dalydose,

I see you are coming over from Cinestream. Several of us here have done so as well. To create 4 images (one per corner), you will need 4 separate video tracks and use the Track Motion controls on each track. It is fairly simple to set up and is keyframable. Since the LE version only allows 2 tracks, you will have to do multiple renders to get each on in its own corner.

As per your other thread, I would recommend you go ahead and upgrade to the full version. The full version allows unlimited tracks. I look for a new version sometime in the first half of 2003. Personally, the full version has so many more capabilities that I would not want to miss out on the features for another 3 to 6 months.

I fully agree with Jetdv. You will always wish you would have upgraded now instead of later if you don't get the full edition. It is incredible! (Now if I cn get it to swap the DVD's in the player for me...). :)

dave

first of all i use vv3.c version
but here is how i do it and i use this feature EVERY SINGLE project
GG (wherever he is--probably surfing in hawaii) told me this...
use track motion for movement and picture in picture
if you want split screen--you need to lay 2 video tracks on top of each other
then click track motion and fix the settings on each--here's how...
1st of all--make sure lock aspect ratio is turned OFF
2nd make sure enable snapping is ON
3rd---split screen ---measurements are 360 x 480
****if you want 4 squares---the measurements are 360 x 240
4th--once you scale down desired demension--just drag the box to desired location--if you want it upper right corner, lower left corner etc.
5th---you can add fx to them like borders etc, and make them look really professional
my favorite is bevel
anyway, play around with it--it's fun.
:)
sb

You people are incredible. You are a great resource and one of the reasons VV is so usable.

Looks like VV3 + this board makes the purchase decision a 'no brainer'. Now I just have to get my CFO (aka girlfriend) to approve of the purchase. ;)

Jeff

I, too, have come from EditDV/Cinestream and have come to love what VV3 has to offer. My first ever real project was done with CS 3.10, but since then I have exclusively used VV3 and SoundForge. I haven't looked back. From the sheer productivity angle VV3 was worth every penny. And that's only the start ...

Don't walk, run to your nearest webtailer ...

Cheers,
Tom

Sonicboom

Seems easy how to do it but I find it hard coz I tried it and I know I didn't do it right. I'm a newbie and I want to do this, splitting screen. Now here are my problems if you could help me out:

1. Lock aspect ratio is turned off - where is it?

2. Split screen - I know how to split the screen but how do I adjust the
measurements like I don't see it after I split the screen
(Edit/Split)

3. Drag the box to a desired location - Is it when you click on track motion?

4. When you said 2 video tracks on top of each other, do you drag/drop the files or
just double-clicked on them?

Like I said, I'm just a newbie. Please help me out on this one. Thnx.

spidey
we've all been there...at least i have
ok, let's start from the beginning
open vv3 and put a track on the timeline
it will show a video and audio track (if there is audio)
next---add a video track--here is the shortcut...press the following keys at the same time: Ctrl+shift+ Q
this will add a blank video track on top
next--left click once on a video track you want to bring to the timeline, inotherwords--hilight the file....then right click on it and drag it to the newly created (blank) video slot on the timeline....let go--select VIDEO ONLY..ADD VIDEO ACROSS TIME
this will dump the video on the timeline without the audio

NEXT, make sure you slide the video all the way to the beginning of the track

so right now, your timeline will have 2 video tracks on top of each other--and 1 audio track underneath

***3 tracks all together

now--hit CTRL+HOME keys....this will place the cursor at the beginning of the project--this is important


now let's make a split screen---go to video track #1
hover your mouse over what looks like 2 envelopes by track 1
this is TRACK MOTION---press it
when you press it a box appears
to the left of the box are some tools---from top to bottom they appear as:
show properties--normal edit---zoom edit-enable snapping--lock aspect ratio--size about center
make sure the lock aspect ratio is NOT hilighted
make sure enable snapping IS hilighted

next step--go to the first SIZE box on thye left and type in "360" and hit ENTER
the box will change to a rightside up rectangle
drag that rectangle to the left to and snap it to the left grid
OR---OR---OR
type in the following---where it says CENTER--type in "180" x "240" and hit ENTER
this will keyframe the box to the left side automatically

so right now on the preview screen you have the top video looking like an upside down rectangle on the left side of the screen
on the right side--you see the underneath video--but you have not sized it yet--let's do that now
press the X on the top right corner to close the track motion box for trrack #1


whew--this is lengthy

next--go to track #2 and hit the TRACK MOTION button on it
this will open a window--track motion controls for track #2
make sure cursor is at the beginning of project--ctrl+home

now type in where it says SIZE the number 360 and hit ENTER
once again you will have an upsidedown rectangle----drag the rectangle to the right of the grid--or type in CENTER--"540" X "240" press ENTER


now close the box

you have made yourself a split screen
with only one audio

i am tired---whew----let me know how it works out for you
good luck
sb

WOW! I wish I could just email those directions to a friend of mine, but I'll cut/paste it into an email message for him.

One more question regarding this: How would I do this in such a way that the picture is not stretched up and down as a result of the resizing? I imagine there is a formula for doing a pan/crop that will fit nicely in a split screen.

This forum certainly seems to be a 'value added' feature of VV3. You guys know the product so well and are willing to share. That takes some of the fear factor away from switching.

Jeff

got me
mine looks fine the way it is....besides people always like it when they look thinner...hehe
sb

Sonicboom,

Thanks a lot. I'll try it out and let you know the result. Sorry about that lengthy explanation, at least I know exactly what to do. Thnx again.

Sonicboom,

He he. Am I missing something or am I stupid? I did go to my 1st track and went to CENTER, typed in 180x240 and enter. Now, in my Preview Screen, I see the top as black (blank) and the other half (bottom) with video. It's not left and right sides but top and bottom. Now, how do I go to the 2ND TRACK once you tell me that what I did first is already wrong? I'm getting there. Thnx again.

When I try this tutorial both sides come out squished. How do I do it with each side a normal, unsquished half? Thanks! tailgait

What is the infomercial you are spoofing?

spidey
you have to follow my instructions to the letter--ok
make sure you have 2 video tracks on two different tracks
inotherwords---track #1 will have a video track
and track #2 will have a video track
they MUST be directly over one another----and and and push them to the beginning of the project
next----important step---make sure the cursor is at the beginning of the project
press the key----(ctrl and home) at the same time
open track motion on track #1
in the box---type in the following---
size---360...480
center---180...240

Press ENTER
close the box---right click the X on upper right corner of box

now you should see split screen---

next--you need to resize track #2
on track 2, open track motion---
on the box---type in the following
size---360...480
center....540...240
press enter
close box

hit space bar to start the project
you will see the project in split screen
these are the steps---
let me know how it goes
sb

Here's what you'll have to do for a split screen so the two side-by-side videos don't come out squished. First, your settings for Track Motion need to be:

Track #1 (left side):
size = 720 x 480
center = 0, 240

Track #2 (right side):
size = 720 x 480
center = 720, 240

This shifts the video in Track #1 to the left and shifts the video in Track #2 to the right. You can leave Lock Aspect Ratio on because you don't want to squish the image. As sonicboom pointed out, it is important to make sure the cursor is at the beginning of the video before you change these numbers. (why? because you are creating a keyframe wherever you make an adjustment, and you want this one to be at the beginning)

Now you'll probably need to use Event Pan/Crop on each video event to center the action. Remember that for a split screen, you're only going to be seeing half the width of each of the two videos, so you'll have to adjust for this on each video event in both tracks.

Again, make sure that the cursor is at the beginning of the event. Click on the Event Pan/Crop button on the event in Track #1 (the button looks like a tiny picture frame). Make sure that Sync Cursor is on, it's in the left of the toolbar at the bottom of the pan/crop dialog. This is very useful if you do need to add more keyframes later. This makes the cursor in the timeline in the Pan/Crop dialog correspond exactly to the cursor location in the main trackview. Try clicking the cursor in the main trackview to a different location, and then try clicking the First Keyframe button -- it's next to Sync Cursor -- and you'll see what I mean. Make sure the cursor is at the beginning (clicking First Keyframe will do this for you).

Now all you need to adjust is the value for Center. You can type in a value, or click on the little up or down arrow button, or click and hold the mouse button down to keep adjusting the value. Or after you've clicked on one of those buttons (to give it focus), you can also use the left or right arrow key to adjust this. Watch the video preview window as you are doing this. If your subject is always in the center of your video, this is all you'll need to do. Otherwise, you may need to add some keyframes and adjust the value for Center as appropriate (I won't go into that here, I'm sure the manual can explain the use of keyframes much better than I can).

Now use Event Pan/Crop on the event in Track #2 in a similar manner to center your subject.

HTH.

Thanks to the Sonic-Duo (sonicboom and SonicTSW)!

Do you happen to also know the settings for a top/bottom long rectangle split *and* the four square screen?

I think this would be an excellent addition to the tutorial section. Most of the writing work has been done by the Duo so it would just have to be approved and packaged pretty for the masses and put up. SonicTSW, can you send that suggestion to the Director of Forum Suggestions Processing there at Sonic Foundry?

Thanks again!

Jeff Daly

For top/bottom, just take the numbers given before and change the center to 360,0 and 360,480

It just takes a little math to get the numbers. To make an image 1/4 screen, it would need to be 360x240 (720/2 x 480/2) in size. Then to move it to a corner, just change the center: Upper-Left = 180x120 (or 360/2 x 240/2), Upper-right = 540x120 (360/2 + 360 x 240/2), Lower-Left=180x360, Lower-right = 540x360

There was a thread on this a short while back that got me currious enough to try a few variations to see what worked best, rendered fastest etc. Here's the basic stuff I found...

First get your clips on the timeline, bearing in mind that the top track will be like the top layer in a graphics program, appearing on top of whatever tracks are underneath. Going to the first frame of the top clip, click the track motion button or select it from the VV3 menu up top. Now you can type in a new size for your clip if desired, &/or drag the box in the window representing the size and placement of the clip. Do the same thing for placement, putting the clip where you want it to appear -- i.e.: to put a clip in the upper left quarter of a 640 x 480 frame, you'd size the clip to 320 x 240 (1/4 the 640 x 480 frame size) and change the center to 1/4 the 640 width (160) & 1/4 the 480 height (120). If the next lower track is left intact to 640 x 480, you've got picture in a picture -- or you can continue to adjust any lower tracks to come up with whatever configuration you'd like.

If you want to further tweak this, you can add a mask above the resized and positioned track, & set up a parent/child relationship by clicking on the bent arrow to the left of the track in the VV3 window. This way you can have the clip show though any shape of window, or in other words, clip it to any shape. The mask itself is just a black and white bitmap, & you can use just one for a static mask, or create something animated.

I did find that VV3 will assume any clip imported to the timeline is intended to be the same size as the project settings. If you import a 320 x 240 clip into a 640 x 480 project, it appears VV3 will scale the clip to 640 x 480, then downsize it back to 320 x 240 if you use track motion as above. This is much slower besides degrading the image quality. If you have a source clip already at 320 x 240 for example, and you want to prevent a quality loss from resizing hit, render the source clip letterboxed (the 320 x 240 clip in the corner of a 640 x 480 black color clip for example) before importing it into the timeline of your project. Then you can crop the clip in VV3, use a mask, motion track it so the black letterbox is out of the picture, create the letterbox in another color and chroma key it etc...

And if you want your clip to move -- not maintain a static size &/or position -- move &/or resize your clip (optionally set rotation) & set a keyframe, repeating as many times as needed.

Drawing out the effect you're after on a piece of paper doesn't hurt, maybe helping to figure out the geometry or math, & I often take a still into a photo editor as a quick way of getting proportional resize figures for odd sized stuff (open the still, resize one dimension proportionally to get the other dimension). As an example, to get 2 frames side by side, either the frame gets wide or you move 640 pixels off screen, so I compromise by letterboxing.

To fit each clip to a 640 pixel width, both have to be resized by 1/2 to 320 x 240, the centers moved to 160 & 480 [the center of a 640 x 480 frame is at 320 x 240, the center of the 320 x 240 clip is at 160 x 120, 320 - 160 = 160 & 320 + 160 = 480]. This gives me a pretty hefty letterbox though, so I decide I can crop the 2 clips a bit to get something more reasonable -- 80 pixels top and bottom for the letterbox seems cool. That means each clip should be 480 - 160 = 320 pixels tall. Using a photo editor says the clips should each be 427 pixels wide. The math for the centers is trickier, so I change this to 428, 1/2 of that is 214 for the center of each clip. [I could have just as easily changed the height of the top or bottom letterbox strip] The center of my project's 640 pixel width is 320, so 320 - 214 = 106 or the track motion center for the left clip. 320 + 214 = 534 for the center on the right.

Put these figures into the track motion dialog boxes for each track and I've got the basic layout done. I'll still lose 108 pixels width off of each clip though [428 + 428 = 856, 856 - 640 = 216, 216 / 2 = 108]. This might be OK, but to further tweak the layout, using the pan fx individually for each clip (and keyframeing) I'll be able to control what part of each clip gets thrown away -- basically the same way wide screen movies are formated for TV.

Final thoughts: if you figure out the numbers, you shouldn't have to worry about aspect ratios or distorted images etc. If you're compressing the finished video project, it's sometimes more efficient and the results higher in quality if you keep the frame size big, and let the compressor or codec routine do the resizing. While it does take longer to compress a larger frame size, this extra rendering time is sometimes less then the rendering time spent resizing in VV3, plus the extra image information (pixels) can make for a higher quality compressed result. So in theory keeping the clips at 640 x 480 & enlargeing the project frame size should be more efficient when rendering to wmv for example, but, as VV3 (and most editors) want to automatically resize the individual clips on the timeline, it just doesn't work out that way.

-------
To do the 2 clips using 720 x 480, you have a frame center of 360 x 240. The clips side by side (still at 720 x 480) would be centered at 0 x 240 & 720 x 240. With the clips sized to fit side by side, you get size = 360 x 240 & centers of 180 x 240 & 540 x 240. To letterbox with 80 pixel strips, size = 480 x 320 & centers = 120 x 240 & 600 x 240.

Where are you getting 640 x 480? DV Picture size is 720 x 480.

640 x 480 is one of the more common 4:3 sizes that fills a TV or PC monitor. 720 x 480 gives you more leg room for overscan on a TV, but letterboxes on most PC monitors. I used 640 as an example simply because for me the match is easier. Everything works the same regardless -- just have to redo the math.

thanks

OK, now I'm more confused. Standard NTSC DV is 720 x 480. Letterbox NTSC DV is also 720 x 480. The Standard NTSC DV will show normal on a PC or TV screen (at 720x480). Letterbox will show up differently even though it is the same height and width. The (square vs non square pixels). Am I missing something here????