Track Matte Help

[Bobby]

Have I run across one of the Track Matte bugs?

All I want to do is show some stills against one of the moving backgrounds. But I want the still to be in a window and still see the background around the edges (framed by the background). The problem is that I want to zoom and pan the still (i.e. change scale and position).

OK. So I set the background on track 1 and the still on track 2. I then created a title on track 3 with a white rectangle the size of the window I want, set the Track Matte effect on track 2 (selecting track 3 as the matte).

It seems to work OK at the start. But when I change the scale and position properties of track 2 (the image), it looks like the matte changes scale and position too! The net effect is that the image, cropped in effect by the track matte, just shrinks. The image stays the same (i.e. I see the same percentage of the image), just scaled smaller. It looks like the scale is being applied to the matte title, not the image.

Am I doing something wrong, or did I hit one of the Track matte bugs?

Thanks for the help. My poor addled brain is in trouble right now - overloaded with town stuff - we are in the middle of setting the budget for next year!

[Chuck Engels]

I will try to check this out this weekend Bobby, hopefully someone else will have time to get to it before that

[Bobby]

I found an entry on the Adobe forums that says that when you use the track matte the two clips are "linked" together, such that changes to scale, etc. are applied to both and there is no way to unlock it.

There was a suggestion to use duplicate tracks (one not having the track matte property) and apply the scaling to that one. I will experiment.

[RJ Johnston]

This may be what you want:

Still image on track 1.
Background on track 2.
Title with white square on track 3.
Put track matte key effect on the background on track 2.
On the track matte key effect, set track 3, and tick the Invert checkbox.

Now you can resize the still image on track 1 without the track matte resizing as well.

[Bob]

You're not doing anything wrong, and it's not a bug. That's just the way that track matte key works. The matte and the source are linked in the effect. Goes back to the days of the traveling matte where film was sandwiched together and optically composited.

For what you want, the easiest way in Premiere Elements is punch a hole in the motion background and view the still through the hole using the techinque RJ describes. Alternately, you could output a pan and zoomed sequence and use that sequence for the PIP.

[Bobby]

Thanks Bob and RJ - a different perspective always helps!

RJ, your technique worked fine. Just punch a hole in the background, rather than trying to mask the image itself. There were some other very minor issues, but I was able to get what I want.

Bob I thought of creating a panned and zoomed sequence, but I would have to do that for a number of shots, so not practical.

Back to work now!

[Bob]

Bob I thought of creating a panned and zoomed sequence, but I would have to do that for a number of shots, so not practical.Back to work now!

That's where Premiere Pro's nested sequences would come in handy. No hassle having to export and import.

[momoffduty]

Another pet peeve of mine...can't zoom with a track matte. So..make a frame as your matte on track 2 and motion background on track 1w/track matte applied pointing at track 2....save this as an AVI w/transparency. Now use the AVI in your project on track 2 and your pic/video on 1 and zoom away. An option would be to export step 2 as an AVI and bring that into a third project. Bob, is correct that nested seq. in Pro eliminates the need to export.

*Frame needs to fit the whole screen. You can adjust the AVI frame file later.