Help needed

Atheryn wrote on 1/12/2005, 10:55 PM

Hi,

I'm trying to make an animated logo sequence for a movie project, where the logo itself is based on a still (.jpg) image. The logo basically appears from "behind the camera" and shrinks/falls into the centre of the screen, where it comes to rest for a couple of seconds. Then it slides to the left and comes to a halt again, as text fades in beside the logo - I'm basically aiming for a movie production studio look, if you know what I mean. Anyway, all of this is achieved by using the pan/crop section of Vegas Movie Studio.

My problem is this. When the logo image starts moving or stops moving at any particular time in the process, it looks jerky, since it is going from being still to suddenly moving, or vice versa. Is there any way in Vegas Movie Studio to accelerate or decelerate motion so that the jerky movement is eliminated?

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Atheryn.

Comments

IanG wrote on 1/13/2005, 12:41 AM

You could try splitting the logo sequence into sections and then <ctrl>dragging one edge of the "starting" clips so that they run in slo-mo. I suspect there'll be a lot of trial and error involved though!

Ian G.

djcc wrote on 1/13/2005, 11:09 AM

Have you rendered that portion to determine if it happens in the final, or just in preview?

Atheryn wrote on 1/13/2005, 4:59 PM

It happens in the final render. It doesn't look too bad, but it is noticeable, and it makes the logo sequence look very unnatural.

I had already tried splitting the sequence up into smaller portions (as IanG suggested) to make the sequence more gradual - but the result just isn't fluid enough. The changes in movement are still too noticeable.

I guess there's no way to do what I was hoping to do. In the meantime I'll have to come up with another sequence to use instead.

Sony - if you're reading this, it would be great if you could add an additional function to Vegas Movie Studio - an acceleration/deceleration control that when applied to a single event, would accelerate the playback rate of that event from a starting playback rate (eg. 0.00 - motionless) to an ending playback rate (eg. 1.00 - normal playback). The user would be able to set each of the two rates, and would need to select an acceleration curve (similar to the fade-in/fade-out curves), to determine how the acceleration would apply between those two values, whether linear or otherwise. This function could be added to the Video FX menu.

As an example of how this function could be used, I could take a still image and move it from one position to another on the screen, using the pan/crop tool. I could then split that one movement into three separate events. For the first event (in which the motion begins), I would apply an acceleration effect so that the image is initially motionless, but accelerates to the normal playback rate. For the third event (where the motion ends), I would apply a deceleration effect, so that the image gradually slows down before coming to a complete stop. The result would be an image that smoothly accelerates from a stand-still, travels, and then decelerates to a gentle stop. The overall motion would look very smooth and professional. I think this would definitely be a worthwhile tool to have in Vegas Movie Studio.

Cheers,
Atheryn.

GaryKleiner wrote on 1/13/2005, 6:10 PM

This is going to be one of those cases where the feature set is what makes Vegas different from Movie Studio. In Vegas, the acceleration characteristics are determined by the type of keyframe interpolation curves that you select. There are 5 to choose from.

Gary

Chienworks wrote on 1/14/2005, 12:24 PM

Yep, this tool already exists in the full version of Vegas. In fact, it's much more powerful than even what you describe. It lets you control movement in 3D space and define the smoothness and adjust all parameters in real-time while you watch.

If you want it, get the full version of Vegas.