I want to apply a mask to on of the overlays but when I do it and adjust it part of my overlay will go transparent.
What I want to do is make it look like my video is playing behind the curtains when they open but I have not figured out how to do it manually yet.
I can do it in the wizard and it comes out great but then I don't have any other editing I can do. But when done in the editor manually parts of the overlay become transparent. I have added a couple screenshot below that show how it turns out when done in the wizard and done manually.
Top photo is done in the wizard and the bottom photo was done manually, what am I missing?
Just wondering if you're using the Mask & Chroma Key function for overlay and has selected Chroma Key.
I would do it this way and it should work...
1. The baby's clip is on the main project timeline
2. Your curtain clip is inserted into the overlay track
3. Highlight your curtain clip and pick Mask & Chroma Key
4. Tick Apply Overlay Options; Type - Chroma Key
5. Click on the Colour Picker icon next to the colour Similarity box and pick the background colour of your curtain clip.
6. You should be able to see if the effect works properly immediately.
Let me know if it's exactly how you did it and if it works.
Good to remember that in masking using chroma key, it's very important that the intended transparent area of your mask has a very unique colour; like the blue and green screens that special effects guys and your weatherman relies on.
You've got to take your hats off to Wizards, because unlike us mere mortals, they run a whole scripted sequence of actions without us knowing it ... but I think I've unravel how the Wizard does it.
1. When I look at the curtain clip (filenames: classis-open, classic-close), it is clear that they are not suited to chroma-key masking, because the background is in shades of grey (and there is hardly any image without shades of grey, so the whole transparency effect just messed up). At best, the curtain in its present state is good for Titling only.
2. What I found is that the wizard must have firstly masked out your main clip (baby...) with an image file called "Classic-Mask", under the \Samples\Image directory.
3. Then it overlay the masked Baby clip with the curtain clips, and of course precisely align, such that where curtain edge ends, baby starts ... In other words, it didn't use the Chroma Key option.
I tried to locate where Ulead places the option mask set (filenames: M01 to M21) and include the Classic-Mask (called it M22) amongst them, but VS didn't add the new mask to the list.
4. I would put the Wizard's clip sequencing for your baby project as ...
Classic-Open -> Classic-Still with masked Baby overlay -> Classic-Close, etc.
WORK-AROUND!
Mere mortals may do the following if we need to manipulate a similar effect manually.
Either:
a. First produce a masked Baby clip for the parts of video that you wish to appear behind the curtains by merging the originalBaby with the Classic-Mask.
b. Then use this new clip (masked Baby) with the overlayed curtain clip (Classic-Mask) in your main project.
OR
let's beat VS at its own game to make it more convenient for ourselves to use the Curtains or any other effects with Chroma Keying in future.
Using the Wizard, produce a new clip with just a Blue or Green background as the main video. Therefore, we'll have a clip where the curtains draw apart to reveal just a consistent Chroma-Key friendly background.
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