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This is where I list issues I am
having with Vegas - particularly if I can do something in Avid Liquid and am
having trouble figuring out how to do the same thing in Vegas.
Fortunately, there is an individual
who can resolve many of these issues - a very knowledgeable
Vegas user - Rob Strobbe, who hosts
vegasVideoHelp.com. We are
doing an experiment right now where I post questions and Rob replies with
answers.
I post newer issues at top.
You can tell a new question has not yet been answered because the
CREAM COLORED area below the
question does not
have a reply. If I am not clear on an answer or have an
ADDITIONAL related QUESTION to
issues that already have a rely, the area to the left of the additional question is in
RED.
Now if you are brand new to Vegas -
visit Rob's Site - vegasVideoHelp.com.
or
Squidoo.com - Learning Vegas
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Newer Questions: |
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Setting Opacity - can this be
keyframed from indivdual events ? |
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SONY MEDIA MANAGER SQL |
When I start Vegas, I get a dialog box
that says "the MSSQL$SONY_MEDIAMGR2 service does not exist of the current
account does not have enough privilege to manage it". I close the box
and Vegas starts anyway and everything seems to work .I have administrative
rights. I've done a google
search and have found no relative answer. Manage Computer Services
indicates that services for the MSSQL SONY MEDIA manager are automatic, but
they do not start up, and when I choose "start" from the services's manager,
they fail to start.
How does Vegas use this
service and do I really need it ? Do I need to re-install Vegas
to correct this startup error, or should I just continue to ignore it ?
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Default track properties (display) |
Why when I drag an imported clip to a
new track, I always have to change Composting Mode from a Cut to a 3d
Source Alpha mode in order to see it ?
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From Rob Strobbe
(vegasVideoHelp.com) |
Actually, the default compositing mode
is Source Alpha, which just displays everything as-is. Most likely you hit
upon the Set Default Track Properties option at some point while selecting a
track that had Cut set as the compositing mode. To get things back to
normal, change a track to Source Alpha (not 3D Source Alpha), then
right-click that track and choose Set Default Track Properties. Check the
box marked Restore Original Defaults and hit OK. Or if you actually have
some non-original track properties set, then uncheck everything but
Compositing Mode and hit OK. |
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Out of curiosity, what is the
practical use of 3D Source Alpha (briefly) ? |
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transitions |
When I overlap two clips on a track
(transition), I get some number displayed in a small box - what does that
number mean ?
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From Rob Strobbe
(vegasVideoHelp.com) |
Vegas is telling you how much they
overlap. So if you want a two second transition, you can move the event
until the display says 2:00. |
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That number has three digits at the
end - for instance 1.735 - which if I am understanding - should be 1
second and 735/1000 - or about 1.7 seconds. Is that right ?
I often edit in Liquid by sending
clips with I/O's marked from the source window to the timeline so that the
clips end up on the timeline butted to each other. I don't worry about
transitions till I later, and then I use Liquid's insert default
transition key for a single trnasition or I mark a range and select all the
tracks I want transitions on and use Liquid's 1 key insert default
transition onto all clips in the active tracks located within the In/Out
marks on the timeline. The transition appears in Liquid as a
smaller rectangular box spreading across where the two clips butt, and that
box can be dragged longer or shorter or either clip.
Vegas does not appear to use a
source window. I am sure that Vegas has some
similar procedures to achieve the same thing - but I have not found the
easy way yet. What is the best workflow given that I do not want to
create transitions every time a clip gets butted on the Vegas timeline ?
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Enlarging a clip on the timeine - Pan Crop Event |
I have a clip on the timeline that I
want to enlarge about 200% and full screen display just a section of it.
What's the easiest way of doing that ?
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From Rob Strobbe
(vegasVideoHelp.com) |
Right-click the clip's event and
choose Video Event Pan / Crop. Use the selection box (the dotted-line with a
giant "F" in it) to zoom and pan the area. By default, Vegas will rescale
the cropped area to fill the screen. |
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Ok.... that works great - but now I am
trying to figure out the settings - and I am trying to determine how much I
am zoomed in - I think I am about 150% - maybe a bit more, yet the setting I
see under workspace shows 80 % - which confuses me cause that just doesn't
seem to make sense. I like to know how much I am zoomed in % wise.
And once I get the right size and
position, I saved the Event and later applied it to another clip. Nice
Does that event Pan/Crop property
stay only with that clip - or if I want to later change those settings
- say zoom in a bit closer, move position a hair, IF I change that
saved Pan Crop Event property, will it get applied to all clips that have
that event attached to it "? |
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I click (focus) on a clip, and the
track header or description on the left side highlights. Why is that ?
And where do I find all the effects that have been applied to a specific
clip ?
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From Rob Strobbe
(vegasVideoHelp.com) |
When you select an event ("clip"), the
track it's on also receives focus. It's kind of like if you select a cell in
a spreadsheet program.
It's partly so Vegas is "on notice"
in case you want to perform an action on that event's track and partly so
you can easily tell which track you're working on.
Right-click the event and choose
Video Event FX or hit the Event FX on the lower right of the event.
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I see and understand. I like the bar
that appears across the top Event FX dialog box. Are all FX's called
Plug-ins ?
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I have five clips on a timeline with
two tracks. The top track has my title clips on it.
I want to delete a whole bunch of them - but not all. In Liquid I
lasso whatever clips I want to select, and can delete them. Seems like
in Vegas, you have to select each clip one at a time - as opposed to just
draggin the mouse through each adjacent clip that you want to select.
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To use a lasso, switch to the Selection Edit Tool -- by default, it's the
fourth button from the right on the toolbar. Hit the Normal Edit Tool -- two
buttons to the left of that -- to return to normal. T
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Is there a keyboard short cut for
switching between Selection Edit and Normal Edit tool ? |
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My Answer - use the "D" key - it toggles through all 4
selections - so hit it twice and you are at the selection tool, twice more
and you are back at the normal edit tool |
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ripple cuts and transitions |
In Liquid, often for a fast layout I
would place a clip on the timeline and keep cutting out the bad with a cut and
then a ripple delete (insert mode in Liquid) of the previous section,
so that in the end all my cuts are in order and butted to each other.
I could then select a track and a range, and apply transitions to all - and
done. Basically my hands never left the keyboard till all cuts were
complete - and it was fast.
So the basic keystrokes were spacebar to start playline, when I found a bad
section, a "shift + up arrow" for a razor cut (to mark the start of a
"discard" section, spacebar to start the playline to find the next good
clip, another "shift + up arrow" to razor cut the clip, then a "shift
+ down arrow" for the ripple delete of previous clip - then just keep
repeating.
?Vegas - how do I
delete the previous cut event on the track at the time of the cut (split).?
(using the keyboard)
?Vegas - how do I create transistions for all the butted events ?
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From Rob Strobbe
(vegasVideoHelp.com) |
Immediately after deleting a section,
go to Edit > Post Ripple and choose the appropriate option (depending on
which items you want affected). Or use the shortcuts you see there -- "F" to
ripple only the affected tracks, Ctrl+F for the affected tracks, bus tracks,
markers, and regions; Ctrl+Shift+F for all tracks, markers, and regions.
This only affects the most recent
edit, though. If you will be deleting multiple sections and don't want to do
a post-edit ripple for each one, you can turn on Auto Ripple (Options > Auto
Ripple or Ctrl+L). In this mode, every time you delete or move an event, the
events following it will move over to fill in the new space. Use this
carefully and turn it back off when you don't need it.
Creating
transitions for butted events: You can add one between a single pair of
events by clicking and edge between them and hitting the "/" key on the
number pad (not the other "/" on the keyboard). To do add transitions for
all butted events, I do believe you'll need a script. |
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No Manual |
There is no manual that you can read late at night in bed.
Just a short but informative guide. There is On-Line program help. Guess you could curl up to your computer at
night.
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From Rob Strobbe
(vegasVideoHelp.com) |
Well, printed
manuals are a dying breed. For the first couple versions of Vegas I used, I
had the manual printed at Kinkos. Given how much Vegas can do for what it
costs, I don't mind not having a glossy hardcopy. |
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Good Tutorials |
I have yet to find any good tutorials that really take you
through the workflow of using Vegas - but I am early in the game.
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From Rob Strobbe
(vegasVideoHelp.com) |
As much as I
like Vegas, it's a bit under the radar. It doesn't get much press, and it
doesn't get much attention from authors or most video editing trainers. That
said, there are some good sources. I recently created a Learning Sony Vegas
page with pointers for new Vegas users, so have a look at that. I'll add
more resources to it as I find them.
http://www.squidoo.com/learningsonyvegas
For the most
complete instruction on getting up to speed, you'll probably have to get out
your wallet. VASST has been putting out training videos for each version of
Vegas (and DVD Architect) as they come out, as has Gary Kleiner. You can
find more details about both on that Learning Sony Vegas page.
Here on Vegas
Video Help, I try to write tutorials that I think will help users not only
achieve specific outcomes but also become familiar with Vegas workflows. |
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skipping forward and Back 10 frames |
For instance, if you like to skip 10 frames at a time while
doing the edit, PP3 and Liquid allow you to assign a short-cut key to 10
frames forward/backward. Not in Vegas. You can apparently write
a script to do that - and I have to try that to see what i think -
that could be a good resolve.
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From Rob Strobbe
(vegasVideoHelp.com) |
The Left and
Right arrow keys move one pixel along the timeline. How that translates to
frames depends on how far into the timeline you're zoomed. (You can zoom in
and out with your scroll wheel, by clicking the plus or minus sign on the
bottom right of the timeline, or by clicking and dragging one edge of the
horizontal scroll bar below the timeline.)
But if you
don't want to have to zoom in / out to the precise level you'd need for
exactly ten frames, there are a few other options:
* Alt plus
the arrow keys will move a single frame no matter what.Hold down Alt and tap
an arrow key 10 times.
* Ctrl+G
will enable editing of the Cursor position (the left-most of the three boxes
below the timeline). There you can type +N or -N (where N is the number of
frames you want to move) to move the cursor forward or backward.
* As you
say, write a script (or look around -- someone must have written one for
this already).
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Viewing clip headers |
Viewing events (clips) on the timeline - There is no
Header/Footer ONLY frame View FOR EACH TRACK - but rather a whole bunch of
the frames show up. You can make every frame show up usiing the VIEW
menu - or you can turn off every frame by choosing View/VideoEventEdgeEditFrames.
While having a ton of frames showing may seem ok, it makes for a
crowded timeline with lots of video frames, and somewhat difficult to tell
when an event starts or stops - unless again in View you View/ActiveTakeInformation
- then at least you can tell the start of a new event because a name shows
up.
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From Rob Strobbe
(vegasVideoHelp.com) |
I currently have my Vegas set to show
just the head and tail thumbnails.
There is a preference setting that
will let you determine which thumbnails to show. Go to Options > Preferences
and select the Video tab. The "Thumbnails to show in video events" setting
has four options available:
None
Head
Head, Tail
Head, Center, Tail
All
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There is only 1 display setting for all the tracks - either
you have waveform and Frames displayed for all tracks - or no tracks. You
can not choose the tracks you want frames and waveforms displayed.
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From Rob Strobbe
(vegasVideoHelp.com) |
Got me there. I'm not sure what
situations would call for that, but I assume there are some. I don't know of
a way to achieve this in Vegas. |
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You don't see "segments" on the timeline like you do in Liquid. Which
makes setting I/O a little bit different. But double clicking on an
EVENT will set the I/O for it.
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From Rob Strobbe
(vegasVideoHelp.com) |
Not having used Liquid, I'm not sure
what it calls "segments." Are they anything like "regions" in Vegas?
YES THEY ARE
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The above comment was more just a note
for me, but in Liquid, segments are are a track at the top of the timeline
tracks and identify sections of the timeline that have events under them
divided into as many sections as there are intersecting events - so if
you have two clips butted, there are two segments of the timeline. If
you add a transition between the clips, the timeline has four segments - the
start of the first clip, the start of the first tranistion, where the clip
butts, the end of the transition, and the end of the second clip.
If you add an event on a lower track and it's beginning or end falls between
a clip above it (or below it), a new section is formed. Segments are
numbered consecutively, and change as events are added/deleted.
I think they are sued a lot for the
rendering - so Liquid knows what to render when something new is added.
However, they are very helpful for setting I/O's marks on the timeline
without having to actually look at clips. I may have not explained it very
well, but the bottom line is Liquid has it and I've used it for speed
in editing. |
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Your I/O marks moves quite freely as you
click around the timeline. Say you set and I/O on a clip, and then you left
key drag the mouse, ou have just lost your I/O points that you had
previously set.
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From Rob Strobbe
(vegasVideoHelp.com) |
Could you clarify what you mean by
"left key drag the mouse" and action you're trying to do when you do that?
If you're making a selection and then trying to scrub somewhere else
(without losing the selection), you can either Ctrl+click where you want the
cursor to move and then drag the scrub head (little knob at the top of the
timeline cursor) or just grab the scrub head from where it already was. As
long as you don't click anywhere else on the timeline, you won't lose your
selection Also worth noting:
Even if you lose the selection, you
shouldn't be losing the In and O points. They stay there until you set new
ones. (Unless you've checked "Collapse loop region when no time selection is
present" on the Editing tab of Preferences. This is unchecked by default.)
As long as your In and Out points
are there, you can double-click between them to recteate the time
selection.
Vegas saves the most recent five
time selections (including the current one). Hit backspace to cycle through
them.
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As a summary...
In Vegas, each clip on the
timeline is an called an "Event". Your project has only one timeline.
You don't have
containers or sequences like Liquid. (In Liquid, as sequence is a timeline
within a project, and you can have multiple sequences within a project.
A container can be a sequence (or a part of a sequence), or a container can
be several "events" on a single or contiguous tracks that are grouped
together on a timeline (a sequence) in a project.)
In Vegas, if you want to use a particular
grouping of events over and over again similar to sequences or containers - you create a new project
(with it's single timeline), you put the events on it and then save it,
and then import that project into your main
project. These are called "nested" vegs in Vegas.
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From Rob Strobbe
(vegasVideoHelp.com) |
Sorry, since I haven't used Liquid, I
don't know what, if any, the advantages of "containers" or "sequences" are
over, say, nested VEGs (which I'm guessing is what you meant by "import that
project"). I did just write an article on a few ways to reuse previous work
in Vegas.
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Rob - my comments above were more a
summary for me and other Liquid users - and I think that nested VEG's are
basically the same as sequences / containers and it is mainly a usage thing
- once you do it a few times there is probably very little differences
between the two. In Liquid they are contained within the project, in Vegas
they are separate projects (Veg's)
However, what is the link to your
nested vegs article ? |
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QUESTIONS BELOW DO NOT NEED ANSWERED - THEY ARE
IN DEVELOPMENT AND NEED MORE WORK - they are a scratch pad for me. |
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I am working with clips from a
proprietary MP4 (H264) program that vegas (and all other video programs I
know of) can not read the MP4 file. Luckily, the program allows you to
export as an AVI (ntesc - DV) (320x240) - and Vegas imports it. I have
found that if I render the imported AVI, Vegas automatically converts it to
720x480 - which is fine - and in fact, Vegas does a great job - better than
PP3. Render quality was set to good. I then use the rendered
file in Liquid - and it is very clear and sharp.
For an experiment, I rendered the file
BEST. Liquid ingested it fine, and perhaps a finite better quality
difference was noted.
However, when I open that same file
in Vegas (that Vegas rendered out in BEST quality, the file shows up in the
Vegas viewer as all black. Why is that ? And
how do I view that file in Vegas ?
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