They're here! More Muvipix.com Guides by Steve Grisetti!
The Muvipix.com Guides to Premiere & Photoshop Elements 2024
As well as The Muvipix.com Guide to CyberLink PowerDirector 21
Because there are stories to tell
muvipix.com

Videomerge, I think

Specific to Premiere Elements version 15

Videomerge, I think

Postby abgtc » Sun Nov 04, 2018 10:52 am

The other day I solved a problem... then forgot what I'd done.

I have a clip with black borders along the top and bottom –- I want to make those borders white. My memory is that I made a white color matte and put it at the bottom of the timeline (Video 1) with the clip above it (Video 2/Audio 2). Then I right-clicked one of the two clips, applied Videomerge and it was perfect. I tried that today and it didn't work; Videomerge on the clip gave it a weird "ghost"-type effect (white in the black parts) and Videomerge on the matte did nothing.

Please help and I promise to type up the response and file it forever!
abgtc
Registered User
Registered User
 
Posts: 76
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2016 6:42 pm

Re: Videomerge, I think

Postby Peru » Sun Nov 04, 2018 1:55 pm

If the black bands are just transparency, you shouldn't need to do anything but white matte on V1 and clip on V2.
If not transparency, just apply the crop effect to the clip.
User avatar
Peru
Moderator
Moderator
 
Posts: 3687
Joined: Wed Oct 17, 2007 12:34 pm
Location: Peru, NY, USA

Re: Videomerge, I think

Postby abgtc » Sun Nov 04, 2018 2:25 pm

Ahh! The crop effect definitely works, so problem solved, thanks!

But I'm curious as to what I did before...

The original clip filled the media player frame; when imported into PE, black borders appear at top and bottom, presumably to preserve the aspect ratio. (I know I could adjust this in Settings but I haven't.) Given that the crop effect works, exposing the underlying white matte, I guess that means the borders aren't transparencies.

But since I didn't use that method before, and whatever I did before worked, can anyone figure out what it was? I thought it was Videomerge but I've tried that on both clips in both positions (Video 1 and 2) and it doesn't work.
abgtc
Registered User
Registered User
 
Posts: 76
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2016 6:42 pm

Re: Videomerge, I think

Postby Steve Grisetti » Sun Nov 04, 2018 3:29 pm

If we could see the "ghost type effect" we may have a better idea what was going on.

Though, since you were able to crop away the issue, it's like that Peru Bob called it right. It was just some some extra stuff that snuck into you video frame. Though again if we could see it we might might better be able to guess what's going on.

Can you post a screen shot of this effect and your timeline?
HP Envy with 2.9/4.4 ghz i7-10700 and 16 gig of RAM running Windows 11 Pro
User avatar
Steve Grisetti
Super Moderator
Super Moderator
 
Posts: 14439
Joined: Sat Feb 17, 2007 5:11 pm
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Re: Videomerge, I think

Postby abgtc » Sun Nov 04, 2018 3:42 pm

Absotively: first is the clip as imported, without the cropping effect; below that is with Videomerge applied to the clip.

Timeline1.png


Timeline2.png
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
abgtc
Registered User
Registered User
 
Posts: 76
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2016 6:42 pm

Re: Videomerge, I think

Postby Bob » Sun Nov 04, 2018 6:10 pm

The whole purpose of Videomerge is to automate the process of converting the background of a video to transparency. It's a bit of a blunt tool and what you think is the background may not be what Videomerge thinks is the background. The problem with your video is that Videomerge chose the darker skin tones as the background color and made them transparent. You can go into the Videomerge options and choose a different color.

Crop will certainly work, but, on Windows, there is another effect that may be even easier for what you want to do. The Clip effect works similar to the Crop Effect but instead of transparency, Clip fills the area with a color you select. With the clip effect you don't need the white layer below. Simply apply the Clip effect, set the fill color to white, and adjust the top and bottom crop. Done.
User avatar
Bob
Moderator
Moderator
 
Posts: 5925
Joined: Wed Feb 21, 2007 4:49 am
Location: Southern California, USA

Re: Videomerge, I think

Postby abgtc » Sun Nov 04, 2018 6:17 pm

I had a little trouble locating the effect -- it's under "Transform" -- but it does indeed do the trick in one less step. Thanks!
abgtc
Registered User
Registered User
 
Posts: 76
Joined: Thu Dec 22, 2016 6:42 pm


Return to PRE Version 15 


Similar topics


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests