Placing a background behind a video track

[chubtor]

I have searched the Help Files and this forum and can't see a solution to this question.

Let me explain what I am trying to do.

My new video has a wide screen format of 16:9 and contains a mixture of picture and video clips. The pictures are 16:9 but the old film video is 4:3 with the result that whenever we get to the video there are black bands alongside each clip.

In my old Serif MoviePlus programme I could add a background track to the video so the the black could be any colour.

I can't see a way to do this in Video Studio. All I have is an Overlay track and that comes on top of the video thus blocking it out. I can see no way of moving the layer to the back. I would appreciate any help.

[Davidk]

Several ways to do this.
1. move the video clip (call it clip 1) to the overlay track, and then select a colour (graphics icon, from the list, in the library tool bar), click and drag it to the main timeline above clip 1. re-size it so it's the same time as clip 1. Re-size clip 1 so its displayed on screen how you want it.Now when you position the time marker over this section, you should see your clip with colour around the sides.

This mechanism is handy for attaching text to the clip, rather than in it - move the re-sized clip image to one side, and insert text/moved to the opposite side.

2. select the 4:3 aspect clip (clip1), and then choose the options panel (hover mouse arrow over each one, get the function label) from the 3 options just above the RH end of the timeline area. When open, locate the re-sampling option item, click on the down arrow and choose no letterbox (usually the 2nd or middle option). What this does is re-size your clip image to widescreen 16:9: no background colour on the sides, but you do lose a bit at the top and bottom of the image.

3. configure for widescreen as standard in any project file. If you already have widescreen images, doesn't affect them, but if you import a 4:3 aspect clip it gets re-sized automatically to widescreen. In the main tool bar, select Settings, Preferences, Edit tab. Locate the image re-sampling item, and select the no letterbox item in the list.

[BrianCee]

.
.
OR

leave everything as it is and go to "Settings >> Preferences" and towards the bottom against 'Background Color' click on the little black square and then select any colour you wish

OR

you can put an appropriate image each side if you like - move all your present clips down into the overlay and put an image in the top track set to 'fit to screen' should get you an effect like the images below

[weaver]

There is one more option very popular today on TVs. ( pictures/videos from mobile phones etc)
Put your original 4:3 (or any format) clip on the first overlay track and in properties select to adjust to the 16:9 format. It will deform the clip. Now select in the FX Effect some distortion, average, color changing etc.this will make a fuzzy clip.
Now you can place the same clip on the 2nd overlay track in original format (4:3). the result will be that the sides will change simultaneuosly with the clip content, just the content will be modified.

[BrianCee]

Not a great lover of that technique weaver which is why I never suggested it - hate it when they do it on TV especially with videos shot on vertical mobile phones and there is so much each side - one day we will convince people taking videos on mobile phones to rotate them - maybe - I live in hope


but if you want to try it chubtor this video will show the general effect - - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJf4hpKctj0



...

[weaver]

That is a different question who likes it and who not. I will also not use this method for mobile phones videos - I would not accept such videos at all. Who would make videos with horizontal cameras ( portrait picture)?
On the other side we see it almost everyday what the TV stations trasmit to the folk.


Especially on videos like your example it is a heavy decision what to do, because the original video is very much separated vertically ( green the bottom, blue the upper part) and such picture looks awfully on the screen.

About a month ago I had to make a video with lot of archive shots ( many of them made on 8-16 mm filmcameras) it was a big headache how to implement such scenes into the recent HD material. Mostly it is a question of taste, the actual idea or inspiration. I have also some general purpose background videos, sometimes they help a lot.

[chubtor]

Thanks for your suggestions everybody let me tell you the results that I had with the different methods. I first tried the Settings, Preferences, Background colour as that seemed the simplest. That works fine for a new project but does not seem to work for an existing one. I still get black bands either side on all the video clips but if I add new frames say at the end for titles then the new background does appear. I next tried moving all my 80 odd clips en masse from the video track to the overlay track and that screwed everything up - clips now in the wrong order and lots of extra still clips added - so I abandoned that. I haven't yet tried adding individual backgrounds in long clips each side of the 4:3 videos, that seems like a lot of work although maybe with cut and paste it could be quicker than I think.

In Serif MoviePlus I was able to add extra tracks both above and below the Video track and that way I could put a background behind the video and an overlay above the video. It seems this VideoStudio does not allow that.


I know that I should start a new thread but can anyone tell me why my the Home Page on VideoStudio Ultimate 2018 is blank and totally white? This happens whether I open my current project or try to start a new one. I have to go to Edit to show anything at all on the screen.

[lata]

Hi

First your Home Page / Welcome page, yes some users report seeing this as white but only for the first start then it seems to display ok.
When you run Video Studio do you have an internet connection as the Welcome screen needs that.
We can select the Edie Screen to be the default display.
Go to Preferences F6 and set General Tab – Default Startup Page to Edit.

As for background clips, you should use the Overlay track for your 4:3 and the top track for 16:9 clips
As a test resave the project giving it another name.
Select your 4:3 clips on the top track, Shift + click the first and last to select all
Now simply drag those to the overlay track, they will be in order but may display as a smaller clip.
Resize the clip.
Select the first clip, right click the preview screen and choose “Fit to Height”
Right click the same clip on the overlay track for “Copy attributes”
Again shift + click the first and last to select all, now right click for Paste All Attributes
Your clips on the overlay track should display in proportion with borders left and right
Adding 16:9 clips to the top track will fill those borders.

[weaver]

Additionally we can select all clips on any track and move to the next. This means if the background is required he can move his clips from the videotrack to the 1st overlay ( probably some adjustment will be required) and fill the video track with any background. It is so easy..

[chubtor]

Once again thanks for all the replies, they have been most helpful.

First the white Home screen - quite correct the problem was associated with not being connected to the internet, it only happens if I open the programme when I am offline'

The background colour still dogs me but I think that I can now see why. The file that I am using to make y new video from has been through several transpositions. Originally the video was on individual 8mm tapes from an old cine camera. These tapes were then joined together and converted to a VHS video tape and finally someone has captured them onto DVD in one very large mp4 and put them on a DVD.

In this last transformation what was once a 4:3 format was converted to 16:9 so when I saw a 4:3 colour picture with a background I thought that the black bands was actually the black of the Video Studio but in reality it was all part of the original mp4, I was effectively laying a 16:9 black banded colour video on top of a black background so that was why I couldn't change the background colour with your various suggestions.

I am slowly getting to grips with this new programme but I do find it harder to use than my old Serif MoviePlus that is sadly no longer supported.

[Davidk]

You can configure VS (settings/preferences, 1st tab) to open on the edit page, rather than the welcome page. Since welcome is mostly a 'store' to sell stuff, most users set the preferences to open with Edit.

And having done that, you can happily open VS off-line without any issues with an internet link and the home pr welcome page (eg, no white screen). In this off line mode, VS opens the edit page and the home icon (the house) in the main title bar is simply missing.