spot light effect

Curt W Shepler wrote on 5/30/2005, 7:03 AM

Would like to brighten a subject in a video stream as if a spot light was used in the original live production. Is there a way to do this with Vegas 6.0 or a plug-in (add-on) software product available?

Sony's Vegas Video FX "Cookie Cutter" does a fine job of tracking the subject, but it eliminates all of the surrounding area of the recording. If the surronding area was left intact or slightly reduced in brilliance it would work okay, but I don't want to completely cut the surronding area away.

Comments

winrockpost wrote on 5/30/2005, 7:10 AM

play around with bumpmap fx, may do what you want

Former user wrote on 5/30/2005, 7:52 AM

How bout:

1. Place duplicate clips on two video tracks (make a group out of them to keep the sync right)

2. Apply the cookie cutter effect to the upper track and adjust as needed.

3. Adjust the lower track to a give you some contrast / color difference so that you can see the cookie cutter effect to the degree you need.

You could do something simple, like just bring down the opacity on the lower clip to make it darker for a simple contrast. Or something more dramatic such as adding a color correction effect and tweaking the hue / saturation to get the effect of colored lights illuminating a stage show. The top layer being left uncorrected to give the effect of white light from a follow spot.

BillyBoy wrote on 5/30/2005, 8:52 AM

There is a spotlight FX preset under the Bump Map filter. On my tutorial site under Special Effects, (click second thumbnail b/w girl) I use a mild strength splotlight to highlight my classmates as they get panned. Hard to see on a low bitrate web vid, but it gives the idea.

Curt W Shepler wrote on 5/31/2005, 9:31 PM

Jim,

Thanks for the excellent idea. We're leaving town tomorrow for our oldest grandsons high school graduation. I'll try this approach when we return. I'm fairly new at this, so I really appreciate any help.

Curt W Shepler wrote on 5/31/2005, 9:35 PM

Billy,

Thanks for yet another excellent idea. As soon as we return from being out of town for our oldest grandsons high school graduation. I'll try this approach alongwith the one above from Jim. It looks like I acn learn a lot from your website. I'm fairly new at this, so I really appreciate all the help that I can get.

Spot|DSE wrote on 5/31/2005, 9:36 PM

Curt,
This link: http://www.presentationmaster.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=31532

may or may not help. You can also use generated media, as done in this project file:
http://www.vasst.com/resource.aspx?id=96ad8b9a-cbbb-4e23-b590-fd7cc5222a3d

Chanimal wrote on 5/31/2005, 10:25 PM

BillyBoy,

Thank you for your tutorial with the bumpmap. I forgot about all your great tutorial content you've assembled over the years.

This was the first time I looked at the bumpmap. Using it for a spotlight was the first use I found for it (a new Vegas trick)--good information, thanks.

Ted