Is it possible to keep events from extending past their start/end points?

[Adi Head]

I am using Vegas Pro 9. When extending events further than their start or finish points, Vegas loops them. Is there any way to prevent this from happening? I would prefer that the event just stop at its start and end point without looping and in fact without letting me extend them further than their stop/end marks.

Thank you.

[Richard Jones]

Not sure if this is what yiu want but does Ctrl and Drag (a squiggly line appears under the box) on the edge of the event do what you require?

Richard

[Adi Head]

Not sure if this is what yiu want but does Ctrl and Drag (a squiggly line appears under the box) on the edge of the event do what you require?

Richard

Hi Richard,
No, you've misunderstood me. I'll try to explain myself better.

By expanding an event I mean....

I just simply hover over the end of an event on the timeline and when the cursor becomes a square with a two-headed arrow, I click and drag the edge of the event, thus revealing more of the original clip (either from the beginning by dragging left or from the end by dragging right).
When doing so at some point the original clip ends (or arrives at its beginning point) and then there is a small tooth-mark at the top of the event indicating the start/end point of the original clip. By default, when I expand the event beyond these tooth-marks - the shot simply loops itself.
For example if I click and drag the end of an event and continue expanding the event until I see that tooth-mark indicator and then preview the event - I will see that exactly at the point of the tooth-mark the clip reaches its very last frame and loops back to the first frame of the original clip.

My question is: if it is possible to not allow Vegas to expand events beyond these tooth-marks, meaning beyond the original start and end points of the original clips. I would like to set Vegas so that when I click and drag an edge of an event - it will just stop at the tooth-marks and not allow for further expansion.

Hope this is clear.

Thanks!

[Mike Kujbida]

Originally Posted by Adi Head

I would like to set Vegas so that when I click and drag an edge of an event - it will just stop at the tooth-marks and not allow for further expansion.

Sorry but there's no way that I know of to get Vegas to do what you want.
The best you can do is go Options - Prefs - Editing - Enable looping on events by default.
If this option is disabled, only the last frame will appear if the event is dragged out past its end point instead of repeating the event.

[Adi Head]

Sorry but there's no way that I know of to get Vegas to do what you want.
The best you can do is go Options - Prefs - Editing - Enable looping on events by default.
If this option is disabled, only the last frame will appear if the event is dragged out past its end point instead of repeating the event.

Hmmm.... strange. Seems logical that there would be a way to do that, but maybe not.

Yes, I did come across the option of going to Options > Prefs > Editing > (tick off) Enable looping on events by default. But its not what I had in mind.

You see, I'm giving some private lessons to someone who is interested in learning how to edit video (pretty much from scratch). Being a bit inexperienced and unfamiliar with handling the Vegas interface he often expands events past their start/end marks without even noticing. So I tried to find a way for him to avoid that, at least until he gets a better grip on things.

Thanks anyway.

[Mike Hammond]

Hi Adi,

What is the type of event you are trying to stretch? If it's a picture, I think there is a way to set the default length of that event so it doesn't loop. It's in the tool bar, and not done with the editing tool.

As far as how to do it, I don't know. But I believe it can be done.

[Edward Troxel]

There ARE two things that will help you.

1. If you extend the event beyond it's length, you'll see a little tick mark on the top edge where the end of the clip really is.

2. As you resize it and approach that tick mark, it will automatically SNAP to that tick mark making it easier to resize to the exact length.

Remember, you could always use a script to resize it to it's original length. Technically, you could use a script that would go through and either check if any were extended beyond it's size and report that, or automatically resize them all, or be proactive and automatically resize them back so if you extended one too far, it could automatically pull it back if you went too far.

[Adi Head]

There ARE two things that will help you.

1. If you extend the event beyond it's length, you'll see a little tick mark on the top edge where the end of the clip really is.

2. As you resize it and approach that tick mark, it will automatically SNAP to that tick mark making it easier to resize to the exact length.

Remember, you could always use a script to resize it to it's original length. Technically, you could use a script that would go through and either check if any were extended beyond it's size and report that, or automatically resize them all, or be proactive and automatically resize them back so if you extended one too far, it could automatically pull it back if you went too far.

Yes, I am familiar with all of this. It's not a problem for me personally. As I've said, I am teaching this guy who became obviously frustrated with accidentally extending the events past that tick mark and somehow didn't quite notice the snap effect - being a complete beginner in video editing that he is. I was just thinking I could help him out by changing something in the Preferences which would stop this from happening and was a bit surprised not to find such an option.No big deal, he'll just have to deal with it and get used to the tick marks and snaps. :)

[Adam Stanislav]

He can always zoom into the timeline to the point where he can see individual frames. He can then split the event into three events A, B, C, so that event A consists of only the first frame of the original event, event C consists of only the last frame of the original, and event B contains everything else. He can then stretch event A to the left and while it will technically still be looping, it will only loop the one frame of event A. And he can stretch event C as far to the right as he wants, and, again, it will only "loop" the one frame of event C, so in reality the start and end frames of the original clip will appear frozen.

[Edward Troxel]

Adam, you need to test what you just said. I believe you'll find it doesn't work as you just described.

[Adi Head]

Hey guys.... :)

Thanks for the help, but it's really no big deal. I was just checking to see if I had somehow over-looked a simple option that would prevent the accidental over-expansion of an event causing it to go past its tick marks - like for example enabling or disabling a setting in the Preferences (or similar to that). It seemed logical to me that such an option exists, but apparently not.

Its really no sweat though. We'll manage... :)

Thanks again!!

[Adam Stanislav]

Originally Posted by Edward Troxel

Adam, you need to test what you just said. I believe you'll find it doesn't work as you just described.

OK, thanks, will do.

[Adam Stanislav]

Originally Posted by Edward Troxel

Adam, you need to test what you just said. I believe you'll find it doesn't work as you just described.

You're right. I just tested it. I thought I have done it before, but clearly I could not have. Anyway, in that case, export the last (or first) frame as a bitmap and use the bitmap at the end (or before the beginning) of the clip. That does work (I just tested it).

[Edward Troxel]

Yes, that would technically work. So would turning the first and last frame into a sub-clip. But then you're really defeating the purpose of a fully adjustable clip.

[Adam Stanislav]

Never mind, I misunderstood what Adi was asking. I now realize he was asking how to prevent Vegas from expanding the clip beyond its original start or end. I guess I was just thinking about a problem I myself had in mind, that is how to expand the clip so the clip itself stops moving and only the last or first frame is repeated, and read that into Adi's question.

At least I realized my own solution for my own problem did not work and found a new solution that does. :)