VIRTUAL STUDIO SETS CONSTRUCTION KIT TUTORIAL SONY VIDEO

Using our Virtual Studio Set Construction Kit in Sony Video (Vegas) is very easy. We're using Sony Vegas 5.0 so your copy may look a little different but the concepts remain the same.

Firstly load the background you want to use - in this case we're using the cloudy set background3.avi. See below.

You can now add an object to the next video track. Notice that you can clearly see each object in the preview window so you can select the item you think would look good. Let's add walkway.tga. Just drag it down to the top track so it becomes Video track 1. The higher up the item is in Sony Video the more to the 'front' of the screen it will appear. Use this to arrange objects so they work with each other. See below.

Now we need to tell Sony Video that the object has an alpha channel. Right Click on walkway.tga that's on your timeline and select Properties. See below.

Now select the Media tab and use the Alpha Channel pull-down to select Straight (unmatted) and hit OK. See below.

Finally we need to tell Sony Video to make the duration of the object the same as the duration of the animated background. To do this move your cursor to the far right of the object then drag it to the end of the background. See below.

Click on the timeline and you should now see the blue cloudy background with the walkway on it in the preview window. See below.

You could export this out as a new movie and you'd be done, but we going to add a couple of other elements to show how easy it is. So let's add another object. NOTE - each overlayed object MUST be on its own video track.

So let's add a monitor. We'll do this in exactly the same way we added the walkway. Firstly by dragging monitoronwood.tga to a new timeline at the top shuffling everything down by one and then telling Sony Video it has an alpha channel.Finally make it the same duration as the background. If you've got it right then your preview should like the image below.

Okay. If you're happy with the set we recommend exporting it out as a new single file BEFORE adding your chromakeyed subject and before adding a virtual desk. We're calling it 'customset.avi'. Import your new file as a video file then overlay your subject and finally overlay a desk (if you wish) using the same technique we used to overlay the obejcts. You will need to repeat your custom set to match the duration of your chromakey subject by simply adding it to the timeline as many times as needed - it will seamlessly loop so you can add it hundreds of times. Also drag the desk so it also matches this duration.

Your final timeline may look something like below.

And that's it. As ever experimentation is key but it's very easy to delete objects or re-arrange so that they look better. We'd love to see any virtual studio sets that you make so please email them to us general@zkad.com