Shortcut or keystroke for dissolves?

[James Binder]

Is there a keystroke or script or some other way to automatically create a 'fade in/out' that is a certain length (frames) on a video segment?

I am doing a project with a BUNCH of 15 frame dissolves (fade in/out) and it would be great if I didn’t have to manually drag the ‘fade’ tab each time…

In shot, I’d like to hit a key (or button) and assign dissolves in or out (at a predetermined length) to a video segment…

Thanks --

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

This can be done via scripting, and there are several scripts to achieve what you'd like, but there is no "in-Vegas" tool that will allow you to set length of transition over time, and assign a specifiic transitional element to that pre-set time.
You can insert several events at once and cause them to all be of a pre-set length, but this likely isn't what you're asking for.

[Edward Troxel]

If you're wanting to change the fade in/out lengths:

/**
 * This script will Fade the selected audio track up to the current cursor position
 * 
 * Written By: Edward Troxel
 * Modified: 04-21-2003
 **/

import System;
import System.IO;
import System.Windows.Forms;
import Sony.Vegas;


try {


  //Go through the list of Tracks
  var trackEnum = new Enumerator(Vegas.Project.Tracks);
  while (!trackEnum.atEnd()) {
    var track : Track = Track(trackEnum.item());

    //Go through the list of Events
    var eventEnum = new Enumerator(track.Events);
    while (!eventEnum.atEnd()) {
      var evnt : TrackEvent = TrackEvent(eventEnum.item());

      if (evnt.Selected) {

          evnt.FadeIn.Length = new Timecode("00:00:01:00");
          evnt.FadeOut.Length = new Timecode("00:00:01:00");

      }
      eventEnum.moveNext();
    }
    trackEnum.moveNext();
  }


} catch (e) {
    MessageBox.Show(e);
}

[James Binder]

Originally Posted by Douglas Spotted Eagle

This can be done via scripting, and there are several scripts to achieve what you'd like....

Where might I find a script to do that?

Again, I simply want to create a 15 frame 'fade in' (and fade out) on a video segment...

Surely there must be an easy way to do this…? I create a lot of corporate video where I have many PowerPoint slides dissolving in and out (over top of a person speaking for instance). It sure would be nice not to have to manually pull/adjust the ‘fade tab’ on each and every video segment! It gets very tedious and time consuming when dealing with 80+ slides!

Anyone have a solution?

Thanks Edward for the script, but it seems that it is intended for audio?

[Steve Leverich]

Check out Options/Preferences/Editing - look at the section about half-way down under "Automatically Overlap multiple selected media when added" - you can change values in this to whatever you want, along with default length of added stills (just above in the same dialog box). Not sure if this is what you mean, you'll have to experiment... Steve

[Edward Troxel]

No. The script I posted works just fine for video or audio. It will put fade in/out on any selected event - whether it's video or audio.

[James Binder]

Thanks Steve and others --

Not quite what I was looking for though.

If it is a script function or solution -- can anybody point me in the right direction? Particularly insomuch as I'm not very familiar with scripting. I would like to learn though!

To be clear here's what I want to do:

• Import a still image (PowerPoint slide)
• Drag image to timeline, creating a new video/media segment
• Click a button (or keystroke) that will give me a 15 frame fade in and fade out on either end of the newly created video/media segment
• Smile with relief that my life is now much more simple

Thanks!

[James Binder]

Originally Posted by Edward Troxel

No. The script I posted works just fine for video or audio. It will put fade in/out on any selected event - whether it's video or audio.

Thank you very much Edward –

Now I just need to figure out what to do with the script! If you or anyone else has any links to resources that talk about scripting and the usage in Vegas, I’d appreciate it.

Thanks again for all of the help…

[Edward Troxel]

Take the text of the script and paste it into Notepad. Then save it as something like "FadeInOut.js" in the Vegas 7.0/Script Menu folder.

In Vegas, go to Tools - Scripting - Rescan Script Menu

After that, select the events you want to fade in and out and then go to Tools - Scripting - and you will then see it listed. Pick that script and all selected events will be faded.

As written, it will give you a 1 second fade in and fade out. If you want a different fade length, change these two lines:

evnt.FadeIn.Length = new Timecode("00:00:01:00");
evnt.FadeOut.Length = new Timecode("00:00:01:00");



For more info, you might look at Vol 3 #4 of my newsletters. Several other scripting articles are in other issues as well.

[James Binder]

Woo-Hoo!

Thanks Edward – I actually was educating myself with an article I found – then clicked back to the thread with your response and…

It worked! Now I just need to change the length as you mentioned and…

Figure out how to create a button – *or better yet* assign the function/script to a keystroak. Any tips/pointers? Am I pushing my luck? :-)

I'll check out the articles you mentioned...

Thank you again very much – you’re the best!

[James Binder]

Originally Posted by James Binder

...Figure out how to create a button – *or better yet* assign the function/script to a keystroak. Any tips/pointers? Am I pushing my luck? :-)

<1.10: How do I have a custom icon appear for a script in the the toolbar?

You can have a custom icon appear for a script you've added to the toolbar by placing a PNG image in the "Script Menu" folder that has the same name as the script with '.png' appended. For example, if the script is named "My Script.js", the toolbar image should be named "My Script.js.png". The image can be any size but it will be scaled to 16 X 16 pixels>

Guess I found the info... cool... How about a keystroak though?

[James Binder]

Yes! Life is good now... I even made a little icon and placed it on the tool bar. It does exactly what I want it to...

Now I want to find (or figure out how to make) scripts for everything...

Thanks again!

[Edward Troxel]

Scripts are your friend! :-)


You can also assign it to a keypress. It varies slightly depending on your version of Vegas but you just go to the keypress editing screen (Options - Preferences or Options - Keyboard) and assign it as desired.