Rob Strobbe
Forum Replies Created
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“do you know what i mean?”
Yep. I also know why it does that and what to do about it. First the What. And if you really want to know, you can read the Why. 😉
What to do:
If you’ve used the velocity envelope to speed up an event (“clip”), put your cursor where you want it to end (where you split the larger event (the original video) and split it again. Delete the piece that’s left over on the right (the one that contains the footage you don’t want). Alternatively, click and drag the right edge to trim the event until the event ends where you want it to.
If you used the velocity envelope to slow down an event, you’ll need to extend the event further to recover the rest. For that, you’ll need to grab the right endge of the event and drag it out further. How far will depend on how much you slowed it down, but you can just put your cursor at the end and look at the preview window to check.
Oh, yeah, and do all this after you’ve gotten your velocity envelope the way you want it. Otherwise you’ll just have to re-adjust your event again.
Why this happens:
An event (which is what Vegas creates when you drag a video file to the timeline) is like a window into a piece of media. When you drag a video file to the timeline, the resulting event is large enough to display the entire video start to finish. When you split an event or trim its edges, all you’re really doing is changing the size of that window — how much of it you “see”; but everything that was there before is still in there somewhere.
For example, you drag a two minute file to the timeline: Vegas creates a two minute event that displays the whole two minute video. You cut half a minute off the beginning and half a minute off the end, leaving yourself with a one minute event. Play the timeline, and you will see one minute play from your original video. But know what? The whole two minute video is still in there. All you’ve done is changed the size of the window. (In fact, you can do what’s called “slip editing” where you actually change which one minute will be shown. But I’m sure you don’t want to hear about that right now. Information overload.)
So, to finally get to the point: When you add and adjust a velocity envelope, you’re change how fast the video (the whole video) within the event plays. In the above example, the content that took up one minute of your one minute event would take 30 seconds to play if you changed it’s speed to 200% (sped it up to twice as fast). But your event (the “window”) is still one minute long — how does Vegas fill up the remaining 30 seconds? It simply continues playing whatever comes next in the media until it reaches the end of the event. When that happens, you just re-adjust the size of the event as needed.
The opposite is true when you use the velocity envelope to slow down media. When something is slowed down, it takes longer to play. When it takes longer to play, you need a longer event in order to give it all time to get shown.
I know it sounds kind of odd, but all this will eventually (or maybe already does?) make sense. And the way Vegas treats media actually comes in very handy when editing — even it does make using velocity envelopes kind of flaky.
Rob
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What method(s) are you using to import it? And what, specifically, happens when you try?
Rob
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Render As is the correct step. After you choose AVI for the filetype, you need to choose a template appropriate for the kind of file you want to render. Your file was 2GB because the default template (NTSC DV) is meant for broadcast or to be used for further editing, so it uses very little compression.
Ultimately, the rendered file size will be determined mostly by the codec and bitrate used. You can accept one of the standard templates (the description will usually give you an idea of what codec and bitrate is used for that template) or click the Custom button to specify yourself (after clicking the Custom button, select the Video tab).
If you select AVI for a filetype, Divx will be one of the codecs available to you.
Rob
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Just to be clear, I’m not (necessarily) saying to try and drag the files from the Picture Motion browser directly into Vegas. I don’t know if that will work or not; I’ve never used that particular program.
What I mean is to use that program to get the files onto your harddrive (you said in your first post that you are able to at least do that). Then back in Vegas, use the standard methods of getting files from your harddrive into your project — usually just use the Explorer window to find them and then click / drag them into your project.
Rob
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Since you’re working with stop motion (and, I imagine, dozens, hundreds, or thousands of images), you may want to use the Project > Import Media option which lets you import a sequence of images. You can then treat a whole slew of images as a single event. Then all you have to do is add a fade just like any other event (or even add a transition). It’ll also make most other editing operations easier.
To make this work, your image names will need to end in numbers (title01.png, title02.pmg, title03.png, etc). Go to Project > Import Media and choose the first image in the sequence. Then check the box at the bottom that says “Open Still Image Sequence.” The Range box (to the right) will have the last number Vegas finds, but you can change this if you want this particular event to finish at an earlier image. Then hit Open.
Rob
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“I try to follow the directions from the Vegas software but it’s not working.”
Which directions did you follow? And what does “it’s not working” mean? Vegas Movie Studio can’t find the camera? Can’t find the files? Finds the files but gives an error message?
If you’re trying to use the Project > Capture Video option, I don’t think that’s going to work. It’s primarily for cameras connected by firewire, not USB. Try either Import DVD Camcorder Disc or Import Memory Recording Unit.
And if neither of those work (or even if they do) you should just be able to copy the files to your computer using Windows Explorer or that Picture Motion Browser software and then drag your files into a project.
Rob
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Check your Preview Quality setting (above the preview window, fourth(?) button from the right). It probably says something like Draft (Full) or Preview (Full)?
Draft and Preview will give you a less than ideal looking preview since Vegas is trying to save on resources so your preview can play faster. And the Full setting shows your video at its full size rather than shrinking it to fit inside the preview window. If your preview window isn’t large enough, then the you’ll only see part of your video at Full.
Note that none of these settings affect your actual render, only what you see in the preview window.
Rob
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MPEG2 encoding (and decoding) requires licensing fees — that cost is usually incurred by the software developer / publisher and passed on to the consumer. My guess would be that to then add the ability to customize the MPEG2 encode would cost Sony even more. Since VMS is meant to be a low cost alternative to Vegas Pro, they probably opted to not include MPEG2 customization rather than charge more for the product.
I’d recommend rendering to AVI using a lossless or relatively lossless codec (Sony YUV, Huffyuv, Lagarith), bringing that AVI into DVD Architect Studio, and using the Fit to Disc option. That way you let DVDA find the right bitrate, but you’re not sending your video through two MPEG2 encodings.
Rob
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Are they little white squares with black numbers in them, and do they appear with everything on the menu, not just chapter buttons? If so, that’s just DVDA telling you the object order. Go to View > Workspace Overlays > Object Order to turn it off. For the record, these would not appear on the DVD (or even in the preview). They’re only for your reference.
If that’s not what you mean, could you post a screenshot? ‘Cause I’m not sure what else it could be you’re seeing.
Rob
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“Surely it’s not the case that the preset effects only apply to single line text?”
It is the case. And don’t call me Shirley.
Although it’s not a requirement, all of the default presets (“collections”) work like this:
1. Keyframed properties are assigned to a single character in the text block.
2. Those keyframed properties are “cascaded” throughout some part of the rest of the text block. Cascading can have a scope of Word, Line, or Text Block. I guess whoever created the collections assumed Line would be sufficient.You can remedy this by going down to the keyframe timeline, finding the line for the first letter in your text block. You’ll see icons that looks kind of like Vegas’ track motion button, but here they toggle cascading for that element. Find the one that’s darker than the others (it’s the one where cascading is enabled) and click the “…” next to it. There you can change the cascade properties. Change “Cascade range” to “…current text block.”
Rob