Multi Camera Editing

[Stephen Mann]

I am not grasping what you’re doing. What “toggle” feature are you referring to? I’ve been doing multicamera editing on Vegas for ten years an I am unaware of any “toggle” feature. (The multicam feature in Version 10 definitely rocks).

I am also confused what you mean by: “I first save the .avi footage clips as .veg clips before dragging them to the timeline for multi cam editing”

You don’t save AVI as VEG files. The veg file is your project file and the avi is your media.

If, for example, your avi is on track two and your jpegs on track one (above the avi), and there is blank space between the jpegs, then you will see the avi in the preview window.

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

[Brad White]

Hi Stephen,
Sorry about my use of incorrect terms;
1) My reference to “toggle” means the ability to move around in the preview window during multicam “Enable multicam editing”, using a mouse click to highlight one of four tracks playing Simultenanouesly.
2) My reference to file saving means that after I “enhance” a .avi file, I do a “save as” as a .veg project file and use these files when creating a multi cam project.
I have successfully created several multi cam projects, but have always used two or more video files on the video tracks. Now I’m attempting to use photos (.jpg) on one of the video tracks so they appear from time to time together with the video. By the way, these are PowerPoint files (.ppt) saved as jpeg’s. Everything works fine if I use individual photos. I can select the photo or the video in multi cam editing. The problem happens when I want two or more photos to play one immediately after the other. I drag a .jpg onto a video track, then drag another .jpg onto the same video track and position it so that it “connects” with the previous .jpg. However, during multicam editing, I select (blue highlight) the photo track and it plays through the first photo but will return (blue highlight) back to the video track, instead of playing through the second photo first. It seems that it has something to do with the small cross-fade triangle on the upper corners of the photos on the track. The software is seeing these as a que to switch to the other track.

Sorry to be so winded.
Brad

[Stephen Mann]

2) My reference to file saving means that after I “enhance” a .avi file, I do a “save as” as a .veg project file and use these files when creating a multi cam project.

This still confuses me. A veg file is NOT media. If you are dragging the veg file to the timeline, then you’re nesting projects.

If you only have one track of video and one track with jpegs, then multicam is overkill.

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

[Nigel O’neill]

Brad

One limitation of Vegas 9e’s multicam feature is that once enabled, it is difficult to deconstruct and separate the tracks to their original form for troubleshooting, even after you have ‘disabled’ multicam editing. I suspect your problems start when you are trying to insert new media to an existing 9e multicam project.

I only did 1 shoot in desperation using 9e’s multicam feature. It is handy in a pinch, but is a pain to troubleshoot. Hence, I purchased Vasst Ultimate S Pro 4.1 plugin which includes a multimcam feature that when enabled lets you see all video and all audio tracks as you have laid them down. You have track level control. It has a few quirks such as lower video tracks bleeding through to the Master Video track during fade to blacks, but simple lower track muting takes care of that.

Ultimate S also has a host of other features such as lower third and montage. Trial it for yourself:

https://store.vasst.com/downloads.aspx

And no, I do not work for Vasst :-). I am just an extremely satisfied customer.

Intel i7 920, 12GB RAM, ASUS P6T, Vegas Pro 10 (x32/x64), Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Nigel O’neill]

Just before Stephen points it out, Vegas 10 has much improved features including the ability to deconstruct/expand video tracks, but I still stand by Ultimate S for its multicam editing plus other features. I have used it since Vegas Pro 9b, and since I got it, I might as well use it… .

Intel i7 920, 12GB RAM, ASUS P6T, Vegas Pro 10 (x32/x64), Windows 7 x64 Ultimate, Vegas Production Assistant 1.0, VASST Ultimate S Pro 4.1, Neat Video Pro 2.6

[Andy Pauquette]

This may either help or confuse the issue, but it sounds like the same phenomenon I’ve experienced doing a multi-camera edit that includes short video clips. What happens to me is this: imagine a 3 camera edit, cam 1 is a continuous shot, cam 2 and 3 are shorter clips, synced with Pluraleyes. While editing during playback, if cam (“take” is probably more accurate) 2 is selected and the clip on cam 3 runs out, Vegas switches (I think this is the “toggle” the OP referred to) to cam 1, without my input, although there is still media on cam 2’s take. It isn’t difficult to go back and correct, but it would be better if it stayed on cam 2 regardless of what was going on with the other takes.

[Brad White]

This morning with fresh eyes, I ran some very basic tests. In a new project, I added an .avi clip to Trk 1 on the timeline and two .jpg photos on Trk 2. These two photos were placed joined together (back-to-back) on the timeline as I wanted them to play one after the other. Next, I entered multi-cam mode and started playback. Although I had selected “Cam 2” (photo trk 2) in the preview screen, the “blue box” moved to “Cam 1” (video trk 1) on its own after playing the first of the two back-to-back photos. Not what I want.

Then I tried a second test (new project) using the same video clip and photos, but “reversed” the track order. In other words, Trk 1 became the photo track and Trk 2 became the video track. Entered multi-cam mode, selected “Cam 1” which is now the photo track, and it played the back-to-back photos without switching to Cam 2 until after both photos had played. This is what I want.

Is there a “track priority” rule? Maybe one of you more experienced guys can speak to this.

For now, I’m happy because I have a solution, but would like to understand what is happening.

Thanks all for your comments,
Brad