Creating a Dynamic Product
How to make a movie-in-a-movie in MoviePlus X3Masks (Timeline mode only)
NOTE: As with digital imaging, masks in MoviePlus are a way of cutting out an area of one layer to reveal the layer below, using moving video clips rather than still images. MoviePlus has a selection of ready made masks for you to use, but you can also make your own in a bitmap editing program like PhotoPlus. Save your mask as a PNG file to preserve transparency. Masks need to occupy a track of their own and to sit above the video sources. The white region of the mask allows the underlying video to show through.
/ Masks operate in a special mode and must not share a track with other types of media. To create a new video track for your mask, select Video Track from the Insert menu. Drag the new track above the other video tracks.
/ On the Media pane click on the Add media… button, select File from the menu and navigate to the folder where your mask is saved.
You can also use one of the preset shapes from the MoviePlus library. On the Media pane select the Library tab and choose from the Quickshapes folder or the Masks subfolder in the Tutorials Workspace folder.
Drag your choice of mask onto the new video track on the Timeline.
/ The area created by the white region will be visible on the video tracks below the mask, but the transparent area will show as black not transparent unless you group the video sources below it. Adding a group means that all the tracks in a group inherit any effects applied, or can be moved together.
To create a video group select Insert > Video Group and drag the track header that appears into the group in the left section of the Timeline.
In the example a horizontal split-screen shows footage of the interior of a car in the top half of the frame and video clips of its exterior in the bottom half (see step 4).
/ On the Properties pane for your Mask video track, select Mask from the Blend Mode drop down menu. Preview and save your work.
This second example shows the Timeline and mask for a project where footage of skaters at Somerset House plays inside a clip of a Christmas tree bauble and flashing fairy lights.
Transforms (Timeline mode only)
NOTE: Transforms allow you to resize one video source in a multi-track project so that it fits within part of the main project frame, rather than fills it. This allows for exciting creative possibilities with one movie playing inside another. For a full range of ideas of how this technique can be applied, look up Introducing Transforms on the MoviePlus Help menu.
/ You need two video sources. The video track with the foreground source (2) must be dragged above the background footage (1). Select the foreground clip by clicking on it.
Create a video group as before by selecting Insert > Video Group and dragging the track header that appears into the group in the left section of the Timeline.
/ Enable Key Frame View by clicking on the Attributes button for that video track (2) and selecting the Transform option.
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Click on the grey button on the Transform track so that it turns red as above. The Preview window will now have Transform handles. These can be adjusted to resize the clip with an even perspective by holding Control + Alt + Shift while dragging. In the example, however, freeform perspective resizing is applied by holding only the Control key while dragging a corner handle to get the video source to fit exactly into the space occupied by the snowy Christmas card in the background footage.
Preview and save your work.
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