Thanks, I downloaded the video from Youtube and here is what the MediaInfo says. Based on this info, will it work in Vegas? I didn't even think to look on youtube for the tutorial about how to use it, thanks for that too.

Format                                   : MPEG-4
Format profile                           : Base Media
Codec ID                                 : isom (isom/iso2/avc1/mp41)
File size                                : 13.8 MiB
Duration                                 : 1 min 0 s
Overall bit rate mode                    : Variable
Overall bit rate                         : 1 916 kb/s
Movie name                               : FREE Green screen smoke effects chroma key fog effects overlay vfx footage smoke fog
Writing application                      : Lavf58.29.100

Video
ID                                       : 1
Format                                   : AVC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile                           : High@L4
Format settings                          : CABAC / 3 Ref Frames
Format settings, CABAC                   : Yes
Format settings, Reference frames        : 3 frames
Codec ID                                 : avc1
Codec ID/Info                            : Advanced Video Coding
Duration                                 : 1 min 0 s
Bit rate                                 : 1 782 kb/s
Width                                    : 1 920 pixels
Height                                   : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio                     : 16:9
Frame rate mode                          : Constant
Frame rate                               : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Color space                              : YUV
Chroma subsampling                       : 4:2:0
Bit depth                                : 8 bits
Scan type                                : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)                       : 0.029
Stream size                              : 12.8 MiB (93%)
Color range                              : Limited
Color primaries                          : BT.709
Transfer characteristics                 : BT.709
Matrix coefficients                      : BT.709
Codec configuration box                  : avcC

Audio
ID                                       : 2
Format                                   : AAC LC
Format/Info                              : Advanced Audio Codec Low Complexity
Codec ID                                 : mp4a-40-2
Duration                                 : 1 min 0 s
Bit rate mode                            : Variable
Bit rate                                 : 128 kb/s
Maximum bit rate                         : 130 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 2 channels
Channel layout                           : L R
Sampling rate                            : 44.1 kHz
Frame rate                               : 43.066 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 943 KiB (7%)
Default                                  : Yes
Alternate group                          : 1

Would it be better to have a smoke effect with an alpha channel (mov) to just add the fog?

That said, chroma key or color corrector secondary should work as it's all green.

with an alpha channel (mov) to just add the fog?

I don't follow what you mean by with an alpha channel. Are you referring to this youtube video, or something different?

I am commenting on the use of a fog effect.

Please do a search for transparency in video which is built in with an alpha channel or computed using a chroma key.

@MikeLV, I downloaded the file, dropped on the timeline, placed an image under it, dropped Vegas Chroma Keyer on it, used the Color Picker and presto... not quite as good as an alpha channel, but it works.

@Reyfox awesome, thank you for that screenshot; I will give it a try!

I got the hang of the chroma keyer effect with the green screen files from youtube.. The only issue now is that the smoke dissipates too quickly. I need it to hide the subject for a longer period of time. What would be the best way to extend the short effect? Should I duplicate it and crossfade several events?

Vegas Slow Motion fx should work quite well. It uses optical flow, and is very smooth.

Layer the smoke. Look for more of it. Stretch the event (slowing it down) to see how it looks. Ctrl +Left Mouse button to drag the end of the smoke clip.

Combination of pan/crop, stretching, etc. seems to achieve what I need. I need a faster computer to do this kind of stuff apparently! I had to put the video preview on draft just to halfway be able to see it working 😅

@MikeLV Hi, once you've removed the green using Chromakey or whatever you used to remove the green render it as a ProRes XQ, it will then have an alpha channel (smoke + a transparent background), replace the green clip on the timeline with the ProRes & it will play a lot easier on your PC.

Can you click your icon at the top of this page - My Profile & fill in your Signature with the full name of your CPU, GPU & amount of RAM, also inc the Windows & Vegas version, this will then show at the bottom of your comments,

Thanks, I added the signature. I normally use Happy Otter Scripts to do all my rendering to MP4, but under "render as" I don't see a format in the list called ProRes XQ. Maybe it wasn't available in v17?

Maybe it wasn't available in v17?

It looks like that ProRes import and export first appeared in Vegas Pro 19 build 532.

Another method to get an alpha channel is to render to 'Video for Windows' but in Customize Template change the Video format to 'Uncompressed' and check 'Render alpha channel (for supported codecs only}'. Frame size can also be changed if need be. The downside is that the rendered .avi file size will be huge.

Maybe it wasn't available in v17?

@MikeLV Ah sorry, I didn't take that into account.

In somewhat older versions of VEGAS it was unofficial ProRes and called "Magix Intermediate." It is functionally the same.

I'm about to give this a try with the Magix Intermediate, but I notice there's several render templates to choose from:

My smoke clip is 1920x1080 at 60FPS, but the footage I'm going to use it with is 29.97FPS, so not entirely sure what to do here. Can I use the 60fps smoke with 29.97fps footage? Or should I encode the smoke to 29.97fps? And do I use 422, HQ or XQ? Thanks for your help!

Well this isn't good...... I rendered the chroma keyed smoke clip to "Intermediate XQ 29.97" as that was what @Former user said. I then dropped the rendered file on the top track of my video project, and it's just black behind the smoke, not transparent as he advised. Is there another step needed when putting the XQ clip onto my timeline to make it transparent? I also tried the 422 and HQ options, and they too were not transparent when I put them on the timeline.

As long as you rendered it with an Alpha Channel, once you bring it back into Vegas you have to tell it, under properties, that is has an alpha channe.

As long as you rendered it with an Alpha Channel, once you bring it back into Vegas you have to tell it, under properties, that is has an alpha channe.

When I go to the customize settings for Intermediate XQ, this is what it shows under the profiles. And there's nowhere else in the settings there that says "alpha channel"

The Magix intermediate may not support Alpha. You can use an uncompressed AVI format or any other format that does support alpha.What options do you have under the color space?

In the video tab, just "default" but in the project tab, there are tons of color space options

It would need to be the video tab. QT used to use the term "millions of colors +" to signify an alpha channel would be created.