Hmm, OK, when I go there it always says that it's $249 anyway for DVDA and Vegas upgrade....Maybe that's with some imaginary shipping which I wouldn't have as I'd download. Not shipping to NZ that's for sure.

Aaron

Wow!! What a great time. Here in SFO, we've got Gary Kleiner, Jeffrey P. Fisher, Mike Downey, myself, and Leigh Herman from Sony. We've met some folks from the forums, had an awesome time with some of the user group folks, and tomorrow is the all-day ACID training event. Jeffrey P. Fisher will lead that one, and I'll be guest appearing in the "Scoring for Emotion" section related to ACID and Vegas 5.
Gary's script tools (Excalibur and Neon) are huge hits on the tour, but it's funny how many folks own these tools. Vegas 5 is attracting TONS of new users, evidenced by the new faces we're seeing on the various tour dates.
Congrats to the winners of the Opteron 64 processors and other great goodies on the road. The BOXX system and the VAIO systems are rockin' and rollin' along, even after a BOXX was destroyed in Chicago.

Looking forward to NYC, meeting the East coast crowds there too. Orlando, Atlanta, Dallas, Seattle, Phoenix, Toronto, and Honolulu are next stops, looking forward to those, too!!!

thanks to all that have been showing up in support of VASST and the Sony Media Software showcases. It's been great meeting so many of the DVInfo.net forum folks.

There are a buncha photos of the events on the VASST site if you'd like to see what sort of equipment we're flyin' around with.
http://www.vasst.com/tourstops/tourpix.htm
Finally, for those that have ordered the Vegas 5 FASST DVD's, that DVD started shipping yesterday, you should have them shortly.

Lars: I'd be interested to see the script source on how you
call your DLL so it can access the Vegas functions / structures
etc.

I assume it isn't much code so you paste it in this thread for
everyone to see. Thanks!

You're not looking at the "special" upgrade price which, as Bryan said, now expires on June 4th. Here's the full link from the e-mail I received:

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/products/showproduct.asp?PID=912&SPID=272&keycode=6377

Hi,

OK, here goes:

lzvegas.js
--------------

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

var _lzForm : lzForm = new lzForm(Vegas);


lzvegas.xml
---------------

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>

<ScriptSettings>
<AssemblyReference IsLocal="true">lzVegas.dll</AssemblyReference>
</ScriptSettings>

lzform.cs
-----------

This is the constructor:

public lzForm( Sony.Vegas.Vegas _INvegas )
{
// Our Application pointer
_vegas = _INvegas;

// Important, without this no window will show in Vegas.
this.Show();
}

Complete Visual Studio 2003 project can be downloaded here:

http://sidens.scorpionshops.com/lzVegas.rar

// Lazze

Hello,

Ok, Here is one.. if you have a 30 second piece of video as the background of your main menu, and you wish to have some text become one of your buttons .. And that text is part of the background footage and does not appear until say 10 seconds into the piece of video is playing.. can you map that background text as a button( I believe I saw Edward T. do this at his demo..) and can it be done if this does not appear until 10 seconds into the footage?

Thanks,
Mike Moncrief

OK, thanks Edward. It seemed a different keycode was being cookied or something so when I went via that link, it showed $249. Changing the keycode worked.

Thanks
Aaron

Thanks Peter for the update.

Hi all, I've posted on the Sony forums but thought I'd try here too.

I got Vegas 5 which comes with the Boris software. Received serial number in email but for some reason, something's not being accept in the install and I can't get past the User Data screen in the installer.

Anyone had this problem, and know a fix? Maybe I'm just blind but I can't see anything that should stop me unless the serial # is wrong or something.

Cheers
Aaron

Hi,
is there any point in getting the Contour Shuttle PRO
with all the buttons instead of the Xpress with 5 buttons?

I imagine reaching for the keyboard & mouse when it's time to edit - then Xpress should be fine..

Can anyone with experience of the PRO model help me out?
thanks
/magnus

There was an update to the installation program. Are you using the updated version?

Edward, yeah I am as I just downloaded it yesterday after purchasing Vegas 5.


Cheers
Aaron

Hi All!

I am attempting to do a text roll (or credit roll) in Vegas, and can get it to work using
Vegas.

However I am getting a better look using the Boris Graffiti LTD that came with the
Vegas 5 Upgrade.

In Graffiti, the text roll is all happening, looks like I want it to.

When I export the movie as an avi, then load it in to Vegas, I cannot get the background to be transparent.

Is this possible? Or am I missing something in Boris?

Any help would be appreciated.

Andy

P.S. Thanks to Peter, Edward and Don who answered my previous post. Peter, the photoshop file I create is quite long, hence Vegas will only show the middle part of the file.

Don, I found the transparent scroll!

Hello all,
Long time reader, first time poster.
I've been following DSE's filmlook tutorial for use in a short film for school and my problem is this: There is a fight scene I'm currently working on, and the motion blur results in very obvious and ugly trails when rendering to 24p.
I've been able to run this same footage through Magic Bullet and the motion is very nice and crisp, very filmic as well. The resolution also looks better.
I'm not a big fan of magic bullet. Never found it to be anything special(redering takes sooo long!), nothing that couldn't be done with vegas and filters, but in this case, my eyes just can't deny the present advantage.
Have any of you experienced this? Were you able to overcome it in Vegas with different settings, etc?
Thanks in advance,
Irbbins

It depends on how "shuttle dependent" you want to become. I only use about four of the buttons on mine---mainly use the jog wheel but others will assign all the buttons and play that thing like a Stradivarius.

The length of the photoshop file should have NOTHING to do with what can be shown. Just make sure you use Pan/Crop to move the image.

You can either use masking or chroma-key or render to an uncompressed AVI with Alpha-channel for your Graffiti method.

Hi Edward.

I'll have to revisit both those methods, as I couldn't get any of them to work how I wanted them to. My long winded work around achieved the right effect, just didn't look as good.

Will repost when I've had more time to try them out.

Andy

I think you need to split up the footage to do such a thing. What
might do the trick is to have the first 10 seconds play before the
menu (first play) and have the rest as a motion menu with the
a graphic button overlaying your text. Something like that.

Which demo from Edward would that be? The one you could
download or one in real-life? If the former then just watch it again?

Thanks!!

Hello,
Thanks for responding.. umm, i was hoping that would not be the case.. one thing is i already have an opeing piece of video..
I guess i could split the second piece in half, and have it play into the third using end actions..??? ( have not yet tried it) I just wonder will it go to black between the two.. because i would really like to have them butted together..
By the way the demo with Edward was live about a week ago here in Orlando..

Mike

You could also stick the first 10 seconds onto the end of the first
play movie.

Perhaps someone else has a better idea. I haven't looked too
good at DVD Architect yet.

That sounds plausible. Different "effects" will yield different
results. Can you point to the exact technique you used (URL)?
I'm not familair with DSE's method.

You can create an invisible button by pulling the alpha channel to full transparency. Position it to where your text appears on your video background.

Gary

Hello,

Another question(or questions), i have some video that needs to be encoded for the web from Vegas 5..Is there a size that is common to make the video for the web 320X240 ? or a different size?? And how are the codecs for rendering out Video from Vegas?? I see it has several, Windows Media, RealPlayer, Quicktime Mpeg..Do any one of these codecs in Vegas do a better job?? (Highest quality, smallest file size) Or should i look elsewhere for something to encode the files?

Thanks,
Mike Moncrief

Vegas basically has all the tools you need. Which format you want
depends on what you like and what formats you want to support.

The two biggest are QuickTime and Windows Media Player. I would
not go with Real because a lot of people really dislike the client
and do not have it installed on their machines (me included and
I'm not going to install it whatever happens).

QuickTime seems to be the best served in the market at the
moment, but WMP seems to have a slightly better compression
scheme.

Most people swear by the Sorenson (3) codec under QuickTime.

Do some tests and see what you like! On our Lady X project
we used QuickTime with the previous version of the Sorenson
codec (check out the link in my signature).

Rob, this is DSE's procedure for filmic look:
http://www.sundancemediagroup.com/tutorials/filmlook.htm

Actually, I've found the culprit!(and its accomplice--reading too fast and not following all directions) A part I glossed over, was disabling resampling on the video. At first, it didn't make a difference, but when I changed the deinterlacing method to interpolate frames---voila! No ugly motion trail!

It still looks like the bullet stuff has better resolution, I dunno.
Anything else I can do to get the best possible picture out of 24p and Vegas?

(By the way, loved the look of that Lady X episode! That thread on how you achieved the look was great help and guidance!)

I'm glad you found the source of your problem. I don't have much
experience with de-interlacing myself since I always shoot in
progressive (or semi progressive with the XL1S). It is not really
suprising that the magic bullet stuff seems higher resolution. That
product was specifically made for things like this. Vegas just
added it. But if it is close to the magic bullet stuff then I'd say it
is doing a pretty good job!

Thank you for your comments on my episode. Much appreciated
and I'm glad you enjoyed it and the thread about it. Thanks!

I'm sure you've probably worked it out by now, but if not, you are missing the 'clip explorer' which you can reactivate from the drop down menu.

I figured it out (simple solution) a little while ago, but haven't been on the forum for some time.

Yeah, I did figure it out. I don't know how I made it disappear in the first place.

Tsunami has been updated with the following corrections:

1. Extract Good Clips now works correctly when audio is selected.
NOTE: When extracting both audio and video, you will get TWO sub-clips placed in the media pool.
2. PIP tool now places the PIP in the proper location.

Send me an e-mail for details.

<<<-- Originally posted by Aaron Koolen :Will have to take the gamble and hope I can use it's features in the future. -->>>

No need to gamble. Download the extensive description of the new features. Or, even better, download a demo version and try it out yourself.

Dennis Vogel

>>>>Troxel One thing you may want to try is to render to a single DV-AVI file first, load that new file on the timeline of a new project, and then render that to whatever format you are wanting. >>>>
-----

Wouldn't this create a noticeable loss of resolution?

Brian

<<<-- Originally posted by Brian Mitchell Warshawsky :
Wouldn't this create a noticeable loss of resolution?

Brian -->>>


No.

You may have accidentally clicked the 'x' logo which closes the window :-)

I can't find much info on Instant Vegas 5. Is there enough of a difference to warrant another workbook? (from vegas 4 workbook to vegas 5 workbook)

What's the "record time" numbering in very bottom right of the screen in the status bar. Sometimes I have another # to the bottom left too. I'm sure it's something simple I just can't figure out what it stands for?!

The "record time" in the lower right-hand corner is the amount of audio you could record on the specified hard drive.

Cool thanks. Have any idea what the other number is...to the left side? I think it was entitled "completed: xxxx"

You sure it's not "Completed: xxx of xxx"?

I see that when there are some tasks being performed (such as when pre-rendering or doing a PTT or adding new files to the timeline and the "audio" image must be built). In that case, it's just an indicator of how many tasks there are to do and how many have been done.

Ahhh why thank you for your insite! Your as trusty as an encylopedia.

Yup, there is. Vegas 5 Editing Workshop is at the publisher now, it's QUITE a lot bigger than the 4 book is. over 700 images in this new one.

Full color?

Hi Folks,

Sorry to be a bother, but I wonder if this is something that other folks are dealing with. I have been creating a title roll for the end of a project, and frankly it looks terrible. Is there a type face that is much better than others. I've used the default font (ariel 20 pt) and it doesn't look very good. I've tried Times Roman, which I've used alot with a nice drop shadow in other programs. It looks worse. Help!!

thanks a bunch!
Milt Lee

Milt, what don't you like about it? Is it terrible cause there are artifacts, or just aesthetically that font isn't pleasing to look at?

Aaron

I guess it's not actually as bad as I thought. It's still not wonderful, but when rendered a short test with a couple of different fonts, it looked much better than my preview of it looked.

It still seems fairly simple, and I would love to be able to put the titles for folks in a box, and have them slide in front the side etc.

Mostly I'm looking for title effects that you see on PBS - I'm not really an MTV kinda guy.

Basically when I say terrible, what I should have said was that they just weren't very punchy. Not bold enough - kindy thin and wimpy. I suspect that I just need to practice with a bunch of different fonts, sizes, drop shadows, outlines - all that stuff, and I'll come up with something that sings to me.

Another question though - are there CG plugins or other programs that generate text and effects that can be combined with Vegas?

thanks a bunch,
Milt Lee

What is "Instant Vegas 5"

I'm not up on the play as to what's really out there for Vegas, but I know Boris Grafitti can be used with it. What version of Vegas it works with I don't know but when I got Vegas 5 the other day it came with a limited version of Boris Graffiti. Haven't played with it yet though.

Aaron

I have just finished shooting a couple of hours of green screen footage for a documentary I am nearing completion on. The footage looks good, the green is even, however, as is common with DV, I am having to deal with some green spill on my subjects, as well as a rather stong black edge on certain areas around the subject as well where the subject is not lit as strongly.

I have looked at After Effects Pro which contains the spill suppressor, as well as other keying functions, but I would prefer to stick to Vegas if possible.

What operations/plug-ins could a person use to improve on this issue, if any. I recognize that DV is not the best format for keying, and I'm not looking for perfection, however I would like to improve this if at all possible.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

You can use the secondary color corrector to help smooth out the edges. There's also a "deartifactor" tool currently in development by Zenote that will help in this regard. However, it's not yet available. You may also want to apply a very very slight blur.

Edward,

I have attempted to use the color corrector and the blur already with minimal results. I am really unsure how I managed to result in such a strong black edge around the subject.

I'll keep an eye out for the Zenote plug-in. Will it function similar to After Effects as far as a spill elimination and edge preserving?



As always, I appreciate the help here on the forum!