Lost Video Island

[tjmack1986]

I've noticed a few videos lately that have clips go from color to black and white without changing clips. I was wondering how this effect is achieved.

[thefilmchick]

New to Vegas myself, but couldn't you just split the clip and then apply the level of desaturation (under black-and-white) that you want onto the second clip?

If you mean a progressive desaturation (ie a 'bleeding-out' of colors), then I haven't the faintest.

[Jamielost]

I think I know what you mean. Basically, you add the black and white effect and set it to 0 (so the clip is still coloured), and then on the timeline at the bottom of the pop-up window, add a keyframe at the end of it that is set to 100. This way it changes smoothly as the clip progresses.

Hope this helps

[Aislynn]

Yep, it's the magic of keyframes. Just set the effect at 0 at the beginning or end and at 100 at the opposite end and color will come in or go out as directed.

Kate, that's exactly how I used to do that effect in WMM, I'd duplicate the clip, put the black and white effect on the second one, then try to crossfade them together and try to get it seamless so it seemed like one clip going from color to black and white. Vegas' keyframes make it a whole lot easier, thankfully!

[thefilmchick]

You make me wonder if I shouldn't entirely redo the video you're betaing in Vegas (since I know what the clips are). Considering how much I love the song... well, I'd like it to look as clean as possible, anyway.

[Aislynn]

Honestly, if it were me, I'd at least go ahead and do a Vegas version, just to see what all you can do with it and how it will look when rendered through Vegas (just remember not to render in .AVI or it will be ginormous, my suggestion is to still go with .WMV). Then if you find that you prefer the WMM version, you can still go with it.

[thefilmchick]

Worth a shot, anyway. I just have to wait until next week's episode to see what's up about everything. It's kind of weird working on it right now (and plus I have RL obligations this weekend.)

[tjmack1986]

Thanks. I knew it had something to do with keyframes but i could not figure it out. +

[thefilmchick]

Speaking of keyframes:

Is there a way to maintain the keyframes but change the video fx (in other words, not entirely losing or having to redo the keyframes with all the 'reset to none's if you like a different effect)? I have some complicated cymbal crashes--I know I can uncheck the effect and have the keyframes stay as reference, but I don't want to have to manually redo the keyframes if I don't have to.

[thefilmchick]

Bump. Anyone know an answer to the previous question? I keep on running into that frustration, anyway. Thanks!

[eloramoon]

I have no idea on this one. I've been operating under the assumption that keyframes are specific to each event/effect and that they have to be re-done each time. I think a lot of effects have a drop down menu where you can change to other effects within that grouping (for example, if you've applied a circular cookie cutter but want to change it to square) but as for switching to a whole different grouping and keeping the keyframes, I'm clueless.

[Aislynn]

Are the keyframes you're trying to preserve dealing with the levels on the effect or are they the motion/crop/placement in the pan/crop?

You really can't preserve the levels etc. of one effect into another because each effect would have different controls that govern it (like trying to copy the controls for the glow effect into the one for brightness/contrast wouldn't do much good because they have different parameters). If you're talking about preserving something else, I need a little more precise of an example, sorry, so I can make sure I'm grasping what you're asking.

In general, though, you can copy/paste keyframes from one clip to another, like say if I wanted a specific color on a couple of different clips. I could copy one or all of the keyframes (click the left-most keyframe, hold shift, click the right-most keyframe and that will select them all), then apply the color effect to the second clip, right-click the keyframe that is automatically generated and click paste. That will apply all of the keyframes from the last effect.

You also can right-click the clip itself, click copy, then right-click the second clip and select "paste attributes." That will apply all of the effects and such from the first clip onto the second. The only time that will mess you up is if one clip had, say, a pull in with the pan/crop to cut somebody out of the frame. That same motion with the pan/crop will then be applied to all of the clips. But if you need everything including the kitchen sink to be applied to a series of clips, copy/paste attributes can be a quick way to do it!

Also, don't know if you've stumbled across this yet but you can also apply effects to the track itself. Since you have the full version of Vegas and unlimited tracks, you could put all of the clips that were going to have a specific effect on them, such as black and white, onto one track then apply 100% black and white to that track and voila! There's a quick way to get an effect across multiple clips at one time.