Animate Stage Curtin and Spotlight

[desertmangolf]

I just tried Corey Barker's new video tortorial. Great! How can I use that technique to make a title introduction for a Premiere Elements video. I want to have the spotlights move in the video.

Thanks!

[ATR]

What version of Premiere Elements do you have?

ATR

[ATR]

Add on....

I have not seen the tutorial that you cite. But based on its description, I would say that in Premiere Elements you would need the curtain as the background and you would use a matte,"Track Matte Key" and keyframming to get the desired effect of a spotlight moving around a stage curtain (maybe add some text or not).

Take a look at the following old thread for some links and ideas:
http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31349

ATR

[desertmangolf]

ATR, thanks for all the great information. It will take me a few days to go through it in detail and I will get back to you.

In my quick first read you refer to more detailed instuctions for creating the "matte" in PSE or PE being supplied if required. I don't think I saw them farther into the thread? Did I miss them.

I have PSE7 & PE7 on a relatively new DEC XPS with 4G memory running VISTA home premium

[ATR]

After checking out the procedure further, you may not need any further details on those mattes. Nonetheless, probably sometime tomorrow I will post some comments on preparing them in Photoshop Elements as well as in Premiere Elements.

Read up on use of the Track Matte Key in Premiere Elements, and maybe do some test runs with that before starting the spotlight project. I have seen some complaints about getting Track Matte to work in various Premiere Elements versions, but I have always had great success with it in Premiere Elements 2, 4, and 7.

To be continued....

ATR

[desertmangolf]

ATR, I was able to follow the instructions provided in the old thread and apply them using PRE7. I have one remaining problem. I can't seem to get the spotlight bright enough with an appropiate brightness of the primary video. As your instructions indicated, as I reduce the opacity of video track 1 the spotlight begins to appear. If I go below about 75%, then the primary video darkens to an unacceptable level.

Any ideas?

Thanks for the help!

[ATR]

I have something for you to test out.

Go to Effects/Adjust/Brightness & Contrast and drag that into the clip on Video Track 2.

Then work with Opacity of Video Track 1 content and Brightness of Video Track 2 content.

Please let me know how that turns out. It may resolve the issue. If not, we can think about alternate plans.

ATR

[desertmangolf]

ATR, Okay that worked great! Now, how would I add a second spotlight that would move independently.

This is great!

Thanks again!!!!

[ATR]

It is late here, so I am not sure just how great this suggestion is going to be.

Ready?

Leave the Track Matte set at Video 3 as per the writeup that you are working from. Leave everything as it.

Then just add another matte (similar to the one of Video Track 3) to Video Track 4. You are going to see a solid white circle. Highlight Video Track 4 matte and lower the Opacity until that circle looks like a spotlight. Then keyframe the motion of that circle.

Another thought might be to export what you have to DV AVI (File Menu/Export/Movie) and then repeat the above with a Track Matte Key into the duplicate DV AVI on Video Track 2.

I need to try these in the morning and see great, good, terrible.

Let me know how that goes.

ATR

[desertmangolf]

ATR, thanks again. I tried them both with limited success. The first (adding Track 4) worked but I get a "milky" white spotlight which I can't seem to make a clear spotlight.

The second (DVI intermediate) also worked but the two spotlights are different sizes even though I used the same track matte.

If we can get the Track 4 version to work I would prefer it for two reasons. 1) Once I have the spotlights and key framing working correctly it will be easy to drop in new titles. and 2) I'd like my finished product to be High Def (720 and maybe 1080) and I'm concerned about loss of sharpness by going to the intermediate step.

[desertmangolf]

ATR, I have tried more variations of your last suggestions.

The DV AVI version definitely degrades the overall quality of the final video. The quality difference between the track 4 version and the DV AVI version is noticeable on my monitor. I eventually want to use my video on a 50 inch flat screen which will only magnify the loss of quality. I will go back and try this again with a different intermediate (i.e. mpeg 720p) and see if that improves overall quality. I'll let you know!

On the track 4 version I have tried multiple variations without success. I have noticed that when you add track 4 you can choose which matte you want to use (video 3 or video 4) in the track matte key effect. I tried adding a second track matte key effect to video 2 and setting the matte on one to track 3 and the other to track 4 but that combination appears to just cancel each other out and you get no spots. Any suggestions?

Thanks for the help!

[ATR]

Sorry, I got detoured.

I will try to get back to this later today or tomorrow.

ATR

[ATR]

Here is something for you to check out for two spotlights spotlighting that curtain independently.

1. You will need 5 video tracks.
2. On Video Track 5 place your Track Matte (black background with white circle), and on Video Track 4 place a copy of your Video/Audio.
3. Drag the Track Matte Key (Effects/Video Effects/Keying) into the Video of Video Track 4.
With Video Track 4 content highlighted, go to its Property Panel (on the right) and set the Track Matte Key Panel: Matte Video 5 and Composite Matte Alpha.
4. At this stage, you should see on the Monitor only a black background with a circle showing the corresponding portion of the video below in Video Track 4.
5. Next, highlight the Track Matte on Video Track 5 and keyframe the circle (spotlight) motion as desired.

All the track contents cited above were placed on the Timeline to start at the beginning of the Timeline, 0 time.

To avoid confusion setting up and keyframing the motion of the second circle (spotlight), we are going to proceed as follows:

IMPORTANT. When you place the following, do not place them directly beneath the content of Video Tracks 4 and 5. If Video Track 4 and 5 contents end at 3 minutes, then place each of the following to start at 5 minutes into the Timeline and then each ( Video Track 1, 2, 3 content) directly above one another.

1. On Video Track 1 and on Video Track 2, place a copy of your Video/Audio.
2. On Video Track 3, place another Track Matte (copy of your black background with white circle),
3. Drag the Track Matte Key (Effects/Video Effects/Keying) into the Video of Video Track 2. With Video Track 2 content highlighted, go to its Property Panel (on the right) and set the Track Matte Key Panel: Matte Video 3 and Composite Matte Alpha.
4. Then highlight the Track Matte on Video Track 3 and keyframe the circle (spotlight) motion as desired.

When finished, drag what you have just done to 0 time of the Timeline, so that Video Track 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 each start and stop at the same Timeline time. Make whatever lighting effects you need. I have omitted adding them to these details so as to just concentrate on the principle of creating the two spotlights.

I tried it, and it seems to work. Please let me know go or no go.

Good luck and I hope I have my circles going in the right directions.


ATR
(I do not think that you misunderstood, but I will note, when you keyframe the Track Matte circle motion, you are doing just that,

highlighting the Track Matte, then keyframing Motion in its Properties Panel (not any thing in the Track Matte panel of the Properties Panel.)

[desertmangolf]

ATR, thanks for the suggestions. I'm out of pocket right now and won't be back at my computer until early next week. I'll get back to you then.

Thanks again for all the help!

[desertmangolf]

ATR, your suggestions worked great. A couple of clarifications
1) What version of PRE are you using. I'm using PRE7 and some of the steps you suggested were somewhat different for me.
2) I did not do as you suggested in the second half of your last reply to do the motion of the second spotlight. I was able to do it right on track 5 using the motion/position and key framing just like on track 3.

In any event, it works great. Thanks for all your help!!!!!

[ATR]

I have Premiere Elements 2, 6, and 7, but I used Premiere Elements 7 for running through the suggestions.

I am glad it worked, and in the light of day I will try to figure out how and why we differed in getting this to work. Basically, did you use 5 tracks and did you keyframe the circle on video tracks 3 and 5? And, did you drag the Track Matte Key into video on tracks 2 and 4?

Are you just talking about keeping tracks 1, 2, 3 at zero time throughout rather than temporarily moving them over to place the second spotlight?

But, that was great news about your success.

ATR

[desertmangolf]

Yes, I used 5 tracks, keyframed the circle on tracks 3 and 5, and used the Track Matte Key on tracts 2 and 4. I also used the Brightness and Contrast effect on tracks 2 and 4 with B=50 and C=30 to get the circle to look like a spotlight on the curtain.

Also, I kept all tracks at zero time trhoughtout.

Thanks again!