Insert a pointing arrow in my movie

Kevin-J-L wrote on 4/28/2021, 10:09 AM

Hello,

MEP 2021 Premium. For the life of me I cannot learn how to simply insert a simple arrow so I can point something out in my video.

I searched the forum, google, youtube. The closest I came to learning was using key frames which I got frustrated quickly because of my lack of knowledge with key frames.

I did find I could insert a big fat arrow covering the entire video but was unable to resize and position (templates/image objects/present). I'm at a loss, can someone help?

I ended up exporting a single frame, added the arrow in MS Paint and then brought it back into my timeline. (I know...pathetic right?)😟

Comments

browj2 wrote on 4/28/2021, 10:40 AM

@Kevin-J-L

Hi,

If you look at any of my recent tutorials, you see that I use the red arrow that is under Templates, Image objects, Present - Arrow 09. Apply this to any photo or video clip. Ungroup. Now you can do whatever you want with it, including resizing, moving, rotating using Effects, View/Animation, Size/Position. Lots to learn.

John CB

CubeAce wrote on 4/28/2021, 11:02 AM

@Kevin-J-L

Hi Kevin and welcome to the user to user forums.

Try the following steps.

Ray.

Kevin-J-L wrote on 4/28/2021, 1:53 PM

Thank you John and Ray!! That made it easy!

johnebaker wrote on 4/28/2021, 2:07 PM

@Kevin-J-L

. . . . I ended up exporting a single frame, added the arrow in MS Paint and then brought it back into my timeline. (I know...pathetic right?) . . . .

Actually no - it is very close to a method (feature) that is available in Movie Edit Pro (MEP).

If you want the arrow on a 'frozen' section of the video you can use a combination of @browj2, and @CubeAce method without the need for keyframes or exporting as a single JPG.

MEP has a feature Insert still image at the playback marker available on right click of a video clip - this will create a still image from the video and insert it into the timeline - the default length of the image is whatever you have set for importing images in the program settings - by default this is 7 seconds - you can then add the arrow as per John CB and Rays comments and size and position at will.

If you need to track an object/person then Rays method is one way, there is also another way using another feature of MEP- a form of Motion tracking see this tutorial - I did this using a title however you can any object eg an arrow image - resize it first. The technique uses an older version of MEP however still applies to MEP 2021.

HTH

John EB