Explain Regions
 

As a newbie to VMS I have pawed through numerous tutorials and videos but the "Region" is still largely a mystery to me. I know you can loop a portion of your timeline but I can't figure out why that would be so useful. It has become an aggravation for me because in practicing the shortcuts, invariably I press the wrong one and get a Region instead. Then, I can't figure out how to get rid of it! There doesn't seem to be a delete function.

I have found the loop region check box in the Render dialog, so I am aware of that. And I am aware that you can turn the function off - but you lose I and O functionality when you do - not really useful IMO. Is this function more useful in the Pro version? Can someone give a good explanation of the philosophy and use of Regions?

From page 127 of the Vegas Pro 9 manual:

In my use, Regions are a handy way to subdivide a project.

Typically, I'm working on a project that will output as a series of clips - regions let me have a start and finish for each clip, keeping what otherwise might be multiple projects on one timeline. Using ctrl-shift-arrow lets me quickly and accurately select a region, then, in the render-as dialog, select the checkbox that says "render selection only".

There are also several scripts that batch render-by-region, including the batch script that comes with Vegas. This allows you to do an unattended batch of renders, a huge time saver.

I always start cutting a project a couple minutes down the timeline, which allows for later development of intro titles & such. Setting a region ensures that my render can start in the right place.

For other purposes, I use markers, dropping one where ever more work might be needed later. A region is nothing more than a marker with an end point.

To delete a region, right-click on the "in" flag, and select "Delete".

All these comments from the Vegas Pro apps, I'd guess they apply equally to Studio versions...

A careful re-reading of the Studio manual still provides only this (paraphrasing): "You can create regions, you can name them, you can use them to subdivide your project, they can function as time-selections."

Seems like there are always functions that are not immediately obvious in their functionality. I guess I am looking for that "ah-ha" moment when I finally "get it."

After already producing two, three - camera projects using composite envelopes (and having a ball doing it!) I just discovered that I can drag the cursor down the timeline! What a simple time saver. My previous editor would not do that so it never occurred to me to try it. I always tried to drag the "knob" or whatever it's called on the top of the cursor and got sluggish movement while Platinum tried to scrub the audio.

So, I always clicked in the clip where I wanted the cursor to be. And, if I dragged (drug?) the cursor then, I created a region - not what I wanted.

If I name a region I see that I can delete the name but the region markers and bar remains. Seems like a simple question but can I safely ignore the region? My thinking is that I need to remove it completely or "something bad may happen to my video"!!!!! I anticipate some type of unexpected behavior.

The only time (that I know of anyway) that a region can mess you up is when you go to render.
If "render loop region only" is selected, that's all that gets rendered.
Then you're scratching your head (and getting ready to shoot the computer!!) wondering why the entire video didn't get rendered like it was supposed to.

OK, thanks all for weighing in. I feel better now that I know that visible region marks won't do something unexpected. I already ran into the truncated render behavior and know enough to uncheck that box.

When I first tried to use a region I had three camera tracks stacked on my timeline and was cutting between them. I had some unwanted footage at the start and end of my project so I created a region, hoping to use it to simply delete all the unwanted track information within that region. I soon learned that I could render out the portion I needed, leaving the unwanted portions behind. But why can't you delete the portion within the region? Wouldn't that be handy?

When I'm doing tutorial, I'll create regions over sections of video and type in the text I want to say in that area. So then I end up with a series of regions with text marked. When I record the voice over, hopefully the spoken text falls in the length of that region!

That's just one example where I find regions useful.

BTW, the green regions do not affect rendering. It's only when you create a selection area that you need to make sure the "render loop region" is not selected. You can double-click a region to make the selection area match that region, though.

Oh, my. Selection area. Region. Green regions? I thought they were blue. I'm sure glad I can still get work done without understanding all the new terminology. BTW, I thought an "event" was something I attended to shoot my clips!

Hello Edward Troxel. Thank you for the example. I registered on jetdv but haven't gotten an email response yet. I am still trying to determine which forum community is appropriate for my level of questions right now. I don't want to clutter up forums with folks who actually make (or would like to make) a living at this. I am currently a paying member of muvipix, a wonderful group of people, but the forum is oriented mainly to Adobe products. I have been editing community access TV shows for five years with Elements version 2.

Is this an appropriate forum or would you suggest another for a noob user of VMS9 Platinum?

You won't get an e-mail. If your login isn't working, send me an e-mail and we'll get it fixed (although I may be a little slow responding over the next few days). This forum is a fine place for you to ask your questions!

Standard Markers - "M" - show up as orange.
Standard Regions - "R" - show up as green.
CD Regions "N" - show up as red
Command Markers - "C" - show up as blue

These are the standard colors unless you've changed them in the preferences.

Simply dragging the cursor across the timeline creates a "selection area"

Excellent illustration! It gives me even more information than I was yet aware to ask and takes me a lot further on down the road. Thank you.

I was applying for a new account on jetdv.com but on your recommendation will likely camp out here for a while.

command markers in blue
 

Edward, could you possibly tell us what the function of the command markers are and how you use it on a practical level

I apologize for jumping on the bandwagon here, but the command marker is not something I am familiar with.

Many thanks

I honestly don't use command markers on a regular basis. The example one I added there will show a closed caption in a WMV file. There are other ones that will do a URL, and other things. Just press "C" to add one and there's a dropdown list of the various commands available. A NEW one in Vegas Pro 9.0d/e is related to standard closed captioning - a new feature added in 9.0d.

To expand a little on command markers, certain streaming file formats allow the recording of time-linked metadata. As Edward noted, WMV is one of them, and Vegas exposes a method to record them for WMV, the Vegas "commands". WM documentation calls this function "scripting".

In practice, this capability might be used to send an url to a new browser window, send an url to a targeted html frame, display captions, change a smil layout (a layout within the player window), or perform other functions when predetermined points are reached in the playback.

This can be used for synchronized display of slides or other html graphics with video (aka. url flipping), which used to be common, but these days slides are more often part of the video stream.

Javascript listeners can be used to do anything that can be done in js/html when triggered by such a command. Silverlight and Flash have built-in listeners that can trigger anything...