How to make scrolling film strip?

[Sean Seah]

I'm trying to do this scrolling film strip with the videos moving from the lower screen to the upper. I made a back generated media on a white background and used pan keyframes for the individual tracks to scroll them from down to up. However I cant syncronize even for the first 2 tracks. The were moving at different speeds!! I did it by copying the first clip to the second and added a delay in front of the second track. The distance to move are exactly the same. Where did I go wrong?

[Matt Ockenfels]

Hi Sean,

If you're using event pan/crop to make the move, try setting the smoothness for EACH key frame to 0 (it's in pan/crop->properties->keyframe interpolation.)

Cheers,
-Matt

[Sean Seah]

ok, I'll try it later.Thanks!

[Graham Bernard]

Sean? I use Track Motion. I've got a veg I created which demonstrates the idea. You are welcome to use it or not, up to you.

It is a strip, containing 4 video placements, going left to right and back again, but you could also change it to what you want. Think TM!

Swap out my gen media with your own video.

I'm emailing you now.

Grazie

[Sean Seah]

Thanks Grazie,now thaz something really helpful! Frankly I'm not able to really comprehen the differences bet track motion with pan & crop. The mixup is the worst when PIP comes in.I always made borders round the pict but the border turns out on the entire frame instead of just the little picture.

[Edward Troxel]

Sean, to create PIP's, you're better off using Track Motion (unless doing it via a script which requires that you use Pan/Crop). I think you'll find Track Motion much easier to work with.

As for the "speed changes", as was mentioned, change the SMOOTHNESS setting on ALL keyframes to zero. This will let your linear keyframes truly be linear.

If you DO use Pan/Crop, as you have, and want to add a border, it can still be done. As you saw, by default the border does the entire screen. However, open the border effect, look down at the bottom to the left of the timeline and to the left of the word "Border" where you sould see a small triangle. Click that triangle and the border should now apply to the resized image instead of the entire screen.

[Sean Seah]

Originally Posted by Edward Troxel

If you DO use Pan/Crop, as you have, and want to add a border, it can still be done. As you saw, by default the border does the entire screen. However, open the border effect, look down at the bottom to the left of the timeline and to the left of the word "Border" where you sould see a small triangle. Click that triangle and the border should now apply to the resized image instead of the entire screen.

Wow,thaz another new trick to me.I used to resize the entire frame or something to get round it.Thanks Edward!

[John Rofrano]

Sean,

I have a tutorial on my web site on Using Parent Motion to make a moving film strip complete with a project veg file. This should show you exactly how to do what you want.

~jr

[Sean Seah]

Originally Posted by John Rofrano

Sean,

I have a tutorial on my web site on Using Parent Motion to make a moving film strip complete with a project veg file. This should show you exactly how to do what you want.

~jr

Wow..another great help. Thanks I'll go look for it now!

[Ian Briscoe]

Sorry to ressurect an old post but....

I tried John's tutorial - very easy to follow - but it doesn't work for exactly what I want to do. I've got say 20 video clips I want to scroll right to left along bottom of screen (don't need film strip graphic). I've reduced each one to 200 pixels wide and the x position is offset by 210 pixels from next left clip so there's a slight gap between each clip. So I've actually gone way outside the viewing frame - there's only 3.5 pictures physically on screen.

When I use parent motion - it's only scrolling those 3.5 pictures - it's as if it can't see my bigger workspace with all of the other clips in it. Am I being a bit optimistic to expect this to work?

Thanx

Ian

[John Rofrano]

You missed one of the last lines in the tutorial:

I copied the composite track and all of its children and inserted them again but offset them so that their movement followed the first filmstrip giving the illusion of a much longer strip. (and when you're making movies, illusion equals reality)

This means you will always only get a small number of tracks in the viewport. If that number is 3.5, then just put 3 into one composite. Then make another composite with another three. Now you can offset that whole composite to start where the first one ends. Then make another, and another, adding them to the send of the previous. This is how I built the continuous scroll of pictures.

Hope this helps.

~jr

[Ian Briscoe]

John

Thanx - I had missed that. Still got a couple of probles though.

No matter how i line up the tracks the second group will not move in time with the first group - it overlaps or lags behind.

Also - you say to start the scond group where the first one finishes. If I'm scrolling from right to left - don't i need to start the second group as soon as the rightmost edge of the righmost clip of the first group has appeared in frame.

And finally - when I go into parent motion it has the width set at 395.59. Where does it derive this figure - given that each clip is 200 pixels wide it should be at least 600?

And very finally - I highlighted the first set of tracks and selected "Duplicate Track" which workd fine - 4 more track including one parent were added below. But if I delete the event on one of those tracks to use different footage i lose my track motion details for that track and have to reapply it.

I'm sure a lot of the above is pretty basic but any help, as always, much appreciated.

Thanks.

Ian

[Edward Troxel]

Originally Posted by Ian Briscoe

But if I delete the event on one of those tracks to use different footage i lose my track motion details for that track and have to reapply it.

Don't delete the event. Instead, right-click drag the new clip to that event and "add as takes".

You could also turn off "Lock Envelopes to Events" and they won't be deleted.

Attached is another means of doing it without the use of Track Motion. That assumes the clips are all the same/proper size, though, as Pan/Crop is used instead.

NOTE: This is a Vegas 8 project.

[Ian Briscoe]

Thanks for yet another way of doing it Edward.

'Takes' - I keep fogetting about them - only time I use them is in Excalibur where they are such a timesaver when I realise I didn't want to cut to that camera after all!!!

Ian

[John Rofrano]

Originally Posted by Ian Briscoe

No matter how i line up the tracks the second group will not move in time with the first group - it overlaps or lags behind.

Make sure your keyframe smoothness is set to zero (0) and the type is Linear. It also helps to align the first and last keyframes while in the Track Motion editor using the mini-timeline. I have them moving in lock sync by aligning where I want the second set to be as it enters the screen (aligning it with the first) and exists the screen. It the stays in line for me.

Originally Posted by Ian Briscoe

Also - you say to start the scond group where the first one finishes. If I'm scrolling from right to left - don't i need to start the second group as soon as the rightmost edge of the righmost clip of the first group has appeared in frame.

My bad. You are correct. I usually drop a marker where the next track should start and then align the events with the marker.

Originally Posted by Ian Briscoe

And finally - when I go into parent motion it has the width set at 395.59. Where does it derive this figure - given that each clip is 200 pixels wide it should be at least 600?

I have no idea (sorry)

Originally Posted by Ian Briscoe

And very finally - I highlighted the first set of tracks and selected "Duplicate Track" which workd fine - 4 more track including one parent were added below. But if I delete the event on one of those tracks to use different footage i lose my track motion details for that track and have to reapply it.

You can also right-click and choose Select in Project Media List. Then right-click on the media in the Media Pool and choose Replace... This will replace the media for that event. You can also use takes as Edward suggested.

~jr