Frustrated! Please Help!

[bp4life71]

Im a newbie to video editing and the like. I just purchased the premiere elements/photoshop bundle. I'm trying to do a special effect and cant seem to get it correctly.

First, here is what I am doing. I have video of a student looking at radar on a boat (radar is similiar to a 13 inch tv), to be funny, I want to put a clip of family guy playing "on the radar". I know i need to somehow put the family guy video (that I already cut) overlayed on the screen in the radar. I cant see where to merge the 2 videos. I am new to all of this...very new...like one week new. Did i mention I was new?

Any help would be appreciated. And by the way, i ordered the new book put out that covers photoshop and premiere for 29.99 at amazon. It should get to me by Tuesday! In the meantime, any help on how to do this would be great. Please be specific, and dont assume i even know the SIMPLIST of things...lol..

Bp4life

[bp4life71]

Also...I look on you tube and see that some guys have like 3 tracks to place video...mine just has the one with the arrow (for transitions im assuming)....where do I get the extra video tracks from?

[hpharley90]

I use Premiere Elements 2.0. I will tell you how I would do that.
Put your radar screen on track 2. Then put your family guy clip on track 3 above where the radar screen is.Then use your motion controls in the properties panel to scale down your family guy clip and and reposition it to over lay the radar screen. There is also the capability in the same panel to rotate if need be.
I hope it helps.
I'm not familiar with PE7 at all.
Edit:I always keep track 1 open for copy and paste per SOP.

[hpharley90]

Also...I look on you tube and see that some guys have like 3 tracks to place video...mine just has the one with the arrow (for transitions im assuming)....where do I get the extra video tracks from?

Also welcome to muvipix!

try clicking the F1 key to open help. Then type in the search window add tracks.

[Steve Grisetti]

Hi, Bp--

Welcome to Muvipix! And thanks for supporting the book! I hope you'll find it very helpful.

Your trick is fairly easy and should be very funny. Basically it's an effect called a Picture-in-Picture effect.

To do it, put your main video (the radar screen) on the Video 1 track. Put the Family Guy video on the Video 2 track, directly over the first video.

Click on the Family Guy clip right on the Monitor. This will activate "corner handles", dots on each corner than you can drag in and out to resize the video.

Resize it using the corner handles, rotate the video if necessary and drag it into position over the radar screen. (There are, of course, several ways to do this, but this is the easiest and most intuitive.)

[bp4life71]

This is from the help menu......

By default, the Timeline contains three tracks for video (or still images) and audio , a narration track , and a soundtrack track . When you drag linked clips (those that include both audio and video) to a track, the video and audio components appear together (video directly above audio) in their respective tracks (such as Video1 and Audio1). To see all of the tracks, you may need to scroll up or down the Timeline.

I'm only showing ONE TRACK for video....where is the three its talking about? This is too freaking frustrating.

[bp4life71]

Thanks Steve.....i kinda figured thats how you do it. Problem is, I only have one video track showing.....i dont know......glad the book is coming...but I wanted to get a jump on my project.

[bp4life71]

From the help menu....

"You can customize Timeline tracks to suit the needs of your project.

Add a track to the Timeline
1.Choose Timeline > Add Tracks.
2.In the Add Tracks dialog box, type the number of tracks you want to add in the Add field for video or audio tracks.
3.To specify the placement of added tracks, choose an option from the Placement pop‑up menu for each type of track added, and click OK."

Still no extra video tracks after doing this.....suggestions?

[Paul LS]

You could put the clip with the radar screen on track 1 and the family guy on track 2. Then select Properties for the video on track 2 (either right click on the clip and select Properities or select the Properties icon to the left above the timeline). In Properies select Motion... then you can use Scale to scale down the size of the video and then use Position to position it on the radar screen. You may need to use the Basic 3D effect to give the right perspective.

[bp4life71]

I figured it out...lol....Yeah!

The boat is bouncing around a little bit...is there a way to adjust the "family guy" video to match the slight movements of the radar?

[Paul LS]

Yes, "keyframes" are your friend. You can keyframe the Position to track the radar screen... check out the free tutorials on Keyframing in the Product section.

[bp4life71]

I froze the frame...man..this is fun. I was really frustrated.....lets see how frustrated I get with my next effect. This is time consuming too...dangerous fun.

[Peru]

I froze the frame...man..this is fun. I was really frustrated.....lets see how frustrated I get with my next effect. This is time consuming too...dangerous fun.

Yes, there is quite a learning curve involving Pre El. You will spend more time initially figuring out how to do things than doing them. Be patient, and use Muvipix when you get stuck. There are some great "teachers" here.

And don't forget to check the gallery to get ideas.

[Bob]

Welcome to muvipix!

I'm glad you got it figured out! I'm sorry that no one picked up that you were working in sceneline mode and told you to switch to timeline mode. That will give you a clue as to which mode most of us use all the time

Steve's book will help and you can always ask questions here. Have fun!

[bp4life71]

Yeah...amazon says the book should be in on Tuesday....looking forward to it...should be great! I need all the help I can get...im hoping its step by step. Im new to all this...but its fun so far