Change 79 transitions in under 20 seconds!!

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 8/29/2006, 6:18 PM
HA HA!!! probably even less than that. I was trying to switch all my standard Vegas crossfades with luminence disolves.

"WOW DAVE, You must have burned a whole in your mousepad."

"(booming laughter), WELL, I can see how you might think that, but no. The answer to all my problems (or at least the one where I have to drag and drop 79 transitions to little slivers on a T/L) is Ultimate S. Ultimate S was my answer and it could be YOURS too :)"

"But Dave? I've looked in the editing tab, there wasn't anywhere that I could change X transition to Y or change all transitions to Y."

"AHHH, but this is where it gets interesting, the Photo Montage tab is where the secret lies, Just deselect everything but the 'transtions section' create a preset and make sure you're applying transitions in the direction you want to go. Now you have as many transitions as you can muster changing in 2 shakes of a lambs tail."

(this is not a promotion of Ultimate S, it's just the tool I have. I don't know if There are other scripts available to do it so please feel free to let me know if excalibur or some other script/plugin does it.)

Dave

PS - hope you enjoyed the little story that I had to tell :-D

Comments

rmack350 wrote on 8/29/2006, 7:18 PM
Wow, Dave. That really IS worth saying WOW about.

Thanks!

Rob Mack
FrigidNDEditing wrote on 8/29/2006, 7:50 PM
I KNOW!!! - it sure made me happy to find it out.

Dave
rmack350 wrote on 8/29/2006, 9:41 PM
I need to start up a folder of great Vegas ideas. I've learned a few good things in the last two weeks and now that someone is threatening to make me actually edit something I'm going to want them at hand.

So far...

--it's easy to make a freeze frame with subclips, and no pixels get hurt in the process
--Nested Veg files are very good for controlling renders of track FX that would otherwise affect the entire timeline
--Render to new track works great with nested veg files. Much like using photoshop files, it's easy to go back and change the composition
--You can trick Ultimate S into changing all the transition types on a timeline (maybe even just on a track, I'll have to reread your directions.)

Rob Mack
jaegersing wrote on 8/31/2006, 6:01 AM
Hi Rob. I had to give up on freeze frame using subclips, because I could not get Vegas to deinterlace the subclip. If there was any movement at the point of the freeze frame, the result was an oscillating twitter as the 2 fields alternated. Didn't show up in preview mode as it shows a deinterlaced view, but it was there on the DVD.

Had to go back to exporting a still frame and bringing it back onto the timeline. Takes a bit longer but at least it's guaranteed to work (as long as I remember to set the output quality to Full!).

Richard Hunter
jetdv wrote on 8/31/2006, 7:20 AM
so please feel free to let me know if excalibur or some other script/plugin does it.

Yes it will.
apit34356 wrote on 8/31/2006, 8:34 AM
Dave, I noticed awhile back when testing the demo of Ultimate S2 that if you clear all the setting, then created a new preset, or used an old one, that had one or more effects, it applied them in order made in the preset, thru out the track. So, if you wanted a special order, this was nice. I was looking for a quick way to add/stack effects.
kddubb wrote on 8/31/2006, 2:33 PM
Hi Richard,

What do you use to export still frames? Is there anything free that others use? I'm currently using Vegas 4.0 and DVDA 1.0 and I haven't seen anything there that let's me do it...are these features available in the latest Vegas releases. I've been pondering upgrading when 7.0 comes out just to get the latest DVDA features so I can do commentary on some of my projects, but since I do mainly amatuer (aka free) work I haven't been as motivated to spend money.

thanks for the input,

kddubb
kddubb wrote on 8/31/2006, 2:39 PM
Of course, as soon as I post...I find a solution. Heavy sigh. Just weandered into the Scripting forum which I haven't been in before and found this:

http://vasst.com/resource.aspx?id=db6fe79f-d25d-4e94-aefe-f66b532dc8a8

Seems like it should work for me.

kddubb
rmack350 wrote on 8/31/2006, 3:36 PM
The most basic way to get a still export is to click one of the two buttons on the preview window that do it. One saves a file, the other copies the frame to the clipboard. I usually use the latter but it just depends on what you need.

Those buttons are definitely there in V4. Look closely or read the manual. It's in there.

Caveates are that both of these just capture the current frame buffer "as is". So if your preview window is 360x240 then that's what you're going to get. You have to make the window full sized before saving a shot.

Saving as a file automatically puts it into the media pool but it also makes it 654x480. I wish I had the choice not to do that because I don't like throwing away the pixels.

Also, the buffer is likely not deinterlaced so you might have the same interlace flicker if you save a still. Hence the script, which changes Vegas's preview rez to best full and changes the project to progressive for the moment it needs to grab the still. Then it puts it all back. (Maybe this particular script doesn't work this way but if memory serves one of them does)

Rob Mack
rmack350 wrote on 8/31/2006, 3:38 PM
Awww! I'm dissapointed. it seemed fairly easy.

Rob Mack
kddubb wrote on 8/31/2006, 4:08 PM
thanks, Rob,

For as much as I've looked in Vegas 4.0 for the export still feature...I feel like a total moron. I think I was always focusing on Rendering options instead of where it was. Thanks for the tip. I guess it's time to return and RTFM since I obviously don't know as much as I think I do.

kddubb
rmack350 wrote on 8/31/2006, 4:21 PM
No. It's just an interface design problem. I can think of three or four tiny buttons that are just way too easy to ignore. The problem is that they're the only way to perform certain tasks. Bad design. Not dumb users.

Many people have trouble finding those buttons and it's always been an unaddressed problem.

Rob Mack
kddubb wrote on 8/31/2006, 4:49 PM
Rob,

Would you mind enumerating those buttons...I'm guessing there's probably other things I've been ignoring for several years. ;o)

thanks,

kddubb
jaegersing wrote on 8/31/2006, 10:54 PM
The other thing about export still that doesn't make any sense (to me) is that you always have to remember to set the preview quality to Best, otherwise you get a very rough still image. I don't believe anybody would actually want to export a preview quality still image, so it would be much better if Vegas took care of that automatically (or at least allowed us to choose this an an option under Preferences).

Richard