The best way that I’ve found to make animated background in Vegas Pro is by using the Generated Media Noise Texture. If you add a key frame at the end and adjusting the Progress (in degrees) just a bit it will animate the noise. Of course key framing any of the properties is bound to change something but I find the progress most appealing. Try using the Puffy Clouds preset and adjust the progress just a little on the last key frame to get some pretty convincing moving clouds.
If you want to just have an animated border on a video you can use the Cookie Cutter and another track. The trick is adding the background on the track just below the track you want to border so it shows through the Cookie Cutter.
Here are the steps:
- Insert two video tacks
- Drop your animated background on the bottom track
- Place your video that needs the animated border on the top track
- Add the Cookie Cutter to the event on the top track
- In the Cookie Cutter dialog, select Shape: Rectangle
- Select Method: Cut away all but selection
- Adjust Size: to the size of your border.
Finally you can use Generate Media Color Gradient to make animated backdrops. Just change an existing backdrop and save it as a new name (press the floppy disk icon). You can use key-framing to animate the changes. Let’s say you don’t like the fading edge inside the Hollow background. Just change it. By moving points (1) and (2) on top of each other the fade becomes a hard edge. By moving them away from each other the fade gets softer. You can even add a 3rd or 4th point with different color or edge hardness. You really have to play around with this to really appreciate it.
Try moving the two points to the right of the screen and place them on top of each other. This should give you a top and bottom blue border with nothing on the sides. Then change the color of point (1) to white and you should have the effect you need. This should be placed on the overlay track so it’s in front of your movie.
