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Boxes for Beginners
Sometimes you conduct interviews with someone who isn't in the studio, and need to establish the visual relationship between the host and guest. This is often done by placing each in a reduced "box" with some form of graphic treatment. (There are a number of names for this kind of event: Two-way; Remote; DTL ("down the line"); if you have other names, let me know.)
Two broad forms can be discerned: Box over Graphic, and Graphic over Box.
- Box Over Graphic
The graphic is placed on the M/E's A-Background row. The graphic can be a still (from the internal Still Store, perhaps), or an animation from a VTR/DDR. It might even be generated from within the M/E, such as a modulated wipe etc.
Key1 and Key2 provide the boxes, reduced through an internal Transform Engine and positioned as desired. The Keyer mode is "Fixed Lin" ("Video" NOT lit) and with "Eff Send" active. This will give a 16:9 (or 4:3) rectangle for each box. The aspect ratio can be altered by using "Crop" in the Transform menu.
If you use Crop to make your boxes "vertical", but the guest is not exactly central, it is a complex process (three procedures) to adjust left crop, right crop, and reposition the box, especially if your Graphic has a precise area to locate the box.
Another way to set up the keyer
Use a "Preset Pattern" with a rectangle to create your box. The height of the rectangle would be almost full-height, but the width would be much narrower. Now if you want to adjust the centring of the guest, you could use the Transform Joystick: select "M/E1 | Keyer 1 | Keyer Wipe", and use the joystick (to the left or right) to centre the box over the guest. Then select "M/E1 | Keyer 1 | Keyer T-Form" and reposition the box back over the graphic. Only two procedures required.
The Boxes aren't rectangular!
Simple shapes such as parallelograms or circles can be used by selecting a Keyer Wipe (with aspect/rotate) for a Preset Pattern. For a "Complex" wipe shape (such as an octagon or star), you can assign one of the two Complex Wipes as the Generator for the keyer (instead of the simple Keyer Wipe generator). Again, you would position this wipe in the centre, almost as tall as the screen, and as wide as you need.
But sometimes the shape is specific, like a rectangle with one rounded corner. In this instance, you can Save a Matte-shape on the internal Still Store. The shape should be almost full-height; the Transform Engine will reduce it to the correct size and position. Hold the "Split Key" button on your M/E and press the Still Store that has the shape. If you want to reposition for an off-centre guest, you need to make sure each box has its OWN matte-shape, so you can change the Horiz Position of the appropriate Still Store's Playback, and then counter-adjust the horizontal position of the Transform Engine to suit. Sweet.
All this trouble, when you could simply ask the guest to move a bit to the right.
- Graphic Over Box
Another way to create the effect is to place your graphic (whether a still or an animation) in front of your boxes, with a suitable "hole" showing through to your Transform Engines behind. The advantage of this is that you can happily pan the Transform Engines behind the hole, making repositioning a single-step process.
The "hole" can be provided by a Still Store matte-shape, with white wherever you want to see the graphic and black wherever you want a Transform Engine. You composite this graphic as a Split Key, with a higher priority than the other keyers (the boxes).
The holes could be part of the graphic if it comes from something with an alpha-channel or key signal. (Quantel PictureBox "cutouts", or a "paired" Still Store image, for example.)
The graphic could conceivably have Chromakey holes as part of the artwork. This is especially useful if the graphic is a VTR/DDR replay and the holes are changing shape (with great subtlety, of course!)
You are therefore using three keyers, and the background-A row probably is never seen (though it will cause a tally to light). It makes sense for the two boxes to be fed from Key1 and Key2, so you can change sources readily. The graphic image can be on Key3 or Key4. (The fourth keyer could be used with a background or Utility, so this M/E is producing two simultaneous composites.)
If there's a danger of one box overlapping another, you need to find a wipe that can go between the two boxes. Often just a simple straight-line at a specific angle is sufficient. Activate one key, delegate BOTH keys, and then half-perform a wipe transition. You will be wiping ONE key OFF, and the OTHER key ON. (Leave the wipe half-way, then Learn the E-Mem.) Now, when you pan a Transform Engine around, you won't see it's edges appear over the other box.
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