Highlight a player in a soccer video

[Mike42809]

Hi - I have searched Youtube and the community forums and haven't found an answer to my question.  I may not be using the right terminology as I am a beginner user.  I'm creating a soccer highlight video for my son to send to college coaches.  I have created a video that includes multiple clips and now I need to "highlight" my son so the coaches know which player to watch.

Question:  How can I add a circle/rectangle around him or a spotlight at the start of each clip so the coaches know which player to watch?

Thanks.

Mike

[rodneyb56060189 · Accepted solution]

maybe try searching for words like:

mask

tracking mask

overlay

[Mike42809]

Thanks for your reply!  I have started using those search terms and that has helped.

[imeilfx]

There is lots and lots of materials, tutorials about that but probably you are not - as you've said - using proper terminology. And as far as terminology rodneyb56060189  did pinted out correct ones so please look for them if you wish to use PPro more often in creatve way.
As for your specific issue and problem i gues that video tutorial (specially second part) should help you and give you proper workflow to acheve what you are looking for.

[Mike42809]

Hi imeilfx - I watched the video and this is very helpful, thank you for taking the time to reply.  In the video, the person mentions that After Effects could also do what I'm looking for, have you used that product?

Thanks.

Mike

[imeilfx]

Yes I'm using After Effects daily so  if you have any more question please ask.
As fo easiness of what you wish to achieve i guess After Effects is more suitable to do that but AE is a new program that works different than PPro so you would have to learn some basics of that new tool to use it in propper way.
As for differences between AE and PPro:
AE- is a motion graphics tool for animation, visual effects, compositing etc
PPro - it is editing tool mostly
So if that highliting thing is the only thing that you need to do and tutorial that I shared help to achieve that - you don't need to learn AE. But if you know that you will do more motion graphics, animated graphics elements on video footage and stuff like that - you should start using AE and do them in there.
If you still have any issues with acieving what you wish and what we recomended is not quite what you were looking for - give us some more specifics and I will try to help you there.

[Mike42809]

Thanks for your quick reply!  I enjoy learning new programs so that isn't a concern for me.  I actually want to become good with both programs.  My main use right now is to take the video from his games and clip out specific highlights and then add the circle/tracking so the college coaches know which player to watch.  Which program would you recommend?  Also, how would you do it in AE?

I greatly appreciate your help!

Mike

[imeilfx]

I would probably use AE for that kind of work, but that is because of two things:
1. I'm - you can say - old school user so for me PPro is a tool for video editing so I use it mostly just for that (ok, also for color correcting but for me that is also a part of editing a video) and PPro is a perfect tool for that. I use AE for any animation/special effects/moving graphics around - and AE is a perfect tool for that. Of course you can make editing in AE and some graphics moving or tracking and masking (that is what you try to achieve) in PPro but for me it is like using axe to spread the butter on morning toast - you can do that but why bother if you have perfect tool called butter knife.
2. and also I'm mostly motion designer and I use AE extensively since 2002-2003 so AE is my natural habitat

As for second part and how to use AE first you should star with some AE basics f.eg. from here:  After Effects tutorials | Learn how to use After Effects CC 

As for how to do what you are looking for - there is several ways that you can achieve that and because i do not know exactly what your footage looks and what precisely you wish to achieve I don't know wchich way will be best... but I will recomend you one or two:

1. That is something close what you need but in this video he tracks a ball not a person and attache to that tracking some graphics - in your anumation that can be masked Adjustment Layer.

That will be even better - he is bluring his face - you change blur effect that he is putting on that masked adjustment layer on some Levels or Brightness and Contrast etc.

2. Other way is to track masks directly

Hope that helps - if not you know where to find me and ask

[rodneyb56060189]

THE image above is a png with transparent background, which is an ALPHA channel, which is transparent to editor.

It is 1080p with white letters saying 'my son' .. with a white arrow pointing down ...

This is to illustrate quickly one method to you that won't take a lot of time for you to figure out.

It would be used to simply point out your son with an arrow, at the start of your clip(s) and only stay on screen a second so coaches know which player he is. You'll have to make your own image ( png or psd ) to use, with a nicer arrow, and your son's name.

put the png on a video level ABOVE the clip you have with your son playing... and use 'position' (and scale maybe) adjustments to move it to where you want it above your son. Since the background is transparent it doesn't matter if you move the arrow and name (frame lines) cause nothing else will be visible anyway, except for the name, arrow, and video underneath.

I would have put the psd version up here in layers but the forum doesn't allow psd ( which is easier to deal with for me, cause I can have a black layer so I can 'see' what I'm dealing with, and then only import the transparent background and arrow and name ( don't import the black )). This gets a little weird sounding until you figure it out. But this is the simplest solution. Also, probably best cause coaches probably just want to watch the action and not be distracted by graphics.

I'll put a screenshot of the psd version up so you can see the idea with black layer visible as a guide to making the graphic, but which would NOT be imported into PPro to use it ( the png can be used if you want to check it out.)

hehe, sorry, but I don't know how to explain stuff very well..

[Mike42809]

I didn't think of this type of solution but this is a good idea, I'll give it a try.

Thanks for taking the time to reply and provide an explanation of how I might be able to highlight him.

[Mike42809]

This is super useful, thank you for taking the time.

One more quick question , I was in AE and added an Adjustment Layer and then added a rectangular frame around my son using the Glow effect.  I right clicked and selected Track Mask.  When I played the clip the rectangle quickly stopped tracking my son and started tracking someone else when they passed each other.  There were multiple people in the clip.  Any idea why it didn't track him?

Thanks!

[imeilfx]

It can happen when tracked object is crossing other objects or hioding behindd them. There is no special magic to track something that tracker can't see. So you should track until that place ... then move frame by frame and track or move tracking pointr on each frame by hand then when subject will be visible and start tracking the normal way.

[Mike42809]

Ok, got it!  Thanks!

[Mike42809]

I'm making progress!  I have a tracker in place that tracks him and I have added an identifier that's linked to the tracker.  I don't need the identifier for the whole clip, how do I get it to fade out?  I tried setting opacity to 0% but then it didn't show up at all.

[imeilfx]

You have to use keyframes. So:
Put keyframe on opacity parameter on place where you wist your layer would fade out. Then go (with your playhead) to place where you wish layer qould disapear and set opacity to 0. Voila

[Mike42809]

Got it, thanks!

[Mike42809]

Things are going slow but I'm making progress.    One thing I just ran into, I had added a tracker and applied all of the motion tracking and then added a PNG file to use as the marker in the video.  When I added the PNG file though the video disappeared from the Composition window so I can't see the footage anymore.  Any ideas on what I did and how to fix that?

[imeilfx]

What do you mean - disappeared? Is it still on timelline but you can't see it in Composition preview window or it disappeared from timeline also. Or maby PNG file is not transparent and just coveres your video footage?

[Mike42809]

It was no longer visible from the composition window.

I ended up switching back to Premiere Pro.  It has proved to be much easier for me to achieve what I was trying to do.  I think I spent 3 days using AE and learned a lot.  It took me a few hours to do what I needed in Premiere Pro plus I was able to color correct and make other adjustments that I wasn't sure how to do in AE.  Your help has been a huge help!

[caroline_edits]

Hey MichaelA!

That's super sweet of you to put together your son's highlight reel for him. I'm certain Premiere can give you the effect you're looking for. Does the tutorial that imeilfx provided work for you? If not, I'm more than happy to keep looking through tutorials!

Just let me know,

Caroline

[Mike42809]

Hi Caroline - Yes, the tutorial is super helpful.  I'm planning on working on it over Thanksgiving and will let you know if I was successful.  Also, the person in the video mentions After Effects, will that do what I'm looking for too?  I'm looking for the easiest solution. 

Thanks for checking in!

Mike

[tps1995x]

Premiere pro can give you this effect indeed!