Help! Highliting text throughout a video, ala karaoke style

Sticky Fingaz wrote on 2/23/2004, 10:32 AM
One of the special features I am trying to add into the DVD I am making for a music group named Onyx is taking one of their hit videos and turning it into a karaoke of sorts. All I am going to do is take the video, use the instrumental track, and type the lyrics over the screen and make a new video out of it. So far it looks like this:

http://members.aol.com/silathis2/karaoke.jpg

Unfortunately I need the words to highlite when they are supposed to be said. I can't figure out any feasable way in vegas, or any other program, on changing the text when I tell it to. The text is all white and I want the words to be highlited yellow when they are supposed to be said. Obviously I need to tell Vegas when to change the text color as Vegas isn't going to do it for me, but I can't even get vegas to do that. Is there any way to do this? If not, is there an alternative with VirtualDUB or any other programs?

Thanks!

Comments

berenberen wrote on 2/23/2004, 10:37 AM
Why not use track motion on the track that has the media generator for the text, and keyframe so that glow begins and ends at the appropriate times. The glow should outline the letters in whatever color you choose.

Alternatively, you can keyframe the text directly in the event to add a border or feather or shadowing at whatever point you wish.
Jsnkc wrote on 2/23/2004, 10:57 AM
One other thought is that the text should be at the bottom of the screen not in the center covering up the video, also there should only be one line of text, not five.
jaegersing wrote on 2/23/2004, 5:48 PM
I have done many of these. You generate a text media event for each line of the song (the line length based on how many words you can fit in the width of the screen). There are 2 choices of how to do the colour wipe, depending on whether the wipe is smooth or it starts and stops with the music. First the easy way (smooth wipe).

Duplicate the text event and put it on an adjacent video track to the original. Change the text colour (including outline colour) to get a good contrast with the original text event.

Slide the top event so that it becomes visible when you want the text to start wiping. Drag the right edge of the bottom event so that it disappears at the end of the wipe time. Then move the bottom event up so that it overlaps the top one, taking care not to let it slip right or left. Apply a Wipe Left-Right transition with a hard edge and you will see the text change in the traditional karaoke style. Fine-tune by adjusting the event edges as necessary.

For the "jerky" type of wipe, or for when the syllables in the line have significantly different durations, use the cookie cutter (set to rectangle shape) on the top event to reveal the lower event in stages as the line progresses. Keyframe the effect as necesssary to keep the sync between text and music. This method takes much more time, but it's necessary for certain songs (or parts of songs).

I think there may be a template for karaoke style text on the sundance media group web site, it will show you how it's done and you can adapt it fromn there.

Richard Hunter
Sticky Fingaz wrote on 2/23/2004, 8:31 PM
Wow, option one sounds fantastic, but wiping doesn't allow me to go word by word, unless I'm missing something? It just wipes the whole entire screen so all the words get highlited across it??
busterkeaton wrote on 2/23/2004, 9:54 PM
That's why each line of text needs to be its own video track.

So you can have four lines of the lyrics on screen. You do the wipes line by line, you can highlight a line at a time.

The second option that is mentioned, the jerky method, is harder to do, but will allow you to go word by word.

Now, let's take idea a step further. If you do the wipe a la option one and then render just that section, you may be able to use the velocity envelopes to pause at the appropriate time.

Let us know when the DVD comes out, I always liked the idea of hip-hoppers who enjoy a mosh pit.
Sticky Fingaz wrote on 2/23/2004, 10:11 PM
Okay, I totally missed each line of text needing its own video track. Thank you, it totally made this work! However anyone else can feel free to post any other easy way they can think to make this work.

If anyone wants a free copy of this DVD when it's done it's yours! I'll post about it here when it's finished.
stormstereo wrote on 2/24/2004, 5:29 AM
I would write 1-4 lines of lyrics with the text tool.

In the text generator dialogue - make sure that the cursor is synced with the timeline by clicking the button in the lower left corner, near the keyframe window. Place the cursor where/when you want to make the color change. Select the word (or single letter) and change the color. It should add a keyframe right there. Continue throughout.

Second method I would try is again using the text generator. Copy the event to the next track and make it yellow. Animate a rectangular cookie cutter using keyframes. Choppy or smooth. Done.

Best/Tommy