Time Lapse in Vegas 10 Questions at DVinfo.net

Jamie Dull · March 20th, 2011, 03:21 PM

Greetings,

I've spent a bunch of time reading as many posts as I can about how to do time lapse in Vegas, but I still have some questions. Sorry for the long post. I wanted to summarize what I've learned, and what I questions I have. In general, there seems to be two primary approaches to doing time lapse.

1. Film a scene with a video camera for about an hour or so and then add it to the timeline. Then resize the event using Control + Dragging the end of the event to time compress it. ( Max 4X) This same effect can be done by right clicking the video clip in the timeline, select Properties>Playback Rate> (change to 4.00). This can be combined with adding a Velocity Envelope to increase the speed more. ( 300 % for a total of 12 X speed increase) If these methods do not result in a fast enough time lapse, you can either save the project and add the .veg file to a new project (nested .veg) and repeat the compression process, or render the clip in a lossless format, add it back to the timeline and repeat the above procedures.

My questions about this method are: What is considered a lossless format? I shoot 1080i in AVCHD with a Sony consumer grade video camera. Is there a difference in the way Vegas resamples the video in Playback Rate vs. Velocity Envelope? I tried using both, and then redid the same clip using only Playback Rate repeatedly, and it looked to me like the resolution was slightly better using only Playback Rate, and there appeared to be slightly less blurring of the motion. Does anyone else have an opinion about this? Does using the nested .veg method result in better resolution of the final video?

2. Image sequence method. In this method you either have a camera that can shoot an image sequence or you can take an hour long video and put it on the timeline and then export it using Vegas as an image sequence and have it remove X number of frames. Then import the image sequence back into Vegas.

My questions about this method are: There seems to be different methods for doing this based on which version of Vegas you have. Some of the older posts talk about using a script to create an image sequence from a video clip, others posts say to Export the clip and use a dialog box that should open to alter frames or "step time". I cannot find these menu items in Vegas 10? What I have deduced so far, is that there is no Export command in Vegas 10, and instead you put the video clip on the timeline and select File>Render As> Image sequence. ( as save as type) and then you can select from various templates for PNG, JPG etc. The "Custom" button is grayed out, and there does not seem to be a way that I can find to remove X number of frames during the render? Any help would be appreciated. It did create a nice image sequence. I tried PNG because I read Vegas plays nice with this format.

I then used File>Import>Media and selected the first frame of the sequence. At the bottom of the dialog box it shows "Open as Sequence" checkbox. I checked this and it automatically showed the range of 0-7125. I clicked OK and it adds it to Vegas as a single event. When I put this on the timeline, It seems to playback slightly slower than real time? I tried going to Options>Preferences>Editing Tab> New Still Image Length In Seconds and change it to .07 as suggested, but this does not seem to have any effect. I tried deleting the clip from the timeline and re-adding after this with no effect. I also made sure that "Automatically overlap multiple selected media when added" was unchecked.

My question would be in Vegas Pro 10 when do you remove X number of frames from the image sequence? When rendering, or after importing it and adding it to the timeline? Once the image sequence is on the timeline, are you supposed to use the Time Stretch with Velocity Envelope method to speed it up? Need help here. Finally, what is considered to give the best resolution or image quality. Method 1, or Image Sequence Method?

Again, sorry for the long post. I look forward to you answers. Perhaps I will then make a definitive White Paper on all things Time Lapse in Vegas!

Rainer Listing · March 20th, 2011, 04:35 PM

You did turn off frame blending?

Jamie Dull · March 20th, 2011, 05:13 PM

Not sure. Can you tell me where to find the frame blending parameter in Vegas 10? I searched the help files and did not find anything on frame blending. Thanks.

March 20th, 2011, 03:21 PM	#1
Jamie Dull New Boot Join Date: May 2008 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 24	Time Lapse in Vegas 10 Questions Greetings, I've spent a bunch of time reading as many posts as I can about how to do time lapse in Vegas, but I still have some questions. Sorry for the long post. I wanted to summarize what I've learned, and what I questions I have. In general, there seems to be two primary approaches to doing time lapse. 1. Film a scene with a video camera for about an hour or so and then add it to the timeline. Then resize the event using Control + Dragging the end of the event to time compress it. ( Max 4X) This same effect can be done by right clicking the video clip in the timeline, select Properties>Playback Rate> (change to 4.00). This can be combined with adding a Velocity Envelope to increase the speed more. ( 300 % for a total of 12 X speed increase) If these methods do not result in a fast enough time lapse, you can either save the project and add the .veg file to a new project (nested .veg) and repeat the compression process, or render the clip in a lossless format, add it back to the timeline and repeat the above procedures. My questions about this method are: What is considered a lossless format? I shoot 1080i in AVCHD with a Sony consumer grade video camera. Is there a difference in the way Vegas resamples the video in Playback Rate vs. Velocity Envelope? I tried using both, and then redid the same clip using only Playback Rate repeatedly, and it looked to me like the resolution was slightly better using only Playback Rate, and there appeared to be slightly less blurring of the motion. Does anyone else have an opinion about this? Does using the nested .veg method result in better resolution of the final video? 2. Image sequence method. In this method you either have a camera that can shoot an image sequence or you can take an hour long video and put it on the timeline and then export it using Vegas as an image sequence and have it remove X number of frames. Then import the image sequence back into Vegas. My questions about this method are: There seems to be different methods for doing this based on which version of Vegas you have. Some of the older posts talk about using a script to create an image sequence from a video clip, others posts say to Export the clip and use a dialog box that should open to alter frames or "step time". I cannot find these menu items in Vegas 10? What I have deduced so far, is that there is no Export command in Vegas 10, and instead you put the video clip on the timeline and select File>Render As> Image sequence. ( as save as type) and then you can select from various templates for PNG, JPG etc. The "Custom" button is grayed out, and there does not seem to be a way that I can find to remove X number of frames during the render? Any help would be appreciated. It did create a nice image sequence. I tried PNG because I read Vegas plays nice with this format. I then used File>Import>Media and selected the first frame of the sequence. At the bottom of the dialog box it shows "Open as Sequence" checkbox. I checked this and it automatically showed the range of 0-7125. I clicked OK and it adds it to Vegas as a single event. When I put this on the timeline, It seems to playback slightly slower than real time? I tried going to Options>Preferences>Editing Tab> New Still Image Length In Seconds and change it to .07 as suggested, but this does not seem to have any effect. I tried deleting the clip from the timeline and re-adding after this with no effect. I also made sure that "Automatically overlap multiple selected media when added" was unchecked. My question would be in Vegas Pro 10 when do you remove X number of frames from the image sequence? When rendering, or after importing it and adding it to the timeline? Once the image sequence is on the timeline, are you supposed to use the Time Stretch with Velocity Envelope method to speed it up? Need help here. Finally, what is considered to give the best resolution or image quality. Method 1, or Image Sequence Method? Again, sorry for the long post. I look forward to you answers. Perhaps I will then make a definitive White Paper on all things Time Lapse in Vegas!

March 20th, 2011, 04:35 PM	#2
Rainer Listing Major Player Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Nowra, Australia Posts: 440	Re: Time Lapse in Vegas 10 Questions You did turn off frame blending?

March 20th, 2011, 05:13 PM	#3
Jamie Dull New Boot Join Date: May 2008 Location: Portland, OR Posts: 24	Re: Time Lapse in Vegas 10 Questions Not sure. Can you tell me where to find the frame blending parameter in Vegas 10? I searched the help files and did not find anything on frame blending. Thanks.