FCP > PP Switcher, having problems with split-screen. Help?

lovetrumpsfear

lovetrumpsfear

Active member
Hi all,

I'm a longtime FCP editor, now attempting to use Premiere Pro as my main NLE. Today I ran into something that I did all the time in FCP, but can't seem to work out in Premiere.

I shoot a lot of wedding/lifestyle, and in almost all of my videos I've used a split-screen montage to tell parallel stories, and move the day along. (Think: the "expectation/reality" sequence in 500 Days of Summer.) Say I was cutting the left side first -- in FCP I would just create a new white color matte, drop it into the timeline, crop it to whatever size (usually 49% left) and drop all my footage on top. I could then select all the footage, set the blend mode of the footage to Travel Matte - Luma, and the right 51% of the footage would drop out. Repeat for the right side with a right 49% crop, tweak the cuts, and I was done.

I'm pulling my hair out trying to replicate this in Premiere. If I create a white matte, I can't crop it. If I drag in a TIFF with a white block and an alpha channel for the other side, the alpha channel turns black in my timeline and the other side doesn't show through.

I know I can do it in AE, but this doesn't really seem like the sort of task I should have to leave the NLE for. Am I asking too much of Premiere, or just missing something obvious?

Thanks so much for your help!

Paul
 
Alright, I've corrected a mistake I made with the TIFFs, and made some progress.

I created mattes in Photoshop, with a white layer cropped in just over 50% from the right, and another from the left. The background is set to transparent. I export as flattened TIFFs with the alpha channel preserved, and drop one into V1, and the other into V3. I sequenced my left- and right-side clips, and dropped them into V2 and V4 respectively, over the TIFFs. I applied the "Set Matte" filter to each of the clips, and set the "Take Matte from Layer" in the filter settings to V1 for the clips in V2, and V3 for the clips in V4. Took about five minutes.

So the mattes work, and the space between the mattes drops out becoming a thin black bar. Unfortunately, once you apply the Set Matte filter you can't drag the clip around in the window your matte creates, which is necessary to adjust position and size for the individual clips.

Any ideas?

Paul
 
I dont understand the reason for the white mattes and your workflow seems very involved for what seems to be a simple split screen.

Can you post a frame grab of what you want...before I comment and maybe advise.
 
Hi Shooter,

Thanks for your reply. I have no doubt at all that I'm going completely around the mountain on this, and welcome any input you have. The screenshots below are from lifestyle videos we did, and illustrate my (very basic) needs. :)

Screen shot 2011-11-30 at 3.15.51 PM.jpgScreen shot 2011-11-30 at 3.19.58 PM.jpg

Most of the split-screen stuff I do is 50/50 side by side, and I just need to be able to drag the clips in, and adjust position and scale (like if the bride is on the left, but isn't framed correctly for the split sequence.

Thanks for taking a look!

Paul
 
lovetrumpsfear said:
Hi Shooter,

Thanks for your reply. I have no doubt at all that I'm going completely around the mountain on this, and welcome any input you have. The screenshots below are from lifestyle videos we did, and illustrate my (very basic) needs. :)

View attachment 44189View attachment 44190

Most of the split-screen stuff I do is 50/50 side by side, and I just need to be able to drag the clips in, and adjust position and scale (like if the bride is on the left, but isn't framed correctly for the split sequence.

Thanks for taking a look!

Paul
Click to expand...

Under the Video Effects:

VideoEffects->Keying->Four-point Garbage Matte

Drag this effect on to the clip in the sequence timeline.

Then use the "Effect Controls" tab, usually found in the 'central' viewer or Source Viewer area, with the standard window layout.

Effect Control->Video Effects->Four-point Garbage Matte

Open up the parameters and use the numeric values to adjust the boundaries of the matte as required. (e.g. for 1/2 HD window change 1920 to 960... for top right and bottom right points.)

Here's a screen shot of what it should look like after dropping in the 4 point matte and changing the effects controls.

attachment.php
 
I simply use "Crop" and "Motion" to do exactly what you are doing.
Nothing else.

Some Projects I have set up a guide so I knew where thirds were and once I even did a 9 frame split (3vert x 3horiz.) The guide was essential.

50 / 50 is easy with the centre marker.
 
Thanks for your replies. I'm familiar with the garbage mattes, my problem with that solution is that once I've established the bounds of the matte, I can't drag the clip around inside the half-frame I've created. I was hoping to be able to reposition the subject, without moving the matte around.

The crop filter looks like it might be my best option for now, thanks for pointing me there. I'm so used to having "crop" under the basic clip properties, I didn't think to look for it in the filters! :)

Thanks again!

Paul
 
lovetrumpsfear said:
Thanks for your replies. I'm familiar with the garbage mattes, my problem with that solution is that once I've established the bounds of the matte, I can't drag the clip around inside the half-frame I've created. I was hoping to be able to reposition the subject, without moving the matte around.

The crop filter looks like it might be my best option for now, thanks for pointing me there. I'm so used to having "crop" under the basic clip properties, I didn't think to look for it in the filters! :)

Thanks again!

Paul
Click to expand...

Well, technically I'd probably use After Effects for that sort of thing. Using a mask/layer, then sizing/positioning the live clip under the mask is more like what one would do in Photoshop, etc.

When I was using Final Cut Express, that's pretty much what I'd do. Use FCE for splicing and dicing the live content, then importing those clips into AE for 'fancier' processing.
 
j1clark@ucsd.edu said:
Well, technically I'd probably use After Effects for that sort of thing. Using a mask/layer, then sizing/positioning the live clip under the mask is more like what one would do in Photoshop, etc.
Click to expand...

Agreed, absolutely. I've been digging into After Effects as I have time, but we're in crunch mode on a couple of projects, and I didn't have time to fumble through the big scary tool chest in AE this week. :)

Thank you again for your replies.

Paul
 
You can also try a combine of the image matte key and offset filter. I get your dilemma from going to FCP compositing to Premiere Pro compositing. I've found that 3rd party plugin developer Boris FX has some good DVE and masking plugins that could help but would cost a pretty penny
 
mmka1985 said:
You can also try a combine of the image matte key and offset filter. I get your dilemma from going to FCP compositing to Premiere Pro compositing. I've found that 3rd party plugin developer Boris FX has some good DVE and masking plugins that could help but would cost a pretty penny
Click to expand...

Excellent, thanks! I got it kluged together earlier today, but I'll definitely file your method away for future use. Assuming I'm not an AE jedi by the next time I need it.

The offset filter was the key, allowing me to reposition the footage independent of the matte.

Cheers!

Paul
 
Glad I could help. I've dealt with split screen in Premiere in a few of my tutorials and coming from FCP compositing to PPro can be daunting but once you understand their way of doing it there is a lot of potential. Check out my channel if you ever get a chance. www.youtube.com/user/mmka1985. I have a combo of FCP and Premiere Pro tutorials and a few have dealt with misc. split screens
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top