How to Use Track Motion Sony Vegas

• #1

Hello to everyone on the forum

I have a minor niggle with Sony Vegas 10. In previous versions of the movie I am working on I have been able to alter the Track Motion settings on one particular track. It's a series of still images that are rotated and zoomed to make a logo but it was too large in the screen. I altered the 'Width' and 'Height' under Position in the Track Motion window to reduce the size of everything on that track.

Now it's not working. No matter what I alter - rotation angle, size, position, flip, whatever - Vegas only plays the sequence as it is constructed along the timeline. In other words, the effects on the individual frames work OK but the global track motion effects don't. They did do, now they don't. The line drawing layout in the Track Motion window adjusts to the changes but the preview window and the movie proper now don't reflect any of these changes.

I did try copying a good working track from a previous version of the movie into the current version but Vegas doesn't appear to allow this, so at present I am stuck with loading the old version and rendering just the logo section then importing it as a clip into the new version of the movie.

Has anybody any ideas? Many thanks in advance - John

jonna

Distinguished Member

• #2

You could use the pan and crop tool using keyfames.

• #3

Erm... I have split the TIFF image of the logo into individual frames, then adjusted each one for angle of rotation and size, to create a 'zooming whilst rotating' effect, but I just want to make the whole track smaller without resorting to making a new TIFF image and going through the whole lot again. There is nothing else on this track apart from the logo and Track Motion used to work on the older projects but now it doesn't on the newer ones. I've done nothing to alter anything on this track, just added to the rest of the project on different tracks.

Can I use keyframes to make this entire track appear smaller in the project?

jonna

Distinguished Member

• #4

You can adjust the image size or rotation at every new keyframe . Can you capture and post an image of your timeline?.

Q Can I use keyframes to make this entire track appear smaller in the project?

Yes, if you use pan and crop as long as it is a continuous video, if split, you will have to adjust each separate video footage.

Using track motion enables keyframes to be used on the whole track even on split video footage.

Last edited: Nov 16, 2011

• #5

In effect that was what I did (a legacy from Premier Elements 2 days) when I split the non moving TIFF file into individual frames and adjusted the size and rotation for each individual frame to create the effect. Long winded I know, but that was the only way I could do it in the past.

Maybe I'm thinking I could do something I probably can't...? The track is continous - if I understand your meaning to be there are no breaks between media.

In previous versions of the movie I simply clicked on Track Motion for that track, adjusted the width and height in there and this affected the entire track ie; made it smaller. There were no keyframes added. Now I don't appear to be able to do that although I can do that in older versions of the movie but not in the last few - I cannot change the entire group of individual frames to a smaller size using Track Motion as I used to be able to, and each frame has an individual size setting anyway to create a smooth and slowing down zoom effect. Am I making any sense?

I just don't understand why I could before but now can't when I appear to have changed nothing

jonna

Distinguished Member

• #6

Have a look at these You tube tutorial clips. Might help.

jonna

Distinguished Member

• #7

In effect that was what I did (a legacy from Premier Elements 2 days) when I split the non moving TIFF file into individual frames and adjusted the size and rotation for each individual frame to create the effect. Long winded I know, but that was the only way I could do it in the past.

Maybe I'm thinking I could do something I probably can't...? The track is continous - if I understand your meaning to be there are no breaks between media.

In previous versions of the movie I simply clicked on Track Motion for that track, adjusted the width and height in there and this affected the entire track ie; made it smaller. There were no keyframes added. Now I don't appear to be able to do that although I can do that in older versions of the movie but not in the last few - I cannot change the entire group of individual frames to a smaller size using Track Motion as I used to be able to, and each frame has an individual size setting anyway to create a smooth and slowing down zoom effect. Am I making any sense?

I just don't understand why I could before but now can't when I appear to have changed nothing

What i don't understand is, when you use track motion, every adjustment to the size or rotation of the video will automatically add a new keyframe.

On the track motion timeline, are you sliding the time ruler each time you adjust your image?.

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Last edited: Nov 15, 2011

• #8

Hello Jonna,

What I did was the following: I bought Vegas to replace Premier Elements 2, halfway through a project so I'm a new user with regard to Vegas.

I added a TIFF image to the timeline in the main editing window and stretched it to the length I needed, then split it into individual frames, rotated and zoomed each frame as I required (it starts as a black screen then the logo rotates and zooms in from black, stops and dissolves into a similar image with the year underneath.) I didn't work in the Track Motion window at all, I purely selected each frame and rotated and zoomed according to a list of angles and sizes I had written down from my days in Premier Elements. Because the logo sequence was made up from a series of individual frames I also had to manually set the opacity for each frame - I couldn't simply fade it in.

Then when I burned the movie to DVD I found the logo was too large so I simply clicked onto the Track Motion link and altered the 'width and height' attributes in the 'Position' section in the window that opened. This altered everything on the track (all the individual frames) to the size I entered. I didn't add any keyframes (indeed there weren't any appearing in the timeline at all, and still aren't) but it worked.

I didn't use the Track Motion timeline at all, I simply built up the sequence as above, then when I wanted a different size I assumed the 'Track Motion' adjustments would do exactly what it says on the tin - alter the entire track. It did, but no longer.

Sorry if I'm repeating what I've said before. I'll have a look at the video tutorials tomorrow to see if that will throw any light on the subject although I fear I may just end up re-adjusting everything I'd done before and leave it at that

• #9

A bit puzzled as to why you needed to create dozens of seperate frames.

Normally you would use a continous clip and use keyframes to adjust the object dynamically. To do this the image requires an alpha channel to make the background tranparent.

You then simply set the object properties that you need at any point in the timeline. For Example Size, Rotation, Transparency etc. The editor interpolates the properties between key frames to give a smooth motion.

If you need to combine a seperate graphic with a different motion path etc simply add it as an extra track.

• #10

Hi Graham,

It was a hangover from Premier Elements days (and before that from Scala MM300/MM400 on the Amiga) where I adjusted each individual frame. It was just how I was used to working and didn't realise that there was a different way. As I mentioned I was part-way through a project in PE when I decided to change over so I just carried on working in the same manner.

I have tried with some success to add keyframes to the TIFF image although my original animation that I adjusted individually slows down exponentially as opposed to it now rotating and zooming at a constant speed between the two settings I have entered in the keyframes. Getting the logo to blend in at the end was the easy bit because it had already stopped rotating and zooming so in effect it was a stationary object that just dissolved into the same object with the year added, on the same track.

As far as I can see there is no option using keyframes settings to slow down the rate of zoom or rotation without creating additional keyframes, each subsequent keyframe having a lesser angle and zoom setting, which is almost akin to splitting it into individual frames anyway? The sudden stop of the zoom and rotation is too abrupt, it looks far better slowing to a halt.

Any thoughts?

• #11

The speed depends entirely on how far apart you set the keyframes.

Example if set a keyframe at time zero and move the timeline indicator to 4 seconds and rotate the object 720 degrees and click to add a keyframe. When played back the object will spin two whole revolutions in 4 second. Drag the 4 second keyframe to 8 seconds and it's rotational speed is halved. More sophisticated editors let you edit the motion curve using bezier control handles. For instance you can cause an object to gradually acccelerate to a fixed speed and smoothly decellearate as it's approaches the second keyframe.

• #12

Yes, it's the latter I am wanting to do but there doesn't appear to be that option in Vegas 10, hence the splitting up into individual frames and setting the rotation and zoom manually.

However, all that has been done but I still can't see how before I was able to alter the overall size of the sequence using the Track Motion window and now I can't. Weird

• #13

Yes, it's the latter I am wanting to do but there doesn't appear to be that option in Vegas 10, hence the splitting up into individual frames and setting the rotation and zoom manually.

However, all that has been done but I still can't see how before I was able to alter the overall size of the sequence using the Track Motion window and now I can't. Weird

I have V11 so will have a play to see what happens. It's not my editor of choice though.

jonna

Distinguished Member

• #14

It works for me just dragging the resizing handles.

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• #15

Thanks Jonna - this worked for me too and I can successfully adjust the size of all the frames on the track.

I think I am able to do this because I had no keyframes added to that track and all the size and angle adjustments have been entered manually for each individual frame.

What I have done now is add a keyframe at the point where the image stops rotating and zooming in, and set this to the (smaller) size I wanted. I then added a further keyframe at the beginning of the sequence and set the dimension very much smaller and this accentuates the zooming in effect to get it exactly how I want it

Therefore I can now play around with the zoom size and 'speed' but still retain the slowing down effect of the zoom and rotation, as set by the manual entries of each individual frame. I have never minded adding the entries individually because the logo has never altered in the last 20 years or so, only the date, and every subsequent 'electronic' version is purely a copy of the original mechanical spinning logo which was slowed down and zoomed in on using the camera zoom. All I need to do now is change the TIFF image that shows the date, I won't need to alter any of the rest of the sequence until I change editors, which I am hoping will be a long time from now!

Thanks very much for your help - I knew there was a way to do it, I just couldn't remember what it was!

jonna

Distinguished Member

• #16

Glad your sorted.

How to Use Track Motion Sony Vegas

Source: https://www.avforums.com/threads/sony-vegas-10-track-motion-not-working.1545110/

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