Try Deform FX. It has, IMO, a quick and easy interface in creating a quick and easy perspective. In some situs I actually prefer this to TM.

Grazie

> Try Deform FX

Thanks, I admit that I was not even aware of this FX.

>a quick and easy interface
Ok, yes. What would also be nice is a WYSIWYG interface where I could just pull (drag) the corners in position, using the mouse.
Nevertheless, this is precisely what I am after, so thanks again.

A displacement map will let you make it look like it's projected onto a surface that isn't smooth. If you use that in conjunction with the usual 2D planar surface controls you can a result that's more photo realistic.

Bob.

Bob,

can you explain this is little mor thorough?
I am not sure what a "displacement map" is, the same applies to "usual 2D planar surface controls". TIA

You might be interested in my "Reflections" tut at Vasst. It has video projected within a picture frame including it's reflection on the table.

2D Planar Surface:

A flat, 2 dimensional surface. Vegas can manipulate these in a 3D space using the 3D parent track compositing mode. There's a sample .veg that I think is still available as a download from this site that shows how to create a box with a lid that opens using gen media and 3D track motion. The box turns and the lid opens. Quite impressive.

This isn't full 3D though, probably 2.3D. The surfaces can have no height, the camera is fixed and there's no lighting controls. Despite that you can do quite a bit with what we get.

Displacement Maps:

This is a custom compositing mode. One track, the upper / parent track will have an image in it. The brightness of the pixels in that image are used to height map the pixels in the child images on the lower track.

Using this you can make a video appear as though it's on the surface of water as the ripples make the image move.

You could have the right animated noise patterns like Clouds in the parent track to create some interesting displacements e.g. make the video in the child track appear like it's a flag waving in the breeze.

The trick is not that easy to control and the outcome is faux 3D because the brightest part of the image might not be the highest etc. Still it's a good one to play around with to add to your arsenal of visual FXs. It's not something to start learning when you've got to deliver it in hour :)

Now here's where my knowledge runs out!

The documentation for the displacement mapping in Vegas mentions color channels but doesn't say which ones are used for X and Y!
Photoshop has the same FX and it uses the red and green channels, blue is not used. I should test this in Vegas using one of the dmaps I made in PS with offset channels.

Bob.

Height map might be even better because it simulates movement in the Z axis instead of just skewing in the X and Y axes.

That's sort of what I'd have thought too however displacement maps are used in many apps to map surface features onto 3D models. Maybe it's just a case of confused terminology, I'll admit I'm a bit all over the map understanding this fully as displacing the pixels in the X and Y co-ords can certainly make things appear 3D.

Bob.

Maybe this'll help a bit: imagine your image printed on a soft gooey rubber sheet.

Displacment map: you can use your finger to squish parts of the image around, up, down, left, right, etc. However, the image, no matter how distorted, stays flat on the 2D surface.

Height map: you can pull part of the image up off the plane closer to you, or push other parts farther away, moving bits of the image forward and backward in 3D space.

They both seem a bit similar at first, but displacement is an X/Y morph and height is a Z morph.

Thank you guys, your posts are a treasure chest. I wonder how much in Sony Vegas there still is for me to explore.

I agree with Bob, this is not something I would play with if time is running out on a project. There indeed are some interesting effects, by fiddling with the displacement map / height map controls I was able to make a "horror" movie. A person moving in a scene, looking like an alian, wrapped in flowing water :-)

In the Effects there is Sony Dform. It might do what you want.

Dave T2

Read above? Up there ^ wink

Grazie