The aspect ratio is .9091 for NTSC.

720 * .9091 = 654.552 (or rounded = 655)

Oh, great Edward, thanks, tha clarifies the issue.

Thanks, Don.

I think Vegas could be more specific when they say that they "support JPEG output" There's a tiny asterisk, and a tiny lettering below in their site that tells "Using Vegas scripts".

Being the case, they should make available that specific script. I don't want to learn JAVA right now for a simple export.

On the other side, the use of scripts seems very powerful. I guess I'll have no further problems.


David: thanks for your intention of helping me. Sorry if my question is unclear.

As you guessed it, I want to output my entire Vegas edition to a JPEG sequence. That's because I know a bureau that will put these images into 35mm film and we gonna make a test.

I didn't understand your instructions, in which you tell me it's possible to do so by using the "Import Media".

one thing to note, to give the crossblur more of a morph feel, drop down the fade ranges a little bit...

youll see what i'm taking about when you are in front of your pc

Direct from Sony's site (on the same page as the Vegas updates):

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.co...p2.asp?DID=447

Click on Vegas Sample Scripts. Inside that ZIP file is a script called RenderImageSequence.js

Several other scripts to perform this function (or similar functions) are also available at Sundance.

Well if anyone get's a chance to use one, let me know. I'm on the look out for something like this or a Contour shuttle device.

Cheers
Aaron

Best is a relative term in my opinion. WM9 is very good on the PC
as well.

As said, DiVX is something completely different then the MPEG1/2
Mainconcept encoder that comes with Vegas.

If you want to go to VCD/SVCD or DVD you can only do it in MPEG1
(VCD) or MPEG2 (VCD/DVD). Then DiVX is basically not an option.
Yes, there are DVD players out that support DiVX (not ALL forms!!),
but a majority don't, yet.

If you only want to play your movies on a computer then you
have more options including DiVX, WMP, QuickTime and Real
besides mpeg.

While Divx is a mature, solid video codec, with maturity comes commercialization. Since Divx went closed source, now just acquiring the free playback codec demands installing spyware/adware from Gator on your system.

A more enticing alternative in the near future may be Xvid, a spin-off from the open source version of Divx, that promises to remain true to the project's free software roots.

One thing to keep in mind:

DivX is NOT officially supported by Vegas!

Keep in mind that jpeg is lossy. So if you are going to use the
image sequence in another program you are introducing more
(compression) noise. Perhaps the script can be modified to output
another format like BMP which is lossless?

If you have Quicktime Pro you could easily convert a movie into an image sequence.

Better idea: Get "Rad Video Tools" by Bink and Smacker (free I believe) and use it to convert a file. hit the convert a file button and in the top change the output type to BMP or something like it (PNG, TIFF, GIF, etc. are lossless).

Thanks everybody.


Well, JPEG is lossy but as a final step and at high quality compression it can deliver better quality than some motion codecs. Of course I could use TGA or TIFF formats which are lossless, but they're as heavy as uncompressed AVI to deliver final material to the lab.

Anyway, I am dissapointed by the lack of this simple feature in Vegas. The script takes 4 to 6 seconds to export a single frame, so they shouldn't announce this ''plus" as another included feature (JPEG SEQUENCE OUTPUT*)

I still love Vegas. It's so refreshing to work with it, after many years of Premiere 'hard' workflow. It's just I think they should keep scripts for more complex tasks.
Premiere doesn't export to JPEG sequences, too. But they don't announce it.

Just refined the info on these numbers.
The pixel dimention relations are indeed as you stated affecting the appearance if not handled properly.
Generating image to be 655x480 indeed fills in entire preview window of Vegas, just like regular NTSC frame, but on other site I read different things as for DVD authoring:
http://www.crazypants.com/tips/tiptwo.htm

Shoudl I follow this recommendations ? Perhaps achieving the still image (once put on Vegas timeline) to fill precisely the preview dodn't mean to use this approach for image intedned for DVD authoring (creating menu's background for
instance) ? Are we talking about different things ? Image resampled to 720x540 will still have black bars in Vegas preveiw window.

Regards, Alex

i would follow the one that fills the screen ( no bars on sides).

i don't know about DVD A ...
but taking a quick look at DSE's Vegas 4 editing workshop ( excellent book ) chapter 11 DVD Architect ..page 342 ...
says if using a photo editor make background stills 655x480 for NTSC and 704x576 for PAL ... at dpi not higher then 150

OK, does they say to resample the final (edited) image back to 720x480 (the objects and graphic will look squeezed) and save such in order to insert it into DVD authoring so that on TV it will be stretched back and look normal ?

Perhaps there is a difference between preparing the image for inserting into NLE and for DVD authroing ?

The choices from Vegas are JPG and PNG. PNG is also a lossless format. I believe most scripts use PNG by default.

If you need some other format, download the frameserver from Satish (www.debugmode.com) and send it to Virtualdub (or some other program) that can output into the desired format.

I have saved images from Vegas (automatically made 655x480) and then imported them onto a DVDA menu. It looked just fine and filled the entire screen.

I.e. Vegas does automatically compensate for pixel's aspect ratio to show the frame image correctly on PC monitor, right ? (even though it notes video size if 720x480 in preview window info)

Alex

Thinking again about what is happening, I recall transferring a frame from Vegas to PS7 notcing it has been improted with 655x480 resolution as you correctly stated.

However, then I made a switch to Ulead PhotoImpact as a graphic editor to import it into for simple video menu creation (just a bit easier to use of a simple operations like lines/boxes and similar shapes drawing required), and then it accepts the images as 720x480 ! Cannot explain it.

I'll check that issue today evening at home.

Regards, Alex

I'm hesitant to purchase something no one else is using. I'll keep an eye on the forum and wait until someone gives it a try and reports on it.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

how to cheat nested comps?
 

I edited a short within two seperate projects and now don't want to print out the spreadsheet with the editing information nor do I want to render out the project and import it back into this other one. All I would like is another work around script/plug-in for Vegas that gives us the option for nested compositions.

Rob

I would render each section separately and then build a "final" project with those two sections. However, since you apparently don't want to do that, I can think of a couple of options:

1) Open both projects and copy/paste EVERYTHING from one project to the other project. (Note: some changes may be required)

2) Frameserve one section to the other project using the plugin from Satish.

Glen:

You still have the DSE DVD set for sale?

Will

Yes email me at xrandomsnapsx@yahoo.com (remove the x's)

Tsunami advertised in new Sony catalog!
 

Just recieved the new "Sony" catalog in the mail this weekend. Noticed it actually included an advertisement for Edward's Tsunami. Congrats Edward- Sony has even given your product recognition!

Thanks Edward. The reason for not rendering out the whole project is due to my machines age and the fact that I don't want to deal with rendering until the very end when it is needed. I will check out the plug-in and try to copy/paste everything from the other project when I get off of work today.

Rob

PS- do you happen to have a website with the plug-in I cannot find one.
PPS- I found it I think www.debugmode.com under the pluginpac.

Yes, you found the right place. Debugmode with the plug-n-pac.

3d views/multi cam?
 

would there be a way to create a 3d kind of rotational view of the same event from two cam angles? the closest thing i can think of is kind of similar to that effect they had in the first matrix movie where it kind of paused and rotated around the guy while he was jumping or what not. I have some video already shot from a football game where we had one cam up on the press deck and the other on the field and i wanted to transition with something nifty during a catch from the two angles...

possibly with vegas or would i need something like AE?

Hi Trey,

The short answer to your query is that "bullet time" (made famous in The Matrix and GAP ads by Buf Compagnie) is a fairly sophisticated effect that requires photogrammetry techniques perfected by Paul Debevec at Berkeley circa 1997. You won't be able to accomplish this in a simple editing or compositing package.

RealViZ makes a package called ImageModeler which may aid you if you're serious about this--but this is a $750 package; it will take you possibly weeks to achieve the effect you're looking for; and you're likely to need photographs of your subject from more than just two angles. (There's also an outdated package from MetaCreations called Canoma that can perform many of the same functions for similar primitives. You can see an example of such a transition built in Canoma by clicking on the SF MOMA in the Quicktime at the bottom of this page by Greg Downing--you may have to zoom in. In either case you will have to model all the architecture. Other features, like players and the airborne ball, will be flattened down onto the field until you model each of them in their entirety as well.)

I hope it doesn't appear that I'm dissuading you! But if you start to think you're in for more trouble than it's worth, there's always the good old dissolve or 3D block spin or page turn or venetian blind or clock wipe or...

hmmm...well it sounds like this wont werk for my particular application...perhaps if it was setup in advance something like that could be done with my 10D, but alas; the video has already been captured.

Some high school students did this effect on a budget production. I'm too lazy to dig up the link. You need to take different angles beforehand though.

There is a thread here on DVi and also an article on the COW
that I think Glenn was referring too.

HD stop-motion workflow for Vegas?
 

I want to make a very short stop-motion movie using Vegas 4 for fun. Rather than use my video camera, I figured I could use my digital still camera and make the project high definition. But, I'm not clear on the project settings and some of the workflow. Here are my initial questions:

What should I use for the project settings, one of the progressive HD presets? Do I need to use a square pixel aspect ratio, because this isn't miniDV source?

My raw images will probably be 1280 x 960 or some other 4x3 resolution. How do I make sure these get cropped for 16x9 in batch fashion correctly? I am guessing I don't want to go into the crop settings for each and every image and set it to 'match output aspect ratio' manually.

What do I render to when done? A standard MPEG-2 template for NTSC widescreen DVD, or do I have to do any mods to that template? I want to have an anamorphic widescreen DVD in the end that will be letterboxed on regular TVs and full screen on widescreen TVs, with awesome resolution. I've done this with DV footage (well, with less than awesome resolution on the widescreen TV), but I'm not sure if I have to do anything different in this case - I've never used the HD templates.

Thanks all
[bac]

PS - The movie is about pirates hunting for buried treasure on a haunted island.

For a DVD output you should indeed use the NTSC DVD template.
That means all footage must be in standard NTSC resolution with
a default pixel aspect or a widescreen/anamorphic aspect ratio.

So the final resolution is still 720x480 with an pixel aspect ratio
of 0.9091 or 1.2121. This would yield a resolution of 871x480
which Vegas will probably accept with a resolution of 870x480,
all with a pixel aspect ratio of 1.

I just tested it out and the resolution seems to be right at an
1.0 pixel aspect. So you will need to crop/resize your images
to that size.

So in your example, you must crop your picture to 1280x706.
When you then resample this to a vertical hight of 480 it will
give you a horizontal resolution of 870 (if you maintain aspect
ratio while cropping!).

I did notice however that Vegas showed some stairstepping
in my test image which was fine in the 870x480 resolution
outside Vegas. My preview was on best, so that's quite weird.

Some playing around might give you some more insight on things!

There were some free tutorials on the Sonic Foundary website that have disapeared since Sony took over. Anyone know if they're available at any other URL.

Edit
I found some excellent links posted earlier by Rob Lohman as well as the link that disappeared.

Ed posted the link http://www.sonicfoundry.com/tutorials/default.asp
this is the one that went south.

I have printed all of the Tips and tricks on Ed's site and had them bound into a book. I also printed the manual on heavy paper and had it bound into two volumes. To have the manual printed in black and white would have been very inexpensive. I printed on my epson with waterproof ink for around $20 .

Vegas has a learning curve but it seems well worth the effort.

Network rendering?
 

Is there a plug-in that creates a job for multiple computers to grab from and render out a project for Vegas?

Rob

No. However you can start Vegas multiple times and render multiple sections at the same time.

Can one use Sonicfire 3.1 directly with Vegas 4.0, or does one need a program like Sound Forge in place?

PC speakers versus headphones:
Headphones typically give much better sound quality than an equally priced speaker setup. As a rule of thumb you have to pay 6 times as much for speakers than headphones to get equal quality. However speakers will give you the correct stereo-ness while headphones won't (sounds seem to come from inside your head).

Anyways, headphones have much greater dynamic range than TV/PC speakers (whatever your audience has) so you will hear things that your audience may not necessarily hear. You should check all your levels once you are done. I have seen 2 different approaches to this:
A- Use crappy speakers.
B- Turn down the volume so you can just hear things. This is what Jay Rose (award-winning audio guy) recommends.

http://www.dv.com/features/features_...questid=214193

Noise reduction: I would just take one crack at things with noise reduction plug-ins. Cool Edit Pro (now Adobe Audition), Pro Tools, and Peak are programs which I know have these. Sound Forge might have one.

Specific flaws can be compensated for in post without many bad side effects. For hum you can use a hum removal plug-in.

If these plug-ins don't work then you will reach a point of extremely diminishing returns. There really isn't any good ways to rescue your audio other than ADR or a reshoot. If ADR or reshoot is not possible then you try to fix the sound with a program like Sound Forge. However, the sound won't be close to perfect.

So, make sure you get great location sound. Scout locations beforehand at the same time of day and same day of the week to check for road and air traffic. Use the right equipment and mic techniques.

Noise gate is useful if you are planning to mix in other sounds as well. Otherwise the effect of the noise gate is really obvious. One common use for the noise gate is when you are working with lav mics. You want to mix in ambient sound anyways and get rid of the lav mic's inherent noisiness.

All pros use headphones while doing location shooting to monitor their audio (very important!). Sony MDR-7506s are highly recommended for that kind of thing. Sony has a consumer version of them called the MDR V6. You can grab those off ebay (apparently sony has auctions for those). You could probably use a pair of good headphones to do your sound editing work.

How to put a rifle "night sight" on in vegas.
 

Hi all. I'm trying to get to grips with the compositing features of Vegas as I want to have the old typical green rifle sight on the screen with cross hairs in it.

Now I've managed to draw the site and import into Vegas on it's own video track and get it working, but whenever I place the cursor on any of the timeline that's not where the sight will appear, I can't see anything. I guess it's something to do with the "multiply" composition mode and that when viewing any area where the sight isn't the multiply function zeroes everything and it comes out black. Do I have to place a white back ground on the entire rest of the track or something?

There must be an easier way.

Here is a link to a screenshot of my setup and the result I get.

http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/akoolen/


Cheers
Aaron