Boris Red, AE et al.

fadeout wrote on 3/13/2008, 7:43 PM
This is a generic question.

Is there anything that would get in the way of of a stand alone application that will output or input an .avi or other friendly file format from working with Vegas?

There have been a number of posts in the past complaining about Boris Red's integration with Vegas as a plug-in. Am I correct in assuming that those complaints do not apply to the stand alone version or any other stand alone application that can handle the aforementioned file formats such as After Effects, among others?

Thank you,

Bill

Comments

kentwolf wrote on 3/13/2008, 8:35 PM
>>...anything that would get in the way of of a stand alone application...

No.

>>...Am I correct in assuming that those complaints do not apply to the stand alone version...

You are correct. Using Red as a plug-in is a real kludge, in my opinion. And it doesn't seem like anyone is rushing to address it. Seems very "forced" as a plug-in in Vegas. Not a good fit. Red is excellent. Vegas is excellent. Just not together. On the other hand, Red plugs in to After Effects perfectly, again, in my opinion. When you buy Red, you can use as either plug-in or stand-alone. There's just the single version of Red. Buy one and you have them all.

...and there ya' go.
fadeout wrote on 3/13/2008, 9:46 PM
>>Red is excellent. Vegas is excellent. Just not together.

You mean not as a plug-in, but as stand alones they can be used together, correct?

Thanks again,

Bill

P.S.

And if I wanted to use both Red and AE with Vegas, would I first plug Red into AE and then move things between AE and Vegas?

Bottom line, if one is using either AE or RED (stand alone) with Vegas, are here any speed bumps that one will hit along the way or is it smooth sailing?
JohnnyRoy wrote on 3/14/2008, 5:27 AM
> You mean not as a plug-in, but as stand alones they can be used together, correct?

Yes this is what I believe kentwolf was trying to say.

> Bottom line, if one is using either AE or RED (stand alone) with Vegas, are here any speed bumps that one will hit along the way or is it smooth sailing?

There are a few bumps in the road but it's not that bad if you understand the limitations of using Red as a plug-in:

(1) RED cannot determine the project aspect from Vegas so you have to set this manually. If your projects switch back and forth between HDV and DV or 16:9 and 4:3 this can be a pain but once you set it RED remembers it so if you always work in one format you won't even notice this one.

(2) RED cannot figure out the length of the clip from Vegas so all clips start with a length of 1 second. The first thing you do in RED is change the timeline length to match the length of the clip. This is mildly annoying because if you forget to check the length before you start RED you have to exit RED and go back to Vegas to find out. There is no way to just flip to the Vegas window because RED totally blocks Vegas use while it is active.

(3) ...and this is the killer. RED can only get ONE frame from Vegas. That's it! This pretty much disables anything where you have to see the video play like motion tracking. All you get is the frame that the cursor was on before starting RED. So as a plug-in, RED is limited by Vegas to only static FX. The exception is motion titles which are created completely within RED.

None of these limitations are in the stand-alone version except #1 (RED does not adjust it's project to the length on an imported video clip. You still have to set that manually). I've used RED for motion tracking which it does very well, and I just load the clip standalone and do my motion tracking and then save it as a RED project. Then when I get in Vegas, I drop RED on the exact same clip and load the project that has the motion tracking. Then the motion tracking works fine in Vegas. It is an inconvenience and I hope Sony enhances their plug-in interface soon so that plug-ins can interact with Vegas more naturally.

> And if I wanted to use both Red and AE with Vegas, would I first plug Red into AE and then move things between AE and Vegas?

I have no experience with AE but I would NOT plug Red into AE and then move things between AE and Vegas because in that scenario you would have to render the clip in the standalone version of AE to use it in Vegas whereas you don't have to render in RED because you can drop RED onto the same clip as I explained above and have it render with the project. This gives you more flexibility to change without committing to a lengthy render. I believe RED accepts AE plug-ins so you should be able to use them in Vegas seamlessly. Then just use AE standalone when needed.

~jr
kentwolf wrote on 3/14/2008, 10:35 AM
>>...I believe RED accepts AE plug-ins ...

The quantity of AE plugins that will work in Red is rapidly shrinking; especially after several plugins were updated for CS3 compatibility. That is not a big a factor as it used to be.

Boris FX, however, does a pretty good job at making their own native Red FX.