Thanks for the response. I tried it but as I start to pan the parent track black still appears at the edge rather than the continuous background.

Unfortunately I cant use a photo editor to paste the photo on the background as I need to apply different effects to each.

1. Put the background on the track below the photo.

2. Use pan/crop (do NOT use track motion) on the photo event to move the photo, using keyframes to make the moves. Make sure smoothness for each keyframe is set to "1".

You do NOT want to set up a parent/child relationship between the tracks. Keep them both as parents.

Thanks John but I want both the photo and background to move together until the photo is out of the frame and another part of the background, previously out of frame, is in the frame.

OK, then you DO want to use parent/child relationships. There are dozens of ways to do this. One way is to create a master track. Put NOTHING on that track. The create two more tracks and put them underneath the master. Put the photo on the top of these two track, and the background below. Make both of these children of the master track, but leave them both at the same level (i.e., do NOT make the bottom track a child of the photo track). So, you have only one level of indent, if you want to think in terms of a written outline.

Then, use the parent track motion (remember there are TWO track motion icons once you set up a parent/child relationship) to move the photo and background together. If you want to reveal a new background as they are moving off the screen, simply place that new background on a track below everything else, but outdented all the way (i.e., NOT a child to anything).

Hi John, that is how I currently have it set up two child tracks photo and background parented to a master track. I have the background set up so that it is much bigger than the frame using Event pan/crop. What I want to achieve is to move the photo along with the background until the photo is out of the frame so that a part of the background, initially out of the frame, moves into the frame.

I can see no way of doing this apart from panning the events independantly... but then they do not move as one.

Hope that is clearer.

Let me give an example of what I want to create. Say I have a Wanted Man poster, I start with the photo of the wanted man in the frame with a part fo the poster around the edge. I then want to move down the poster to see Reward $10,000. At this point the photo is no longer in the frame.

You can't apply the effects in the photo editor before combining the images?

Animate the first event, then copy the attributes to the other.

PLS, you almost have it right. Do this:

1. Create 3 video tracks with 2 and 3 being children to 1.
2. Place your background on track 3.
3. Use track 1's parent motion to zoom into the background so that you only see about 1/2 of the background, and then pan to the top of the background. Now, 1/2 of the background is hidden below the bottom edge of the frame.
4. Place your wanted man image on track 2 and use the event pan/crop to adjust it's size and position relative to the background.
5. Now you can use track 1's parent motion to pan down across the composite of tracks 2 and 3.

EDIT: if this isn't clear, add your email to your forum profile and I'll pm you a simple veg that shows how it is done.

EDIT2: But Kelly's (chienworks) suggestion can allow you work with the full resolution of your image.

Jerry

PLS: Something like this tutorial? http://www.myvideo.co.za/video/sunset-lovers

I could email you the VEG. 3 tracks. 1 with PNG foreground, 2&3 backgroud in 3d space.

Thanks guys.

I think TeeTime's suggestion is the closet to what I need. The issue with this technique is that when I zoom in on the background with parent motion and then size the photo with event pan/crop... in doing this the photo quality deteriorates because of the initial sizing with the parent motion. If I limit the amount of initial zoom I should be able to maintain reasonable quality.

The effect infact I was trying to create was to have multiple photos on a background and move between them... I think I am not going to be able to do this and maintain sufficient quality in the photos.

Also I can not combine the photo and background in a photo editor as I wish to use drop shadow and distortion on the photos.

Copy and pasting attributes does not work well as the photo and background are different sizes and the starting centre coordinates are different.

Thanks LightAds I think your suggestion is simialr to Jerry's.

Cheers.
Paul.

Paul, I just did a quick render of a short segment from a very old (circa 2003) video I did that has some similarity to what you are trying.

http://www.vimeo.com/9402998

First, the background was built in Photoshop similar to what Kelly was talking about. The corkboard, photos and thumbtacks are all part of the 4320x2880 background image. I used pan/crop on the background to navigate around the corkboard.

I also had "two pinned green cards" on the corkboard and I used chromakey to replace those with video. In this render for web they aren't lined up very well, but they were in the original.

Back to building the background in Photoshop - you could easily put drop shadow on each photo there. So in my example, each of the cards could have drop shadow against the cork background. You could also distort the photos in Photosop. What you couldn't do with that technique is changte the drop shadow or distortion over time. Do you need for them to change?

PS: I should mention, there is another technique I have used that lets you use parent motion, but it is complex. I did this on my most recent project.

1. Build a composite with your background and each photo on individual tracks and use event pan/crop on each photo to place it in the background.

2. Make all of these children to a parent controller wich will do the overall movement via parent motion.

3. Now place a new track above the controller track.

4. At the exact instant you stop your pan motion on a photo, place a copy of that photo on the new top track, and use event pan/crop to align it with the lower resolution copy that is in a lower track. That photo will now be shown full resolution. At the point where you begin panning again, end the photo on the top track. The challenge is to get the top track photo properly aligned so the transition isn't aparent to the viewer. It ended up being a lot of work, but I developed a technique that I can write up if you decide to go this way. You can look at this video starting at about 00:00:13. It is then used throughout the video whenever I transition to another clip.

http://www.takeonesolutions.com/Events/2009-Free-to-Breathe/10877163_rj7yG#780433239_qu4Yn

Jerry

Thanks Jerry, that's a great video. That is basically exactly what I am after but I was hoping to do some animation on the photos after zooming in on them.

I think I'll keep it simple, use Photoshop to add drop shadow, bending as you suggest and maybe just rely on the animation between photos.

Thanks, Paul

Paul, here is one additional idea I am going to try on a future project. Since I haven't tried it I'm not sure if it will actually work but...

Vegas 9 will let you create a 4096x4096 project. You might be able to create a 4096x4096 background and load it into a 4096x2304 project. Then, even a 4:1 parent motion zoom in on a photo would leave you with 1024x576 of resolution for your photo.

If you end up trying this let us know if it works.

Jerry

Don't EVER zoom using track motion. ALWAYS use pan/crop. Track motion zooms AFTER the photo has been downsized to project resolution, so you are guaranteed to have a photo that looks fuzzy. Use track motion for pans and moves, but not for zooms.

You CAN use track motion to zoom video that is already at project resolution. The above comment only applies to still photos, or to HD video used in an SD project (i.e., it only applies to something that is higher resolution than the project settings).

John, you might have missed my point. Because, as you note, track motion zooms after the photo (or video) has been downsized to project resolution, you have to resort to tricks to use track motion:

1. Replace the image with full resolution version at the end of the zoom. This is because during the zoom, lower resolution isn't that apparent to the viewer. This is easy with photos, more tedious with video, or

2. I think you can also increase project resolution to that of photo resolution (up to 4096x4096) and be ok. I haven't actually done this yet, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night ;-).

Jerry