I am having a problem inserting a photo into the video timeline

[Jeff Wisener]

See attached screen shot. I have been trying to easily insert a logo into Vegas, Eventually I was able to get it using event pan crop but it is really cumbersome. To work around it I created a 1920 x1080 size green screen background in Photoshop then inserted the logo on the green screen in the location and size I wanted. Oddly, when I drag the 1920 x1080 size green screen background with logo into the video time line (the video is also 1920 x 1080) and it does not cover the entire video screen but instead makes it small and in the bottom right hand corner like where I wanted the logo to be. PS the green screen photo is saved as a png so if I can get the photo to quickly cover the entire video screen it should be easy to eliminate the green back ground & insert the logo quickly and accurately which is essential since I make daily videos.

The irony is now any photo or logo I drag into the video timeline is scaled down and in the bottom right corner. My fear is it being stuck as my new default setting thus never being able to insert a full size photo like I often need to do.

How can I insert this 1920 x 1080 green screen photo onto the timeline so it covers the entire 1920 x 1080 video? Why is it all of a sudden defaulting placing photo inserts as seen in the attached screen shot. Note I attempted to insert a photo onto another video I created months ago where I never insert a logo and it still did the same thing.

Thank you for your help in advance.....

Frustrated, Jeff

[Rainer Listing]

Jeff, you seem to be making this overcomplicated. Why not just save your logo as a .png with transparent background in photoshop or whatever, put it on the top track in Vegas and resize and position with pan crop.

[Graham Bernard]

Originally Posted by Rainer Listing

Jeff, you seem to be making this overcomplicated. Why not just save your logo as a .png with transparent background in photoshop or whatever…

Possibly our chum here doesn’t know that PNGs with a Transparent Background is the preferred/straightforward way of doing this? The clue is the “ingenious” route of attempting to employ that Green Screen, has yet to be Keyed-out. And Rainer, of course you’re correct 😉.

What I also like doing is setting up the PNG on an already “correct” Background, also for HD of 1920x1080. This ensures that when I bring it into VP it is correctly Sized and Positioned not requiring too much Pan/Crop manipulation. I was doing exactly this yesterday.

There is another Step once you’ve imported your New PNG into VP, and that is to go to its Properties and activated the the Transparent Background. This is only two clicks away.

So, to summarise:

1 - In your Graphics Package create/size/position your Logo on a 1920x1080 Background.

2 - Save as PNG with Transparent Background.

3 - Import into VP and place it on an Upper Track.

4 - Activate the PNGs Transparent Background and then you could fine tune its Position through Pan/Crop

If you need any further assistance we’re here to offer it.

Cheers - G

[Paul R Johnson]

The interesting thing as a Premiere user is not the .png image point, which I agree with, but how the image, clearly shown as 1920x1080 only takes up a tiny part of the picture - if I'd had to use Vegas (as I've had to a couple of times) inserting a correct size image of any kind, with scaling and other size adjustments on it's normal setting would/should not have done this. If there is a solution to this - tick box, or something else, these kind of solutions are always worth remembering. I had something similar in Premiere once where despite saying it was a certain image size, the image wasn't - and got misidentified till it was re-saved and then worked fine.

The interesting thing is why it's misbehaving.

[Graham Bernard]

Originally Posted by Paul R Johnson

The interesting thing is why it's misbehaving.

Well, if iPhone has METADATA flags for “orientation” VP is not aware of it. Do you know if Premiere pre-renders a Proxy file, just for this? The value in VP is that beyond the plain vanilla Settings and thence imported Media, it’s been left to the OperatorCutter to get it “right”. I like it this way as needing to know what is going on can often be an advantage. So, IMHO, VP not misbehaving, rather it’s part of its twenty year older DNA., pure ZEN, 😉.

[Paul R Johnson]

Premiere always displays the file at it's real size - so you get a warning asking what you want to do, but in a 1920 project, I've never had a 1920 image shrink, and this is the weird thing, isn't it.

[Edward Troxel]

Pan/Crop is not the correct tool to shrink an image to show in the corner.

Try using Track Motion instead. Or even the "Picture in Picture" effect. Both will be much easier to use.

Pan/Crop is designed to "crop" an image and "pan" across it. Track Motion is designed to resize/position the image.

[Rainer Listing]

Edward, you are of course correct. My apologies. As Buddha pointed out there are many paths to the top of the mountain. I (and a few others) started out on the correct path, but then took a less suitable one. Care also to speculate why Jeff's photos are scaled down? - my guess, he's using a template with track motion engaged on that track, reset or delete the track and he'll be good.

[Roberto Diaz]

OP is placing the green screen on an existing track (2nd from the top), so my guess is that track has track motion set to scale and place the image.

i'd suggest placing the logo image (or green screen image) on it's own track and confirm that the misbehavior goes away. then use track motion to scale and place it properly.


also, regarding creation of the logo overlay... some have recommended creating the PNG with the logo scaled and placed properly on a transparent background. i like that you just have to insert the image and not have to use track motion to do the scaling and placement. however, that also means that if you want to change the location or position, you have to fire up that image editor program and replace the PNG. (now someone suggested you can use track motion to tweak its size & position, but then you've just undone the benefit of scaling and placement in your image editor!)

personally, i prefer using each tool for what it's best for... image editor for creating the PNG, vegas for compositing including scaling and placement. yes, it's an additional step in vegas but it give you full control and any subsequent tweaking is straightforward.

[Edward Troxel]

I would certainly guess that track 2 has Track Motion applied as the original logo on the timeline before that was probably "shrunk" to fit in that corner. Either some keyframes would need to be added to reset the Track Motion for full size or the greenscreen image would need to be on a different track.

I also have many full screen PNG files that we just add to a track. They are full frame size so no resizing needs to be done and everything is transparent except for the part that needs to show. Attached is an example of one. Then I put a text media generator on the track above it to add a title in the red shaded area. Everything is totally transparent except the image on the left and the red bar - and the red bar even becomes more transparent the farther to the right it goes.

[Roberto Diaz]

yes, if it's an overlay you use repeatedly, then doing it the way you describe is ideal as it simplifies your workflow.

[Christopher Young]

Originally Posted by Edward Troxel

Pan/Crop is not the correct tool to shrink an image to show in the corner.

Try using Track Motion instead. Or even the "Picture in Picture" effect. Both will be much easier to use.

Pan/Crop is designed to "crop" an image and "pan" across it. Track Motion is designed to resize/position the image.

100% agree with Edward here. Apart from his comments, I would add that I very rarely use PNGs. I much prefer to use Photoshop PSDs with transparent backgrounds. Being vector-based they maintain their quality when resized in Photoshop. Vegas handles PSDs nicely. Also if any changes are made to the PSD and it is saved with its original name it automatically updates in Vegas the next time you open Vegas

Creation tip. Also if you want to create an animated logo using its component parts save the logo from Photoshop as PSDs of each layer and then layer the PSDs in Vegas on a number of tracks. Animate each track and fly or fade in the layers of your logo together using anything like glows, rays whatever plugins you desire. Also if you like add Trackmotion drop shadows to the layers or rearmost layer to give the logo a bit of a 3D look. After compositing a logo or animation I usually render it out as a 32-bit AVI (with Alpha). Now I can just import the logo or lower third as a full AVI animation with a keyable background. I often build animated lower thirds specifically tailored with company logos built into the start of them using PSDs. Fairly quick and simple to create and clients love it.

Chris Young

Chris Young

[Adam Stanislav]

Originally Posted by Christopher Young

Also if any changes are made to the PSD and it is saved with its original name it automatically updates in Vegas the next time you open Vegas

That is true of the PNGs as well. Indeed, of any assets in any supported format, not just the PSD.

[Christopher Young]

True!

Chris Young

[Jeff Wisener]

Guys, I am the OP. It is 2am, exhausted and please forgive me for being too tired tonight to read all and respond. I will get back to you guys in a few days.