Adding an animated gradient to media generators in sony vegas pro

[jcarst85]

Hi there,

I am using Vegas Pro 12 and am trying to recreate the outro in this video.

So far, I have done this. What I am struggling with is being able to add that animated black gradient to the bottom of the yellow solid colour as it gradually fills the screen? Would anyone know how to do this?

Also, I used Protype Titler to make the text. Is there a way to make the word “drilling” flip to “mining” once the yellow fills the screen?

Thanks a lot!
Jamie

[poisondeathray]

It's just a crossfade. The original has a gradient on the orange background to begin with. The gradient transition is accentuated because of the poor compression by youtube - it's probably an unintended effect

For the text - What you you mean "flip" ? Flip in what way ?

[jcarst85]

Thanks a lot for that! I hadn't considered that it might already have been there.

With that in mind, how do I achieve that same effect on my video? I am still pretty rudimentary in my knowledge of Vegas! Do I just make a 1920x1080 pixel yellow background in Photoshop with gradient at the bottom, then import that image into Vegas and use pan/crop similar to what I did for the generated media?

Apologies for not being clearer regarding the words. Basically, I just want "drilling" to change to "mining" when the yellow fills the screen. The intention is for the phrase to initially be specific to whatever equipment the video relates to (i.e. drilling), then, to always change to the more general industry phrase (mining).

Wherever there's drilling, we're there
Wherever there's mining, we're there

I would just like a solution on how I can transition/swap the word drilling to mining, without any of the other text being affected in any way. Hope that makes better sense!

[smrpix]

All of your effects can be achieved by placing the different elements on different layers.

For example "Wherever there's...............we're there"
while..........................................min ing
and............................................dri lling...................................are separate layers.

Likewise you can create the shadow grade in Photoshop as a transparency, grade only -- no yellow, and add that above the animated yellow and fade it in as needed.

[poisondeathray]

You shouldn't need a trip to photoshop or image editor. Vegas has a media generator color gradient. So it' s just a simple transition from the prepared gradient screen, to the catepillar black background screen

"flip" to me, suggests rotating on an axis, such as x-axis, so a layer flips down to cover it up (think of a book, where pages flip)

Be more specific about "swap" or "change to" - How did you want it to change ? Does it simply replace it abrputly, without a transition ? Does it fade in? Animate in from somewhere, maybe the right? Cross dissolve? Morph? Shrink and grow? Explode and reform ? (probably don't want that for drillling or mining industry)...etc... There are 100's of different ways the text could change from drilling to mining

[racer-x]

Do you work at Caterpillar? Many years ago I worked in construction where I operated a lot of big CAT heavy equipment. I ran Excavators, Backhoes, Front-end Loaders, Dozers and Big Ass Rock Trucks like in that video.

I can't add anything that hasn't already been said here.

[budwzr]

What I am struggling with is being able to add that animated black gradient to the bottom of the yellow solid colour as it gradually fills the screen?

Use "Composite Level" during the expansion. The gradient will fade in. Or Like PDR said, make it as a crossfade. Six of one, half dozen the other.

[jcarst85]

Thanks guys. So I just used a gradient instead of solid color and used pan/crop in the same way. Here is the test video of the color expanding.

I guess it's better, but the start of the gradient is pretty obvious/harsh and it has very visible horizontal lines, which do not look good. It certainly doesn't compare to the actual Cat video. Is this the technique you are referring to PDR? Maybe my gradient settings are just poor? Have included an image of them below.

Be more specific about "swap" or "change to" - How did you want it to change ? Does it simply replace it abrputly, without a transition ? Does it fade in? Animate in from somewhere, maybe the right? Cross dissolve? Morph? Shrink and grow? Explode and reform ? (probably don't want that for drillling or mining industry)...etc... There are 100's of different ways the text could change from drilling to mining

Apologies for that. I've thought pretty closely about it. What about a flash transition? Not the whole screen flashing though, just the word. I added a flash transition here, but it did the whole video, not the words I applied the flash transition too. Alternatively, if this is not possible or way to difficult for me to accomplish you think, then I had a play with transitions and 3D blinds left to right with 16 divisions could also work well.

Thanks as always. Getting there!

[poisondeathray]

Is this the technique you are referring to PDR?

No, not pan/crop . I was referring to an actual transition, an actual crossfade . You have clip A on the track against clip B with an overlap (the transition frames) . You can right click for more options

Apologies for that. I've thought pretty closely about it. What about a flash transition? Not the whole screen flashing though, just the word. I added a flash transition here, but it did the whole video, not the words I applied the flash transition too. Alternatively, if this is not possible or way to difficult for me to accomplish you think, then I had a play with transitions and 3D blinds left to right with 16 divisions could also work well.

My opinion - Don't use 3d blinds or other cheesy transitions.

smrpix explained how you can affect just 1 area of a frame, but using layers. Top layers "cover up" bottom layers. So you can do your flash transition on a little "rectangle" with alpha channel (transparency), so only the area of the mining/drilling get affected. Another way to isolate is with masks

[budwzr]

No, you don't use Pan/Crop. You need to composite the transition.

[jcarst85]

I'm sorry I'm still just not getting how I create that gradient at the bottom of the yellow when it fills the page.

I think I get composite level but how do I achieve the effect of it of the yellow going from a small bar to filling the page if not through event pan/crop?

Thanks

[poisondeathray]

Yes the orange bar expanding can be done with event pan/crop. That is the transition in. You already did this in one of the videos, "testcatproject2". Notice the full orange/yellow background with the gradient is exposed there for a few frames. You are fully transitioned in at that point

After that, for the transition out fade into the black caterpillar segment (what you called the animated gradient), it's just an A/B crossfade transition as described above and in the PM. That is not done with event/pan crop.

[jcarst85]

Yes the orange bar expanding can be done with event pan/crop. That is the transition in. You already did this in one of the videos, "testcatproject2".

Thanks. It's just the gradient looks really bad in that video. Starts off really harshly. Would you (or anyone?) have any settings for the gradient media generator where the gradient better resembles what has been achieved in this video?

And then I'm done! Thanks.

[poisondeathray]

Are you referring to the actual gradient itself ? Yours is brighter . The original has fewer "shades" to "traverse" so will produce smoother gradient. You would either need a darker bright , or lighter dark to narrow the gradient

Why don't you use the original colors and shades? It will look exactly the same then . Use the color picker

Working in 32bit can help smooth out gradients slightly as well, as the intermediate blending calculations have higher precision. Dithering and adding fine noise can smooth out gradients too. But youtube compression won't hold the dither very well, if that's your target

[jcarst85]

Thanks PDR. I've just done that.

Pleased to show this video. Soooooooo close!! I didn't think I could get it looking this good. Amazing the power of help.

Very last thing, I'm still have a tiny bit of trouble with this text transition ("drilling to mining"). To do the transition, will I need to create a text event for "wherever there's", then a separate text event for "drilling" - then I just apply the "mining" transition to the "drilling" text event? Having a bit of difficulty overlaying the text events exactly, but I guess it's just something I need to sit down with for a decent period of time and match up exactly.

Or can I do a transition one word in a phrase in Protype Titler?

Cheers

[budwzr]

I don't think too many people use that Sony Pro Type Titler because it basically sucks. Try the Titles and Text media generator. That particular effect may have come from somewhere else like Bluff Titler.

I didn't see it as a stock preset in VegasPro12.

[poisondeathray]

You need to provide more details. This affects how you might do it. How did you want this to look like EXACTLY? How did you
want it to transition? The more detail in your description, the better.

The general approach is to use multiple layers, as smrpix mentioned earlier. Another way is you can use masks to isolate a region of interest (essentially you draw a box around mining or drilling) if you are doing this through a global track effect or transition . I don't use the protype titler (I do 2d text in AE), but the general way if you animate through text (not global effects or transitions) is to use multiple text layers, you separate everything else on one layer, drilling, mining on the other layers. Background gradient on another layer.

Be careful in what you choose - it's very "easy to be cheesy" or "overdo" it and become "distracting", just because you can animate so easily these days, and it might look "cool". Keep it simple, unless you're trying to draw attention to the difference between drilling and mining . Keep what you're trying to do in context of this project's goals.

eg. something like this is way too distracting for a catarpillar promo

[jcarst85]

Thanks PDR/budwzr,

I think I've decided on the 3D blinds left to right with 16 divisions. It just works with some of the stuff they've done previously, which granted has all been quite cheesy! It also isn't overly distracting as there's no effects or transitions happening anywhere except for the word (i.e. no "fly in" effects or the like. )

The general approach is to use multiple layers, as smrpix mentioned earlier. Another way is you can use masks to isolate a region of interest (essentially you draw a box around mining or drilling) if you are doing this through a global track effect or transition . I don't use the protype titler (I do 2d text in AE), but the general way if you animate through text (not global effects or transitions) is to use multiple text layers, you separate everything else on one layer, drilling, mining on the other layers. Background gradient on another layer.

Thanks. I'll give it a try and let you know how I go. This is the final step so fingers crossed!

Cheers
Jamie

[budwzr]

Many years ago I worked in construction where I operated a lot of big CAT heavy equipment. I ran Excavators, Backhoes, Front-end Loaders, Dozers and Big Ass Rock Trucks like in that video.

As a young buck I also did a stint on heavy equipment. Ran a Scraper, some call it a Pan. We were the lowest on the totem pole. The company built golf courses in Florida, and there's a lot of "muck". We lost a couple pieces of equipment sinking into that stuff. All because some dumbass stopped their machine to take lunch on top of a muck pit.

I backed over a pickup truck once, some other dumbass parked behind me in a blind spot.

[poisondeathray]

For your last video "almost there" - the gradient looks a bit "muddy" over the text . The original one actually looks like 2 gradients: top to middle is orange to light orange (but the gradient is very subtle), and middle to bottom is light orange to light black . This serves to emphasize and frame the text better




"Backhoe.. " hahaha I have no idea what that really is but it sounds bad in Ebonics

[jcarst85]

Here it is guys. I will say that text transition nearly killed me tonight.

Thanks so much for everyone's help, particularly PDR and budwzr.

Is there anything in this video that still comes across as being a bit shit technical wise? I can't see anything that stands out as being majorly wrong, however I've stared at this bloody thing for nights on end now!

Thanks again!

[poisondeathray]

I would clean up the sime darby logo. The edges look a bit "ratty" and aliased

You can find large clean logos, or even vector logo images on the web, when you downscale them edges will be cleaner.