track motion - can you tell it's been applied ?

DaveM2 wrote on 10/9/2009, 4:43 PM

I've been experimenting / learning using a pip effect. Not quite sure the final composite - so I have been playing around with pan/crop event settings and motion tracking (in track header) to learn the +& -'s.

In Motion tracking, once you have made a setting, is there a way to tell that that particular track has had motion tracking applied - without having to open the motion tracking options ?

Other than a using plugin like Videowall or Excalibur or Ultimate S, I was wondering if there were any pointers as to setting up or working with a PIP.

I hope this isn't too basic of a question - I just want to get the basics down good before going the plugin route - I guess so I can appreciate the plug-ins more - or because I like to do things the hard way first - or some other old fashion reason.

I have to say I find the pan/crop (I guess it is pan or crop - not both) a bit confusing in trying to do a PIP type effect - but since I only want the effect applied to one event, I haven't found another way to do it within the event itself.

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 10/9/2009, 5:32 PM

1) You can tell if track motion is applied by looking at the center and size numbers on the left; if they are different than the project settings, then it is in effect . . .

2) There are dozens of PIP tutorials here and on the web -- they can be found with a search.

3) Your last paragraph is a real puzzler -- pan / crop is pan and crop, and it is applied at and only at the event level. Keyframes (at the bottom of the window) are the answer to both your questions and confusion; since keyframes apply (or not apply) the effect over time -- that's how it is applied to part but not all of an event, and that is how panning is achieved. Use Vegas Help to learn how to apply and manipulate keyframes.

Former user wrote on 10/9/2009, 5:46 PM

One way to think about the Pan and Crop. You are not manipulating the image, you are manipulating the framing of the image.

Dave T2

Chienworks wrote on 10/9/2009, 6:02 PM

When Track Motion has been applied the icon in the track header turns darker blue. Remove the motion and the icon turns pale again.

PIP is so drop-dead easy in Pan/Crop that it's really not much easier to use any other tools. It does take getting over a small learning hump, but once you get there it takes almost no effort to use it.

Think of the dashed frame in the Pan/Crop window as the viewing frame. It shows you the size and position of the output frame. When you drag it out larger then your PIP video inside it gets smaller. If you drag the frame to the left then your PIP video ends up in the right of the frame. And that's really all there is to it, nothing more complex than that.

Now, there is one situation that you can't handle in Pan/Crop. If you want to crop the video down to only a portion of it's frame and then reduce it to a PIP you can't do this with Pan/Crop alone. In this situation you have to use Pan/Crop to do the cropping, then use Track Motion to reduce and position it. But if you're using the entire frame of the PIP video then Pan/Crop alone is sufficient.

Former user wrote on 10/9/2009, 6:20 PM

You can get tricky and use Mask to crop while resizing.

Dave T2

DaveM2 wrote on 10/9/2009, 7:05 PM

Thanks. I appreciate all the comments.

Chienworks reference about the situation where you want to crop AND PIP is exactly what I was referring to when I said Pan or Crop - so I appreciate covering that.

Dave T2 - you always throw in the challenge (at least for me) - another thing to look at.

The blue icon hint is nice to know. I looked for some change somewhere in the header and never saw it. Thanks.

Vegas definitely is a bit different than Avid Liquid - but it's really kind of fun to experiment with and learn. I know there are lots of tricks out there and I appreciate the help.