Vegas vs. Avid

[Thomas Kreuer]

Hi Gray.

My advice is to “force” your friend to edit one project together with you and Vegas. Based on my experience this convices everyone.
Here in Germany nearly no one knows Vegas, no client, no director (and unfortunately no freelance editor 😉 ). But after working with us on a project especially people with experience in other editing systems do not believe how fast you come to a result.

The first cut of this commericial:
http://www.thirty-seconds.de/Element.html
took us one hour for example. Try this with Avid.

We do not invest in Avid any more. We have one office equiped with Media Composer, Adrenalin and XPress and I hate it to see how circumstantial it is to work with them and how long it takes to achieve a result that needs a few mouse-clicks in Vegas. So, in our new and second office we only work with Vegas and are happy with it, apart from the fact that Vegas 8.0 does not support Decklink cards at the moment 🙁

Good luck
Thomas

Thirty Seconds Filmproductions, http://www.thirty-seconds.tv

[Albert Weissen]

Thanks for posting that video. What other videos on your site were cut in Vegas? It’s nice to see examples of professional work done on Vegas. Do you do everything in Vegas, or do you use other programs for grading, etc.?

[Jake Zeer]

I would also like to know – You did all of those in Vegas??
Wow!!
I enjoyed watching every shot, angle, edit — really good stuff.

What else was done in Vegas from your site?

[Thomas Kreuer]

Thank you guys.
Beside the last 3 commericials every film on that page was edited in Vegas.
Color Correction, Titles, Effects etc. in After Effects usually.

regards
Thomas

Thirty Seconds Filmproductions, http://www.thirty-seconds.tv

[Jake Zeer]

You have to forgive my ignorance but since you mentioned it – Where does Vegas stop and After Effects start?
I guess what I am asking is which effects were you able to do in Vegas and which took place in After Effects?
I am trying to understand what Vegas can and cannot do.

Thanks for your responses

GAry

[Richard Sanchez]

Vegas actually does a very good job about cross the gamut from editing into motion graphics, we used to cut on Vegas at a mobile entertainment studio I worked at. However, if you really want advanced motion graphics and compositing (things like displacement maps, 3 camera moves and whatnot) you really want to go with After Effects. As far as the argument of Vegas vs Avid, and any NLE for that reason, each one has their own set of pros and cons. I personally prefer Avid, but the most commonly used are FCP and Avid. I recommend learning both, but if Vegas works for your own freelance work, keep with that.

Richard Sanchez
North Hollywood, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

[Bernard Ageeb]

30SEC great videos you have put together with Vegas. What Type of camera did you use? The quailty is GREAT.

Bernard

[Thomas Kreuer]

hi gary,

we use vegas for pure cutting though it has great possibilities in compositing.
everything that is not a cut, was done on a compositing system.
if you have questions on a certain part of a film, don’t hesitate…

best
thomas

Thirty Seconds Filmproductions, http://www.thirty-seconds.tv

[Thomas Kreuer]

hi bernard,

most of our film were produced on panasonic cameras (varicam and hvx 200). though i don’t like the style of sony-cameras normally we did the “melitta” films on a z1.

regards
thomas

Thirty Seconds Filmproductions, http://www.thirty-seconds.tv

[Tim Wilson]

I’ve worked with a lot of NLEs for a long time, and worked at the Avid Mothership for a few years along the way.

Along the way, I’ve also learned that features and intuition are the LAST thing you should look at when considering switching NLEs.

The important question is about, let’s call it lifestyle: how much time do you want to spend in another NLE catching up with….yourself?

To answer the Vegas vs. Avid thing more directly, the only reason to think about adding Avid to your bag of tricks is if it will make you enough money to offset the time it will take to learn it.

In which case, who cares about the features, right? You do what you have to do.

But it sounds like you have a choice, in which case, invest in your own investment, learning Vegas better.

You also sound a little like you want to talk about something besides Avid:

[Gigabyte] “I am ready to invest time and money in an upgrade, or new software, and training to advance my business.”

A muuuuuch more interesting discussion to me. 🙂

In general, I think that production skills offer a bigger bang for the buck than software, and better business skills offer a bigger bang than production skills.

At least until your business skills get so hot that you need to produce and post higher-paying jobs. 🙂

In the meantime, a great place to talk about building your business is the Cow’s Business & Marketing forum. Anyone wanting to build the “business” side of the business should check it out.

Last thing from me on the ever-overrated features front: I visited an Avid facility once. So big that they have their own gift shop right inside the main entrance. And why not? They’re among the biggest entertainment companies in the world. Single titles raking in north of $1 BILLION isn’t unheard of. You know them.

Big numbers of Avids everywhere. Top of the line, the latest HD goodies, massive networked storage, machine room bigger than some places I’ve lived, on a multi-building campus, with multiple multi-layer parking garages. Get the picture?

All their audio post is done on a single Vegas system.

And no, I won’t tell you who. But you get the idea. 🙂

tim(at)creativecow(dot)net

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