Thanks for asking: MEP 17+

Hi

I've also displayed "track curves" on Track 3. Hasn't helped: Both green and white "curves" are flat -- green at top, white at middle.

The Track Curves are only for automating Audio Volume and Balance so you will see nothing helpful there.

Highlight the Text track and then go to Effects > Movement Effects > Size and Position and look if the keyframes have been created for the text movements. You can expand the line of keyframes into the individual components Xpos, Ypos etc by clicking the white triangle next to the Tick and by clicking the eye symbol you will see the KF curve for that parameter overlayed on the text track. A click on the name of the movement parameter and you will see all the individual frame movements as a black square on the curve whre you can even edit each movement for each frame by dragging the square with the mouse.

This might tell us something about what has occuured. I do not have 17 available but it works as expected in MEP2014.

Is MEP17 patched up to it's latest patch available?

Ss

Hi,

See this tutorial on how to upload screen shots.

Hi

. . . . I opened the keyframe line. So no evidence of keys being inserted.  Tried again with that line open. Nothing showed up. . . . .

• Before attaching the (   ) to the object make sure you have clicked on Effects tab.
   
• Right click the (   )  title object and select Attach to picture position in the video - see image 1 below.
   
• You may get 2 dialogs open, the first is a warning the second tells you to select the area to attach to - click Continue to both
   
• Drag out an area in the preview monitor for the object to be attached to.
   
• MEP will then calculate the necessary movements and add Keyframes to the (   )  title

If you then select Movement Effects, Size / Position and select the title object you should then see the Keyframes - see image 2 below

Image 1

Image 2

Depending on the contrast of the selected area the results can be very good - an MEP 17 example is below:

HTH

John EB

Hi

You do appear to be on the last Patch for V17.

I did find I still had that version and tried again with the same clip I tried in MEP2014. It does appear to be a little buggy at the point you try to define the area compared to the later version and it can start off before you create a large enough box, and calculates a lot slower. It is quite important to adequately bound the moving object to cover the object and the contrasting background. The cursur should not move whilst the tracking is calculated but you should see the KF's being laid down in the KF window in the Effects pool.

IIRC this tracking function has been improved through the versions and I think V2016 even advertises the improvements as a feature.

Peter

I've tried incorporating the suggestions. Thanks for the ideas. No changes in results yet, so here are more details
I'll be altering the top problem statement, having determined the missing step causing the missing URL message.

Further observations:

  1. Regarding the Key Frame area: Before calculation but after dragging the boundary line around the text object area releasing the lower right corner of the boundary box,
     (a) the x+y segments reposition themselves: from the top two components to the bottom two,
     (b) the key frame symbols dissappear, and
     (c) no curves or other KF symbols are added on any segment or to the summary image size/position line

  2. During movement calculation
     (a) the boundary box I make tracks with the movement of the selected image without creating size/position curves {info noted originally but added here for latecomers glancing through all the info},
     (b) the size/position dialog above the KFs changes to the message "Please select a photo or video object to be able toapply the effect". (Without success I tried selecting either from Track3 or a track above it, before and after boundary-box creation).

  3. After the calculation, the text object repositions to the centre of the primary video.   

From the ideas I changed my approach thusly:

#1 Dragged the boundary box around the text object instead of a comparable reference-object near it. This increased the calculation time to about what Scenestealer experienced, but etc.

#2 Highlighted only the text object (instead of text+video objects).

#3 Changed the name of the text object from ( ) to Parens. 

Further fruitless experiements:

a-->Expanded the image/size KF line to show its many components.  A KF symbol <> appeared on the master line, and to each of its 6 subcomponents (four 3d tilts + x-pos & y-pos) when expanded (down arrow). 

b-->Immediately retried the attach and calculate process. KF symbols do not reappear at the start of the x+y frame segments, etc. 

c-->Clicked eye symbols on KF segments ("activates curve in the arranger") highlighting them.  Highlighting disappears when boundary line released, etc.

d-->Clicked <> above segments in the arranger, producing a blue diamond and a 00:00 time counter on the summary and individual segments. When I selected the text object again, two xy tracking lines appeared in the object (1st time observed) on Track 3. At boundary line release, the new materials disappeared for the x+y segments and the xy lines dissappeared the next time I selected the Track 3 object, etc.  Other intermediate changes occurred - I'll spare you.

e-->Immediate retry. Beveled symbols appeared when repositioning text object from the centre. They disappeared at boundary line release, etc.

Hi

Here is a video of the method I used - note I have speeded up the calculations section as this is very slow and would make the video too long and I have permanently dismissed the first message dialog box so it does not appear.

  (Youtube)

Also if the object to be attached to is moving too fast the attachment will not follow the object faithfully.

HTH

John EB

Hi

A couple of points:-

I do not need to select (highlight) the video track that contains the object to track as in John's demo. Just Rt.clicking the text/object track > Attach object and then tracing the boundary box in the video track is sufficient to start the tracking.

1. There should not be any KFs showing in the KF window after changing the text size and position after the first prompt. The size and position KFramer parameter should appear in the KF window but no diamonds should be placed unless you set one deliberately. If you have the Size Posn. effect open before you start you should see this and then after "continue" at the second prompt and drawing the boundary box you should see the KF diamonds start to lay down.

#1 You should not be able to see the text box to be able to draw around it, after the second prompt ie. it should disappear. If it is visible it would seem to indicate that you are selecting and drawing in the text track and not in the video track that has a trackable object. The result would be you have created an animation on an object that is not moving and may result in the floating effect you have noted. 

Make sure the video and text object tracks are not grouped.

Ss