no drop shadow option

[Renton Maclachlan]

Why in track motion, do I have no drop shadow option? All I have is position, not shadow or glow...

I'm doing a picture in picture effect with the picture rotated 51 degrees and I want a shadow to be thrown behind it. I've got a shadow from text with a similar orientation and want it behind an image/picture.

[Renton Maclachlan]

Issue solved...

[Mike Kujbida]

Renton, for the benefit of someone who may have the same problem in the future, what was your solution?

[Renton Maclachlan]

Originally Posted by Mike Kujbida

Renton, for the benefit of someone who may have the same problem in the future, what was your solution?

Apparently as soon as you click '3D source' from the drop down menu at the top left of the 'track motion' window, the drop shadow/glow options of the 2D window disappear. I'm not aware if they can be got back or not - presume not...

For the shadow I put a black event of the same length under the picture, first of all using exactly the same numbers used for the picture in the track motion window, then moved it to where I wanted it as a shadow. I also used a composite envelope to reduce opacity of the 'shadow' by about 50% or so...

I also wanted to round the corners of the picture and shadow...so...I went on the web and found a short tutorial -

?Sony Vegas Tutorial Effect #2 {Curved Edges} - YouTube

- which gave me the basic idea of how to do this...through 'Video Event fx >Soft contrast'. I did this to both the picture and the shadow events...fiddling with the parameters till I had what I wanted. Screen shot below...It's fairly subtle but there...

[Ian Stark]

For completeness, if you want a simple drop shadow when using 3d alpha, just create a track above your 3d alpha track (with nothing in it), make it a parent of the 3d alpha track and apply your shadow to the parent.

[Renton Maclachlan]

Originally Posted by Ian Stark

For completeness, if you want a simple drop shadow when using 3d alpha, just create a track above your 3d alpha track (with nothing in it), make it a parent of the 3d alpha track and apply your shadow to the parent.

Thanks Ian. I just haven't got a grip on this parent/child track thingi...don't understand it...but it seems like I should.

[Ian Stark]

It's well worth reading up on Parenting - lots you can do with it! As a simple example, I often find myself overlaying bullet points in a production. Creating an empty parent track then adding the individual bullet points as child tracks allows me to apply track motion changes (using the Parent Motion button) to the whole group at once, rather than individually. And then there's the whole compositing thing . . . unbelievably useful!

What would be really great would be if a Parent Track could act as a kind of adjustment layer, like in Photoshop/AE, to allow you to add effects en masse to a group of child tracks.

[Graham Bernard]

Originally Posted by Ian Stark

What would be really great would be if a Parent Track could act as a kind of adjustment layer, like in Photoshop/AE, to allow you to add effects en masse to a group of child tracks.

Erm.... ? Maybe I misunderstood your "wishes", I've added FXs Black and White & Lens Flare to a Parent Track, and they are affecting the underlying 3xChild Tracks.

Grazie

[Ian Stark]

So you can! My "wishes" have been granted.

I've realised where I was going wrong - you need to add the effects AFTER the Composite point in the chain, whereas by default they are placed BEFORE. Excellent news.

[Ian Stark]

Sadly, though, I don't think that changes to the opacity level of a parent track will affect its children (and therefore the 'strength' of the effects chain that is applied to the child tracks). Unless Grazie has any more tricks up his sleeve?

[David Johns]

Originally Posted by Ian Stark

What would be really great would be if a Parent Track could act as a kind of adjustment layer, like in Photoshop/AE, to allow you to add effects en masse to a group of child tracks.

Oooohhhhh yes, that's a marvellous idea. The info about compositing point duly noted but ditto Ian's comment about opacity.

And, I also wish you could expand and collapse individual events into their own compositing "multi-tracks", that would help keep my timelines neater (I know you can group tracks and then collapse them but I don't always want to use an entire chunk of tracks for the occasional bit of compositing).

Cheers
Dave

[Graham Budd]

Originally Posted by Ian Stark

For completeness, if you want a simple drop shadow when using 3d alpha, just create a track above your 3d alpha track (with nothing in it), make it a parent of the 3d alpha track and apply your shadow to the parent.

Hi Ian .... I have been trying to replicate your suggested solution .... but with no luck?
If I read your suggestion correctly .... I create a track immediately above the track to which I have applied 3D Source Alpha (using track motion) .... use track motion (source alpha) to apply a 2D shadow and finally make the 3D Source Alpha track (below) a compositing child? ie the track above is the parent?
Do I have this correct ... Graham

[Ian Stark]

Almost, but not quite ;-)

When you have created the parent track, THEN make the track below it a child, not at the end of the process.

As soon as you click the 'Make Compositing Child' arrow to do this, you will see two new icons appear in the parent track title strip, just below the minimize/maximise icons on the left.

The bottom icon is Parent Compositing Mode and the top one is Parent Motion. It's Parent Motion that you need to click in order to apply the shadow to child tracks. You were clicking the regular Track Motion icon on the parent track which would affect that track only.

Hope that helps.

[Graham Budd]

That was quick .... many thanks Ian .... after further fiddling I had just spotted it .... icon doesnt appear 'till after the compositing child button set ... great ... could have used this shadow many times in the past ....
Graham

[Ian Stark]

Pleasure, Graham. I must confess I don't quite get why the shadow function stops working as soon as you go into 3d alpha though!