Time lapse in Vegas 8

[John Rofrano]

Hi Joe, This isn’t the only way to do it. If you are going to use Velocity Envelopes and re-render then use one of the Cineform intermediary templates that come with Vegas. This will make the re-renders almost lossless.

The other way is to render your video as an image sequence and then re-import it. Just use the Render Image Sequence script that comes with Vegas. Set the Step Time to whatever interval you want. For example if you want a frame every 5 seconds then set the step time to 00:00:05;00. Once the rendering is complete, use File | Import | Media and navigate to the first image in the sequence and select it. Then make sure the Open still image sequence is checked and Vegas will rebuild your video from the time sequenced images.

~jr

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

[Rick Wise]

John, This is another hidden Vegas treasure!

I’m not at all clear what you mean by “cineform intermediate templates”. Where are they, how are the labeled?

Also, for “the other way”, can’t you just import all the stills generated by the script? If you select the first still and check “Open Still Image Sequence”, you have to re-digitize from the original tape. Does that really produce a better quality image than if you run the script with your Vegas set to “best” AVI render?

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[John Rofrano]

> I’m not at all clear what you mean by “cineform intermediate templates”. Where are they, how are the labeled?

Under AVI you will see a bunch of templates with “intermediate” in the name. (e.g., “HDV 720-30p intermediate”, “HDV 1080-60i intermediate”, etc.) These are the CineForm intermediates.

> can’t you just import all the stills generated by the script?

That is exactly what I explained how to do.

> If you select the first still and check “Open Still Image Sequence”, you have to re-digitize from the original tape.

No, that’s not what that option does. That option only works with still images on your hard drive and has nothing to do with tape.

~jr

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

[Joe Balsamo]

John,

In a word, WOW!

The method you just taught me is precisely what I am looking for. It works beautifully.

Thanks,

Joe

[Rick Wise]

Thanks, John. I was thrown off the proper course when I tried the “open still image sequence” and I got a new window asking for the tape’s name. This time I didn’t answer the question, and I got a single segment of all the images together.

Note, if the sequence runs too fast, you can control-pull the right edge to slow it down to taste.

Rick Wise
director of photography
Oakland, CA
http://www.RickWiseDP.com
email: Rick@RickWiseDP.com

[Danny Hays]

WOW! thats a great idea for time lapse with V8. Not to get off the Vegas subject but there is a not well known program called OnLocation recently bought by Adobe along with Ultra. OnLocation has the ability to capture time lapse from 15 frames per sec to sixty minuts per frame, HDV. Four frames per sec to thirty minutes per frame, DV direct to disk. No changing tapes or wasted drive space. You can even set it up for motion detection to start and stop recording. And thats not even one of the better features of the program. It’s a capture app with great camera setup features. If you guys haven’t heard of it, check it out. Many peaple have it and don’t realize as it comes with the premium CS3 package, Windows only. Perfect for us Vegas users. Danny Hays

[John Rofrano]

> This time I didn’t answer the question, and I got a single segment of all the images together… Note, if the sequence runs too fast, you can control-pull the right edge to slow it down to taste.

Actually, you should not have dismissed that dialog box and this is why your segment is running too fast. Sorry for not pointing this out, but that dialog box is where you tell Vegas how many frames per second the still images represent. Getting this information correct is extremely important for having your video playback at the proper rate. So you can ignore the tape name but please set the FPS and any other attributes for your video.

~jr

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

[Allen Zagel]

Hi

As a point of interest (and history), On Location is the old DV-Rack and that along with Ultra was originally developed by Serious Magic, recently bought by Adobe. I realy wish Adobe would have ‘ported’ both programs for their MAC version of CS3. Both programs were still available for almost a year as stand alone before Adobe took them off the market to include in CS3. Yes, both are still windows only! ugh!

Both programs are quite well known in some circles. I have the original DV-Rack from Serious magic and was able to buy the DV-Rack 2 HD from Adobe just before they took it off the market.

There’s other great keying programs available including the one built into Vegas and Final Cut (Express) but the thing that made Ultra so great was the sets you could get. I don’t think there’s anyting like DV-Rack available now though except for On Location.

Allen

ASX Media Group, Inc.
https://www.asxvideo.com

[John Rofrano]

> Not to get off the Vegas subject but there is a not well known program called OnLocation recently bought by Adobe along with Ultra.

Actually, this package is very well know as Serious Magic DV Rack. Anyone who owned it knows that Adobe turned it’s back on all existing DV Rack customers when it purchased Serious Magic. The same is true for Ultra. There is no need to go into the details here but let’s just say that what they pulled did not make me want to be an Adobe customer.

~jr

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