Understanding Confusing Compositing in Vegas Pro

karma17 wrote on 12/5/2022, 12:56 PM

I often turn to the Help Documentation in Vegas Pro and wanted to clarify that one of the examples used to demonstrate compositing is correct, but only if the Parent Track is in Multiply (Mask) Compositing Mode. By default, Vegas Pro has its compositing modes set to Source Alpha, and so if you didn't know this, you might get even more confused. Vegas has extremely powerful compositing powers, but the key to using them is understanding these core concepts clearly.

MultiplyMask.mp4
MultiplyMask.mp4

Comments

vegas22-user wrote on 4/13/2025, 2:24 AM

thanks for making the explanation vids. Yes, indeed, the compositing mode called "multiply" is a brain twister. However, I specifically have no need to composite 2 layers that blend the pixel colors into a new color... I can't think of a scenario where I need that. If I were to do that, I imagine I would ruin the video image because the colors would be messed up and unnatural. But I would, on the other hand, use the more traditional masking that uses a Black-N-White mask to define what passes through and what gets masked out. It would not contain alpha transparency. If I need alpha, then I would use Chroma Key, not the Multiply compositing mode. 😁