Picture in picture question

[prl]

Hey everbody,

I need to do a demo video of an application for a college work. I'll be capturing the video with two sony digital photo cams (quality is not an issue, and these are enough for what I need).

What I need to do is to videotape a user while he's using my application from two angles and then do something like this:



or maybe



Also, I'll need to do this with many small videos, and then join all of them in a big video with transitions between all of them (the transition will have a text explaining what's coming next).

Can anyone suggest me a program that will do this for me and/or a guide to do it please?

Thanks in advance,

Paulo

[daamon]

Can anyone suggest me a program that will do this for me...

The type of software you'll need to achieve either of the descriptions you gave is called Non-Linear Editing software. Look in the "Video Editors (Advanced)" category of the "Tools" section - there's a link to the tools on the left, under "Lists".

For what you want to do, you'll either get away with freeware or something inexpensive. Although I've never used these, their descriptions suggest they'll do what you need to do and they're free:

Avid Free DV : Online tutorials and also has a title feature - useful for the text in between clips.
AviTricks

...and/or a guide to do it please?

Before I describe the basics of how to achieve this, it'll be useful for you to look up and understand some terms:

* Video timeline
* Layers
* Cropping and resizing
* In and Out points

To achieve the first description - the "picture in picture" look:

* Place the "Main Video" on the lowest video timeline - this will be your first layer.
* Place the "Secondary Video" on the next video timeline up - this will be your second layer. Obviously, you'll need to set the In and Out points and position this second layer on the timeline so it plays when you want it to.
* Either crop or resize the "Secondary Video" as required.

To achieve the second description - the pictures side by side:

* Place the "Main Video" on the lowest video timeline - this will be your first layer.
* Either crop or resize (as required) this first layer so that the video is half the width of the screen.
* Adjust the position of the image so it's where you want it.

Repeat the above for the "Secondary Video" having placed it as the second layer.


Even with freeware, NLE video editing is straight forward only once you've learnt the tool and basic concepts. A good place to get to grips with the basics is: www.wrigleyvideo.com/videotutorial - look through the Premiere 6.0, 6.5 and Pro tutorials. For your project, I'd recommend:

4 Way PIP (under Premiere 6.0)
Basics of Keyframes (under Premiere 6.5)

...any others will just be because you're curious.

I know the tutorials relate to Adobe Premiere - but it's the principles, not the tool, that you're aiming to learn. These principles are common to most NLE tools.

Good luck with the project! Feel free to come back with more questions on anything you're stuck on. In the meantime, read, read and read some more... Then learn by experimenting.

[manono]

Easily done if you're the least bit handy with AviSynth. You can do the side-by-side using the StackHorizontal command, perhaps combined with cropping of the original videos. That picture-in-picture effect can be accomplished using the Layer command.

http://www.avisynth.org/Stack
http://www.avisynth.org/Layer

They can all be joined together easily enough using something like this:

A=AVISource("C\:Path\To\Video1.avi")
B=AVISource("C\:Path\To\Video2.avi")
.
.
.
A+B+C+D+E...

Audio will be handled with the AudioDub filter:

http://www.avisynth.org/AudioDub

The text transitions can be made either using BlankClip together with the Subtitle filter in AviSynth, or (better and easier) by adding them to a BlankClip using the TextSub Filter which comes in the VobSub package, after you've created subs in SRT, SSA, or other text based formats:

http://www.avisynth.org/BlankClip
http://www.avisynth.org/Subtitle

You can also insert dissolves and fades between the various clips:

http://www.avisynth.org/Dissolve
http://www.avisynth.org/Fade

[prl]

thank you all for your answers!

[mats.hogberg]

...and prl: Please use a more describing heading for your question next time - All questions here are about video (if you hadn't noticed... )

[prl]

...and prl: Please use a more describing heading for your question next time - All questions here are about video (if you hadn't noticed... )

Of course, I'm sorry about that. I put that post on another forum and then remembered to ask around here too, so I copied the post and didn't even think about the title.

[daamon]

...and didn't even think about the title.

It can be changed - click to edit your first post in this thread and you can change the title then.

[prl]

Changed it for searching purposes. Thanks all for the help. My video turned out great

[daamon]

Changed it for searching purposes.

Nicely worded...

Thanks all for the help. My video turned out great

No problem. Out of interest, and for others who may come across this thread if they're wanting to do the same thing, how did you end up doing it?

[manono]

Out of interest, and for others who may come across this thread if they're wanting to do the same thing, how did you end up doing it?

Your way, I'll bet.

[daamon]

Your way, I'll bet.

You never know - you may have spawned an AVISynth coding junky / future guru...

[prl]

Changed it for searching purposes.

Nicely worded...

Thanks all for the help. My video turned out great

No problem. Out of interest, and for others who may come across this thread if they're wanting to do the same thing, how did you end up doing it?

Well, I tried AviTricks, but the program kept placing my secondary video in the upper left corner, even after I placed it elsewhere.

A friend gave me a cd with Adobe Premiere and it did the work perfectly

[daamon]

Once your trial with Premiere expires, to save splashing out loads on the licence I'd suggest taking a look at Avid Free DV - I've not used it, but it sounds like a good place to start with NLEs, and it's free.

Note to self: I really must try it out one day...