Highlight Section of Image

[Helen]

Hi,

I've had a quick search, but I cannot find the answer to my problem. I have a still image and I would like to have a highlight bar move across the image highlighting the image as it moves. I am pretty sure I have seen it in one of the competition entries from a previous year, but I am not sure which one. I have created a ' white bar' in photoshop and I can get this to move across the image, but I do not know how to make a highlight bar. I have tried changing opacity and using the Lighting effect, but it is just not quite right.

The effect I am after is similar to what Vera used in her Wedding video when it went to black and white, but I would like to highlight.
Any help or pointers in the right direction would be appreciated.
Thanks

[Steve Grisetti]

That's likely a Track Matte effect.

To use it, you have a darker version of your photo on Video 1 and a lighter version on Video 2. Then you define the area you want to highlight with a white circle, on Video 2, and you keyframe it to move around the picture.

When the Track Matte is applied to Video 2, only the are of Video 2 that is defined by the white circle will show -- with Video 1 showing around it.

Does that make sense? Here's an older how-to article I wrote. I should probably update it soon.
http://videoinasnap.chuckengels.com/sou ... _02-06.htm

[momoffduty]

Here is an example and how to using the same concept with a track matte. This one is 2 tracks of text with a with a track matte to create a light sweep. There is an attached PrEl how to doc.

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3588

[Bob]

Cheryl, The links are still there, but the documents are missing. Do you still have a copy that you could upload?

[momoffduty]

Good catch Bob!

[Bob]

Thanks, Cheryl.

I added a link to the other thread pointing here.

[momoffduty]

Thanks Bob, I didn't think about adding it to the other thread. Good catch again!

[Helen]

Thanks everyone, that is exactly what I needed. It is all a lot clearer now, I did not realise you need to have the clip on two video tracks.

I will give this a try later today or tomorrow and post back.

Thanks again

[Helen]

Hi again

I have run into a slight problem, my mask (bar) resizes after I apply the Track Matte. It all works like it should and I see the highlights, but the mask size gets smaller, the top and bottom edges do not even reach the Safe Margin guide, where before applying the matte the edges went over the Safe Margin guides to the edges of the monitor. I created the bar in Photoshop and the size is the same as my project 720 x 576 (Pal).

I do not have 'Scale to Frame Size' checked, but I have scaled down the images so they fit on the screen. As a test I changed the image size to 100% and it now works correctly but the photo is too big.

Is there anyway I can apply the Track Matte and not have it resize. All my images are 1000 x 750 to allow for a little zooming.

Thanks
Helen

[Bob]

That's normal behavior, Helen. The solution is to make the size of the matte image match the source, not the project. When you make the mask(bar) in Photoshop make the image size 1000x750, the same as the other images.

[Helen]

Now why didn't I think of that Bob I think my brain works most of the time, but other times I'm not too sure

Thanks

[momoffduty]

A quirk in PrEl, you can not zoom the image that is tracking. Don't think this is what you were referring too, but a reminder.

[Helen]

Thanks Cheryl