This seems to be a simplified approach to the double exposure process used for the opening sequence/credits of season 1 of True Detective.

HitFilm has a tutorial on recreating the True Detective double exposure style on YouTube:

Unfortunately, the delivery by the presenter is so fast that it is hard to keep up with.

There's also a tutorial on YouTube about how to create this effect in After Effects:

Both approaches are similar but of course are designed for the workflows in each product, each of which has strong compositing functions.

The double exposure effect is very much in the compositing area involving mattes and is very probably beyond the abilities of Vegas Pro.

Thanx for the links Dexcon. Fortunately I own a copy of After FX from around 2012 or so. I hope it can do the trick but it seems like all I would need to do in Vegas is film the faces in front of a green-screen, or black-screen. Then load the faces on the top track in VP with some sort of lightness mask that can vary from opaque to transparent with the background video on the track below which could be in B&W or color. My family is doing our first European vacation this summer and I want to make a special video showing the "sites" behind the faces of my family.

@frederick-wise … AE will be a great help in achieving the desired effect. Yes, using the approach in the Tutorials, the faces are filmed against a green screen mainly to form the basic shape for the matte (via chroma-key) that contains the image/s that you want to either fill or double expose within the shape of the face/head. Chroma-keying also then allows you to design the background surrounding the principal image/s.

I am using HitFilm to achieve the True Detective effect for much the same reason as you … as the intro for an upcoming trip to France. Early testing in HitFilm has proven very encouraging.

BTW, if you haven't seen the opening sequence for True Detective, it is easy to find on YouTube - it is a stunning opener with a haunting music track (Far from Any Road by The Handsome Family).

Also, have a look at the opening sequence for the fairly recent French TV series titled Versailles. It is also very good, and it uses double exposure garden map images of Versailles' gardens as part of the background behind the principal images. I'm adapting that idea in to my own True Detective-style opening and have used a Paris Metro map double exposed (with opacity reduced) as part of the background behind the principal images (i.e the face shape containing the matted-in image). The music used for the Versailles opener is Outro by M83.

Have a great trip.

Liking the ideas here! Well Kool 😎 - And yes, the Green Screen would be essential.

Here's me answering is it doable in Vegas and without those great plugs:

Just had great fun with this.

All respect, but this is Vegas 101. And no, you don't need a green screen. Light up your faces, have a dark background. See that little round greeny compositing mode button on the track header? Pick your mode, 14 to choose from, in this case "multiply (mask)" or "burn" should do the trick. So many unsung features in Vegas.

All respect, but this is Vegas 101.

@Rainer Yes I agree.

And no, you don't need a green screen.

Well, it’d give some more control.

Light up your faces, have a dark background.

Yes indeed.

See that little round greeny compositing mode button on the track header? Pick your mode, 14 to choose from, in this case "multiply (mask)" or "burn" should do the trick.

Yup, that’s what I did with my two examples

So many unsung features in Vegas.

Whilst I wholeheartedly agree, there are plugins, eg HitFilm, that make getting to the Narrative through the elements of motion and grading in an expeditious intelligent way. Getting my ideas out there, quickly, urgently, relevantly and targeted is what would also come across to the Viewer. If I’ve got tools that will that provide for this, I’ll use ‘em.

As I said, yes it is doable in VP. Would I use sharp axe to fell a tree? Er, yeah, but a gas powered saw would do it faster, and less tiring.

✌️& 💖

 

Yup, that’s what I did with my two examples

Would it have helped if you'd said that's what you did? Would it be more accurate to have said a green screen wasn't essential? My principle is use the right tool for the job. Doesn't get much easier than push one button. So you're not felling a tree here, you're trimming a twig. But if you want to drive your B double to the corner store, I'm definitely not standing in your way.

@Rainer I understand.

While I understand that the double exposure effect can be achieved to some extent within Vegas Pro, I am struggling to work out how the effect à la True Detective can be achieved within Vegas Pro to a more advanced level, such as something like this:

Please note that the double exposed images (Eiffel Tour and Champs de Mars) do not bleed outside the boundaries of L'Arc de Triomphe, as is the case with some of the shots within the YouTube music video cited by the OP where the double exposed images are contained fully within the face shapes without bleed beyond the face shapes. All elements in the above image slowly move in one form or another, but L'Arc pivots slowly on its Y axis.

Key-framing in pan/crop would assist where a still image like L'Arc is used, but would be a pain where the primary image is a moving face/head/body - I guess that's why the chroma-keying approach makes it much easier.

If something like the above example - involving moving images - can be created wholly within Vegas Pro, I'd be most appreciative to learn about how.

So enjoying this thread.

 

If something like the above example - involving moving images - can be created wholly within Vegas Pro, I'd be most appreciative to learn about how.

I don't think it could be done satisfactorily in Vegas in a single render. If you're OK with rendering the Arc and content first, you could cut a mask the shape of the Arc out of a solid and composite the Arc, the tower and gardens using opacity levels, render that, key out the solid and composite it over the map, again with opacity. It would be a lot easier and more accurate to create the mask in a graphics program. Interested to hear if anyone can think of a way to do it in one hit in Vegas.