Just in case you haven't checked these items yet:

1. Point your pre-rendered (video) and recorded (audio) files onto the 2nd drive.
FILE menu - PROPERTIES for your project.

2. Try changing your Temporary Files folder.
OPTIONS - PREFERENCES - General tab.

3. Try increasing your Dynamic RAM Preview max. When previewing your video hit Shift+B (Tools - Build Dynamic RAM Preview) - I sometimes have to wait a little for it to build the preview.
OPTIONS - PREFERENCES - Video tab.

4. Set the preview mode to Preview (Auto) instead of Good or Best. I sometimes get the latency you're talking about when I set the preview to Good or Best. I usually resolve it by using Shift+B and letting it build a Dynamic RAM Preview. I usually let it play a few minutes and then re-start the video preview again.

Is it actually a second drive or just a partition of a single drive?

Stock transitions/effects
 

How can you slow down or lenghten some of the stock effects in vegas?

Example- 3D in/out- When you choose what text you want to fly/tumble in, the effect is like not even a second long. Can you drag it out to make the effect take like 5 seconds(a slow tumble or fly in) ?

Also, do you use the keyframes to do this, if so how?

One more:

In DVD Arit., If you want to make your own templete, what is the easiest way to do it? Do you take one of there blank ones, import it into illiustrator or photoshop and do the work there?

Or: Do you import the images from photoshop to the arct. platform?

Any help on these would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your responses guys,
Jeff said> You have only one item hooked up to the FireWire card? < yes
>Do you have another video card to swap with your present one? If you do, you can test your video card theory.< Unfortunately this Intel 875 MoBo takes a 1.5 V video card and I had to buy one specifically for this MoBo (so no).

Michael said>> Just in case you haven't checked these items yet:

1. Point your pre-rendered (video) and recorded (audio) files onto the 2nd drive.
FILE menu - PROPERTIES for your project.<<
Not sure what you mean but I do capture everything on my 2nd drive (Maxtor 7200 RPM 120 GB)

>>2. Try changing your Temporary Files folder.
OPTIONS - PREFERENCES - General tab.<<
I'm capturing as I write this but I'll definitely do that shortly! It sounds promising

>>3. Try increasing your Dynamic RAM Preview max. When previewing your video hit Shift+B (Tools - Build Dynamic RAM Preview) - I sometimes have to wait a little for it to build the preview.
OPTIONS - PREFERENCES - Video tab.<<
Maybe I'm misunderstanding you but even if I "selectively pre-render" the video is still delayed.

>>4. Set the preview mode to Preview (Auto) instead of Good or Best. I sometimes get the latency you're talking about when I set the preview to Good or Best. I usually resolve it by using Shift+B and letting it build a Dynamic RAM Preview. I usually let it play a few minutes and then re-start the video preview again.<<
I <i>always</i> use preview, but I heard "full" works better when using an external monitor, no?

Jeff said>> Is it actually a second drive or just a partition of a single drive?
A second IDE 133 Maxtor 7200 RPM 120 GB

Thanks again guys,
Randy

G.
I used to get a lot of stuttering when my Pre-rendered video and Recorded audio file paths were pointing at my C: drive.
Look in the FILE menu: PROPERTIES under the Video and Audio tabs you'll see the file paths. I believe these file paths directly affect the Selectively Pre-render command.

>> 1. Point your pre-rendered (video) and recorded (audio) files onto the 2nd drive.
FILE menu - PROPERTIES for your project.<<
Not sure what you mean but I do capture everything on my 2nd drive (Maxtor 7200 RPM 120 GB)

You've got it right, drag them out and make them longer or shorter. There are also some other settings that are really fun to play with when you open up those transition boxes. Some, if not all are keyframable for different fx. Get your fingers in there and play around. You are missing out on a lot if you aren't experimenting.

For the transition, the LONGER you make it, the LONGER it will last.


For new DVDA themes, download the pdf file explaining how new themes are created. You may also want the theme editor as indicated in this link: http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/S...plies=0&Page=3

Motion Blur effect
 

Hi all,

Does anyone know how to create the effect of equal to the FCP's Motion Blur or Ghosting in Premiere??


jinghong

Hey,
In case anyone is intersted I believe my problem is solved. Below is the copied/pasted post I made at another forum. Thanks very much for all of your help!

>>>>Well my problem appears to be resolved unless I jump around on the timeline several times during playback; I can certainly live with that and if I pause/start, it gets back in sync again. The solution was twofold I think; someone at another forum (that would be you Michael) suggested putting my temp files on my 2nd HD (I thought they already were) which makes since. The other was Yoyodyne's suggestion (thanks to DSE); when using a pro sound card like Yoyodyne's Gina or my Delta 1010 (where you can get a buffer size as fast as 64) you need to set it around 2048 or it will be too fast. What confuses me though is on my older, slower machine I never had this problem and I never changed the default C: drive storage of the temp files nor the Delta's buffer settings of 128 samples...hmmm.
A big thanks to everyone for your help!<<<<


Contented (for now),
Randy

for motion blur go to the bottom of the timeline and you'll see a track named "video" right click and there is a menu that has 3 different things, one of which is "motion blur amount". It's like a velocity envelope but for blur, you can set points and adjust levels.

As for ghosting, you can copy and paste the clip to another track and pull it off by a few frames and adjust the opacity level to achieve the desired effect OR get the plugin TSUNAMI and it will do the work for you.

Hope this helps,
Don

Transitions in the timeline
 

I am playing around with the demo of vegas .. and got a quick question

when I have two clips, and wish to create a transition between them, I need to overlay them in the same track

can't you have a trasition/fx track in vegas? that sits between two tracks .. like some other NLE's ? :p

Yes you can. But the biggest question is "Why would you want to?" It takes LOTS of extra space on the screen and is really not needed.

However, if you are more comfortable seeing it that way, on the left side of the track header, click on the bottom-most icon ("Expand Tracks").

i've also grown accustomed to premiere's A/B timeline view where you see the transition between the two tracks. But you easily get used to having almost everything on one track with the transitions being where the clips overlap -- i like it better that way now ;)

plugins
 

where can i purchase/download plugins (effects,transitions, titles etc) for vegas 4?

There are a few available now and a few coming "soon". Today, you can get SpiceMaster from Pixelan. Plus, there are a few free things at http://www.debugmode.com and http://www.endor.demon.co.uk/.

Coming soon is Boris Red (www.boris.com???) and the Film FX tools available throug www.zenote.com.

Those are strictly plugins and effects. For OTHER add-ons, several scripts are available as well. Many can be found at the Sundance Media Group site. I also have two scripts available at www.vegastrainingandtools.com and www.jetdv.com/tsunami which add some powerful features to Vegas.

I'm not sure if you can add reverb while recording. Perhaps you
need to look into an audio application. Anyway, it might be good
to ask this question in Sonic Foundry's excellent forum (under
Vegas - Audio):

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/default.asp

Why are you exporting with lower field first? If you do that Vegas
will add some weird form of interlacing to your footage. Since you
got it from 8mm it is progressive (you need to select none for
interlacing!!!) instead of interlaced.

Those are definitely not interlacing problems though. It almost
looks like you applied some funny filter or something. Are you
sure the footage is okay originally? I can't imagine how a DVD
application or player could cause such defects.

<<<-- Originally posted by Rob Lohman : Why are you exporting with lower field first? -->>>

Because standard DV and MPEG2 for TV is lower field first. Why WOULDN'T you render to lower field first?

How to read divX
 

I have a movie, that's encoded in DivX format, and Vegas cannot open it, it doesn't recognize the format. If I try to open the movie using Windows Movie Maker, I can. Obviously that if I try to watch the movie, I also can because I have the divX codec - pro version - installed. If I try to encode some footage using Vegas and the DivX codec, I also can (so although Vegas cannot read DivX, it can write DivX!!).
Can someone tell me why Vegas cannot open a DivX encoded file and, if possible, how to fix it?

Because the source isn't interlace (in this case). As you know the
DV format doesn't care whether the signal is interlaced or not. If
I export a progressive stream from my XL1s in Vegas with lower
field first it somehow adds interlacing back into the game which it
doesn't do when I set it to none. I was only talking regarding the
DV export, not the MPEG2 compression...

Anyways, you must agree with me that the image problem isn't
interlacing, that much is certain

You might want to look into frameserving the file from Virtualdub
or frameserving it from Avisynth

no, you can't during recording, unless the input is being fed through a bus within your card and your running effects on your soundcard (Creative cards can do this)

on the other hand i would STRONGLY suggest you record your audio raw and add effects in post.

reason being is that if your reverb config isn't right first time, your stuck with a substandard master recording which can't be fixed and wont "fit" with the rest of the ambience of the room.

to flatten vocal, i would suggest a few plugins such as the Beatmodel set (incredible chorus and reverb), the TCNative set, another great analogue sounding reverb unit, timeworks set and the Hyperprism set.

i'd also suggest something like the Antares Microphone Modeller which can literally convert the characteristics of a recording from an old cheap sounding mic to something alot more professional.

Again i can't stress how much i would stray against recording live recordings with effects (unless its a live recording of a performance)

Dude check out Spicemaster ;)

does it all

Might it be something simple like the FOURCC code isn't the right
one? There are utilities around that can change that code so it
is recognised as standard DV. Let me know if you still have this
problem.

Already picked up a copy- works great! Thanks for the heads up!

No, it certainly does NOT look like interlacing.

I can understand not using lower field first if you taped in progressive. However, the standard mode of the XL-1 is lower field first and is what I use for all of my renderings. I'm assuming you tape in frame mode instead?

Vegas doesn't officially support DivX so it may not work (although some people have had limited success).

That is correct, Edward. I shoot in frame mode. I'm talking
progressive here since I'm assuming a transfer from 8mm isn't
interlaced (I hope).

Now I understand.

hey guys, thanks for the replies,
I filmed on 8mm video camera, not 8mm film camera, so that would be interlaced wouldn't it?

I normally set my preview window to good, or preview. I recently discovered that when I tried putting it on best, or draft, the waviness disappears and the small jagged lines that I would normally associate with interlacing appear. (only on best or draft) I would think that this is just how my monitor, or video card deals with it and there is no problem. As a matter of fact, the avi that I made looked beautiful on my computer. Unfortunately, when I took that avi and put it in mydvd and created a dvd with it, and played it on my television- the nasty waviness was back during scenes with movement.

weird.

I am confused.

Adam

Sounds more like a cleaner problem then Vegas. But, in what
AVI format are you exporting (OpenDML/type 2 or not?) and
with what codec (DV, DiVX etc.)?

Or right-click the clip, choose properties and adjust the playback
rate....

Thanks, I'm using Edward's first suggestion until this problem is fixed in the next version of AlamDV.

>> 1) Render to uncompressed (fine for short clips because it takes a LOT of space)

FYI: My workflow is:

1. Render out small / uncompressed video clips in Vegas
2. Apply effects in AlamDV
3. Export only the AlamDV effects ... with a colored background
4. Composite effects / video in Vegas by keying out colored background.

I just found out that my Vegas can read DivX. The movie that is giving me trouble is not using DivX, but Xvid. Interestingly, as said, WMP can read Xvid but Vegas can't.
VirtualDub also cannot open the Xvid movie, because it says that I have to have a non-Windows version of the Xvid decoder, or something like that.
I keep researching the Internet for answers...
Thanks guys.

Well... CTRL-Drag and right-click - Properties - Adjust Playback Rate are basically the same thing. When you CTRL-Drag, the playback rate IS adjusted automatically. The only difference: When you manually set the playback rate, the length of the clip on the timeline is not affected. When you CTRL-Drag, the amount of the clip used is not affected.

Vegas just provides so many different ways to do the same thing. Isn't it WONDERFUL? Thanks for pointing out another alternative Rob.

That's an interesting idea... But don't you introduce calculations
errors since the program wasn't able to work on the original
pixels?

Indeed Edward, that's why I pointed it out. Forgot to include
what the difference was. Thanks for pointing that out. Sometimes
working with numbers can be handy (like changing speed on a
section of a movie that must stay at the exact same length)!

I don't seem to be able to download that movie from your site.
Keep in mind that when exporting in Vegas you need to go into
the custom settings and set the quality to best and on the video
tab the CORRECT field order (or none if it was shot progressive/
frame mode)

Tsunami exploits ...
 

I've been putting the Video Wall in Tsunami through it's paces, using a set of Main Concept Texture loops - not for any reason except it's handy to have 100 short avis available in a folder.

Anyway, to test out the Video Wall, I went "the whole way" and threw all 100 clips on the timeline (add across tracks) then asked Tsunami to make a 10 x 10 video wall.

Things went quiet, and I thought perhaps I'd gone too far, then suddenly up popped a perfect 10 x 10 preview.

On my 1.6 Ghz laptop I didn't expect it to preview 100 pieces of video fluently, so I rendered it as a new avi. The loops were 4 seconds long, and it took 8 mins to render. Because the 4 seconds comprised loops which finished as they started, I could drag the new avi out to any length, then apply track motion / deform etc to make 100 pieces of video float around, expand and contract etc. It looks incredibly impressive.

Imagine how long this would have taken to do "by hand"!

Well done Edward.