Vegas Video discussions from 2004 (Q1Q2)

Jon Omiatek · March 25th, 2004, 10:35 AM

I was doing a picture montage with scanned images from pictures. I cropped each picture to 655X480 72pix. I resized them because vegas only recognizes 655X480 to fill screen. If you have a larger image, lets say 800X600, vegas doesn't handle it as well. I did my first montage with the original res and then did another with cropped images and it looked better in my opinion.

Thanks,

Jon

Peter Moore · March 25th, 2004, 10:45 AM

I'm converting my Star Wars original trilogy laserdisc's to DVD soon. As I understand it the LDs are 60i but would have had 2:3 pulldown done from the original 24p like any film transfer.

My question is can I use Vegas to bring it back to 24p and make this a 24p DVD? Or do I need something else (Magic Bullet, etc.)? Is the quality of the reverse pulldown going to be as good as if it was 24p to begin with? (2:3 pulldown shouldn't actually lose any data if I understand the procedure correctly).

Edward Troxel · March 25th, 2004, 10:54 AM

<<<-- Originally posted by Jon East : If you have a larger image, lets say 800X600, vegas doesn't handle it as well -->>>

Nope, Vegas handles them just fine. Here's what you do. Add the pictures to the timeline. Open Pan/Crop, right-click the image, and choose "Match Output Aspect". Then you can adjust the picture (and create movements) as needed.

Take a look at the issue of my newsletter where I discuss how to do this in detail.

Also, there is a script available that will set all of the "Match Output Aspects" to ALL of your images in a matter of seconds.

Glen Elliott · March 25th, 2004, 11:00 AM

Can you believe I just learned the other day you can set the speed manually via right clicking and selecting playback rate. I could have sworn it wasn't there before in 4.0b, though I'm probably wrong.

So how fast can each method speed up footage. It's 12x with both velocity envelope and ctrl+drag...whats the limit on each respectively?

Oh...and one more question Edward, how do you know so much about Vegas. Granted I know it pretty well now working with it for 6 months or so but you seem to have the technical manual memorized! I can only wish to gain the apprehension of a complex program like Vegas that you possess. Thanks again.

Edward Troxel · March 25th, 2004, 11:24 AM

Yes, going to properties and setting the playback rate will adjust the CTRL-Drag speed to a specific value if you need an EXACT value. I usually either fill a hole or drag till it looks the way I want. (and, yes, it was even in version 3)

CTRL-Drag will give you up to 4X (and can slow down to .25x)

Velocity Envelope will give you up to 3x (and can slow down to 0x {stop} OR go on to -1x reverse)

you seem to have the technical manual memorized!

Well... I DID read (most of) it. A lot of the anecdotal information comes from places like this. The forums are a GREAT learning tool.

Mark A. Foley · March 25th, 2004, 01:51 PM

I would like to hear others "recipe" for creating Black & white footage...other than just using the Vegas B&W filter or dropping the satural level to "0" in the color corrector. I still haven't got anything I truly like... I've seen some B&W-created footage from Final Cut Pro that is awesome....

Peter Moore · March 25th, 2004, 02:03 PM

What exactly is it that you are looking for? Black and white is just saturation to 0. If you want other aspects of the picture to look different you'll need to be more specific. :)

Mark A. Foley · March 25th, 2004, 02:50 PM

I was thinking more of inserting a ColorCurve and B&W filter in series, then adjust the individual RGB color curves to get the "best" B&W result...curious if anyone had something similiar to share to create something more powerful/dramatic than the usual "wimpy" B&W.

Law Tyler · March 25th, 2004, 03:13 PM

Mike, the problem is not the video editor, but the set-top DVD players.

While most players support playing VCD, majority of them "act funny" when handling a VCD menu. I have tried this in real life, with many many DVD players.

The VCD's that are popular out there (I never get hold of one), I suspect, don't have a menu. I bet they are more like a digitized VHS, run straight thru.

Sorry.

Glenn Chan · March 25th, 2004, 03:13 PM

Here's what I'd do:

use color curves + desaturation to control the amount each channel contributes to the B+W image. Maybe there is a better way to do this.

Step 2:
Use color curves against to add a tint to your footage. Colors I like are sepia and blue. You have to think carefully before you go ahead and mess with the curves. You can get even fancier by controlling colors based on hue, saturation, and brightness information.

On the x-axis of the curve is brightness. Each brightness value gets mapped to a certain color (you get to control the RGB values). The way I think of it, you figure out where you want each brightness value to go.
0 should get mapped to black.
255 (the brightest value) should get mapped to complete white.
in the shadows/dark areas, you want a deep saturated tint.
In the highlights area you still want the tint except less saturation and with the hue shifted a bit and brightness bumped up.

You can incorporate a s curve in there too to bump contrast, or stack another curves filter on.

Even more insanity:
You can add film grain too (use the film grain filter).
You can duplicate footage onto itself and develop all sorts of wild effects.

Don Donatello · March 25th, 2004, 04:04 PM

i prefer using Channel Blend .. depending on the clip might use either the distribute red, green ,or blue channel

i prefer the RED to get the skin tones really light and get rid of skin blemishes

then use color curves fx to my likeness ...

if you want a QUICK look to see what Channel blend setting look like
on the Vegas preview window use the Overlays icon set to red , green or blue as greyscale ...

Tom Kronberg · March 25th, 2004, 04:30 PM

Indeed.
And if you're going to re-render, make sure to first render uncompressed.

Glen Elliott · March 25th, 2004, 04:49 PM

DV avi format, but of course.

Andreas Fernbrant · March 25th, 2004, 04:53 PM

Hey All, I'm in need of help.

It's like this. I'm going to shoot a short in a few weeks. Format is DIGIBeta. That means DIGIBeta tapes. So I asked my cinematographer about DIGIBeta and how to get it in to my computer so I can edit what he shoots with Vegas. He looked at me and told me I can't. I got worried and asked why, he asked if I got raid hardrives wich I don't. I have a really fast system though and can run uncompressed AVI files from Vegas in Windows. (Well, almost) :)

He told me about EDL. And I almost already knew vegas didn't have EDL. I'm correct right?

I don't want to tamper with EDL's. I want to be able to render out to BMP files and edit in Photoshop and be able to work with the digibeta materials in Vegas the way I'm used to do my work.

I always thought that DIGIBeta material where edited ONLINE in computers with help of some Mjpeg codecs. But I was wrong right?

I also have a upcoming musicvideo shoot and that's going to be on Super 16. I wanted that scanned to Digibeta to be able to edit ONLINE on my computer..

So what are my options at this point? I'm a controlfreak and I want total control over my work. I want to be able to use all my skills with filters, colorcorretion, photoshop and so on..

Anyone care to enlighten me? Or am I lost to go out and find Avid somewhere?.......

Thanks,

Andreas

Chris Hendrick · March 25th, 2004, 05:01 PM

Goto TVone.com

Look at the DV-1394Pro-SDI (about 2000k from us)

This will handle getting your SDI video into Vegas.....

But you prob dont have a Digibeta Deck... What you need to do is
get the Digibeta copied over to DV so you can use it.

Many production houses will do the transfer for a fee.

Regards,

Chris H
@
B&H

March 25th, 2004, 10:45 AM	#962
Peter Moore Trustee Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Arlington VA Posts: 1,034	60i Laserdisc back to 24p?? I'm converting my Star Wars original trilogy laserdisc's to DVD soon. As I understand it the LDs are 60i but would have had 2:3 pulldown done from the original 24p like any film transfer. My question is can I use Vegas to bring it back to 24p and make this a 24p DVD? Or do I need something else (Magic Bullet, etc.)? Is the quality of the reverse pulldown going to be as good as if it was 24p to begin with? (2:3 pulldown shouldn't actually lose any data if I understand the procedure correctly).

March 25th, 2004, 01:51 PM	#966
Mark A. Foley Major Player Join Date: May 2003 Location: Bonaire, Ga. Posts: 356	Best or Better ways for Black&White I would like to hear others "recipe" for creating Black & white footage...other than just using the Vegas B&W filter or dropping the satural level to "0" in the color corrector. I still haven't got anything I truly like... I've seen some B&W-created footage from Final Cut Pro that is awesome....

March 25th, 2004, 03:13 PM	#969
Law Tyler Major Player Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: Plano, TX Posts: 204	The Answer is... Mike, the problem is not the video editor, but the set-top DVD players. While most players support playing VCD, majority of them "act funny" when handling a VCD menu. I have tried this in real life, with many many DVD players. The VCD's that are popular out there (I never get hold of one), I suspect, don't have a menu. I bet they are more like a digitized VHS, run straight thru. Sorry.

March 25th, 2004, 04:30 PM	#972
Tom Kronberg Regular Crew Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 25	Indeed. And if you're going to re-render, make sure to first render uncompressed. __________________ http://skytimelapse.com

March 25th, 2004, 04:53 PM	#974
Andreas Fernbrant Major Player Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Sweden - Helsingborg Posts: 283	High End Vegas.. Hey All, I'm in need of help. It's like this. I'm going to shoot a short in a few weeks. Format is DIGIBeta. That means DIGIBeta tapes. So I asked my cinematographer about DIGIBeta and how to get it in to my computer so I can edit what he shoots with Vegas. He looked at me and told me I can't. I got worried and asked why, he asked if I got raid hardrives wich I don't. I have a really fast system though and can run uncompressed AVI files from Vegas in Windows. (Well, almost) :) He told me about EDL. And I almost already knew vegas didn't have EDL. I'm correct right? I don't want to tamper with EDL's. I want to be able to render out to BMP files and edit in Photoshop and be able to work with the digibeta materials in Vegas the way I'm used to do my work. I always thought that DIGIBeta material where edited ONLINE in computers with help of some Mjpeg codecs. But I was wrong right? I also have a upcoming musicvideo shoot and that's going to be on Super 16. I wanted that scanned to Digibeta to be able to edit ONLINE on my computer.. So what are my options at this point? I'm a controlfreak and I want total control over my work. I want to be able to use all my skills with filters, colorcorretion, photoshop and so on.. Anyone care to enlighten me? Or am I lost to go out and find Avid somewhere?....... Thanks, Andreas

March 25th, 2004, 10:35 AM	#961
Jon Omiatek Major Player Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Columbus, Ohio Posts: 755	I was doing a picture montage with scanned images from pictures. I cropped each picture to 655X480 72pix. I resized them because vegas only recognizes 655X480 to fill screen. If you have a larger image, lets say 800X600, vegas doesn't handle it as well. I did my first montage with the original res and then did another with cropped images and it looked better in my opinion. Thanks, Jon

March 25th, 2004, 10:54 AM	#963
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	<<<-- Originally posted by Jon East : If you have a larger image, lets say 800X600, vegas doesn't handle it as well -->>> Nope, Vegas handles them just fine. Here's what you do. Add the pictures to the timeline. Open Pan/Crop, right-click the image, and choose "Match Output Aspect". Then you can adjust the picture (and create movements) as needed. Take a look at the issue of my newsletter where I discuss how to do this in detail. Also, there is a script available that will set all of the "Match Output Aspects" to ALL of your images in a matter of seconds.

March 25th, 2004, 11:00 AM	#964
Glen Elliott Wrangler Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Philadelphia, PA Posts: 2,898	Can you believe I just learned the other day you can set the speed manually via right clicking and selecting playback rate. I could have sworn it wasn't there before in 4.0b, though I'm probably wrong. So how fast can each method speed up footage. It's 12x with both velocity envelope and ctrl+drag...whats the limit on each respectively? Oh...and one more question Edward, how do you know so much about Vegas. Granted I know it pretty well now working with it for 6 months or so but you seem to have the technical manual memorized! I can only wish to gain the apprehension of a complex program like Vegas that you possess. Thanks again.

March 25th, 2004, 11:24 AM	#965
Edward Troxel Sponsor: JET DV Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Southern Illinois Posts: 7,953	Yes, going to properties and setting the playback rate will adjust the CTRL-Drag speed to a specific value if you need an EXACT value. I usually either fill a hole or drag till it looks the way I want. (and, yes, it was even in version 3) CTRL-Drag will give you up to 4X (and can slow down to .25x) Velocity Envelope will give you up to 3x (and can slow down to 0x {stop} OR go on to -1x reverse) you seem to have the technical manual memorized! Well... I DID read (most of) it. A lot of the anecdotal information comes from places like this. The forums are a GREAT learning tool.

March 25th, 2004, 02:03 PM	#967
Peter Moore Trustee Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Arlington VA Posts: 1,034	What exactly is it that you are looking for? Black and white is just saturation to 0. If you want other aspects of the picture to look different you'll need to be more specific. :)

March 25th, 2004, 02:50 PM	#968
Mark A. Foley Major Player Join Date: May 2003 Location: Bonaire, Ga. Posts: 356	I was thinking more of inserting a ColorCurve and B&W filter in series, then adjust the individual RGB color curves to get the "best" B&W result...curious if anyone had something similiar to share to create something more powerful/dramatic than the usual "wimpy" B&W.

March 25th, 2004, 03:13 PM	#970
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	Here's what I'd do: use color curves + desaturation to control the amount each channel contributes to the B+W image. Maybe there is a better way to do this. Step 2: Use color curves against to add a tint to your footage. Colors I like are sepia and blue. You have to think carefully before you go ahead and mess with the curves. You can get even fancier by controlling colors based on hue, saturation, and brightness information. On the x-axis of the curve is brightness. Each brightness value gets mapped to a certain color (you get to control the RGB values). The way I think of it, you figure out where you want each brightness value to go. 0 should get mapped to black. 255 (the brightest value) should get mapped to complete white. in the shadows/dark areas, you want a deep saturated tint. In the highlights area you still want the tint except less saturation and with the hue shifted a bit and brightness bumped up. You can incorporate a s curve in there too to bump contrast, or stack another curves filter on. Even more insanity: You can add film grain too (use the film grain filter). You can duplicate footage onto itself and develop all sorts of wild effects.

March 25th, 2004, 04:04 PM	#971
Don Donatello Hawaiian Shirt Mogul Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: northern cailfornia Posts: 1,261	i prefer using Channel Blend .. depending on the clip might use either the distribute red, green ,or blue channel i prefer the RED to get the skin tones really light and get rid of skin blemishes then use color curves fx to my likeness ... if you want a QUICK look to see what Channel blend setting look like on the Vegas preview window use the Overlays icon set to red , green or blue as greyscale ...

March 25th, 2004, 04:49 PM	#973
Glen Elliott Wrangler Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Philadelphia, PA Posts: 2,898	DV avi format, but of course.

March 25th, 2004, 05:01 PM	#975
Chris Hendrick New Boot Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: NY Posts: 21	Goto TVone.com Look at the DV-1394Pro-SDI (about 2000k from us) This will handle getting your SDI video into Vegas..... But you prob dont have a Digibeta Deck... What you need to do is get the Digibeta copied over to DV so you can use it. Many production houses will do the transfer for a fee. Regards, Chris H @ B&H