Top 5 beginner Vegas tips (for a new of ex-Premiere user)
 

Fairly useless thread this one, I guess, except for a bit of fun.

Created selfishly to pick the brains of more experienced people.

I have used Premiere for 8 years and now with Pro, I dont like the system. The Vegas system is sooooooooooo much better, transition grabbing etc. I dont fully understand how to achieve opacity yet, but I'm learning about envelope adjustments as we speak, and my brain is adjusting accordingly.

It's exciting really. Like buying a new house and exploring the rooms.

For instance I just found out the scroll wheel of my mouse will let me zoom right out and back in ** bang ** to where I want to be. And I thought navigation was going to be hard...

So, simple, and probably well known yes, but to me, its a revolutionary jump.

Therefore this thread...

To a total Vegas noob, planning on throwing Premiere Pro away for ever, (minimal exceptions like revisions to old projects not included), what do you rate the most commonly used fantastic easy shortcuts, or features that an ex Premiere guy wouldn't have a frikkin clue about.

Even if you can only think of one, it's a great start for me, and maybe others who have 'seen the light'.

I have Vegas 6c if that helps any, although I know nothing about previous versions either. Learning, learning learning though. Loving it. (insert exclamation of joy here).

Cheers groovy people
Alex

Hi Alex,

I'm relatively new to Vegas too, and I share your enthusiasm. You will find valuable information in the sticky post about Shortcuts on top of this forum as well as in Edward Troxel's excellent Vegas newsletters at

http://www.jetdv.com/vegas/forum/vie...a09115c56ea3ed

Vegas is one of the better documented applications out on the internet.

Have fun.

I'm also starting out Vegas, and it's great, but I'm still too fond of the titler in Premiere Pro 1.5

I've heard some good and bad stuff about Premiere Pro 2, and I may download a demo at some point, but I think I may like Vegas more than Premiere.

I also share the same problems, I'm too comfortable using Premiere as I've used for about 5 years now, and I also have complaints about Pro (I used 6.5 forever until switching to Pro just recently). If anyone finds some great beginner info that would be wonderful. I'll also post something here if I come acorss anything

Look at the newsletters at the link Dionyssios posted. There's lots of beginner information in there including a "Beginner's Corner" series starting in the 4th issue.

Look at all the articles on the VASST site.

Look at all the various posts in the various forums.

Buy any of the various DVD training sets available.

Ask questions here.

top 5 off the bat, you will be comparing how vegas does things to the way Prem does things. THis is natural, BUT, some things vegas does (such as PIP) ARENT effects as youd find in Prem, Prem is good with PiPs as it has a PiP filter, but vegas does not.. this is where trackmotion, event pan/crop and cookie cutter come into play. U can even use Pixellan spicemaster for animated broders on ur pips.
Thats just one major difference
Another diffrence is that 90% of what u do is on the timeline, and no need to go thru myriads of menus to get to, this will save time. Also all media information and tweakability (ie aspects, sample and playback rates) can be tweaked directly on the media clip and wont affect anything else.
If youve used Prem witha Matrox system, youll notice that Vegas filters have a similar timeline/keyframing system. Very fast to tweak.
If you dont like the titler in vegas, thats cool, use prems then export the timeline to an avi, then reimport nto vegas or jsut use BluffTitler.. (i relly think Sony Should buy out the company..lol)

Ed has listed a whole lot of usedful stuff, but the only way to really understand teh difference and make do with the differences, is to really get your hands dirty with it.

Every Premiere user also asks "Where's the Razor tool?"

There isn't one. Just put the cursor where you want the clip split and press "S"!

Also, to create a crossfade, simply overlap the clips. The bigger the overlap, the longer the crossfade.

You hit the nail on the head! It took me forever to get used to it because I used that damn razor A LOT in Premiere

Same with the crossfade... I was trying to do transitions and crap

I still can't get used to the titler though, but as Peter suggested, I'll have to try BluffTitler, it looks intriguing

oh and one more thing, if u prefer AB roll wditing, u can easily expand Veags tracks to emulate this... be aware fo your compositing modes though

You can have multiple takes in one event. Drag from trimmer onto a clip and add as take. Or use the multicamera scripts available.

Thanks guys!

Great info. I have worked out the Split tool, and have now been offered a television show to edit, so I am frantically trying to work out the 'takes', so I look professional when I edit on a system I'm not used to. (Damn client wants to sit in on the edit. D'oh! What a time to change systems).

Have 2 monitors now, any recommended configs/layouts for using both monitors?

Cheers
Alex

ooh when u do this though, rememebr to right click and drag, then "add as take"

I have my favorites, but I encourage you to find your own. I generally have the tracks on the left monitor, and everything else on the right.

That reminds me of one of my Top 5 tips: after you arrange the workspace how you want, hit CTRL+ALT+D, then release them, then hit any number key (not on the keypad). Your workspace is saved.

Rearrange things, then hit ALT+D followed by the number you used, and your saved workspace returns. You can save up to ten setups (0-9). I have one workspace for editing video, another for editing audio, and some others I don't really use so much.

This is also a quick way to get things back to normal when you accidentally close or dock your video preview window or something, too. :D