? About Timeline
 

I'm currently using the trail version of Vegas9. I imported a MPEG2 clip tot he time line, but the timeline does not show pictures of all the clips, just some of them. I'm tring to figure out how I can see all the scenes in the tileline. The video is actually there, its just that I can't see alll the clips. AN\ny thoughts? Also, is it possible in Vegas to track something with Gausian blur? I have pictures in the bacjground of a scene that I need to blur out. The problem is theres lots of pans and zooms in the clip. Doesvegas have any tools that can help with this?

Hi Kevin

The answer to your first problem lies in preferences!! Look thru them and you can customise whether just the first and last thumbs are displayed or all of them.

It's fairly easy to add blur to an event but if you have pans or zooms you will have to learn about keyframing first so the blur can keep up with say, a pan. I would get the knack of being able to keyframe first before you attempt anything

Chris

So theres no way to blur a shot with pans and zooms without doing it frame by frame?

Kevin, Vegas does not have motion tracking. If you have something that needs to be blurred and that something is moving around, you will need to use keyframes to follow that movement. You should NOT need to do it frame-by-frame, though. For example, while it's not moving, one keyframe will cover it the entire time. Once it starts moving, if it's a reasonably constant rate, you may be able to follow it with a starting and ending keyframe.

If you had After Effects and some kind of "Motion Tracking" plugin for it, then you'd be all set.
Unfortunately Vegas does not have this kind of tool set built into it so you have to use the Bezier tool built into Pan/Crop in conjunction with key frames to accomplish this.
Lets say the shot is 30 sec. long and the pan is from the 5 sec. mark to the 25 sec. mark.
Create a dupliate copy of the video track above the existing one.
Drop a gaussian blur on the timeline.
Create a key frame at the beginning and set it to "hold.
Copy this key frame and paste it at the 5 sec. mark.
Create another one at the 25 sec. mark and set it to "hold".
You need to go back and make sure that the position of the key frame accurately tracks the pan.
If it doesn't, then you'll have to make adjustments at various spots along the timeline.
The other issue is the shape of the image.
As long as it stays consistent during the pan, you're OK.
If it changes at all, then you'll have to adjust the key frame accordingly.
Add key frames to track any other pictures that you wish to be blurred.
It can be done but it will take some time.