Ahhhh (look of realisation crossing face).

As ever, many thanx for clarifying that!

Ian

Ian, if you're looking to move clips into another track, but maintain their L/R position in the timeline, try this keyboard shortcut:

Highlight the clip, then use the 8 key on the number pad to move up, or the 2 key to move down.

I use this all the time when I'm trying to maintain sync. Also, if you are trying to get in perfect sync with something, try dropping a marker (m key) at the point you want the clip to start. If snap-to-markers is turned on, this is a very reliable way to place your clip at a certain point in the timeline.

Do check out the newsletters available from the link in Edwards signature line - great info there as you are getting into Vegas, including a 1-page article on numpad shortcuts.

Other keyboard shortcuts may be found in the Vegas help file, and in a "sticky" post at the top of this forum's messages list.

.NET Framework 2.0 with Vegas
 

I've just installed the MS Office 2007 public beta on a pc and I have to say it looks really rather good! However, when installing the Business Contact Manager add-on to Outlook 2007 it says I need to upgrade .NET to 2.0.

The machine I've installed Office 2007 on is not running Vegas - in fact, it only runs email/internet/office/web dev etc kind of apps - but I would be interested to know whether anyone has had any experience of upgrading .NET to v2 on a pc running Vegas and whether there have been any problems.

Cheers.

Ian . . .

Vegas 5 requires at .NET 1.1. Vegas 6 needs .NET 1.1 SP 1 (which Vegas 5 can also use). Neither can use .NET 2.0. Fortunately, .NET 1.1 and .NET 2.0 can co-exist on the same system so it's safe to have both installed.

Ah, that's interesting - I hadn't considered that the two could co-exist; I assumed 2.0 would simply replace 1.1.

I'm happy to NOT install the Office 2007 beta on my production machine though - I was just curious.

Thanks for the response Edward and may I add my personal note of 'welcome back'.

Best,

Ian . . .

Frame Rate & Sign Language
 

I'm very new to all of this. In fact, I haven't edited one thing as yet. I am reading this forum daily in an attempt to absorb all that I can prior to taking on a project assigned to me at work.

I work at a school for the deaf. Beginning this Fall, I will be shooting digital video with a Canon xl-2 and editing in Sony Vegas 6 for the purpose of creating instructional video for teaching sign language.

Although I have several questions, my main concern at the moment is frame rate for shooting and editing. I have to put function over form and get the smoothest possible video even if that means making it look less film like and more video like.

Is 60i the best choice for camera setting and rendering output? If I use 60i throughout, will things move that much more smoothly?

Would I be creating other problems with respect to clarity? For instance, does the reduction in harshness of a more film like look overtake the smoothness of movement by being easier on the eyes for an extended period of time?

--rick

Chipmunks
 

Can you get the chipmunk voice sound without changing the speed? i.e. pitch.

=
Raise pitch one semitone.

Ctrl+=
Raise pitch one cent.

Shift+=
Raise pitch one octave.

Ctrl+Shift+=
Reset pitch.

-
Lower pitch one semitone.

Ctrl+-
Lower pitch one cent.

Shift+-
Lower pitch one octave.

Ctrl+Shift+-
Reset pitch.



or Right-click the audio, choose Properties, and manually type in the desired pitch change.

Hey Rick
I’ve done some sign language videos and found the best results with 60i. Especially if the target is TV or DVD. If its web or computer, you would defiantly want to deinterlane to 30p. I believe in 60i, you can always take away but never add it later.

The other tip, I highly recommend is to shoot with a higher shutter speed. Most people use 1/60 with video but when sign people get movin it gets blurry. I try to shoot with 1/75 or 1/90. Course it depends on lighting conditions, but go as high as you can.

One other thing is the hands are the most important. Generally most deaf people (at least the ones I have shot for) like dark clothes, to make the hands stick out more (movement finger spelling ect.) Some prefer dark backgrounds, others don’t so you might ask. Lighting is best fairly flat, but don’t light it too bright, some deaf people would always complain the scene was too bright, it wasn’t over exposed, but for most deaf folks they want it to look like the person is in front of them, they don’t care about film or artsy looks. They want to see the person properly, as sign language has a lot of facial expression.

But always remember high shutter speed, If its for instructional learning they probably won’t go that fast, but its the worst when the image not is necessarily blurring but its soft, and the person can’t quite make out what the signer is saying. Also if it is more teaching purposes try to use an NLE with semi strong slow motion capabilities, as sometimes something is slowed down to give an example.

I like trying to make video look like film in general, but for sign videos I always go straight up video. So yea as little noise as possible, if the person is wearing darker clothes be careful the blacks don’t get dirty with noise, don’t crush them, but be careful of any gain. Course I’ve never done it, but heck maybe just shoot outside and you’ll have less lighting issues. (well until the sun goes down….I think I’ve gabbed enough)

Jacob,

Thanks for the information. It is great to find someone that has experience with sign language.

For this particular training, the instructor is caucasian so my initial thoughts are to use black clothing, with about a 50% gray slightly modeled background. That gives me hands face and arms that are the lightest elements on the screen well separated from the clothing and the background. And, a 50% separation between the background and the clothing.

Does that seem workable?

--rick

Edward

That worked great. And of course I can apply all of the normal FX to the generated media also to smooth out the edges!

Thanx

Ian

Hey u r back!

Yeah, he's back just in time for my critical question of a life time..........telling me how to make people sound like chipmunks without increasing the speed. Hehe.

Yes - and it feels good to be back!

Audio Out
 

In short, I can plug a 1/4 male into my input on my onboard sound on my mother board, and connect the split rca's to my 15 monitor and play sound such as my Itunes off my NLE. But when I try to play a vegas timeline audio, I get nothing. I've explored for about an hour different settings. Is there something I'm missing in Vegas. I can play an audio timeline out of my speakers, which is my main output on my onboard sound, but I can't get vegas to play out the line such as one designated as a second output that my Itunes does and such. I set my onboard audio to 4 channel to get the link to my monitor to work.

So Itunes will play using my bridge to my preview monitor, but vegas will not.

Anyone have a bone to throw me?