Which program is better for masking?

[MetamorphosisStudios]

Adobe After Effects CS5, Premiere Pro CS5, or Sony Vegas 10 Pro?

[Niotex]

After Effects.

[Mrs_Uzumaki]

i'd say sony vegas pro definately, it's simple and easy.

[Radical_Yue]

Speaking as a Vegas user who only does masking in Vegas...After Effects is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay better.

I mean, if you're just going to do something quick and dirty, sure Vegas can work. But if you plan on doing a lot of roto'ing and want it to look really good, AE is the way to go, hands down. The level of customization AE offers is insane. With Vegas, you can't even create an outline without having to do a workaround with another track + different effects and stuff.

[Kanti13]

AFTER EFFECTS!

My biggest problem with Vegas is that nomatter how good your footage and computer are, the preview just can't seem to keep up with frame by frame changes. Even if it looks perfect, when you export it there's lag some place or another and looks awful. When I do mask in Vegas, I take a screen shot of each frame, put them in the timeline and cut them down, then mask them each individually (mask the first one, copy-paste-adjust). It's the only way I can get it accurate

Plus, like Radical said. You can't really do much with your mask in Vegas. Although you can add a quick glow or drop shadow by using track-motion. I also think that it's easier and more straight-forward on AE as long as you have a basic understanding of the software.

[SuijinReflx]

As the majority as said, After effects is the way to go, instead of creating tedious points and making massive amounts of different types of keyframes (smooth and fast) After effect's keyframes are far easier to control and After Effects also offers a nice supply options for each mask. Enjoy

[Mister Hatt]

Photoshop+Avisynth, don't be a wimp. You can do some crazy hax with Mocha, perl, and avisynth too if you're more masochistic than I am :3

[Cannonaire]

Photoshop+Avisynth, don't be a wimp. You can do some crazy hax with Mocha, perl, and avisynth too if you're more masochistic than I am :3

I made this script for my Supersonic Gene video when I knew a lot less about Avisynth and NLEs. It makes the piano keys-like effect for the "ooh ooh ooh" part. Somehow, I believe this is still far less hardcore than what Mister Hatt is talking about.

Spoiler :

Code: Select all

DGDecode_MPEG2Source("K:\video_rip\outlaw_star\e11.d2v")
KillAudio()
#TComb(mode=1, fthreshC=20, othreshC=18, map=false, scthresh=12.0, debug=false, opt=4)
AMVIVTC(mode=1)
TComb(mode=1, fthreshC=20, othreshC=18, map=false, scthresh=12.0, debug=false, opt=4)
DFMDeRainbow(maskthresh=15, mask=false)
Deblock(quant=25, aOffset=0, bOffset=0, mmx=true, isse=true)
MCTemporalDenoise(settings="medium")
LSFMod(strength=60)
#gradfun2dbmod(temp=100)
Trim(25983, 26529)
#ChangeFPS("ntsc_film")
#AssumeFPS("ntsc_film")
ConvertToRGB32(interlaced=false)
Crop(6, 0, -10, -0)
Spline36Resize(640, 480, src_width=704, src_height=480)
full = last

aa = full.Trim(347, 357)
aa = aa.Spline36Resize(517, 388, src_width=640, src_height=480)
aa = aa.Crop(141, 0, -174, -0)
aa = aa.AddBorders(8, 72, 0, 20, color=$000000)

vida = aa.AddBorders(0, 0, 430, 0, color=$000000)

ba = full.Trim(357, 357)
ba = ba.Spline36Resize(517, 388, src_width=640, src_height=480)
ba = ba.Crop(141, 0, -174, -0)
ba = ba.AddBorders(8, 72, 0, 20, color=$000000)

bb = Full.Trim(252, 261)
bb = bb.Crop(26, 40, -102, -158)
bb = bb.Spline36Resize(414, 228, src_width=512, src_height=282)
bb = bb.AddBorders(8, 8, 8, 0, color=$000000)

vidb = bb.AddBorders(0, 0, 0, 244, color=$000000)
vidb = StackHorizontal(ba, vidb)

ca = full.Trim(357, 357)
ca = ca.Spline36Resize(517, 388, src_width=640, src_height=480)
ca = ca.Crop(141, 0, -174, -0)
ca = ca.AddBorders(8, 72, 0, 20, color=$000000)

cb = Full.Trim(262, 262)
cb = cb.Crop(26, 40, -102, -158)
cb = cb.Spline36Resize(414, 228, src_width=512, src_height=282)
cb = cb.AddBorders(8, 8, 8, 0, color=$000000)

cc = full.Trim(139, 194)
cc = cc.Crop(26, 40, -102, -158)
cc = cc.Spline36Resize(414, 228, src_width=512, src_height=282)
cc = cc.AddBorders(8, 8, 8, 8, color=$000000)

vidc = StackVertical(cb, cc)
vidc = StackHorizontal(ca, vidc)

return vida+vidb+vidc
#return vida

[Brad]

Flame/Smoke

[DJ_Izumi]

My roommate has a Cintiq 21UX, a $2000 1600x1200 drawing tablet.

I've often wondered how it'd be to use that to mask in AE instead of using the fscking mouse.