How to highlight or insert arrow?

GFFmatt wrote on 10/11/2009, 1:06 PM

In a project like football highlights, how can I insert an arrow pointing to the player or highlight the player while making the rest of the screen dark (for a moment, just so you know where to look)?

Thanks!

Comments

Tech Diver wrote on 10/11/2009, 1:44 PM

You could overlay some text that contains an arrow character (like Wingdings, etc.) and move it with track motion. The main video track could easily be darkened by pulling down the oppacity bar (assuming there is nothing below that will interfere), or you could do it with a video effects envelope to darken only portions of a longer clip.

Peter

dogwalker wrote on 10/11/2009, 2:13 PM

Could the cookie cutter help here? I'm looking at doing the same thing, and I'm going to try the cookie cutter along with some other filter (maybe B&W). Put a circle around the person you're highlighting? If I get it to work, I'll let you know.

Oh, and yeah, I think the arrow would wind up being on another track above it, but I can see using both.

Hmmm, Tech Diver gave me an idea. If you duplicate the track and darken it, and put a cookie cutter on that darkened copy, then the original, lighter event would show through the cookie.

Chienworks wrote on 10/11/2009, 2:58 PM

Yes, that's exactly the right method. Use cookie cutter like that to lighten/darken/blur/color an area or the surrounding area.

Use fonts for arrows, rings, stars, etc.

Tech Diver wrote on 10/11/2009, 4:02 PM

Yes, that's exactly how I do it too (a copy of the video track with a cookie cutter). I didn't read the original posting carefully enough to realize that's what they wanted.

Peter

earthrisers wrote on 10/11/2009, 6:05 PM

I did a football-clips compilation using an Arrow (haven't done one with darkening/highlighting).
I made the arrow in Adobe Photoshop, then gave it its own track above the main action track. The FUN part is keyframing the dern thing to follow the action.
Here's how my result looks:

PS: I didn't shoot the original footage. DVDs were provided me, with notes identifying the particular clips they wanted to use. That quarterback is my grandson, by the way...

DWhitevidman wrote on 10/23/2009, 8:17 PM

I don't know about the arrow adding much, but I get the point for illustration purposes.

What I liked was the variety of music, must have took a few hours.