Billy Boy, Thanks for your reply. Would an ugly color make any more difference than green or blue? In my search under 'transparency', your response suggested using Adobe Photoshop to make the image background transparent , and I spent some time reading the help file and instructions on my wife's sw, but when I imported the bitmap of the logo, the pallete for opacity was greyed out. I tried Png and Jpeg, but got nowhere in Photoshop. It seems logical to import the image, make the background transparent, in Photoshop, and then apply motion in 3D, and then bring into VV4 to overlay on the girls video. I feel as if I am missing something in the chain, and would appreciate any help. Are there properties of an AVI that are neccesary for VV4 to chroma key for transparency that I am not getting from my 3D program? I don't expect a response about Crystal 3D, but it seems so simple in VV4, open the chroma key filter and use the eyedropper to select the color to 'eliminate', and when you don't get the expected result, it gets more confusing. Hope all is good for you and yours. John

"Would an ugly color make any more difference than green or blue?"

It makes it easier to eliminate when using the chroma key method. If you use a more typical color such as a blue or green the chances some of those colors also appearing in the video portion you want to keep make it harder to eliminate without also adversely effecting what you want to keep.

There are other ways to do if of course <wink>

"In my search under 'transparency', your response suggested using Adobe Photoshop to make the image background transparent , and I spent some time reading the help file and instructions on my wife's sw, but when I imported the bitmap of the logo, the pallete for opacity was greyed out. I tried Png and Jpeg, but got nowhere in Photoshop."

Vegas can accept Photoshop files directly, no need to mess with other file types.

In Photoshop you have the ability to mask areas of an image. In my Tutorial #5 the red area that surrounds the bird is the area that becomes transparant. The Tutorial perhaps assumes too much in that it doesn't give much detail on how to make masks.

Lets try a simple project step by step.

Go to Photoshop. File/New make it 200 x 200 pixels and be SURE you select transparent, the background should have the checkerboard background which indicates its transparent. Now in Photoshop's little floating tool box selct the top left tool and draw a little square. No need to be exact, fill up about half the the space. While it still has the marching ants, pick a solid color like red and use the paint bucket tool to color the square. You should now have a red square inside a transparent larger box. Click again anywhere in the checkerboard area to deselect. Now from File give this file any name and save as a Photoshop file (extension pdd). When you drop the Photoshop file on the timeline you should see the checkerboard background. If you don't, you didn't save it as as a Photoshop file or you did one of the steps wrong.

Open Vegas. Drop any video on the timeline. Add a new video track above. Drop the Photoshop file you just made on the top track, move your cursor over the Photoshop file and you should see your red square floating over your video and it shoudln't block out anything else. Use FX to size/move as you need.

Now for your logo or more complex shapes...

Its basically the same steps with a little twist. Start a new project. Color the background some ugly color. Now copy your logo on a new layer so the ugly color is the background.

On the layers menu select merge visible or flatten. For the next steps to work you must combine the layers which it what the merge or flatten step does. Pick Select on the Tool Bar. Select Color Range. Set the fuzziness to about 70. Use eyedropper to click anywhere in the ugly background color in the little work area which will appear as white, not the actual image. Click OK. You'll see the marching ants surround the two areas in the actual image. Since you selected the background we want to reverse that. On the Tool Bar click on Select, then Inverse which will select everything BUT the background.

Now select Cut from the Edit Menu. Now File/New (make it your frame size like 720x480. or just a little larger than your logo then click OK. Then Edit and finally Paste. You should now have your logo surrounded by a transparant boundry. Save as a Phtoshop file and again drop on a track above your video.

Doing it this way you don't have to mess with it at all in Vegas, or chroma keying. Just drop it in and you should be all set.