Sony Vegas - Masking Tutotrial

[nikolakis]

Masking with Sony Vegas? Many are asking this so i decide to make this topic.

1. First, you need to "Disable Resample" on each Video :

Right Click on the Video
go to "Switches"
Select "Disable Resample"

2. Turn the " Maintain aspect Ratio" to No - on each Video

Click on Event pan/Crop
Go "position"
Go "Source"
Turn "Maintain aspect Ratio" to No

3. Even though you complete every mask, at some points Vegas would not show the correct one... to correct this you need to do this :

Enter the masking time line...
find the problematic mask...
copy it...
hold Left click and navigate between the mask and the previews one...
and paste it there...

This would solve the problem

* A second solution would be to split the video into frames... not highly recommended because you can't apply effects...

** Many are avoiding Sony Vegas because of this so i was "lucky" to find it out by myself...

4. Try using High quality Footage, with better video quality you get better quality masks.

To improve the Quality do this :

Place a feather on each mask ( 0, 1 - 0, 2 )
Place below the masked scene a Black Solid ( with the same Duration )
Copy and paste the mask sequence to the solid but remove the feather...

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I hope you found my "tutorial" useful
Have fun

[Pheonix Rose]

Thanks Nick, this is really helpful! You're awesome for this

[tugaOwn]

Does What's the difference between using smart resample, force resample and disabling it?

[nikolakis]

The resample creates new frames...

Example (Something boring :p ) :

You have two different frames, the frame A and B and the frame sequence is A, A , B , B.
By activating resample on Sony Vegas, it creates a new frame between them, the AB frame combining 50% opacity from each frame... and the new sequence is A, AB , B , BC

While working with standard video frame rates ( 23.976 or 30.000 ) the resample is useless and in most cases ugly...

But when you edit something in 60 fps, the set amount of extra / same number of frames between every different frame is increased.... so the resample process is smoother and recommended...

Also resample works great on slow motion videos...

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To be honest, i am not pretty sure which resample is better, smart or force... With both of them the results are satisfied but i tend to select the smart one.

[Underthewintermoon]

Great tutorial, thanks! I wasent even aware about that disable resample thing,... that overlapping image was really annoying.. thanks for helping me get rid of it !

One question though..When I make the amv, every mask looks perfectly fine. But after I render, they get all screwed up- and in some cases the image that I had masked, wasent even masked after I rendered! That was when I saved it as a .wmv, but when I saved it as a .avi, all the masks were fine when I was watching it render in the preview, but then it wouldnt upload to youtube! (unable to convert video file)

So I was really hoping that you could tell me what I am doing wrong? Or even tell me your rendering settings? That would be AWESOME!

Thanks !

[nikolakis]

Great tutorial, thanks! I wasent even aware about that disable resample thing,... that overlapping image was really annoying.. thanks for helping me get rid of it !

One question though..When I make the amv, every mask looks perfectly fine. But after I render, they get all screwed up- and in some cases the image that I had masked, wasent even masked after I rendered! That was when I saved it as a .wmv, but when I saved it as a .avi, all the masks were fine when I was watching it render in the preview, but then it wouldnt upload to youtube! (unable to convert video file)

So I was really hoping that you could tell me what I am doing wrong? Or even tell me your rendering settings? That would be AWESOME!

Thanks !

1. Probably your rendering settings does not match you project settings... if your project is set on 24,97 fps your export file should be also on 24,97, with different fps everything would be misplaced.

To check your Project settings go to : File - > Project properties

and set your render setting the same...

2. Check your Masking mode Value... each mask should be "Positive"... with "negative" or 'disable" mode the mask would be removed.

Also keep in mind that you never start by adding "negative" value masks... Vegas would ignore any active mask placed after that... So first you should add any Positive mask then you start removing any unnecessary parts.

3. You should Ignore the wmv... my suggestion :

Use Main Concept AVC/ACC (*.mp4)

Click <Custom>

On - Project - Set "Video Rendering quality" to Best

On - Video - Set "Variable frame rate" from 4000 to 10000 ( depend on what quality / video size you want )

Note : This format work great for uploading on youtube...

[Nya-chan Production]

Also be sure that when you're masking you use Best preview option as large as you can (100% reccommended)

Lower qualities and sizes often interpolate and your mask can be off.

[tugaOwn]

I only recommend to do that if the computer is a fast one... in mine i do segments of clips in order to prevent lagging and not seeing the whole masking scene cause it's really laggy previewing the whole vid.

[Underthewintermoon]

Thanks SO much for replying! !
And thanks for telling me about the project settings, thats really going to make my masks look perfect !

But I still dont fully understand the rendering settings...
So I set my rendering quality to best, then I tried to set the frame rate to 10000 (as you said) but whenever I clicked on something else, the frame rate number changed to 172.000000! And also, what frame size do I set it too? 1280x720? 320x240?? And what about everything else? Field order? Pixel aspect raito?? Constant Bit Rate?!? Its all so confusing !

Thanks for trying to help me Sorry if i'm being annoying !

[Mastamind]

then I tried to set the frame rate to 10000 (as you said) but whenever I clicked on something else, the frame rate number changed to 172.000000!

And also, what frame size do I set it too? 1280x720? 320x240?? And what about everything else? Field order? Pixel aspect raito?? Constant Bit Rate?!? Its all so confusing !

Your project and rendering settings (resolution, aspect ratio, etc) should match your footage. And assuming you're working with deinterlaced footage you should set the field order to progressive.