Comments

DavidW12 wrote on 2/1/2002, 11:37 AM
That is called a "quad split" or "multi split" digital video effects. Easy to do with a Grass Valley production switcher with their DVE options...I think it can be done in VV3 but its not as straight forward as the hardware system.
bcbarnes wrote on 2/1/2002, 11:56 AM
I may be confused here, but it seems to me that using the track/event pan/crop feature makes this really easy.

Place each clip that is supposed to be in one of the little boxes in separate video tracks. Use the pan/crop to shrink and move the clip to some quadrant of the screen. This is very similar to PIP, just with more pictures. Isn't it?
rwsjr wrote on 2/1/2002, 2:52 PM
I'm not sure if my way is that easy, but I've been able to get the effect.

My way is to use one track for each of the nine boxes (Mike, Carol, six kids and Alice). It's a good idea to name each track (use the “scribble feature” to name tracks) so you can keep track of them. Maybe you can name one in honor of each Brady to keep them straight.

The track motion feature (not cropping) allows you to position each of the "Bradys" in the appropriate location of the screen. Key framing allows you to give motion to the "Mike" and "Carol" tracks (like in the opening sequence) and position the others where they need to be as each is introduced. Of course, key framing allows you to change the size of each box as needed.

If you take the time to figure out all of the coordinates, you can type the exact coordinates for each track for greater precision. You could use a 10th track at the very top for titles.

I used this effect for a photo montage of my twins. It's a great way to get a lot of pictures into a relatively short presentation. Since Vegas gives you unlimited tracks, you can do as many or as few separate video “boxes” as you want.

Hope this helps. Let me know if this works for you.
Chienworks wrote on 2/1/2002, 3:11 PM
Precisely. I set one of these up just for fun when i first got Vegas. It took me about 3 minutes to import 9 video tracks, resize & position them, and add a blue background. Very quick and easy. The only conceptual difficulty is getting over the idea that "crop" is always smaller than the source media. You can drag the cropping rectangle out larger and thereby reduce the size of the media in the project frame.

If you need to crop the source media as well as reduce it, then look into the new cookie-cutter tool. This lets you crop & resize independantly of each other.
DR wrote on 2/2/2002, 11:24 AM
Thank you for all the help as usual!!!
This is a great learning place as well as great friends helping each other out!!!!
Thank you.
David