Vegas review in DV mag
by danimal
on
Oct 15, 2004 at 1:06:41 am
i'm looking to move out of the premiere 6.5 dark ages, so i thought i'd throw out some dialog on the mag review.
first off, somebody should tell frank capria that pc's have an alt-tab function that switches between apps... so you really don't need a printed manual, and you certainly don't need to have a second computer next to you in order to read the electronic manual while you are editing.
one thing he did not touch on was the vegas titler... it would seem to be very limited at first glance, but you can apply a lot of editing effects to it, and it's real simple to put up clean titles... what is lacking with the titler are any lower thirds demo files, and i haven't yet delved into learning how to create the graphics blocks that would reside behind the text, from within vegas itself.
i came from an inscriber background, which was a nightmare to learn, but the tab stop functionality proved to be a lifesaver for creating the tree graphics i needed to show the elimination rounds of racing... and the tab stops work in reverse, for the right side of the tree... don't know how i'm going to do that in vegas... i could also import the inscriber files into other projects, and i guess that i can do something similar with the vegas preset bin, but it seems kind of clumsy... is there titler export capability in vegas?
so while frank listed the biggest vegas flaw as the one-sequence-per-project limitation, the real problem for what i do could be with the titler.
i was able to use the frameserver hack to export to canopus procoder, and while i haven't put in on tape, it looks fine so far... that functionality should have been created in vegas a long time ago, so that it can have factory support... why doesn't sony just buy it from satish? the vegas5 proprietary plugin format that frank listed will make it a lot more difficult for this software to become integrated into professional editing suites.
thumbs up to the vegas a/b timeline capability, it's easier to learn how to edit on, and it helps when moving to vegas from older editors.
Re: Vegas review in DV mag by busterkeaton on Oct 15, 2004 at 4:45:06 am
The "color blocks" for a lower third are pretty easy to create in Vegas 5.
You create a new track of video and then right click and select "Insert generated Media." You can choose a solid color or a noise texture you want an animated background.
Then you can use the Pan/Crop on the media and the Track Motion on the track itself to place the background on just the lower third of the screen.
If you want the lower third to be a specific shape, you can use the bezier mask tools to create the shape.
Re: Vegas review in DV mag by Jeff Weinberger on Oct 15, 2004 at 11:27:27 pm
There are a lot of users who have posted regarding their dislike of theVegas titler, if the author had made it an issue in his review, that might have helped persuade the Vegas design team to provide a titler with more of the features that professionals prefer. The author did harp on not being able to view more than 1 edited sequence at a time, it didn't appear that he was aware that he could use alternate takes on the timeline, or that he could simultaneously have multiple copies of Vegas open with different edits and toggle between them to compare versions of the show.
Other Vegas issues I would like to see mentioned in reviews:
weak support for exporting frame sequences- it would be helpful to export in the leading image formats, with a true alpha channel in formats that support it, with the ability to choose custom frame size and pixel aspect ratio.
If Vegas had true support for Quicktime Pro, it could export suctom frame sequences through QT. Another problem with the integrated Quicktime export that Vegas provides is that isn't able to utilize advances in the Quicktime Pro package. Yet another problem is that the Quicktime intergrated with Vegas can cause conflicts with Microsoft Office, which results in Powerpoint losing the ability to play embedded MPEG movies, even though they play just fine when the standlone version of Quicktime Pro is installed on the system. It would be more helpful to have Vegas provide a "Yes/No" for installing the integrated Quicktime option, and to be able to use the full Quicktime Pro if the user had it installed on his system.
Re: Vegas review in DV mag by Warner A. Weber III on Oct 18, 2004 at 4:45:07 pm
I was disappointed with Frank's review of Vegas, he seemed like a dinosour that didn't like change. He whined about a different way of doing things. Well, he is supposedly a teacher, so Frank Learn.
If you ever get to listen to a Vegas Presentation at a trade show or other venue, in the description of its evolution you will find out why it does things differently. With its abilities, it didn't need to envelope itself around other workflows of systems that evolved off of linear editing.
From the beginning the Vegas ability to loop, then make changes on the fly, sold me for life. It is a creative persons dream pipline to excellence.
For almost all of the things I have done, the Vegas titler has been fine. There are many out there that are inexpensive that will do what ever you want them to do, use them in those instances.
Frank seemed to be whining mostly about the work flow not being exactly like all the rest...especially Avid.
Well, based on price, creative abilities, and great workflow, it will pay dividends to learn a new work flow.
Vegas isn't the others, it just is what it is.
Warner
