Need help with overlay in Adobe Premier Pro

Pazma · #1 (**permalink**) 01-15-2007, 06:37 PM

I have recorded myself sitting down and then recorded myself walking past the area that I was sitting. I would like to have the image of myself walking in the background and the sitting version in the foreground. I am a complete noob to Adobe Premier so detailed advice would be best.

Thanks in advance.

Alan Mills · #2 (**permalink**) 01-16-2007, 11:43 AM

Originally Posted by Pazma

I have recorded myself sitting down and then recorded myself walking past the area that I was sitting. I would like to have the image of myself walking in the background and the sitting version in the foreground. I am a complete noob to Adobe Premier so detailed advice would be best.

Thanks in advance.

You will NOT do this with Premeire Pro alone - at least not the way you filmed it.

What other s/w you got access to? You'll need a good image editor (Photoshop?) or a good compositing tool (After Effects?) to do this.

having two of you in picture at the same time is easy enough (but again best done in AE). It's the walking in front of yourself bit that makes it a no go becaue Premier Pro has very limited masking capabilities and you will not be able to get a clean outline.

If you can refilm the walk past using a bluescreen you're on a winner though.

Pazma · #3 (**permalink**) 01-16-2007, 11:54 AM

Thanks, I have Vegas and Photoshop CS aswell, my only previous experience is with Windows Movie Maker so all this masking and bluescreen stuff is new to me. I was thinking of trying to make a .gif of it. I wanted myself walking to be transparent so it looks ghostly so jerky movement would only add to it. I'll let ya know how it turnes out.

Alan Mills · #4 (**permalink**) 01-16-2007, 12:07 PM

Originally Posted by Pazma

Thanks, I have Vegas and Photoshop CS aswell, my only previous experience is with Windows Movie Maker so all this masking and bluescreen stuff is new to me. I was thinking of trying to make a .gif of it. I wanted myself walking to be transparent so it looks ghostly so jerky movement would only add to it. I'll let ya know how it turnes out.

OK, the easy (to describe) way of doing this in Photoshop is to export both clips as filmstrips or as a sequence of PNGs or something.
Open equivalent frames in Photoshop. Draw around yourself from the 'walking past' clip and cut and past it into the same position in the original (sitting down) clip and save it.
Repeat for each frame.
Import the frame sequence back into Premiere Pro
Job done.

[GRATUITOUS_SELF_PLUG_MODE]
This is the same technique I used to make my title look like it was behind me (but in front of the background) in my 'Final Hit' short movie. Find a link to it at http://www.alandmills.co.uk/

[/GRATUITOUS_SELF_PLUG_MODE]

Pazma · #5 (**permalink**) 01-16-2007, 06:28 PM

I've been messing around with Vegas and while I haven't got the effect I wanted I've managed to get something similar, I've had to scrap the walking idea for something else. I used the 'parent track' and 'child track' options to super impose a transparent image of myself peeking in the corner of the shot with the footage of me sitting down in the background, all it needed then was a little tweaking with the brightness. It worked like a charm. I'm new to Vegas but I like it alot so far, seems more user friendly than Premier.