"Trails" effect

jack221 wrote on 1/27/2004, 3:44 PM

Is there a way to do a "trails" effect in MS30? This is where a moving image leaves a trail that gradually fades with persistence and time constant that can be varied by the user. The effect is called "TRAIL" in Sony digital camcorders.

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 1/28/2004, 6:32 AM

As far as I know, there is no effect for doing it, but you do have the capabilities of doing it using your three video tracks.

First, break the first portion of your clip into three smaller clips, maybe 1/2 second each, and leave one on video layer 1, drag the next up to layer 2 and the next up to layer 3. Now slide each clip on layers 2 and 3 to the left a nudge so that each is out of sync with the one below it. In fact, the clip on layer 3 should begin where the clip on layer 1 ends while the clip on layer 2 begins halfway through 1 and ends halfway through 3. Make sense?

Now adjust the opacity of layers 2 and 3 by grabbing the upper left corner of each clip and dragging it down so that the opacity line is about halfway down and angled up to 100% at mid-clip. (I hope all this make sense.)

The result (it may take a little tweaking and playing) should be that each layer comes in halfway transparent and a few frames behind the clip below it.

If all works well, repeat several times until your entire clip is leaving trails and put on the soundtrack to "The Song Remains the Same".

Anyway, that should work, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone has a better idea...

GerryLeacock wrote on 1/28/2004, 11:49 AM

I tried it with only 2 clips - one lagging 10 frames behind the first. 50% opacity on the top layer, no opacity on the bottom one. Didn't look too bad for a first try. Tried with 3 clips, 66% / 33% / none, but it looked goofy.

Steve Grisetti wrote on 1/28/2004, 1:06 PM

Maybe my math was a little off!

What happens if we use video track 1 as our main track, with the entire clip on it.

Then we duplicate it and place that one track 2, nudged to right for half a second. Set that opacity to 50%.

Then duplicate it again and place that on track 3, nudged half a second more to the right, with the opacity also set to 50%.

If I'm envisioning this right, we should see the image move, then a ghost of it appear slightly delayed and another ghost of it delayed even more.

Does that work? (sorry, I probably should have test-driven it before I recommendend, but I'm here at work and just brainstorming...)

GerryLeacock wrote on 1/28/2004, 2:53 PM

I tried with a one second delay - made more of a ghost image copying the first image than an actual "trail". That's why I settled on a 10 frame delay (approx 1/3rd second). But....everyone who tries it will come up with their own formula that works/looks best for them.

jack221 wrote on 1/28/2004, 7:57 PM

Thanks for all the tips! I will give them a try.

Jack

tjw wrote on 1/30/2004, 11:42 AM

I have used this method with very good results, more of a psycedelic TRAILS.

Take your video clip and put it on theVIDEO layer. Duplicate it on the VIDEO OVERLAY layer. Add a CHROMA KEY to the VIDEO OVERLAY, make the color BLACK and the LOW THRESHOLD to about .75. Then add LIGHT RAYS. Set BEGIN and END STRENGTH and SENSITIVITY to 1. Now play around with it. Move the light source around, change colors, strength and everything else. You can make some pretty neat effects with this method. Works very good on text also. Even throw in a THRESHOLD for a more bizarre look.