Combine multiple projects into one for rendering?

hackazoid wrote on 2/1/2010, 6:34 PM
Have had stability issues on 35-45 min length projects with 8x vs my old 7x. Thus, tried an 'R&D' experiment on a smaller family project of about 20 minutes:

* rendered 5 chapters separately using the 6MB HD setting to produce .WMV files

* then added them before the 6th & final chapter on the timeline for the final overall render for both DVD and as a HD .WMV.

* Used some DJ swipes to help make the transition from one to another,

Worked but each took longer to render than I figured, can't re-edit, and I presume I lose some quality with the additional overall render. But, since the project came out well, I'd like to make some tweaks on the prior 5.

Question: is there a way to bring their Vegas project files back in & combine them to be editable on a single timeline? I'll take my chances on the overall render as 8.0c has been OK thus far (knock, knock on wood).

Or, is it once you start separate, you're stuck with it & can only re-do the segments and then another overall render.

Thanks.

Comments

Steven Myers wrote on 2/1/2010, 7:06 PM
Go to the help file and search for "nesting."
xberk wrote on 2/1/2010, 7:19 PM
I usually work in sections as you describe. Each section is a separate veg file. I render each section to VIdeo for Windows AVI format using either a NTSC DV template or one of the HD templates if working in HD. This render is basically loseless in terms of quality. I then combine the AVI files into the final project in a master veg file. If I render this to an AVI file that has the same spec as each section then the render will be a "smart" render and not take much time and suffer nearly no quality loss. I can preview the entire project prior to doing a final render for either DVD output or the Web. If I want to adjust anything in any section, merely go back to that section veg, re-edit, and re-render to the same file name so that the master veg is automatically updated with the change. Once the project is set, then render to the final format.

You can also do a similar workflow by combining the actual veg files of each section onto a master veg timeline. This is "nesting" veg files. Just drag a veg to the Vegas timeline to see what I mean. When you right click on a particular nested veg there is a choice to "edit" that veg. IF you haven't tried this -- try it. You might like it. It works best with smaller sections.

Paul B .. PCI Express Video Card: EVGA VCX 10G-P5-3885-KL GeForce RTX 3080 XC3 ULTRA ,,  Intel Core i9-11900K Desktop Processor ,,  MSI Z590-A PRO Desktop Motherboard LGA-1200 ,, 64GB (2X32GB) XPG GAMMIX D45 DDR4 3200MHz 288-Pin SDRAM PC4-25600 Memory .. Seasonic Power Supply SSR-1000FX Focus Plus 1000W ,, Arctic Liquid Freezer II – 360MM .. Fractal Design case ,, Samsung Solid State Drive MZ-V8P1T0B/AM 980 PRO 1TB PCI Express 4 NVMe M.2 ,, Wundiws 10 .. Vegas Pro 19 Edit

hackazoid wrote on 2/1/2010, 7:34 PM
Thanks guys, appreciate the advice.

I'll give this a try.
hackazoid wrote on 2/2/2010, 10:06 AM
Just had a little time to try this so far but it seems to work for me. Never thought to load .VEG files as "media" for my Master Timeline.

And, until I played with it, I didn't fully grasp the comments in that it creates a reference to the original .VEG not a separate standalone copy. Kind of like copying text media & it asks if new or related.

Thus, via the 'right click' of the nested .veg, it brings up a new Vegas session so you can edit the original and it will update on the Master, or any other projects that also use it.

Can't wait to try this aspect, presume it works the same if you just open the .veg segment independently for the edits and re-save.


Pretty cool.... thanks again. Love learning new stuff!
hackazoid wrote on 3/15/2010, 10:41 AM
OK you can save the day.

That family project was deferred but I have new 23-min one for a trip tomorrow which is crashing in 8.0c so broke it into sections & will try this.

Have never used the Video for Windows format. Selected the Widescreen (non-HD) & first batch rendered fine and quickly. Playback is good.

Questions (possibly stupid) as I'll be short on time:

1. After all sections are done, I bring them into a NEW project file

2. Do an overall render with same settings (ie Video for Windows)

3. I use DVDA, so do I then do another render for DVD format with the MPEG-2 separate video and audio files like I've done before.

Or, does DVDA recognize it?

Thanks so much for helping.
dlion wrote on 3/15/2010, 2:23 PM
you can skip step #2, unless there's a specific reason you need an avi "master." just render for video and audio as usual for dvda. (save the "master" veg file)