Video Effect Help

KB9AZZ wrote on 9/13/2007, 3:16 PM
I have been using Vagas for about 18 months now and I familure with most functions. I am however unable to figure out the following:

I do a lot of sports filming, with regard to football how can I creat a highlight area. For example the bulk of the fram woudl be darker than the area of interest such as the player or players in the highlighted bubble or circle or whatever.

Any help would be helpfull, Thank you

Comments

TGS wrote on 9/13/2007, 3:30 PM
You can make a copy of the section you wish to highlight and place this track above and sync'd to the track beneath. (I suggest you loop from the end of the section to the beginning as it will already be sync'd this way. Right click and copy, add video track and paste)
Use the "Cookie cutter" and select the best shape "cut-out" that will surround your subject. EDIT: on the top track
Place "splits" on the lower track and select your Contrast effect and darken the image of the lower track and the top track keep the color & contrast normal but only the image in the cut-out will be over-lapped onto the darkened background beneath.
You can get either a circle or oval to surround your subject and look highlighted.
I should also add, any way you do this will take a little while to perfect. You'll need to do 'Keyframing' to follow your subject and you'll need to get used to the controls of the cookie cutter, but they are not hard, you just need to be familiarized with them
Now the confusing and sophisticated answers are bound to follow.
jbrawn wrote on 9/13/2007, 4:12 PM
TGS's suggestion in probably superior technically, but what I do is much more simple.

Go to the "Color Gradient" item in Media Generator, and select "Eliptical Transparent to Black" or "Rectangular Transparent to Black". Drag one of these to a new video track above your main video. In the "Video Media Generator" control window click on the #2 control point, and drag the transparency bar (to the left of the RGB bars) about halfway down. This makes the black part of the overlay semi-transparent.

Next set your keyframes so that the clear part of the picture is positioned and sized where you want it.

This will allow full transparency in the oval and put a partially transparent dark "cover" over the rest of the frame.

Have Fun,

John.