Applying an effect to several clips

[Mark Harmer]

Hi - some workflow questions about applying an "overall" effect to several HD clips in Vegas 7 (I'm migrating from Premiere Pro 2):

1) Regardless of whether or not there are video plugins on each clip, can I apply a further "overall" video plugin to a set of clips in the timeline (so I can give the edit an overall "look", for example)? The only way I've been able to do this is to render the edit with the individual clips' plugins applied, reimport the rendered file, and then apply a plugin or two to the rendered file to give it the overall look I want.

2) Is there an easy way of copying a GROUP of plugins from one clip to another so I don't have to reenter them individually?

3) By doing an m2t render of a finished edit, importing it back into Vegas, applying another plugin to this finished clip and rerendering it to m2t, am I losing quality? In other words, is there a "generation loss" with m2t files?

I'm used to working with .avi files so this is all a bit new to me...

Thanks for any help and I hope the questions make sense - they're sort of related to each other.

Mark

[Don Bloom]

1) take the clips or events you want the overlook on and put them on their own track and set your FXs at TRACK LEVEL. Done ;-)

2) If you have a group of FXs on 1 clip or event and wish to use it on other clips or events simply COPY and then PASTE EVENT ATTRIBUTES.
You can either Right Click and COPY from the menu or cntl C of course but to PAste Event Attributes you have to Right Click and from the Menu use Paste Event Attributes. Done ;-)

Don

[Mark Harmer]

Originally Posted by Don Bloom

1) take the clips or events you want the overlook on and put them on their own track and set your FXs at TRACK LEVEL. Done ;-)

2) If you have a group of FXs on 1 clip or event and wish to use it on other clips or events simply COPY and then PASTE EVENT ATTRIBUTES.
You can either Right Click and COPY from the menu or cntl C of course but to PAste Event Attributes you have to Right Click and from the Menu use Paste Event Attributes. Done ;-)

Don

Brilliant - Done!! These both work hugely well. Thank you!

[Ian Stark]

To add to Don's answer, you may also find that saving a group of effects as a plug-in chain may also be useful.

'Copy/Paste Event Attributes' also copies effects keyframes, pan/crop settings and velocity envelopes (and other stuff - see the help documentation for details) so for occasions when you only want to re-use a group of effects (and their settings) and not the other attributes, saving as a plug-in chain may be the answer.

In addition, you can also add effects to the main video bus which will affect the entire project, so that gives you effects at event, track and project level (in addition to media level effects).

On the subject of compression, personally I always render uncompressed (other than for test previews, perhaps) until the project is complete and locked off. Then I will make other compressed format versions from the uncompressed master. Doesn't specifically answer your question but might give food for thought.

Cheers,

Ian . . .

[Edward Troxel]

To expand on this answer some more, effects can be applied:

1) To the single event which will only apply to that one event.
2) To the TRACK which will apply to all events on that track.
3) To the PROJECT which will apply to all output
4) To the MEDIA (in the Project Media) which will apply to that one piece of media no matter where it's used on the timeline.

Vegas is very flexible when it comes to applying effects.

[Seth Bloombaum]

Originally Posted by Mark Harmer

3) By doing an m2t render of a finished edit, importing it back into Vegas, applying another plugin to this finished clip and rerendering it to m2t, am I losing quality? In other words, is there a "generation loss" with m2t files?...

Yes. Don't do it!

M2T is so highly compressed that generation loss is quite pronounced. With the excellent suggestions above on where to apply filters and plugins your workflow will change so that you don't need to render an intermediate the way you used to.

However, if you need to render sequences or projects in the future, M2T should probably only be used to lay back to HDV tape. For intermediate renders, try AVI|HDV 60i Intermediate|Cineform, or AVI|HDV 60i YUV for best results.

[Mark Harmer]

Thanks, all, for your really great advice and tips which have now got me "cooking" with Vegas. It's made the transition from Premiere Pro really painless.

[Steven Thomas]

Speaking of rendering uncompressed, I've noticed that my final uncompressed (avi) renders from Vegas , are a LOT brighter (more washed out looking) than a final render to Cineform?

I'm editing JVC HD100 footage captured Cineform. The Cineform image appears to match what I'm visually seeing in the preview window of Vegas.