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?

text roll does look very good
 

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

Keying in Vegas - help!
 

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!

I don't have any details other than I've heard it will work well in this situation. I have not personally seen the tool.

I find using Ultra by Serious Magic can handle some of the most demanding keying situations. Many different adjustments are available that help deal with spill. It's a GREAT keying tool.

http://www.seriousmagic.com

Only full color is in the images in the color plates. The rest of the book is b/w.
INSTANT VEGAS is a shortcut tips/tricks book on basics, compositing, mixing in Vegas. More project oriented than in-depth oriented.

Try a bold version of a san serif font. Arial is good. Add a drop shadow and maybe an outline depending on the background color.

Maybe get some new fonts. http://dafont.com/en/

Dennis Vogel

I need help separating 2 audio tracks
 

My sister asked me to create a DVD of a variety show type of performance that she hired a professional videographer to tape for her. Anyway, when the videographer gave me the tapes she mentioned that the audio was being recorded directly into her Sony PD150 from the soundboard but was being "clipped". So she said she also recorded it with another mic (camera mounted)on the same tape.

I captured the video. When I drag a scene into Vegas (I'm using 4) there is one video track and one audio track. However, the audio track is split in two horizontally down the middle displaying 2 seperate audio waveforms. I just do this as a hobby and have never encoutered this before. Is there a way to seperate the two audio waveforms so that I can choose the one that sounds best? Can you do that in Vegas?

Copy the audio to another track. Then right-click each one, choose "Channels" and then pick "right" on one and "left" on the other.

But rememebr to do a single left-click on each of the property panels on the left hand side of the track to seperate them. If you don't , Edward's tip won't work to the fullest capacity is the tracks will emulate each other :)

Last Chance for NYC Sony event!
 

Gang,
if you aren't registered for the FREE SONY SOFTWARE SHOWCASE EVENT in NYC for tomorrow, (june 8) GET REGISTERED NOW!
Due to security reasons, the 550 Madison avenue building will NOT allow anyone into the showcase unless they are pre-registered.
We will be turning off registration at 11:00 p.m. EST
http://www.vasst.com/registration/?sony to get registered.

Magic Bullet out for Vegas
 

Anyone using it- any feedback?

http://store.yahoo.com/redgiantsoftw...gasbullet.html

Item to add/consider for Neon
 

Edward,
Just a thought...but have you thought of adding "match output aspect" script to your PBS wizard for Neon. I realize there are stand alone scripts for this...at least for Vegas 4...but I haven't seen the scripts updated for 5. I just finished a bunch of work with photos and forgot to originally open the project in Vegas 4 to take advantage of the aspect script. This is not a biggie...but would be a nice addition to the wizards...

Awesome, thanks guys.

Glen, it comes free with Vegas 5, when you register you get an additional 5 "looks." It's not the full Bullet Suite. The product you can buy for 199 is more of the same stuff, just a buncha presets, I think there are 35 more when you buy it for 199.00 No control though.

Yes I had thought of that. However, I didn't want to add someone else's code to my program. I guess I should ask the original author if it is OK to include in the program.

You can still use the Vegas 4 version in Vegas 5 (I do all the time). Just locate the line that reads:

import SonicFoundry.Vegas;

and change it to read:

import Sony.Vegas;

After this change, it should run fine in Vegas 5.

Thanks Edward for the tip!

Is it included on the Vegas 5 CD or a separate CD? I checked and it doesn't look like I got Magic Bullet with Vegas 5.

<<<-- Originally posted by Douglas Spotted Eagle : there are 35 more when you buy it for 199.00 No control though. -->>>

Spot, on the site it says it includes the "Look Suite" which...

"The Look Controls component is the most powerful aspect of Magic Bullet for Editors, with 26 different controls you can start from scratch to customize your own video Looks or tweak the included presets to create the mood you desire."

Not that I'm actually suggesting this as a matter of practice, but you can edit the looks that exist currently by placing their files in a text editor and making changes.

It's a nice bullet feature (hah), and to my mind little else -- the MB presets are very easy to replicate with Zenote's Glow, a mild s-curve, and the 3-wheel color corrector in Vegas.

The major difference being render times -- rendering Glow/curves/cc takes about one fifth the time that MB takes to render.

I've been matching MB presets and then saving my own as FX packages in Vegas. For example, here's a comparison between my "filmic" and MB's:

See if you can spot which is which...

- jim

Pretty darn nice if I do say so myself. Yeah- render times is the main reason I stay away from Magic Bullet. There's NO reason why rendering should take that long- it's not de-interlacing it!

Heroglyph - crazy program
 

I've had a chance to play around with the Heroglyph titling and compositing program which installs nicely as a media generator in Vegas 5. This program is reviewed in latest issue of Vegas tips and Tricks, and I wanted to share some of my experiences. I'm seriously impressed by this program.

It uses a unique way of dealing with text and elements.
No keyframes. Complex advanced titles, compositing and animation without keyframes.

It takes two days to understand it, first day all confusion and almost ready to Add/Remove programs in control panel.On second day it starts to make sense.

1. It's object oriented - here's the idea: Start with the smallest unit - a glyph/letter or an image/movie clip. Apply effects on this level. Now group your letters into words and images/clips into logical containers. Apply effects on this level. All contained objects (see..) are now affected by these effects. They are "children" and "inherith" stuff (position, transparency, perspective...) from the "parent" object. No need to worry about the "children" - just tell the "parent" what to to and they will follow.

2. Program design/logic assumes that *all* objects (a) enter the screen, (b) stay on the screen, (c) exit the screen. Think about scrolling titles, the letters enters, stays/scrolls across, and then leave the screen. So... basically Heroglyph provides ways objects can enter the screen, how to behave when on the screen, and how to exit the screen. And there are a lot of ways objects can enter end exit the screen in the program, hundreds from what I can tell after two days.

On a 10 second clip you then define, say, "enter screen" as 4 seconds, 4 seconds "on screen" and 2 seconds as "exit screen".
If you create a scrolling title effect you can then define for each line line in the credit roll
- "randomly assemble the letters into words when entering the screen" so all letters come flying in randomly and forming words as each credit line enters the screen. (enter screen)
- Scroll smoothly across the screen (stay on screen)
- Fade out when exiting (exit screen)
Does this make sense? It took me two days to understand....

Want an 8x8 picture-in-picture as a page roll to make your corporate audience go "wow"?
Assemble an 8x8 grid of empty graphics placeholders. Group into container. Assign a separate movie clip (you need 64 of them, but some can be stills and some can be solids and some can be transparent.... ) to each graphic placeholder in the grid. Apply "page roll" effect to the container. Great - now you have a page roll of 64 clips playing simultaneously. (might need overnight rendering...)

Image quality superb, manual not very good.
Highly recommended and a lot of fun.

Integrates with vegas timeline - but the video from vegas
is not available to Heroglyph, so you can't see the background your compositing against.

/magnus

Plus, subscribers to the newsletter got a special price.

<<<-- Originally posted by Edward Troxel :
Plus, subscribers to the newsletter got a special price.
-->>>

I didn't know if that was topsecret eyes-only area 51 exclusive information, so I didn't mention it....

Vegas might be resizing using Bicubic resampling... I have no idea if this is correct or not.

If I render out to HD 720p (WMV9 or MPEG-2), will this be lossless?

I think MB processes in 32-bit floating point while Vegas does not.

To check this:
In Vegas add 2 filters which are opposites of each other. i.e. HSL adjust
50% luminance and 200% luminance

you should see horrible banding show up.

Just good incentive to become a subscriber. If anyone wants to know about the special offer, just subscribe within the next few days and mention you would like to know about the offer where you can enter other information.

Different conversion algorithms are used for the different video rendering quality options, (which you choose from
Render as>[format]>custom>project.) You'll have the option of draft, preview, good, best.

Quality: Best
Scaling: bi-cubic/integration
Field Handling: on
Field Rendering: on (setting dependent)
Framerate Resample/IFR: on (switch dependent)

Quality: Good
Scaling: bi-linear
Field Handling: on
Field Rendering: on (setting dependent)
Framerate Resample/IFR: on (switch dependent)

Quality: Preview
Scaling: bi-linear
Field Handling: off
Field Rendering: off
Framerate Resample/IFR: always off

Quality: Draft
Scaling: point sample
Field Handling: off
Field Rendering: off
Framerate Resample/IFR: always off

------------------------------
Scaling:
------------------------------

These methods come into play when conforming sources that differ from the output size. They are also used when
panned, cropped or resized in track motion.

Bi-Cubic/Integration - Best image resizing algorithm available in Vegas. Quality differences will be most noticeable
when using very large stills or stretching small sources.

Bi-linear - Best compromise between speed and quality. This method will produce good results in most cases.

Point Sampling - Fast but produces poor results.


------------------------------
Field Handling:
------------------------------

This refers to the field conformance stage of Vegas's video engine. This includes Interlaced to Progressive
conversion, Interlaced to interlaced output when scaling, motion or geometric Video FX and Transitions are involved.
Skipping this stage can sometimes result in bad artifacts when high motion interlaced sources are used.


---------------------------------
Field Rendering:
---------------------------------

When the output format is interlaced, Vegas will internally render at the field rate (twice the frame rate) to
achieve smooth motion and FX interpolation.

---------------------------------
Frame Rate Resample / IFR (Interlace Flicker Reduction):
---------------------------------

Frame Rate Resample:

This kicks in when speed changes are made through Velocity Envelopes and/or event stretching. In can also be used
when up-converting low frame rate sources. This only kicks in if the resample switch is turned on _and_ quality is
set to good or best.

Interlace Flicker Reduction:

This kicks in if the event switch is turned on and quality is set to good or best. See Vegas' documentation for a
description of this switch.

Vegas will bypass any or all of these potentially expensive processing stages if the resulting output won't be
affected by the process (e.g. no-recompress pass-through, field render bypass when settings don't change and so on
...). Differences in the output between different quality settings may not always be noticeable, but that largely
depends on various attributes of the source media being used. If you want to see some of these differences first
hand, trying using extremely large or small sources or high-motion interlaced shots with extreme pan/crop operations.

Please note that you should never render your final project using anything other than good or best when interlaced
sources are involved unless the project only contains cuts. If preview quality is used, the resulting video will vary
between acceptable to disastrous depending on your project and its media content.

-----------------------------------------

does delete mean delete?
 

Hey folks;
I have a question for the more experienced Vegas users.
This is my first Vegas project and am wondering when I decide I no longer need/want to use a clip and click the delete icon above the media bin/explorer window, does is really mean delete?
When I look in My Documents, I can't remember which ones I no longer need (and deleted) and therefore can't verify if they are gone from my hd or just gone from media bins.
BTW, I'm still using V4,
Any answer would be appreciated.

When you delete from the media pool, you have the option of only deleting from the media pool or deleting from both the media pool AND the hard drive. It's your choice.

Personally, I always delete from the hard drive using Windows Explorer.

Great presentation! I really enjoyed your overview of the audio tools. And your demonstration of noise reduction was just fantastic. It has made me completely re-think my workflow and my usage of mics.

That was a pretty cool room too, I don't know if you noticed but even the individual seat areas were treated for sound. It was pretty funny to watch you clap your hands to try and get some room tone.

text over video?
 

I need some help!!!!!

After reading through Douglas Spotted Eagles book on Vegas 4, i still can't get the name of the interview subject to composite over the video like we all see on news shows, etc. I keep getting a black or gray checkerboard screen that simply inserts over the desired clip.

According to the book, I should open insert text media by right clicking. The video event fx window opens. I should then select my font style and size then placement then properties. In properties I am supposed to be able to choose to have the background color transparent but mine is either all black or some variation of the gray checkerboard - with no video underneath.

What am I doing wrong?!?!

It seems like a simple procedure from what DSE describes in his book but mine is not working.

Please help, I would like to be able to id my interview subjects while they are talking on screen not on a seperate screen.

create a track (right click, insert video track)
This should create a new track or time line above all your other media on the board.
on the new track right click click insert text media and then edit your text. Stretch the media for the time frame you want it to be seen overlaying the video you want. Its that easy
If this doesnt help you drop me a line with your # if you like and when I get home I will call you and walk you through it step by step : ) hope that helps : ) good luck..
PS. try the sonic foundry/ sony VEGAS Bulletin board. It is the most helpfull source of info on the internet for any problem you have with Vegas. The people there are very helpfull and responsive