How can I make an animated route map in Vegas?

NickHope wrote on 12/23/2004, 8:27 AM
I'd like to create a map for use in Vegas projects that is zoomed into and panned while a superimposed, animated arrow snakes along it showing the route that an expedition takes. Do I need After Effects for this or is there another way?

Comments

GaryKleiner wrote on 12/23/2004, 8:40 AM
Sometime a simple wipe between a map with no line and one with the line will work.
Otherwise, reveal the line with keyframed Bezier masks.

Gary
rs170a wrote on 12/23/2004, 8:43 AM
Check out BillyBoy's tutorial #4 for some ideas

Mike
Jay Gladwell wrote on 12/23/2004, 8:50 AM
Kelly also has an excellent tute on this very thing.

Jay
taliesin wrote on 12/23/2004, 11:47 AM
Masking is one way to go. Wiping another.

The Wax plugin (freeware) has a preset which shows a handwriting fx. It's just the same like animating a route map. So using the Rotoscoping tool of Wax is another way to go.

Last not least there is a brand new version (2.0) of Heroglyph (made by ProDAD) which also works as a Vegas plugin. And there is a special tool for animating route maps included. Simple to use and rather effective.

Marco
NickHope wrote on 12/23/2004, 12:02 PM
Thanks for all the suggestions. Does anyone have a link for Kelly's tutorial on this. I can't find it. Thanks!
Jay Gladwell wrote on 12/23/2004, 12:08 PM
Try this:

http://www.chienworks.com/software/mapliner/

Jay
TorS wrote on 12/23/2004, 1:06 PM
For some strange reason, the cliché of a journey being described (on film/video) by a line being drawn on a map is stuck in so many people's mind.
The more appropriate thing would be to have a dot or a figure move from point A to point B - leaving no trace. It could be accompanied by sound - illustrating the type of travel. And it would be dead easy to do in Vegas.
Tor
NickHope wrote on 12/23/2004, 2:18 PM
I know what you mean but then it wouldn't show where you've already been!
TorS wrote on 12/23/2004, 2:40 PM
You could leave a spot behind to show where you've stopped, but who cares where you've been? It's where you're going that counts. Forward movement is what storytelling is about.
Tor
NickHope wrote on 12/23/2004, 2:49 PM
On our dive boat we have charts up on the wall and people are always asking where we've been as well as where we're going. They also keep asking me to include a route map of where they've been in their souvenir DVD, hence the original question.
bolt wrote on 12/23/2004, 3:22 PM
do you have a link to the wax plugin etc?
taliesin wrote on 12/23/2004, 3:35 PM
Wax:

www.debugmode.com

Heroglyph:

www.heroglyph.de/gb/index.html

Marco
TorS wrote on 12/24/2004, 2:09 AM
If it's about diving spots the going from place to place is even less interesting (in retrospect, I mean). Get a font thing that looks like a pin seen from above (or a boat, a treasure chest or something else) and put at in the appropriate spots. That will convey the vital information without being too clever or fancy.
Grazie is always saying less is more, and this is a clear case of it.
Tor
scissorfighter wrote on 12/28/2004, 5:09 AM
Bubblevision and gang,
I have a relatively plain-jane way to do this, and it works pretty good if you're not looking for Matrix-quality effects! But it can be tedious! Basically you can just keyframe multiple cookie cutter FX on a clip to punch holes out of the map, revealing a solid background beneath. If you'd like to see a sample, here's a link to a quick .veg I trimmed out of one of my larger projects. I zipped it up with a map image as well. Hope it's useful to someone.

http://www.ryanhaskell.com/maproute.zip

Ryan
Grazie wrote on 12/28/2004, 10:07 AM
Ahhem . . ! I heard my name mentioned?!

Shouldn't this be a "Route-Tute!" . . Hah-ha!

Grazie

Chienworks wrote on 12/28/2004, 11:05 AM
My mapliner program isn't a tutorial. It's a piece of (free) software you can download that will animate a route line on a still image of a map and output a .bmp image sequence which can then be opened in Vegas. It's rather crude, but it does work.

Probably the biggest crudity is that the orignal map image must be NTSC or PAL DV resolution to begin with, which means resize it to 654x480 or 787x576 before importing it into the program.*

*yeah, yeah, i'll fix it someday ...