How can I lay clouds over video

Rich Parry wrote on 7/5/2012, 5:20 PM

I created a timelapse of the annular solar eclipse on May 20, 2012.
https://vimeo.com/45277766

I saw a version in which clouds move across the sky. I would like to duplicate the effect. I belive it was done with a video clip of clouds with an "alpha" channel as the background so it can be overlayed on a another video clip, as shown here.

How can I create the cloud moving effect. I am will purchase stock video footage to duplicate the effect if the price is right for an amateur.

Thanks in advance,
Rich

Comments

PeterWright wrote on 7/5/2012, 7:03 PM

Before you spend any money try the Noise Texture Media Generator/Soft Clouds or Puffy Clouds in Vegas.

You can vary the colour from white towards grey, pull the visibility slider down to key out the blue sky, have more than one layer of these, and keyframe slight variations in parameters (Offset, Noise Parameters or Frequency) to create movement.

farss wrote on 7/5/2012, 7:17 PM

You could just go out and shoot some clouds with your camera.
Artbeats used to have some timelapse cloud footage for free.

Either way, use the Chroma Key FX to key out the blue sky.

Long time since I did this, worked quite well enhancing the projected clouds.

Bob.

Soniclight wrote on 7/5/2012, 7:27 PM

Rich,

Another "before you spend moolah..." posting:

I've made a quick and dirty short 960x480 WMV video for you ripping some stuff out of my current video project showing how I used Particlillusion "fake" clouds (.PNG sequences). I've tweaked the colors and pan-zoomed a bit -- the original PNG are white w/alpha channel. This one is center oriented (opening at center), I've got a couple others that are different and may suit your video better.

If interested, I can make some raw PNG sequences and upload them to my site in respective .zip files for you to pickup.
If so, I'll have to get a sense of the duration you need, project resolution, etc.

Whatever footage or modality you end up using, I put things like clouds (or other stuff I like to "image-meld" with other events) on tracks in "Add" or at least "Screen" mode.
Gives a nice transparency feel.

Rich Parry wrote on 7/5/2012, 10:36 PM

Peter,

Thanks for your suggestion. I never Vegas would have something built in. I found "Cloud Cover" effect and I think it works well.

I am an engineer, not a graphic artist, but I am pleased with an hour of playing. I limited the effect to two layers, each cloud layer moving in different directions at different speeds. Below is the updated version. I may play with it some more, but it looks a whole lot better (IMHO).

If you have any other suggestions let me know ... for now I am happy.

https://vimeo.com/45277766

Rich

Rich Parry wrote on 7/5/2012, 10:59 PM

Soniclight,

Thanks for the reply and offer to help by providing content.

My video is amateur stuff for myself and a handful of friends. I couldn't ask for you to take time to generate a custom ParticleIllussion clip. After seeing your work, I did some research. Sounds like ParticleIllussion is a powerful product.

One of the responders to this thread gave me a suggestion that allowed me to do a descent job within Vegas.

Thank you for your kind offer but I'll use what Vegas has built-in. Here is the updated version in case you wanted to have a peek.

https://vimeo.com/45277766

Rich

PeterWright wrote on 7/5/2012, 11:33 PM

Rich - I assume you have the clouds on the top tracks, and their colour is white, which means they don't show up over the sun - try making their colour slightly grey, something like this:

Soniclight wrote on 7/6/2012, 12:57 AM

Rich

Thanks for your reply and you're welcome -- and/but it's no big deal for me to knock out a sequence for you and upload it for you to pick up (I run/administer my site too, so easy to do). I too am a (self-described "serious") amateur; "semi-pro" sounds a a bit too pompous since it's just a, well... serious hobby for me :D I don't do it on a consistent basis due to other life priorities but it's one of my core creative passions.

That said, I've come a long way since I joined this forum back in 2006 when I got Vegas 6. I've learned so much from several Great Vegas Yoda Poubahs who hang out here. One of the most helpful bunch of people I've met on the Net (and I've been online for a while--from back when Google was kind of a new-kid-on-the-block quasi nerd secret Standford University project). They don't care whether one is an amateur or not - just that one acts like an adult (well, most of the time - lol).

So the offer is still open if interested if/whenever you'd like.
If ya wanna have some flying sparkles or such, that's available too - lol
Whatever the case, enjoy thy editing :)

Rich Parry wrote on 7/6/2012, 11:57 AM

Peter,

Thank you for the suggestion to darken the white clouds, I did exactly what you suggested and uploaded a new version to Vimeo.

In my original version I noticed the clouds disappeared on the face of the sun, but it didn't occur to me that it needed fixing and how much better it looks with darker clouds. Also didn't occur to me how to fix it. Thanks again.

Your description of your passion for video and editing is similar to mine. I am retired and video is essentially a full time obsession for me now. I started in 2000 putting together photo slideshows. It was only a year ago I started to do more video than still photography, so I am essentially a video newbie even though I have used Vegas for many years.

Thanks for your help,
Rich