Stephen Mann
Forum Replies Created
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[Ken Bennett] “You say you use Videotagger to create your credits. We know the Vegas version doesn’t really cut it.”
I did use the Vegas scroller up until a few years ago. There was nothing wrong with the Vegas version, except that inserting or deleting new cast members, or cast changes, was simply awkward. I bought Videotagger simply because I could build my credits in MS Excel. Which is far more “editable” than the Vegas Scroller. As a side benefit, VT lets me insert a JPEG image into the credits roll. The downside it that JPEG inserts greatly adds to the render tme for VT to make an .avi file.
[Ken Bennett] “1- Can it create transparent scrolls? Lots of my credits are played over video or images and graphics.
2- Can you have complete control over the speed of the scroll?
3- You say you use Excel to create your data and import it. How do you do that?
4- It looks like it might take a very long time to render out a 4 to 5 min scroll. Is this true?
5- If you can use a transparent background, can you add drop shadows, outline color etc?
6- Have you have any issues with this software?
7- It looks like it can do slide credits (but I can do that in Vegas pretty quickly)?”1- Videotagger makes the credit roll with a black background, but the Vegas chroma key takes it out very well.
2- Sure, I just select the “medium” speed from VideoTagger and compress or stretch the event on the Vegas timeline to fit the time desired.
3- In Videotagger in the “New Project” menu there is an option to “Create credits from an Excel spreadsheet”.
4- If the scroll is just text the render will take a few minutes. I’ve never timed it but .5X real time feels about right. If you insert JPEGs into the timeline the render really, really crawls.
5- No, it just make simple scrolling credits. It’s written for the indie filmmaker, and to be honest, I can’t think of a single feature film where I ever saw anything but plain white text in the credit roll.
6- As I said in #4, rendering with a JPEG image inserted is painfully slow. The first time I did it, I thought something was wrong. It has some idiosyncrasies that I work around. There is a “Project Defaults” where you can set the fonts for the whole project, but I’ve never gotten it to work – I just set the fonts in each section.
7- I’m not sure of the term “slide credits”. Are you thinking of scrolling JPEG images?Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
I hadn’t thought of iTunes. He did look at Amazon but was turned off by their terms – something like they keep 60% plus charge an administrative fee.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
I don’t see it as a problem. I would be more lost if the audio track was not under the new video track because I can easily have 4 or 8 tracks of audio. So, when I drag new media to the timeline, its audio track is immediately below it. Very predictable. If I want to move the audio track somewhere up or down the tracks list, it only takes a second or so to move it. But it’s under my control.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Since Levelator does not alter your input file (it creates a new output file), and it’s free – what’s to loose by trying it?
I recall a review that started with: “Do you believe in magic? You will.”
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Another trick I use is to export the audio to a WAV file and run it through Levelator. Then bring the levelatored .wav file back into Vegas.
https://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Try selecting a region containing the F/X and use Dynamic Preview (Shift-B).
(Actually that’s why Vegas even has Ram Preview).Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
To the OP’s question:
There really is no file structure on a DVD, though Windows Explorer makes it look like one. When you “make” a DVD in DVDA, you are making single serpentine file. On a normal disk, files are broken into sectors and scattered all over the hard disk. There is a location table (actually two, one is a backup) in the root of the disk that keeps track of the start of every file and points to the first data sector somewhere else on the hard disk. Every sector on the hard disk contains a cluster of data, error correction code and a pointer to the sector containing the next bit of data. Add to that the overhead of formatting the disk which consumes a few bytes for every sector. That ECC and pointer data consumes space – multiply that by the thousands of sectors used to store a single file, and you have a lot of space used in the overhead. On a DVD there are no sectors, no file structure, no pointers (because there’s no sectors) and no ECC, therefore much more efficient. This is why the “Prepared” DVD will always be smaller than the sum of its component parts.
For the purists, I know this is a bit simplified description of how the DVD is organized, and yes, I described the FAT system even though we all use NTFS, but the principles are the same.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
I’ll bet you are burning the DVD at the highest burn speed.
Drop it down a notch.Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Wow – Thank you Dirk. I owe you a lunch for the hours you just saved me. I have 14 more clips of this project to clone out the wall outlets and your workaround is definitely going to be a time saver.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com -
Thanks for the quick reply. I could barely afford BCC7, so Red is off the radar for now. (But, I did ask if there was a better tool). The Wire Removal Tool in clone method does work, but other than the X-Y coordinates, I have no visual clue where the clone center is at.
Steve Mann
MannMade Digital Video
http://www.mmdv.com