combining several projects into a new single one

Dexcon wrote on 6/6/2021, 9:01 PM

For me, highlight the wanted video and audio events (Shift-A for everything) and then copy/paste (Shift-C / Shift-V) for copying the timeline from one instance of VP18 (b482) into another instance of VP18 works as it has in previous VP versions.

Paul-Fierlinger wrote on 6/6/2021, 9:16 PM

I'm trying to do that but each time I paste a new block the new layers slip to adjust themselves to the block already in place.

EDIT: I'm OK now -- got it all working

Dexcon wrote on 6/6/2021, 9:33 PM

I'm taking that to mean that the 2nd copy/paste overlays the events on the timeline (TL) from the 1st copy/paste.

Just testing it now - that happens if the TL cursor is placed at the beginning of the TL - or somewhere within the events from the 1st paste - when doing the 2nd paste. If the TL cursor is placed on the TL at the end frame of the last event from the 1st paste - or after that point - the 2nd paste then occurs from the TL cursor. Basically, the paste takes effect from the point on the TL where the cursor is.

Paul-Fierlinger wrote on 6/6/2021, 9:39 PM

Yes, you seem to understand my problem and after trying over and over again I do manage to do something right but then the newly pasted project is mute! I mean I picked it up as a visible project but as soon as I paste it it seems to be muted and there is nothing showing in the preview. What can be the cause of that?

Paul-Fierlinger wrote on 6/6/2021, 9:49 PM

Dexcon, I don't want to mess you up with trying to help me out without seeing what's going on -- this is asking too much of you. As long as I now know that nothing has been changed I just have to figure things out fresh, tomorrow. Thanks anyway.

3POINT wrote on 6/7/2021, 1:29 AM

It used to be simple and I did all the time. I opened 2 or 3 or more projects and just dragged or copy/pasted all of them, one at a time, into a new, single project.

With this copy/paste method you will miss applied trackmotion/trackfx incl keyframes and also projectfx. For this purpose, merging several projects, I would rather use the nesting option of Vegas or just render each project separately and merge afterwards those renders, without reencoding, with a freetool like https://www.shutterencoder.com/en/ . The Swiss knife for every video editor.

walter-i. wrote on 6/7/2021, 3:19 AM

For this purpose, merging several projects, I would rather use the nesting option of Vegas

This is also my method, which I use successfully.
Simply drag all *.veg of the individual projects into a new overall project - and then render it.

3POINT wrote on 6/7/2021, 3:36 AM

For this purpose, merging several projects, I would rather use the nesting option of Vegas

This is also my method, which I use successfully.
Simply drag all *.veg of the individual projects into a new overall project - and then render it.

The only disadvantage with nesting is that rendering becomes significant slower than when direct rendering. Also you have to render your whole project each time again when you discover a mistake in your project afterwards.

I always render my subprojects separately and merge them afterwards, merging them takes only a few seconds. Discovering a mistake afterwards makes it only necessary to re-render the subproject with the mistake and than merge it again with the other rendered subprojects.

Paul-Fierlinger wrote on 6/7/2021, 4:55 AM

But in my case this is not yet a completed project. There will still be much cutting, and adding/subtracting more files, an entirely new music track will replace the existing one, narration and SFX added -- just more of plain old film editing.

3POINT wrote on 6/7/2021, 5:49 AM

But in my case this is not yet a completed project. There will still be much cutting, and adding/subtracting more files, an entirely new music track will replace the existing one, narration and SFX added -- just more of plain old film editing.

That's why I use simple sub projects, I complete each sub project before I merge them together to a complex final project. As I understood you right you make rough subprojects and start finetune them in a main project. Working this way I don't see the benefit of working with subprojects.

Paul-Fierlinger wrote on 6/7/2021, 6:47 AM

I'm an independent 2D animator which means every frame is a new drawing. To manage the production of a one hour plus movie which I draw by myself becomes unwieldy. As I draw I begin to create sections of action which together begin to grow my project. I choose to do the rough outlay in sections because this gives me more over all control while assembling these scenes in Vegas. I used to do this in a single timeline but this turned out to create chaos and inadvertently throw the synchronization of audio and video because I always draw to prerecorded soundtracks.

As time went on (I've made four feature length movies so far which run from one to two hours) I've learned to maintain better control of sync by dividing my project into chunks. There then comes a point when all these chunks must be assembled for me to not lose perspective of the entire story line because, you see, I often decide to switch large lengths of scenes between each other; tell this part of the story later and that part sooner; stuff like that. This is the beauty of not having to work for producers.

Dexcon wrote on 6/7/2021, 7:10 AM

... but this turned out to create chaos and inadvertently throw the synchronization of audio and video ...

Aah! Now I think I am getting the problem. Yes, I've experienced cases where copy/paste from one instance of VP to another has resulted in some video or audio tracks not maintaining their position on the timeline in relation to the other tracks.

Last time, I compiled several sub-projects into one project (in VP17 as it happens), I added a short black Media Generator at the head of every video track and an equal length random audio event at the head of every audio track in the project to be copied and then pasted. Using Shift-A (all) and then copy/paste means that the sync within the paste is maintained because of the video/audio headers. After pasting, they can be deleted (without Ripple) and then the new paste can be butted up to the end of the earlier already pasted sub-project using Ripple.

As an example:

Paul-Fierlinger wrote on 6/7/2021, 7:55 AM

I've been thinking of doing just that, placing temp barriers, and now you have me convinced that I should actually do it. But drawing a story is much closer to the act of writing a novel than to making a film and many writers make use of cut and paste entire passages too, especially when it comes to writing fiction. But whenever one rewrites something and then has to search something elsewhere to replace that space.

When I get to the single timeline stage I know there will be places where I'll have to redraw or even invent entirely new scenes. And that's another important point; I also do all my writing and narrating so this kind of work is loaded with potential pitfalls of throwing the entire story apart. Therefore I try to do this type of editing in the subproject stage because that eliminates the danger of throwing apart some distant episodes that have become out of sight and out of mind.

By the way I will soon be recording for the first time my own narration making use of Vegas' option to record directly to picture and I know I'll have to ask questions because this is unfamiliar ground for me. Is there anyone here who has used this feature and be willing to help me out with their gained knowledge?

Dexcon wrote on 6/7/2021, 8:43 AM

Do you have Sound Forge Pro (SFP) - any version? For years and years (15 or more) I have done my own narration and now only use SFP to record that VO. Even Audacity (free) would be good. Unless your VO recordings are faultless one-take first-take events for the entire length of the VO, I think that you are going to find that doing this in Vegas Pro will be a pain. Why? Because the chances of doing a perfect take each and every time - particularly for a 1 to 2 hours long production (which my projects often are) - is an unrealistic expectation. Even when I was producing VOs with professional VO artists, retakes and editing were part and parcel of the recording session.

By recording in an audio editor like Sound Forge Pro recording individual script pages one page at a time (page 1.wav, page 2.wav, page 3.wav and so on) and then breaking them down into paragraphs as per the paragraph numbers in the pre-written script, I can then edit the various takes for each paragraph to select the best bits from each take and edit them together. For example, the first take might have a really good read of the first clause but the second clause in the second read is the best read. Just edit them together to get a very good VO. It's then just a matter of importing the rendered .wav onto Vegas Pro's timeline and positioning it to where it best fits. In my case, I can finetune the video edit but then my original video edit has deliberately been edited too long so that it can be edited down later on to fit in with the VO.