Automating region cutting, overlapping and reviewing of the splice.

dosdan wrote on 8/16/2017, 2:29 AM

I'm editing a lot of multi-track junior soccer (2 cams with soundtracks + 2 ext. audio recorders) in Vegas Pro 12. I cut out the no-action parts, like running to retrieve a ball which has gone out, or setting up for a free kick or corner kick. I find I can reduce the final duration of a game by 20-25% by doing this. Does anyone know of a script which either does or could be adapted to do the following sequence of actions:

Split all the tracks at the current cursor (not just the currently selected tracks)
Select the region between this current all-tracks split-point and the previous split-point i.e. the no-action section). Ideally, this would ignore a previous non-all-tracks split-point e.g. if a camcorder commenced a new MP4 clip after the clip reached 4GB. However, since this circumstance does no occur all that often, I'd be prepared to continue doing this sequence manually when such a situation occurred.
Delete this region. Auto Ripple is ON at this time so the tracks will butt up to close the gap.
Drag the tracks on the right of the split to the left to create an overlap of 1.001 secs.
Optionally, move the cursor back 2-5s before the overlap, and then play from there until 2-5 secs after the overlap, and then stop. This will allow me to judge the success of the cut-points used i.e. is there enough info kept to explain the change in scene, and Ctrl-Z to back out if I need to alter the split points, and try again.

Here is a section where you can see that I've already cut out some no-action portions:

Thanks, Dan.

Comments

jetdv wrote on 8/16/2017, 10:20 AM

1. This is easily doable via a script

2. You would need two different script options - one to cut, and one to cut and delete. Otherwise the script would not know when to do which.

3. Auto Ripple would not matter. When a script deletes the clips, the hole will remain unless the script then moves everything to fill that hole.

4. Since the script has to move the events to fill the hole anyway, moving it far enough to create the overlap would not be an issue.

5. Moving the cursor back is also very doable. In fact, it could even start the playback for you!

Having said all of that, you would really need a custom script to do what you are wanting to do.

Former user wrote on 8/16/2017, 12:27 PM

Or program a macro if you have a Contour Shuttle device. I did something very similar a few years ago. I will see if I can resurrect it.

dosdan wrote on 8/16/2017, 2:32 PM

Or program a macro if you have a Contour Shuttle device.

Yes, I've got one. I've never used the macro function. Is there a Vegas hotkey to spit all tracks at the cursor, not just the selected ones?

Dan.

jetdv wrote on 8/16/2017, 3:30 PM

Just do a CTRL+A or CTRL+SHIFT+A before doing the split to either select all or deselect all. If all events are selected, everything under the cursor will be split. If nothing is selected, all events under the cursor will be split.

Former user wrote on 8/16/2017, 3:53 PM

Yes, I am writing a Macro for it right now. The only thing I can't do is move the tracks for overlap. That would probably require a script which you could trigger from the Macro.

Former user wrote on 8/16/2017, 5:21 PM

Here is my macro.

1) First manually Turn on Ripple

2) Second you have to manually hit CTRL-A and Split the first part of the event

3) Position scrubber for 2nd split and run macro

You might need to add a CTRL-A as the first command of the macro.

Like I said, no easy way for a macro to slide events to overlap. You could add the numeric keypad 0 to preview a second or so before and after the now split scene.

dosdan wrote on 8/16/2017, 10:54 PM

Here is my macro.

Thank you.

I've pushing to get a match edited and uploaded by tonight, so I haven't got the time now. But I'll look at your macro closely tomorrow and report back. Hopefully, it will make this frequent sequence of actions a bit easier.

I'm surprised that no script already exists that does something like this. Editing out the dead action/unimportant spots in a clip would seem a very common task.

Dan.

jetdv wrote on 8/17/2017, 9:13 AM

Well... Excalibur does have the "Extract Good Clips" tool which will extract "Good" clips (instead of deleting "bad" sections) and does have the option to overlap them. Just go through the timeline selecting the good regions, click on one button, and you'll have a new track with all the "good" clips together and overlapped as desired.

dosdan wrote on 8/17/2017, 4:53 PM

Just go through the timeline selecting the good regions, click on one button, and you'll have a new track with all the "good" clips together and overlapped as desired.

I've just examined the 80 mins U15 soccer match I finished last night. I edited 80m -> 61m31s (77%). But this includes the addition of 9m40s of 13 1/4x slo-mo zoom&panned replays of incidents, made from 16 clips (some are covered from 2 angles). This means that, before the inclusions, I edited 80m -> 51m51s (65%). This reduction was achieved by the removal of 104 "bad" (non-action) portions. (I counted 104 1s overlaps.)

So, to do this in Excaliber, I'd need to first select the 105 "good" regions and then combine them into a single processed clip. But each overlap has to be reviewed for comprehensibility/jarring/abruptness. If it fails this check, I then need to select either a different ending split point in the 1st clip or a different starting split point in the 2nd clip. Often I need to redo a splice more than once to get a transition I'm happy with. Reviewing and redoing splices, after Excaliber combining all the good regions, would be very difficult.

This is the 2nd U15 match I've edited this week. I'm retired, but it's a lot of time I'm spending on each match and my wife complains about it.

Dan.

jetdv wrote on 8/18/2017, 9:58 AM

No. Instead of selecting the "bad" sections, you select the "good" sections. Then with the single press of a button, it will pull out all of the "good" sections to a new track and add the overlaps as you are requesting. Take a look at the tool and give it a test and read the instructions on how that tool works.

The Instructions:

First I loaded the event onto the track and put regions around the "good" sections.

I used these default settings changing the overlap length to 00:00:01:00

I now have two new tracks (video+audio) containing only the good sections overlapped 1 second each so I would be done with the cut at that point. The original track is still there untouched which you could then remove or mute.

But each overlap has to be reviewed for comprehensibility/jarring/abruptness. If it fails this check, I then need to select either a different ending split point in the 1st clip or a different starting split point in the 2nd clip. Often I need to redo a splice more than once to get a transition I'm happy with. Reviewing and redoing splices, after Excalibur combining all the good regions, would be very difficult.

I'm not sure it would be as difficult as you think but that would be your judgement call. I would zoom in on the timeline some. Then you can adjust the ins and outs as needed. Don't worry about overlapping them again yet. When you are finished, then run the "Gap/Overlap" tool to get them all back to 1 second.