Help with track level, please...

Eddy Bee wrote on 10/10/2009, 12:11 PM
This seems like a really simple thing, but for some reason I can't quite figure it out.

In my project, track 2 has video content that runs through the entire the project. It's essentially my primary video track.

At certain points on the timeline, I have a short clip on track 1 that I want to composite onto track 2. Aside from these brief sections, the remainder of track 1 is empty.

The problem is this: to achieve the desired compositing effect, I need to set the overall Level of track 1 to about 50%. This works fine for portions where there is an overlay clip, but it makes the rest of the video (where there are no overlay clips), dark and muted, which is understandable.

So Is there a way to set the track level with keyframes, so I only bring it down to 50% during the overlay portions? Or am I completely missing a more elegant and effective way of doing this?

Thanks in advance for your wisdom.

Comments

Former user wrote on 10/10/2009, 12:46 PM
Us a COMPOSITE LEVEL ENVELOPE. YOu can keyframe that.

Dave T2
farss wrote on 10/10/2009, 3:22 PM
Where there is no event on track 1 it should make no difference what level the track slider is set to. Your problem is not understandable at all. Which version of Vegas are you using and which compositing mode is track 1 set to.

Bob.
Eddy Bee wrote on 10/10/2009, 10:39 PM
Thanks for the quick responses.

I'm using Vegas Pro 8.0c. The compositing mode for track 1 is Hard Light. The track level of track 1 definitely has an effect on track 2, even when no events are present on track 1.

Thanks for the tip on the Composet Level Envelope. That should do the trick.
farss wrote on 10/10/2009, 11:31 PM
Just checked this for you. Indeed in V8.0c with compositing mode set to Hard Light it does what you're seeing. Thankfully the Compositing Envelope will get you out of trouble.

I checked the same compositing mode in Photoshop and it does not exhibit the same behavior from what I can see. An empty layer has no effect on underlying layers. I suspect what Vegas is doing is wrong. I've also checked this on V5.0d and the behavior is the same. Not only does an empty event composite as black any transparency in the image being composited is ignored.

Bob.
PeterWright wrote on 10/11/2009, 12:05 AM
As you only want to composite when there is an event on Track 1, have you tried just dragging the top of those events down to reduce opacity at an event level?

This doesn't need any change in composite modes, and the event top corners can be dragged to fade the mix in and out.
Eddy Bee wrote on 10/11/2009, 6:47 AM
Yes, I did try dragging the line in the individual events to adjust their opacity, but interestingly enough, it affects the composite image differently than when adjusting the track level. In my case at least, it doesn't result in the desired effect.

This difference actually surprised me. I always thought track level and the opacity of individual events were essentially the same thing.
JohnnyRoy wrote on 10/11/2009, 7:15 AM
> This difference actually surprised me. I always thought track level and the opacity of individual events were essentially the same thing.

They are the same thing when the track compositing mode is set to Source Alpha. When you set it to Hard Light then the track composite changes the way it works but the event opacity is still Source Alpha so they look different.

There are two ways to achieve the look you want that I can think of:

(1) Add a Generated Media Solid Color Gray to the track where there is no media and it will cancel out the Hard Light composite (but will cause the project to render slowly as each frame will be compositied)

(2) Place the composite track below the current track and cut the current track and place the media you want to composite with below that. This way Track 1 is regular media, Track 2 is composite (Hard Light), and Track 3 is the regular media below the composite track. This keeps the normal media on the top track and just punches a hole in the track for the composite beneath it to show through.

Like this:



~jr
Eddy Bee wrote on 10/11/2009, 7:49 AM
Brilliant! Solution (2) is perfect, jr. I had a feeling there was a way of achieving the desired result using multiple tracks, but for some reason my brain just wasn't seeing it. Thanks for taking the time to create the screenshot/diagram.

There's nothing like elegant simplicty to get the job done!