HOW TO CREATE COMPLEX MASKS WITH
THE BÉZIER MASK OFX TOOL

Let’s add a clip with a very noticeable object in it to the timeline. In our example, we’re using a video clip of the Space Shuttle orbiter landing – it doesn’t get much more eye-catching than that! 

✓ Drag the clip from the Explorer window or the Project Media window and drop it on the timeline.

Next, find another, very different video clip.

✓ Drag it to the timeline below the first video event. A new track will be created. Position the video event directly under the original event.

You won’t be able to see the second clip in the Video Preview window because the first video is overlaid on top of it like one photo sitting on another photo in a stack. To see the lower clip, we’ll add a mask.

✓ In the Video FX window, click Bézier Masking.

✓ Drag the Default preset thumbnail and drop it on the upper video event.

✓ The Video Event FX window opens, and the Bézier Masking controls appear. Now, in the Video Preview window, only a center rectangle of the upper video is still visible. The mask has cut out everything else in the image, revealing the video image from the track below. 

The rectangle containing the visible portion of the video has white control points at the corners, yellow control points at the centers of each edge, and a control circle in the center. You’ll use these points to control the location, shape, size, and rotation of the mask.

✓ Drag any white corner point to change the size of the rectangle while preserving its aspect ratio. Drag any yellow edge point to change the width or height of the rectangle independently of each other.

✓ Move the mouse cursor to a location inside the rectangle, but not on the circle. The cursor changes to a hand. Click, hold, and drag to move the rectangle. The image doesn’t move with the rectangle; you’re changing the location of the mask, not moving the image itself, so as you do, different parts of the video image show through the mask. If you move the rectangle away from your noticeable object, in this case the Shuttle orbiter, you will no longer see it.

✓ Drag the white dot on the circle, the rotation handle, to change the angle of the mask rectangle. The white and yellow control points don’t change, so you are always able to change the size of the rectangle even if you’ve moved the corner of the mask area outside the visible preview window.

You can always enter exact numbers for these location or rotation values in the Bézier Masking controls in the Video Event FX window.

✓ In the Mask 1 controls, select Curve in the Type drop-down menu. Two new controls now appear beneath the Type menu:  the Edit Mode selection box and the Edit Tool drop-down menu. Your mask disappears in the Video Preview window, but that’s OK – you will now define your own custom mask.

The Edit Mode box is already checked, so you are in Edit Mode. The Edit Tool is set to Add, so you are ready to add points and define your custom mask.

Move your mouse cursor to the Video Preview window and it changes to a pen.

✓ Click anywhere in the preview to create a point. Add another point, and a dotted line appears between the points, defining the border of the mask. The points you’ve created are corner points, and they create sharp angles.

✓ Click another point, but this time drag your mouse before letting up on the click. This creates a curve point, and as you drag your mouse, you pull out a handle, called a Tangent, from the point. Each point has two Tangents.

✓ Click and drag the Tangents to refine the shape of your curve between the new point and the previous point.

You can create as many points as you want, both curve points and corner points. You can thus create a mask of any shape, no matter how complex. To finalize and close the mask, click the first point you created.

While still in Edit Mode, you won’t see your video inside the mask.

✓ Click the Edit Mode box to deselect it, and the video shows up in the mask as usual. 

Once you’ve created the exact mask you want,

✓ set the Blend slider back to 0.000. Click the Edit Mode box to deselect it. Now, only the portion of the upper video within the mask you defined is visible, in this case, the Shuttle orbiter itself.

In VEGAS Pro, if you want to use the mask as a cutout, so the rest of the video image is visible and only the mask area is removed,

✓ click the Invert checkbox under General Options.