Intermediate video format for Sony Vegas 12

[Tyson Onaga]

This is a good format unless you need Alpha, in which case, stay away from this thing unless you only intend to use the result in an Avid product.

[Stephen Mann]

I am limiting my damage

Vegas is non-destructive. That is, it never changes your source media. You can’t damage it (accidentally). All you need to save during your project is the veg file, which is pretty small. just occasionally do a “save as” and give the project a name that tells you where you are in the project.

save as “rough cut”
save as “tracks synched”
save as “audio cleaned up”
save as “color correction finished”
save as “almost done”

You get the point. You can go back to any of those points in time, anytime. Some people save as every hour.

Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com

[Ed Kneler]

Right. I meant damaging my work, since the original files remain intact.

[John Rofrano]

With Vegas Pro, you can work in sections and then place those sections together later as nested projects. So, for example, you can create a photo montage of all of those images and save them as their own project. Then take that project .veg file and drop it into the timeline of another project (we call this a nested project) and it will behave as if was was a single piece of rendered media except you didn’t have to render it.

You can even right-click on it and Vegas Pro will open it up in a separate project where you can make changes and those changes will be reflected back in the main project. When you’re ready to create your final render, Vegas Pro will automatically render the nested projects and include them in the final output. There is nothing special that you have to do.

This may be the best way for you to work.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[John Rofrano]

[Tyson Onaga] “This is a good format unless you need Alpha, in which case, stay away from this thing unless you only intend to use the result in an Avid product.”

I’m not sure I understand your statement. Are you saying that people should not use DNxHD unless they are using Avid products or are you saying that the Alpha Channel in DNxHD only works with Avid products?

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Tyson Onaga]

Sorry for the confusion. DNxHD is fine unless you need an Alpha channel, in which case, avoid it. Avid encodes the Alpha “reversed” from everybody else so the resulting .mov is useless in Vegas. I could never get an DNxHD w/ Alpha file to work in Vegas. I opened a ticket with Avid and they could only use the DNxHD w/ Alpha file in an Avid product.

[John Rofrano]

[Tyson Onaga] “Avid encodes the Alpha “reversed” from everybody else so the resulting .mov is useless in Vegas.”

OK, that’s what I thought I read. It’s odd that Avid handles alpha channels opposite of everyone else but it does explain why their alpha channels don’t work in Vegas Pro. Thanks for clarifying.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Ed Kneler]

You are right. I will try do do sections and then assemble them as nested. Might be easier to manage than trying to do it all at once. Thank you all. Learned a lot in this exchange.

[Kashif Malik]

As people have already pointed out, there are a multitude of options.

I personally use Cineform, which by the way is free. Cineform Neoscene is not, but you can get the codec for free by installing Cineform Studio from:

https://gopro.com/software-app/cineform-studio/

The codec is great since it’s virtually lossless and is supported on most major NLEs.

I would recommend it.

[John Rofrano]

[Kashif Malik] “I personally use Cineform, which by the way is free.”

Thanks I didn’t realize that they were giving the codec away for free now. Wow!

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com