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Originally published at Internet.comSony's esteemed professional editing app has just been upgraded, but how can you get the most out of it? With this batch of useful tips for Vegas's new features, brought to you by your friends at Web Video Universe, naturally.
To bring you the insider's perspective, we spoke to Vegas 8 project manager Matt Brohn and asked for the secret tips he found useful. With the new features in Vegas 8, he says the product is more than ever a complete editing solution.
"The Vegas development team took a good look at the market because we wanted to provide tools and solutions that meet real-world production needs. Vegas Pro 8 achieves that goal. I expect that more and more editors will use Vegas Pro 8 as a single editing application for their projects from start to finish," Brohn says. 1. Make Blu-ray Disks Without a Blu-ray Drive
With Vegas, high-definition delivery isn't limited to streaming formats or high-definition formats on hard disk. In addition to normal Blu-ray disc burning with Blu-ray burners and discs, the Vegas Pro 8.0a update now available on the Sony Creative Software Web site provides the ability to burn a high-definition image with a standard DVD burner. The 8.0a update allows users to select a DVD-recordable drive in the "burn Blu-ray disc" dialog to create a disc for playback on a Sony PlayStation 3 system and many set-top Blu-ray players.
2. Instant Disolves
When using the multicamera tool, users can hold down the Ctrl key while making shot choices for a soft dissolve transition between cameras. This auto-dissolve technique uses the settings in Preferences/Editing/"Cut-to-overlap conversion."
3. Switch the Shot
After an initial quick pass using the multicamera editing tools, editors can use the "T" key (toggle takes) directly on the timeline event to spin through other camera angles and quickly switch to an alternate camera shot.
4. Multicam with Only One Cam
You don't need multiple cameras to take advantage of the new multicamera feature. If you have a repeatable event, such as a performer playing along with a prerecorded track, you can shoot the scene multiple times with the same camera. Synchronize them together in Vegas Pro and then create a multicamera track, and edit as if it were shot with multiple cameras. Keep an eye out for continuity errors between close shots and mask them by cutting to a wide shot in between.
5. 32-bits Strong
The 32-bit floating point engine is only as good as its weakest link. When using 32-bit floating point processing, be sure to note any effects in the processing chain that do not have a 32-bit signal path. The effects are designated by a small blue square to the left of the effect in the Video FX tab.
6. The 8-bit Adjustment
If you're working in 32-bit floating point, you can switch to 8-bit mode while editing for better performance and RAM Preview sizes, and then switch back to 32-bit floating point for final rendering. Stay in 32-bit floating point mode while doing color correction and compositing adjustments to take advantage of the new "linear light" mode.
7. Creating Customizations with Scripting
Often editors find that they would like Vegas Pro to do something very specific or that they are repeating similar tasks over and over. Vegas Pro is extensively customizable through its scripting API, which provides an easy way to essentially "program" a dialog or script to optimize your workflow. To start working with scripting, an SDK is available as a download from the Sony Creative Software site at www.sonycreativesoftware.com and on the application DVD.
8. Make a Collection
If youÖ¦ve created an animation that you'll use on text later in your project or in a new project, save it to the "Collections" list. You can then easily drop the collection back into your project and replace the text with the new text you want.
9. Render it Faster
When working with HDV and XDCAM .MXF files with very few effects or projects with cuts-only edits, be sure to select "Enable no-recompress long-GOP rendering" from the General tab in the Preferences dialog. In addition, you need to make sure the render is going to the same format and settings as the original to achieve this fast rendering enhancement. For example, 1080-60i sources would need to render to 1080-60i destination in the same long-GOP format.
10. Organize with Hyphens
To organize a separator between the built-in presets and your custom template-such as in the Templates dropdown in the File/Render As dialog-create a custom preset with the name "------"(a series of hyphens). Then, any custom presets will appear after the built-ins in the template dropdown list, since they are sorted alphabetically (the first "-" comes before most characters that are likely to be used for a template name). Just remember that the "------" preset can also be used for rendering so be careful not to select it (it will show up in the Batch Render script).
11. Preview with Split-Screen
Using the split screen preview on the Vegas Pro Video Preview window is a very easy way to compare and contrast different clips in the same project. Typical uses include: * Working with color correction
* Viewing in and out points when doing a slip edit * Viewing the before and after when adding effects
12. New Uses for Digital Signage
The digital signage rotation features aren't just for video: use the media rotation as a quick and clean way to rotate digital photos that were shot in portrait mode instead of landscape mode.
Author: Troy Dreier
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