medium opacity mask

hi all,

i need some help here... i'm trying to get the effect of looking through a telescope, but i don't want to have the rest of the screen in black instead, i would like the remainder of the clip to show through dimmed (similar to a spot lamp).

this is what i've done:

- superimpose the clip with itself on two video tracks.
- on track 1, i put effects>matte>mask shape and selected the oval
- on track 2, i changed the opacity to 50%

this setup does what i want, but on playback, the image quality is really bad. i suppose there is something like a phase difference (to use an audio term) between these two tracks, so everything looks out of focus and jittery.

any idea on how to do this right?

thanks for any help!

stefan

--
macpro 2x3 ghz dual core intel, 10.6.8, FCS 2

Have you rendered the clip?



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

"I suppose there is something like a phase difference (to use an audio term) between these two tracks, so everything looks out of focus and jittery."

what Ben said.

ALSO:
there is a chance from your description that the images have gone out of sync when you stacked them.
turn on TimeCode overlays in the Canvas (3rd drop-down menu near the top of the window) to check this,
use the slip tool to correct.

the simplest way to do the stacking is to hold Option and Shift as you drag a clip upwards.
Option will make a duplicate, SHIFT will keep it from slipping sync.

another approach to this would be to try the Vignette filter.
that would be a all-in-one-clip solution.
you could add a blur to the footage with that, too.

Two layers will give you more flexibility with the look of the effect, as you can add CC to the outer clip as well.



nick

Here is a link to an XML FCP file with a 720x480 and 1920x1080 sequence and a simple setup that might be what you need.

[www.loudandfast.co.uk]

Simply unzip and import the telescope.xml file into FCP and copy the color overlay from one of these to layer 2 in your timeline.

You can adjust the size of the "hole" and the softness in the filter settings.



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

thanks guys for the speedy replies. no i didn't render and didn't think i need to. now it looks just fine!

i'll try the vignette filter option too, just to see how that would work. just really getting into it...

thanks again,
stefan

--
macpro 2x3 ghz dual core intel, 10.6.8, FCS 2