placing arrow on player in video?

[mikehende]

I am thinking of making a highlight reel of my son's games and would like to know if and how I can place an arrow on a specific player in each video clip? Thanks.

[daamon]

What format are your source files in? If it's "AVI" - what type... Divx, Xvid, DV etc.

What video editing software are you (thinking of) using?

[mikehende]

my files were captured in mpeg format with the extension .mpg but I don't know if this is mpeg1 or mpeg2? This is only a one time thing so I would like to use some "free" editing software to do it if possible.

[mikehende]

I have done some reading and I am not sure but I think what I am seeking to do is called video "overlaying"? Can anyone confirm this please and if so, then I would need a video "editing" software to do this?

[guns1inger]

aka compositing etc.

The difficult part isn't putting an arrow ont he scree. The difficult part is tracking the object you want to point at, and linking this track to the arrow so it follow it. Automated tracking tools are expensive, which leaves you with manual keyframing. Basically you will have to manually animate the movement of the arrow to follow the player across the length of the video.

A free option to do this would be WAX2, or perhaps ZS4, both of which can be found in the tools section.

[mikehende]

I hear what you're saying and didn't know that this "tracking" can be done but all I need is to place an arrow at the start of the play so a coach can see him and then follow his play. If placing the arrow is as easy then I will definitely attempt it, appreciate the links, will look into these 2 softwares, wonder if this can be done with Pinnacle Studio plus 9?

[daamon]

my files were captured in mpeg format with the extension .mpg but I don't know if this is mpeg1 or mpeg2?

Did you capture the files yourself? If so, will it be much of an inconvenience for you to re-capture them, but this time to (preferably) DV AVI or something similar? e.g. AVI using the huffyuv codec.

The reason being that MPG isn't designed to be worked with in the way you need to. And, as it's a one-off, free editing tools are clearly preferable but they're unlikely to work well, or at all, with MPGs. Most true editing tools are designed to work with DV AVI, uncompressed AVI or AVI that uses a loss-less compression like huffyuv.

Although I've not used these, other commonly recommended free editing tools include:

Avid Free DV
Zwei-stein
AVITricks

These will (should) support the compositing / overlaying that you need to do.

guns1inger's right in saying that you'll probably have to end up doing a long laborious task of getting the arrow to move by telling the editor where to put it at different times as the footage progresses.

Good luck...

[mikehende]

my files were captured in mpeg format with the extension .mpg but I don't know if this is mpeg1 or mpeg2?

Did you capture the files yourself? If so, will it be much of an inconvenience for you to re-capture them, but this time to (preferably) DV AVI or something similar? e.g. AVI using the huffyuv codec.

The reason being that MPG isn't designed to be worked with in the way you need to. And, as it's a one-off, free editing tools are clearly preferable but they're unlikely to work well, or at all, with MPGs. Most true editing tools are designed to work with DV AVI, uncompressed AVI or AVI that uses a loss-less compression like huffyuv.

Although I've not used these, other commonly recommended free editing tools include:

Avid Free DV
Zwei-stein
AVITricks

These will (should) support the compositing / overlaying that you need to do.

guns1inger's right in saying that you'll probably have to end up doing a long laborious task of getting the arrow to move by telling the editor where to put it at different times as the footage progresses.

Good luck...

I don't need the arrow to move, to further explain, what I have are many very short video clips which are usually only some seconds in length, I don't have an entire game recorded on one file, I have each play in the game broken up into these different files, for each play I will need to an arrow or something to show where my son is in each clip, once the play starts the arrow can stay thre or dissapear as the Coach knowing who my osn is can follow the play himself so absolutely no need to have anything tracking or following my son's movements, hope this explains it better.

You are correct, looks like I may have to re-capture, I have an "uncompressed AVI" capturing option in my card's settings. The problem I have with capturing in AVI format is that I will then have to go encode the AVI to Mpeg, this is an extra process. Tell me this guys, are there any softwares [payware] out there than can do all of these processes [editing, encoding, authoring and burning] without having the need to use different softwares for the different processes? If so, can anyone give me the names of such softwares please? Thanks.

[dipstick]

Here's a realy quick edit job in Wax2 (Free) that shows what you can do with the "Rotomate" drawing tool:


arrow.avi

You could do a much better job if you spend some time with it.

[mikehende]

Mister, that is ALL I need!! Thank you very much!! I will give it shot but have to ask, if I should need help/instructions on how to do what you've done here, where can I get that help please? Thanks.

[daamon]

@ mikehende:

Arrow:
So, clearly, Wax2 is an option.

If you have an arrow with a transparent background (easily done in a photo editing tool), then you may be able to use that with Wax2. You should definitely be able to use it with Avid Free DV - which is a dedicated non-linear editing tool, more than Wax2 which is more effects focused.

I'd strongly recommend looking into Avid Free DV (or similar) - you can drop all your AVI clips onto the timeline and overlay your arrow (transparent background) where you need it, and only for as long as you need it for.

Uncompressed AVI: This takes up a HUGE amount of diskspace - nothing wrong with that as long as you have a decent-sized hard-drive. Mind you, if your clips are only a few seconds, even if you've got a fair few then you should be OK.

When finished, save the end project as DV AVI if possible. Watch your disk space - you don't have much!

Encoding to MPEG: Before encoding, check you're happy with the DV AVI. If so, delete all the captured uncompressed AVI files, then empty the "Recycle Bin", to make some room on the hard drive.

Use TMPGEnc to encode to MPEG1. It's free, uses a template so there's nothing to set up or change, and so is very easy. MPEG1 will be good enough for what you want.

All-in-one software: Check out the tools in the "All-In-One DVD Converters" category. Examples of ones that suit your need are: Ulead DVD MovieFactory, MyDVD.

Good luck.

[mikehende]

Thanks, will look into all of this over the weekend.

[dipstick]

Yes, daamon brings up some good points. Although Wax2 can do it, it is complicated to learn and wouldn't be my 1st choice as a video editor. I just recomended it because it's powerfull and free.
I never used Avid Free DV, but it sounds like it's worth trying. You can do like daamon sugested and make the Arrow in your image editor with a transparent background, then overlay it over your video clip. Most video editors support this.

Good luck,

[mikehende]

Thanks for the tip, I don't mind trying any software really as long as there is a forum where I can get some help, just searched found that Avid has a forum but you need a magnifying glass to view the words there.