Create "Track Motion" Animation in Vegas with a transparent background to lay over

G

gundar

Well-known member
Create "Track Motion" Animation in Vegas with a transparent background to lay over

Hey all,

I have a small animation that is 1/10 of the screen size and pops up on top of my videos. I have created the multiple layer animation complete with sound in a painstaking track motion process.

I want to save this entire "mini movie" or animation (complete with sound and all layers) to a transparent background movie clip or preset that i can lay over other videos whenever I want to add this animation.

I've tried and tried but can't figure it out...

Anyone know how?
 
Why not just save the mini-movie as a normal full-screen project, then overlay it onto subsequent projects either using Track Motion or Pan/Crop? Or is part of the animation transparent?
 
Nesting the VEG file should work.

If you really want to render it out first, an uncompressed AVI file will work, but the filesize will be very large. You can also use quicktime set to use the animation codec at 32bpp and that will also give you an alpha channel, it will also be a bit smaller than uncompressed.

Once you have that file and bring it into the timeline, go to the clip's properties and set the alpha channel to premultiplied.
 
You can drag saved .veg files into the timeline. It will work as if it were a rendered video file.
 
Put a Pure Green (0 255 0) card in a track under everything else. Render for the larger project. Use the Chroma Key and set it for Pure Green.

Or, if you have green in that animation, pick a color you don't have.
 
David, are you saying that will result in a file with a built-in Alpha channel transparency?
 
I am interested as well. I can't get a "Veg" file just VF unless they appear to be the same thing and dropping the project into a timeline doesn't work, it just opens up a new vegas or closes the one I'm working on.

What do you guys suggest for saving popup animations to add in?
 
Just to clarify, alpha channel transparency is a non-issue if you simply want a picture-in-picture effect. That can be done with just the Pan/Crop function - if the Pan/Cropped image is shrunk smaller than the project frame size, then the surrounding frame will automatically be transparent. Track Motion can do the same ting, but additionally give simple 3D effects if the picture-in-picture needs to be on an angle, e.g. simulating a TV screen on an angle

Alpha channel transparency is a different kettle of fish - this is needed if e.g. you have a round animated logo and want everything outside that round shape to be transparent. Certainly you can fake it by e.g. adding a green surround then making that surround transparent via Chroma Key. But what I think David is saying is that his technique would resullt in a video file with built-in alpha channel transparency, requiring no Chroma Keying when added to another project...
 
VF extensions mean you are using Vegas Movie Studio. Nesting projects is a feature only found in Vegas Pro.

David's method will result in a graphic with a 255 green background that you can then chroma-key out when dropped into the timeline. This can be as good as a true alpha channel if you render it out to an uncompressed or lossless codec. If you render to a lossy, low color sampling codec, then it won't be as clean and you could run into issues with semi-transparent areas and parts with fine lines/details.

By default the Vegas timeline has a transparent background, so as long as you don't drop a 100% opaque solid underneath your transparent graphics, and you render it out using as uncompressed or with a codec that supports a built-in alpha channel (Quicktime Animation) then you will end up with a solid video file that has a built-in alpha channel.

However, since you're using Vegas MS and not Pro, I am not sure how it handles files that have an alpha channel (or if it will let you export to an alpha channel capable codec), in which case it would be better to use David's method.
 
clang said:
David, are you saying that will result in a file with a built-in Alpha channel transparency?
Click to expand...

No, but you'll be able to key it out very easily, and cleanly. It will create a much more manageable file than rendering uncompressed with an alpha channel.
 
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