Edward Troxel

Edward Troxel · Site Admin Joined: 14 Jul 2004 Posts: 5103

Doing A Color Pass
Beginner's Corner - Changing Opacity
Add Markers At A Set Interval Via A Script

Download Vol. 1, Issue 11

dmakogon · Joined: 28 Dec 2004 Posts: 2

HI there,

First, let me compliment you on your site - excellent tutorials!

Now... I'm a self-taught VV4 user, and I'm just getting into some of the more elaborate features. I've been trying, and trying, and trying! to get the color mask working as described in Vol. 1 #11 (I see you have a new writeup on this in Dec. 2004 but it's VV5, as is the zip'd veg file, so I cannot look at that),.

No matter what I do, I cannot get the color pass effect to work. I have a great little video clip from my daughter's b-day party with vivid purple balloons. I placed the clip on 3 tracks (no other clips or tracks anywhere). I added the track fx Color Corrector (secondary). I used the eyedropper to select the effect range. I turned on the Show Mask checkbox. I end up with a beautiful black / white mask (I should mention - I muted the other two tracks in order to do this). When finished, I left the Show Mask checkbox on.

I then unmute the 2nd track, turn on the parent/child relationship between track 1 and 2. At this point, the mask significantly darkens - I now only see about 20% of the white area I had previously seen. (Ok, another admission: I totally don't get Compositing modes. But... I left track one at Multiply [Default]. Track 2 is on Source Alpha).

Now I unmute track 3 (also Source Alpha compositing mode). I add the black and white track fx. And... my final result: a 100% black and white video, with white blotches scattered about the purple balloon area. No color gets through.

I've been trying, for several hours, to get this to work but I'm having zero luck. If you (or anyone else) has any pointers and/or advice regarding my wrong turn, I'd would be SUPER-APPRECIATIVE!!!

Thanks,
David

Edward Troxel · Site Admin Joined: 14 Jul 2004 Posts: 5103

I believe your problem is the compositing mode. Leave ALL of them at Source Alpha. However, you might want to try this procedure instead:

1. Add the clip to a single track
2. Add the secondary color corrector to the clip
3. Click on the “Select Effect Range” eyedropper and pick the color to keep.
4. Click on “Invert Mask”
5. Click on “Mask” and use the “Limit” tools to adjust the mask to the correct area.
6. UNCheck “Mask”
7. In the top section, change “Saturation” to 0.

dmakogon · Joined: 28 Dec 2004 Posts: 2

Hi again,

I appreciate the (very quick) reply! So... I'm not exactly sure about the Invert Mask button. I'm guessing it's in the mask fx that's added when I create the parent/child relationship. If so, great - I clicked that.

Now, interestingly enough, after applying the black n white fx to my 3rd track, I now have my video clip in color, except for the purple balloons which are now totally black n white (a MAJOR step in the right direction!). I figured it would now be easy to swap this, so that the purple balloons were in color and the REST of the video were in black n white. No such luck - unchecking Invert Mask didn't do it.

Any thoughts?

Thanks again!
David

Edward Troxel · Site Admin Joined: 14 Jul 2004 Posts: 5103

Can you send me your VEG file?

langor · Joined: 31 May 2005 Posts: 1

I'm interested in the resolution to this...

Michael

Edward Troxel · Site Admin Joined: 14 Jul 2004 Posts: 5103

Langor, if you're having some problems, send me a VEG file and explain what you're trying to do. I'll look at it and send it back. You might also want to tell me the version of Vegas you're using (so I don't send you back a VEG file that doesn't open).

KeesDuif · Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 9:27 pm Post subject:

Edward,

I've been trying this effect too (from the 1-11 newsletter) and first I couldn't get it to work. I then noticed that when I select Invert mask in the Secondary Color Corector effect and deselect Show Mask the effect works fine. But .... it keeps working when I delete tracks 2 and 3. So only a Color Corector effect on one presence of the clip I want the effect to work for does the job for me. Is that because I use vegas 6 ?
_________________
Greetings
Kees

http://www.cvd-video.nl

Edward Troxel · Site Admin Joined: 14 Jul 2004 Posts: 5103

Look at Vol 2 #10. The first paragraph is the new method for Vegas 5 and 6. That's basically what you just described. That entire area was changed between Vegas 4 and Vegas 5.