Video: Chroma Keying with Sony Vegas
My husband has been working on a massive video project for almost two years now. Lots of trial and error with getting the processes right, and guess who’s in charge of the tech stuff? Moi. It’s taking so long partly because I just don’t have a lot of time. So, poor Pat (yes, he’s Pat, too) has to wait.
These last 12 days I’ve been on vacation. I haven’t done too much regarding my own work, but I have read a couple of books and did some posting, though not my regular routine, for that I’m sorry. I also did a few lessons for Spider Language. But I have had a chance to work on the video project.
I’m feeling pretty genius right now. LOL Perry Lawrence (AskMrVideo.com) would laugh because he IS a freakin’ genius when it comes to video (and a really nice guy), but well… it’s something I dabble in. I’m far from expert. BUT, I discovered something really key today, and I wanted to pass it along.
Chroma Key work has to do with using a green or blue backdrop when filming. The cost of doing this is minimal. There’s paint you can buy for it even, but we bought a frame with clips and a huge muslin screen. We want to add images to the video background while Pat’s speaking. So… He filmed a series of videos in front of the green screen this month, and it put the fear of God into me. I had no clue how to do something so intricate (Stop laughing Perry) to me.
I bought Sony Vegas a while back and I’ve been working with it regularly. It’s pretty powerful as video editing software goes, and I’ve learned a great deal about using it. But because it’s a tad complicated for non-video types like me, I bought a book to teach me more about it.
But my downfall is that I’m just the type that goes in and does things, you know? It’s how I’ve learned everything having to do with computers. I’m completely 100% self-taught on all of this stuff from blogging to video. I don’t read lots of directions, but when I do… I expect them to be easy to understand.
Not so with the Sony Vegas help. It’s rather obscure and confounds me most of the time… hence, the book. So, I looked up chroma key there, and it told me which FX (special effect) to use. No problem.
I got everything working, except I couldn’t get the image behind my husband. It kept showing up over his face. Argh…
Here’s where YouTube comes in. If you need to know how to do something, YouTube can often come to the rescue with videos from smart folks who know how to do just about everything.
So, I watched the first video and it showed me how to look at just the mask, to make the background (the green color) black and the foreground white (the subject, which in my case is Pat). Great… still didn’t help with getting the image in the background, rather than across his face.
So, I watched another video and picked up another tip and another video and saw something else, but, there’s ONE thing that nobody, not Sony, not the book, and not the three videos I watched don’t tell you.
[tip]You have to make another video track and add your image there![/tip]
Seems logical, but does it? When you’re dealing with a still image, well… it just didn’t occur to me to do that. It’s not a video, right? But then, I saw how one of the videos added an image below the video and the only way I know to do that is to add another video track! So, I thought, What the heck?
Sheesh.
Took me three hours to figure out that ONE little piece.
As videos go, this was the best one about using the chroma keyer in Vegas:
If you’re trying to do this stuff in Vegas… it makes it rather simple. But don’t forget! Add a new video track to apply your background, and then, you’ll be golden.
