No.. I mean it like going back into the picture.. like star wars... slanted back horizontally :-)

Soooo.. do you also mean moving backwards? Or just slanting backwards? Sorry to be pedant about this but there is a difference. have a look see at the different Skew settings in the text/backdrop properties. I've just been playing around with getting a semi-tranparent band at the bottom of the screen with black or any coloured text scrolling Right to Left. It's a bit twiddly, but once I set up the "look" I wanted, I saved it as a Preset and now use it to apply the same effect at different places.

As I'm deeply into design and graphics I'll have a look see for you and get back.

G

Nah - can't see anything in VF except left or Right Slant. You can alter the amount of slant, but nothing like you described - IMHO I don't think its available in VF.

However, if you've got Photoshop, Microsoft Photodraw or any text manipulation s/w that will allow you to save the "image" as a jpg, tif or gif, something that VF will allow you to import as a media file, then you've got it!

Just done a Star Wars with a perpective going backwards. Saved this little image as a jpg. Imorted it into VF as a jpg. Pulled it onto the text video line on the timeline and it works.

Also, if you want to make it a little bit transparent, pull a Video FX - I used Gaussian Blur and Brightness and Contrast - onto the Video FX menu area. You now get a range of variables to play around with. Gaussian Blur I set the "Horizontal range" to 0 and the "Vertical range" to 0.529. In the Alpha "Channel" I knocked out the Red and Green and Blue and just left "Alpha" checked. Brightness and Contrast I set "Brightness" to -0.02; Contrast set to 0.23; Contrast Center set to 0.00 .

Anyway over to you, tell us how you get on. In actual fact I don't see why I can't go on and create further "mattes" and use then again and again. I've done a little cross-s/w package working and really see the options I can now play with. Thanks for the impetus to get going.

Oh yes - before I forget, if you now make a little Avi of your text thing, potentially you could use something like Pan/Crop with Picture in Picture to have a moving text of your credits. That's for another time!

G

Grazie, could you provide a few more details, please? That's exactly what I've been trying to do! I'm particularly interested in how you save presets - I can't find anything that allows me to do this.

Cheers

Ian G.

Well I did state credit rolls.. therefore moving backwards :-) Yea.. I saw slanting sideways and thats not gonna cut it!!! heh thanks though for your help... But thta is a good idea.. but is too much effort for my project!! :-p (AKA they didnt pay me enough.. mwahahah)

Thank you much!

Ian - how did you squeeze in between the messages? Oh well another unknown!

Ahem - "I'm particularly interested in how you save presets" - What I'm going to explain is what you might do in MS Word to create a Format Template, its not the same but similar - hold onto the idea of a "Template". Apologies in advance as I'm a bit long winded - as others have found out. Hey hang on in there!

If you click on the tiny FX box - you will see this in the bottom right hand corner of a clip on your Timeline - up pops the Video Event Properties menu. Now drag from the effects Presets - this appears on the Left hand side of your screen - an effect - say "Red Midtones" from the "Color Balance" sheet - onto the "Video Effects" sheet you previously opened. Notice that it now appears as an item on this sheet at the top, with what looks like a "joining" icon on each side of its name. It will also have a "check" mark notifying you that it is IN effect. Okay, now drag another effect onto this open "Video Effects" sheet - say select "Film Effects" and drag from this, say, "Very Old FIlm". Again you should see now 2 effects on this Video Effects sheet - "Color Balance" and now "Film Effects". This will also be checked, ie effective, and they are now "chained" together. As an aside, if you click on each effect you will also get an opportunity to "adjust" each effect - neat eh!

Okay, you will see the "Preset" drop down menu - it will default to the:
"[Untitled]" heading. Notice that next to the Down arrow a tiny floppy disc icon - DON'T press it yet - phew that was close! Because Untitled is in brackets I presumed one could just type over it - ie giving the effect I had created a name - and you can. Give it any name - "IanG Red Old Film" or anything - Banana or Mishmash or whatever [ maybe, whatever would be confusing though]. You now have a Preset with the effect of Old Film and which can be corrrected by the Red Midtones. You can now use this in the future when you click on FX and you will find it in the Preset drop down selection. Neat eh!

As you can imagine, the options are truly enormous now. You can chain together all sorts of effects, and in the last 2 days I've been chaining Text and Backdrops options and coming up with some truly nasty effects! However, making these Presets or templates means that they are also available to me in any future VF project. Oh yes I nearly forgot! When you see the "chained" effects you can of course reorder them; check and uncheck then to include or reject each effect individually; delete and remove them from your particualr set-up. Try right clicking on one you will also get a drop down menu. OOOOhhh kool!

Sorry, did I answer your question? I tend to get carried away with this amazing s/w!

G

Oh, that's how you do it! Simple when you know how!

Ian lookat my other later post - if you haven't done so already. I need to lie down!

Regards

G

Grazie

How did I squeeze in? The forum's doing its own threading - I just replied to your posting.

Did you answer my question? Oh yes! In spades! Many thanks for making the time to give such a full answer.

>I tend to get carried away with this amazing s/w!

It has that effect on me too. After 2 years of Studio it's like having the blindfold and straight-jacket removed.

Cheers

Ian G.

IanG - Have you had a go yet?

This s/w really keeps its virtues well hidden.

G

Grazie

Yes, and it worked like a charm! Thank you! I've read a few comments about VF hiding its virtues, but one of the things I like is the consistency of the user interface - you get a feel for what the s/w should be able to do, even if it's not immediately obvious how to do it. Of course it helps when people in this forum tell you they've already done it :-)

Cheers

Ian G.

Grazie

you wrote: "I've just been playing around with getting a semi-tranparent band at the bottom of the screen "

Try as I might, I can't get that semi-transparent band anywhere other than the middle of the screen. What's the secret of your success?

Cheers

Ian G.

Charm, audacity, excellent after dinner speaker and general bonne viver! You know the type, sure you do.

Ahem.... Are you sitting down at the back there. Well, this is a truly natty piece of sideways thinking or reverse thinking.

Go to Pan/Crop. See the "F" frame. Well I regards this as something to really play around with. Start thinking of the "F" as the "F"ILM frame - ie that which you are moving about is the actual film preview and NOT the clip you are manipulating. You can "grab" hold of the frame and move it...try it... I'll wait till you're back... done it?... Good. Again try to think of this as the postion and size of your present clip in relation to this "F"rame. F frame big: Clip small; F frame small: Clip big; F frame to the right: Clip to the left. Oh yes, you can also - DON'T TRY THIS WITHOUT A SAFTEY NET - squezzze the frame/rotate the frame and get this, keep on squeezing and go beyond what you think is humanly possible and the clip will appear in reverse [ NO that isn't backward motion! ]

Sooooo... move the F frame up and your corresponding clip will move down - get the picture. Try "rolling" the clip and you will see it happen. Move the F frame down and you will see the clip appear at the top of the preview screen. The best way I found to learn this VF Virtue, was to keep the Loop Playback clicked on and move the F Frame about. You will see what I mean - neat eh! Soooo... this is the FIRST clue to the moving the band down to the bottom.

Locate your Band thingy clip and click on the FX. Go to Pan/Crop and move the F frame. You should see the band slide all over the place as you move F around and around. We aren't done yet. OH No! What you need to do now is to locate the actual Roll in the postion it will work. To do this you will need to click on the Text/Backdrop. There you will see "Postion". This is the tricky one. In the blue screen area - think of this as your actual film screen - you will note to tiny itsy bitsy yellow squares. If you grab hold of either of these and pull them downwards, your credit roll will be "active" in that part of the blue screen on your Preview. Pull it way down to the bottom and you might even end up with your roll not appearing at all. Play around with this to see what you will get. Now, using this in CONJUNCTION - sorry guys 'n gals I told you it was trixie - with the Pan/Crop tool you can have hours of fun and amusement, but only after having to have your brain put into reverse thunk! Really, master this and you can have rolls appearing at the bottom; at the top or at any postion in between - I've done it.

Oh, as an aside, getting back to the Position tool, you can also move, say the left hand square independantly of the right hand square. So if you just grab this left hand square and move it slooowly to the right, your roll magically appears to work on the right hand side of the screen. Yes yes you're in front of me... if you do the reverse ie pick on the right hand square and move this to the left your Roll appears on the left of your screen - Yhesssssss!

It's my birthday tommorrow - all those wanting to wish me the best, "Go On Make My Day!"

Regards

G

Grazie, Happy Birthday for tomorrow. 21 again?

How about letting us see the product of all your hard work, so we have a better understanding of what you're talking about. (And so we can pinch your good ideas!!)

[In my best Elvis impers] "Thank you very much!" - alas and alack I'm still on 56kbps, wanting to get ADSL.... Then.... aka Jim Carey's MASK ~"Somebody Stop Me!!!!"

21 -yeah right!

Oh by the way... I've even got the credits to slide down sideways. Okay think of a credit roll on the screen NOW - and tilt your head to the left - Kool... I can't think where to use it....

G

Grazie

Thanks for that - you now have the priceless birthday gift of knowing you've just made an old man very happy! Oh, and happy birthday!

Cheers

Ian G.

Thank you very, very much for the Greetings!

It's 5:20am in the UK and I am at it already! Sooooo... really what do you think of the Procedure? Its "lumpy", but its definately do-able. I must say, in your pushing me to put it down on "paper" had made me knock home how to do it - for myself as well.

I know I bang on about how good VF is, but having come from the "Dark-Side", it is daily becoming a revelation to me. -Yeah maybe I'll progress to VV at some point - yes I could do with the option of multiple Video tracks etc etc - but sometimes "Less Is More".

Recently I've had an opportunity to sit in and assist on a piece of editing using Premiere and a Raptor Real-TIme set-up. Now THAT did blow me away! Real-time rendering to analogue monitors! Brilliant! - The ease with which one could review what is being created on the fly was a truly inspiring experience. Yes I know it has been out there for the really high-end TV and edit studios for years, but actually seeing it put through its paces was very sexy indeed. To have my ideas translated immeadately to a monitor raised my sights even higher - was it ever thus!

Real-time rendering? Maybe that is the next step for the good people at SOFO. I do realise that this process relies crucially on rendering cards and software working closely with each other. Its expensive but even now it is almost within my budgetory grasp.

Thanks again for the Birthday salutations,

Best reagrds

Grazie

When it's my birthday, I prefer to lie-in. 5am, you must be mad (or insomniac).

Well actually both! Thanks for the salutation anyway.

G

Many happy returns, Grazie. Which would you prefer for a present, a kissogram or os upgrade? ;o)

Laz - Is there a difference? Thanks for the "Returns".

Regards

Grazie

If I were in mischievous mood I would be tempted to say they are very similar; both can either screw up your system or clear it out, but I'm not so I won't :o)