How to Use Chroma Key in Vegas Movie Studio

For some reason, this short tutorial took days to complete!  That would be the reason you don't see many like it on my channel.  Still, I enjoy doing these kinds of videos and plan to do more in the future.

The tutorial shows how to use the chroma keyer plugin found in Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10.0.  At least, the way I use it.  Ha!

I don't have a chroma green backdrop, so I decided to create a simple animation and give it a green background.  Sort of a green screen simulation.

 I created the animation using Anime Studio Pro, which is a whole different tutorial in itself.  Yep, I've already made a tutorial for that one.

Here's the link to a 3-part series I did explaining switch layers, and whatnot, in Anime Studio Pro 6:
Switch Layer Tutorial

Okay, moving on to chroma keying.

Here's what it looks like after chroma keying.

This image contains 4 layers.  The girl animation, a photo of a tree, some clouds and a photo of the moon.  In that order.  The chroma key plugin was applied to the girl animation background, and then to the sky in the tree photo.  I could have used video in the layers instead of photos if I wanted.  Which would be pretty cool, too!  There are so many options.  I did manage to animate the moon using track motion.

My face in the sky was cut out with the Cookie Cutter plugin.  I changed the border of it to blue and chroma keyed that, too.  I was told the result was creepy ... not nearly as creepy as the junk that would have shown up in the background.  Haha!  Oh, the possibilities!

  

One thing to note, when applying any type of effect to media in Vegas, one needs to understand which option to choose between Media FX and Video Event FX.  My understanding is that selecting Media FX applies the chosen effect to the clip in every instance in which it appears, including in the Project Media bin.  If Video Event FX is chosen, only in that instance is the desired effect applied.  So, using Media FX  helps to save time if the media will be used repeatedly throughout the entire work.

I tried to keep the tutorial as simple as possible.  But, of course, there are a few slightly more complex elements I threw in toward the end.  I briefly brush over how to animate the moon, but didn't go into detail.  I may need to make another tutorial!

Until next time~~

 


  

How to Clean Up Background Audio Using the Free Audacity Editor

I thought I'd do a quick tutorial about audio editing.  Particularly, since I do quite a few voice-overs lately and need the audio to sound clean and nice.

I've used a few audio editors.  Some were supposed to be good stuff!  But, Audacity, impresses me with all the features it has.  And, it's free!

Awesome!

When I first came across the noise removal feature in Audacity, I thought it was magical.  I have been able to filter out all sorts of miscellaneous, extraneous and downright distracting background noise from my voice-over recordings.  I know there is other software that does this, but... did I mention Audacity is free?

Here's the link, if you want to get Audacity for yourself and see what I'm talking about.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Oh!  And here's my wee little tutorial.  There's loads more I could tell you about the software, though I'll leave it at this for now.

By the way, choose the HD option and turn up the sound to better hear the noise removal tool's skills. Which probably means it's best viewed on YouTube and not here. Ah well.

Enjoy!

How to Make an Animated GIF (With Text That Isn't!)

Please choose the "full screen" viewing option to better see the vid.





This tutorial is in the can, as it were.  Gone to press, done, fini...  And so on.  It was a fun one!

Yes, the time on it is correct.  I was working in the wee hours of the morning to get it ready for posting.  It was a request by a viewer, so I wanted to get it done as soon as possible.

O' course, technology always tosses a wee wrench in the machine.  I'm learning to frequently save my work in prep for software crashes.  Of which, I only had a couple!

Now, before anyone says anything (not that I expect anyone to, but just in case), I do realize there are likely even better and more "pro" ways to get the GIF-making job done.  Me, I improvise and figure out what makes sense to me, that I can somehow relay to others.  I hope it makes sense to everyone else, too!

It's funny...  I never thought I'd be making animated GIFs again.  It seems though, Tumblr has made them popular again.  And maybe other sites, as well.  For me, it was MySpace, back in its heyday.

Making an animated GIF back then, the MySpace days, was pretty exciting.  A person who did this didn't have to rely on those sites where you have to copy code and paste it to get the image.  It's nice being able to create your own stuff.  And now, with today's software, it's so much simpler!

The first time I tried Photoshop Elements 7.0, I was discouraged.  I wasn't sure it even made animations.  But, it does.  And it's pretty awesome.

Now, on to the next project.

I've got some new software coming.  An update to Serif's WebPlus X4 I've been using.  I had skipped the X5 version, since there wasn't much that I needed in it, and I'd heard it was a bit buggy.

Now, WebPlus X6 is out!  I'm looking forward to the new features.  One being the ability to create a website for mobile phone viewing as well as the full-sized site.  This should be fun!

In the days to come, there'll no doubt be mention of the new software as I test out its stuff.

More later~~
Enjoy~~~  

Oranges at Play

So, I was sitting at the table looking at the oranges that no one will eat. I guess they are just too cute.

There was little left to do, but document a moment of their day.

I used the Canon Vixia to take some still shots of the little guys at play. Then, found some music, "Silly Fun", Kevin MacLeod, incompetech.com. Rounding it out with a few sound effects, www.flasherdot.org, www.soundjay.com and me using Linux Multimedia Studio (LMMS)to create the "force" sound effect. All edited with Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10.0. At last, I've figured out how to make a wobbling "force" beam using Vegas. For me, this is a major accomplishment. Maybe I'll do a tutorial on it.

It would seem, I've got too much time on my hands. Perhaps, though it's possible this little exercise in stop motion animation might come in handy one day. In the meantime, I'll just keep honing my skills. It doesn't hurt that it's loads of fun!

A Leisurely Drive and Laptop Things

It's not like I really need an excuse to use the new software I've come across. I say it's new, though only because it's new to me. The software just happened to come with the new laptop I was forced to get. The old one, how I loved it so, was full to the brim of miscellaneous software, pics, vids and goodness knows how much music was stashed away in those little compartments, folders, files. The thought of walls full of dusty old filing cabinets stuffed with yellowing pages, half of them in the folder, the other half spilling out, some on the floor, or simply filed in an unknown place (file 13), just crept into my head. That's what's inside that old laptop.

I wonder if most people get their money's worth out of their laptops. I know I have. And it will still be visited from time to time. The time, when I find time, to "clean house" as it were. At the moment, it has been relegated to portable DVD player for the kiddos and the machine they can use to visit the Starfall website.
"Sports Car" Laptop

I worry the new machine will meet a similar fate. I really should learn to edit and store only the good stuff on an external drive. I'm a hoarder, of sorts. Though the contents of my house may be sparse, one need only take a look at me ol' laptop to know the truth! It won't be long before the keys on this new sports car computing device will be polished smooth and shiny, the "f" and "j" home-key bumps worn flush.

And so, in a very roundabout way, I've come to this. The editing software that I made the vid with, Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10.

Now, I've heard of the Vegas Movie Studio stuff for years. I envied those who had it, simply because it could do that chromakey thing. You know, so you can make your background transparent then put some other background in, pretend you were in beautiful France or on the beach somewhere. Silly, I realize. There are more important things going on in the world, to be sure. Yet it had always fascinated me. Funnily enough, I found the software I was using at the time, Cyberlink PowerDirector had the same feature. I'd just not uncovered it yet. Or, maybe it didn't always have that feature? I've upgraded the software a few times, so who knows. Even so, I just knew Vegas was somehow better.

Here's what I know, PowerDirector is extremely easy to use. It has a nice package and can do a pretty fair job of editing and producing some decent stuff. Rendering is super fast. Did I say "super"? (O.o)

Vegas, on the other hand, well, let's just say when I first tried it out, I thought I'd never learn how to use it. Maybe I was expecting it to be similar to the other stuff. It's not. It has me intrigued, because it's a bit of a challenge. It's something new. Although, not very pretty or slick. It seems, there's loads of stuff that can be done with it. For starters, in the version I have, which is not "pro" unfortunately, you can put up to 10 video tracks! What? Seriously. Methinks that's pretty cool, because how else are you gonna chromakey a bunch of stuff without all those layers? Not to mention, you can also put, I believe, 10 tracks of audio. What? I know! Pretty neat! And then, there's the control factor. You have much more control over each maneuver through adding, subtracting keyframes which adds motion or creates some other change. Okay, to be fair, PowerDirector has a little bit of that, too. But, only a little. It's how I managed to create the kaleidoscope effect in my previous posts, Kaleidoscope Experiment II and Kaleidoscope Experiment III. Which, one may notice, part III turned out a bit better, simply because I finally learned how to fine tune and manipulate the keyframes.

So, I guess after comparing the two pieces of software, PowerDirector and Vegas, I'd say if a person were looking for ease of use, go with PowerDirector, it's awesome! However, if one wanted more control and the ability to put in all those extra tracks, definitely go with Vegas. I have to admit, I've crashed them both several times whilst testing out their features. You sort of learn to save your work frequently, just in case. Still, I managed to put several layers of video and music into that vid up there, get it rendered and uploaded to YouTube. I think it crashed so much because the vid of the drive was a huge file, HD no less. And I squished it together on the timeline to speed it up. It wasn't happy about it. Not happy at all. I also threw in a little animation I made on Anime Studio Pro 6. I really want Vegas Pro. Just sayin'.

I'd better get this posted, so I can see what other trouble (software) I can get myself into.

Kaleidoscope Experiment II

Sometimes, it's just nice to hear some nice music and not see anything in particular whilst doing it. Not anything with a defined shape, that is. If music had shape, though, I imagine it would be a flowing morphing one. It would have color and on occasion, not.

I gathered some pics I'd taken last year, along with a few graphics I'd created, and dropped them on the PowerDirector8 timeline. There's a neat feature in the software for automatically creating pans, zooms and fades of still images. I clicked on that. Then, I applied the kaleidoscope effect. A few tweaks and it was time to finish editing on the Sony Vegas Movie Studio software.

The music, "Willow and the Light" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). It took me a long time to find a piece that felt right. This one seemed to suit. I think it reminded me of an epic video game I'd played a while ago. Loads of adventure that one had.

In the final edit, I cycled the vid twice, but applied a "light-ray" effect on the second cut. I could have done more with that, I thought it was pretty. Maybe next time.

Here you go~~