Sony Vegas 10?

[Scott Francis]

I agree, this seems to be a lot of hype about 3D. I also hope to see more about other “important” features. The preview is the most important for my, I can deal with long render times if my projects are crazy big (as they are, usually 2+ hrs with 5 camera angles or more and tons of FX and color correction), but I NEED to be able to see what my project is going to look like BEFORE I render it. Cannot tell you how many time I need to do a render just to see what it really will look like. The stabilization sounds nice however, would save me from getting a 64bit upgrade…we shall wait and see!

Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions

[John Rofrano]

I don’t see much excitement with Vegas 10… I was expecting much more… What are your views?

It all depends on what your needs are. Since you asked… here are my views from the Vegas Pro 10 Feature Highlights:

Stereoscopic 3D Editing:
If you’re not doing 3D it’s not interesting. If you are doing 3D it’s very exciting. No one else has this support so it’s an industry exclusive right now and could draw a lot of film makers to Vegas which is good for all Vegas users.

Improved Closed Captioning:
If you’re not doing closed captioning it’s not interesting. If you are doing closed captioning you can now see your captions in the Vegas preview. This is HUGE! It cost approximately $300 – $500 per show to have an outside service do the captioning for you. You can recover the cost of Vegas Pro by captioning one show yourself! Like I said… HUGE for people delivering for broadcast in the US because captioning is not an option, it’s an FCC mandate!

Expanded Multicam Functionality:
If you’re not doing Multicam it’s not interesting. If you are doing Multicam it’s exciting. Anything to improve the multi-camera edit workflow is a welcome addition and probably worth your money for the productivity improvement it provides.

Improved support for DSLR video:
If are one of those people who insist on shooting “video” with a still image camera that uses a proprietary h.264 format, you’re gonna love this one. (lol)

Track Grouping:
How many times have we asked Sony for folder tracks like ACID has? It sounds like they are listening to their customers. Being able to group tracks is really helpful in ACID, let’s hope this makes it just as easy in Vegas

Advanced Transport Controls:
If you like 3-point editing you’re gonna love this. If you are a traditional Vegas editor you probably never use the trimmer.

Image Stabilization:
Good for times when someone asks you to edit some hand-held footage. If you do this a lot you’ll probably want to buy proDAD Mercalli V2 or another dedicated stabilizer.

Video Effects Plug-in Architecture:
This is has the potential to be extremely important. We have been asking Sony to update their SDK so that people could write plug-ins that can do motion tracking (like Boris FX). Now they can. OFX is an industry standard hi-end FX API. I can’t wait to see what plug-ins get developed.

Audio Event FX:
Have you ever wanted to add an audio effect to an event? Well now you can. Previously you could only add these to an audio track or else you had to render them into the event.

Input Busses:
If you’ve got outboard audio gear that you need to interface with, this will excite you. Don’t forget that Vegas is a formidable audio application as well.

VU meters:
Again an audio feature that will be appreciated by those using Vegas to do complex audio mixes.

Track Meters:
I don’t know how this stayed out of Vegas for so long but if you’ve ever tried to mix audio to broadcast standards and wondered which track was causing your mix to go too hot, this is a welcome addition. Now you can easily see the audio levels on each track.

GPU Accelerated AVC Encoding:
If you are not encoding to AVC they perhaps you haven’t heard of this new delivery vehicle called “the Internet!” (I think Al Gore invented it but I’m not sure) 😉 Almost everyone is render for internet delivery these days and if you have a modern GPU this will speed up rendering to Sony AVC.

Device Support:
If you have one of the new cameras that they just added support for then this will excite you. If not, it won’t.

So to sum it up, if you’re doing 3D, or broadcast, or multi-camera, or special FX, or work with shaky video, or render to the Internet, then Vegas Pro 10 has something for you. If not, it’s OK to skip a version. Lot’s of people do that. Of course, if you do this for a living, you should upgrade just to keep your software current. Software upgrades should be part of your business plan each year.

~jr

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

[Tor Wong]

Thx for sharing the announce!

I’m really excited to see how “GPU-Accelerated AVC Encoding” will perform. GPU-accelerated video encoders I’ve used so far (like Badaboom) have provided a painful mixed bag: much quicker speed but lesser quality or inflexible format settings, when this shouldn’t be the case. Vegas finally fixed some longtime AVC bugs recently (like the infamous “can’t seek” issue, at last patched in 9.0d, although MainConcept-encoded AVC still isn’t hinted/suited for within-seconds playback) so things are hopefully on a smoother road.

[Dave Felder]

I’m using Vegas probably ten years, but I’m really intrigued with the Encore feature that will render your project to FLASH for the web, with all the interactive buttons converted from DVD to FLASH.

I hate having to learn an entire new interface, but as my clients are looking to do more and more on the web, I think being able to deliver working hunks of interactive web pages will be a worthwhile feature.

3D isn’t a big deal for me – half my Corporate clients don’t even have HD yet.

Ryan Video Productions Inc. Rockaway, NJ

[David Shirey]

[John Rofrano] “So to sum it up, if you’re doing 3D, or broadcast, or multi-camera, or special FX, or work with shaky video, or render to the Internet, then Vegas Pro 10 has something for you. If not, it’s OK to skip a version.” Lot’s of people do that. Of course, if you do this for a living, you should upgrade just to keep your software current. Software upgrades should be part of your business plan each year.

I will agree there are a lot of good additions that apply to certain people, I just would have liked Sony to work on improvements that affect 100% of the people using Vegas. Fast GPU’s aren’t just for hardcore gamers anymore, and Adobe are making their packages too enticing for Sony to drop the ball like this. I don’t think upgrading needs to be part of anyone’s business plan unless we’re given a reason to upgrade, and it certainly should not be part of Sony’s business plan to let us skip versions. They should always make us an offer we can’t refuse 🙂

[Bruce Brent]

If Sony wanted to keep all of its Vegas users they’d incorporate features that would entice. 3D isn’t for the masses…yet.

I’m sure there are many users who can’t afford effects software like After Effects or Boris FX. BUT, if Sony would incorporate effects that are important (track motion, pinning corners), not only would it keep the Vegas family happy but entice potential video editing software customers.

Please chime in if you agree so Sony might take a look at what would keep us happy.

[John Rofrano]

…if Sony would incorporate effects that are important (track motion, pinning corners), not only would it keep the Vegas family happy but entice potential video editing software customers.

What they just did with Vegas Pro 10 is lay the groundwork for this to happen. Their old SDK did not allow this but the new one does. So while you won’t see this immediately, the hope is that FX like track motion and corner pinning will be able to be done directly in Vegas. Let’s be happy they took the first step because I’m pretty certain it was a giant leap for them to pull off internally (changing your API architecture is never trivial).

~jr

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

[Frederic Baumann]

Hi,

John you say the new OFX API will enable more things than the current one, including motion tracking.

As I am considering investing time in video plug-in APIs to develop plug-ins (mainly for fun btw), I would like to understand what more can be done with the new API, compared to the current one.

Especially, I don’t see why one cannot do motion tracking with the current API (I understand ‘motion tracking’ as panning around the track on each frame, but I have the feeling not to understand it the right way – probably due to my poor English).

Also, would you have any good site talking about OFX and that you would recommend as a starting point?

Thanks in advance,
Frederic

—
Want to learn on Sony Vegas Keyframes? Watch my video tutorial:
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/baumann_frederic/Animating-with-Keyframes-in-Sony-Vegas.php

French version:
https://geo.creativecow.net/fr/a/12999

[John Rofrano]

Especially, I don’t see why one cannot do motion tracking with the current API (I understand ‘motion tracking’ as panning around the track on each frame, but I have the feeling not to understand it the right way – probably due to my poor English).

The problem with the current SDK is that you can only process one frame at a time. This eliminates any type of temporal analysis because you can’t affect a frame based on the one before it or after it. You can only affect the current frame. There is no way to setup a motion tracker because when you apply the effect and open the FX editor there is only one frame to see with no way to get the other frames.

Also, would you have any good site talking about OFX and that you would recommend as a starting point?

I would start with the OFX documentation on openfx.sourceforge.net to get a good understanding of the basic principles.

~jr

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

[Sam Caino]

Does anyone have any more information on the new GPU Accelerated AVC Encoding feature?

Will this speed up render times of the h.264 codec in both the MainConcept and Sony AVC formats? Will there be any new render formats?