A way to preview two or more tracks. Not Track motion or Pan Crop

shogo wrote on 11/11/2003, 7:26 PM
I was shooting some music video shots and was trying to decide which shot to use for the same audio sequence, and I was wondering if there is a way to simultaneously preview two or more tracks without using the PAN/CROP & TRACK MOTION features. What I am looking for is basically a quick way to preview several video tracks together to ease the process of selecting the best shot. I hope this makes since (Track 1 has a shot from the left side of talent track 2 has front shot of the same talent maybe at a different time, this is not a multicamera shot while they are synched to the music singing)

Comments

GaryKleiner wrote on 11/11/2003, 8:00 PM
Hmm.... an interesting challenge. No Track motion.

You could decrease the opacity on track one so track two shows through.

You could get jiggy with the mute and solo buttons.

You could swish the in point of the event on track one back and forth during playback.

That's all I got.

Gary
Liam_Vegas wrote on 11/11/2003, 8:47 PM
Why isn't it quick to use the track motion tool to do this? I do this all the time with my video and it takes like 2 seconds to do it... especially if you save the "PIP" settings in the track motion FX.

-Liam
Softcorps wrote on 11/11/2003, 9:19 PM
Unless you're hellbent on finding a "longer route to India," then track motion is the best way to do it. There is no need to be afraid of track motion, it is your friend.

James
johnmeyer wrote on 11/11/2003, 9:23 PM
I agree with the others: Track motion is the dirt simple way to do this.

If you don't want to disturb settings you've alread made on existing tracks, just temporarily create additional tracks and then copy all the events from one track to the temporary tracks.
GaryKleiner wrote on 11/11/2003, 9:33 PM
>just temporarily create additional tracks and then copy all the events from one track to the temporary tracks. <

No need to do even that. Just use the 8 and 2 keys to pop the media in and out of the PIP tracks.

Gary
shogo wrote on 11/11/2003, 10:51 PM
The wrath unfolds, I didn't mean to offend anyone just wanted to know if there was a shortcut key or a switch you could flip my bad...
BillyBoy wrote on 11/11/2003, 10:58 PM
While you can't now AFAIK anyway, wouldn't it be cool if you could divide the preview window into areas and have track 1, 2, 3, all playing at once just by clicking a button instead of messing with track motion or pan/crop?

What also would be nice is a before/after real time preview window similar to Virtual Dub. I know you can almost get there, but not exactly.
busterkeaton wrote on 11/11/2003, 11:19 PM
Would running two instance of Vegas get you what you need?

If you are just looking to pick the best shot, you don't need to preview out to a monitor.
shogo wrote on 11/11/2003, 11:26 PM
OK maybe I posted it the wrong way, how about a feature request. I realize that it dosen't take long to do a PAN/CROP - TRACK MOTION but it would be nice like Billyboy said to have a toggle easily avalible. Two instaces of Vegas would work I too but like I said similar to the split screen view on the preview monitor to have an option there could be easily added.
Udi wrote on 11/12/2003, 12:54 AM
You can place them on 2 tracks, and use the "mute" key to turn on/off the top track while playing.

Udi
Grazie wrote on 11/12/2003, 2:17 AM
I think BB is on the money here. Nearest I got to "ease" so far is to use Tsunami Video Wall.

Just applied a "Grazie-Eazie-Test"- this is a test which I apply to most of my work, and life in general. That is, if it is too "hard" , don't bother.

Okay, using Tsunami done a 16 Track 4x4 video wall. Made a Loop selection and let the thing "roll". Now I can "pick-off" the clips using "Solo" icon I can elect to view each and every one of them, in any of the 16 combinations I choose.

My thoughts:

1 - Setting up the 4x4 Video Wall in Tsunami is a click away - Good!

2 - Viewing combos of clips is, well, complex. I get to see what and when, things happen and I can get a view in my head how things "could" be . . . . a lot of concentration. I do feel I'm an outside broadcast director viewing 16 monitors . . . if I didn't have praise for these people before, I do now! - Learning curve here is "steep".

3 - Doing all of this within one instance of Vegas could produce a messy t/l - Not good.

4 - A solution to 3 above would to use a separate instance of V4 solely for multi-monitoring and another for the assembly of "chosen" clips. Here one could use Copy/Paste, from one instance to the other. - Another here would be to save this Multi Monitor setup for future use, and just "replace" with the media for the next project - yeah?

5 - Could all of the above be a neater solution to attempting the normal approach? Tsunami is there to take out the drugery of setting up the video wall. Maybe using in conjunction with Excalibur's Multi Camera Wizard would be a sexy way to doing things.

Summary:
1 - Until BB's Nirvana is reached, using the approach I've outlined above is an option.

2 - If one uses only 2 or 3 cameras outputs, Excalibur's Multi Cam wizard gives you the option of "trying" out a section. You can then rename the output as a "save" and then change your Marker positions and run the script again. I've done this with a Disco sequence with 2 cammies synch together. I say 2 or 3 but the limit on Multi cam I think is 27 cameras! [ Edward please confirm or deny . . . ] Plenty I think?!?! - On the client's reaction to my work? They were so impressed they have just now re-ordered an extra 9 copies . . . My feeling is that the MultiCam Wiz made a very professional feel for the section and may have been pursuaded to re-order as a result . . . .

. . .and finally . . ..

I only go with things that are Grazie-Proof - this maybe one of them.

Hope this helps,

Best regards,

Grazie
jetdv wrote on 11/12/2003, 10:02 AM
5 - Could all of the above be a neater solution to attempting the normal approach? Tsunami is there to take out the drugery of setting up the video wall. Maybe using in conjunction with Excalibur's Multi Camera Wizard would be a sexy way to doing things

One thing to remember, Tsunami uses Pan/Crop to create the video wall. When used by Excalibur, the Pan/Crop settings will also be carried over to the Master Track. Therfore, after Excalibur is run, you would need to re-run Tsunami using the "Remove Pan/Crop" tool.
Grazie wrote on 11/12/2003, 10:21 AM
Good point Ed! - G