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Co-working between Vegas and Avid or FCP
Hi!
I’m trying to guide a movie producing friend of mine. She has been using Sony Vegas Video Pro (SVV) (on my recommendation) some years and is quite happy with that. But she has started to use external help for the final editing. And the standard programs around here are Avid and FCP (Vegas Video is as good as unknown in Norway). So she has problems co-working with others.
I see there is both EDL- and AAF-export in SVV now. Does that mean she can export her Vegas project to AAF, have someone edit it with FCP, return an updated AAF and import that? She uses mostly clean cuts, no fancy transitions etc.
Searching the net, it seems this is _not_ possible (at least without some addin) and I can’t quite see why? Isn’t the AAF-standard specific enough? Can’t FCP import AAF?
Would she need to convert the raw material?
I am almost at the point of recommending her to switch to a Mac with FCP, although I am no Mac-fan…
Thanks for any insight you might add!
Best regards,
Knut
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5 Replies
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[Knut Hunstad] “I see there is both EDL- and AAF-export in SVV now. Does that mean she can export her Vegas project to AAF, have someone edit it with FCP, return an updated AAF and import that? She uses mostly clean cuts, no fancy transitions etc.”
Not very likely. I’ve never seen these tools transfer more than one video and one audio track. Hardly enough to be useful.
[Knut Hunstad] “I am almost at the point of recommending her to switch to a Mac with FCP, although I am no Mac-fan…”
Funny, that was going to be my recommendation as I was reading your post. If you need to work with FCP editors, then you need to buy FCP. Same is true for AVID or Vegas. You start a project, you pick a tool set, and everyone gets on board with the tools you picked. Having everyone use their own tool is just asking for trouble.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Thanks for a quick response!
But I tested a small project to see if your statement was really true. It had three video tracks and one sound track. I used “Save as” “Avid Legacy AAF file”, then closed the project and imported the AAF file into an empty project. Everything was OK! Could it be that your remark isn’t valid anymore (but used to be on older versions), or am I getting something wrong here?
The problem is I don’t have FCP, so I can’t test if the export/import works all the way to FCP and back again to Vegas.
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[John Rofrano] “If you need to work with FCP editors, then you need to buy FCP. Same is true for AVID or Vegas. You start a project, you pick a tool set, and everyone gets on board with the tools you picked. Having everyone use their own tool is just asking for trouble.”
Although the cheaper alternative would be to buy a PC with Vegas for the other editor. She could buy two or three for the same cost of getting herself a decent FCP setup. That’s basically what we did for our FCP freelancers when we (everyone but me) at the office switched to Premiere Pro. John is right, everyone has to be on the same page.
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[Knut Hunstad] “Could it be that your remark isn’t valid anymore (but used to be on older versions), or am I getting something wrong here?”
Actually I was think of using EDL when I made the one track statement. I forgot you could use AAF now.
If FCP reads the AAF file then you’ll be OK but only for edits. If you add an FX they won’t be transferred over. If you use any of Vegas’ compositing modes, they won’t get transferred. Lots of other things won’t get transferred over. So if this is a one shot deal where you do a rough edit, cut’s only, and then send to FCP for finishing, then it might work. If you expect to further edit what you get back from FCP, I don’t see how that can work because of all the limitations.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com -
Now, that was an interesting suggestion! I’ll have to digest that for a while. Thank you!
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