Picture In Picture?

Kimberly wrote on 11/13/2010, 4:36 PM
Hello Everyone:

Okay put me in the Slow Learner's Group, but when you create a Picture in Picture (PIP), do you need a separate track for each PIP?

I just created a PIP effect with 4 rectangles, each playing a separate video over a black background. The total number of video tracks used is 5 -- one for the black background (and the rest of the video clips that are not affected by track motion), and one track each for the PIPs.

For each PIP I used track-motion and adjusted the size and xy coordinates so they were spaced nicely on the black background. And of course I muted the audio on each PIP track, but I always mute all audio as I play only music anyway.

This was pretty easy once I got the concept into my brain, but it seems tedious. Is there a better way to do this?

Regards,

Kimberly

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 11/13/2010, 6:47 PM
Well, consider ... you can put one video on a track at any moment on the timeline. If you want to see four videos at once, you need to have four videos in your project at the same time. 4 videos x one track per video = 4 tracks. If you didn't use four tracks then were would you put the video clips?

Is there a better way? The Pro version has several scripts that automate a lot of it. The studio version doesn't. But, once you've set up the four track motion parameters there really isn't much else to do except dump videos onto the track, so the scripts don't really save that much effort.

I don't know if you adjusted the size & coordinate settings by dragging with your mouse or by typing in the values. I find typing in the values to be a lot faster since i cat get the exactly correct values in one step.

Once you've got one project set up you can copy the .veg file to new file names to give you a head start for similar future projects.
Kimberly wrote on 11/13/2010, 7:20 PM
Thanks Chien!

Yes, that makes sense. Also makes sense to save those set-ups and bring them into new projects. Very cool.

I dragged the PIPs to get the approximate location, then typed in the coordinates to fine-tune.

Kimberly
Markk655 wrote on 11/14/2010, 11:00 AM
Kimberly,

Do you have SVMS 10 HD Platinum? If so, you have the New Blue FX V2 Picture in Picture which can offer additional customization of the PIP. It doesn't substitute for any video tracks, but does offer a lot of easy ways to customize the look of the PIP.
Kimberly wrote on 11/14/2010, 4:27 PM
Hey Mark:

I have VMS 9 Platinum Pro, and just upgraded to Pro 10. I didn't see a PIP present per se in Pro 10, but that doesn't mean it isn't there. Still picking my way through the features.

The notion of one track for each video makes sense. Before I thought it through, I had the idea that somehow a plug-in could "magically" make the PIPs on a single track, but of course that is silly when you think about how that magic actually works. Always something new to learn!

Kim