Newbie video editor question about overlays

sean@oregonsound.com wrote on 8/8/2003, 5:08 PM

Brand new to video editing so please be patient with my ignorance! I have a situation where I'd like to capture a graphic from an existing video and use it as a type of text overlay elsewhere in the video. Since I don't have access to the graphics as separate files, I've copied the frames I'd like to use onto another track, but so far have been unable to get that to react like text or media generators. Is something like this possible? If so, what must I do differently to be able to completely control the copied frames' size, placement and opacity while laying them over existing video? Any help appreciated.

Comments

BillyBoy wrote on 8/8/2003, 5:52 PM

Something like it, yes. To do what you want the part of the frame that isn't text needs to be transparent or made transparent. If the background of the source is one solid color then it can be masked out fairly easy. If however the background has many colors it gets to be difficult, takes many steps and hardly worth the bother. If you're looking for more fancy text or 3D text then making it in a application designed for that purpose the bringing it into Vegas is much simpler.

sean@oregonsound.com wrote on 8/9/2003, 12:00 PM

Thanks for the info, BillyBoy. This concurs with a couple of conversations I've had with local editors. Fortunately, the facility that produced the video originally says they can supply me with the needed graphics as JPEGs. Hopefully I'll be able to figure out how to properly import and implement those. Hey, I'm an audio guy!