Overlaying an opaque layer on video
 

I am a pretty inexperienced with video editing. I have done a few things in Vegas Pro 8 but I have a LOT to learn. I am shooting with a Canon HV30 with a wide angle lens.

I want to take footage from a basketball game and overlay an opaque layer over the court that shows the officials (referees) area of responsibility which will be used for training purposes. The camera is at mid court at the top of the stadium stairs and it just pans back and forth recording the action. I want to do the same thing as the NFL's line of scrimmage where it shows an opaque yellow line at the line of scrimmage during live play. I'm thinking that the wood or color on the court is going to make a big difference and that I could find a gym with maybe a high contrasting color used on the floor. Also the areas will flip if the the Lead official (the one under the basket) moves to the other side.

I would love to some how accomplish this and I need some direction as to what topics I need to learn and if this is even possible in Vegas or if I would need other software.

Here is an image of basically what I would like to accomplish: Basketball Court - Overlay

Ah, you want to show the Lead and the Trail official. Haha, did a lot of officiating in past years.

Actually, you can either ovelay an opaque line (diagnally, I assume), or a semi-transparent area. Just place a Graduated (Insert menu) event on an track above themain footage and pull down the Transparency handle from the top of the event.

I'll have a go at this since I have been wanting to try some fancier compositing tricks. i'll post back soon.

ok i've got two possible solution examples. Neither one even gets into the complexities of setting a track as anything other than source alpha. see attached. If you want to use my solutions and see the veg files, PM me.

For both solutions, apply a pan / crop mask to your video track. Then keyframe that mask for all the movements in the video track. Yes this will take forever. Sorry! Then once all the mask keyframe movements are set, copy the event properties (Ctrl-C) and use the paste special command to paste the event attributes on to a blue generated media just below it. Then add a cookie cutter FX to the blue media and choose the cutout shape. Now key frame the cutout's movements on the blue track. Now copy those attributes from the blue to a new green generated media and change the cutout from "cut away all but section" to "cut away section" Adjust the opacity of the event or tracks for the two generated media to taste.

The advantage of method #1 is that you get a very simple pan / crop mask, since most of the work is done by the chroma keyer. The downside to method #1 is that your "color overlays" are only as good as your ability to chroma-key. If player uniform colors match the floor, then your players may dissappear into the chroma key, makign it hard to spot players. Method #2 will take a bit more time, since you might need to adjust your key in order to avoid throwing the "color overlay" over the crowd. Both methods will be considerably assisted by a camera that is completely stationary. For a stationary camera, I would choose method #2.

..and the Center :)

Do you still officiate now? Did you officiate in CT or in another part of the country? I'm looking forward to trying some of these techniques!

This is GREAT Jason! I can't wait to get home and give this a shot. I don't mind doing a lot of nitty gritty work if it works!

LOL. All of my games had just two refs. I worked more baseball than basketball, but I was an IAABO official for a number of years. Attended the MLB umpiring school too - years ago.

One time when I was new, a coach disagreed with a call and demanded to know how I spell my last name (I guess he was going to report me.). When I told him, C-A-S-C-I-O. His reply was.... get ready...

Yep, just what I thought, only one I.

That is hilarious! I would have to go over and shake the coach's hand for such a witty comeback....of course after he was t'd up 