Quote I tried with CDR but the motion tracking mask isn't very smooth.

What is the best way to achieve this effect with a 1080/120p footage?

Anyone?

If it is not smooth enough:
By doing this the hard way. Frame by frame. Of course it depends on the source footage.

Hatti Win 10 64, i7-4790k, 32GB Ram, 256 GB SSD, SATA 2TB, SATA 4TB, NVidia GTX1080 8GB, LG 34" 4K Wide, AOC 24" 1080

Quote I tried with CDR but the motion tracking mask isn't very smooth.

What is the best way to achieve this effect with a 1080/120p footage?

There are a couple ways I can think of that would be easier than going through 120 frames by hand to set the mask.

I'd be willing to try them out on your front clip if you could upload it to the cloud and post a link to it here

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

Quote

There are a couple ways I can think of that would be easier than going through 120 frames by hand to set the mask.

I'd be willing to try them out on your front clip if you could upload it to the cloud and post a link to it here

That will be very helpful.

Link - File Link

So you're looking to use the same red pants clip as in the tutorial, right?

Also, I have PD13, 14 and 17 on my machine, but not 16. If I make the mask in PD17 you won't be able to open it on your end, so I'll have to do it in PD14 to get you a usable a project with the clip set up.

The down side to that is that some of the features I thought of using are only in 17, so if I go that route I'd have to give you a produced clip with a black (or green) mask that you could chroma-key out on your end.

Let me test out my ideas and see what's going to make the most sense.

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

Quote So you're looking to use the same red pants clip as in the tutorial, right?

Also, I have PD13, 14 and 17 on my machine, but not 16. If I make the mask in PD17 you won't be able to open it on your end, so I'll have to do it in PD14 to get you a usable a project with the clip set up.

The down side to that is that some of the features I thought of using are only in 17, so if I go that route I'd have to give you a produced clip with a black (or green) mask that you could chroma-key out on your end.

Let me test out my ideas and see what's going to make the most sense.

Sure that sounds good. Mind I'm planning on taking 1080/120 footage when I'll be filming while traveling soon so hopefully the method works
Also, New Year sale coming up so if 17 is that good I might get it. But in the meantime I'll I'm with 16 though, hopefully what you'll produce will be able to make in 16, or at least close enough.

OK. Your YouTube friend didn't give us a clear, full screen view of the opening shot, but he did show it at the beginning and at the end - each with different overlays for his channel. In order to use it in your videos, we'll have to remove all of his graphics.

I've taken the time to sync the two versions and have already masked both of the lower overlays - including placing and adjusting a very picky and time-consuming masked screenshot to cover his social media tags. That one was extra hard because the lower graphics in the first and second full-screen clips occur in that same area and also overlap a little bit time-wise.

Now, your task is to finish masking the remaining text in this project.

Hint: There's a reason I've synced the two clips and placed them on the timeline exactly this way, and it should be a simple step to completely remove the graphics. You can use keyframes to time it, or cut the clip and only apply the mask to the affected section. Use the track enable/disable checkboxes and to help understand all the edits I've done so far.

When you're finished, go ahead and produce it and attach it here since it should be a small enough file.

Have fun!

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

Quote OK. Your YouTube friend didn't give us a clear, full screen view of the opening shot, but he did show it at the beginning and at the end - each with different overlays for his channel. In order to use it in your videos, we'll have to remove all of his graphics.

I've taken the time to sync the two versions and have already masked both of the lower overlays - including placing and adjusting a very picky and time-consuming masked screenshot to cover his social media tags. That one was extra hard because the lower graphics in the first and second full-screen clips occur in that same area and also overlap a little bit time-wise.

Now, your task is to finish masking the remaining text in this project.

Hint: There's a reason I've synced the two clips and placed them on the timeline exactly this way, and it should be a simple step to completely remove the graphics. You can use keyframes to time it, or cut the clip and only apply the mask to the affected section. Use the track enable/disable checkboxes and to help understand all the edits I've done so far.

When you're finished, go ahead and produce it and attach it here since it should be a small enough file.

Have fun!

Okay, so I'm a little confused but I'll try and figure it out what we are trying to mask and how we are trying to do it.

In the meantime while I work on your files, check this out where it is my own small footage I took and tried to mask. You will see exactly what I tried to do and how it looks just average.

Mind you, I'm trying to do a 'transition' which premiere pro folks seem to refer to as motion mask, linear wipe, wipe and reveal etc etc.

WipeMasking attempt - fail? - link here with PDR project file

Quote OK. Your YouTube friend didn't give us a clear, full screen view of the opening shot, but he did show it at the beginning and at the end - each with different overlays for his channel. In order to use it in your videos, we'll have to remove all of his graphics.

I've taken the time to sync the two versions and have already masked both of the lower overlays - including placing and adjusting a very picky and time-consuming masked screenshot to cover his social media tags. That one was extra hard because the lower graphics in the first and second full-screen clips occur in that same area and also overlap a little bit time-wise.

Now, your task is to finish masking the remaining text in this project.

Hint: There's a reason I've synced the two clips and placed them on the timeline exactly this way, and it should be a simple step to completely remove the graphics. You can use keyframes to time it, or cut the clip and only apply the mask to the affected section. Use the track enable/disable checkboxes and to help understand all the edits I've done so far.

When you're finished, go ahead and produce it and attach it here since it should be a small enough file.

Have fun!

Okay so I'm going to sound extra noob here and say that I don't understand what I am required to do with that 02.png file

Nothing. I have no idea what that is. It's not in my original project nor in the packed one I linked to (see attached screenshot) and I don't know why it's in your media library. Just ignore it, and see if you can use the mask designer to cut out a section of the Track 2 video clip (with the text) and left the synced clean section of the Track 1 video show through.

Also, thanks for sharing your attempt. One thing to note when sharing a project is to use the File, Pack Project Materials feature. If you simply copy the files to a folder, PD tries to open them in their original locations on your computer. Since the files won't be there on a different computer, the person you've shared the project with has to locate them and point PD to them.

When you pack a project, PD automatically copies all the files to the specified folder AND updates the .pds file to point to the media there. That's why you could open my project and everythig was right there (alongwith that bizzare 02.png file, for some reason).

In your project, using a wipe transition with a straight object like a pole is a wonderful idea, but since you can't change anything about a transition except its duration, you'd have to have a clip that exactly and smoothly matches the wipe speed.

Keyframes and a solid mask would be very easy to work with in your sample, and I thought you'd been using them to get that effect. I'll get your project set up for that and you'll just need to adjust the keyframes along the way because your camera motion isn't perfectly smooth. You practicing with my project will help you become more familiar with the process.

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

So here's what I came up with using a mask with just 4 keyframes:



It's much closer than the wipe transition, but you'll need to manually add a few more keyframes to sync it better when the camera motion sped up and slowed down.

The easiest way to do that is to find the frame where the deviation is greatest (like when the biggest section of the pole is accidentally masked) and just align the edge there. PD will automatically recalculate the shift between the new position and the ones set in the keyframes before and after, which should give you a smoother wipe.

The camera also tilted a bit from side to side but you can't adjust the angles in PD's Mask Designer. If you have the NewBlueFX Essentials 6 effects pack installed, you'd be better off using their Garbage Matte effect since you can easily adjust the shape to exactly match the pole's angle.

The downside is that PD14 doesn't allow keyframes on masks, so I had to do this in PD17. I've packed the project and have incuded the PDS file here (which you won't be able to open), so hopefully somebody who has both PD17 and 16 installed could copy the timeline contents and paste them in PD16 and then save and share that project file.

I also think you'd have a much easier time going with a simple shot like this rather than the "red pants" example where you'll have to be matching the person's constantly changing leg angles.

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

I don’t seem to be able to view any of optodata’s packed project properly. See the attached. It looks like a custom mask like maybe 02.png that is no longer included in the packed project. The project prefs. are at 59.94 fps. The mp4 are 2160p30.

I updated the screen recorder 2. Made the 17 sec. recording at 15 fps, 2.1 Kbps. Trimmed it a few seconds. Used SVRT and it becomes a larger file at 2.6 kbps, so I am including the original.

There may be several reasons or possibilities for all these problems.

1. 02.png was used as a custom mask no longer included in the later packed project.


2. PD17 packed project has a bug.


3. Masks are not included in packed projects in general.


4. There is yet another bug in SVRT.

I can always read my own PD17 packed projects but notice problems if I pack a project first but later to save it also not as a pack project using same names.

Wow - that's really strange! First we don't know where the mystery .png came from, then when I delete it the mask disappeared from the project despite there not being any reference to it in the PDS file! Even worse is that the keyframes don't contain the right details anymore, so you can't simply pick a new mask in the Mask Designer. You have to start all over

Tomasc, I see the exact same thing as you when I opened the project just now, so I've recreated the mask (using PD's standard rectangular mask) and packed the project to a new folder.

Sure enough, there's a new "01.png" file, and even though the new PDS project also doesn't contain any code to acces it, it's a critical media piece. Also, it doesn't ever show up in my media library, so I'm not sure why browniee112 saw it in my PD14 project.

Try opening the Rev2 project here. Hopefully everything will be working and then maybe you can copy the timeline and save it in PD16.

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

Quote Wow - that's really strange! First we don't know where the mystery .png came from, then when I delete it the mask disappeared from the project despite there not being any reference to it in the PDS file! Even worse is that the keyframes don't contain the right details anymore, so you can't simply pick a new mask in the Mask Designer. You have to start all over

Tomasc, I see the exact same thing as you when I opened the project just now, so I've recreated the mask (using PD's standard rectangular mask) and packed the project to a new folder.

Sure enough, there's a new "01.png" file, and even though the new PDS project also doesn't contain any code to acces it, it's a critical media piece. Also, it doesn't ever show up in my media library, so I'm not sure why browniee112 saw it in my PD14 project.

Try opening the Rev2 project here. Hopefully everything will be working and then maybe you can copy the timeline and save it in PD16.

That last one you posted optodata was close enough, yes you are right the straight pole made it easier.

I'm going to give up, just wish PD had similar motion mask tracking abilities like Premiere Pro where I don't have to go frame by frame and keep fixing the mask. Thank you very much for trying to assist me.

I'm giving up because I'm having trouble replicating your results when I do it myself. It looks like I learn better watching video instead of trying to read the instruction and following it exactly. I have learned a lot of PD through PD University videos as well as CL official webinar videos.

On a random note, we purchased PD17 because it said motion tracking has been improved, I thought this would have improved the motion mask tracking but nope it didn't. Still have to manually fix it frame by frame

If not asking too much, would you be able to instruct me through a video on what you are trying to tell me? If it is too much work, no problem at all I totally understand.

Quote That last one you posted optodata was close enough, yes you are right the straight pole made it easier.

I'm going to give up, just wish PD had similar motion mask tracking abilities like Premiere Pro where I don't have to go frame by frame and keep fixing the mask.
Purchased PD17 because it said motion tracking has been improved, I thought this would have improved the motion mask tracking but nope.

The motion tracking is meant for locking onto one object at a time and tracking it with another object. You can't change the shape of the tracking object, and it doesn't work in the Mask Designer. However, you could track a green image in the shape you want and then chroma-key it out if that approach saved you some time.

As for giving up, if you watch the tutorial again, you'll see that the guy also had to go frame by frame to get everything to line up in Premiere. He used the "Track selected mask forward one-frame" tool that did some of the tracking work for him, but remember that he then skipped over 95% of his work and just presented the whole thing as a guide to how he did this, not necessarily that it was quick and easy.

Also, the mask tool in Premiere (or whatever add-on he was using) is far more flexible than the one built-in to PD.

As I mentioned earlier, if you have NewBlueFX packs installed the Garbage Matte effect is more flexible, but it's limited to 4 control points (corners) and you'd want to use that as the "leading" edge to cover the changing leg angles while a simple PD block mask masks the rest of the area.

For the project with your pole, again most of the work is done in the Rev2 project and you'd only need to add a few tweaking keyframes where needed.

Instead, take a look at the Rev3 project I've just added. I decided to see what was needed to make your clip work perfectly, so I added rotation to the mix and also added more keyframes throughout the walk-by. On average there is one keyframe for every 2-3 frames, so a lot of work, but nowhere near as much as every frame.

I probably spent an hour doing this, and I can't say if the time investment is worthwhile, but please go ahead and use it if it still works for you. I did this in PD17 and you'll be able to open it now that you've upgraded. Here's what it will look like:



YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

Quote

The motion tracking is meant for locking onto one object at a time and tracking it with another object. You can't change the shape of the tracking object, and it doesn't work in the Mask Designer. However, you could track a green image in the shape you want and then chroma-key it out if that approach saved you some time.

As for giving up, if you watch the tutorial again, you'll see that the guy also had to go frame by frame to get everything to line up in Premiere. He used the "Track selected mask forward one-frame" tool that did some of the tracking work for him, but remember that he then skipped over 95% of his work and just presented the whole thing as a guide to how he did this, not necessarily that it was quick and easy.

Also, the mask tool in Premiere (or whatever add-on he was using) is far more flexible than the one built-in to PD.

As I mentioned earlier, if you have NewBlueFX packs installed the Garbage Matte effect is more flexible, but it's limited to 4 control points (corners) and you'd want to use that as the "leading" edge to cover the changing leg angles while a simple PD block mask masks the rest of the area.

For the project with your pole, again most of the work is done in the Rev2 project and you'd only need to add a few tweaking keyframes where needed.

Instead, take a look at the Rev3 project I've just added. I decided to see what was needed to make your clip work perfectly, so I added rotation to the mix and also added more keyframes throughout the walk-by. On average there is one keyframe for every 2-3 frames, so a lot of work, but nowhere near as much as every frame.

I probably spent an hour doing this, and I can't say if the time investment is worthwhile, but please go ahead and use it if it still works for you. I did this in PD17 and you'll be able to open it now that you've upgraded. Here's what it will look like:

Hey that is perfect! It definitely works for me. Thanks heaps for spending time.

I have NewBlueFX Essentials, no garbage matte

If I want to reverse engineer what you have done by looking at the PDS you sent, is that possible? I just want to see exactly what you did to get there.

For future uses, I'm also thinking that this transition may not be worth the time vs effort/ return on investment after all. Do you agree? I see this transition in a lot of travel videos, and they make it seem too easy. Lots of videos have it multiple times throughout the video. Hence why I thought this must have been an easy thing to do.

There are at least 7 NBFX "essentials" packs, and you'll need #6 for that effect.

By all means, look at what I did! I hope that by playing around with the keyframes, and maybe even deleting some and creating your own is a great way to learn.

Remember that you can adjust the attribute's slider with the mouse, change the number by typing or with the up/down click arrows, and drag the edge/item on the screen to create a new keyframe. All work equally, so use whichever method is convenient for each task.

For the future, it would be 10x easier if you used a tripod and smoothly panned across a scene. Another option that I didn't think to try would be to use PD's video stabilizer, which might help smooth out some of the speed changes caused by recording while walking in a kind of step by step manner.

If you're going to use drone footage, you'll have butter smooth motion, but you'll want to begin the run well before your target and continue well past it if you want to avoid any speed changes during your intro. If it's a linear motion, you will only need to set the start and end keyframes and your mask is done

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°

I only have the NBFX 7
How come I don't have rest of them? I thought they were included in "PowerDirector 17 Ultimate Suite - Incl. Premium Effects and Templates"

Quote I only have the NBFX 7
How come I don't have rest of them? I thought they were included in "PowerDirector 17 Ultimate Suite - Incl. Premium Effects and Templates"

I'm not sure, although you may want to double check this chart and make sure you got what was promised for your level. If you have the subscription version, you would need to run the Cyberlink App Manager to install the missing packs.

I bought my effects a few years ago, before they started getting included in PD.

There's a link in the top corner of the FX room when you're looking at any NBFX library that will take you to this page, where all of the "Legacy" (older) FX are still available for sale. I bought all of those except for the Art and Film FX. There are some packs I don't think I've ever used an effect from, and others that I use all the time.

YouTube/optodata

DS365 | Win11 Pro | Ryzen 9 3950X | RTX 4070 Ti | 32GB RAM | 10TB SSDs | 5K+4K HDR monitors

Canon Vixia GX10 (4K 60p) | HF G30 (HD 60p) | Yi Action+ 4K | 360Fly 4K 360°