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Newbie User trying to figure out working with Stills
Hi there:
I am trying to decide if Sony Vegas Movie Studio 10 is right for me ( coming from iMovie, so far it looks pretty good ) I use a lot of stills in my projects but after experimenting, I am stumped with two particular things:
1) Wanted to change the still image length – went to Options/Preferences/Editing and changed the New image still length (seconds) from the default 5 to what I wanted – 1. clicked on Apply and went off to check the project. No change had occurred –
Ditched the test project, and after checking to make sure the Still image length was what I wanted – loaded in some new pics – this time the change took effect, and on all of them.
Great – but Now I want to change that for some reason, or change individual .jpgs – I couldn’t find a way to do that.
I also thought that if I collected the items into a group I would be able to make changes that would apply to ALL the items. This doesn’t seem to happen.
2) wanted to apply some cool transitions to the project – figured if I used the group function I could get the selected transition to apply to all the pics – NOOOOO – just did not happen.
I really like what I’m seeing with Vegas, it looks a lot like Soundforge and Acid, both programs that I work with for my soundfiles, so I have no complaints with the overall UI, but it is troubling not to be able to make changes to entire groups or individual pics – even that iMovie which is pretty basic, allows that – it gives you a fight, but eventually, you can make the changes.
Any advice you folks could give me would be greatly appreciated.
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6 Replies
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Changing the default length of iported stills only works on inported stills after that change was made, not on previous stills added or previous projects. To replace a pic on the timeline, find that pic in your project media tab, right click on it and select replace, point to the new pic you want. You can drag the edges of the pic on the timeline to make it longer or shorter.
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[Louise Peacock] “1) Wanted to change the still image length – went to Options/Preferences/Editing and changed the New image still length (seconds) from the default 5 to what I wanted – 1. clicked on Apply and went off to check the project. No change had occurred -“
As Danny said, this only applies to NEW still images added to the timeline after the change was made – hence the name “New still image length”
[Louise Peacock] “Great – but Now I want to change that for some reason, or change individual .jpgs – I couldn’t find a way to do that.”
Just move the cursor to the right edge of the clip – click and drag left to make it shorter or click and drag right to make it longer.
[Louise Peacock] “I also thought that if I collected the items into a group I would be able to make changes that would apply to ALL the items. This doesn’t seem to happen.”
What kind of changed?
[Louise Peacock] “2) wanted to apply some cool transitions to the project – figured if I used the group function I could get the selected transition to apply to all the pics – NOOOOO – just did not happen.”
Just SELECT the events you want do have that transition and then drag that transition to one of the selected transition. It will then be applied to all selected events.
BTW, if you use Vegas Pro instead of Movie Studio, scripting can be used to automate many of the tasks you are wanting to do.
Edward Troxel
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Thanks so much Danny, I appreciate the answer.
I did try to pull one of the stills out using the cursor, but couldn’t seem to keep a hold of it. I will try that again.
Thanks!
Louise
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thanks Edward. I appreciate your taking time to respond.
Okay – so I need to pre-set my image time when starting a new project, and then bring in the images. Got it.
I will try again on the dragging the image to reset the length – I actually did experiment with that, but kept “losing” the side of the pic – it behaved like an elastic band!
I shall also try out the image selection and dragging the desired transition to one of the selected images.
You have both been incredibly helpful.
You know how I’ll be spending MY weekend (LOL)
Louise
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Try zooming in on the timeline. Just turning the mouse wheel will let you zoom in and out. As you zoom in, you see more detail allowing you to make more precise changes to lengths.
Edward Troxel
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thanks Edward. I tried zooming in and that did the trick. Thank you very much.
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