Timothy Duncan
Forum Replies Created
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You bring up a good point. I’ve been thinking of starting a Vegas podcast. I just finished up the Vegas 7 update for Class on Demand and included what I think are some great little tidbits of “how to’s” that I don’t see anyone else sharing. It might be good to start creating some podcasts around some good tips and tricks and workflow enhancements.
I didn’t have time to contribute to this latest Cow edition as my schedule has just been too tight. (Many 16 hour edit days). Plus, we have been battling with a company over some SAN issues and I could not have written about them in a good light. We are giving them the opportunity to remedy the situation first. However — I agree with you about Vegas respect. So many times Vegas isn’t mentioned by those who know better. I was actually chuckling when reading the article about FCP and how it handles HDV. Apple has a lot of catching up to do. Vegas beats all the other guys handily with the exception of good hardware support. Decklink and Xena development leave a LOT to be desired. That being said — I’m editing tons of stuff in Vegas that is on worldwide TV. Many of our clients come to us because we get projects done twice as fast as with Final Cut or Avid. I still do editing on Avid|DS Nitris as well. Most of that work can be done so much more efficiently in Vegas.
Vegas has a lot more end users than most people realize. Version 7 is the best update of the software since version 3 in my opinion. Nobody else has even close to the amazing workflow and ease of use for HDV and Sony XDCAM HD. Renders take longer in Vegas, but the quality cannot be beat. I prefer quality over speed. And — Vegas can render in the background while you keep on working. But — HDV and MXF renders are not slower than anyone else. 😉 If Vegas would enhance a few things — they could indeed be “king.” Vegas plays nice with all others though, and now it can be run on an intel Mac with boot camp. I use Macs and PCs side by side every day. There are only two softwares I prefer on Mac: 1- Motion and 2-iPhoto. Other than these — I don’t use Mac. I am very proficient with FCP and know it very well, but it is so slow compared to Vegas in every way. Everyone who comes through our offices leaves with a new take on “Vegas” and how much more efficient it is.
So — stay tuned… Vegas is gaining in the broadcast market because of the XDCAM tapeless workflow. FCP had just added support for the HQ modes of XDCAM and it’s still not nearly as fast and efficient as within Vegas. Not to worry — Vegas has had more influence on the modern video industry than any other single software in the past decade. Avid and FCP have absolutely copied things that Vegas did first. I gurantee you that Avid and FCP both watch Vegas more closely than even each other.
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Hello,
Class On Demand has a Vegas 7 update that should be available any day now. It covers all the new features of Vegas 7, plus some great tips on color correction and how to pull a pefect chroma key in Vegas without using the Vegas chroma keyer. And — there is XDCAM HD and HDV footage included to follow along.
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Import the QT files and place on the Vegas timeline. Put them all on a single track. Double click on the first file and then hit “r” on the keyboard to save a region. You can name the region if you wish. Repeat for each clip.
Now go under Tools / Scripting / and choose “Batch Export”
Select the template you want, and at the bottom of that dialog box choose “Render Regions”
At the top — select the directory to save the files. Click OK and it will now be automated.If you have Excalibur — you can completely automate even the marking and naming of regions, then export each region making the file name match the region name. Scripting is a powerful tool and really sets Vegas apart from all the other NLEs.
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You may have to do some manual “cleaning” of the PPro project first. Don’t use any subclips in PPro (go back and replace with original master clips) and also don’t allow any “nesting” of PPro sequences. If there is any nesting — Vegas will import the clips into the project, but not give you anything on the timeline. Multiple sequences will come into Vegas as separately labeled layers.
I go to/from PPro and Vegas fairly regularly. I have one client that offlines in PPro and I then import to Veags for online via AAF. And — I also offline in Vegas and AAF to PPro/Axio for uncompressed work.
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If your TGA files are for animation (1 frame per file) and they are named in numerical order, then you should re-import the files as an image sequence so you are only dealing with a single clip to change the alpha channel properties.
I prefer using the “file open” method, as this opens properties automatically allowing you to set the alpha appropriately. So here’s how: click on the track of the timeline you want to insert your animation to. Wherever the position bar is located is where the files will be placed. No go to “File” and select “open” and navigate to where your TGA files are located. Select the first file and then check the box at the bottom of the dialogue window that says “Open still image sequence.” To the right of that is also a range selection to that you could import a selection of files, such as 0-150, instead of importing all.
Now you will automatically get the properties window opened for the new clip (which = each individual still image as 1 frame in length).
The only other way to set the alpha for a group of files is via scripting. Excalibur does this.
This is a weak area of Vegas. I believe that Vegas should always enable alpha channel when present — just the way .PSD and .VEG files already treat the alpha. Add this to the feature suggestion form on the Sony Media Software website. The other problem is that if you copy and paste any graphics files between .VEGs, then you lose the properties of the clips. The best way is to nest (to bring one .VEG file into another.
Hope this helps,
And yes — AVIs can certainly have alpha channels. Vegas can read and write 32bit uncompressed AVIs and Quicktime files.
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Vegas 7 handles XDCAM HD now beautifully. I’m now using Vegas to move all my files to/from XDCAM dics instead of Sony’s PDZ1 software.
I am amazed at how well Vegas handles this format and how well it plays back. Now I’m twice as happy for our company’s investment in XDCAM HD.
Next on the table for me is to test with a AJA card as I’m told it works very well now with Vegas 7.
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Hi Mike,
We are in Nashville and have had an F350 since early April. We’ve shot quite a bit with it and absolutely love it. We feel it is cleaner than the F900, and like having a tapeless workflow.
The only “gotcha” is Sony’s poor implementation of using the various modes of discs in the Deck. In order to use any transfer software that can write to the XDCAM discs, the deck frequency and frame rate settings must match that in which the disc was shot. For example: if the deck is set to NTSC 23.98P and you insert an 60i disc, you can copy the files from the disc, but you cannot alter any metadata, including the name of the disc. You first have to go through a series of menu settings and “reboots” of the deck. I feel this should be automatic, instead of going through all this. (Same thing really on the HDCam decks but at least they reboot themselves. You have to physically turn off and back on the XDCAM gear to reboot).
Outside of this, which is minor in the grand scheme of things, we are very happy with XDCAM. I’ve some friends who do quite a bit of work for the Discovery Channel. They’ve just invested in a bunch of XDCAM HD gear. It really is one of the best acquisition formats, and arguably is the best for the $.
The other nice thing about XDCAM is that is can fit nicely in a an existing studio because the deck acts just as a deck. Source from the footage as HD SDI uncompressed with VTR control, or connect in File Access Mode to transfer the files, or do as we do and use ethernet to FTP the files to/from the discs.
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Yes — I agree with Nate. No reason to ever re-compress back to the MPEG2. Use it for acquisition only. Source from it in editing and compositing, but render to uncompressed, or MPEG2I-Frame. You can go back to XDCAM-HD for archiving, but we only do it as a backup. We normally master out to HDCam.
For chroma key work, we have found the XDCAM-HD at HQ (35mbit) to be every bit as clean (actually cleaner in my opinion) than the F900 on HDCam. On paper I know it’s not supposed to be, but our testing and shooting has proven otherwise to us.
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Cutting with Matrox Axio / Adobe Production Studio. It’s great being able to mix anything together from HDV, SD, MXF, DVCProHD, P2 MXF, all on the same timeline with the ability to render to uncompressed or MPEG2I-frame.
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It is a huge advantage to edit with the native MXF files, but unfortunately, it’s not possible to use the full quality HQ mode and edit in Final Cut without treating the source like a video tape. For whatever reason, the software only supports HDV in it’s current release. (Which is the 25 mbit mode).
I prefer PC based editing and have a great solution using Matrox Axio. I can source MXF, HDV, and uncompressed all in the same project easily with no rendering, even for print to tape. I can choose whatever formats I want to render to, should rendering be needed. XDCAM is a great for acquisition, but we don’t normally master back to it. (We usually master back to HDCam). If a client does need XDCAM masters, it’s faster for us just to send HD-SDI out to the deck and record back to XDCAM HD in the HQ mode. (Only mode we use). You can export an MXF that can be put back to disc, but it is definitely faster to go HD-SDI since this is real-time.
I think DVCProHD is only good for acquisition as well. It’s a terrible thing to recompress into DVCPro in my opinion. Just do a comparison of some good clean uncompressed HD footage before and after compressing into DVCProHD. Take a look at noise and detail. D5 or HDCamSR is the best final master. Of course, you do what you budget allows.
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