I called Sony today, and they stated that the Sony Vegas and Training Certification Class has been canceled for NAB 2006.

They stated that the class sold out, then they had to cancel it due to circumstances beyond their control.

Moderator, please delete this thread.
 

I should have used the term "narration" or "commentary" in lieu of "voiceover".

Please accept my apology.

Jamie

Hey Jamie! Take a load off! Chill . . . .

Thanks for the quick input!

Off the top of my head, and I have to sign off and get back on a project...

Using Gearshift to create a Cineform intermediate should produce a filesize of about 40GB/hr. This intermediate can then be edited and rendered from, preserving HD quality through to whatever you're delivering with.

Gearshift can also render to Sony YUV (I think), uncompressed. I don't know what the datarate is on this, not having used it. Generally, not needed except when going in and out of software that requires it.

Gearshift can also render to DV25, standard def. This is 13GB/hr, and does not preserve HD quality. The trick is that you can edit in SD, then go back into Gearshift and press the "shift gears" button, and your SD DV25 will be replaced by the HD M2T files on the timeline, you are now ready to render for delivery from HD.

Note that DV25 avi and M2T use a different color space, and you'd want to check any color correction after the M2T was back on the timeline.

You can move the shadow around in 2D, but you're stuck in 2D.

What I was referring to was a situation where you might want to (for example) insert a standing person next to a couple of trees. The trees have shadows, but the person doesn't. I was describing a way you could create a shadow so that the person would have a shadow to match the trees' shadows. And yes, you can do a reflection that way, too.

But it sounds like you didn't need anything that complicated.

VCR to DV
 

I do this all the time with my camcorders. Your user manual should explain how to configure the camcorder via the menus et al.

My VCR plays out through an RCA to composite cable into the camcorder. The camcorder, in VCR mode WITHOUT a tape inserted and DV device control disabled in Vegas capture options, then outputs via firewire. Batch capture won't work via timecodes obviously. Although I use ScenAlyzer optical scene detection successfully if it's an issue. You play the VHS tape and capture as per normal. Works fine.

Check your camcorder manual for specifics.

Darryl

Since no one else has jumped in here, I'll take a stab at it.
The only place I see where you can choose that setting is in the "Template" dropdown box. No 168 Kbps though. It jumps from 100 to 256.
You can also click on Custom - Video (or Audio) and do further tweaking.
Once you get a setting you like, save it for future use.

Training Material: Sony Digital Video & Audio Production
 

I bought the Sony training book that can be found at the following link:

http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/pro...=1003&SPID=386

I started working my way through it the other day and it's exactly as advertised. It's the kind of book that could be used in a training class, but you can also go through it on your own as a self-paced course. It's a set of step-by-step lessons and everything that is demonstrated in the book can be done with the sample files on the accompanying DVD.

Converted to 24 but DVD not compliant?
 

I converted my 30i project to a 24p DVD Architect mpeg file but DVD Architect wants to recompress it. This is Vegas 6.0d and Architect 3.0c. This is my first time to create a 24p DVD file WITHOUT and pull-down appliced (no 2-3). I want the DVD player to play it progressive.

It is a 30i 720x480 4:3 footage.
Imported into a Sony Vegas 6.0d 23.976 (ITVC Film), field order - None, project settings.

DVD Architect is set to NTSC 720x480 with ac-3 audio.

I don't get it, does DVD Architect required a 24p file with pulldown?

Locking X or Y position during keyframe interpolation
 

Okay, here's another easy one for you Vegas experts...

Sometimes when I am doing a pan, the interpolated positions between the start keyframe and end keyframe somehow seem to drift enough to expose the background in the frame. Why is this happening and how can I simply lock the Y coordinate? If my start and end keyframes have the same Y, shouldn't the interpolated keyframes inbetween have the same Y value?

Thanks again,

Jim

Use the DVD Architect 24p template, but DON'T change the framerate -- leave it with the "2-3 pulldown" being added.

It's not actually adding frames; it's adding pulldown flags which allow a DVD player to insert pulldown when watching on a standard TV (which can't be avoided). Playing on a progressive-scan player, the DVD player will not add pulldown when playing to a progressive display, and you'll be watching the pure 24p frames, but you need the pulldown flags in the file in order for it to be DVD-compliant (which is why there's a re-render when you change it).

If there are no keyframes in between with different Y values, then yes, your Y value should remain constant. Check to make sure you don't have anything in between -- it's pretty easy to have something without realizing it.

Excalibur 5 setup correction
 

The setup program for Excalibur 5 was updated late 4/13/06 (CDT). It was discovered that the multi-cam tallys were being stored in the wrong place and has now been corrected. Anyone who is missing the tallys in the Sync tool, please download and install again.

You likely need to set your smoothness on the keyframes to "0". This is a fairly common problem, common enough that John Rofrano has written a script to set all smoothness to "0."
http://www.vasst.com/search.aspx?text=smoothness is where you can get it should you need it.

Interesting. I've never seen a coordinate drift before, even with smoothness at 1, and I animate a lot of stills. I'll keep an eye out.

You will probably only see this when trying to coordinate the keyframes from two events on two different tracks. Unless the keyframes are identical (cut ‘n paste) AND exactly the same distance from one another (in which case the smoothing should track properly) you will see a drift because the smoothing is done as a percentage of movement and a longer distance between keyframes means a different percentage of smoothing. That’s why I wrote the unsmooth script. It annoyed the heck out of me. ;-)

~jr

DVDA workflow
 

I have a project that I want to bring to DVD. It is a songwriter performance of 10-13 songs with interviews for each song and a few additional off topic interviews. I shot 40-50 minutes of the songs on tape with 3 cameras. would I be better off with one veg file with everything laid out in order on the timeline or should I create a veg file for each song/interview and hook them up as a play list in DVDA? I don't know how to add transitions in DVDA so when in play all mode I get a seamless flowing transition from one song to another. If I do it with one veg file in Vegas with markers, I imagine the entire render will be enormous. Any thoughts?

Jeff

You can accomplish the same thing by rendering it as a single file, but put a little space in between songs on your (Vegas) timeline, and insert chapter markers. Then, you can make a chapter menu in DVDA and people can select songs at will. Or, they can play the whole thing all at once.

Make sure you include chapter markers when you render from Vegas.

It will be a big render, but you're not saving yourself any time by rendering in chunks, and in fact, you may well take up significantly more space on the DVD by doing it that way (in chunks).

Just a way to go. Not sure one way is any better than the other, ultimately; you can establish end actions with each individual file to go on the next, so it really comes down to personal taste and if you want the "long play" to be smooth and seamless from one song to the next, or have a notable pause and DVD title switch between each. Up to you.

Render time
 

I will say that you may consider creating each song & interview as a seperate Vegas project because daily renders that include your whole project start to really fill up hard drive space. That doesn't apply if you don't have a habbit of a daily render (I come from the software industry so I have a nightly code compile habbit).

I have found it to be easier to import a single file for DVDA as opposed to a lot of little onces and then linking them all together in a playlist. Especially because of what the other poster mentioned, chapter menus. DVDA can automatically create all necessary chapter menus based just on the chapter marks. That is why it is important to render to MPEG2 for DVDA. Then creating the DVD is about 1/2 the time. Or less. I learned the hard way.

jason

One other thing I thought of. Nesting. I'm not sure I understand this but is nesting the ability to add individual veg files in order on a new parent veg file? The reason I am leaning to individual renders is that if I ever want to mix my compilations at a future time, I can easily mix and match. I am producing a series of these performances and just shot the material. I am looking for a consistant workflow that works easily and consistently.

Jeff

Now I get it, very confusing but I get it. I am projecting this project on Saturday so I wanted to make sure it will play at 24p on a progressive DVD player.

Apparently Sony changed their page organization around, the link above is dead this morning.

Looks like this one might be the book Ron reviewed:
http://www.sonymediasoftware.com/pro...t.asp?PID=1003

Help with batch render - need new script?
 

As I continue to polish my workflow in Vegas, a nagging item has come to the top.

The Batch Render script that ships with V5 and V6 is a wonderful tool for automating export, which I frequently do "by regions".

However, when I come back after lunch or the next morning, Vegas has assigned file names to the output based on a prefix I selected, followed by something like "region_002_wmv9template" or words to that effect.

Does anyone know of a similar script that would incorporate the region name into the exported file name?

My life would be easier if I came back to find "region_002_regionname_Mary_wmv9template" or some such.

I did search VASST without success...

Thanks,
Seth

Yep, that did the trick...changing the smoothness to 0. Thanks again guys!

You're most welcome. I wish I could have a nickel for every time this has messed me (and others) up. I could buy Sony by now.

It's a little confusing. Just remember that the DVD Architect 24p templates are optimal, and you'll have no worries.

You might want to take a look at the Veggie Toolkit: http://www.peachrock.com/software/veggie-toolkit.html

So the resulting movie is going to be shown this saturday night 4/15 at the San Francisco Film Arts Foundation. Thanks for you help and I hope anyone nearby can come check out the movie (Crossroads Gallery is the name by the way). See www.barewitness.com for more info.

Yes, it looks like they changed the link. Thanks for the correction.

Gregory, By default GearShift makes both a DV proxy and a CineForm AVI. This is probably what is eating up your hard drive space and your time. Just select (None) under HD Media and it will not make the CineForm files (only the proxies). GearShift will remember this setting for next time.

~jr

Cayman Graphics Power CG problem
 

Where do you install this software for it to show up as a plugin in "generated media bin" I installed it to the "c" drive successfully & the stand alone version is now on my desktop but cannot get it to show up as a plugin.
Tks,
John

Thanks John I really appreciate that. I think thats exactly the problem that I was having. Ill try it out tonight.

You may need to drag the .dll to the Vegas workspace and drop it. I don't remember having needed to do that, but it's been a long time since I installed. should show up in the same place as your text generator/noise generator.

Hi Jamie,

The blending of your voice with the audio can be from several things. I gotta ask the obvious first (sorry) but are you monitoring with headphones to record? If your speakers are on, the mic will pick up the audio output from the speakers as you record. Next what audio device driver are you using? If it’s the Microsoft Sound Mapper, try changing it to the Windows Classic Wave driver. Then when you arm your track for recording, select your audio card microphone as mono (left channel only). This should record just from the mic and not include other inputs on your PC.

As for the noise, it shouldn’t be any noisier in VMS than the Windows recorder. Check to be use you are using the same inputs. Motherboard sound cards are noisy but they should be consistently noise regardless of what software you use.

~jr

Best way to split MPG for ease of use?
 

I have an MPG extracted / captured from a DVD-R that someone supplied me. The extracted MPG looks fine and it is a series of shots in one long clip. What I want to do is chop this up into just the clips I need for ease of assembly, etc. - rather than placing the entire clip in the timeline and working from that.

So, I separated the clip into what I wanted. Selected a loop to render. The problem is that when I do this the resulting MPG using Mainconcept MPEG2 template does not have the quality of the orginal shot due to what I am thinking is another round of compression.

The original clip was created using Microsoft Flight Simulator and is all graphics and animation. It looks fine in its orginal form. But when I cut it up and re-render into small individual shots it doesn't look as crisp. Thoughts?

Yea, I’m real happy with the PC I built. I’m glad to see others are happy with it too. ;-) You are going to love the AMD X2. They just rock!

(BTW Milt, I almost wet my pants watching Dog Man. That is simply brilliant! :-D)

~jr

Cayman Graphics install
 

Thanks Douglas, I got it to finally show up.For whatever reason, and it's probably my ineptness, it's working.

My system is almost a clone of John's (but I built mine first!), and I looooooove it. Best machine I've ever had. I wish I could take it with me to boot up in Panera Bread, where I am now, but you can't have everything . . .

Dog Man, well....yes THANKS a Bunch!

I think I need to do a little something with it.

For those of you that haven't seen it - http://realrez.com It's on the front page.

Thanks again, John!

Milt