Here's a "pencil sketch" option: http://users.rcn.com/rofrano/Video/t...cil_sketch.htm

You may be able to make some modifications to this to add the color back in.

Boris Continum Complete has a "Cartooner" effect, check out their website. I work in Avid, but doesn't Vegas also work with Boris?

yes edward, that's exactly what i was talking about. so each tape has it's own "sfvidcap" file?

how do you use these to recapture?

I usually let each PROJECT have it's own vidcap file. If you back up this file and the VEG file, you can quickly and easily recreate the entire project. Just open the "sfvidcap" file in the capture program, it will detect the files are missing, and then you can recapture.

While the vidcap file may not be 100% necessary, it's kind of useful to keep around.

When you start a new project, just do a "File - New" in the capture program.

Man that Pixeldust is amazing....WOW! It would have been perfect though.

Best way to fake a shallow DOF in Vegas?
 

Working along on my final color corrections/tweaks it suddenly hit me that a guy walks behind in one of my man-on-the-street interviews, and his face could be recognized (whoever he is). But neither of us noticed him walk past at the time (heck, I've watched this section over and over, and never thought anything of it). The bottom line is, we never grabbed him to get a release form. But there must be a way to blur him out, isn't there? Anyone have any suggestions? I noticed a Pepsi can in another shot, too, so even though trademarked things are supposed to be ok if used for their intended purpose (so I've read) maybe I should take a shot at blurring it out as well? What a pain...
Marcia

If it's a documentary you have more lee-way for these kinds of things, although I'm not sure what the laws are. You could also consider the chance you will get sued- is it possible that guy on the street will sue you? (In some cases the answer may be no.)

2- Anyways to blur things:

Vegas 5:
Use the masking tool to isolate either the thing you want to blur out, or the person who is talking. If you isolate the person who is talking, then you will get fake shallow DOF instead of the Cops effect.

Before you mask, duplicate the video onto itself and apply a blur to the top/bottom layer. Apply a blur like gaussian blur to the top/bottom layer.

I use tape for video footage, and a data CD/DVD for all other files.

You may also be able to use the "cookie cutter" to isolate either the walker or the talker. I have an article in the newsletter that discusses blurring out a face. You can either to that with the walker or set it backwards to use with the talker.

that's cool. i was looking for something like that in vegas. i once had to recapture a few tapes using scene detection as i did when originally capturing them. but due to frame drops or what-not, there was a slight difference between the first captured batch and the re-captured batch (which was a bit of a headache to sort out).

so what information does it save? timecode? camera date/time (as scene detection uses)?

Basically the clip name, tape name, and start and stop times for all clips captured. I'm sure there's other information too but that would be the basics.

DOF and RacK Focus tracks are dead easy with vegas :)

the easiest and thought free way is to run 2 video tracks, one running a soft gausian blur, the other running a cookie cutter effect.

u can easily create a rack focus by moving the cookie cutter node.

Also if u use a linear blur instead of the gausian, u can creaate some strange horizontal warped blurs, akin to the rack focus shots found in the Meg Ryan Movie In The Cut, youll notice the bluring has a strange warp strecth feel to it.. u can do this easily in Vegas

its strange..

ooooooh and for those working with ac3, make sure u get the latest DVD2.. theres a bug which crashes the pgoram when importing large SEPERATE ac3.. so for example, if u had a stereo linked ac3 and then u were to import a seperate 5.1 track, it would poo itself

Region Markers
 

I have set regions in my video. How can I lock the regions to the edited clips so that when I move things around prior to the markers they lock to the video they are marking?

Make sense?

Um, there is no magical combination of filters that will create the look of "Waking Life" because the film is an act of creation, as it were.

While much of the footage is rotoscoped from live footage it is still rotoscoped, frame by frame, by hand. There are contemporary cel-animation programs that remove some of the tedium of keying, tweening, and coloring cel sequences, but is still the work of cel artists and craftsmen.

There are also a variety of cel animation styles present in the film. Which one would you be desiring to implement?

If you are using ripple edit, make sure you use one of the modes that also affects markers & regions.

Thanks for all the suggestions,

I experimented with the 'pencil sketch' technique described in the the webpage referenced in Ed Troxel's post above. I use Vegas 4.0c and followed the steps exactly as written. I started with a single previously rendered AVI file dropped on the timeline in Vegas. After following the pencil sketch steps, I adjusted the settings on the Bump Map dialog to the following:

Light Type = omnidirectional
Intensity = 0.500
Ambience = 0.150
Shininess = 0.500
Bump height = 1.000
SRC x: 0.000 y: 0.000 z: 3.000
Bump Channel: GREEN (anything but alpha)


The key is to check the 'flip input surface' box and voila all the colors return. I have a short (35 second 10Mb MPEG1) clip as an example, but I don't have a webpage to host it. If someone could help me, I'd be glad to send it to him/her to upload. The result reminds me of the 'American Pop' appearance and some scenes in 'Waking Life'. The Bump Map dialog leaves lots of room for tuning to personal preferences.

Joseph Lawrence

Pan and crop question
 

Sorry if this is such a basic question but I've read the manual and tried a search but no luck.
I have a scene of a jewlery shop interior. I want to crop a another frame down to just a diamond ring and then fly it into the interior shot. Like a small picture in the lower right of the screen.

This is what I have done:
I cropped the frame down to just the ring and then put it above the scene of the interior. I also add some keys to the cropped shot to make it travel accross the lower portion of the screen untill it reaches the lower right.

Am I in the ball park? Because it still is not working. I'm sure there is something that I'm missing.

Any help would be extreamly appreciated.

Use Pan/Crop to crop the image. Use Track Motion to make it move.

Track motion...... I was trying to use pannig from within the crop window......
Thanks I'll give that a shot.

Render + Print to tape problem
 

Hi.

I'm working on an 80 minute project (3 video tracks, 9 audio tracks, the works)
I tried printing to tape but the program locked and gave me an error when it was about done with the render (half the files are stored in the PCs hard disk, the other half in a WD external HD - I'm not sure, but I suspect the external HD goes into standby during the render - I've already shut hibernation off)
To solve the problem, I rendered the project to an AVI file (actually 4 separate avi files), then opened the files in a new project and printed to tape with no problems this time (although the project got rendered a second time).

My questions are:

1) Does anyone know why Vegas errors out during the render, on a print to tape?
2) If I've already rendered the project, is there a way to print to tape without re-rendering it?
3) Is AVI + print to tape the best choice if I plan to transfer to VHS?

Thank you.

gamut errors
 

THis might not be strictly Vegas related, but is there any way to discover gamut errors within Vegas?

DVDA2 recompressing my PCM audio...why?
 

I specifically want to use PCM (uncompressed) .wav as my audio format for a dvd I'm trying to build. I'm finished all the menus etc..but when I got to prepare and burn it says my audio is going to be recompressed. I specifically chose PCM to be my audio format for the DVDA project...and it was indeed rendered at the PCM (uncompressed) 48kz 16bit .wav setting which SHOULD be compliant.

Why is it forcing a re-render/recompress?!

Figured out what I did- I accidently rendered my video portion as a non-DVDA template. Even though I rendered the audio separately. Now I have to go back and re-render the video using the DVDA template...but I'm worried my menus are all going to be messed up....expecially my sceen selection menus. I doubt it will re-link all the links to the chapter point in the new video file! UGH what do I do?...short of re-building the sceen selection menus. BAHHHH!

Changing speed
 

When I change speed to a clip (slower or faster), it does not resize itself on the timeline, i.e. remain the same length. Is there a way to do it?

replace ur original video with ur newly rendered format using teh EXACT same name in the SAME directory.. DVDa will use that file instead :)

You can just manually tell it to use the WAV file for the audio.

Hold down the CTRL key and resize it to the new length. This will also change the speed.

If you want to use a velocity envelope for varying speeds, you'll have to resize the event manually afterwards.

Alternately, you can use the Velocity Wizard in Excalibur to both change the speed using the velocity envelope AND resize the clip (positive speeds only - besides, how long would a 0% clip be???).

I fixed it though I DID have to rebuild the project. Didn't take as long the second time. I re-rendered the MPG2 and overwrote the old one...then opened the project and chose "select replacement media' when it prompted me.

Problem was my chapter points were off by a about 3-4 seconds. So I had to scrap the project and start fresh.

It's finished now- btw....the menus turned out great- probably my best authored DVD to date. I'm very happy with DVDA2.

I deliver this wedding friday to the couple- I'm looking forward to their response. Now I have to hustle and finish the DVD surface and box art.

"Problem was my chapter points were off by a about 3-4 seconds. So I had to scrap the project and start fresh. "

If you move your mouse over the markers/Chapters, your assow will change, u can then drag them across the timeline with frame accuracy.

Could have saved re-authoring layout ..

Glad to hear it al worked out though, let us know the reaction!

1) Does anyone know why Vegas errors out during the render, on a print to tape?

It's usually a memory buffer or HDD management error. You should receive an error message regardless of the issue.

Head off to Sony Media and drop them a print screen via email and ask and they should tell you exactly what the problem is


2) If I've already rendered the project, is there a way to print to tape without re-rendering it?


Yes, but you mentioned 4 seperate avi's, were these layered, or played back in sequence? it depends on the clip management, filters etc etc etc because what vegas usually does is build a buffer with that pre rendered "output" before it plays out. You'll notice on Tape output the buffer will fluctuate
Best thing to do is have ONE AVI and ONE STEREO track (ie, 1 Avi2 compliant dv avi) throw it either on the timeline, or just output to tape with VidCap.

3) Is AVI + print to tape the best choice if I plan to transfer to VHS?

Not really. It'll work.. but a relatively high variable bitrate dvd (8000 high, 6000 average, 192 ) should suffice as a playback source. Also saves where and tear on your tape heads, and when your done, you'll have a dvd archive of the job.

Anyone?

Simon, if you mean color gammut errors (differences) in reference to the original pic the answer is no. Unless color space conversion is being applied, gammut is a camera/display/printer issue.

Ahh right.

1) Does anyone know why Vegas errors out during the render, on a print to tape?

This can be caused by a multitude of reasons. Two common ones:
a) Low hard disk space on the pre-render folder drive
b) CPU overheating


2) If I've already rendered the project, is there a way to print to tape without re-rendering it?

Assuming you've rendered to a DV-AVI, just put it on a new timeline and choose print to tape. The only "rendering" that will happen is the audio to a W64 file.

If you don't want to create the W64 file, try playing it back using the capture program or some other program such as Scenalyzer.


3) Is AVI + print to tape the best choice if I plan to transfer to VHS?

That will work fine. As Peter said, you could create a DVD but it is not necessary. Personally, I use the pass-thru capability of my deck to feed the footage straight from the computer to the VHS decks. If I need a DV tape backup, I'll record on the deck at the same time.

Is this the best workflow for producing an NTSC DVD from PAL source footage?...
 

If I have PAL footage who's project output has to be on an NTSC DVD is this the best workflow?...

1. Edit entire project in it's native PAL format

2. Convert to NTSC MPG2 for DVD

or

2. Output the edited pieces out to PAL DV-AVI

3. THEN convert to NTSC MPG2 for DVD

or

2. Output the edited pieces out to NTSC DV-AVI

3. THEN convert to NTSC MPG2 for DVD



I'm aware a smaller res and high frame size has to be interpolated to make the footage NTSC.
Are there any difference to the variable approaches. How much quality loss should I expect in any given scenario when going from PAL to NTSC?

Preview window and rendering
 

Do the quality settings in the preview window effect the quality when rendering? Or is that only for grabbing stills?
How about while printing to tape?

No more stupid questions at this time......

No. The render settings affect rendering. The preview settings affect previewing (and getting snapshots). PTT uses the project render settings (File - Properties).

Thanks Ed.

From PAL to NTSC is the "easiest" conversion quality wise. I
would suspect your last option to be best since Vegas can take
things into account perhaps. But I doubt the difference will be
that great. Oh in your last stape I would encode straight to
NTSC MPEG2 instead of to DV-AVI first, no need to do that
unless you also want an NTSC AVI file for another reason.