Yes it can. Just render the small segment you wish to take to AE to a new file, pull that new file into AE and manipulate it as needed, render back from AE to another new file, and then bring that file back into Vegas.

It is generally recommended that you render to uncompressed to transfer between the two programs.

wow, okay--thanks!

Thanks Lars,

Unfortunately I am still having the problem. That 'install' button is greyed out, so I am assuming there is some problem with the DirectX application supplied on the disk. I have installed newer versions of DirectX, but to no avail.

I guess I will just keep trying!

Thank you anyhow

Film style dissolve update
 

A few of you might remember that I contacted Scott Moore, the writer of the Vegas luminance transition plugin because I thought it could possibly be modified to create a film style optical dissolve as per the opticals suite of Digital Film Tools or Magic Bullet.

Scott just sent me the latest version of the plugin to see if his latest tweak to it was any closer to succeeding in doing this. This new version of the plugin allows the user to select either a picture template based luminance dissolve as per the original plugin, or to do a luminance transition based on the video footage itself. I ran the new version of the plugin and compared it to the demo of the Magic Bullet Opticals suite.

I am pleased to say that I think Scott has done it! The results were VERY close indeed! The effect is subtle, but very nice. So, another plus point for Vegas users very soon!

Vegas/Boris Red/Photoshop
 

Okay....Vegas and Boris Red seem to be a good fit, and am wondering how Photoshop offers sufficiently unique features to complement Boris in Vegas.

If I sound reasonably ignorant, you are correct.

:)

Care to share with us
 

the given plug-in ?

copy/paste tracks from one project to another?
 

hi. i'm working on a movie which is devided into two seperate vegas projects. now i want to unite the two into one project. each file contains several tracks with different track effects, envelopes and so on. is there a way to copy and paste tracks, in their entirety, from one project to another?

Here's what *I* would recommend:

1) render project 1 to a new avi
2) render project 2 to a new avi
3) Start a "final" project and add the rendered project 1 and project 2 files.


Otherwise, the option is to ope two instances of Vegas - one project in each. The, for example, select everything in project 2, copy it, move to the other instance of Vegas containing project 1, move to the end, and paste. This is as close as you can get.

rendering one project and adding it to the other isn't an option, i'm afraid, because i still need to add music which will probably result in slight editing changes.

copying and pasting from one project to the other is what i had in mind (as you suggest). since each track has 2 or 3 track FX on it, i was hoping i could just duplicate the track from project a to project b instead of manually inserting a new video track in A, open the track FX in the track i want to copy from project B, insert the same track FX and their parameters to the new video track in project A, and so on... for each track i want to copy. tiresome and vulnerable to mistakes.

another annoying thing i noticed. when i set the parameters to a track FX or event FX, by selecting one of the available templates from the drop down list - the next time i open the FX parameters, the template is listed as untitled once again and not the template i had set the FX to.

adi

u can but u have to rip the the VOBS and extract teh audio from the VOB as wav (or anythign except ac3, as vegas cant read ac3)..

theres a post about this a while back explaing proggies and utils to help..

Vegas can load up a VOB (it sees it as mpg2) but the audio wont load up, so u need to extract it with a tool like BeSweet

I know of no easy way to copy track level effects. As for the name returning to "untitled" - this I understand. Think of it this way: You have set up a list of "basic" starting points and saved them as presets. Now, if you make ANY change to ANY of the settings, it is no longer that preset. If it saved the preset name, you would then lose the changes made OR the preset itself would be changed. I agree it would be nice to "remember" the preset chosen but understand how it could also lead to problems.

i think it would be best if when setting a plug-in to a template it should state the name of the template that it is set to (even after closing the plug-in modifying window and re-opening it). if one is to make changes to the template preset settings, THEN i agree that it should no longer state the name of the template.

but sometimes i might create several templates for a project and wish to know which track or event is set to which template. the way it is now, there is no way for me to know.

Question on external monitors
 

I am new to all this and am not real sure what Douglas Spotted Eagle is referring to when he talks about getting a good external monitor for color correction in his Vegas 4.0 training DVD's. I did see what is referred to as video monitors at BH photo by Sony for about 2500 dollars. I can't afford one of those at the moment though.

I do own a very good Panasonic 34 inch flat screen TV that is very close to my computer and a couple of Sony VX2100 cameras. In Vegas 5.0, would I be able to send the video through my OHCI firewire card into my Sony VX2100 with pass through on to my Flat screen TV via S-Video in order to properly view the colors for color correction?

Yes. Send the firewire to your cam and S or RCA out from the cam to the TV/flat screen or NTSC monitor. Set the camera in VTR/VCR mode press the EXTERNAL PREVIEW button on the preview screen in Vegas and have fun.

Don B

Reid slaps his head and says "why didn't I think of that"...
I mean it's right there, and having read it I'm like oh sure, of course.
But man have you saved me time/money with the external monitor solution at least till I can swing a studio monitor.

Man I love these boards...

Make sure you calibrate your television to the best of your ability using Vegas's NTSC or PAL Color bars under the Generated Media tab.

There is a few links online that explain how to calibrate using color bars. The biggest downfall of televisions is the lack of a blue gun option to set the color saturation. I always feel confident regarding the luminance/gamma but am never sure if my saturation is set correctly.

window docking area
 

somehow I messed up my window docking area at the bottom of the screen, it normally will have trimmer, explorer, etc on the left and a preview screen on the right, now I just have one long window on the bottom, anyone know how to restore this back to the split windows.
thanks, Dave

got it!
 

I did a search on restore, and opened up vegas while holding down ctrl & shift.

cool!

Dave

Remember that after starting Vegas this way that ALL of the preferences you have changed are also reset. You will need to modify them to your liking again.

option that controls files / memory use?
 

Hi,

It seems as though Vegas is doing a reinventory of all it's media files everytime it's window regains focus. If this is the case, then is there a switch to turn off or modify this behavior?

I'm just getting started with Vegas. After importing a large number of .mov files, Vegas has slowed to a crawl on initial load and every time it's window regains screen focus. Once loaded, working within the application is reasonably speedy as long as no other window is brought up - including a capture window.

OK obviously it's paging heavily so I've ordered more memory: going from 512 to 1G (and expect to have to add more soon). But also hoping there is an option somewhere in the program that will help alleviate this problem considering I still have quite a few clips to capture and the amount of paging going on.


thanks - L

Basically, Vegas "lets go" of the files so that other program can access them. For example, if you have a photo on the timeline and you want to edit that photo, you could just open your photo editing program (such as Photoshop), edit it, and when you return to Vegas the timeline would be updated.

If you do not wish for Vegas to "let go" of the files, go to Options - Preferences and UNCHECK "Close media files when not the active application"

Update
 

Just in case anyone else out there is thinking of using big drives with the Sony Video Capture utility, the above issue indeed appears to be a glitch in the software after all. As per this post, once the 500 gig drive which I knew had plenty of room on it filled the 12 hours it was showing available, it immediately kicked over and read 24 hours (more) available (in the middle of a capture) as soon as that time expired. And it didn't even hiccup.
Marcia

So, it sounds like the 36 hours free was read in Vegas as "24 + 12" because the hour field won't go above 24. Perhaps they should add a "Days" section :-)

01:12:00:00:00 (i.e. 1 day 12 hours + however many minutes, seconds, and frames)

Douglas, I saw your vegas 5 book for sale on Amazon. When does it come out? Bob Safay

Edward,

That was just the ticket!

Many thanks for your help.

- L

Fade to black / subtitles
 

Hi.

I have two inquiries:

1. Is there a way to do a sharp fade to black in Vegas?
When I use the crossfade tool (the envelope cursor), the image gets blurred before fading out.
I understand this happens because what it actually does is increase the opacity level.

2. I was trying to create subtitles (over-imposed), but the previewed image "stutters" or becomes blurred (I fixed my "blurred titles" problem, setting the preview quality to best, but this other problem still happens)

Thanks

Put a solid black generated media on the track below your video where the fade is. Stuttering titles can sometimes be fixed with the Reduce interlace flicker setting (event properties). Sometimes Force resample, too, helps. These settings are not there by default, because they take a little longer to render.

WTB Vegas 4 DVD
 

HI
Am looking for the training DVD, CD ,VHS for Vegas 4

anyone have one they want to sell

Thanks

Vince
vjdebart@ispwest.com

I have the Class on Demand Vegas 4 series-Email me.

thanks Rob. English is not my native language...

This relates back to an earlier question I posted on the same topic, seeking a solution akin to Premiere's "Scenes" feature which is ideal for long-form projects such as films.

My own project (Coming Attractions Trailer almost ready for posting and comments) should wind down to almost 2 hours long, and as someone new to NLE's in general, this one feature is desperately needed.

One disadvantage to rendering a whole scene out first and then dropping within the full-lenght time line is that everytime you make a change, you have two projects to render instead of just one.

Does anyone know how we might get Sony's ear on this to suggest for an upcoming revision?

Thanks,

Brian

Here's your best bet:

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.co...suggestion.asp

I made the suggestion, we'll have to wait and see if Sony follows through.

Brian

Was supposed to have been out already. I don't know why it's not.
I do know that the exceptionally high number of screenshots is hard for layout people to work with. We've gone through this with 4 books now. Layout people hate high numbers of images. Takes FOREVER to get the Instant Series books out.

Just got back from Cinefest 2004 in Denver.

Saw the adobe people do their magic with after effects and was very impressed. Am I right in assuming that this is the program that can give me lots of amazing choices for CG work?

It really seemed excellent, and I think I might have to get it.

Also Doug Spotted Eagle was there and did an amazing demonstration of Vegas 5. It's definitely time to move up.

Milt Lee

Any plug-ins or way to...
 

Working on such a long project there are a few things I miss from the Avid/FCP world. For example, is there anything out there that will allow me to color code my bins/folders in Vegas 5 now? I know you couldn't in 4. How about printing bin/folder/clip info? I felt more "secure" with a printed record of what's on which drive in the event of (god forbid) a crash. Also, while the search function in the Media Pool is a good start, is there a way to have it bring up which exact bin/folder the desired clip is in?

I'm sure more will occur to me as I crank along...
Marcia

how much quality is lost?
 

This is what I've been doing:
1) I record video at 24p (Advanced) in my DVX100a
2) capture to PC using Vegas 4.0, via firewire. Save clips as .avi's
3) edit video
4) render as an .avi

however, then when I burn that avi to SVCD or just view it on my computer screen, the quality is absolute crap. Completely different from the beautiful image I see right after shooting when I view my dailies from the camera to any TV set with a set of AV cables.

What am I doing wrong, or how much quality is being lost from beginning to final product (the final avi file). Is there a better format I should be using other than avi? thanks..

The AVI file should be fine. However, an SVCD is a highly compressed MPEG file which will be much lower in quality than the AVI file.

Ahh, media management blues... One of the things I really really love while working in Avid on long form docs.

three questions then

1) are .avi's compressed or uncompressed. is it the best format to capture to?
2) how do they compare to .mov?
3) so if i author a DVD from the .avi, will the quality be as good as the original camera quality (ie. is the loss only coming from printing to SVCD?)

thanks again.