Thought Bubbles in Pinnacle 12 at DVinfo.net

Brad Antin · December 3rd, 2008, 09:41 PM

Please help!

I want to create some thought bubbles in my video, but I can't figure out how to do it.

Any suggestions (please be detailed as I'm a complete novice at all things video)?

Thanks

Tripp Woelfel · December 4th, 2008, 06:52 AM

There are many ways to do it. Perhaps one of the better ways would be in After Effects. Using a null object and motion tracking you can have the balloon move with the subject. The "cheap and cheerful" way to do it is just bring a still graphic with an alpha channel into your NLE and composite it on your video layer.

If you have After Effects, you might want to check out After Effects Basic Training. You can learn a lot by spending some quality time with these excellent tutorials.

If you're willing to spend a little money, the training at lynda.com will let you ramp up quickly. If you're serious about learning, this will be money well spent.

Brad Antin · December 4th, 2008, 09:54 AM

Thanks for the suggestion.

I already figured out that I could take a frame from the video, bring it into Photoshop, add my thought bubble, save as a still, and add it to the video.

That works, but everytime I want to show a thought bubble, the entire frame is frozen (naturally, because it's actually a still frame).

That would probably work, but certainly not as well as if I could somehow create the thought bubble and put it on the overlay/title track so only the thought bubble is static and it plays on top of the main video.

So, now the question is, if I create a .bmp file with a transparent background for my thought bubble, will the background still be transparent when I bring it into Studio? Or will it revert to a white background?

Tripp Woelfel · December 4th, 2008, 08:17 PM

I can't help you with the mechanics since I'm not familiar with Pinnacle. That said, if the overlay track is truly an overlay track, you should be able to drop the bubble in there and let the video continue to play at the same time.

You might want to check your documentation to see how best do this. It might also give you some guidelines as to what image format would work best for the bubble. I don't actually know why, but I tend to favor TIFF images over BMPs.

December 3rd, 2008, 09:41 PM	#1
Brad Antin New Boot Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Beaverton, Oregon Posts: 6	Thought Bubbles in Pinnacle 12 Please help! I want to create some thought bubbles in my video, but I can't figure out how to do it. Any suggestions (please be detailed as I'm a complete novice at all things video)? Thanks

December 4th, 2008, 06:52 AM	#2
Tripp Woelfel Trustee Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: North Conway, NH Posts: 1,745	There are many ways to do it. Perhaps one of the better ways would be in After Effects. Using a null object and motion tracking you can have the balloon move with the subject. The "cheap and cheerful" way to do it is just bring a still graphic with an alpha channel into your NLE and composite it on your video layer. If you have After Effects, you might want to check out After Effects Basic Training. You can learn a lot by spending some quality time with these excellent tutorials. If you're willing to spend a little money, the training at lynda.com will let you ramp up quickly. If you're serious about learning, this will be money well spent.

December 4th, 2008, 09:54 AM	#3
Brad Antin New Boot Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Beaverton, Oregon Posts: 6	Thanks for the suggestion. I already figured out that I could take a frame from the video, bring it into Photoshop, add my thought bubble, save as a still, and add it to the video. That works, but everytime I want to show a thought bubble, the entire frame is frozen (naturally, because it's actually a still frame). That would probably work, but certainly not as well as if I could somehow create the thought bubble and put it on the overlay/title track so only the thought bubble is static and it plays on top of the main video. So, now the question is, if I create a .bmp file with a transparent background for my thought bubble, will the background still be transparent when I bring it into Studio? Or will it revert to a white background?

December 4th, 2008, 08:17 PM	#4
Tripp Woelfel Trustee Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: North Conway, NH Posts: 1,745	I can't help you with the mechanics since I'm not familiar with Pinnacle. That said, if the overlay track is truly an overlay track, you should be able to drop the bubble in there and let the video continue to play at the same time. You might want to check your documentation to see how best do this. It might also give you some guidelines as to what image format would work best for the bubble. I don't actually know why, but I tend to favor TIFF images over BMPs.