Cloning technique

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drevil915

New member
hello,

I've been a user of Vegas for over a year, and recently bought version 6. I searched these forums for an answer to my question, but couldn't come up with anything, so, here it is:

How can I put the same actor in different parts of the frame, AND have them overlap one another. (Camera is locked down steady)

I already know how to do it using Vegas's cookie cutter, but it only works if they don't walk past each other. I'm pretty sure to show them walking past each other I have to mask one of them out, but I need some help if anyone's got any.

Thanks,

-Jason
 
This would be a job for the bezier mask. You'll have to keyframe it pretty carefully, but you should be able to do it.
 
The normal way to do this is to film the actor in front of a green screen, then use the chromakey tool to make the background transparent. Then a copy of the actor can be place in front of himself.

Jerry
 
Keying method would be a lot easier than animated/keyframed bezier mask, then if your actor moves infront and then behind the other actor, you also have to splice the shot on the timeline and move remaining part of the video above/below the other layer on the timeline. Otherwise, you may have to entertain more masking.
 
It may or may not be easier, all things considered. Effective chromakey is tricky; you have to get all of the lighting and the spatial perspectives exactly right.

If you shoot both in the same room with a locked-down shot, you know for sure that your actor will be lit the same both times and that he'll hit the right spots within the space of the room. A separate greenscreen shot will make it harder to match.

You could split the difference and try to shoot your first pass in the room, and then set up a greenscreen in that room, but that's going to have another set of problems; it will be difficult to set up the greenscreen in such a way that it can be lit properly (while still maintaining consistent lighting on the actor), and also be far enough in the background to avoid spill on your actor or shadows on the greenscreen. Plus, you'll have to key the floor if your actor's feet are in the shot, and that will require a LOT of greenscreen material and increase the problems.

So, less work in post than rotoscoping with a bezier maks, but a whole lot more work in production with the chance of unsatisfactory results.

Up to you.

You might also want to look into the difference mask:

http://www.sundancemediagroup.com/articles/dayvids/difference_masking_in_sony_vegas.htm

Not sure if it's appropriate for what you're shooting, but worth a look.
 
Good point David, difference keying could be a lot better option on a locked down camera shoot with stationary background environment. Depending on how much overlap work you have, the bezier mask option also may be the go.
 
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