Advice on programs to use with Vegas.
by Sean Ballain
on
Jun 6, 2008 at 7:11:21 am
Howdy all. First time poster but long time reader! Looking for advice on which programs compliment Vegas the best. I'm creating several marketing video's for my wife's real estate company. Most of what I need to do can be done in Vegas. I'm no expert but have enough experience with it (Vegas 7) to consider myself intermediate to advanced. However, I'm looking for something that will give her materials that winning edge. What other programs would you suggest. I'm going to be getting After Effects. But what other ones? Simple one's are great but I'm also not afraid of programs like AE that carry slightly more difficult learning curves.
Re: Advice on programs to use with Vegas. by Allen Zagel on Jun 6, 2008 at 12:38:48 pm
Hi
Are you looking for programs like AE or plug-in's or both? Some really nice plugin's that work great with Vegas that I use are the Digital Juice products and they're having some great sales now. Talk about giving your videos that "extra Jaz".
www.digitaljuice.com
Vasst's Ultimate S and they also have what they call Graf Paks (lower thirds & the like) is also a great plugin.
There's quite a few others too like Digital Hotcakes and Art Beats but I think for what you want to do the DJ stuff is great for the pizazz you're looking for.
Allen
Re: Advice on programs to use with Vegas. by STEVE RHODEN on Jun 6, 2008 at 12:53:09 pm
Yes you can incorporate several plugins as Allen said,
but let me recommend "Particle Illusion".
An incredibly powerful visual effects tool thats easy to learn and
offer endless amount of professional effects thats time consuming
to acquire from any other source.
Re: Advice on programs to use with Vegas. by Sean Ballain on Jun 7, 2008 at 1:32:24 am
Steve and Allen....thanks so much for the responses. I have checked the DJ stuff and the Particle Illusion out now based on your recommendations and will probably be looking to get PI and at least something from the DJ. Thanks for the great recommendations. I'm far from a professional....like getting recommendations from those who are!
Thanks!
And for anyone else....any further suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Re: Advice on programs to use with Vegas. by STEVE RHODEN on Jun 7, 2008 at 3:31:00 am
Hey Sean
you might also want to check-out "Prodad Heroglyph"
This is a versatile tittling plugin to add some whiz and professional
text titles to let your projects stand out.
Re: Advice on programs to use with Vegas. by Ron Shook on Jun 7, 2008 at 11:03:39 pm
Chris,
[Chris Young]"Cayman Power CG, ProDad Heroglyph, Bluff Titler"
Since you've listed 3 Titler/CG programs here, and I assume you've used 'em all, do you have time to give us a capsule summary of pros and cons from your perspective, versus what's available in Vegas already, particularly with the new Pro Titler. When would you use one over the other.
Take your time. A small chapter will do. (g)
Ron Shook
Shoulder-High Eye Productions
CreativeCOW Forum Host for Discreet edit*
Re: Advice on programs to use with Vegas. by Chris Young on Jun 9, 2008 at 10:24:11 am
Ron ~
A small chapter indeed! I find these following programs quick, powerful and on the whole easy to use and learn in a short timeframe. My kind of program!
Keeping it pretty short I would say Cayman's Power CG is a traditional CG in TV terms. Creates any number of pages like TM Pro. You can prepare heaps of pages and graphics outside of Vegas yet access them as you want when on the time line. As I previously mentioned any client changes update in the time line once they are made and saved in Power CG. All the normally expected font attributes of size, color, shadow, gradient, justification, alignment, layers both graphic and text are available. See it at:
Bluff Titler. A strange little beast of a program but a very quick and dirty way of doing 3D extruded text with key-frame able flying animation, e.g. flying through the centre of a letter or word, zoom through the 'o' in zoom etc. Text can have plain, metallic or textured finishes, flat or extruded, with or without lighting. Just beware that some fonts don't work as well as others due to aliasing problems on edges. Heaps of preset anims which you can use or customise and re-save as your own. Heaps of export resolutions and can export as TGAs, 32 bit AVIs etc. It's at:
Zaxwerks ProAnimator. Great program, love it, one of my favourites. Very fast to use and very powerful in the right hands. Way too many options to go into here but suffice to say it's one of the broadcast industries main promo creation tools. Can take Illustrator files and then can create 3D logos etc from them. Combine these with ProAnimator 3D text and movement, easy. Heaps of styles and texture to work with. Again lots of flight/movement presets but all can be modified/retimed etc and saved as your own. Export sequential TGAs, AVI or MOV files, your pick! If you watch ABC, CBC, NBC, CNN etc you have seen this program in action. Check out its capabilities with some of the online showcase files at:
A pinch of this and a pinch of that plus some fairy dust and sparkles out of Particle Illusion and you can create graphics and text anims that look like they cost mega-bucks but in reality cost little to create but can make your Vegas productions look like 'very top draw' productions.
Re: Read the Above Post, Vegas Folk. by Gary Brown on Jun 12, 2008 at 9:09:14 pm
I agree, thank you Chris that was a mouthful and well chewed! I would like to add the three apps I cannot live without: IzotopeRX for the audio tracks, there is nothing I've found like it. (http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/iZotopeRX-main.html)Check out the samples for a hint of the potential., Photoshop, nuf said, and E-On Software's Vue d'Esprit (http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue/vue_6_esprit/)for generating remarkably realistic animated clouds, water and other cool 3D effects with render options from web sized goodies to IMAX!
IMHO
GB-)
"Better, Faster, Cheaper ... Pick Two!"
Gary R. Brown, SCVE
Video Systems Engineer
Portsmouth Public Schools
Portsmouth, Virginia
23704-2135
