[Dale Spetz]

Thanks for your reply, Edward. I have your Excalibur, but I don’t have a clue as to how to set up scripts. Is there a tutorial that can walk me through this?

[Dale Spetz]

You were right on target, Edward.

Somehow my “Windows Classic” Theme got “modified”. Setting it back to normal was the fix for my slide-bar problem.

Thank you!

[Dale Spetz]

I have found a workaround, but there has to be an easier way to do this.

I can effectively “crop” a portion of an HDV clip, and place it over a full 16:9 solid-color background AND maintain its correct size/position when converting this project to a 4:3 letterbox DV, if I do the following:

Reduce the crop-image height in the Tracking function, as well as position it horizontally.

Then, blind the crop-image’s sides with 2 new tracks of the same solid-color background. I position one solid-color blind on the crop-images right side and one on its left—using the horizon controls of the Tracking function. This, hides the two sides of overlay image so that it “appears” cropped.

This will hold size/position-wise when I convert this HDV project to 4:3 letterbox DV.

I cannot crop the sides of the 16:9 image in the Pan/Crop tool, because I must maintain the Pan/Crop tool’s 16:9 aspect base. At least, I have not figured out how to crop and maintain this 16:9 base. But, if the 16:9 Pan/Crop base is not maintained, it will not convert propertly to 4:3 letterbox.

I hope that this explaination makes sense. There must be others who are also cropping and overlaying images AND converting their HDV project down to 4:3 letterbox DV.

[Dale Spetz]

Well, I see that I big part of my problem is that some of my overlays had DV (720 pix) origins. I did not have their Pan/Zoom settings on a 16:9 base. So, that fix keeps all of them inline during the 16:9 to 4:3 letterbox conversion.

But, I am still having problems with the cropouts that have 16:9 HDV origins (a cutout from a portion of a 16:9 scene overlayed on another full 16:9 scene). I don’t yet fully understand the mysteries of the Pan/Zoom tool. When I frame my “cutout”, I lose my 16:9 Pan/Zoom base. This is fine, except when I want to make convert the whole HDV project to a 4:3 letter box DV.

Is their a good source to better explain all of the functions of the Pan/Zoom tool?

[Dale Spetz]

Never mind. Pilot error, again!

While I had my OS and source files on seperate drive, I had my scratch drive and render-destination drive as the same. This was fine for simple projects, but it caused a severe traffic problem for complex projects.

Re-allocating drive functions sped up my render a mere 10x.

[Dale Spetz]

Thanks much, John!

[Dale Spetz]

I have been useing clips of Generated Media (set at 16), to fade into, to accomplish “fades to black”, as a workaround. It never occured to me to simply place the entire bottom track at 16-Black. Great tip!

If there is no way to set the Vegas default Black to 16, then this seems like the way to go.

I will also have to letterbox a 16×9 to a 4×3, again keeping the black top/bottom borders at 16 (0 IRE). I don’t believe that the Broadcast Filter will hold those borders to 0 IRE (though it will on the actual clips), so laying the 16×9 over a black bottom track of 16, again, may be the way to go.

Thank you, all, for your input.

[Dale Spetz]

I’ll learn how to use it. Thanks, Ed.

[Dale Spetz]

Thanks, Mike. Yes, but that is sort of the same as having the extra open Vegas window. When you edit an imported “veg” file, it will open another Vegas window.

But, it certainly works. Just wish there was a capability in the Project Media to same these groups, internally, within one open Vegas window.

[Dale Spetz]

Thank you, Edward. I see that now. Previously, I had been splitting off the last frame, then manually pulling the velocity bar down to zero.

Your method is much better. No splitting. Just set two points–second one to zero. I hadn’t realized that the “points” had the option of entering the numberic value of zero.

Thanks!