This will sound wacky, but I have a movie of maggots moving (honest!) and need to highlight a couple of the little devils as they move around on an agar plate, for example by superimposing a ring around them, or graying out the rest of the image except for a circle around them (the kind of thing they do on the football on TV). Is there any way of doing this with standard or free/cheap software? EDIT: NB I mean on the video, not on the presentation - someone has introduced me to Mouseposé, which does exactly that during a presentation. I want to do that effect on the movie.
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Highlighing a zone on a video image
- Thread starter MatthewCobb
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make a slate the proper size in photoshop and grey it out with a masked out circle. OR if you have after effects, you could do basically the same thing and then move the circle...
If you have an editing program that features layers, you can put the main video on the bottom layer and an circle matte on the the 2nd layer.
The circle interior should be transparent. If it is white, you can apply a luma key to key out the white interior.
Size the circle to highlight the zone desired. The black part of the matte will completely cover everything outside of the zone. Pull the opacity down to 50% or so to gray out the area outside of the highlighted image.
The circle interior should be transparent. If it is white, you can apply a luma key to key out the white interior.
Size the circle to highlight the zone desired. The black part of the matte will completely cover everything outside of the zone. Pull the opacity down to 50% or so to gray out the area outside of the highlighted image.
Use After Effects for this, FCP would be a little slow and less tweakable within the program.
But, of course, if you do use AE, make sure the video is done and edited to the point where all you need is the layering stuff. AE does layers far far better than FCP, but its NOT a NLE, so you cant cut your vid anymore.
But, of course, if you do use AE, make sure the video is done and edited to the point where all you need is the layering stuff. AE does layers far far better than FCP, but its NOT a NLE, so you cant cut your vid anymore.
OK, a cheaper (and simpler) solution has been suggested to me, given this is a one off: combine Mouseposé with recording of the whole procedure using Snapzprox. Still involves buying some software, but both are cheap and simple to use. Thanks for your help.