multi cam angles
 

i know the new premiere ships with the capability to do multi cam.

can vegas 5 or 6 do this with out the use of plugs like vasst or ultimate s?

Nope. Vegas can't do multicam without Ultimate S, infinitiCAM, Excalibur, or DoubleTake.
And once you've played with that particular feature of Premiere Pro, you'll likely realize why you'd much rather prefer Ultimate S, infinitiCAM, Excalibur, or DoubleTake.
No creation of proxies, no wait, all real-time, all the time, and always changeable later on with Ultimate S, infinitiCAM, Excalibur, or DoubleTake.

Vol 1 #9 of my newsletters shows four methods of doing multi-cam. However, the manual methods are time consuming. Can it be done manually? Yes. However, the tools mentioned by Spot make it MUCH easier and faster. Vegas doesn't have any built-in tools to speed up the process.

Based on the reference to multi-cam in Premiere...I don't think it's accurate to say that you can do "multicam" in Vegas without the plugs. There are editing techniques that we've all employed for years and years that allow us to preview in various ways and shift from one image to another, but that's not "multicam" in a discussion that involves Premiere Pro 2.0's multicam, or Liquid, Express Pro, Final Cut Studio, etc. Editing techniques are just workarounds or hacks by comparison to the aforementioned apps' multicam tools.....but; even though it's a plug in option for Vegas, I can't see any of the above apps improving to the point that we can do it in Vegas with the tools we currently have. Particularly FCS and PP2.0. Both are slugs by comparison to the script-based tools we currently have.

ive messed around with the trials of Ultimate S, and Excalibur. looks like i'll have to bite the bullet and pick one up.

i shoot a lot of multi cam interviews. that is all i need is the ability to quickly edit the 2 diff shots. which tool is most cost effective for this?

thanks for all the help!

I agree. Was just pointing out the manual methods. With the available plugin options, I don't think any NLE can touch Vegas' ability at multi-cam.

Based on this convoluted procedure I've seen for PPro2, you could almost make an argument that the MANUAL methods in Vegas are easier! :-)

Edward, this sequence of information is for Vegas correct.

No way. I have never tried Ultimate S, infinitiCAM, Excalibur or DoubleTake, but doing it manually in Vegas is a piece of cake compared to the above. It just takes some thinking if you want to go wild with several timelines.

Not really. You don't have all kinds of sequences to make, separate windows to open, proxies to create, etc...

But yes, the basic workflow is:

1) Add the camera footage to the timeline
2) Sync (manually or assisted - which, with the plugins, also PIP's properly)
3) Add camera switches
4) Build the Master track

They're all four "cost effective," it just depends on what you'd like to spend and the depth of features you need or would like to take advantage of.
Cost-wise:
Ultimate S 2.0 $149.00 (includes audio plugins/55 lower thirds/4 cameras only)

Excalibur-$99.00 (includes more than 100 audio and video tools, 25 cameras)

infinitiCAM-$69.00 (Multicam, only ships with 100 cameras ready plus timecode, audio switching or master audio track, and unlimited cam possiblity)

DoubleTake-Freeware (multicam only, 2 cameras only, with timecode)

So, you have quite a menu of multicam tools ranging from free to $149, and features ranging from just a couple in DoubleTake to more than 250 in US2.
All four offerings provide realtime switching in Vegas 6b or newer. All four have trial versions you can play with.

How is using a camera switch that much easier than just laying both captures on two video tracks and using fade-in/outs to show or hide the top layer?

It's MUCH faster to simply press a key or click on a button while the timeline plays back in real time than it is to stop playback and add multiple keyframes and adjust an envelope or cut out a section of video and add fades. Plus you can fine-tune the edit much more easily. When all edits are in place, a simple push of a button and a Master track is automatically created.

Another advantage is the tally system. Using the plug-ins (except Double-Take), you can always tell which camera is "current" by watching the tallys. If you need to review a section, when playing it back the tallys will illustrate all camera changes.

Envelope levals
 

You can do it manually of course... and the fewer the cameras the easier. I typically will sync up my tapes with their audio, and make one half of the preview window one track and another the other. I guess you could do as many of these as you want. To switch back and forth I just mute out the top camera through the sections I wanna use the 2nd angle. With 3 cameras or more I would say get one of these plug-ins or apple has a nice multicam solution in FinalCut. Good luck.

ok im not sure if i know exactily what you guys are talking about so... I did a movie with my freinds a couple weeks ago and i turned a blank screen of a tv to a look of 5 security camera sections. very time consuming and not perfect. it was a wide screen tv so it was really weird. if you guys want to see the end product of this ill re render it just that part and tell me here. or you can goto our myspace. www.myspace.com/jabryett (its in the second movie there