Cropping a video to a circle ??

[dvd_master]

Take a look at the sample menu image below. I want the yellow part in the middle of the Millennium Eye to have a video playing there.

Does Adobe Premiere have a transition/effect/cropping tool that will make my video a circle so i can put it over an image ??

thanks

[Arky]

Sounds like more of a job for After Effects than it does for Premiere, but that's not to say that Premiere is incapable of achieving this.


Arky ;o)

[dvd_master]

I have no experience with After Effects. Would it save the video as a circle or what ?

[Arky]

I'm afraid I've never actually felt the need to do what you require - I just believe that After Effects is better suited to this operation than Premiere is.

I don't know *100%* if it's possible, but I'd be surprised if After Effects can't do this somehow, even if it requires a plugin. Do you simply wish to CROP (yes, I know that it is what you actually said..), or do you wish to squeeze (distort) the video into a circular shape? I'm at work as I type this, and I don't have AAFX installed on my laptop, so I can't have a bash at this procedure, or I'd be happy to do so.


Arky ;o)

[gooki]

Make a rectangular video file the size of the whole eye.
Pop the video you want on the bottom layer and adjust it's size.
Insert an image of the eye with the appropraite background area on the top layer.
Remember to make the yellow area an alpha channel before doing all of this.

I'd be more descriptive but I'm in a rush.

Thanks.

[dvd_master]

Hmm.... this can be done with Premiere ?

I don't care if it is cropped or squashed into a circle, all i want is for a video to be playing in it.

And how could I possibly do that whole thing when the image I posted is the image I'm using for the background video, (without the yellow circle). They aren't seperate images.

[VinnieB]

If Premiere seems too complicated, or you don't have it installed, you could also use Virtualdub to superimpose an overlay over your video, using the Logo filter. I reported this in my simple guide in the thread "How to make video streams for animated menus" in the advanced dvd authoring section.

greetz,
Vinnie

[mikeathome]

Hi,

see the attachement, check out the Transparency and Motion settings of the clips. It's not very sophisticated just took 5mins to put that together, better than every (long) explanation.

mike

[dvd_master]

That works very nicely, Mike. Thanks for the help... and the attatchment DID work. ^^


Really appredciate the trouble you went through do show me that.

[mpucoder]

Mike, you should be more patient. You know that all attachments must be reviewed by one of the moderators of this forum before they become visible. And, even though there are 4 of us, we have jobs and/or lives that keep us from being here 24/7.

btw - you are talking about matting, not cropping. Cropping changes the dimensions of the entire frame, and it remains rectangular no matter what.

[mikeathome]

Originally posted by mpucoder
Mike, you should be more patient. You know that all attachments must be reviewed by one of the moderators of this forum before they become visible. And, even though there are 4 of us, we have jobs and/or lives that keep us from being here 24/7.
(...)


Oh, sorry, I didn't know, till now...

mike

[dvd_master]

How did you make the square for the window thingy ?

I redesigned the menu and have the Eye in another spot, so I need to move the video there but can't figure out how you were able to get it there in the first place.

[mpucoder]

Mike: No problem, I guess a lot of people don't realize why there is a delay.

TriLight: sorry, forgot which forum this was. There are 5 of us.

All: There's too much attention given to those pranksters and their CROP CIRCLES

[mikeathome]

Originally posted by dvd_master
How did you make the square for the window thingy ?
I redesigned the menu and have the Eye in another spot, so I need to move the video there but can't figure out how you were able to get it there in the first place.

Hi,

you need to go in the Transparency Setting Dialog. You see the small squares at the edges of the tiny square movie window, drag them.

To move the window you need to go in the Motion Settings Dialog as well:
- first there's a Keyframe line, indicating the length of the track you navigate to a certain point say the beginning and set the actions for this point, say Zoom, Rotation, Motion Point, etc.
- do this same for Start and End Point if you don't want to have relative movement, rotation etc. (see my example)
- the tiny little square in the middle is used to move the (zoomed) picture arround

BTW. you know why I have 3 tracks ? Normally you need only two, the main track with matte and the underlay for the effect to shine thru. BUT if you use a Croma Key to do the matte you'll find yourself matting every pixel in the picture which is of same color, not limited to this one center circle. This could be very disturbing. That's why I limited the matting effect to the center circle (with the very first track on top of all others).

If you work with stills (for the matte track) only it would be preferable to move the yellow center circle to an Alpha Channel (e.g. with Photoshop) and use rather the Alpha Channel for matting. This avoids this nasty workarround I did (NO little squares anymore). As said before my example is not very sophisticated.

For moving pictures (video) the professionals record e.g. persons in front of a blue (green) screen and color key out the blue screen later on to be replaced by a natural underlaying movie. Lots of opportunities.

mike