I don't have Vegas in front of me at the moment, but isn't there a data entry box in the credit roll plugin where you set the credit length in seconds? It probably defaults to 5 or 10 seconds.

Mark

Right click on the Credit Roll event on the timeline. Select Properties and then the Media tab. Then adjust the Length to be longer. The longer it is, the slower it scrolls.

~jr

Does this actually work for everyone else? Not here. Never has. If it's 10 seconds before I change it, it's still 10 seconds afterwards, no matter what I enter.

Control Z,

Are you saying the scroll doesn't slow when adjusting the length in Media Properties or are you saying the length of the media event on the time line doesn't change? (You always have to manually drag the edge of the media event to extend it's time duration)

The media length doesn't change. Never has. But for some reason people keep posting these 'solutions' that simply don't work. At *least* they should post the workaround - that you must stretch out the event *only to the tick mark*.

Dunno why they couldn't have fixed this in V4. Even Premiere will alter the length of events on the timeline properly. Or better, is a *speed* control on credit rolls too much to ask? And no, I don't mean a velocity envelope - they too do NOT change the length of the event but rather improperly _truncate_ it.

That's funny. I have used the event velocity envelope to slow down the roll just fine. I didn't notice any truncation. Your're certainly right about the event length, that just doesn't work well at all.

TomG

Sorry I forgot to mention that you have to drag the end out to the tick mark to take advantage of the new length. I was doing this from memory. Kind of spooked me too the first time I used it. It took a while to figure out I had to drag the end as well.

~jr

"Even Premiere will alter the length of events on the timeline properly"

Why is it proper? It's one method of dealing with timestretching events, but not always what you want to happen. I personally consider it useful that the Event length remains as I have edited it. Of course it would be useful to have both methods to choose from.

Also, as I read in a post from another user, when you are using Velocity envelopes, what length should the event be once you hit 0% or start going into negative %?

I slow mine down by holding the Ctrl key down while dragging the event. (Stretch it) You will see a jagged line in the middle of the event. If you are using Vegas 3 you will need to turn on the re-sample switch for this event or it will be jerky after rendered. Works quite nice.

I noticed in VV3 an oddity in Scrolling Text box. If you open one and enter a lot of text, and THEN type in a new length (default was 10 seconds), then ONE of three following numbered things happened if I stretched the length to match the newly entered time:

1) It worked.
2) The event actually didn't get longer between the little markers (triangles?), even if you stretched it. If you set it for 20 seconds and then lengthened the clip to 20 seconds, the result was an exactly timed double scrolling clip (You saw the text twice) with a divider at a triangle at the 10 second mark (middle).

3) The event, which was ten seconds, originaly, could be stretched to, say, twenty, and it played for 20, but all the text was finished in the first 10 seconds, just like before you changed the length and time. The second 10 was blank.

The solution that I found may or may not have been real, but it seems to work for me.

Open the box for the scroll. IMMEDIATELY set the new time length, then stretch it on the timeline to that time length, and THEN enter all the text.

It has not failed me, yet, that I can remember.

I don't know if the problem still exists because I got in the habit of doing it that odd way back in VV3, and still do it that way, and have not had any problems in V4.

> Why is it proper? It's one method of dealing with timestretching events, but not always what you want to happen.

I agree. Since when did the length of an event have to correspond to the duration of the source material (in the case the 'Length' of the Credit Roll).

> one of three things happened

I'm not clear what the problem is for which you've found a 'solution'. If you treat your generated media like any other material, what is happening that isn't entirely predictable?

For scrolling narrative text I like the velocity envelope as it allows you to stop the final page so the slower reader can finish. Yes, you do have to lengthen the event window, but no big deal since you have to decide how long you want the last page to remain on-screen anyway. Also, if you change the scrolling speed you will have to change the pont at which scrolling stops. Since setting scrolling speed can involve a lot of trial and error, and prerendering, here are settings I settled on: using 24pt Arial Bold, 0 space above, 0.05 below, set speed at 25% for the average reader, 20% for more complicated text and/or a slower reader. One criticism: the scrolling text editing capabilities leave a lot to be desired! Does anyone know how to enter continuous text other than one line at a time?

I am sorry if I wasn't clear. I found that Credit Rolls were unpredictable in that ONE of the three following numbered things would happen, and I could never predict which:

1) It worked.
2) The event actually didn't get longer between the little markers (triangles?), even if you stretched it. If you set it for 20 seconds and then lengthened the clip to 20 seconds, the result was an exactly timed double scrolling clip (You saw the text twice) with a divider at a triangle at the 10 second mark (middle).

3) The event, which was ten seconds, originaly, could be stretched to, say, twenty, and it played for 20, but all the text was finished in the first 10 seconds, just like before you changed the length and time. The second 10 was blank

My solution is mentioned above in my previous post.

Oh please. A credit roll has a specific function, as does slo-mo video. When you take a 10 second clip and slow it to 50% it *should* become a 20 second clip without having to go through a whole extra manual step or two.

If the editor wishes to only slow down the first 5 seconds they certainly have that option. But the darned NLE should *never* simply truncate video without at least a warning.

Agreed this may get confusing when you go negative, but this would be exceedingly rare for credit rolls. No problem to program the NLE to simply leave the length unchanged if the speed is <=0.

None of which excuses the lack of a plain english speed control for credit rolls. Way too much trial and error right now. I wonder if this could be scripted? Along with extending the clip properly, of course.

Perhaps we could use a 'scale events' toggle switch on the toolbar. When off Vegas behaves as it does now with no alteration to the edited length of the event.

When turned on the media changes length to retain the currently shown footage (so the start and end frames remain the same).

The only function in Premier that I really liked was the title credit roll
which had delay/start, delay/end and speed adjust. It also had perfect
color titles with no noise in them no matter how small the font. But I still
love Vegas.

JJK

> When you take a 10 second clip and slow it to 50%...the darned NLE should *never* simply truncate video

In changing the Length of a Credit Roll one would not be slowing the clip by 50% but asking Vegas to generate a clip of twice the duration. Vegas doesn't truncate that clip; it always remains available though this might involve extending the event in the Track View. Isn't this consistent with the way other material is treated?

>In changing the Length of a Credit Roll one would not be slowing the clip by 50%

Sort of. Which is why I usually do it via the alt-drag method. But whenever the question comes up someone invariably brings up velocity envelopes. Which simply don't work correctly and will cut off the end of your credits unless you do the second part manually.