can i apply a mask on a clip for only a few certain frames?

[Rod77]

I'm using Video Studio X9.


Is there anyway to mask out a clip just for a few select frames?

Secondly, are there any good tutorials for making masks? So far I've found very little info on this topic and the making of custom masks seems, well, far from exacting.

Any help would be appreciated, thank you.

[BrianCee]

yes just use the scissors tool to cut your video at the beginning - and again at the end of the section where you want to apply the mask

depends exactly what sort of mask you mean - some you can create in Videostudio but some you need external image manipulating software to create images with transparent areas


..

[Rod77]

OK I forgot about cutting the clip. Good idea.

I've got photoshop but everytime I try to make a mask to fit over and exact area of a clip, it's never right. Too big or in the wrong spot, the results are very unpredictable.

Are there any guidelines? What are the pixel dimensions and dpi of the photoshop file I should create, if my video is to be ripped at 1920x1080?

I've tried that but its never right. Perhaps my dpi in the photoshop file is wrong.

[BrianCee]

if your video is 1920 x 1080 then that should be the dimensions of the base of the mask

just start a new image of those dimensions with a transparent background and add what ever images etc to it to cover the bits of the video you want covered - then save as a transparent .png put it in the overlay track below the video

something along these lines

VS X2 overlay.jpg (41.81 KiB) Viewed 2738 times

[Rod77]

on second thought that may not work

that would in effect also mask everything beneath the track I'm trying to mask.

This is a complex build that has a white background and many different overlay tracks, with a clip on each one. All stacked up, some in front, some in the middle vehind the front ones, some more in back.

I'm trying to mask only a small portion of one particular clip and let another fly briefly in front of it. This gets complicated because this flying clip is also supposed to be behind another clip so I cant just clone the flying clip and put it ahead of the masked one...

I cant explain it nor can I show it because the client hasnt approved it.

This would be better if I could mask the clip itself, not using an overlay track, but I've had difficulty getting those the right size and in the right place

[BrianCee]

A mask will not cover anything in an overlay track below it - the lower overlay tacks always cover clips/images in the tracks above them in the order from top to bottom so you can always control what goes over (or under) what

...

[Rod77]

these clips arent full screen clips. They're hi rez pngs of smallish circles, rendered in illustrator, and imported as pngs, and then placed at various intervals and locations. the circles arent big, almost the entire screen area of each overly is transparent to allow all the other overlays to show at the same time.

I'll try it but I dont think its going to work. Your way does work, if the clips cover the entire screen.

I know theres a way to mask a clip directly, using chroma key, but I've had difficulty getting it to work properly. are there any good tutorials on this?