[Theo Van laar]

So to summarize, you started with an interlaced MPEG4 (H.264codec) footage that you rendered to MPEG2 (DVD Architect NTSC video stream) which looks good on DVD (also when played on TV?).
So that sounds great!!!

Just someting that could be improved: In the project settings you use GOOD for video resolution and audio resample and stretch quality. This could be BEST.

Your unexpected change in video format (from 720 x 480 to 640 x ??) is something I can not repeat if I use the MainConcept MPEG-2, DVD Architect NTSC video stream.

Theo

[Theo Van laar]

Hi Nick,

What kind of files (which codec) are your source files? What kinds of effects did you apply? Which settings did you use for rendering?

Theo

[Theo Van laar]

I would check the footage with GSpot to see whether it is UFF, BFF or non-interlaced. Because now you have some confusing information about the interlace-status of your footage.

Theo

[Theo Van laar]

Normally I have set the overlap to zero. But when you e.g. would like to make a photoshow, setting the overlap to a value higher then zero will give automaticly a crossfade transition between the photos. In some cases very handy…

Theo

[Theo Van laar]

You can easily hide the blocker points (if that is what you mean???). Go to the layer window and click the second knob.

Theo

[Theo Van laar]

Lower thirds (background for your text, placed at the 20% lower part of the event) can be made in many many ways. They can be animated or just stills. You can use any type of transition to make them appear and disappear. You can generate pre-made animated lower thirds in Production Assistant, in Boris Graffitti, Heroglyph etc. But it is really fun to create them your self, completely adjusted to your film. You can use photoshop to generate the background pictures (that contain e.g. motifs from your film). You can generate animation with the track motion tool.
A very simpel way to create abstract lower thirds can be done completely in Vegas. Just create a shape with the track motion tool or the coockie cutter tool. Place a copy of the event you are playing in the video also in the track with the track motion (or coockie cutter) and apply a blur (or any other effect you like). Play with light and opacity etc. Using your imagination will result in very cool custom-made lower thirds. Much nicer then all the pre-made stuff.

And the ‘Upper Thirds’ (nice word!!) can be made also with the track motion tool. To avoid losing to much of the scene, you can make them e.g. 50 transparant.

Theo

[Theo Van laar]

‘I’ve recently lost one of my RAM sticks so I’m just operating on 512GB if that could be a problem.’

If you render a small piece of both recordings to DV-avi, do you still see the differences?

Theo

[Theo Van laar]

No, DVDA does not deinterlace just by itself. Can you give us information on the properties of your footage, the project properties and the rendersetting?

Theo

[Theo Van laar]

Why not creating your own particle? Something that has to do with your movie. Is it for a wedding? Then you could use a flower from the bride. Or something thats on the weddingcard. Or whatever fits with what you are making…

Theo

[Theo Van laar]

Update 3.0.4.1:
https://www.wondertouch.com/downloads/updates/pIllusion_3041_update.exe

If that doesn’t work, then go to :
START-PROGRAMS-PARTICLEILLUSION 3.0-TROUBLESHOOTING-RESET DEFAULT SETTINGS

Hope that works for you.

Theo