Pencil Sketch

How to Make Video Look Like a Pencil Sketch in Vegas

Sometimes a special effect can add that extra charm to a video piece. One that I like is the animated pencil sketch. This effect uses two video tracks containing the same video events, which are composited together in a parent / child relationship using a Bump Map with near maximum Intensity and Bump Height. Here are the step-by-step instructions:

Step 1: Select the event you want to make a pencil sketch

Step 2: Add a Black & White Video FX to the event and select the 100% Black and White preset

Step 3: Duplicate the video by copying it to the track above it. You can just right-click on an empty part of the track and select Duplicate Track from the context menu.

Step 4: Enable the Make Compositing Child relationship between the two video tracks. (In Vegas 4 use Make Compositing Parent)

Step 5: Change the Compositing Mode of the upper track to Custom... and select Sony Bump Map. (this was called Parent Overlay Mode in Vegas 4)

Step 6: In the Bump Map dialog, increase the Intensity and Bump Height to close to maximum (depending on the image). Fine-tune these settings for the effect you want.

This should give you a pretty convincing pencil sketch look. For extra bonus points add a Brightness and Contrast filter after the Black and White filter on the lower video track and you can really control the amount of detail that's left in the Bumped image. You can get it down to just outlines if you'd like. If you don't use the Back and White filter it will look more like a pastel painting.

In these before and after shots below, you can see how you can bring out a nice textured effect as if a pencil was used on parchment paper. Those two handsome people are my Mother and my beloved Father dancing at my wedding. Man, they loved to dance!

Happy Editing,