adding photos in vegas MS 10 at different intervals

[Tyson Onaga]

Chris,
I posted this but in the wrong thread. Sorry about that …
– T

———-

I know of no automated way to do this. You could put Markers into the Timeline which indicate where each image should go. You would then have to drag the image (one at a time) from the Media Pool to correct Marker location.

You could try this:

1. Get a list of the files you want added sorted by time (preferably). You could use something like “dir /od/b *.jpg > dir.txt”.

2. Open Excel. Tools -> Macro -> VB Editor.

3. Enter:
Function MyGetFileDateTime(fileName As String) As Date
MyGetFileDateTime = FileSystem.FileDateTime(fileName)
End Function

4. On the worksheet, copy the values of (1) into col A.

5. In cell B1, enter:
=PERSONAL.XLS!MyGetFileDateTime(A1)

6. Select B1. Format -> Cells -> Time. Select the Type 30:55.2

7. Copy B1. Select all the rows in B for which you have a value in col A. Paste. You should now have all the file date/time values in col B for each value in col A.

8. Col C, cell C1, enter 0

9. Cell C2, enter:
=B2-Bx
Yes, you’ll get an error.

10. Copy C2. Select all the rows from C3 down for which there’s a value in B. Paste. You should now have a bunch of error-ed functions.

11. Select the error-ed functions. Edit -> Replace. Replace Bx with B1. Each C2 (onwards) should be =B#-B1. I.e, C1 is 0, C2 onwards is the offset in time from 0.

12. Highlight values in C, Format -> Cells -> Time. Select the Type 30:55.2

13. In col D, enter a marker name (M.1, M.2, etc.) … or copy the values from col A.

—> Col C and D should contain Time (offset) and Marker names

14. Open your .veg

15. Alt-6, Select Show Markers.

16. Select the values from Excel, cols C and D. Copy.

17. In Vegas (Markers) Select All (top leftmost cell). Paste.

—> You should now have Markers in the timeline.

Now it is time for drag and drop.

Note: This assumes that time 0:00.0 is ALSO the start of your video. If it is not, you will need to adjust the time calculation functions accordingly. Alternatively, you could just slide the media in the images Track (forward or backward) until it lines up with your video footage Track.

[Chris Howland]

Tyson,
this isn’t very automated, but I like your thinking. This is programmable, and repeatable. I wasn’t aware of this method of creating markers.

I will try this out and report back with my results!

Thank you very much.

Chris

[Tyson Onaga]

I would try a few images first, maybe 5 or 6. What you need after that is a JavaScript script (a .js file) that has a function in it that takes a mediaPath, trackNo, timeOffset, markerName, mediaLength and:

a. Inserts a Marker on Track trackNo at timeOffset with name of markerName.
b. Inserts the Track Event specified by mediaPath on Track trackNo at timeOffset of length mediaLength

The .js signature might be something like:
function InsertMediaAndMarker( mediaPath, trackNo, timeOffset, markerName, mediaLength)
{
…
}

Modify the xls so that:

1. Col F has the full path to your media (probably a copy of col A).
2. Col G has the track number
3. Col H is a copy of col C.
4. Col I is a copy of col D.
5. Col J is a default media length; eg. 4
6. Col K is the difference between Cn and Cn+1 (the time difference between two media events)
7. Col L is the MIN() of cols J and K; ie, a value of 4 or LESS
8. Col M is a big CONCATENATE expression to create a string with the parameters to the .js function described above.

You would then take the contents of Col M and paste it into the .js code. Running it should insert the Markers and Media on the track you desired.

Of course, you need the .js function.
I’m not up on the Vegas JavaScript API. Maybe someone could pitch in here!?

[Chris Howland]

hey thanks again for helping me out.
One problem – the excel macro seems be looking at the date modified of the file, which might be different than the date that the photo was taken…
I suppose I could modify the file to change the modified date to equal the date taken, but is there a method to get the file creation time (or the date the photo was taken, if it’s different)??

thanks

[Tyson Onaga]

I found some of this online. Note the change to the last function MyGetFileCreatedDateTime().

Public Declare Function FindFirstFile Lib "kernel32" Alias "FindFirstFileA" _
(ByVal lpFileName As String, lpFindFileData As WIN32_FIND_DATA) As Long

Public Declare Function FileTimeToSystemTime Lib "kernel32" _
(lpFileTime As FILETIME, lpSystemTime As SYSTEMTIME) As Long

Declare Function FileTimeToLocalFileTime Lib "kernel32" _
(lpFileTime As FILETIME, lpLocalFileTime As FILETIME) As Long

Public Type FILETIME
dwLowDateTime As Long
dwHighDateTime As Long
End Type

Public Type SYSTEMTIME
wYear As Integer
wMonth As Integer
wDayOfWeek As Integer
wDay As Integer
wHour As Integer
wMinute As Integer
wSecond As Integer
wMilliseconds As Long
End Type

Public Type WIN32_FIND_DATA
dwFileAttributes As Long
ftCreationTime As FILETIME
ftLastAccessTime As FILETIME
ftLastWriteTime As FILETIME
nFileSizeHigh As Long
nFileSizeLow As Long
dwReserved0 As Long
dwReserved1 As Long
cFileName As String * 260
cAlternate As String * 14
End Type

Private Function FileDate(FT As FILETIME) As String
' convert the FILETIME to LOCALTIME, then to SYSTEMTIME type
Dim ST As SYSTEMTIME
Dim LT As FILETIME
Dim t As Long
Dim ds As Double
Dim ts As Double

t = FileTimeToLocalFileTime(FT, LT)
t = FileTimeToSystemTime(LT, ST)

If t Then
ds = DateSerial(ST.wYear, ST.wMonth, ST.wDay)
ts = TimeSerial(ST.wHour, ST.wMinute, ST.wSecond)
ds = ds + ts
If ds > 0 Then
' FileDate = Format$(ds, "mm/dd/yy hh:mm:ss") ' original line ...
FileDate = Format$(ds, "hh:mm:ss")
Else
FileDate = "(no date)"
End If
End If
End Function

Function MyGetFileCreatedDateTime(fileName As String) As Time
Dim hFile As Long
Dim WFD As WIN32_FIND_DATA

hFile = FindFirstFile(fileName, WFD)
If hFile > 0 Then
MyGetFileCreatedDateTime = TimeValue(FileDate(WFD.ftCreationTime))
End If
End Function

You’d need to put the whole thing into your PERSONAL.XLS using Tools -> Macro -> VB Editor.