no magic for 64-bit users?

[Ali Jafri]

Only after making the transition to Windows 7 and Vegas Pro 10 64-bit I learned that Red Giant Software doesn't have anything at all compatible with this version of Vegas. Highly disappointing! What's more shocking is that no one seems to care much about it either! Fact of the matter is that people running 64-bit versions of Vegas Pro 10 don't have many choices as far as plugins go, not that there were many for 32-bit versions either - but us 64-bit people are left out in the cold!

Come on Red Giant! Work your magic! Or do we have to bite the bullet on this one?

[Robert James]

Yes, I only found this out this week.
I am now debating on sticking with my 64-bit version of Vegas or going down to 34-bit so I can use Magic Bullet.

OR

Render a vid and then put it in Magic Looks Builder.

I agree, they need to get a 64-bit version of this popular program.

[Jeff Harper]

Magic Bullet is reportedly dropping Vegas, so I've read here in this forum. They have never been much behind it to begin with. I don't believe it it that popular at all. I used it, and liked it, but quit it when I started using Vegas 64 bit versions several years ago.

People have already screamed, etc over this, and we have another thread dedicated to this subject. So you guys are not the only ones!

[Gerald Webb]

Dont know if this helps,
but dont you all install 64 and 32 Vegas,
if so, all i do is edit in 64 bit, export to your intermediate codec, then apply your look in 32 bit.
When you have a particular look for different scenes, put markers on your scene changes which will show through in the render, then hit S on all your scene changes after you drop it in to 32 Vegas which will then give you your individual events back (just have to reapply your crossfades).
You wouldnt want to apply looks to M2TS or AVCHD anyway, so I havent found it to be that much of a prob.

[Dale Guthormsen]

Good afternoon,

I always keep both versions on my machines.

When using plugins I keep both versions open.

My main project work is on the 64 bit

I may use something like Neat video on the other version, render the clip and then move it in.

Of course if it is nested it will make the changes automaticly. I want the clip to go in already rendered for a couple reasons.

About the same time Jeff moved away from Vegas I also went to Edius 5.0 for all my longer projects.

With version 10 I find I spend a lot more time in Vegas once again. Both have their strong and weak points.

[Stan Harkleroad]

May not help but I used the diffusion filters in MBL on almost every project with 32 bit Win 7. When I moved to 64 bit recently I started using the diffusion filter in NewBlue's Video Essentials 3 and get similar results. It also renders literally about 20-30x faster than MBL.

[Jeff Harper]

New Blue effects are not as high-end, so to speak, but with a little tweaking they work well. MB is too taxing in every way for my workflow. I am often under deadlines and I lost patience with MB. They do have some outstanding presets though, that I still miss.

I used to install both versions of Vegas, but for simplicity I stopped doing that with v9.

[Martin Wiosna]

i couldn't believe the first time i tried rendering a 10 minute video after applying MBL (almost 2 hours).

I'm wondering whats the benefit of using 64bit Vegas over 32 bit?

[Leslie Wand]

interesting that nearly all the various vegas forums have at least one or more threads about red giant dropping support for mbl....

interesting in as much as so many people seem to be utterly dependent on it's ready made presets, as if they were the holy grail of... what, ready made looks?

every music clip, every wannabe corporate clip has to be doctored, over, if not super -saturated, graded top bottom, side to side, washed out, etc.,

and all this with the click of a ready made preset that anyone in the business can recognize a mile away.

i had mbl, it was so easy (and tempting) to use, but hell, i prefer 64bit and if red giant doesn't want to play, big deal, it might take a bit of playing around, but you can get some stunning results within vegas's own tools.

people, it's NOT the end of the world - and if you're serious about fx, take a look at genarts - they'll cost you an arm and a leg, but you'll get signature looks that really make 'production values' pop an look a million dollars

afaic, mbl can r.i.p.

[Ali Jafri]

Thank you Leslie! Now that I think about it, we don't really need Magic Bullet to get the looks we need, Vegas Pro has some pretty nifty tricks up its own sleeve. I've been experimenting with the classic color correction wheels, levels, color curves, and for that finished look I've been using soft contrast, and the end results have been as good if not better than Magic Bullet! Plus the render times are faster :)

Anyone else experimenting with the soft contrast effect? Watcha think?

[Ian Stark]

I mostly agree with Leslie's comments, although I would make this observation about >>>anyone in the business can recognize (Magic Bullet Looks) a mile away<<<

None of my clients ARE in the business. Likewise, most of the people that watch the videos I produce for my clients are not in the business. If my clients like the end result, that's good enough for me as they are the ones who pay my mortgage.

People who are in the business don't pay me to make videos for them so, personally, I'm considerably less interested in whether they will turn their noses up at the first sign of an MBL makeover, preset or custom!

Now, having said all that, I too am indifferent about the 'loss' of MBL for Vegas. I am happy with either the built in Vegas tools or the plugins from the NewBlue stable. But I really, really did like some of the tools like tilt-shift, grad exposure, spot exposure, shutter streak etc, and for those (admittedly rare occasions) I will continue to fire up Vegas 32.

[Leslie Wand]

couldn't agree more ian ;-)

my comment was just to point out that we (in the business) can easily tell our competitors tool kit and their capabilities using it - from certain presets, be they mbl, wipes unique to a particular nle, through to 'ready-made' cubes (thankfully long out of fashion!).

that said, i have had clients comment that 'it looks like...' which isn't necessarily a bad thing (especially if they're trying to look like....), but a truly unique look certainly stands out.

either way, as long as the bank transfers don't bounce, we're here to do what our clients want, even if we don't want to ;-)

[Ian Stark]

Noooo! The cubes? Out of fashion??!! ;-)

Yeah, this 'customer is always right' thing doesn't necessarily sit well with creatives, eh? I am having a debate with a customer right now about a very simple chalk and talk style promo. They totally bought into the 'keep it under two minutes' concept . . . but then wrote a script that's over seven minutes long. One guy, a whiteboard, a marker pen. I fall asleep just thinking about it. But they insist they need to get the complete message across and can't cut it down any further. Sigh . . .

Trouble is, it's a HUGE earner for a relatively simple job - and the client is a well known manufacturer of International Business Machines (clue within). What's a chap to do?!

Always enjoy your posts, Leslie. Keep 'em coming.

[Leslie Wand]

my heartfelt sympathy ;-)

i have a sneaking feeling that you're dealing with either marketing or pr people (probably mba's)?

if so, poor you ;-(

i also did a fair amount of work for biggus bluest a few years back - when they suddenly decided to change all their old farts over to 'bright young things'. it wasn't long before i told them to stuff it - every f'ker wanted a finger in the pie, their name in the credits while none of them ever wanted to sign-off on ANYTHING.

final straw came not a little like your situation; a 'cut-down' presentation of a couple of talking heads. original 90mins - pr wanted EVERYTHING, marketing insisted no more than 6mins (both arguing for the same target market). frankly, three minutes would have summed the whole thing up quite coherently.

this went from pillar to post and back again - i was billing at an hourly rate for the edit (set project price for a 'corporate' shoot, but NEVER for the edit - been in this business too long). the project never screened because they simply blew their budget away making endless changes.

interestingly enough, the division manger called me in (still the old fart who i'd worked with for years) and apologized for all the 'stuffing around'. seems he was about to retire (early) and wanted to know if i'd continue working with him if he set up shop.

10 years later we're still chopping talking heads at about 3 to 6 mins.

[Ian Stark]

Yep, marketing! And they are the very people you'd think would understand!

I've done a lot of work for IBM over the years and it's never been a smooth ride. But there are many worse! I do a lot of work in the retail technology space. Now there's a group of people . . . .

Oh well, lovely weather here today so I'm off out and about and not worrying aboyut Magic Bullet, IBM, retailers, marketeers or anything. Have a great weekend!