Aligning using Timecode... one track per camera instead of multiples

RedRob-CandlelightProdctns wrote on 1/9/2020, 1:23 PM

Up until now, I've *always* used audio peaks to align my multi-camera shoots, either manually or using Pluralize (which does a lousy job with spanning GoPro clips FYI).

Planning a small 2-cam shoot tomorrow where audio will be sparse, so I'm trying out the "synch using timecode" for the first time in 10+ years. It's a sports event and we're just following a single player; we plan on stopping/starting the cams only when the player is on the field to minimize the footage we need to go through in post -- that said, I understand we can shoot continuous through the whole event to simplify alignment.

My cameras for this don't have BNC timecode ports (G40, XA11). I've set the timecode to preset/free-run and pressed "reset" on both cameras within a second of each other to get them pretty close (can ripple in post to get them spot on using an audio peek).

When I select them all in the Project Media and choose "lay out tracks using media timecode", each event/clip is going on a different track (e.g. if each of the 2 cams recorded 5 clips, I end up with 10 tracks -- 20 if you count the audio track).

Is there a way to keep each camera's media together on a single track (e.g. I should have 2 tracks if the media is just from 2 cameras)?

Comments

RedRob-CandlelightProdctns wrote on 1/9/2020, 1:52 PM

To make things a bit more odd... Vegas seems to drop clips into different timeline places relative to other clips that are selected when laying things out ?? Can anyone explain this behavior?

Example 1:

Select project media from CAM1, right-click, layout timeline events using timecode
Select project media from CAM2, do the same thing
RESULT: The first event from both CAM1 and CAM2 media begin at point 00:00:00 on the timeline

Example 2:

Select project media from both CAM1 and CAM2, right-click, layout timeline events using timecode
RESULT: The first clip which was recorded starts at point 00:00:0 on the timeline and all other clips are positioned to the right of it relatively

Former user wrote on 1/9/2020, 1:58 PM

The HELP section mentions using Multicamera mode, are you doing that? Also make sure your clips are assigned a camera name.

"Add your clips to the timeline:

For clips with synchronized timecode, choose Multicamera from the Tools menu, and then choose Lay Out Tracks Using Media Timecode from the submenu.

For clips without synchronized timecode, choose Multicamera from the Tools menu, and then choose Lay Out Tracks Using Media Date/Time Stamp from the submenu.

The result is a pair of tracks for each camera, with events aligned based on the timecode or date/time stamp of each clip. If your scenes were captured with synchronized timecode, your clips should be in perfect alignment. Otherwise, you'll need to adjust the alignment to synchronize the clips. The goal is to align the clips in time so the synchronization points you recorded occur at the same timeline position for all clips."

RedRob-CandlelightProdctns wrote on 1/9/2020, 2:24 PM

@Former user I read the help :) But thanks for the reminder in case I hadn't.. always a good place to start. I also searched these forums before posting.

Whether you multi-select the clips in Project Media and say "layout tracks using timecode", or choose the option in the Tools->Multicam menu, it invokes the same function and behavior -- yes, I tested both out -- identical results.

I suspect the docs are perhaps in error, and should say "The result is a pair of tracks for each selected media" rather than "each camera". But maybe there's a trick to getting it to read the multiple media clips per camera as being from a single camera (and going onto a single track)?

Former user wrote on 1/9/2020, 2:39 PM

Do your clips have Tape/Camera names?

RedRob-CandlelightProdctns wrote on 1/9/2020, 3:03 PM

Ah HA... Brilliant!

I manually typed in a tape name (double-click in project media grid, type name) for each of the clips (C1 or C2) and then executed the "layout using timecode" and they were grouped by tape/camera. Fantastic -- thank you!

NOW the question will be -- what's the easiest way to get tape name onto the source media without manually typing it for each piece of media... ;-) I DO see I can do it in "batch" using Vegasaur's "Quick Properties" feature... think that'll be the ticket!