Suggestions/Help for Vegas Pro 12 effect -moving fog or mist?

[cdb]

I have several hours of my 85 year old mother telling stories about family history and growing up on a small island off the coast of Portland, Maine, USA.

Her stories range from her own escapades on the island during World War II (in the US) all the way back to her great grandfather, a merchant ship captain who sailed around the world and (so the family story says) was imprisoned in Spain in the 1870s.

I'm editing this down into a 'documentary' to give her for her birthday late this year.

There are lots of stories she tells for which no historical family photos exist, yet I want to have something more than her "talking head" for an hour or so.

My question is: what can I do to "historically related but not accurate" pictures to "give a feel" but not be interpreted as my trying to present something factual.

I was thinking of using some kind of effect that puts a *slowly moving* semi-transparent mist over these "historically related photos" so it's like watching "dreamtime" or a "hazy memory" in a movie. I can also put in some background sound effects.

I can find photos online which might give a "feel" for parts of her stories, and give something different to look at while she talks. Yet because these will not be historically accurate (it's not a picture or drawing of *the* prison in Spain where he was kept, and not a photo of *the* WWII landing craft that escorted her sailboat back to her home island in 1942.

I'm using Vegas Pro 12 and have some facility with effects, but I can't figure out how to create this "moving, semi-transparent mist".

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Chris

[smrpix]

This sounds like a cool project, although an hour may be somewhat long even to a family audience.

You can find stills of various clouds or mists, or create them in something like photoshop and superimpose them over your images in Vegas using differing degrees of transparency. Stock libraries of moving mists or smoke also exist. You can even use multiple layers of "mists" so the transparency varies as they move.

If you're trying to get the mists or clouds to actually distort the image in passing you're dealing with a higher magnitude of complexity, and you need to look to plug-ins like sapphire or Boris (continuum or Red.)

If you take the latter course, for an hour-long show, you're facing a lot of rendering so be realistic in budgeting your time.

http://www.genarts.com/sapphire/effects-browser
http://www.borisfx.com/sony/
http://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-2718020-stock-footage-smoke-clouds.html?src=sea...XjAGP7w:1:0/3p

[racer-x]

I'm pretty sure Vegas has a texture generator, or it used to. Aviutl is free and has a fully functional cloud animator. Alternatively you can shoot a timelapse of moving clouds, overlay and key out the sky.

[cdb]

Thanks, that helps -- I found some YouTube video explaining how to make a moving fog.