparent.

My method worked, I guess, but was really backwards -- kinda crazy that it did work. In effect, my credit roll was acting like the *mask*, almost like a stencil showing through the white area below, and simply showing the transparent area as the scrolling "credit roll mask" rolled up to the top of the screen. This is really backwards from the way it should be -- Kelly and Rustier have it right. (I'd never used this feature before, and when I saw the question posted I just gave it a try...)

Tim L

The example I gave was using VMS 6 platinum and I know it does what I understand you want it to do - fade out the scrolling text without affecting your "backdrop" that the text is scolling on top of. Seeing shadows suggests to me that you might have dropped the wrong type of gradient, and perhaps bumped the opacity of one of the "layers" so that you can see something.

What is confusing is that VMS is such a neat program there are several ways to accomplish the same thing. Also I may be using the wrong terminology or not conveying it properly.

What I am calling the backdrop - goes on the lowest video track in my example. This backdrop could be anything at all that you want to see "behind the letters" of your credits. For this example I used the media generated color or colors that vary depending on how you play with the control points. Above that, in my example, you use a transparent scrolling text. This has the checkerboard background behind the letters. When this is used, you will see only the letters and no backdrop - so if you plopped this above your video you would still see the video and the letters "blocking" your view. Above that, in my example, you use a gradient as a mask - linear black to transparent. In my haste to tell you how to do it perhaps I told you wrong. Where the mask is black, you will see your credits. Where the mask (gradient) is checkerboard (transparent) your letters will also become transparent - if you set the mask to multiply in the composite mode (the green box with the whoopdedoo in it which will turn to an X if you set it as I am telling you). You also must make your credits a "baby" to the mask by clicking on the arrow in the video track box so that it points up - if you hover your mouse pointer above it, it will say make compositing parent. This puts those two things together before it drops it onto your "backdrop"

The only thing left for you to do is "set" the gradient mask. You do this by clicking on the green film looking box in the upper right hand of the effect (gradient mask) you dropped onto the time line. The default setting is two little circles called control points. If you left click on a control point you can push it around, if you make a circular motion you can spin the whole gradient around, if you bring the points closer together you will have a sharper delineation (skinnier fade). If you add control points you can make gradients anywhere you want. An example of this is you add a control point and placed #2 between #1 and #3. You will see a gradient (the checkerboard thing) in between points #1 and #3. I hope this doesn't confuse you more. Just to be clear, there are only three things you need to change to get what I think you want. 1) set the mask to multiply. 2) set the credit roll with the arrow up - it will say make (the gradient mask) composite parent. 3) set the gradient mask control points - which for you means #1 control point about 2/3 of the way up and #2 control point on the upper edge - so the checkers are up and the black is down.

FYI - the opacity is easily changed by simply hovering around the top edge of your video until you see arrows and the word opacity, then you left click and can drag the opacity down as you wish. You do not need to do this for your credit roll project using my example.

I hope that clears it up for you.

have fun with it - I know I do!

These forums are indeed a great resource. Thanks for everyone's input and advice on this.

I'm at work now so I'll take another jab at it this evening.

SUCCESS!

I found out my problem - I was tinkering with the "parenting composting mode" icon that appears just at the indent when you make the track below a child - not the composting mode button for the track.

However, another problem has developed after finding this solution. Now, every single other event throughout the video on the composted tracks has been effected.

Is it best just to render the part that I want composted, then reinsert it back into the video. I'm all maxed out on video tracks.

This is definitely not the first time that only having four tracks in VMS (platinum) has lead to some creative workarounds.

Thanks again for everyone's advice.

Keith

I decided to have a little fun with the text masking thing. I put together a little text scroll using a clip of fire as a moving mask for the text.

http://www.chienworks.com/media/fire_mask_text.wmv

It looks like the text is inside the flames, but i swear it's entirely on the top layer!

Nice job Chien. Looks like you might have had a couple or more masks going on there.

So how did you do it?