Hello

My V1 has a shot of a man asleep under a tree.

V2 has a black vignette mask with a transparent alpha channel to allow V1 to be seen underneath.

Now I want to add a V3 with a video of a man talking as if in a dream-buuble - blurred edges, picture in picture, scaled down type thing.

I am clueless on how to do this.

Can anyone help?

Thanks

Malthus101

malthus101:

blurred edges, picture in picture, scaled down type thing.

Have you looked through the Effects Palette?

Kenton's right. Apply a PIP effect and hit the 3D button in the bottom right hand corner of the effects editor to promote the effect. Additional options will appear that will let you do exactly what you want.

Hi guys

Yeah, I know about the PIP effect but I cannot get it to 50% opacity (the opcaity slider in the border drop down anything to do with it?) or see any way to have cusotm shaped edges that look like a "dream-bubble".

Do I need to create a key or matte and import it in, and somehow put my video inside that?

Any good books out there on this effects stuff?

I am using Xpress Pro but will probably go to Media Composser soon.

Thanks

When you get to Media Composer you will have a vignette effect and animatte, which allows you to create a custom shape for keying. In the meantime, you can play with the oval choice in the "shape wipe" group, soften the borders and get what you want, minus the "thought cloud bubble" look.

Or, if you have photoshop, you could create a custom matte shape there with an alpha channel, and import using the "invert alpha" option in the import tool.

Hi guys

OK, I will create a custom matte in PS. However, I have used the crop tool on the superimposed picture, so am no longer sure what dimensions to make the matte! Anyone know where I can find the dimension informtion?

Also, I still don't know how to reduce the opacity of the image? Is it even possible in Xpress Pro?

Thanks

Malthus101

The frame size of the matte, assuming NTSC, should be 720 x 486. After you import the clip as a matte key graphic, opacity is adjusted in the "foreground" parameter on the effects editor tool.

Thanks Larry, opacity problem sorted.

Now my next noob question! The matte itself. I am on a PAL system. If you imagine my screen divided into 4 equal quarters, my superimposed picture takes up most of the top right corner. I want it to fade up from nothing to about 60% opacity and then fade down again at the end, like a vision appearing to the sleeping man.

So, I want the edges of the superimposed picture to be soft and blurry and with an iregular shape.

I am not 100% clear on how to make a matte to achieve this effect; I made a matte already for another shot which was a vignette - that seemed relatively straightforward as it is black all around the edges of the picture, gradually getting softer towards the center. But because this is a PIP effect, I can't quite work out how to do it! It's like I want to have a clear matte that fits over most of the main picture, but has a blurring effect only to the superimposed picture.

I think I may have to create the matte for the full-sized superimposed picture first, THEN shrink it down and do the PIP effect afterwards. Would you agree?

Thanks again

Malthus101

malthus101:

I think I may have to create the matte for the full-sized superimposed picture first, THEN shrink it down and do the PIP effect afterwards. Would you agree?

Thanks again

Yes I agree. You will need to make the irregular shaped matte in Photoshop. If you were on Media Composer, there is an animatte effect that allows you to achieve this inside the Avid application.

Actually, after you've imported the irregular matte as a matte key graphic, you can promote the matte key to 3D. This will eliminate the need to do a PIP on top of the matte key.

Hi Larry

What does this mean, 'you can promote the matte key to 3D'?

Thanks

Malthus101

After you import the graphic, a matte key graphic clip is created. When you put that into the timeline and go into the effects mode, on the effects editor tool you'll see a button in the lower right corner labelled "3D". This will promote the effect and open up many more parameters, including all the ones you'd find in the PIP effect and more, which will allow you to position, scale and even rotate the matte image, as well as adding soft borders.

something i've done in a pinch was to promote a PIP to 3D & use the "sphere" effect to create a "bubble".  you can play with the parameters a good deal & end up with a flat circle or oval with rounded edges.  not as ideal as the matte, but if you're slow in photoshop like i am, it may do.

shane