What software will do this? Multiple split screens.

[brassplyer]

What software will do multiple split screens and make a scene of a cluster of seemingly infinite moving frames - sort of like numerous planets being drawn toward a black hole - as was done throughout and at the end of this We Are The World YouTube Version?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hhX0KkQBW4

[guns1inger]

Most likely after effects or combustion or something similar. Splits screens can be done in most NLE from mid-range upwards (think Sony Movie Studio/Premiere Elements and up). There is no magic button for this effect. It will be a combination of plugins, planning and a few hours work

[poisondeathray]

basically any decent video editor can do this (e.g. vegas, premiere)

each video is a layer with changing variable transparency, scale, and position in time , probably done with keyframes. They are overlayed over each other (tranparency values allow you to see through one to the other)

The scale and transparency give the illusion of 3d and z-space, but it's not 2d layers in 3d space (it's actually done on the same plane), so you wouldn't need after effects for this (although it would be alot easier to do in AE).

[fitch.j]

It will be a combination of plugins, planning and a few hours work

Not really true, that could be done in minutes in After Effects as long as you know what you are doing. It's a very simple set of keyframes, copied to each layer and then position adjustments for each layer to offset them. The time taken to actually decide on which clips to use and then to render it out would be much greater than the time it would take to actually create the effect.

But yes, it could be done in pretty much any mid - pro NLE.

[hech54]

It will be a combination of plugins, planning and a few hours work

Not really true, that could be done in minutes in After Effects

Seeing as After Effects is $1000, and I'd venture to say that about 85% of the earth's population has never even heard of After Effects....I'd say VERY true....with the learning curve of $1000 software.

[Khaver]

You could also use a 3D animation program like Blender to animate a bunch of rectangles with video clips as textures.

[fitch.j]

It will be a combination of plugins, planning and a few hours work

Not really true, that could be done in minutes in After Effects

Seeing as After Effects is $1000, and I'd venture to say that about 85% of the earth's population has never even heard of After Effects....I'd say VERY true....with the learning curve of $1000 software.

Interesting how you missed off the important end to the sentance i wrote when you quoted me.... "as long as you know what you are doing"

Of course if you dont know after effects you need to factor in time, but the job itself is a very short task, and i was referring to the reply who said that the job took a few hours, where in fact that is nonsense. I would never dispute the fact that after effects time to learn, but on a forum of this calibre i dont treat everyone like they have as you put it 'never heard of after effects' and if indeed they havent heard of it, they can simply click on the link to find out about it and start the learning process.

If you factor in time to learn software for everything asked then every job starts to takes weeks rather than minutes and answers become nonsensical.

The fact is that on After Effects that simple job would not take a few hours, rather a few minutes.

[guns1inger]

Yes, you can throw together the basic structure in a few minutes. Actually producing something that looks good, has the right clips, and doesn't look like it was just a series of cut'n'paste exercises takes more time. I guess it depends how much you care about the results.

[hech54]

i dont treat everyone like they have as you put it 'never heard of after effects

Proud of you. Do you think the OP ever heard of $1000 After Effects before he posted here?
I rest my case.

[fitch.j]

I guess it depends how much you care about the results.

How much we care about the results isn't too much a factor when the results have been provided for us. The results that the OP is aiming for in my mind look exactly like a cut and paste excercise, hence the short timescale to produce it. If the question was something along the lines of 'i like this idea but how can i make it look more proffessional' then thats when we could offer opinions on that, and i wouldn't be suggesting something like that.

Do you think the OP ever heard of $1000 After Effects before he posted here?

I have no idea what he may or may not of heard of, but if he hadnt before he will have now. Lets not treat people like they're idiots; if he is truely interested in this, then when someone provides advice using something he doesnt know about he will research it himself wont he, if he still doesnt know he can ask for more advice. I'm not going to dumb down answers just in case somebody has to do a little more research.

[brassplyer]

Do you think the OP ever heard of $1000 After Effects before he posted here?
I rest my case.

Heard of it, haven't used it. No idea what it can do that other apps can't.

[edDV]

I doubt after effects has much advantage vs the cost. The process is similar for all the compositing apps. The labor to cue the clips is great.

True the mechanics of layered key framing can be better in one program over another.

The most important issue IMO is monitoring the past layers while adding the next.

First time this type of effect was done (also the infinite zoom) was with an Abekas A62 (composite) or A64 (component 4:2:2) with two digital VTR's back in 1983/84.

[DVDONE]

This can be done in After Effects in less then 1 hr.

[brassplyer]

True the mechanics of layered key framing can be better in one program over another.

Can you clarify what you mean by layered key framing? I get the notion of layering one video track over another but how does this term fit into this process?

[guns1inger]

You use keyframes to control the animation of each layer.

[brassplyer]

You use keyframes to control the animation of each layer.

Can you elaborate?

[guns1inger]

At a very basic level, a keyframe is a simply a point in time at which something important happens. In an animation program, it is a frame at which some sort of action starts, stops, or is forced to change. In the case of the animation you have linked to (above), each photo would have a keyframe at the start and at the end of it's movement, and those keyframes would tell AE (most likely) where the image is at the start and at the end of that movement. Keyframes can also tell the software to fade to images in or out, or to rotate them around an axis, or to control particles. Pretty much any parameter for any effect can be controlled with keyframes. Compositing tools all use keyframes, as do most high-end editing tools.

[turk690]

I second this can probably be done in AE in under an hour. If only AE were cheap, I would have had it ages ago. I rarely do this so I don't think it's worth getting AE. I did a montage like this in Premiere Pro. Each picture has its own track. Each track you apply all of what motion, scale and opacity Premiere can afford. The last time I did, just 20 pictures (& tracks) took a whole night & day, two crashes (one PC, one Premiere), tubs of espresso, and grating migraines for the entire day next day. Once or twice a year is forgiveable, though.

[fitch.j]

I second this can probably be done in AE in under an hour. If only AE were cheap, I would have had it ages ago. I rarely do this so I don't think it's worth getting AE. I did a montage like this in Premiere Pro. Each picture has its own track. Each track you apply all of what motion, scale and opacity Premiere can afford. The last time I did, just 20 pictures (& tracks) took a whole night & day, two crashes (one PC, one Premiere), tubs of espresso, and grating migraines for the entire day next day. Once or twice a year is forgiveable, though.

You couldnt have just hit Copy/Paste ? ? followed by simply altering a few values on each ? Even on premiere, i wouldnt expect it to take anywhere near that long, a couple of hours maybe.

[edDV]

It looked very basic. Simple linear zooms. A few X-Y moves. The transparency was a cheat to avoid z-depth overlay issues. It looked like several separate composites mixed at the end. Not 57 sequenced layers. All in all an amateurish hack job technically. Your average TV commercial has better composites.

The real work on that piece was blending the audio to keep the singers in key (musical key that is). I bet the rough takes were awful.