Comments

cris wrote on 9/28/2017, 6:36 AM

http://www.vegascreativesoftware.com/us/vegas-movie-studio/product-comparison/

This chart says Vegas Movie Studio has masking... Where is it? I can't find the masking option anywhere.

Oh, it would be interesting to have an answer. I suspect you think (as I do) about a tool where you can draw a masks on a frame and there would be ways to manipulate them over the next clips and apply effects in/out, like for example After Effects. It's the only thing I feel is truly missing from the software and that's making me consider other NLEs. To have to use cookie cutters and multiple layers for things as simple as artificial bokeh is way too inefficient. Not to mention motion tracking with a mask!

But I'd be more happy to be wrong and shown that they exist!

leshowarth wrote on 9/28/2017, 1:38 PM

masking works like this-

 

The image or clip or generated media to be used as a mask is sandwiched between the tracks you want to composite - in this case a yellow solid in the upper track and an orange solid below.

The middle track has a black& white chequerboard on it which has the Make Mask effect applied with the mask source set as Luminence.

It is also set as a Composite Child - which is why it's indented. All tracks have the Alpha Channel set to Source Alpha - (these controls are the second row of buttons in the track header.)

So anything that you can put on the time-line can become a mask between the track above and the track below - which is pretty useful for titles / graphics.

Drawn masks, Bezier masks are in the Vegas Pro toolset, as are blend modes like screen, hardlight etc but even so this can be pretty versatile.

FayFen wrote on 9/29/2017, 12:38 AM

As I was also on my way to buy VMS14, during my trial I asked same questions

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/how-do-you-mask-this-video--108546/

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/masks-correct-me-if-i-m-wrong--108572/

I found out that masking is only track based with this version so I put my purchase on hold.

Masking should be clip based.

cris wrote on 9/29/2017, 3:25 AM

Masking should be clip based.

Yeah, I agree. I like MS very much - I chose for its immediacy and stability and the "pro" approach that it allows in the workflow. I think it's a winner software, and amazing value for money given its price.

But I think that to say that it "has masking" based on the fact that you can mask tracks is a little deceptive - as the ability of compositing tracks with a couple of mixing modes is not what "masking" brings to mind, at least to me.

An option that I'm exploring is to use after effects to pre-process the clips that need so, but it's a bit workflow-heavy..

 

vkmast wrote on 9/29/2017, 4:39 AM

The version comparison tables have occasionally had some inaccurasies before as well. The marketing dept. may not be as particular with the details as customers (and probably the dev team too) would wish.