I'm doing something wrong--track motion

Galeng wrote on 12/5/2005, 9:32 PM
I have a clip of my sign language class. In the background was a door with a window and every once in a while students would walk by. So I thought that would be an easy fix. I inserted a solid color on the upper most track and made it the same color as seen through the window. Then used track motion to size it the same size as the window. (no keyframes)

In preview it looks just right. The lower track shows through except for the covered window. But when I render it, it just comes out a full black frame, except for the area of the window, which is the color I inserted.

I must be missing some switch that is causing this.

I went back and deleted the track, inserted a new one placed the color back on it and used pan crop to get the same effect. Again, looks fine in preview, but when I render it the same thing happens.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!!

Galen

Comments

Liam_Vegas wrote on 12/5/2005, 11:50 PM
Only time I have had something remotely like this was when I was inserting BMP images onto the timeline. Previewed just fine.. but rendering they came out black. It turned out that it was related to an old version of Quicktime I had installed. Upgraded quicktime and the problem went away.

In your case it sounds like you are using the in-built media generator? So that's not likely the issue.

Still... wanted to share this.. just in case.

[edit]... although on re-reading I get that it is the "rest of the frame" that is black... and the bit that you overlayed with color is OK... so that's even less like my experience I shared than I had thought.

Just out of curiosity.. what happens if you render the clip - without the track containing the colored area? Just mute that track and re-render. Does the clip come out ok? I'm curious if this is simply a rendering issue of the clip.. and not actually related to the overlayed color at all.

What format are you rendering to in any case?
Galeng wrote on 12/6/2005, 7:20 AM
Hi. I am rendering to DVDA Video stream with all default settings. For the color I used the media generator. And yes you are correct, all I am getting is a black screen with only the color area showing.

I muted the track with the added color and rendered it. All that I get is totally black. If I remove the track with the inserted color then the track with the stutents renders fine.

Again, with both tracks , it previews exactly the way I want it to look. As soon as I start rendering the preview screen goes black with only the patch of coloring showing where I placed it with track motion (or on another attempt with pan and crop).

Very perplexing!

I just deleted the track with color on it and rendered to an avi file. It was totally black. Last night I could render fine either way (avi or mpg) without the track with color.

Now I wonder if I have a corrupt Vegas installation. I have both 5d and 6c on the copmputer.

Will try a reinstall later today.

Thanks for your help.

Galen

johnmeyer wrote on 12/6/2005, 8:13 AM
What format is the video clip? Is it DV, or is it something else? I ran into something like this a long time ago when using video encoded with the huffyuv codec.
Galeng wrote on 12/6/2005, 8:34 AM
Hi John,

The clip is a DV clip from a Cannon GL2.

The more I think about this, it may be some kind of program corruption. Last week, when rendering to mpeg, I got a message about the MainConcept engine could not initialize because it said it may have been moved to a different folder. I just closed Vegas and restarted and everything was fine. Didn't give it a second thought. Although, I don't understand why I would have issues rendering to avi also.

Ok, plan of attack: Reinstall Vegas, then recapture clip from original tape. Try doing the same thing. Maybe that will help.

I will let you know.

Galen
J_Mac wrote on 12/6/2005, 8:36 AM
I'm also on 5d. Double check where your loop region is. Be sure it actually encloses the specific area you are rendering, and 'Render loop region only' box is checked.
What file player are you previewing the new file?

Also, if you click the button "OPEN", in the box after rendering, what file player opens to play the newly rendered file? Is it authorized to play that codec, DVDA stream? Probably not. Try importing your file back into a new veg in Vegas and see if it previews.

Also on my machine when I press the "OPEN" button, my Windows Media Player opens to play the file, but only the Audio plays until I move the WMP window slightly, then the video kicks in.

Both Track code and Pan/Crop work in my V5d. John