How to do this in Vegas?

[Adam Stanislav]

How would you do this in Vegas? YouTube - ‪Dima Borodin - 'Gone' - 'stripped' Remix. Photos for the fans!‬‏ It seems so simple, but it is not, with all those pictures and the background moving around in perfect sync. It is very effective, I’d love to be able to do the same.

One of the Harry Potter movies used the same effect for its final credits, not with photographs but with the Marauder’s Map, and it was very impressive, too.

[Leslie Wand]

i think it's pretty straightforward (though requires a lot of planning / work) simply using 'children', 3d space, and track motion.

[Adam Stanislav]

Care to elaborate on that a bit more? Can you apply track motion on multiple tracks?

[Leslie Wand]

ah, now there you have me adam....

but i don't think it's that difficult using parent + child and both / or track motion / pan crop.

i think the main 'difficulty' lies in planning the overall concept and the moves + photo arrangements.

i have done (admittedly much less complicated) 'canvas' moves (original png 4k X 4k i think) with photos scattered over it - the whole was 'canvas' was created in ps and stills used were from the video so that when the 'camera' zoomed in to full screen i could pick the video up....

[Adam Stanislav]

Yes, doing the whole canvas was what I was thinking, too, until I noticed sometimes they added more pictures over other pictures and they still kept moving the whole thing in perfect sync.

I was hoping to do this all automatically, or semi-automatically, without having to do it for every photo by hand.

[Leslie Wand]

no gain without pain ;-)

[David Jimerson]

You make a separate track for each picture and put all the tracks in 3D Source Alpha composite mode (the green button the track). Then you parent them all to the top track; arrange each as you need them within the 3D space (in track motion).

Parent controls appear on the left side of the parent track. Set its composite mode to 3D Source Alpha, then use the track motion control to move all of the tracks at once.

If you're going to fly in other pics later, make sure you've created a track for it. It's OK if it's empty until you need it.

[Brian Drysdale]

Originally Posted by Adam Stanislav

It seems so simple, but it is not, with all those pictures and the background moving around in perfect sync. It is very effective, I’d love to be able to do the same.

Looking at the original it looks rather like it's been done on a motion control rig. This is would a matter of programming the moves and placing in the photographs into shot when the rig is static. You can the finesse timing of the photo popping in during post. the rig then moves onto the next set of photos.

Of course, you could have the original background/first photo layer move and then drop in the pop in photos during post with motion tracking.

The advantage of motion control is that everything is repeatable and you could do a number of takes on each photo pop without having to repeat the entire move.

[Adam Stanislav]

Originally Posted by David Jimerson

Set its composite mode to 3D Source Alpha, then use the track motion control to move all of the tracks at once.

Thanks, David. I have just tried it and I am still missing something: What I do to the parent track has no effect on the children who just do their own thing.

I’m going to have to study the section of the manual on motion control, as that is something I have never used before.

[David Jimerson]

The individual track control on the parent track won't affect the child tracks. The controls on the far left of the parent track are what does it; they only appear after you've parented the track. These controls are to the left of the track number and track name, not to the right.

[Adam Stanislav]

Originally Posted by David Jimerson

The controls on the far left of the parent track are what does it; they only appear after you've parented the track.

All right! I just tried it (never noticed that control before because it is so tiny on my 1080p screen) and it worked like a charm.

Thanks everyone who helped!