Vegas 6 chroma keying at DVinfo.net

Bradley D Barber · February 12th, 2009, 12:56 PM

I am doing my first chroma keying in Vegas 6 and I am wondering how you experienced folk handle your workflow. Simply put, I dont have the best proccessing speed available but it is OK. I have the talent footage, over the shoulder graphic, animated studio back, and lower third with ticker. It seems to be too much for my machine to preview and keep up with.

Any suggestion on order of worlflow or how you manage individual portions in some logical order as not to loose too many generations etc.. would be greatly appreciated.

It is all SD footage, if that matters! Thanks
Thanks in advance!
Bradley

Mike Kujbida · February 12th, 2009, 01:58 PM

Bradley, I used to do chromakeys on what would now be called a "severely underpowered" machine (basic Pentium 200) so I know it can be done, albeit painfully :-(
If you're asking how to do a good chromakey, I highly recommend a tutorial by Keith Kolbo called Using Chroma Key and Chroma Blur in Sony Vegas.
Get the key looking good first and then start adding the other elements.
Use a still frame in place of the animated studio back so that you're not stressing your system too much and replace it when you're ready.
Increase the available RAM in Vegas to as much as you can and do RAM renders of short segments periodically to see how things are going to look.
I find this to be much faster than any other preview method.
Most importantly, have fun with it and don't be afraid to take a break if you find yourself getting frustrated.
I find that a fresh look at something helps a lot more than pounding away at while cursing repeatedly :-)

Don Bloom · February 12th, 2009, 01:58 PM

it seems that you're asking how to preview without stuttering. if that's it thenfirst make your preview "preview/auto", that'll help. Then you can try smaller section using RAM Preview and if things still are gummed up,try doing everything but the lower thirds and put that in AFTER you preview the rest and are sure it's what you want. You might even find that if the rest of the project is the way you want it maybe render that to DV-AVI then open a new project bring the AVI into your timeline and then place the lower thirds, render to DV-AVI and then bring that into a new TL and render to the appropriate codec.
While it may seem like you will lose quality you won't since you are basically just copying an AVI to AVI.
It might also seem like some extra steps but if you don't have the horsepower to do it all at once then you have to take small bites at it.

Bradley D Barber · February 15th, 2009, 02:41 PM

Thanks to both of you. I ended up doing it all in seperate layers. BG then over the shoulder on thru. What happened was pleasant suprise. I ended up paying more attention to detial than I solo would normally. and after rendering multiple time and watching back all the way thru, only 00:01:30, found ways to improve and the end result was very nice!

Thanks you guys were a big help! I am glads this forum exsists!

February 12th, 2009, 12:56 PM	#1
Bradley D Barber Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Washington Posts: 117	Vegas 6 chroma keying I am doing my first chroma keying in Vegas 6 and I am wondering how you experienced folk handle your workflow. Simply put, I dont have the best proccessing speed available but it is OK. I have the talent footage, over the shoulder graphic, animated studio back, and lower third with ticker. It seems to be too much for my machine to preview and keep up with. Any suggestion on order of worlflow or how you manage individual portions in some logical order as not to loose too many generations etc.. would be greatly appreciated. It is all SD footage, if that matters! Thanks Thanks in advance! Bradley __________________ Old South Marketing and Public Relations www.oldsouthmediagroup.com

February 12th, 2009, 01:58 PM	#3
Don Bloom Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Chicago, IL Posts: 6,609	it seems that you're asking how to preview without stuttering. if that's it thenfirst make your preview "preview/auto", that'll help. Then you can try smaller section using RAM Preview and if things still are gummed up,try doing everything but the lower thirds and put that in AFTER you preview the rest and are sure it's what you want. You might even find that if the rest of the project is the way you want it maybe render that to DV-AVI then open a new project bring the AVI into your timeline and then place the lower thirds, render to DV-AVI and then bring that into a new TL and render to the appropriate codec. While it may seem like you will lose quality you won't since you are basically just copying an AVI to AVI. It might also seem like some extra steps but if you don't have the horsepower to do it all at once then you have to take small bites at it. __________________ What do I know? I'm just a video-O-grafer. Don

February 15th, 2009, 02:41 PM	#4
Bradley D Barber Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Washington Posts: 117	Thanks to both of you. I ended up doing it all in seperate layers. BG then over the shoulder on thru. What happened was pleasant suprise. I ended up paying more attention to detial than I solo would normally. and after rendering multiple time and watching back all the way thru, only 00:01:30, found ways to improve and the end result was very nice! Thanks you guys were a big help! I am glads this forum exsists! __________________ Old South Marketing and Public Relations www.oldsouthmediagroup.com

February 12th, 2009, 01:58 PM	#2
Mike Kujbida Inner Circle Join Date: May 2005 Location: Windsor, ON Canada Posts: 2,770	Bradley, I used to do chromakeys on what would now be called a "severely underpowered" machine (basic Pentium 200) so I know it can be done, albeit painfully :-( If you're asking how to do a good chromakey, I highly recommend a tutorial by Keith Kolbo called Using Chroma Key and Chroma Blur in Sony Vegas. Get the key looking good first and then start adding the other elements. Use a still frame in place of the animated studio back so that you're not stressing your system too much and replace it when you're ready. Increase the available RAM in Vegas to as much as you can and do RAM renders of short segments periodically to see how things are going to look. I find this to be much faster than any other preview method. Most importantly, have fun with it and don't be afraid to take a break if you find yourself getting frustrated. I find that a fresh look at something helps a lot more than pounding away at while cursing repeatedly :-)