I wanna get SMALL!

chriselkins wrote on 9/18/2002, 8:05 AM
Oh, mighty and infinitely knowlegable forum group,
I am currently editing a scene where there are 4 TV screens in the background. I am trying to make 4 different AVI files play in the TV screens. Creating the mask and alpha was easy, but I cant seem to get the individual AVI files scaled down small enough to fit into the TV displays. I am using the crop/pan tool. I even re-rendered the AVI's at half their size, but that didn't help at all. I really need these to be tiny, but the Pan/Crop tool wont let me get that small. How can I do this?
Thanks,
Chris

Comments

kkolbo wrote on 9/18/2002, 8:11 AM
Track motion will create a smaller and more acurate picture for that.

K
chriselkins wrote on 9/18/2002, 8:16 AM
Thanks, K. I have never even tried that tool. Time for me to learn, eh?
mikkie wrote on 9/18/2002, 10:02 AM
If the last suggestion doesn't work out, I normally do most of my resizing work in Virtual Dub -- it's simply much faster at it and in my opinion maintains a little more sharpness. I haven't tried what you're doing exactly, but for dvd menu type work I've managed all sorts of small and oddball sizes that way.
snicholshms wrote on 9/18/2002, 11:29 AM
Mikkie:
What is the website for Virtual Dub so I and others can check out this product?
Thanks,
Steve
HeeHee wrote on 9/18/2002, 11:34 AM
I think what he is trying to do is supperimpose 4 different video clips onto TV screens on another clip. If this is the case, track motion will not work, nor creating small files in VDub. I have done a similar effect with the pan/crop tool. What you need to do, is change the zoom level. If you have it set way up, you can only drag the frame size so far before it stops. What you need to do is change the Zoom View to 12.5% first before any resizing. Then you can drag the corner of the frame out and make the clip pretty small until the image is unrecognizable. Track motion will allow you to change the pan, crop or resizing at different points along the track.
chriselkins wrote on 9/18/2002, 11:59 AM
Actually, I just tried track motion and it did just what I needed...plus opened up a whole new word of possibilities to me, seeing as how I have never used it before.
HeeHee wrote on 9/18/2002, 2:38 PM
Sorry, I was mixing up track motion with positioning. Yeah, track motion will work too. They work in the opposite manor.
Sr_C wrote on 9/18/2002, 3:58 PM
chriselkins

This effect sounds interesting. I would like to see how it turns out. When your done you should post it to a site like Chienwork's. Let us know. -Shon
Cheesehole wrote on 9/18/2002, 4:08 PM
sounds like a variation on the brady bunch effect... you can use the numerical fields in the track motion dialog to create a grid of videos, each on its own track.

once you have the grid set up (Can take a while), then you can save the project and use it later on for something else just by putting different video files on each track.

so you can get more than one use out of all that work. 4 screens should be a breeze in any case.
kkolbo wrote on 9/18/2002, 5:50 PM
Add the deform FX to it and you can do some nice perspective stuff as well as drop shadows.

K
willphil wrote on 9/18/2002, 9:01 PM
You can also add motion to your videos. I made a hunting video opening with 4 separate videos. The top two were an archer shooting a bow and a target with arrows entering it (spaced about 2 inches apart). I sync'ed the arrows entering the target to the archer's activity. These moved left to right and 'pulled' the top half of the title. The bottom two vid's moved right to left and pulled the lower half of the title. Added a little guitar music and it made an interesting beginning.
chriselkins wrote on 9/19/2002, 11:15 AM
I just uploaded the file (rm) to Chienworks, per request of Sr_C.

If approved, it will be here: http://www.chienworks.com/media/vidfact/
HPV wrote on 9/19/2002, 2:59 PM
Adding motion to change sizes with keyframes looks good. Floating smooth or cut keyframes to one window lager than the rest to follow the action. Combo of track motion & filters with event pan/crop, filters and transitions makes just about anything in multi screen madness doable. Transitions on single clips via the fade handle is magic.

Craig H.
Sr_C wrote on 9/19/2002, 8:12 PM
Very nice work chriselkins! I have a similar effect planned for a project I will be starting soon. Thanks for sharing, -Shon