Vegas Video discussions from 2002

[Andrew Petrie]

I'm still getting around Vegas, great little program. There's one clip of footage I want to use, but is a bit shakey. So, I'm going to pull a single frame and loop it instead. How does one accomplish this in Vegas?

I could always screen capture, and paste into a photo editor, save it, and import as a BMP/PNG but I'd like to get to know Vegas' way of clip manipulation.

[Eric Richmond]

I don't have vegas open here in front of me, but if I recall correctly, run the clip you want to grab the frame from in the preview window and pause it on the frame you want.

on the menu of the preview window will either be the save icon, or a camera icon, and click that. Vegas will ask you what/where to save the picture. Once you do that it should load into your media pool.

Grab it from the media pool and import it into the timeline. If I recall correctly single frames default to either 5 or 10 seconds, just grab the right hand side of the image as you would any video clip and drag it to the right for as long as you need it.


Hope this helps

-Eric

[Edward Troxel]

If I want to freeze a specific frame for a period of time, what I normally do is insert a Velocity Envelope and set the speed to 0%. In your case, split where you want the freeze frame to start, Insert a Velocity Envelope on that clip, right-click the little square on the left end of the line and choose Set To. Then enter 0% to freeze on that one frame.

The Velocity Envelope can also be used to create slow motion and/or reverse the footage (play it backwards).

Also, right-click the clip, choose Properties, and check the boxes for Resample and Reduce Interlace Flicker.

[Keith Luken]

OK, I have been evaluating Premiere and Vegas Video 3. I like Premiere, but gave up as it is not as easy to use as Vegas. I also am looking at Pinnacle Edition DV. Editions is actually noce and does everything I want, but it is too expensive compared to Vegas and is also slower and the interface is noce, but sluggish at times.

Ok the questions;
In Pinnacle products with TitleDecko you can create title boxes or circles, etc shapes I use as thought bubbles and stuff. I create the shape then put text over (in) the shape and then lay that title on the scene. Great comic relief for some of the fmaily videos, especially for adding comic jabs of what the pets may be thinking.
I don't see a way to do that in Vegas. Actually Vegas Titles seems rather weak.

In Pinnacle Studio if you make/render your project back to AVI it defaults to DV codec and any fields/frames that have not been altered are just output exactly in their original format, thus no re-render or loss of quality. I don't see a way to do that in Vegas, or for that matter to output it back toa DV codec based AVI. Can Vegas do this and also? I ask this because I like making my MPEG2 files with TMPGENC and want to start with an AVI that is as good as possible.

Can Vegas output a finished product to tape like Studio can?

And finally did I miss something or doesn't Vegas allow you to create Quicktime files?

And yes for those of you following my escapades, I am leaning heavily toward Veags after first shying away form it, I just needed more time to get aquantied with how to do certain tasks in it. Their biggist weakness form what I can tell is the titler.

THANKS!

[Brian M. Dickman]

Vegas' closest tool to an arbitrary geometry generation is the "Cookie Cutter" FX. You can apply it to a text clip to make the ellipses and such you are going for. It does squares, circles, ovals, triangles and such.

Vegas intelligently re-renders sections which need it, and intelligently doesn't re-render those sections that don't. If all you do is jump cuts, it'll never re-render. When it does, it uses the Sonic Foundry codec, still one of the few non-Sony based DV codecs out there, and worlds ahead the MS codec that Premier relies on. "NTSC DV" should be the default choice under "video for windows (avi)". However, I don't think TMPGENC can read DV avi in, I think you're forced to use completely uncompressed avi (I'm not an authority here, I haven't done any mpeg2 work).

For tape printing, either use the "Print to DV Tape" option under Tools, or render first as a DV avi and then print to tape using the capture tool.

Vegas can render QT just fine. Make sure you have the authoring tools installed. (I have QT pro, and rendered a mov last week without incident)

The titler is certainly better than it used to be, and it may just take some getting used to. If you have specific suggestions on improvement, post them at the Sonic Foundry forums for Vegas, or write the guys directly. They're doing everything they can to make Vegas 4 the undisputed NLE champion of the prosumer DV space.

[Keith Luken]

Brian,

Thanks! Actually TMPENC can read DV AVI, I do it all the time. I did find the quicktime stuff. I did not see the DV default for AIV, btu then I have the demo version so who knows what it does or does not do. I am actually toen between Video Vegas and Premiere. I am playing with both and find Vegas easy to grasp, but want to make sue I am not giving anything up by not picking Premiere. Of course it is hard to compare when all Adobe has for a demo is 6.0 so I am not sure how much better 6.5 would be. I am also concerned about "plug-in" support down the road, seems Premiere has plenty of third party support. I guess I will swing back and forth for the next month as I demo both products. Thanks for your answers!

[Brian M. Dickman]

Yeah, I think the demo version of Vegas doesn't include the DV codec. It is excellent though.

Plugins are a bit of an issue, depending on what kinds of effects you are interested in doing. For audio, Vegas beats Premier hands down by supporting any DirectX audio plugin. In the video FX area that it can be a little weak. Sonic Foundry has offered a free video plugin development kit, and a few promising leads have developed, such as Pixelan's SpiceMaster, and debug mode's WinMorph. SoFo also has an extra plugin pack, with some additional transitions and video FX. Some would argue that you don't need extra FX and transitions to make a good production, but I'm not going to go blowing smoke... :-)

If nothing else, keep using the demo until Vegas 4 makes it out (most sources say sometime Q1'03), and I'm pretty sure it'll blow Premier completely out of the water.

[Edward Troxel]

"In Pinnacle products with TitleDecko you can create title boxes or circles, etc shapes I use as thought bubbles and stuff. I create the shape then put text over (in) the shape and then lay that title on the scene. Great comic relief for some of the fmaily videos, especially for adding comic jabs of what the pets may be thinking.
I don't see a way to do that in Vegas. Actually Vegas Titles seems rather weak. "


I will agree that Vegas is a little weak in titling, although the titling CAN be modified in a variety of ways. However, you CAN use other programs to produce the titling and then import these titles into Vegas. So, if TitleDecko does what you want, just render to an AVI with alpha channel and import that into Vegas.




"In Pinnacle Studio if you make/render your project back to AVI it defaults to DV codec and any fields/frames that have not been altered are just output exactly in their original format, thus no re-render or loss of quality. I don't see a way to do that in Vegas, or for that matter to output it back toa DV codec based AVI. Can Vegas do this and also? I ask this because I like making my MPEG2 files with TMPGENC and want to start with an AVI that is as good as possible."


By default, Vegas renders to NTSC DV type AVI files. For all areas that have no effects, the "render" simply copies the files (i.e. NO CHANGES). For areas that MUST be rendered, such as dissolves and other effects, Vegas uses its' own codec that has been proven to be much better than Microsofts and, at least equivalent, to the best codecs available. So, yes, Vegas "can do this"

As far as MPEG2, Vegas includes the Main Concept MPEG-2 encoder which, with the proper settings, has given me MPEG-2 files that are as good as TMPGenc without the necessity of creating the interim AVI file. You can render MPEG-2 straight from the timeline.



Can Vegas output a finished product to tape like Studio can?

Yes, just choose Tool - Print Video to DV Tape. It will then render everthing that needs rendering and then print the final product to tape - with or without device control.



And finally did I miss something or doesn't Vegas allow you to create Quicktime files?

Yes it will - as long as the authoring tools are chosen when quicktime is installed (requires the "custom" option when installing quicktime).

[Don Donatello]

the demo version of VV and the VV LE version do NOT use the SOFO ( VV) DV codec . the codec is in the software but until you enter a serial # you do NOT have access to it. therefore VV will default to using the ms codec until a serial # is entered.

""In Pinnacle products with TitleDecko you can create title boxes or circles, etc shapes I use as thought bubbles and stuff. I create the shape then put text over (in) the shape and then lay that title on the scene."

in VV ... you'd create the outline by creating a still photo in your graphic/photo program ... then in VV you could insert the letters inside the outline. using the DEFORM you could mould the letters to the shape of the outline ...

video track 1 = still outline
video track 2 = vv titles
video track 3 = clip

[Keith Luken]

Thanks to those responding. It appears that my Demo does not have the DV codec and I do see that it can do quicktime. I am really liking Vegas and am close to making the plunge, It seems very fast and does not hog system resources like Pinnacle products do. Thanks again!

[Nathan Gifford]

I think you will like VV. As a Cinestream user, VV is my second choice. However, since Discreet's ultimate plans CS are completely unknown, I am keeping a close eye on VV development.

A couple of things whether you go Premiere or VV. If you are using Canon 4-track audio, you will need to Scenealyzer. Both Premiere and VV do not support 4-track. I hope VV 4.0 incorporates 4-track.

If you go VV, see if you find someone with a student ID. This allows you to get the gut-rate price on VV.

The best feature of Premiere is the ease with which you can integrate it with Adobe suite of products. If you do not think you are going to spend the buck$ on these items, Vegas may win out.

What people are saying about importing your effects is pretty much true. If plug-ins were the end all, none of the other NLEs would be popular. Plug-ins *may* make some things easier, I really haven't missed them in CS.

[Don Donatello]

if you decide on Vegas ..shop around ...

consider buying from sonic foundry the "digital video and audio production" book that has tutorials for VV .. for the $49 you also get Vegas Video LE , sound forge XP v5, ACID express, loops for acid ....

you can upgrade from VV le to full version of VV for 199 ...total price for full version ( 49 book + 199 upgrade) = 248 ... vs. 419 at SOFO , 349 from goodguys

VV works excellent with a pyro basic 1394 (approx 49)


note that the VV LE version does NOT let you use the SOFO DV codec ... it defaults to the ms dv codec

[Edward Troxel]

If you use Scenalyzer to capture the second stereo track, the newest beta version will capture Video and Stereo 1 in an .AVI file and Stereo 2 in a .WAV file IN ONE PASS - all over firewire (no sound card connection required!)

To get the newest beta version, you have to send an e-mail to the author requesting it.

[Edward Troxel]

"in VV ... you'd create the outline by creating a still photo in your graphic/photo program ... then in VV you could insert the letters inside the outline. using the DEFORM you could mould the letters to the shape of the outline ...

video track 1 = still outline
video track 2 = vv titles
video track 3 = clip"



Donatello, Don't you have tracks 1 and 2 backwards? The titles should be on top - otherwise the still will COVER them.

Actually the demo of Vegas does use the Sonic Foundry DV codec.
It will however place a Sonic Foundry frame on the output every few seconds.