Hi. I am learning more tricks of the trade from a Bill Myers 101 tips for Sony VMS 10 Platinum and one of his chapters explains very well how to put pointers and arrows on a programme. He tells that you can get free downloads on the internet of fonts which include arrows but he doesn't say from where on the net that he got them. Everytime I log on to free fonts via google, all I get is everyone wanting payment and sometimes the amount asked is skyhigh considering I only want an arrow. I've noticed that among the fonts included with VMS 10 is a selection called wingdings and No.3 has several arrows. When I select this item all the different arrows appear appear on the text line above the image. I can't seem to select the one I want, and the only way of doing this I think is by deleting all the unwanted arrows, then using placement put the arrow on the timeline pointing to the object I want to emphasise. I could also use pan and crop to do this last operation I think. Any suggestions welcome.

Start - Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Character Map - Wingdings (or any other font you have).
Select the arrow you want, Copy it and paste it into your Generated Media text window.
It will be quite small to begin with but can be re-sized as needed.

Character map is so handy for accents as well that I always keep its icon on the quick launch bar...

It's also great for symbols like © and ®

Thanks mike for the info. It's worked a treat. I never knew character map existed. Once again you have galloped to the rescue, you haven't got a white horse in your garage have you?

Roy, thanks for the compliment.
My white horses are on loan to the royal family for the parade tomorrow :)

Now I have placed an arrow pointing where I want it on a video image, I am wondering if it is possible to animate this arrow so that it moves slightly back and forward in what I can only call a jabbing movement. I have seen this on several documentary films and I think it drawsthe attention of the viewer much better than a static pointer. Any info. will be appreciated, I am thinking perhaps that the use of keyframes is involved?

use the pointer on it's own track and use track motion....

Or use Pan/Crop and a few keyframes on the arrow itself.

actually prefer mike's method ;-)

Thank you Mike and Leslie for your reponses. Unfortunately I haven't the slightest idea how to work with track motion, on the tutorial I use track motion is only mentioned when using PIP. Mike I have only used Pan and Crop to make text come forward from small to big and stop and then come forward and go off the screen as if the credit was passing the camera. That proved very successful on opening credits and I learnt that from the tutorial. However I am getting nowwhere with the animated arrow. I can't seem to get the arrow to move back and forward in a straight line, it deviates all over the place. I must be doing something wrong. In view of this, would you please let me have the step by step procedure to animate the arrow. It's time for you to mount your white horse again, presuming it is back from the wedding.

Roy,
I just made this quick'n dirty "arrow" effect using Pan/Crop.
There is a little control button that lets you just move the object either up/down or side-to-side. If you have the setting in free movement, you'll get what you had - it moving all over the place...
YouTube - Animated arrow effect (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcV6py1RqUQ)

Robin. Thanks for your input. Your animated arrow is just the effect I want, but where do I find the control button you mention. I really need a step by step instruction on how you achieved this effect. I would be grateful if you could oblige.

Roy, these pictures from the Pan/Crop window should help.

Thanks again Mike. I am now managing to move the arrow using the control button. However another problem has cropped up and that is when I move the arrow backwards the image of the arrow grows bigger. I presume there is a way of controlling this. Thanks.

Roy, check all your keyframes to make sure that you didn't accidentally re-size it somehow.

Mike. A thousand thanks. Problem solved. I just started again and everything is great. I must of altered the size accidently before. You can bed down the horse now. Cheers

Good to hear that Roy.
The horses are back in the stable taking a well-deserved rest :)

Mike,

Ah, you always come up with cool stuff. I never new you could do the character map thing!!! I love the pan crop tool and use it a lot, this just helps in a number of ways!!

My biggest issue with pan crop tool is controling the velocity of the movement!!! You have any cool ideas on that one outside the velocity envelope??


dale

Dale, D. Eric Brown (of Digital Juice fame) has an excellent tutorial that I've recommended to a lot of folks that might be of some help to you.

Vegas Keyframe Interpolation Envelopes on Vimeo