NextPreviousHomeImporting a video to replace a photo

MrGruntHunter | 8 years ago | 30 comments | 3,995 views

I'm working with the BixPack Template 03 NEWS 3 RED.bt and am trying to replace the 'talent image (young lady)' with a video of myself talking and introducing a video I just made. I tried my first attempt at using a ChromaKey green screen and recorded myself talking. I didn't see a way to remove the green screen in BT so I created a new project in SONY MOVIE STUDIO and deleted the green background and then exported it as a movie (I exported it in .WMV. MOV and a MP4 file).
I tried just changing the texture to the video clip and importing the video clip but that didn't work. I then created a video layer and tried importing the MP4 file but nothing showed up. I then imported the .MOV file and it shows up by with me on a black background. I'm obviously doing something wrong.

I guess the question should be:
Can someone tell me how to make a video with a transparent background (green screen) and place it in a BT template?




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Use this effect on the greenscreen footage: press F9
C:\Outerspace Software\BluffTitler\Media\Effects\Picture\GreenScreen.cfx

In the properties dropdown you have now 9 FX settings you can change to what you need.

good luck

komies, 8 years ago


komies,
A few questions;
1) Should I delete the picture layer with the girls photo and then create a movie layer to bring the movie into?
2) When I made the green screen video I had to beck off in order to be able to see myself full height, which left areas on both sides of me exposed to the background off of the green screen. Can BT mask those areas or should I import the video into SONY MOVIE STUDIO and mask those areas off first and then export it into a .mov or .wmv format (MP4 doesn't seem to want to show up in BT for me) ?
I did get it to show up in BT in one scenario but the background would show through my image and I even tried moving the layer forward without any success.
3) I was going to post a screen shot here but forgot how to do that.

MrGruntHunter, 8 years ago


1) no need to, a texture is a texture if it is a video or picture makes no difference.
2) use the crop setting for left and right.
don't use the compressed MP4, the more color information the better.
3) you can only link to a picture from like a photo share like imgur, facebook, instagram or cloud location in a open article on the community. You can add picture from your HDD only when you start a new article.

Tip: set FX rotate towards camera to 1, this will make the video face the camera wherever it goes horizontally.

outerspace-software.com...

komies, 8 years ago


OK, I got it to show up finally but I had to import the file into SONY MOVIE so I could render it as a .mov file. For some strange reason I can't get the MP4 to show up. Now my problem is that it shows up with large black bars on both sides of the video where the green screen didn't cover and I don't know how to crop out those side bars. Once I get this all figured out then I can start on trying to get audio synced up with it.

MrGruntHunter, 8 years ago


2) use the FX Crop Left, Right until the sidebars are gone.

komies, 8 years ago


I don't have a FX Crop option show up. All I have show up is"
FX Tolerance
FX Smooth
FX Power
FX Spillage Suppression
FX Blur
FX Show Border
FX Rotate towards camera (1+yes)

Where are you finding the FX Crop option?

MrGruntHunter, 8 years ago


Use this effect:
C:\Outerspace Software\BluffTitler\Media\Effects\Picture\GreenScreen.cfx

not the one out of v.11 folder !!!
But the new v.12 .cfx effect

Did you install the new V.12.2 on the C drive? Then the path as mentioned above will be correct.

komies, 8 years ago


YES, I have the new 12.2 version. I went back and looked and found another effect called ChromaKey and when I applied that I did get the FX Crop option and was able to crop out the side bars, HOWEVER, now the greenscreen background shows up and I can't get rid of that LOL. I feel like I'm running in circles here :-)

MrGruntHunter, 8 years ago


Still the wrong effect. The chroma key let's you key out any color.
You want to have the GreenScreen.cfx

1. select and copy this line below with Ctrl+C
C:\Outerspace Software\BluffTitler\Media\Effects\Picture\GreenScreen.cfx

2. press F9

3. Click Select Effect

4. click in the below bar where the cursor blinks

5. press Ctrl-V (paste) and press enter.

now you have the correct one, if not than you moved or installed V.12 on a different place on your HDD

search on your computer with explorer in the search bar for greenscreen.cfx

komies, 8 years ago


FX Tolerance / sets the level of different greens that will be keyed out.
FX Smooth / sets the level of smoothness to fine-tune. .
FX Power / sets the level of how much green most be keyed out.
FX Spillage suppression / sets the level of red to counter act the color green that maybe on the talent (noticeable with light color clothing)
FX Blur / sets the level of blur of the outline around talent to make it more smooth if there is a hard cut out of the talent.
FX Show border /
FX Rotate towards camera / video faces by following camera on the horizontal when set to 1.
FX Crop left, right / sets the level of trim from the left and right to remove unwanted that is out of the green screen.
FX Crop top, bottom / sets the level of trim from the top and bottom to remove unwanted that is out of the green screen.

Play with the settings until the desired effect is achieved.

komies, 8 years ago


Yes, that's the same effect I am using. Interestingly when I explored my OuterSpace effects folder I also saw one titled GreenScreenPlus.cfx but when I tried to select it from BT it didn't show up. Don't know what that file is. For some strange reason my GreenScreen.cfx doesn't have the FX Crop option, only the ChromaKey effect does. What I ended up doing was adding the ChromaKey effect and using the FX Crop to get rid of the side bars and then the color option to clear out the green background (that was a little tricky) and then I change effects back to the GreenScreen ans was able to tweak it into an acceptable condition.

MrGruntHunter, 8 years ago


You could reinstall Blufftitler to the C drive.

But I am fairly certain that you are using the old V11_GreenScreen.cfx
c:\Outerspace Software\BluffTitler\Media\Effects\V11\V11_GreenScreen.cfx
which has no Crop setting.

Instead of:
C:\Outerspace Software\BluffTitler\Media\Effects\Picture\GreenScreen.cfx
which has the Crop setting.

komies, 8 years ago


I do have that effect kromies but when I apply it the green screen shows up again however I am able to crop out the black side bars. Between the two I was able to work it out but something doesn't seem to be working right. :-(

I just uploaded the video to YouTube at: youtu.be...

MrGruntHunter, 8 years ago


Cool video!....i know this vault door. For the black vertical bars are you sure that the crop values are stable all along the timeline. Maybe set the value with 'all keys' checked to insure a constant value.

vincent, 8 years ago


Olá
Acabei de comprar a versão PRO do BluffTitler. Notei que nos titulos que vêm predefinidos com o BluffTitler, todos funcionam menos os da pasta SKETCH, ou seja não é possível modifica-los, porquê?

Diamantino Simao, 8 years ago

You can record your own sketches with Bixelangeo:

outerspace-software.com...

michiel, 8 years ago


Thanks Vincent. Yep, that's your masterpiece. I'm not sure but I think some some of my problem may have been with my SONY camera setting. I went back and looked and noticed the output setting was 4:3 instead of 16:9. The greenscreen I just purchased is 10' x 20' (actually 9'-8" x 18') and because of the camera wide screen in order for all of my to be in the scene the background behind the screen shows up on the sides so I end up having to mask that out.

MrGruntHunter, 8 years ago


Still not working like it should. Has anyone made a tutorial or screen recording of how to do this?

MrGruntHunter, 8 years ago


1) Create a new show (File menu > New show)
2) Set the show background color to white (File menu > Set background color)
3) Add video layer (Layer menu > Add layer > Add video layer) and select your Sony video
4) Play the show

Do you have the black vertical bars ?
If yes check your Sony setup and maybe switch the video format to 16:9 if it is not.

vincent, 8 years ago


I can't get .mp4 videos to show up at all, only .wmv or .mov files seem to work. Does that sound like a codek issue?

When I bring in the .wmv file the greenscreen effect doesn't seem to do anything but the chromakey does. What is the purpose, and difference, between these two effects? They are kind of confusing.

I need to pull my greenscreen out again and set it up, and also make sure my camera is set to 16:9 this time.

MrGruntHunter, 8 years ago


do you have the vertical bars ?
I can't import mp4 too.
I think chromakey have the advantage to have a color setting so you can make any color transparent, greenscreen works only for green.

vincent, 8 years ago


Thanks for the reply Vincent. I need to start over, get my camera set correctly and make another video. I'm in the process right now of building a support frame out of PVC pipe for hanging my green screen on. I'll report back on how well it works out.

BTW: What is the best video file format to use with BluffTitler? My only choices with SONY MOVIE STUDIO 13 Platinum Suite are: *.WMV or *.MOV, *.MPEG-2, *.MP4 or *.ACVHD. Since .mp4 files don't appear to be able to be imported I've resorted to using *.WMV since it appears to be a higher resolution than the *.MOV format.

MrGruntHunter, 8 years ago


Wmv works great in BT, it is a Window's native format and it'll work on any computer with Windows OS so i think it's the better to be used as VIDEO LAYER. For the resolution (as well as many of the other parameters) it can be modified with any format : avi, mov, mpg, wmv, flv etc...

vincent, 8 years ago


Basic tips:

Record talent in portrait mode by rotating camera 90 degrees, this way more pixels are used on the talent instead of the sides with will be cropped out, just a waist of resolution. You can rotate it back in Blufftitler.

Use the correct greenscreen.cfx

In sony movie studio you can zoom into the video, also to get rit off the unwanted sides. (see youtube)

Use the correct greenscreen.cfx

The greenscreen.cfx works great with cropping settings when you use the correct one, when greenscreenplus.cfx is in your folder than your are in the wrong folder, these are V11 effects.

Light is your friend and shade is the enemy in filming green screen. Use at least two diffuse light sources this will created softer shadows and place them in a triangle with your talent at the head in a 45 degree angle facing the talent. This will counteract the shadows that is cast by the other light source. (see youtube)

Use the correct greenscreen.cfx

Because of the distance to the camera mic it's preferred to use an external mic like a lapel mic which can be had for $ 10,-

Use the correct greenscreen.cfx

komies, 8 years ago


It is AMAZING to me that no one can has answered the question about adding a video to this bixpack! I am having the same issues as the original poster.

He asked which format of video was best to use with the greenscreen footage, but no one from the company answered him with useful answers! I think there is a language barrier here. I'm starting to think I just wasted a bunch of money today on this software.

Plus, I cannot access the separate bixpacks I bought from the titling program! I have to go into each folder and double click the file I want to start the program!

The documentation and videos don't cover any of this! I need some answers in plain English, so I can understand how to use this program. Maybe you should pay ME to re-write your documentation. It is just worthless! :-(

Eliot, 7 years ago

That's because he had more than one issue and one of the prominent ones concerned CODEC-Hell.
But he seemed to figure it out, because he made the video and didn't post any other questions on this topic.

Please ask what you need and tell why it doesn't work for you? And post it as a new question so other can join and learn from this also.

1. There is no best green screen format, you need to have the right codec installed for the format that you want to use. It depends on you needs, your hardware, the source material, etc

On this community we advice to install K-Lite codecs pack because it is free and covers a lot of codecs. For the best keying it is recommend to use an non encoded format because that contains the most color and luminal information. Straight from the camera is usually the best.

4:4:4 chroma subsampling would be best! en.wikipedia.org...
Recording tips Lighting is key! tubularinsights.com...

2. Acces bixpacks.
Blufftitler opens the last used folder with Menubar File/ Open show, on the top right you can select:
App which is by default C:\Outerspace Software\BluffTitler\Media\Shows (you can move the downloaded Bixpacks folders here)
Personal which is by default C:\Users\Name\Documents\Blufftitler\Shows (Here are the saved shows you made)

komies, 7 years ago


The documentation is still awful, it doesn't explain these items that you mentioned.

I've been playing with it for a few hours and am starting to figure it out. I couldn't chromakey a .mov file, but I could with a .wmv file, even though I think the video quality is reduced. I cannot key from the camera directly for my project.

Thanks for helping.

Eliot, 7 years ago

your camera saves its recording in .mov? Right
Can you play the recording in Blufftitler? (add video without greenscreen effect)

My guess is no, this would likely mean a codec issue.
You can find a lot thru the search community option like this query:
outerspace-software.com...

outerspace-software.com...

komies, 7 years ago


Eliot, I have created a new article to explain how to open a BixPack template. I hope this info helps:

outerspace-software.com...

michiel, 7 years ago


For the GreenScreen effect it does not matter if your layer uses a JPG, PNG, BMP, MP4, MOV or WMV file. All can be set by clicking on the SELECT TEXTURE... button in the MEDIA > CHANGE TEXTURE... dialog.

Windows has built-in support for WMV files. But for MP4 and MOV you might have to install a new codec. The K-Lite Codec Pack can handle them both:

outerspace-software.com...

michiel, 7 years ago


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