Using 1 FX to adjust the sum of tracks - possible?

ingvarai wrote on 8/12/2009, 3:58 PM
On Track 2 I have my clip, the talent shot in front of a green-screen, with the suitable FXs added to key out the green color.
On Track 1 I have the same clip, masked, because the talent has a green spot on his T-shirt, that otherwise would be keyed out as well.

Now - I want to add more punch to the talent, so I want to use Sony Levels. Problem is - I want to add this to the sum of Track 1 and 2. I could add Sony Levels with the same settings to both Track 1 and 2, but sometimes this won't work well.

I can also render out the sum of Track 1 and 2, to AVI, saving the alpha channel. This does not work well, the talent becomes visibly superimposed on the background - dark lines around shoulders and hair.

What I would like is to add an affect to a group of tracks.. Possible?

ingvarai

Comments

kairosmatt wrote on 8/12/2009, 4:08 PM
You could save track 1 and 2 in a project and then nest it back into your main project and apply the FX to the nest.

Nesting brings in the Alpha Channels.

kairosmatts
ingvarai wrote on 8/12/2009, 4:22 PM
Brilliant!!
Perfect - just what I needed, thanks a lot!
Nesting not only brings alpha channels, it brings a whole bunch of possibilities I never had thought of, before now.

ingvarai
farss wrote on 8/12/2009, 4:32 PM
Don't forget the Video Buss track and the possibility of adding FXs there.

Would be nice if we could route video through busses like we can audio.

Bob.
ingvarai wrote on 8/12/2009, 4:40 PM
Don't forget the Video Buss track and the possibility of adding FXs there

I learnt something new again!
I will have a look at it tomorrow. And I agree with you regarding the busses. I also work with Cakewalk Sonar, and take this for granted, but this is sound..

ingvarai
farss wrote on 8/12/2009, 4:52 PM
The other thought that keeps getting stuck in my head is why a parent track's FX doesn't do this. Given the nature of Vegas the whole 3D parent thing is of fairly limited use without a 3D camera, lights etc. On the other hand having a parent track work like an adjustment layer in PS and AE would have added a lot of usable functionality.

Bob.
kairosmatt wrote on 8/12/2009, 4:54 PM
I was thinking about buses too, but don't have a lot of experience with them.

Bob, could you follow up on your post a little please? Its a bit confusing to me, especially the second line. Why can't you route the video through the buses?

kairosmatt
farss wrote on 8/12/2009, 5:00 PM
There's only one video buss master, all video is routed through it. You cannot add more busses and you cannot change the routing.
On the audio side you can add busses and assign tracks to be routed through them.

Only reason I try to be concise is I'm hopeless at typing and it is kind of all in the manual. The signal processing flowcharts are the most informative thing in the documentation.

Bob.
kairosmatt wrote on 8/12/2009, 5:02 PM
Thanks Bob-I'll look that up.

For someone who's hopeless at typing, you sure get a lot of it done-at least around here!

Cheers,
kairosmatt
Udi wrote on 8/13/2009, 1:58 AM
You can use parent child.
Add a top video track
Make original track 1 and 2 as child.
Add the FX to the parent track.
NOW - in the fx toggle the pre/post toggle to post, now it work on the combined tracks.

Udi
ingvarai wrote on 8/13/2009, 2:16 AM
!! - - - BINGO - - - !!

This is what I was looking for, indeed!!
I halfway had expected something like this from Vegas, and it is there, this feature, for us to use. Now I am sure that Sony Vegas is way more powerful than many of us realize.
This has been the most informative and educating thread I have participated in, in this forum. Great!
More info here:
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/news/article.asp?articleid=29&keycode=3495

ingvarai
kairosmatt wrote on 8/13/2009, 9:53 AM
wow-I had no idea about that! I can see how this could quickly become very useful.
Thanks guys!
kairosmatt