Video fine tuning question

[Shawn R. L.]

See if I can word this right. I\'m not looking to make a Hollywood movie but I would like to be able to add some special effects to my home movies. Specifically to be able to frame by frame add stuff I would draw on each frame.
Example - About 10 years back I saw a short clip a fellow I met had made where he shot some video of himself doing a throwing motion. He then was able to go back and add a lightning ball into his hand so that when he did the throwing motion he now was throwing a ball of lightning................I really wanna be able to do that.

I\'m looking at Adobe Premier Elements and Sony Vegas. Havent researched too much but so far havent found that ability as a feature.

Any suggestions? I\'d like to stay around the $120 mark.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Pretty sure that you can do it in Adobe Premiere. Or possibly capture frames in to Photoshop, edit them and then replace into Premiere.

I work with someone who uses Premiere I check the best way for you.

 

[Shawn R. L.]

Wow Mike - That would be great to hear from someone who has actually used it. It\'s hard to find such specific info from the box\'s or the web........Thanks!

 

[alextheartist]

Adobe takes up a HUGE amount of space on your pc. You can do the effect you want with sony vegas, you can download pretty much any effect you want off the web, then add it over the selected area.

Alex

 

[boristfrog]

Premier is for editing. It has some basic effects stuff like captions and fades, but mostly it is a really good editor - with lots of sound channels.

Adding the effects to frames in photoshop - don\'t do it unless you want to go mad. It\'s called rotoscoping (think Highlander!). I did a bunch of this in college and it\'s insane.

I don\'t know anything much about Sony Vegas - no one I know has used it.

I can only think of After Effects - by Adobe. It\'s expensive and complex. Probably over your budget, and I don\'t think they do a cut down version.

Best of luck

 

[sg2009]

premier i a really good program to use i use it sometimes when i make animations

but im sure there are some free software on the net that lets u do stuff like that ????

 

[Einion]

Shawn, pretty sure you can do that in Vegas. What you\'re looking to do is a form of rotoscoping (used for light sabres) in case that helps in looking for online tutes.

Einion

 

[Avelorn]

It should be pretty straightforward in both programs? Go back 10 years and we did the lightingbolt thing in Adobe Premiere I think. Since then I have never used the program as pretty much all our short films are edited in final cut /pro tools.

 

[Shawn R. L.]

Found it!! I downloaded a trial version of Sony Vegas 9 and while they DEFINATELY didn\'t spell it out in the manual, I was able to sleuth it out and find capturing frames, exporting them to PS and adding stuff frame by frame. I have done claymation and cell animation (made \'flip books\' with recipe cards!! VERY cool what you can do) and know what a time consuming hassle it can be but I love the effects and how much time will we put into painting a little fig smaller than our thumb?

Thanx MUCH all.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Well Finally got to discuss this with my colleague.
He\'s not done anything in Sony Vegas so he can\'t comment on it.
But he\'s suggesting exporting a \"Film Strip\" into Photoshop where you can then work in layers and then merge the two sets together.

His words \"It\'s a time consuming and laborious way to work, but if you are really keen on, it can be an excellent way of producing effects\".

 

[junior elf]

Will I be able to do the same thing using Imovie on Mac?

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by junior elf
Will I be able to do the same thing using Imovie on Mac?

No Idea. Don\'t use Mac\'s.

 

[Avelorn]

Originally posted by junior elf
Will I be able to do the same thing using Imovie on Mac?

I think you can export frames in every movie editing program. Even really cheap ones. The kind of effects discussed here are sometimes done with plug-ins but like Shawn you can do it frame by frame in photoshop and then import it to the movie again.

 

[Necroghast]

What about um...windows movie maker? Or is that to simple a program to be able to do that kind of stuff. I know it came free with my computer so...

 

[Shawn R. L.]

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
Well Finally got to discuss this with my colleague.
He\'s not done anything in Sony Vegas so he can\'t comment on it.
But he\'s suggesting exporting a \"Film Strip\" into Photoshop where you can then work in layers and then merge the two sets together.

His words \"It\'s a time consuming and laborious way to work, but if you are really keen on, it can be an excellent way of producing effects\".

That\'s great. I\'m messing around with the free trial version of Vegas and the online manuel and the manuel leaves out A LOT. Referring to things and not saying where they are, and seemingly skipping over large important things. I\'m getting it to a certain extent through trial and error and having used Photoshop there tends to be some cross over things that are similar.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by Shawn R. L.
I\'m messing around with the free trial version of Vegas and the online manuel and the manuel leaves out A LOT. Referring to things and not saying where they are, and seemingly skipping over large important things.

That\'s a lot of manuals for ya!

Originally posted by Shawn R. L.
I\'m getting it to a certain extent through trial and error and having used Photoshop there tends to be some cross over things that are similar.

Online step-by-steps and tutorials abound apparently - my brother learned lots of great techniques from those and then messing about helped integrate them into his workflow.

That sounded a lot more professional than it is in reality But anyway, lots and lots of guides out there.

Einion