Vegas Video discussions from 2004 (Q1Q2)

Marcia Janine Galles · February 22nd, 2004, 02:34 PM

Is there a way to zoom in to the pixel level in the preview window in Vegas, something akin to Photoshop? I can get at the big bits when working with the secondary color correct, but not the glow. It's maddening.

I tried the cookie cutter btw, but needed more careful animation, so I put on a garbage matte, but I'm still not happy with how it looks. Bottom line, correctly exposing the image for what was happening under the arbor, and ignoring the hot white in the distance beyond the groom, was a costly mistake. In hindsight, I'm not totally sure what I could've/should've done differently cuz the rest of the shot looks pretty good, albiet still a little dark for my taste. I wanted to string a couple of Pro Lights to hang down off the limbs, but the bride wanted "natural" light. Should've pushed them harder on that.

Glen Elliott · February 22nd, 2004, 02:47 PM

Edward, how would you match the speed of your clip if you import the audio into Sound Forge? Say if I used Ctrl+drag to slow a clip down- how would I get the unknown % speed figure matched.

Brad Higerd · February 22nd, 2004, 08:23 PM

I am struggling to reduce the frame rate of a Vegas project to produce the old-time silent movie effect. The video looks great on the preview with the project set to 12 fps, but Vegas only gives me 3 options when I go to render for NTSC (29.9997 & 24 with 2 different pulldown modes). I cannot seem to render the video with the low frame rate that an old-time silent movie requires.

If anyone knows what to do, please tell me.

Edward Troxel · February 22nd, 2004, 09:40 PM

You really can't zoom in like you can with Photoshop. If you set your preview quality to one of the full settings, you'll get the full 720x480 image. You can also resize the preview window so that you can see the whole 720x480 image.

Edward Troxel · February 22nd, 2004, 09:43 PM

You CAN get the speed so it's not really unknown. Just right-click the clip, choose properties, and look at the "Playback Rate". Another way would be to render out the original cut clip to a new file, resize the the proper amount, and then make the same size correction in the other program.

Edward Troxel · February 22nd, 2004, 09:47 PM

Try this:

Pull the clips in normally in a normal framerate project. Now, right-click each clip, choose Properties, and change the "Undersample Rate".

Will this give you the results you want?

Brian M. Dickman · February 22nd, 2004, 10:00 PM

Sounds like ATI compressed it at something lower than 720x480, which isn't DVD legal/compatible. It's gotta come up to spec.

Jean-Philippe Archibald · February 23rd, 2004, 10:31 AM

Hi,

Yesterday was the second day (on a shedule of 6) of shooting for my next short film. In the preproduction process, we decided to shoot this project with an XL1 in FRAME mode for the "film look".

This day was really great! 16 planned shots in a house with lot of them involving children. They were very cooperatives.

But I made a mistake. The 6 firsts shots were filmed in NORMAL mode instead of FRAME. So I will need to detinterlace it in post.

I never had has to do dinterlacing until now since I always use FRAME mode for narrative work. But the day before this shooting session, I covered a live event in NORMAL mode and I forgot to change this setting back to frame.

What is the best way, preferably using Vegas 4.0, to deinterlace theses 6 clips so that they mixes well with those in FRAME MODE?

Thank you very much!

Yi Fong Yu · February 23rd, 2004, 10:38 AM

yes i was capturing @320x144 or somn like that. now i'm gonna use vegas capture... should work better with DVD Arch

Brad Higerd · February 23rd, 2004, 10:38 AM

Thank you Edward,

I will try it tonight, and post a reply as soon as I know more.

Brad

Edward Troxel · February 23rd, 2004, 11:21 AM

Run it through a converter can capture via firewire. You'll be much happier with the results.

Law Tyler · February 23rd, 2004, 02:50 PM

Sorry if this has been asked before, can't find anything with the search function.

Well, a friend of mine asked if I can make his regular DV footage (I shot) to widescreen DVD.

The way I figure, DV captures 3:2 ratio, normally left and right get chopped a little off, but for widescreen, the top and bottom get chopped a little off instead, and waala, you have widescreen, right?

Well, went into Vegas 4.0, select "new", and then "DV 720x480 widescreen", and use the crop box preset to convert DV footage to widescreen, and render it back out, so far so good.

Bring up DVD Architecture, select "DV 720x480 widescreen", and bring in the new footage. It has a darn big black border all around it. What is the deal?

I burn a short test footage to DVD, play it on PC, and it has a large black border all around it again, wasting real estate.

Anybody know what is going on? How do we eliminate the useless black border?

Rob Lohman · February 23rd, 2004, 04:30 PM

It renders faster when set to progressive? That should be the
case since it is. You should not set it to interlaced since it isn't.
Vegas Effects take interlacing into account, so that's why it should
be set properly for example.

Glen: "fields are doubled" -> that is totally depended on the
camera that does the "progressive" shooting or emulation. A
true progressive camera will not do a field doubling, only the
worst camera's will. The Canon GLx/XL1 range definitely doesn't
do field doubling. It does a special form of blending which is
better than most post algorithms.

Joe Sacher · February 23rd, 2004, 05:05 PM

DV can be either 4:3 or 16:9. If it is 4:3 and you want to convert it to widescreen 16:9, you can do that by adding a black border on the sides or cutting off some of the top or bottom.

Set the project properties to 1.2121 pixel ratio to tell Vegas that you want 16:9 widescreen. Then use the track frame motion or pan and crop to slice the top and bottom off. If you right click in a pan and crop, you can tell Vegas to set it to fit the output format. (Sorry, going by memory here, as I don't have Vegas on this machine.)

Then render out to widescreen MPEG2 or AVI file, depending on if you want to compress in DVDA or not. This should now stay without any extra borders, as long as DVDA thinks it is widescreen.

Law Tyler · February 23rd, 2004, 05:41 PM

Thanks. I got it going.

Turned out I did everything right the first time, except when rendering, I did not select template as "NTSC DV Widescreen", it was "NTSC DV".

Well, now to render one hours worth and take it over to my friend's...

February 22nd, 2004, 08:23 PM	#498
Brad Higerd Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 186	Old Time Silent Movie Effect I am struggling to reduce the frame rate of a Vegas project to produce the old-time silent movie effect. The video looks great on the preview with the project set to 12 fps, but Vegas only gives me 3 options when I go to render for NTSC (29.9997 & 24 with 2 different pulldown modes). I cannot seem to render the video with the low frame rate that an old-time silent movie requires. If anyone knows what to do, please tell me.

February 23rd, 2004, 10:31 AM	#503
Jean-Philippe Archibald Trustee Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Saguenay, Québec, Canada Posts: 1,051	Deinterlacing and FRAME mode Hi, Yesterday was the second day (on a shedule of 6) of shooting for my next short film. In the preproduction process, we decided to shoot this project with an XL1 in FRAME mode for the "film look". This day was really great! 16 planned shots in a house with lot of them involving children. They were very cooperatives. But I made a mistake. The 6 firsts shots were filmed in NORMAL mode instead of FRAME. So I will need to detinterlace it in post. I never had has to do dinterlacing until now since I always use FRAME mode for narrative work. But the day before this shooting session, I covered a live event in NORMAL mode and I forgot to change this setting back to frame. What is the best way, preferably using Vegas 4.0, to deinterlace theses 6 clips so that they mixes well with those in FRAME MODE? Thank you very much! __________________ Jean-Philippe Archibald http://www.jparchibald.com - http://www.vimeo.com/jparchib

February 23rd, 2004, 10:38 AM	#504
Yi Fong Yu Trustee Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Vulcan Posts: 1,564	yes i was capturing @320x144 or somn like that. now i'm gonna use vegas capture... should work better with DVD Arch __________________ bow wow wow

February 23rd, 2004, 02:50 PM	#507
Law Tyler Major Player Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Plano, TX Posts: 204	Convert DV to widescreen DVD Sorry if this has been asked before, can't find anything with the search function. Well, a friend of mine asked if I can make his regular DV footage (I shot) to widescreen DVD. The way I figure, DV captures 3:2 ratio, normally left and right get chopped a little off, but for widescreen, the top and bottom get chopped a little off instead, and waala, you have widescreen, right? Well, went into Vegas 4.0, select "new", and then "DV 720x480 widescreen", and use the crop box preset to convert DV footage to widescreen, and render it back out, so far so good. Bring up DVD Architecture, select "DV 720x480 widescreen", and bring in the new footage. It has a darn big black border all around it. What is the deal? I burn a short test footage to DVD, play it on PC, and it has a large black border all around it again, wasting real estate. Anybody know what is going on? How do we eliminate the useless black border?

February 23rd, 2004, 04:30 PM	#508
Rob Lohman RED Code Chef Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Holland Posts: 12,514	It renders faster when set to progressive? That should be the case since it is. You should not set it to interlaced since it isn't. Vegas Effects take interlacing into account, so that's why it should be set properly for example. Glen: "fields are doubled" -> that is totally depended on the camera that does the "progressive" shooting or emulation. A true progressive camera will not do a field doubling, only the worst camera's will. The Canon GLx/XL1 range definitely doesn't do field doubling. It does a special form of blending which is better than most post algorithms. __________________ Rob Lohman, visuar@iname.com DV Info Wrangler & RED Code Chef Join the DV Challenge \| Lady X Search DVinfo.net for quick answers \| Buy from the best: DVinfo.net sponsors

February 22nd, 2004, 02:34 PM	#496
Marcia Janine Galles Major Player Join Date: May 2003 Location: Camarillo, CA Posts: 340	Is there a way to zoom in to the pixel level in the preview window in Vegas, something akin to Photoshop? I can get at the big bits when working with the secondary color correct, but not the glow. It's maddening. I tried the cookie cutter btw, but needed more careful animation, so I put on a garbage matte, but I'm still not happy with how it looks. Bottom line, correctly exposing the image for what was happening under the arbor, and ignoring the hot white in the distance beyond the groom, was a costly mistake. In hindsight, I'm not totally sure what I could've/should've done differently cuz the rest of the shot looks pretty good, albiet still a little dark for my taste. I wanted to string a couple of Pro Lights to hang down off the limbs, but the bride wanted "natural" light. Should've pushed them harder on that.

February 22nd, 2004, 02:47 PM	#497
Glen Elliott Wrangler Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Philadelphia, PA Posts: 2,898	Edward, how would you match the speed of your clip if you import the audio into Sound Forge? Say if I used Ctrl+drag to slow a clip down- how would I get the unknown % speed figure matched.

February 22nd, 2004, 09:40 PM	#499
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	You really can't zoom in like you can with Photoshop. If you set your preview quality to one of the full settings, you'll get the full 720x480 image. You can also resize the preview window so that you can see the whole 720x480 image.

February 22nd, 2004, 09:43 PM	#500
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	You CAN get the speed so it's not really unknown. Just right-click the clip, choose properties, and look at the "Playback Rate". Another way would be to render out the original cut clip to a new file, resize the the proper amount, and then make the same size correction in the other program.

February 22nd, 2004, 09:47 PM	#501
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	Try this: Pull the clips in normally in a normal framerate project. Now, right-click each clip, choose Properties, and change the "Undersample Rate". Will this give you the results you want?

February 22nd, 2004, 10:00 PM	#502
Brian M. Dickman Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 148	Sounds like ATI compressed it at something lower than 720x480, which isn't DVD legal/compatible. It's gotta come up to spec.

February 23rd, 2004, 10:38 AM	#505
Brad Higerd Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 186	Thank you Edward, I will try it tonight, and post a reply as soon as I know more. Brad

February 23rd, 2004, 11:21 AM	#506
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	Run it through a converter can capture via firewire. You'll be much happier with the results.

February 23rd, 2004, 05:05 PM	#509
Joe Sacher Regular Crew Join Date: May 2003 Location: Indianapolis, IN Posts: 177	DV can be either 4:3 or 16:9. If it is 4:3 and you want to convert it to widescreen 16:9, you can do that by adding a black border on the sides or cutting off some of the top or bottom. Set the project properties to 1.2121 pixel ratio to tell Vegas that you want 16:9 widescreen. Then use the track frame motion or pan and crop to slice the top and bottom off. If you right click in a pan and crop, you can tell Vegas to set it to fit the output format. (Sorry, going by memory here, as I don't have Vegas on this machine.) Then render out to widescreen MPEG2 or AVI file, depending on if you want to compress in DVDA or not. This should now stay without any extra borders, as long as DVDA thinks it is widescreen.

February 23rd, 2004, 05:41 PM	#510
Law Tyler Major Player Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Plano, TX Posts: 204	Thanks. I got it going. Turned out I did everything right the first time, except when rendering, I did not select template as "NTSC DV Widescreen", it was "NTSC DV". Well, now to render one hours worth and take it over to my friend's...