I have a question for Vegas Video 4 and I'm sure that it is pretty simple. Usually its right in front of me but I just don't know where to look for them. Question is...in a lot of skate videos the skater does the trick, lands and it then pauses and it goes in reverse, he does the trick backwards. It then pauses again and it shows it in slow motion. So basically, I'm wondering how you play normal footage backwards. The film "Rules of Attraction used this a LOT. Is there a way to do this with Vegas 4? If so how? thanks

Insert a VELOCITY ENVELOPE into the clip you are working on, pull it all the way down to -100% and TADA! Skaters going backwards;-)
Don

If you add points to the volicity "line" you can stop the action smoothly, reverse it, hold it, whatever.

The one thing about velocity envelopes I don't quite understand is if you insert a velocity envelope and speed the footage up- shouldn't the clip get shorter, and vice versa if you slow the clip down- making the clip longer. I'm assuming if it maintains it's size (length) on the timeline the clip will repeat or hold the last frame depending on which you choose in preferences. How would you work with varing settings with the velocity envelope accuratly? I'd get lost as to where I'm at in the clip and the actuall length etc. Does anyone understand what I'm trying to say?

Sonic Foundry has apparently found a way to access the space/time continuum. I don't get it, either...

The events on the timeline are only "representations" of the original footage. If you speed it up, it will simply fill in with extra frames from the original until its lenghts and speed matches. If the origninal does not have the extra length, the event on the timeline will loop as you increase the speed. You will then see a small triangle at the event, marking the point in time where the original has played out its length and the loop begins.

I'm having trouble here....I add an envelope, and yes it puts the clip in reverse. It works great. Only problem is when i try to cut or split, I have tried both, it doesn't cut the clip where i want to. It always goes back to like the beginning of the clip or something. Even when I split the frame before I add the envelope it still adds time on to the clip and it is never in the spot i want it to be. Hope you can understand my problem. thanks.....

You want to reverse it, -100%? OK, it will play from the end to the beginning, but it will start where the beginning is, and reverse into whatever lies AHEAD of that - if anything. If there is nothing, it will loop. Therefore you must move your event so the end of it sits where you want the reversed event to start play, and drag its length out to fill the gap. Do this with track layers expanded, and it becomes very graphical and easy to grasp.
(This is for events that you want to reverse in full. )

ok...I did exactly that. I just tried it again and it still doesn't work. To be exact this is what I did...took a short clip, copied and pasted so it was the SAME EXACT thing. Added an envelope, set to negative 100. It automatically takes that clip and jumps ahead to part of the clip that wasn't on it. Its not simply reversing the clip. Whats up with it? sorry for the hassle, but i would like to get this to work. thanks

Did you read carefully what I said?
Ok, here's another attempt:
Your event is normally playing A to B. You want it to play B to A. It is postioned on the timeline between point 1 and 2, so A and 1 are the same.
You do the envelope thing and pull it down to -100%. Press the little icon at the far left of the track header, the one that says Expand track layers. With you mouse, pull the entire event so that B is at point 1. Expand the event (by pulling at the edge of it) until it refills the gap left by your moving it. You now have an event twice as long. So you pull at the left edge of it towards right, until it has its original length again. The part that is on your timeline now is actually B to C, but it will play from B to A anyway.

Go on and try this, it get easier when you see what's happening.

*head spinning*

Umm ahhh.....ah yeah- what he said.

It's proabably much easier to "see" it done rather than in written form.

Tor should release some of his own training DVDs- lol.

ok...I got it. I didn't know how to expand the track layers and that was my prob. I guess you may just take for granted the things you allready know about this software...that "newbies" like myself don't know. Thanks for the help and putting up with me.

Reversing a clip is VERY easy as long as you follow one simple rule: START at the END.

Just play the timeline and then STOP where you want the reversing to begin (i.e. at the END of the clip in forward motion). Now press "S" to split this clip at that point, add the velocity envelope t0 the RIGHT clip (you can delete the left side of the split) and change the velocity to a negative value.


Now for the reason why the size does not change: First of all, how long should a 0% clip be? Infinitely long? Say you have a 30 minute clip and you slow it down to 10% speed. Do you really want the clip to become 5 hours long? What if you have a clip in a 10 second hole that is currently 7 seconds long and you want to change the speed to 50%. Do you want it to extend 4 seconds into the next clip? What if you change to reverse speed, does the clip become a negative length? Plus, since the velocity envelope allows varying the speed as much as desired, how complicated do you think it would be if a clip started at 100%, moved to 0%, moved back to 100%, moved to -100%, then moved to 200%?

Personally, I think they were wise in allowing as many speed changes as desire and then manually adjusting the length to suit the needs. However, if you INSIST on the clip changing length as you change the percentage (and there is only ONE constant speed), the Velocity Wizard in Excalibur will do that for you.

I think jet has mastered the space/time continuum, as well...

Thus another reason Excalibur is looking more and more appealing to me. It also lets you set the clip speed by percentage, and updates the length of the clip automatically...right?

That's my main concern- say if I have a 10 second clip I want to run at 50% speed, it should in turn be 20 seconds. If I add a velocity envelope and lower it to 50% it'll play at 50% but cut off where the clip would have ended at 100% speed? I need it to automatically stretch the clip to the new size- similar to how it's done in Premiere by right clicking and choosing "Speed". After you enter the percentage # and hit enter, the clip automatically adjusts in size according to you slowing the clip down (longer) or speeding it up (shorter). Does Vegas have a way of doing this by default- or is Excalibur needed for this?

<<<-- Originally posted by Glen Elliott : It also lets you set the clip speed by percentage, and updates the length of the clip automatically...right? -->>>

Yes it does

<<<-- Originally posted by Glen Elliott : That's my main concern- say if I have a 10 second clip I want to run at 50% speed, it should in turn be 20 seconds. If I add a velocity envelope and lower it to 50% it'll play at 50% but cut off where the clip would have ended at 100% speed? I need it to automatically stretch the clip to the new size- similar to how it's done in Premiere by right clicking and choosing "Speed". After you enter the percentage # and hit enter, the clip automatically adjusts in size according to you slowing the clip down (longer) or speeding it up (shorter). Does Vegas have a way of doing this by default- or is Excalibur needed for this? -->>>

Vegas does not change the clip length. I did write the Velocity Wizard in Excalibur to perform this function for you. However, there is a difference between the Velocity Envelope and the way others handle speed changes - the Velocity Envelope allows varying speed at varying places instead of just one constant speed. The Velocity Wizard in Excalibur assumes you want one constant speed and then changes the clip length to match.

Yeah I do understand the benefit of using velocity envelopes....as I used to have to splice the clip into at least 4 parts to make a smooth transition from fast to slow motion (if I wanted that effect) changing each section progressivly slower. The only work-around I could find In Premiere to do fast to slow semi-smooth. God I'm glad I'm thru with "work-arounds" and Premiere.....Ummm anyway- back to the point. I understand the benefit of velocity envelopes in that way- and you say that Vegas doesn't have a way to change the speed and update the clip length automatically, by default that is. If this is true, I have no idea how you wrote the script for that one...if it's something that's not readily available to begin with?! Your scripting knowledge is absolutly impressive.

As long as the clip is a single speed, calculating the new length is simple. Just take the original length and divide by the percentage change. This calculation is done by the script and then the length of the clip is changed to that new length.

NOTE: Negative percentages are changed to positive when calculating the length.

NOTE 2: Percentages from -5% to 5% do NOT change length in my script. (BTW, how long IS 0%?)

Hmm is this philosophy, lol- whyyyyy 0% my dear sir, is in fact INFINITY.

First of all...Ed the way you explained it made it just about the easiest thing I have EVER done in Vegas Video. Thanks so much, should be a teacher. You told me in one sentence...or maybe I'm just dumb and am JUST now catching on. Anyway...a praise to Vegas. The more I use it the more I learn, with all your help of course. I started playin with color curves, contrast, etc. and I can not believe the possibilities. The picture comes out sooo much better. Thanks to everyone for helping me figure this one out.

one more question, what is excalibur?

Take a look for yourself: www.vegastrainingandtools.com

Luke, thanks for the kind words. You may also want to take a look at the Vegas Tips, Tricks, and Scripts Newsletters (http://www.jetdv.com/tts). I hope to relese #9 early next week which will discuss editing Multi-Cam shoots, changing speed of clips, and scripting of adding tracks.

As for Excalibur (http://www.vegastrainingandtools.com), it is a script I wrote with the assistance of Gary Kleiner to help simplify many tasks in Vegas. I'm currently working on a new script that adds even more tools to the Vegas toolset.

NOTE: Excalibur requires Vegas 4.0c. The new tool will actually use a command that is supposed to be added in 4.0d (until 4.0d is released, it will have to just leave that last flag unset).

4.0D?!......What's new in this update?!

No particulars have been given yet. A release date has also not been given. However, the ability to set the "Pre/Post" flag in Pan/Crop has supposedly been added. I need this flag for my next script (although it *can* work without it, it will be better WITH it). Doing a search for 4.0d on the SOFO forums gives this information:

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=195503
http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=191887
http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=190990
http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=21&MessageID=197327 <-- the one I need

Ok, I have been reading this post to learn how to slow things down in vegas. Not quite as nice as the Speed feature in Adobe but its ok. Anyway, when you slow the clip down to say, 75% or any other speed, how do you get the audio to match up with the clip speed. I can't figure it out. That way if the clip is slow and the guy is sliding down a rail, i want the audio to have that slow motion effect.

You mean you want the pitch to change. You can adjust how your audio is effected by changes in length by right clicking on the audio. You can change pitch without changing lenght, or change length without changing pitch & change length and pitch...which is what I think your looking for.

dave...if you just want to SLOW your clip down for say a handrail...you don't need a velocity envelope. Just press Ctrl while clicking and dragging the event. You can either slow it down or speed it up.

Coolness :) Thank you