Preferences>Preview Device>Apply deinterlace filter

I'm previwing within Vegas, so there is no option to apply that filter. Plus I've rendered it out in several formats, and the lines are always there.

Thanks for the help anyway though.

Interlaced
 

I beleive what you are seeing is... a frame of interlaced footage (or rather the two pieces of one frame not matching up). Some fast moving objects may tent to "comb" as they say. You will need to deinterlace your footage. There are many ways to do this (with many different software applications, including Vegas itself)... please search the forums and specifically read the forum on how to make your video look like film... those guys are always talking about Deinterlacing and getting smooth video out of interlaced footage.

Vegas can deinterlace your footage if it knows to think of the footage as interlaced.

Check in your project media to be sure that Vegas is thinking of this file as interlaced. It's a per-media setting.

Vegas should be able to turn the car into a blurry mess without too much trouble. Something is definitely up in this case.

You cineformed it you say? So it's footage from a SONY HDV then, I'm guessing (what else? interlaced HD...).

There is possibly no problem. It is just the way vegas show interlaced files. If you render it and show it on a TV it should be gone. If it's still there you've changed something on your interlacing settings: rendered it with the wrong field priority or rendered is as progressive while the vegas project was thinking it was progressive?

Anyhow, I wouldn't deinterlace: just check your project property settings to see the right field order has been selected, see to it the field order of the rendered file is the same and check it on a TV. It should be fine then.

anyone? anyone at all?

I'd be happy to answer if I understood your post.
2 tracks, but with a "mask 'between' them." That would imply 3 tracks to me.
Bottom track would have a hard time showing through top track, resized or not, unless you've used mask mode on the top track to allow bottom track to show through. If you used track motion on the top track, that won't affect the lower track, unless you parent the top track to the bottom track.
Either posting a veg or a still would probably be helpful.

I don't understand "been fettled with is black."

Thanks for that mate. I will post a still when I get home tonight. I even confused myself when I read that post back lol!

Vegas 6 Basic Operations
 

Hello All,

I have a question about the training material posted here (vegastrainingandtools). I'm a newbie and trying to get out of the rut of just doing basic plain editing and fiddling around for hours getting quite frustrated. The help menu contributes to my frustration being that I'm a visual learner. For example if I know a certain thing I want to add/try, having someone show me, and then seeing the different effects and such.

I'm interested in the training material, but I want to know if anyone has used it and gotten more than just the surface training like adding audio and video tracks. Some of the things that I'm interested if it is even capable in Vegas is simple PIP (video and still photograph or video and video). I'm also interested in slow motion and different forms of titling.

I have done a few weddings and I also video tape my church services, but I want to jazz everything up a couple of notches. Can someone give me 10 simple things I can do in Vegas to add spice to weddings and make church services more inviting to look at. I use two Canon GL2s, which give me great video quality and I capture sound directly from the soundboard so audio is very clear.

Any help in this manner is greatly appreciated. Please let me know if any of you who use to be newbies tried the training material and found it worth the money. Being the visual learner that I am a "picture" is more than worth a thousand words and the money, provided I am being educated. Thanks in advance.

Vegas is definitely capable of a PIP, just look through the first four newsletters on my website at www.jetdv.com (go to the "Newsletter Archive" section) to see creating a PIP, making modifications to the PIP, and even moving the PIP over time. You might want to check out the other newsletters as well.

Let me take a crack at it.

What I take from your post is that you're using the top image as a mask and that the lower image is showing through the parts of the top image that you want it to.

Then, you reduced the size of the top image, and because it's now smaller than the project frame, everything around it is black.

If you're using the top image as a mask, the only parts of the lower track which can show through are the parts directly under the top image -- so yes, everything around it would appear as black.

But, as Spot pointed out, in order to advise you how to achieve what you're trying to do, we need to know what it looks like now and what you want it to look like.

Edward's newsletters are excellent, well worth the read.

Although there are some great Vegas training materials out there, and do check out the resources at vasst.com, it sounds like you may be concerned with shooting for the edit and learning to edit, maybe even more than learning to edit with Vegas.

I hear that you're in a creative rut. It may be your first, but probably not your last. Vegas is a great editor that will support any thing you want to do, but I think the question here is "what do you want your work to look like?"

I think you need to see more work from other people and try to duplicate in shooting and in Vegas the techniques that you find interesting. As Edward pointed out, V. will certainly do a PIP and so much more... but you'll learn it faster if you're trying to replicate a particular look.

I've seen some amazing wedding portfolio reels - do some searching online, you'll find them. I'm not as familiar with what good work looks like for a church service, but there are organizations, interest groups and forums that specialize in that as well.

Intentional creation of the image is much better than throwing on some editing effects to spice up the program, at least in my book.

For what it's worth.

Excellent words Seth. To put it another way, you have to learn to walk before you can walk so learn to walk properly first.
No effect is going to magically turn a bad production into a good one. Use them sparingly and have a reason for every one you do use. Hollywood used (and still does) only cuts and dissolves for years and it hasn't hurt their production values.
Start by reading anything and everything on the subject.
The Five C's Of Cinematography is highly recommended.
When you watch a movie on TV, turn the sound off and pay close attentin to the visuals. Find out why you like a particular shot or series of shots.
Then turn the sound up but ignore the picture. Listen to how sound is used to create moods.
Go to art galleries and really study the works there, especially the old masters. Their use of light and shadow was a training ground for a lot of good cinematographers.
http://www.vegasusers.com/vidshare/ has a lot of videos submitted by Vegas users world-wide.
Go to youtube and do a search on "sony vegas". I got 718 hits just now. The production values on some of them are damn good!!

You are a truely gifted bloke! That is exactly what I was trying to explain. What I would like..........is all the areas that show up black to be visible as well. I will still post a screen grab as well, but any ideas?

I won't be able to say anything for sure until I see it. I don't know what your mask looks like, what's underneath it, what parts you want to show through, and what it it'll look like when it does.

From Vegas5 to mpeg4?
 

I'm using Vegas 5 and need to render out as mpeg4. What are my options and their costs?

I had the same problem when I started using Vegas 7.0 with m2t files captured internally in Vegas with the HVR A-1u. (I had editable video files, but it would not build audio peaks, and I also had the error message) I read in information from another post that this problem was fixed in Vegas 7.0b, so I downloaded the update and installed it and the issue seems to be solved.

File - Render As - MainConcept AVC/AAC (*.mp4)

or

File - Render As - Sony AVC/AAC (*.mp4)

Gentlemen,

Thanks a million. I truly agree that I need to learn to walk before walking. I will definitely begin to do more research and watch some of the examples on the links mentioned. I guess the hard part after watching is figuring out how to reproduce what I have seen. I guess that is the fun in learning. Vegas is definitely a powerful tool and I want to unlock as many of its creative capabilities as possible.

Before closing, AMEN to keeping things simple. It is far better than just throwing in special effects. At this point I need to see how effects are created and how they enhance positiviely vs negatively. Since I posted my question I have found someone in the local area that uses Vegas and has been using it for quite a while. I will try and be an apprentice to gain some insight on the who, what, when, and why. I have recommended this site to so many people because the excellent advice and non-judgmental answers.

Thanks Again!!!

The Trimmer
 

I'm sorry guys this may seem like a very basic question but what exactly is the purpose of the trimmer? Is it just to trim clips because you can just do that in the time line. I'm sorry maybe I'm just missing the point. Thanks.

Mitch

It's a tool to select regions/segments/in-out points. Many users never touch the trimmer, because similar tasks may be accomplished on the timeline.
However, if you've got say...one hour of analog capture, using the trimmer to select, mark, and insert short clips is a much better workflow.
One nice thing about Vegas is it doesn't *require* 3 point/4 point editing. It's a great workflow when you have so many choices.
If you don't use the Trimmer, just leave it invisible.

Thank you for replying Edward. Neither of those options appear in my Vegas 5. Mainconcept Mpeg1 and Mpeg2 are there but no mp4.

Ahh... Vegas 5. Today or tomorrow you could upgrade to Vegas 7+DVD4 for $150 (after tomorrow the price goes back up).

So I guess the answer to your question is $150 if you want to stay inside Vegas.

In my workflow on longer material, I generally open the video on the trimmer, find the in/out points and set markers (type "M"). I then drag the bits to the timeline. I find that this lets me focus on selection without having to think about composition.

My son does everything from the timeline. This also works. The big difference is that when the editing is done, my timeline is clean. His timeline tends to have one section of edited video with at least as many minutes of leftover junk off to the sides.

That said, he's very quick (Vegas is great that way - with or without the trimmer), and he's the more talented editor.

Overall, I think the trimmer is great when you have a lot of video and the junk to keeper ratio is high. For lots of quick edits on a short capture, the timeline is probably the better method.

It's nice to have both skills and to use the right tool for the job at hand.

Strange Sync Issue
 

I am having a sync issue with Vegas 7.

In vegas, even with selective prerender, the audio is perfectly syncd (3 cameras). Once rendered to mpeg2 (vegas main concept, two pass vbr) it is out of sync, and appears to sort of drift in and out over the course of about a 30 second stretch. I have applied magic bullet (editors) unbloom to these series of clips.

Any ideas? Thanks guys!

Having trouble with the Text "Scaling" option
 

Ok Im trying to get the text to look like its coming in from far away and shooting past you but I cannot get it to work like when I add an effect and adjust it through the time bar on the bottom of the screen. Whats up with that?
Vegas 6.0

The easiest way to do that in Vegas is PAN/CROP with a couple of keyframes.

Enlarge the CROP/PAN to as big a number as you can around 4 to 5,000 then go to the end of the timeline and set another keyframe to a smaller numbe, perhaps 1 or 2 hundred. You'll have to play with the number to get it exactly as you want it but other than going to a program like BLUFFTitler which is made for that, that's the only way I know how to do it.

Don

Tony,
Rather than using the scaling option in the title tool, use Pan/Crop for best results. Click the pan/crop icon on the text, and grow it or shrink it as you desire. Get better results by doubling the resolution of your text to 1440 x 960

[edit] LOL, Great minds think alike (and apparently at the same time, too, Don...

Aw Spot, I thought I was the only one that knew about that trick, darn it!
;-O

Don

Ok I still cant figure out what to change when I get in the pan crop


<<stupid newbie

Relax Tony. We were all newbies once upon a time :-)
First of all, do as Spot suggested and, in the text window, set the frame size to 1440 x 960.
Now open up the pan/crop window and change the width value (under the position tab) to a large number (it'll go up to a maximum of 11,520).
The height value will adjust accordingly.
The text should have shrunk in size a lot.
Change the smoothness value (under keyframe interpolation) to 0.0
Now create a key frame in the timeline at the bottom of the window at the beginning by clicking the + key.
Go to the end of the timeline and enter a new width value. Something around 100 will probably work but you'll have to experiment here with a value to get the text to the position you want.
That's it. Exit and play it to see if it's what you want.
If not, go back into pan/crop and experiment further.

With auto-scene dectection many folks don't really get a feel for what they've got until they play their clips. I keep the trimmer as a small window with only a single frame visable.

Now one can double-click a clip into the Trimmer and set IN and OUT points exactly. You watch the Timmer media in the monitor. The Timeline remains undisturbed, with the cursor waiting at the end of the last clip you inserted. (This is a very safe way of editing since you aren't putting anything you haven't previewed into the Timeline.).

Of course, if you need to place a clip precisely in another Track, you can place the cursor at either the IN or OUT point. Now click ADD. Done. You have performed one type of 3-point edit.

Alternately, place the Timeline cursor to the END of where you want a clip to go. Use the alternate ADD. This is the second type of 3-point edit. (Although, normally a Mark is used, not the cursor which keeps the point in place while still being able to view the Timeline.)

Both of these are both very common ways of using the Trimmer.

The other two 3-point methods use 2-points in the Timeline and either an IN or OUT point in the Trimmer. In these cases you will use IN and OUT points in the Timeline. The Timeline cursor isn't used. These two techniques use the Trimmer and Timeline TOGETHER to perform very accurate edits. With all but Vegas, this is a one click/key operation that requires no dragging. Nevertheless, it can be done with Vegas -- it just takes a few more steps plus one drag.

There are many good reasons for the Trimmer -- especially when used in close conjuction with the Timeline.

Thanks Boss!! Your the Man!!!

Not a "Boss". Just someone who was also a newbie once and, with the help of lots of folks here and elsewhere, have picked up a lot of useful tips.
Happy editing :-)

Correcting Auto-Iris Mistakes...
 

I have a rather tricky situation and I'm hoping someone here can advise me. In short, I messed up some video footage that I unfortunately can't re-shoot.

The setup: A martial arts location shoot using two JVC DV500U miniDV cameras (rented gear, and first time using these model cams). I then Capture/Edit using Vegas6, which I am fairly well versed in using for basic editing functions/corrections.

The problem: The otherwise well lit footage has been marred by the fact that both cameras were mistakenly set to Auto-Iris. The resulting harsh "starcasing" of the exposure up-and-down back-and-forth over about a 1.5 fstop range during some close-ups and zooms has rendered the footage essentially unusable as-is.

NOTE: There's some good news: At no point is over/underexposure a factor. Also, both cameras had appropriate white balance set manually. It's just those darn harsh exposure change stairsteps.

Is anyone aware of a fix for these exposure shifts, other than correcting them totally by hand using the appropriate plugins (brightness or color corrector gain) in Vegas? These shifts often occur in rapid succession so I would be days-and-days correcting them all manually if I could even pull it off smoothly enough (matching the ramp time, ramp curve, and ramp amount for each occurrence).

I have found nothing available in Vegas to help me auto-fix this situation. Am I overlooking anything there? Or as another alternative, are there any third party plugins for Vegas (or After Effects) that could assist me in correcting this?

I'm hoping that there might be some sort of solution in the form of a video plugin that is analogous to a compressor/limiter for audio. Am I hoping in vain?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

You could try MSU's Deflicker plug-in for Virtualdub.

HD Image Artifact for 'Good'/'Best' Quality
 

I downloaded some HD footage, shot by Kaku Ito, to check out with Vegas 7.0b and noticed during playback that when the image quality is set to 'Good' or 'Best' a dragonfly, flying through the scene, is duplicated so two twin dragonflys appear. However when the image quality is set to 'Draft' or 'Preview' only one appears.

Does anyone know what causes this, if there is a fix, and if other NLEs have this sort of artifact?

It occurs at frame 318 (and elsewhere) in the following clip.
http://media.dvinfo.net/canonxh/60itrpdjameszmin2.m2t

Links to images of this frame at each quality level follow.
Draft: http://www.io.com/~smg/DragonflyDraft.jpg
Preview: http://www.io.com/~smg/DragonflyPreview.jpg
Good: http://www.io.com/~smg/DragonflyGood.jpg
Best: http://www.io.com/~smg/DragonflyBest.jpg

You're seeing the two fields of each frame. Usually you see a "comb" effect when the picture is being displayed at a 1:1 pixel ratio, but since you're looking at a scaled down image, it's blending alternate lines as it scales down and the two fields are not distinctly separate anymore.

In other words, nothing is wrong or broken. If this still doesn't make sense, do some reading about fields and DV on Adam Wilt's site.

Yea, I was looking at (and posted) half-size images. When I view them as full-size in Vegas I see the comb effect of the separated fields. Thanks.

http://www.mikecrash.com/modules.php...showpage&pid=6
auto levels from mike crash may help.