BEST WAY TO EDIT 2 CAMERA SHOOT

DMAN123 wrote on 2/15/2005, 12:39 PM

Hey,
I'm a newbie. I have vegas video 4. I would like to "jump" back and forth between two cameras that ran for 30 min simultaneously. I have captured camera 1 and placed it on the video time line. However, I seemed to remember when I did this before that if I place the second camera on the other video track (video overlay I believe) that it "blocks" out the first camera. Last time I did this I came up with a stupid way of basically "cutting" holes in the overlay track so that the effect was to cut from one camera to the other.

I know I'm missing something - I've read the manual several times and gone through the help topics - both of which, in my opinion, are "thin". - I tried finding tutorials online - the only ones I could find you have to pay for (boo Sony).

So I'm taking the risk of sounding stupid and throwing it out here.

WHAT AM I MISSING?

Thanks,
D

Comments

JohnnyRoy wrote on 2/15/2005, 12:45 PM

You aren’t missing anything. You are right on target with the solution. Use Track Motion to create a Picture-in-picture of both tracks side by side. Then play your video and drop a marker every time you want to switch from camera one to camera two. When you’re done, add a third video track on top, split your videos at the markers, and move every other clip to the top track. (i.e., move track 2 to 1, then 3 to 1, then 2 to 1, then 3 to 1 etc. assuming you wanted to start with the camera on track two).

You can use a script tool like Ultimate S or Excalibur to make this much easier, but that’s the basic workflow. Both of these tools have a downloadable trial so you can try them out and see which one you like. Or you can do it manually.

~jr

B.Verlik wrote on 2/15/2005, 12:50 PM

Highlight the top track (right click), go to 'insert' and then 'video envelope' then choose 'track composite level'. This will create a line at the top of the top track. You can place a 'point' (right click) anywhere and drag the line down. When the line is down you see the bottom tracks, when the line is up you see the top track, anywhere inbetween is a varying mix of both tracks.

JL wrote on 2/15/2005, 1:09 PM

Since you said you would like to “jump” back and forth between cams, then alternatively with jr’s method, rather than moving clips to a third track, split the upper track at the markers you’ve set and simply delete the unwanted regions of that upper track leaving the lower (2nd cam) track in tact. You’ll have to remove the track motion split screen setting of course. And then you can fine-tune the cut locations by dragging the edges of the upper track events.

JL

DMAN123 wrote on 2/15/2005, 1:21 PM

Thanks!
you guys are fast and helpful. You refer to "track motion" split screen (picture in picture of both tracks side by side) I am not familar with this feature. I don't have the program loaded on the this computer, so I'll have to wait until tonight to try it but I am assuming it is easy to find and self explanitory.

Again, thanks for the help.

D

JL wrote on 2/15/2005, 1:30 PM

Here's a veg that I created for another project to get a 4-way PIP using track motion that might help you to get gist of it. 4-in-1.veg

JL

B.Verlik wrote on 2/15/2005, 1:34 PM

If you're really a newbie, I think my way will be easier for you to understand and do. Especially, if you don't need to switch the audio to each separate camera too.

jetdv wrote on 2/15/2005, 1:43 PM

I have four different methods of performing this task fully explained in Vol 1 Issue 9 of my newsletters

The basic options are:
1) Cutting away the upper tracks
2) Using Composite Envelopes
3) Creating a Master track
4) Using Scripts (which is the absolute easiest method)

JL wrote on 2/15/2005, 1:52 PM

Yes audio, TheGr8Steve has a good point. I usually use the audio traces to sync the two camera tracks and then if possible only use the audio from the better of the two sources. But I suppose it all depends on the specifics of your media and project goals.

[edit] Ed’s newsletters are a great resource and I’d say the one mentioned would be very helpful in this case and well worth reading.

JL

DMAN123 wrote on 2/15/2005, 2:28 PM

Thanks for the help!

D

jazzvalve wrote on 2/15/2005, 2:31 PM

i been using Ultimtate. its fast n' easy.

riredale wrote on 2/15/2005, 3:07 PM

At risk of repeating what others have already said:

(1) Sync the 2, 3, or 4 cameras together using audio.

(2) Sync with the master audio to be used for the event.

(3) Use Track motion to make 2, 3, or 4 pip's. Make them somewhat smaller that 1/2 height and width so that you can partially see behind them.

(4) Put a blank video track at the bottom of the timeline stack.

(5) Go through and pick the best shot for that particular moment. When you have that shot, split the video tracks, double-click your chosen clip, CTRL-C that clip to the clipboard, select the bottom track by clicking once over at the left side (where the track header info is located), then CTRL-P to the bottom track. If you've done it correctly the clip from the selected camera will appear in exactly the same place timewise that it was before, only now on the bottom video track.

(6) Once you've done all the cutting and pasting, go back over your work and adjust the timing of the cuts and/or the amount of dissolve time (overlap) you want from one shot to the next. You mute the camera tracks so that you can see the final track full-screen.

(7) If the cameras are not balanced with each other, you'll have to color-correct individual clips. Better to have done the color-correction of that camera's entire track before cutting and pasting.

Piece of cake.

TheHappyFriar wrote on 2/15/2005, 6:58 PM

Hm... I do it all differently then every one else (I don't have an external preview monitor so that's split screens are hard to see)

1) line up & sync the video/audio

2) split all the scenes up (in bloth clips)

3) review each scene one by one to find the best angle. Sometimes I take one part of one angle & another part of the other. Use the solo button to select which track to see.

It works but has a little more prep time then the above mentioned mothods. The advantage is that there's less button clicking for the clip you want (just select & delete) & if you don't have a preview monitor you don't need to squint at the small preview window. :)