CSI Split Screen?

[Anthony Martin]

I saw this cool split screen effect on an episode of CSI and I am trying to figure out how to do it in Vegas. They basically split a clip into thirds, 3 sections with a black border in between. Then they would quickly fade in one at a time with a flash transition on each. The part I am having trouble with is splitting the clip into thirds so I can place them in separate tracks. Any ideas?

[Josh Bass]

I've seen the show occasionally. . .remind me what the effect looks like? Is it a separate image in each "panel", or is is the same image with lines through it?

I'm assuming separate images.

Some people will tell you to use th pan/crop tool to do it, but I've always found it somewhat difficult to work with for anything other than zooming in in post.

For stuff where you want to resize AND move the picture around on the screen, I use the 3D Plugin Pac LE. This is a plugin not native to Vegas that was developed by a dude named Satish. If you google 3D Plugin Pac LE, you should be able to find a link. I had to redownload it recently when I reinstalled V6 on another computer. You just download, follow the installation instructions, and it should show up with the other plugins.

Anyway, in 3D Plugin Pac, you have controls for crop, rotation, position, size, and maybe some others (not in front of it right now). All of these are keyframeable.

You'll make new tracks of video, however many different images/panels you want to have, you'll make a new video track for each. Simply apply the plugin to each clip or track, depending on how you like to work, and do whatever you want.

The only thing I'd caution is that 3D Plugin Pac LE operates on both fields at once. This means that your footage using the effect will end up progressive, even if it was previously interlaced. Doesn't matter if it's already 24p, 30p, etc.

Another thing I've noticed is that it slightly resizes footage. Very slightly. . .if this bothers you, you can offset the effect by increasing the scale to like 1.001 or something crazy like that.

[Anthony Martin]

Its 1 image cut into 3 sections to create 3 separate sections that make up the original image. Lets call it left, middle and right. They have a black border between the sections and fade in one at a time. I tried using the crop/pan tool and cookie cutter with no luck. Thanks for responding. I will look into the 3D plugin pack.

[Anthony Martin]

Here is an example of what it looks like.

[Josh Bass]

So the image stays static, and fills your screen at all times, but the lines/borders move around and fade in/out?

In that case, probably the way I would do it is make a separate video track, again, one track for each border line. So if it's three sections, you need two tracks/lines.

I would put a generated media, solid color, black on each new video track, and use the 3D plugin pac to crop it into a line of your desired width and position the lines/borders where you want them. One thing to note is that you might use a very slight blur on the edge of the crop. . .usually these types of effects (cookie cutter, etc.) look way too sharp without a slight dulling of the edges. I'm assuming you're using DV or something similar, a format whose relative softness to those hard crop edges makes them that much more noticeable.

There's a way to use the plugin pac directly on the main video track to create the lines, and then maybe you could duplicate your main video track and apply the effect again to create another border, or apply the effect twice to one video track, but all of these seem like more of a pain in the ass than the first way I mentioned above. You'll be able to control the lines/borders much more easily the first way, in my opinion.

EDIT: your example above my post here shows three different images. If that's what you're trying to do, I'd go back to the first way (in the earlier post, I mean). If you mean that the borders stay static and the panels within them fade and change, just replace the video on the extra tracks with the new clips when desired. In this case it'd be easier to apply the Plugin Pac at the track level, so you don't have to reapply it to each new clip.

[Anthony Martin]

actually the clip would play as you see it however each panel would be a separate clip of its own I guess on separate tracks. So you could fade one out add an effect to another etc.

[Josh Bass]

So the way I thought you meant initially, then--static borders, clips change within them? Then yes, go with separate video tracks for each video clip, using plugin pac at the track level to crop and position each clip, and then simply replace the video on each track when you want it to change.

Then add some dubious acting and have David Caruso deliver half of each line with his head down, the other half with his head up, only SORT OF looking at whomever he's talking to.

[Anthony Martin]

HA! Thanks I'll try it...