Multicam in Vegas 8 - a question or two please

[David Delaney]

After seeing the Multicam at work, I was wondering a couple of questions :

1) Does it create a single track of overlapped clips and then cut them?
2) How does the audio work with the multi-cam?

Thanks

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Audio can come from either each cam, or from one master timeline, depending on how you instruct it to work.
It builds a master timeline based on how you insert cuts. Once you've done your cuts, you can't go back to individual tracks and modify segments. For this reason, some folks prefer the multicam tools found in Excalibur, Ultimate S, and infinitiCAM.
If you look at the VASSTTRAINING channel on YouTube, you can see a tutorial on how to use the multicam tools.

[Renton Maclachlan]

Originally Posted by Douglas Spotted Eagle

Once you've done your cuts, you can't go back to individual tracks and modify segments.

Douglas...I'm not sure what this means. No you can't go back to individual tracks but you can modify segments.You can lift a 'clip' out of the multicam track and put it on another track, and stretch it and what not.

I did a 3 cam multicam track and found one of the cameras was out of sync by upwards of 30 frames at about 55 minutes (In sync at 0 mins) because it was saved to a laptop and not to tape as the other cams were. To get the sections back in sync I put the out of sync clips on another track (one at a time), sync'd them, then put them back.

[Mark Stavar]

Originally Posted by David Delaney

After seeing the Multicam at work, I was wondering a couple of questions :

1) Does it create a single track of overlapped clips and then cut them?
2) How does the audio work with the multi-cam?

Thanks

With the video, you select the (up to) 4 tracks you wish to use and then combines them into a multi-camera track, with the topmost track being the one you see when the track is played.

As you make cuts by, say, selecting from the editing window, the various pieces of the track become takes. So if you righ click on the track portion, and select takes, you can modify which particular "take you wish to use in the segment. I.e. if you initially chose camera 1 and you later decide you want camera 3, you can modify your choice of take through this menu.

Segments can be stretched and transitions moved, just like you would handle any other other edit. The only tool that I really missed using this was a tool that might heal a cut, but I learned to live with that.

The audio is handled quite seperately. The nature of multicaera edits is such that you won't typically wnat the audio associated with each particular take; it becomes more an issue of sound design/editing.

I haven't used Inifiniticam or Excalibur. I believe they are both excellent tools, but work on a slightly different paradigm.

I used multi-cam to edit a dance concert (4 cameras). Worked a treat, I can highly recommend it. Combined with the audio mixing tools and the SoundForge integration, well... let's just say I love Vegas.

Ciao,

marks

[Edward Troxel]

Originally Posted by Mark Stavar

With the video, you select the (up to) 4 tracks you wish to use and then combines them into a multi-camera track, with the topmost track being the one you see when the track is played.

You can select up to 36 video tracks and choose between ANY of them. You can see them all in a PIP'd format so you can see them all at the same time. CTRL-SHIFT-D toggles between the PIP view and seeing only the Active Take.

Originally Posted by Mark Stavar

As you make cuts by, say, selecting from the editing window, the various pieces of the track become takes. So if you righ click on the track portion, and select takes, you can modify which particular "take you wish to use in the segment. I.e. if you initially chose camera 1 and you later decide you want camera 3, you can modify your choice of take through this menu.

You can also switch to a different take by selecting any particular event and pressing "T" to change takes.

Originally Posted by Mark Stavar

Segments can be stretched and transitions moved, just like you would handle any other other edit. The only tool that I really missed using this was a tool that might heal a cut, but I learned to live with that.

If you changed the takes so that two events in a row are the same clip, you could delete the event on the right and then extend the event on the left to fill up that space. That would "heal" your cut.

Originally Posted by Mark Stavar

The audio is handled quite seperately. The nature of multicaera edits is such that you won't typically wnat the audio associated with each particular take; it becomes more an issue of sound design/editing.

If the audio is not selected when creating the multi-camera tracks, they will remain separate and can be mixed separately. If the audio *IS* selected, they will also become multiple takes and as you change camera angles you will also be changing audio to the "active camera" as well.

Originally Posted by Mark Stavar

I haven't used Inifiniticam or Excalibur. I believe they are both excellent tools, but work on a slightly different paradigm.

Yes, with the scripts, all tracks remain separate and a "Master" video track is created. There are many advantages to the script methods. There are also a few advantages to the built-in method. Both are viable options and with Vegas you have the option of using what you like best.

[David Delaney]

If you stretch the segment after it has been cut with multi-cam, won't that throw off the entire piece because of the audio?
Also, can the cuts be anything other than 'straight' cuts? Can you make them cross-fades on the fly or is that something that is done afterwards?

[Edward Troxel]

If you don't "move" the pieces, the sync with the audio should NOT be affected.

You can make crossfades on the fly. Just hold down the CTRL key when clicking on the new camera. This is explained in Vol 5 #1 of my newsletters which discusses what's new in Vegas Pro 8.

[David Delaney]

yes, that is the one I couldn't download it directly from you site. Now I see it is linked on to CreCow.net...ok thanks