Elements of still images "moving": can Vegas do this?

[Steven Reid]

I think a forum member runs this website: http://www.reelinspirations.com/

Under the "Commercials" tab, there is a dirtbike piece of still images, with the bikes seemingly moving independently of the background image during mid-jump. How was this done? Two images? Same one? I viewed several times and I couldn't tell.

Thanks,
Steve

p.s. Sorry if this is old. I searched first but couldn't find an answer.

[Don Bloom]

this effect is really something that is more easily produced in a photo editor like photoshop then brought back into Vegas. Depending on the footage though it is quite time consuming but used properly (and sparingly) it can add a very dramatic effect to many types of videos. It requires layers and masking (at least that's the way I do it in photoshop) and in Vegas then you can add pan/crop or track motion to achieve the look of movement.
It could be done in Vegas but it would require using the Bezier mask in the pan/crop window and I believe it would be much more painful ;-) than in photoshop.
Don

[Mike Kujbida]

At the bottom of the page that the dirtbike pictures are on, the company says:
"...we took the images into Photoshop and then After Effects to create a fresh 3D look".

As Don says, it can be done in Vegas but it will take some work.
From looking at the images on the site though, it looks to me like all it would take is a dirtbike image and proper use of the Pan/Crop tool.
Never having done this before though, I could be greatly mistaken :-)

[Steven Reid]

Originally Posted by Mike Kujbida

At the bottom of the page that the dirtbike pictures are on, the company says:
"...we took the images into Photoshop and then After Effects to create a fresh 3D look".

As Don says, it can be done in Vegas but it will take some work.
From looking at the images on the site though, it looks to me like all it would take is a dirtbike image and proper use of the Pan/Crop tool.
Never having done this before though, I could be greatly mistaken :-)

Whoops. I should have read the small print at the bottom more carefully. Thanks for the replies. I thought it would be easy to use the pan/crop tool of a dirtbike image over a background (2 separate images, in total), but these pictures looked like everything was 'native'. Since I have neither PS or AE, I'll avoid what seems like a tedious process in Vegas.

Best,
Steve

[Mike Kujbida]

Originally Posted by Steven Reid

Since I have neither PS or AE, I'll avoid what seems like a tedious process in Vegas.

You don't want to have some "fun" for a few hours/days/weeks playing?
If you're looking for an open source (i.e. free) equivalent to PS, give GIMP a try.

[Steven Reid]

Originally Posted by Mike Kujbida

You don't want to have some "fun" for a few hours/days/weeks playing?
If you're looking for an open source (i.e. free) equivalent to PS, give GIMP a try.

Not that kind of 'fun.' ;) My learning curve is steep enough. Thanks for GIMP recommendation; I use PS Elements, but I'm not sure if that is powerful enough to accomplish this effect.

[Frank Genus]

Originally Posted by Steven Reid

Not that kind of 'fun.' ;)I use PS Elements, but I'm not sure if that is powerful enough to accomplish this effect.

Why not? All you really need PS for is to separate out several elements of the image so that they can be panned and zoomed independently of each other (PS Elements can handle that). You'll do the zooming and panning using Vegas's Pan/Crop tool.

The February 2008 issue of Videomaker Magazine had an excellent tutorial on doing this (they called it "2.5d Animation"). You can find it here: http://www.videomaker.com/article/13742/

That should give you a better idea of how it's done.

To see the "Polar Classic" video in action, go here: http://www.videomaker.com/video/contest-winners/2005/ and you'll find it near the very bottom of the page next to the title "1st Prize - Beijing Golf Video-2005 Polar Classic"

- Frank.

[Steven Reid]

Originally Posted by Frank Genus

Why not? All you really need PS for is to separate out several elements of the image so that they can be panned and zoomed independently of each other (PS Elements can handle that). You'll do the zooming and panning using Vegas's Pan/Crop tool.

The February 2008 issue of Videomaker Magazine had an excellent tutorial on doing this (they called it "2.5d Animation"). You can find it here: http://www.videomaker.com/article/13742/

That should give you a better idea of how it's done.

To see the "Polar Classic" video in action, go here: http://www.videomaker.com/video/contest-winners/2005/ and you'll find it near the very bottom of the page next to the title "1st Prize - Beijing Golf Video-2005 Polar Classic"

- Frank.

<smacks hand into forehead> I'm a subscriber, and I have that very issue sitting above my editing system. Thanks for the accurate citation. I'll give that another read!

Steve

[Jeff Harper]

While this may add nothing to the discussion, I'd like to throw in that I find the process to create that effect is extremley simple, just takes about an hour or less the way I do it.

I use Fireworks, (not photoshop) I simply trace/cut the image of the bike and save it as a .png with transparent background, put it on the timeline above the photo of the dirt track then as has been said use pan/crop to create movement and it's done. I once attempted to cut out a photo in photoshop and couldn't figure it out so I have stuck with Fireworks, which works fine. Learning the finer points of tracing and cutting out images takes the longest time but once you've done a few times it's not so bad. I find it extremely tedious but it really is simple to do.