After Effects workflow with Vegas

Jim H wrote on 5/3/2010, 8:41 PM

I just dove into the AE pool after I watched some tutorials on the new features just released in CS5 (mocha planar tracking, rotobrush, etc.). Not having used AE in the past I'm wondering what the normal workflow is when using Vegas as your NLE. I get the part about creating short special effects and rendering the clips for use in vegas. But I'm discovering more global video processing tools which lead me to think that one might consider running an entire project through AE.

How are most people using AE and vegas together?

Comments

TeetimeNC wrote on 5/4/2010, 3:57 AM

Jim, here is some info I copied from a past thread (possibly from JR). I use this with CS4.

What you'll need to work out too is a workflow between Vegas and AE. Not hard at all but you'll need to get familiar with lossless codec options for outputting from AE to put into sequence in Vegas. For video-based work (HDV or DV) i'd advise Quicktime Component Video codec asa good option, this is 4:2:2 lossless. Big files but holds all quality. If you're working in HDV then Cineform is good to. particularly if you're already using Cineform intermediate for your HDV editing in Vegas then you can out put effects, composits, title sequences etc form AE in the same codec that your project footage is in Vegas and still have it be a lossless codec that will hold up very well when final conform (out to DVD or whatever) comes. if you're making title sequences and the like in AE where its mostly text and graphics (not video from camera) then Animation codec Quicktime is also good.

/jerry

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 5/4/2010, 10:04 AM

I use it for what it was designed for, heavy compositing, MOGRAPH (Motion Graphics), 3D Planar with the ability to have focal length control, and DOF. What I usually do if it's an entire project of MoGraph, is make my audio in Vegas, and put down cue's in the video so that I can easily see where the audio event is changing ( plan it in Vegas ), pump that out in a video for AE to put on the T/L, open AE, do all my Visual FX, etc... and then render that out as an image seq., that way I can view in Vegas and make whatever changes I want, and then do minor additions. I use nearly the same workflow for Visual FX, except I will just render a loop region of the area receiving VFX, and I then mute my BG Plate, and render out a PNG seq. of the VFX.

I use PNG sequences because if you want to make a change to a portion of a video that is fully MoGraph (Motion Graphics) or you have a very very intensive render, it only has to replace the frames where there are changes, and then if you've got the image seq. in the Vegas T/L, all you've got to do, is jump back into vegas, once it's done rendering and your image seq is updated. (that assumes that you have vegas defaulting to not keeping media open when it's not active in windows)

Dave

ChristofferDK wrote on 5/6/2010, 3:53 AM

Hi Jim

I usually render mxf files out of Vegas - I shoot on a EX1 so that gives me no re-compression (when I don't apply effects) also I find that AE works much smoother with mxf than Mp4's

From AE to vegas I render out .mov's
Animation when I need alpha and Jpegs (at 97%) when I don't

-Christoffer

farss wrote on 5/6/2010, 4:06 AM

I've only tried this a couple of times to see if it worked and haven't had a need to use for real.

Save Vegas project as AAF and open in AE.
This will only work for cuts only and AE did get it right however from memory every event ends up as a layer. Generally easier to export out of Vegas as Sony YUV which is a very good codec that come with Vegas and AE opens just fine.

The other path you can try if you have Ppro is Vegas > Ppro > AE.
I've seen Adobe demo this a few years back.

Bob.

TeetimeNC wrote on 5/6/2010, 11:26 AM

Bob, why is it easier with Sony YUV?

/jerry

jabloomf1230 wrote on 5/6/2010, 11:34 AM

I use AE with Vegas Pro and I want to second using Cineform as the interchange format. The workflow is straightforward and CFHD is "visually lossless", so not much detail is lost by creating an extra generation or two. Of course, if you've got a lot of 2TB hard drives, go lossless altogether. To me this usually overkill.

farss wrote on 5/7/2010, 12:58 AM

"Bob, why is it easier with Sony YUV?"

That codec is a very 'simple' codec. My understanding is that its much the same as DV with better chroma sampling, unrestricted resolution and the option of 8 or 10 bit depth. Each frame is independant, no need to buffer frames unlike mpeg-2 or mpeg-4. It works in everything I've tried to open it in with minimal fuss and very low CPU load. It can carry uncompressed audio and more than two channels of it.

On the downside of course file size is quite large.

Bob.