Picture Montage Backgrounds

1. susiegriffith
   Member

   
   Is black the best background color to use behind pictures in a simple picture montage? As far as making the image look good that is.
   
   I really want to use a background that looks more professional, any ideas on what software could create neat backgrounds besides using a black background? I am testing Cyberlink's Director demo and I have learned how to use an overlay over a video, but it really doesn't give me much options in creating transitions on the pictures. I have tried Vegas and it is a bit over my head, I wish Vegas had a wizard that would walk me through each step.
   
   THanks,
   Susie Griffith
   281-251-9891

   Posted 8 years ago #

2. Kingkool682
   Member

   
   Black is used because it doesn't distract the viewer from the focal point i.e. the pictures. To do this in vegas is quite simple once you get the hang of it! First create a video track. Then click on the explorer tab and find your pictures. You can select them all or Cntrl+click the ones you want to use and drag them to the timeline. All of the pictures have now been layedout before you. You can drag pictures around to reorder them anyway you wish. If you want to create transitions, just overlap the pictures and Vegas will automatically make the cross-fade for you. Click on the transtion tab and drag any transition and drop on the cross fade to apply it! A pop up box appears which allows you to customize the transition as you see fit. The possibilities are endless with Vegas. There is a very good kick start tutorial found here: http://www.luciferjones.org/kick%20start%20to%20Vegas.htm
   
   Any other questions just post them here @ the Videomaker forums. There are several Vegas users here that will be more than happy to help you through a situation!

   Posted 8 years ago #

3. mikeb
   Member

   
   Something that looks nice is fairly easy to do in vegas is to use the picture you are displaying as a background also, only blurred. To do this:
   Create two video tracks.
   Place the same picture on each track.
   On the bottom picture, use track motion (the rectangular box on the right side of the video track identifyer). Make sure that your cursor is at the beginning of the event (picture) then stretch the picture so that it fills the entire preview window.
   Once this is done, click on the gaussian blur FX and then drag the extreme blur into the bottom picture. You can slide the horizontal and vertical value bar further right to cause even more blur.
   If you did everything correct, you should see the picture inside of a background that has the same colors as the picture.
   Hopefully, this is clear and not too overwhelming since you are just starting out. But give it a try, you may like the results.

   Posted 8 years ago #

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