Can Vegas 4 do the "Ken Burns" affect i.e. FCP and I movie

Thanks

Vince

Yes it can. Just use Pan/Crop with multiple keyframes. I have an article in one of my newsletters that discusses this technique. Just click the link under my name.

i uninstalled and reinstalled vegas 5 successfully. i rendered project to mpeg 2 and it seems to be fine. it plays on mediaplayer without a problem and i was able to author it to dvd. so it seems reinstalling somehow solved whatever it was that went wrong.

i didn't have any problem rendering, just that the rendered file would make mediaplayers freeze up and fail.

Hi guys,

I'm creating a sequence in which a person opens a window and the background ambience has to sound as though this is happening. On the advice I have been given so far I have been able to convincingly recreate the sound of the ambience coming from outside of the window, and then change into a sound sounding like it is now coming through the newly opened window, all of which is in the centre dialogue channel. Hope all of that makes sense!

My problem is that I was advised to add room reverb to the sound coming through the window, since any incoming sound into the room would naturally be affected by the room characteristics (bare in mind this ambience is created from scratch and is not a location recording). I have done this and the effect is superb, except for one thing. I was also advised to pan out the reverb to the surround channels. Only problem is I do not know of any way to pan only the reverb (without the main centre channel sound) to the surrounds with Vegas 5. Does anyone here know of any way to do this?

Reverb is an automatable FX so you can change the settings over time that way.

yeah...
easy..


copy ur audio track.. now mute ur front channels..
on teh frint channels, mute ur rear surrounds..

now ur left with 2 tracks, 3/2 and waht u do in the rear channels wont affect the front.. basicaly segregating ur channels and affectin geach range.. if u wnated to go harder, u can dupicate the track and have 6 tracks of audio fo reach channel...

Thanks for the replies guys.

However I'm still not sure how to do this. For example, the scene in question has the sound of crows cawing coming through the window. With the methods described I am still not sure how to get the sound of the crow coming from the front centre and ONLY the reverb characteristics (and not the main crow sound itself) directed to the surrounds?

I've had beautiful results going to 30p with Vegas. I use a multi-step process:

1. Load up the 60i source on the timeline.
2. Open Vegas Options (Alt+Enter) and choose "Interpolate" from the deinterlace option.
3. Export to a 30p uncompressed DI (digital intermediate) file.
4. Load the 30p DI onto timeline above the original 60i.
5. While comparing the 30p to the 60i (by muting/unmuting the 30p track) add a Sony Sharpen filter to the 30p footage and adjust to taste. I've typically started with a setting of 0.5.
6. Change the deinterlace option to "None" and export the sharpened 30p footage to the format of your choice.

Instead of the Sony Sharpen, you might consider the Unsharp Mask or other method. Also, since the sharpening process adds noise, consider a pass with something like Grain Surgery.

For an example of such treatment, check out a short film I shot on a JVC GY-DV500 and deinterlaced to 30p in Vegas, here:

http://michael-morlan.net/pages/production/prod_try.htm

I'm happy to post some full-rez stills if there is interest.

Michael

Anyone know where I can find a 3 2 1 video clip. Where numbers count down 3 then 2 then 1?????

Thanks,

Jon

You can make your own. There's also some on the Sundance/VASST site (http://www.vasst.com/login.htm).

there's a clock, a little funky, but still in your WINDOWS folder...."clock.avi". You'll need to trim and reverse direction on the avi clip.

I posted this on the Sony forum as well but thought I'd present it here too.

I've noticed this since first using Vegas 4:

29.970fps clips placed on a 29.970fps tend to have their frames drift away from the frame tics marked on the Vegas timeline. For instance, a clip 16:16 long has its end at halfway between 00:00:16:16 and 00:00:16:17.

Even more interesting, with snapping on, markers and the cursor seem to snap at these off-frame points. So, the cursor is snapping at 00:00:16:16 + .5 of a frame.

A closer inspection reveals the timeline tics are running slightly shorter than the footage frames.

Even more interestingly, the problem seems to occur in a .veg within which I have been editing a project, but not in a newly-created .veg. If I completely clear all media from an existing .veg and drag some media onto the timeline, I observe this off-frame error as noted in the pic below:

http://michael-morlan.net/projects/vegas/vegas_timeline_error_02.gif

But, if I create a new .veg and drag the exact same media onto the timeline, it is perfectly aligned with the timeline tics as here:

http://michael-morlan.net/projects/vegas/vegas_timeline_error_01.gif

It is my considered opinion that the Vegas timeline display is actually SHRINKING!

Thoughts? Opinions? Solutions?

Michael

Hey all. While admittedly I'm only two days into the first assembly of this beast, the two frames out of sync DVX110 issue (which Panasonic fixed in the 100a) is already making me nuts watching hour after hour of all those mouths two frames off. Do any of you wizards of script writing have any/know of any scripts for automating the process in Vegas? I know there's one out there for FCP, which syncs the errant DVX footage in a nanosecond, so it it's obviously possible. Basically picture follows audio by two frames and has to be pulled up. I can verify it in all my early footage when we were in the city and had the time to use a slate. Not looking forward to eyeballing the around 80 hours shot run and gun in the woods, though. (sigh) I've also heard it drifts at the twenty minute mark as well, but I haven't tested that as yet.

Any feedback, as always, would be greatly appreciated.
Marcia

Try this:

1) Turn ON Ignore Event Grouping
2) Click on the audio event
3) Press "3" on the numeric keypad twice
4) Turn OFF Ignore Event Grouping

However, yes a script could be written to move the audio two frames down the track.

A coupla ways to do this...but easiest would be to have the crows sound track be set to Prefader, then turn the fader off. Insert a send to the reverb on that channel
In the reverb, balance out the level of wet vs dry sound.
Now in the reverb buss, open the surround panner. Place the sound where you'd like it to be. Turn off any speakers you don't want it to come out of.
Done

Ahh. Excellent, that was exactly what I was looking for :-)

Many thanks!

I've not worked with any drop-frame footage, but that sounds
like some form of a bug to me. Did you test this under Vegas 5
as well?

Is this footage that you have captured with the Vegas capture utility or is this footage from another source? Unlike every other video program, Vegas uses a frame rate of 29.970029970 (30000/1001), whereas everyone else uses 29.970 (2997/100).

Curiously, the Vegas frame rate it is absolutely correct and everyone else is doing it wrong. (Well, not wrong exactly, just less precise.)

I have noticed that when I bring in footage which was created or processed outside of Vegas, the frames on the timeline may not match up to the "ticks." One more annoying and very noticable effect is that if if you use footage that has been created outside Vegas and place it on the timeline, at 2 seconds 28 frames from the beginning of the clip, it will repeat a frame regardless of where you put it in the timeline. Usually, this isn't noticeable but its guaranteed to happen. Once I had a logo animation and at 2 seconds 28 frames into the animation, there was a really quick move and the animation would stutter at that point. It drove me NUTS until I figured out what was going on. I got on the Vegas forums and raised a stink about it, but the reply I got from Sony (Sonic Foundry) was that they couldn't help it if they were doing the frame rate correctly and everyone else was doing it wrong.

The workaround turned out to be re-writing the header of the AVI file and change it from 2997/100 to 30000/1001 and that fixed it. I have a command line utility that will do this. I can post it on my web site if you need it.

John

I have noticed as you edit a project more, the timimg/syncing
becomes much more difficult - for example - I need a mirror to
break a very precise moment - as I move on, the timing changes
and it's very frustrating. I'm thinking that maybe small segments
need to be rendered to a new file then the new file be added to the timeline? If so, once that section is rendered can you still
edit it and rerender it if need be? I mean this has to be an issue
for all users, that is, as you build your project the preview becomes much less accurate so I'm curious as to what people
are doing. Thanks.

Hi Everybody..I was looking for a good conbination to start again (after 5 years) in video production in Miami. I worked on it in the 90's with betacam SP and media 100...And the best what I found for my budget and my needs is this: Laptop HP ZE 5345us .P4. 256mb ram (maybe I need more memory) 2.4 giahertz and 60 gigabites. I already have this laptop because I want to unload and edit everywhere in off line Pc platform.
In cameras I think what Canon Xl2 is a very good option..What do you think about it?..
But I lost the train in edition...Media 100 don't exist anymore and "Ifinish" ( the sucesor of media 100) is to expensive...Same to avid express pro...I was looking for Adobe premiere pro but this program looks to "crashy" for me...So..Vegas looks a very good option...I'm not thinking In " transfer to movie"...Or big production..I;m just looking for a very good DVD in 16;9 or 4:3...By the way...I'm very worried about the audio about the Xl generation...What's the best mics wireless and not, and where can I buy this Stuff (not the Canon Xl2.) I'm talking about Vegas (if you think is good to me) and Mics...and all you recomend me to prepare this combination. ( upgrading the laptop for example)... Thank you very much for your any sugestion guys...Julius...

Actually I've noticed this phenomenon today working with 25fps PAL footage. I had to turn off Quantise to frames to be able to line everything up again.

Are you sure that cut is placed exactly on the end of the previous frame- do you have quantize to frames enabled?

Michael,

I'm not clear on your exact problem--are you losing sync between your audio and video tracks--is it gradual drift out of sync or just a constant shift? Or is it that both the audio and video shift on the timeline as you edit? In any case, you can right click on events and lock them so they don't shift--regardless of additional edits.

What settings are best for Vegas, when scanning in old photos (resolution, bit depth, etc.)? I've seen mention on this board of the "Ken Burns" effect and Edward's nifty script (on my "to buy" list), but not any discussion of optimal scanner settings to get the pictures into the PC in the first place.

Anyone?

Marcia, I just scan everything at 300 dpi at whatever size the image actually is. Once you add it to the timeline, open Pan/Crop, right-click the image on the Pan/Crop screen, and choose "Match Output Aspect" (there's a script that will do this to a bunch of images at once). Then you can adjust the Pan/Crop settings as desired to create the movement. The PBS Wizard is great if you want to add movement to a LOT of images quickly.

It's not due to any drifting, what I'm saying is that the audio
is not edited, the video is so it is slowing in the preview window
as more editing is done. When you watch playback it gets more
and more out of sync (because it has not been rendered yet).
This is really a function of computer speed but I need to be able
to watch accurately what I've edited from a timing stand point.

John, the footage was captured with the Vegas 5 VidCap program from a MiniDV tape. Some of the clips have been processed through deinterlace and sharpening digital intermediates, all with Vegas.

Glen, the sample I showed is end of the first cut of the timeline.

The thing of note, here, is that the symptom consistently appears on .veg projects that have been "used" but not within brand new .veg projects. I'm not sure of the amount of "use" that results in the symptom.

Michael

Thanks Edward! I'd better take a moment and go grab a couple of your plug-ins now, while I'm thinking about it. I'm a bit distracted these days. I go to sleep, wake up, even dream about what I'm editing...

Marcia

I am not familiar with Vegas details, but does this not relate to the drop frame concept? A 29,...fps frame period is somewhat longer than a 30 fps frame duration. The timecode allways counts in 30 frame units. In order to make this framecounter representative for the real time (duration) it now and then drops a timecode number (not a frame!). If yr Vegas outputs (renders) and inserts a new 30fps timecode you will get the difference between the framenumber and the timeline if you enter that rendered footage again and the timeline is set for 29,...fps

I don't think this is a drop frame thing as mine does it with PAL footage.

Note, too, what I wrote about the cursor and markers/regions. They also end up snapping off-frame along with the video clip.

Why would they be affected by an off-frame length of a video clip?

Michael,

Vegas Preview goes as fast as it can on your computer, but as you add more video effects, etc. it will not be in real time and you will see the actual frame rate (in red at the bottom of the preview window after Display:) slow down. There are a few things that you can do to get a real time preview:

1. Use Draft preview mode. This will speed things up, but will result is a loss of quality.

2. Prerender to disk using Tools/Selectively Prerender Video (Shift-M).

3. Prerender to RAM using Tools/Build Dynamic RAM preview (Shift-B). To use this option, you need to set a RAM buffer via Options/Preferences/Video tab, set the Dynamic RAM preview buffer to as big of a value as you can.

If you use option 3, the amount of time that you can prerender is based upon the amount of RAM that you allocate. This is the fastest option for testing short sections of video.

If you need a longer section, then option 2 is the best bet. It will prerender to disk.

Obviously the faster the computer and especially the hard disk, the more effects you can add before the preview frame rate slows down.

Randall

Thanks, Ed. Sorry for the delay with the reply. It was unavoidable however you did solve my problem with your reply. I just dropped the files in media player and of of many that were loading was corrupted and therefor the .veg file didn't work.

Now I am back dealing with just why my files get corrupted.

In any event, it was great to know the .veg files are all intackt.

Thanks for the info, kinda what I was thinking, can prerendered
stuff be edited though? I want to render a piece to see it but
be able to 'leave it be' in the timeline for additional editing.

Thanks so much

If you PRE-RENDER, yes, you can still edit just fine. As soon as you make a change in that area the pre-render will simply be discarded.

If you RENDER TO NEW TRACK, you can still edit that section, you just have to manually delete the rendered video from the upper tracks.

1- You can download the demos for the various NLEs out there. Vegas and Premiere Pro for example have pretty functional demos.

For Vegas, the shortcut keys sticky at the top might really help you out.

Premiere Pro: version 1.5 seems to have fixed things. I'm not sure about this.

2- What camera to get: Check out the main forum here (the open discussion one).

There's many threads on which camera to get. Whatever camera you get shouldn't really affect which NLE you pick. Most NLEs can handle 24p editing if you really want that.

3- You will want to put more RAM into that laptop if you go Premiere Pro.

For Vegas I think you can actually get away with 256MB RAM. If you want decent RAM previews in Vegas then you'll need to add more RAM.

4- Mics: check out the audio forum, lots of great discussions on mics there. As far as wireless mics go, the Sennheiser ones are the most popular recommendation (the Evolution and the newer G2 series).

Another alternative to Grain Surgery, although not quite as effective, is the median tool.

Nice work, Michael! I loved the colors, lighting, and camera composition. The story itself left me a little baffled, probably because trying to see it in a small quicktime file embedded made it more of a visual effort than an emotional one from the viewing side.
Any chance of an HD WMV that could be either downloaded, or at least streamed at a decent rate?

Douglas,

That is fine praise, indeed, coming from you. Many thanks, sir.

Good comments on the narrative. I agree the film is a bit obscure and first time director Robie Kentspeth and I agree the first act setup runs too long before we see our principle characters' conflict. As the D.P., I did my best to capture Robie's esoteric vision, but she had some very specific ideas about camera movement and coverage. I think she did a pretty good job, however, on her very first short film project.

[ disclosure: Robie is my girlfriend too. :-) ]

I've not tried a WMV file and am concerned about migrating away from a "universal" format. If a film clip can't be played by absolutely everyone who visits my site, I'm doing my visitors a disservice and only harming myself.

I understand/agree about "universal" delivery, however some things to consider:
To get a great Quicktime stream, you have to have massive file sizes, and risk non streaming, but rather full downloads for many users.

Quicktime is less ubiquitous than REAL, although I hate REAL like most people. But, REAL can deliver HD streams for about the same file size as your very small QT.

Windows Media, while not universal, has by far and wide the lions share of streaming formats, owning more than 72% of the streaming market, according to Marken & Associates. (research firm) And, WMV can deliver a 720p stream with surround, for less bandwidth than your QT can deliver.

So...may I suggest that you deliver in QT for those that insist on watching through very small previews and have lots of bandwidth, and a second option for those that want the best experience possible on the broadest use platform available?

On our Mac/PC training tools, we deliver in both, realizing that QT will always be demanded by some folks. But the majority want Windows, based on internal and external research.
Our Copyrights training DVD has both, and interestingly enough, there have been 61 downloads/streams of the QT file.
there have been 860 streams of the WMV file. Quarter the size, quadruple the quality.

Just my nickel's worth. But the stream does look very good, which is hard to do in QT for that length a project with that small a file size.

OK is it me or does Vegas 4 not have an audible audio scrub
i.e. when trying to trim an event ,“clip”, sound bite

Thanks

Vince

Adobe Premier 1.5 has a countdown generator that works great.
You can customize it with ease. Saved me a bunch of time since I didn't have to design one.


File, New, Coundown generator....


Thanks

You have the CTRL-Drag option in preferences. You can also playback a loop region. Plus there's the thumb control below the timeline headers.

Excellent advice drawn on thorough research.

Fortunately, I have quite a bit of space on my Yahoo-hosted site. As you suggest, I will add some full-rez streams to my half-rez QT's.

Thanks again.

Thanks Edward

Vince

Heres an annoying problem that I have been dealing with for the last week or so: While rendering my timeline out to a standard NTSC DV file Vegas hard crashes(takes the OS down, back to the bios startup/bootup screen and re-boots) This only seems to happen when I use the "glow" filter, although I have had some trouble (Vegas_ SOMETIMES BUT NOT ALWAYS crashes but the OS is left standing) when I try to use a TGA graphic on the timeline. System has been quite stable up until now, but this is the first time I have tried to use this filter. Kind of a a pain since I need to use this filter for editing weddings....

Heres my system and what I have done so far:

MSI K7T turbo2 MB w/VIA KT-133A chipset, latest Bios.

Matrox AGP G450 16 MG dual display card, latest drivers

2 Hard drives on controller 1

DVD recorder on Controller 2

2 hard drives on Promise TX133 controller(PCI)

Allied 450 W true-power supply

768 PC133 ram

Vegas 4.0E

WinXP (fresh installl)

Serial ports, paralell ports, legacy sound and USB1 disabled

M-Audio 24/96 sound card

USB2 card

Pyro firewire card

Have updated Vegas from 4.0c to 4.0E

Updated DirectX from 8.1 to 9.0C

Updated drivers for Matrox Card

Have had SOME success by tuning off the video preview during rendering and rendering in sections instead of trying to render the whole timeline at once...obviously this workaround adds a lot of time to my edit. Anyone have any ideas?? my memory useage stays right at 270 MB , so there seeems to be plenty of ram on the system without having to go to the page file...I suspect:

video card

lack of available video ram

KT133a chipset conflict

Any suggestions?? feel freeto write directly or forward your reply to:

Steveleone@aol.com

Check the temperature of your CPU. Sounds like it may be getting too hot and shutting down. First, make sure ALL of your fans are working correctly. If the CPU has a fan, also make sure it is working. Make sure the airvents are not clogged with dust and debris. As a test, you can always take the cover off and blow a fan toward the computer.

Thanx for the input...I checked the temp immediately after the crash and its was 114 F...I am sure it was already falling...I have the unit set to shut down at 176 F...also, I have 2 fans on the power supply, 3 large fans in the case, and a Volcano 9 running at full bore on the CPU, along with a couple of HD fan enclosures; I have a lot of air moving around that case....I keep the room temp around 68-70 degrees. that along with the reasonable CPU temp and the fact that it only crashes while rendering with that specific filter(gausian blur works just fine even tho its very CPU intensive) makes me suspect that Temp is not the problem..but again, thanx....

1- Try updating the latest drivers for your KT133 chipset. You should do this anyways if you haven't done so already. The chipset has some known problems, one of which can cause dropped frames for you I believe.

http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2

2- XP will automatically reboot on a serious error. You can tell Windows to show you a BSOD (blue screen of death) instead.

Go to Start --> settings --> control panel --> system --> advanced (tab) --> startup and recovery --> settings --> uncheck "automatically restart"

If you get different BSODs every time then it's probably a hardware problem. If it's the same error code each time then it's most likely a software problem.

Example BSOD error code (the 3 most important lines):
---
***STOP: 0.000000D1 (0x00000000, 0xF73120AE, 0xC0000008, 0xC0000000)

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage
to your computer

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
---

3- Try running the following two programs to check for hardware problems. The first is used to stress test your computer.

Prime95
Prime95 is a distributed computing program that tries to find certain prime numbers. Its 'torture test' stresses your computer with mathematical calculations and checks the output against known results. This makes prime95 a good diagnostic for instability problems from your CPU and your RAM. Download it from:

http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

Run the “torture test” through options --> torture test --> Ok
Prime95 will stop immediately once it detects an error, and continue indefinitely if it does not. I suggest running Prime95 overnight as you do not need to watch this program run. Prime95 will log errors in results.txt in the installation directory. The icon will also turn from red to yellow when it detects an error.

Motherboard Monitor (MBM)
This program monitors your computer's temperatures and voltages. You want to get readings when your system is being stressed, so run MBM with another program like any recent 3d game or prime95. Download it and install it off:

http://mbm.livewiredev.com/download.html

Interpreting readings:
Right click the MBM system tray icon and click on settings. Click on high/low. Mouse over the alarm bells to see the tolerances of the temperatures and voltages (5%). Are any of them past their tolerances? Ignore all the zero readings. If many of the readings are zero then MBM may be too old to be supported.

*To get Motherboard Monitor working, you may need to know what motherboard you have. The utility CPU-Z can help you determine what model your motherboard is:

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

**Abit should have a motherboard monitoring program that should be just as good.

This is almost certainly a form of a hardware problem. Basically
it should be impossible for Vegas to "crash" (which it probably
is NOT doing) and reboot the whole PC.

Glenn has some very good pointers, tips and suggestions!

I would either say:

1: virus / trojan
2: heat problem (you mentioned it will shut down at a certain thres hold => which the prime programd should nicely test)
3: your promise card
4: problems with your mainboard
5: memory chips are faulty

Do you get ANY message at all before it reboots?

Thanx to all for your input!!!...I have followed the suggestions so kindly offered....I installed and ran Prime while monitoring with MBM....MBM reports pretty average numbers regarding temperatur...CPU is averaging 113F , which sounds about right for an Athlon. High is 134, low at 109...turn-off temp is set for 158F I believe...I have it set at 176 in my Bios. Core voltage varied between 1.54 and 1.58, with an average at 1.58. Unfortunately, My system failed the Prime Torture test 2 out of 3 executions with inaccurate reporting of expected results....does this sound like a Chipset problem??? My original MSI mainboard died last year, and this current board is a replacement given to me by MSI under warrenty....
BTW...I had already installed the latest 4in1 drivers when I installed this OS last week, and I have been unable to find a virus or Trojan using AVG and AdAware. Should I start shopping for a new MB?
Thanx to all!!!
Stephen
PS...
even tho my system failed the Prime test, it did not crash as a result of the testing.