Keeping options open between Vegas and FCPX

[Mike Kujbida]

“I came home to discover a bunch of tiny ants crawling on my laptop.”

Gives a whole new meaning to the expression “a bug in my software” 🙁

” should probably open the laptop and take a peek inside just in case.”

Do that and also blow things out with a can of compressed air just in case they’re hiding deep inside somewhere.

“is there a benefit to going with the 10-bit 220x option”

Vegas is only 8-bit color but using this option would probably help maintain quality if you’re doing a lot of bouncing of files back and forth from PC to Mac.

“Also, have Vegas’ export capabilities improved in the last few versions that would allow us to hand off a rough cut to a real pro for color grading, etc. using their own tools?”

It depends on what software your pro is using.
EDL is the most common format (single timeline, cuts only) but there’s no guarantee that a Vegas EDL will be recognized by other software.
I know I’ve seen a script somewhere that was designed to better help the Vegas to AE workflow but I can’t remember where it was.

Color grading in Vegas is actually pretty decent,especially with tools such as AAV ColorLab (free) or Cineform’s First Light (paid).
The book The DV Rebels Guide by Stu Maschwitz is highly recommended reading as it has a lot of info about using AE for colour grading.