Comments

musman wrote on 3/5/2005, 9:44 PM
One thing at a time. Yes, unless I'm mistaken, you can import a sequence of stills from PS. To do rotoscoping in Vegas (people here like to call it Bezier curves), you'd need to render the stills to one uninterupted video file. Otherwise the bezier mask you created would only exist in the one still you drew it in.
The other things you're talking about are more advanced and we'd need to know more info. Like, do you want the images to track and follow people's head/ eyes? That's probably something better suited for After Effects, Boris Red, or Combustion.
Spot|DSE wrote on 3/5/2005, 9:44 PM
Vegas can export a .tga or png sequence via Quicktime that you could import into photoshop or other graphic editor, but it's a slow process.

In Vegas, you could easily composite "little images" such as ears or horns, or make your eyes glow red. You can do all sorts of low-level composites in Vegas, but Vegas does not have motion tracking like a compositor like Boris or Combustion has, so you'll want to try to keep your subjects from being high action as you lay in these sorts of composites.
skibumm101 wrote on 3/5/2005, 9:46 PM
A great tool is Wax 2 from debugmode. How is satish doing any way. www.debugmode.com
DDerek wrote on 3/5/2005, 9:54 PM
ok thanks guys


What about blue screening ???



B.Verlik wrote on 3/5/2005, 9:58 PM
Do a quick search on "Chromakeying" and you should find a couple of hundred posts about this.
Spot|DSE wrote on 3/5/2005, 10:11 PM
Vegas has a very good chromakey tool, and with a little practice, it's about as good as 8 bit/4:1:1 can get, outside of Ultimatte or Ultra. You'll generally want to use green vs blue for your background if you're working with DV, but blue works acceptably too.
DDerek wrote on 3/5/2005, 10:35 PM
thanks guys dont ultmate S and ultra cost like $200 usd ( wich i dont have right now mybe in the summer time i may have it ) just spent big bucks on vegas )
DDerek wrote on 3/6/2005, 10:23 AM
ok Help guys Ultmate S is lots of money ... ( I would love ultmate S ) tried the demo and liked it.... ) and wax dont work with vegas 5
busterkeaton wrote on 3/6/2005, 5:32 PM
Ulitmatte is a different program than Ulitmate S.

Wax does work with Vegas.

How long a sequence do you have ? You can export an image sequence from Vegas and work on the individual stills. You can then import the image sequence back into Vegas. So for a small sequence you can do this, however you have to work on every still. You may be able to create your effect as a layer and then copy it to each picture and move it as necessary. But yes it will be time consuming.
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 3/6/2005, 11:14 PM
I have to say that my computer doesn't allow wax to work in vegas. In fact it's been a pretty unstable solution the entire time I've TRIED to use it. Crashes on etc... Perhaps there's a glitch with the driver for my Graphics card (anyone with a Radeon 9700 mobility card could let me know and I'd sure appreciate it).

Dave
farss wrote on 3/7/2005, 3:16 AM
I don't know if you can still find it but Viscocity from the old SoFo does a half decent job of rotorscoping from all reports.

If all you're trying to do is the light saber thing there's heaps of tutorials on doing this. At a pinch I think you can just paint a suitable piece of wood chroma key blue or green to create a mask and then you're away, much less drama than rotoscoping. You can add a fancy handle from some kids toy sword as well to the prop to simplify the task.
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 3/7/2005, 6:16 AM
I'd say, why not just buy one of the toys (they're usually such an off color that it'd work to key out the plastic that it uses - IMHO) and then you wouldn't have to go through all the work of making a prop and breaking some poor kids toy ;-)

Dave
skibumm101 wrote on 3/7/2005, 9:49 AM
if your trying to do light saber effect get alamdv from www.fxhome.com. Great little program, and was designed for just that.
goshep wrote on 3/7/2005, 4:42 PM
I second the ALAMDV suggestion. I think you'll find it more in your price range as well.
It also does:
muzzle flashes
ejecting shells
fireballs
lasers
etc
etc.
There is also an entire library of user created effects available to registered users. The saber effects are as good as I've seen anyone create with PS and they're much quicker than PS.
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 3/7/2005, 5:37 PM
ALAM DV do it better than PI3?

Dave
skibumm101 wrote on 3/8/2005, 9:01 AM
sorry for my incompetence, but what is PI3?
Coursedesign wrote on 3/8/2005, 9:05 AM
Particle Illusion 3. Great program, not as easy to use fully as AlamDV, and quite abit more expensive.
skibumm101 wrote on 3/8/2005, 9:10 AM
Ah yes, Very good program, but i would use AlamDV for what he is trying to do very cheap, and you get a free upgrade to there new AlamDV 3 when it comes out. And it is very easy to learn.