Highlighting a football player on video clip

dpetto wrote on 5/21/2009, 11:12 AM
Hello Everyone, what are some ways to go about highlighting just one football player on a video clip. I don't want to lose the other players completely, maybe make them black & white, less intense or even ad an affect to them, but leave the player I want to spotlight alone. Is there a way to make the background of the cookie cutter so it's not solid black, but maybe a percentage of black so what's underneath it shows through?
Thanks

Comments

SCS PBC wrote on 5/21/2009, 11:43 AM
Duplicate the event on two separate tracks.

Track 1: Cookie Cutter
Track 2: B/W filter and/or opacity change

Hope this helps.
bStro wrote on 5/21/2009, 11:44 AM
The cookie cutter doesn't add black to the video, it does just what it says -- cuts away from it.

You need two copies of the video, one above the other. Add the cookie cutter effect (or use bezier masking) to the top one. Then do whatever you want to differentiate the two. Probably a light gaussian blur or other FX to the bottom one.

Rob
Streamworks Audio wrote on 5/21/2009, 12:11 PM
As mentioned, two clips will be needed - so duplicate the video track and then on the top one you could use the cookie cutter and you will need to use keyframes to move the cut portion with the player (if he is moving). Or you could use a mask. Then on the second track place a b&w effect or even lower the opacity of it?

Chris
johnmeyer wrote on 5/21/2009, 1:06 PM
I just had to do exactly this same thing for a football highlights reel that I finished yesterday. The methods detailed so far involve changing the opacity or doing something else to the event on the lower track. This makes things much more complicated when you want to add transitions, fades, etc. because if you fade the lower track and not the upper track (or the other way around), bad things happen.

Here is a MUCH better and easier way.

Go ahead and Ctrl-drag the event to the track above to create a duplicate. Leave the event alone on the lower track. On the upper event, add the Cookie Cutter, as others have suggested, but then add the Bump Map effect after that. You won't really be using the "bump" part of this effect, only its ambiance. Set Light Type to Directional, and make sure X, Y, and Z are all set to zero. Also set Ambiance, Shininess, and Bump Height to zero. Bump channel should be set to alpha and White is High should be unchecked.

Then all you have to do is set the cookie cutter to "cut away all but section" and adjust the size and position (and keyframe it if necessary). To get the intensity you want, just vary the intensity control in the Bump Map fX until you get what you want. For some reason 0.200 seems to be neutral, and anything below that makes your "highlight" darker than the rest of the video, and numbers above that make it lighter.

Then, once you have this set the way you like, you can either create a preset, or you can copy and then "paste attributes," which I find to be faster for my particular workflow.

I highlighted about fifty plays in just a few minutes using this technique. When doing a highlights reel, it really helps the audience know where to look so they don't miss the tackle, sack, or block (most people can follow whoever has the ball, so you don't need to highlight that).