After Effects and Vegas?
 

I've found 2 threads asking this question, but none of them come to any solid conclusion.

I am currently using Vegas 4.0 and really like it. I recently saw some examples of some work done in Premiere with After Effects. Woah!! I was very impressed. I looked more into After Effects and am considering the purchase.

It closely integrates with Premiere, but what will I be able to do with After Effects using only an imported .avi from Vegas?

I am seriously considering ditching Vegas and just getting Premiere & After Effects together just to use the 2 together, but I keep hearing of terrible buginess and unstabillity with Premiere - machine locksup and such. This will not due and would drive me crazy. So far, Vegas is good and stable, plus I'm finally learning the program.

So, my question is - how can I get AE like effects while still using Vegas? Are there similar programs to AE on the market?

I'd like some more definiative clairification on the matter if that is possible.

Thank you.

I think you need to explain further what you want to do, or cite the examples of the Premiere/After Effects team in action that grabbed your attention. In what ways do they need to work in conjunction with each other to suit your needs?

I use Premiere 6.5 and After Effects 5.5, but I've yet to import Premiere projects into After Effects for any useful projects. The few attempts I made to do so resulted in messes I didn't have time to deal with (like Photoshop titles set up in Premiere losing their proper location and motion attributes). It very possible I was doing something wrong, but I've never had the time to get deeper into it.

Beyond that, I will edit footage in Premiere and export it as an .avi file. I will then work with that .avi file in After Effects. Or, I will work in After Effects, say creating a motion graphic with a transparent mask, and then export that as an .avi file with an unmatted alpha channel into Premiere.

I don't think that anything I do requires me to use Premiere w/ After Effects, and I think I could do exactly the same work using Vegas as my NLE. Of course, my medium is mostly :30 sec commercials -- for larger projects, it may be more advantagous to be able to import whole Premiere projects into After Effects.

My most recent work with After Effects and Premiere is on my website at http://www.karatemedia.com/video -- the "Georgia Theatre" ad (2nd one down). The "frame" around the pictures is a template created in After Effects and exported as an uncompressed .avi with an unmatted alpha channel -- this preserved the transperancy mask in the center, so that for whatever show is coming up, I can put the band name in the white area at the top and place whatever images are supplied in the center (sometimes I am given only two photos and one evening to make an ad -- hence the eyecatching template)

The opening shot was composed in Photoshop and AE (my first attempt at the "Kid Stays in the Picture" technique) and exported as a dv .avi file from AE.

The third shot (with the "Thin Places" text and glowing light behind the photo of the artist's face) was also composited in After Effects and exported as a dv .avi file.

All three files were brought into Premiere, along with the two remaining pictures, which I just used Premiere's Pan effect on. The "frame" was on top, with the Transparency set to Alpha Matte, and the rest of the footage and text was placed on the video layers underneath.

This is probably more than you ever wanted to know about my quickly-done local spots (most certainly nothing like whatever made you go "Whoa!"), but I just wanted to show how I have used Premiere and After Effects together without really needing any "integration" between the two. And besides, this is my favorite graphic spot I've done recently and I like to show off! :)

So let me shut up now...As for you, how do you need *your* NLE and compositing applications to work together? There are compositing programs other than After Effects, of course, but if your are smitten with AE, I see no reason why you can't use it with Vegas.

To use AE with Vegas, output from Vegas to UNCOMPRESSED AVI, work on it in AE and output to UNCOMPRESSED AVI, then import that back into Vegas.

Something comparible that integrates with Vegas? Boris Red. Works directly on the Vegas timeline.