Rhythmic White Flash Strobing Effect

p_l wrote on 2/5/2003, 1:16 AM
I'd like to make a flashing, rhythmic white strobing effect as a kind of overlay to the main video track, and be able to control the frequency at which it strobes. My first thought was to put a white still on the overlay track, but I'm not sure of the best way to get it to flash or strobe at a given speed, sometimes faster and sometimes slower, following the rhythm of the music on the audio track. Any tips?

To get an idea of the effect I'm after, you may want to have a look at this Anime Music Video, but it's a big ol' MPEG1, so even if you have broadband, you might want to right-click the link and "Save Target as..."

Thanks in advance for any suggestions. :)



Comments

Grazie wrote on 2/5/2003, 4:10 AM
Hiyah - p_l .

Take a look through the Fxs. Maybe there is an old "film" thingy you can adjust. I know what you mean about the "whit" frame overlay - but I can see this would take an absolute age to render - yes?

Oh, the other thought, haven't tried this so I don't know - but can a person rpint back to a cammy, as in VCR mode - and apply some of the Digital strobing effects with that? Oh, another idea might be to "film a black/white sheet of paper, use the strobing effect from the Cammy; input this back VV and use that as an overlay? Don't know.

I'm sure one of the VV3 Fundis will have a simpler answer. However I do like the idea of messing about with the cammy's DV effects and bringing some of this back into VV. Might not work with what you want but it has given my some further thoughts as to what extra I could, using the cammy in combination with VV3 - Hmmmmmm . . .nice ideas starting to emerge!!!!

Good question . . I'll keep an "eye" on this thread . .

As always you do give "Good Post"!

Cheers

Grazie
ibliss wrote on 2/5/2003, 6:57 AM
p_l - I didn't look at the video (60MB takes a little too long even with DSL line!) but perhaps the following would work.

1) Add a 'glow' plugin to the video track
2) at regularly spaced intervals create a keyframe for the glow plugin, alternating between the 'reset to none' preset and 'intense glow'
3) Select all the keyframes (click the first one, then hold shift and click on the last one) and move them so that the first key frame is on the 1st beat of a bar.
4) Create a loop region on the timeline for one bars worth of the music.
5) set the 'loop playback' switch to ON.
6) in the plugin window make sure the 'sync cursor' button is OFF
7) start Vegas playing the loop
8) select the keyframes again. Hold down Alt and move the last keyframe to increase or decrease the spacing (and thus frequency) of the keyframes until you have tempo matched to the music.
9) once you have the correct speed you can copy and paste the keyframes as many times as needed.
Tyler.Durden wrote on 2/5/2003, 7:06 AM
Here's a trick you might try:


Add a track above your video with a long piece of generated white.
Split the generated white evenly every 10-20 frames.
Delete every other piece of white to create a "picket-fence" type of sequence on the white-track.
Select all events in the track and group them.
Set the composite-mode of the track to "difference"... this will make all the elements of your video negative where the white is overlayed.
Use Ctrl-drag on the right-end of the white events sequence to expand or compress them to fit your music.

Render section to a new track and mute the white-track until needed again.

I toyed with this idea... you might find a way to modify it to better suit.



HTH, MPH

Tips:
http://www.martyhedler.com/homepage/Vegas_Tutorials.html
Tyler.Durden wrote on 2/5/2003, 9:50 AM
To combine some of ibliss' post and mine,

The interval between keyframes in the fx KF track can be compressed or expanded like the grouped events in the TL... select all KFs (click on first, Shift-click on last) and Ctrl-drag on last... that might help setting te pace to match the music.




HTH, MPH
p_l wrote on 2/5/2003, 10:43 PM
Thanks for the replies and the great suggestions. What a day to post a topic not related to the release of Vegas 4, yet amid all the excitement my little question did not get lost, and I'm grateful for the well thought-out answers. I'll be trying them out over the course of the coming days.

Thanks :)