Adding a color curve to the WHOLE project
 

I have a final project (not nested!!!) that I want to add a color curve to. It's about 60 video tracks and I don't want to have to add the same curve to each track as that would take forever. I already have to master the audio tracks (50 more!) and that's going to take a very long time.

Is there anyway to add a color curve (a preset that I made already) to the entire project vs all 60 track separately?

I am using Vegas 8.0b

Why not save the project then open a new project, and drag the project on to the new time line, and then add the color curve. You could render video only, and then take it all back to other project lay it on a new track, to work on with your audio track.

Wouldn't that be a nested file then? Nested files are the worst thing on the planet using Vegas 8.0b.

Also, would'nt that compress it twice, and then I would have to go and delete every single video track?

You didn't say what you were working in, HDV, intermediate HD, or SD.
But, what is worst than having sixty separate video tracks ? That seems to be what you are indicating-- I don't understand why someone would do that, but you must have your reasons for that, if that is what is going on.

Not sure what your "authority" is on "nested" files, but I have had success ediiting with project files saved and nested in a new project to achieve a final render.

Another solution is to render to a new track and then color correct that new track in the same project.

Drag the color curve effect to the preview screen. That will add it to the "Project" (and the little effects icon above the preview screen will turn green)

whoa!! Nice, thank you....

Maybe you could tell me a better way of working with Vegas then, I will explain what I am doing.

I am working on a film, the film has 23 scenes and is 78 mins. long. I have 23 Vegas projects in separate folders. When I feel like the scenes are where I want them to be I open a NEW Vegas project and then I open the 1st scene (so I have 2 Vegas projects open). I then use the tool to highlight the entire project files on the 1st scene and then I copy and paste them into the NEW project. I do this with all 23 scenes.

By doing this it allows me to transition into each scene the way I want and also allows me to add whatever plug in I want to the audio track but it also makes a HUGE project with lots of tracks.

I actually had to click the "Video Output FX" icon above the preview screen and add a curve that way. Is that the same thing as your talking about?

Everyone has their own process. For me, I try to take a simple approach.

First, I edit in the Cineform codec, when doing HDV. It holds up in rerendering process, so, I can do my process without a lot of loss over successive renders. However, if I was editing in HDV, I think I would still do it the same way. It would result in two to three rerenders. SD DV also is relatively lossless and would standup to rerendering in the .avi Dv format as originally captured.

In your case, for each of 23 scenes, I would render out to my intermediate Cineform Codec.

Then I take each rendered scene in to a new compile project, drop them all on the same track, and work out any further trimming and transitions in that project. That is also the place to color correct the project, which can be done scene by scene, or by correcting the entire track of video. From this I render my full film to a final full intermediate codec file, and that becomes the master. Use that one in a new project to render to any format you need to deliver.

That sounds very interesting, I am actually unfamiliar with this process so I will research it...... unless you would like to elaborate on the subject...=)

Thanks Chris

I am editing SD footage btw.

I've done 2 long docs/narratives in Vegas and I've had to do pretty much the same. For me it's just easier to make the scenes in separate projects, and then copy/paste them all into one timeline so that I can fine-tune the ebb & flow of the overall story. Nesting kinda works, but not the way I really want. Rendering out doesn't work for me either, as I want to make the changes to edits immediately or I am liable to forget the "intention" of the edit down the road. I found FCP is much better for longer more involved projects - mainly because you can store several sequences together in one FCP project. It's a small feature, but it makes the whole process much more efficient, especially when you're already brain dead after staring at the footage for what feels like an eternity. I usually go for Vegas when it's simple footage and under 30 minutes. But I'll reach for FCP if there's a mountain of footage and over 30 minutes. I still prefer editing in the Vegas timeline, but for me, media management in FCP wins. (I'm currently in the process of moving to Avid because the media management really helps to make the whole process more efficient)

The one habit I've picked up for both Vegas and FCP is to be very disciplined with every track. Each of my tracks has to be clearly defined, voice overs, sub titles, lower thirds, camera audio, camera video (broken down by character or scene or theme etc). I did this on the 2nd doc/narrative I worked on and it really helped cut down on the number of resulting tracks - and made the final fine-tuning process much much easier to handle.

SD is relatively stable in terms of being able to run it through successive renders, and should hold up similar to the Cineform codec used as an intermediate file in HDV editing. Vegas actually won't even rerender scenes that are not subjected to editing processes.

Yes, that's the same thing.

Can someone tell me how to render to the cineform format in Vegas 8.0b?

File - Render As - and pick the cineform/HDV codec.

Is that something you have to buy because I don't see that under "save as type". I use 8.0b.

1. In the Render As window select: Video for Windows (*.avi)
2. Then select one of the HDV intermediate templates

If you want to use QuickTime, you'll have to customize one of the templates, specifically change the Video Format.

I see...thank you. Which one should I use, HDV 720-30p or HDV 720-25p?

I am editing SD 720 x 480 footage.

Since you're in the US, use 30p. 25p would be for PAL countries.

ok, and my final question on this subject.

This format is better than rendering to uncompressed avi correct?

I will be rendering all 23 scenes to this and then opening them all in 1 project and rendering to mpeg2 / ac3 for a final DVD.

I will also be printing to tape from this format.

uncompressed files are HUGH! No real reason to render to uncompressed unless you need to save an alpha channel or something that requires you to do so.

Don

Wait... using a nested project "rerenders" the file?

I thought it just opened it in the timeline as one track for convinience... exactly what the OP is trying to accomplish.

I agree with your assessment. There is no rendering going on when you drop a project on to a new time line. There may be some formatting issues to preview, if the projects are not the same. I do believe use of the project files can subject the final compile project to potential issues or errors, that are unnecessary risks, so once I am ready to lock a scene, I lock it by rendering, and use that in my final compile project. As I said, I elect to keep it simple.

I'm with you on that... just wanted to make sure that the facts were straight for me as well as anyone else that might be reading this.

So to the OP you could just drop your files in via nested and accomplish a lot of what you are looking to do. You would even be able to color correct different scenes differently if you wanted to as they would act like seperate clips on the "master" timeline.

The reason we are not talking about nested projects is becuase it not working for me (and a lot of other people) so I am trying to find another way of working neatly with a lot of scenes.

The cineform seems to be working for me while keep it high quality with out too much compression, I like the idea of rendering each scene and then taking it into a single project for the final render. This way also takes a lot of the stress off Vegas by pre-rendering big projects. This way I CAN use HUGE jpeg files and Vegas wont crash.

Really this thread was about something else to start with and kind of went off in another direction but it really helped me out...sorry if there is some confusion.

I also vote as someone else did to just render out SD to regular dv codec... you don't lose too much, but I've never compared to cineform so I really can't comment.

What do you personally render out to for something like this Kevin?

I've just come back out to regular a DV NTSC file. Only done once because I needed to quickly render out some clips for a live show that was then add them later to a dvd as a bonus.

"School of Rock" band camp thing for kids.