Vegas Pro 21 - Experience with Z-Depth

Wolfgang S. wrote on 8/13/2023, 4:19 PM

Z-Depth is one of the innovative functions, that we have available in Vegas Pro 21.

Take for example this picture

and imagine, that you want to place a text between the glas of water and the cup of tea. Yes, not in front of the total picture - that is something that we have been able to do up to now. But BETWEEN both objects.

Something, that looks like as shown here:

This is tricky - but it can be done with the new plugin together in the composite mode. It looks like as follows in the tracks:

choosing the composition mode and custom for the track with the text. You will find details in the new online-guidance, what is great.

But the tricky part in this example is to analyse and understand the depth profile - simply, because the difference in the depth profile between the glas of water and the tea cup are not so huge. This can be done with the visualisation buttom - and choosing depth. You can track with the mouse the depth position of both objects (and I found it easier to switch to normalized values in "mode"):

And if you see above, one distance is 0.5, and the other one is 0.6. Means, that you have to position the between 0.5 and 0.6 approximately.

In the "normalized values"-mode the furthest object will always assigned to be 0,000, and the nearest object will always assigend to be 1,000. That happens automatically if you switch to the normalized values mode.

To position the text you have to choose "Depth In" and "Depth Out" - and check the result by switching the visualisation back to "none". To adjust the figures it is helpfull to use the STRG+mouse wheel, and check the result in the preview (with best/full). In my case, I found the best results with following settings:

The "feather" function can help to make the boundaries smoother. However, the results may not be perfect by 100% - as it was mentioned elsewhere. However, I think they are great so far.

Be warned, that it may take some time until you have trained yourself to become familiar with this new function. But it is worthwile to spend some time here, the results were nice and the attention of your audience will be on the astonishing effect.

Have fun!

Comments

Jack S wrote on 8/13/2023, 4:43 PM

@Wolfgang S. What a great post. Just goes to show what can be achieved with Z-Depth, if you know how to use it. I have to confess, I didn't, until you pointed out the meaning of the figures under the mouse cursor. The help for this plugin doesn't mention this at all, simply telling you to experiment with the sliders until the effect is achieved. Thanks for clarifying this.

GINO-PERROTTA wrote on 11/13/2023, 1:56 PM

Thank you wolfgang S.

I've been using Vegas for a long time, now I use Vegas 18. I consider it stable.

I have seen the AD for the feature you describe above, for Vegas 21, I didn't try it yet.

I wonder if it can be used with images as well.

Let's say you sing in front of a green screen and insert a group of people dancing. The result is the subject singing is in the front, the dancing people in the back. I am looking to reverse it. It would be more credible having the dancing people in the front.

I only tape musicians live, occasionally I use a green screen and videotape musicians in front of it. I am looking to improve the end product. So far I haven't found any difference between the two versions. I am looking to produce better video and of course Audio is very important.

Any input is appreciated.

Thank you.