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Hail everyone,
Being a newbie in deep video editing, I've downloaded Lightworks.
In fact I'm a musician and want to make video clips of my music with parallely merging
two video takes of the same song, each with two different personages of myself.
Further on, I want to replace the green screen behind me (the two personages merged)
with some pictures as background. I know there is the process of learning the manual
and the tutorial videos, but I need to finish one song within 3 weeks from now and
I don't want to spend long time for extended learning anew instead of being creative.
I was advised that Sony Vegas is more flexible and user friendly in terms of complexity
and interface. Only, it has its cost, while Lightworks is free. On the other hand I start
understanding that Lightworks is more oriented towards older techniques of film making
where I guess its complexity comes from.
Could anyone suggest which software would be more suitable for the described procedures?
Cool breeze to all !
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Sony Vegas Pro.
Problem is, your description of your project has no meaningful relation to video editing vernacular, but Vegas Pro is still better than Lightworks. -
"Parallely merging" - please describe in more detail, as that could mean many things visually. Is this a side-by-side split? An overlay? A PIP?
If both (I assume already shot) images of you are in front of greenscreen, that both limits & eases how you do things from here. Much depends on which steps you will take in the layering (which can't be answered until you describe the current shots & intended "merging").
I hate to break it to you, but there is a very strong probability of you not getting this done within 3 weeks if you are so new that you cannot even accurately relay in visual terms the nuances of your intentions or are even still deciding what (freeware?) apps might be possible to work with. Not impossible, but it's going to have to be ramped up a lot in order to work (yes, extended learning). What you are wanting might not be simple/newbie-friendly nor easy/quick.
We could give more info once those things have been clarified.
Good luck,
Scott -
Ok guys, first thanks for your feedback. You're right, I surely didn't make an accurate explanation of my project. Forgive my newbie-ness!
In fact, I'm not such a newbie, I work for years w/ music recording & editing, and I've also done some ("extended") video work w/ Windows Movie Maker (of course that's not any pride).
So to my project. I've done two equal in length (5min) video footages over a song playback. In each video I appear as a different personage playing a different instrument, respectively on the left and the right side in front of one green screen. I want to merge (or blend) (or composite?) "parallely"(?) these two videos into one, showing simultaneously the two personages constantly together. Next step, as both the two videos were made with a green screen, I want to replace the green screen in the resulting (merged) video with pictures as a constant background.
Hope I described it better this time.
So finally, I need to choose among a multitude of software, free or commercial, which I don't want to do just by "guessing".
Till now, after research and reading, I've narrowed down my scope to the following: PowerDirector, Sony Vegas, Lightworks, Fusion.
Here I also need an advise. My intention is not to become a professional video guru but just making nice clips for my music.
Thanks again for any further thoughts.Last edited by BadDisciple; 18th Nov 2014 at 17:21.
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Paid s/w: I would go with Vegas Pro. No need for latest version for a project as simple as this. I'm still using version 10 and it would have no trouble doing that.
Free s/w: LightWorks can handle that, but the free version is limited to 720p.mp4 export. AviUtl can easily handle it, but can you learn it quickly enough?Got my retirement plans all set. Looks like I only have to work another 5 years after I die........ -
If your A shots are like [.......Y.], and
if your B shots are like [.X.......] (both showing relative positions in front of the blank (green) background)
you could
do a split screen like [.X..|..Y.] (the "|" would need to end up seamless, with soft border transition smoothness) -> [.X....Y.]
and then layer that on top of [######],
the chromakey result should look like [#X##Y#]
But MUCH of the success of this lies in the proper preparation and execution of lighting and shooting the greenscreen evenly & professionally, and in the quality of the chromakey filter.
From that list, I'd clearly go with Vegas Pro. LWP is IMO less bang for your buck. Fusion is great but OVERKILL and might be a learning curve. PD may or may not have a capable enough toolset. LWfree is just crippleware (bait-n-switch anyone?).
Scott -
Like Scott said, the hardest part is pulling a good set of mattes against the greenscreen. A good technique is to pull two mattes, one with a sharp edge and one with a soft edge, then combine them.
The soft edge matte will be slightly smaller and you place that one on top. -
I suppose by "pull against the greenscreen" you mean using a technique or a tool inside the software of course... (Forgive my dummy question I'm not advanced in deep video editing as you can see from my previous posts).Originally Posted by budwzr
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As already stated, the hardest part is in the lighting and shooting of the greenscreen shots. If it's not clean, you'll get poor results.
Another good free tool to key-out the green screen is CineGobs Keyer.Got my retirement plans all set. Looks like I only have to work another 5 years after I die........ -
Yeah, the tool is called ChromaKey or Secondary Color Corrector.Originally Posted by BadDisciple
At first, the tool appears easy and straightforward. But you may find that when you try to get a sharp edge, the matte might contain holes, depending on the uniformity of the green.
The green removal, if pushed too far, can also remove green from the wanted image. That's why you might need to create two mattes.
Try it and see. And send in a still sample so we can see what you got.Last edited by budwzr; 19th Nov 2014 at 19:19.
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Ok gentlemen, you sound great to me! I'll follow all your suggestions. Give me some moment to learn a bit. I'll send you the result of what I've done for estimations/critics. Thanks for your feedback.
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Hail all !
I'm back to tell you the results of what I started as a beginner one month ago.
That video clip was to be finished for Dec 8, and it finally took me 10 days more
to do it and now it's on Youtube. Here I give you the link and will appreciate a lot
if you come back with your opinions/estimations/critics. But most of all, I want to
thank you for your advices, they were valuable to me!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6RTv6SEvLE&feature=youtu.be
and with lyrics embedded:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4W1V1iIMCI&feature=youtu.be
Cool breeze for all, Happy New Sun and a successful New Year !
BD -
Edges are still a little dodgy (artificially too close in some areas, mainly), and there's also shimmer in the shadow areas compounded by the encoding blockiness, but overall you did pretty well for a greenscreen beginner. Better than I did the first time I tried it.
Editing & FX/Compositing could still use a little work.
Keep on trying...
HNY!
Scott
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