Split Screen or Side by Side Videos

[jim6918]

I have been using various versions of VideoStudio for years to successfully edit videos for courtroom presentations, but this is the first time I have been asked to create a video using two videos playing simultaneously or a side by side image. The first video is a surveillance camera video of a traffic accident, and the second video is a video of a reconstruction of the accident recorded later on the same surveillance system. Even though we can play the videos separately in court, the prosecutor is asking whether or not there is a way to combine both videos into one final product, thereby showing the actual accident side by side with the recreation.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions, even (heresy) another software product.

[BrianCee]

Yes it certainly can be done in VideoStudio but there is a major problem with the scenario you describe - once you put two videos side by side they then become portrait format - whereas all your source is going to be widescreen - so in order to show both bits you will need to lose quite a lot of width from each video.

You can create all sorts of split screen effects - like this one I made here :- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqDJkGQm6Z4


but as you see each clip is essentially vertical I am wonder if for your purposes it would just be better to put both videos in overlay tracks and show them like my image below - each image is smaller - but each image is also complete like this

but if you really want split scene to fill the screen it would need to look like this - but as you can see a lot of information is missing :

Or you could just squash the videos in - but it doesn't look right - or professional does it

[jim6918]

Brian

Thanks for your very prompt reply. I have been playing with everything today, and you are so right about changing the viewing aspect of the two videos together. I finally gave up on that front, but discovered an even bigger problem There was absolutely no way to sync the original video with the recreation. There were too many timing differences in the recreation to effectively play them together, even though it is possible. It turns out to be more effective to play the original followed up immediately by the recreation. Thanks for you help!