Hi Arthur,

Yes I've done similar But what I would like is to be able to edit the whole film on the timeline Failing that at least be able to render say 10 or 15 minute segments then bring them back on the timeline line them all up and render out a feature. However I've got the feeling this would crash Vegas?

As long as you don't work with mov files, I see no reason for Vegas to crash. The longest project I have done was 1:20h with Canon G30 1080 60p footage all in one timeline and I had no issue. However, scrolling thru 1:20 on the timeline and finding something is much harder then in shorter projects; segmenting it does make it easier and I will certainly do it the next time I have a long project.

Yes but what about rendering DPX files or uncompressed?

i have worked on many long format doco's where the origina tl has been 4+ hours. true, most of these were made up of m2t clips, png's, etc., but vegas rarely ever misses a beat.

if you start throwing esoteric media, mov, and other stuff on the tl, and then loading it with fx then ymmv....

most of my feature length projects are basic cut to cut, then graded, then fx'ed, then audio mixed, and that hasn't prove any problem so far on any of my systems.

I would guess this is more a limitation of your PC, than it is Vegas. Make sure you're not running any other programs when you run Vegas, so it has priority access to all your PC memory and CPU resources.

One other trick I use is to set ZoneAlarm to stop All Internet Activity when I'm performing long sessions capturing, editing and rendering video. Internet updates, and background processes can run at elevated priority and steal CPU cycles away from Vegas.

Arthur.S +1

Same here, I have created long motion pictures with Vegas, but prefer to separate the chapters.
Especially due to the scenes having so much special FX and color grading.
Depending on the variation between the chapters, every chapter can be seen as a seperate short film.
They all have their own media assets.

But just to show you what Vegas can do:

I think you will find this screenshot amusing. ' Vegas-roll.jpg'

Yes.. those are audio/video tracks in Vegas.
Vegas is known for having 'unlimited tracks' :-D.
That is a screenshot of an After effects-like SFX composition which I have made some years ago with Vegas.

When working on shorter documentaries I spot/scrub all the raw footage using Vegas.
Sometimes that is 11 + hours of raw footage on the timeline. Beside the slower start up of the project, Vegas handles it fine.
Source files are usually MTS AVC H264 (HD) and Prores files.

As Gary James mentioned, your system should be able to handle it.

VMP

I bust them up into chapters/scenes if there are scenes that require cross flow of soundtrack etc. I use nesting. If you want you can put the whole timeline on as a series of nested projects.

"But what I would like is to be able to edit the whole film on the timeline".

That's what I meant by "2hr + projects" Mark. Done it many times. Not my 'preferred' workflow though.

I know if I open to many 2k prores files, Vegas cant handle it. Or maybe this is a limitation of my computer.
MSI GT70
GPU Nvidia GTX 780M
16GB RAM
SSD Hard drive.

Editing a video as a single feature length film (2 and 1/2 hours of runtime I guess) on a single timeline without nesting or sub-projects - IS WELL NOT DONE - what a crazy idea.

Did you know that real feature length films are edited in bits and pieces, sometimes as small as a couple of minutes of runtime on a server farm of computers that may take several days to render.

What an idiotic idea to ask for one timeline in your NLE of choice - not the way to go!

We'll mark you down as 'undecided,' videoITguy. ;)

Are you saying Vegas cant handle a feature film edit? If so what NLE can?

mark2929, where are you going with this? What reassurance are you seeking?

G

Grazie

Wanting to know if you can edit a feature film in Vegas.

Rendering edited segments. Import back to Vegas.

100 mins of segments lined up on the timeline then render as a single feature length file. Doable or not? That is the question.

mark2929 -you missed the point of my pointed post - don't read so fast - and slow down. What kinds of files rendered or source are you working with?

Feature films are put together in tiny tiny pieces, then they are assembled into sub projects. When you talk about one long file size release given the limits of your output media - be it harddrive or optical disc - then you may be talking final assembly by concatenation of files.

This is how you work with broadcast ffmpeg - concatenation of film bits assembled by command line interpreters.

mark2929,
Q. "Can you edit a feature film in Vegas?" A. Yes.
Q. "Will it be pleasant?" A. Depends. Probably not if you don't plan well.
Q. "100 mins of segments lined up on the timeline then render as a single feature length file?" A. Depends on file formats, plug ins used, stable system, etc.

The last documentary I edited in Vegas was not a terrible experience - but was planned around the things Vegas could do well and formats it likes. It was a two hour runtime, divided into two one-hour projects. No plugins other than Levels, Color Curves and Color Corrector were used. For any complex grading, sections were rendered to uncompressed QT and graded in Resolve, then brought back into Vegas. No compositing was done in Vegas - any necessary was done in After Effects and rendered to 10-bit YUV AVI.

The two hour-long sections were rendered in a 32-bit floating point project to Sony 10bit YUV AVI and then brought into a final project to be combined and rendered to delivery formats. Audio stems were rendered from the sub-projects and mixed in Nuendo, with the final mix brought into the master project.

There were several hiccups that slowed things down. Certain sections of the sub-projects had color shifts on random frames when rendered in 32 bit projects. Some were able to be fixed by re-rendering small sections. A few had to be rendered in 8 bit.

Original source footage was 1080p/24f AVCHD and 720p/24f HDV. Only uncompressed intermediates were used.

Personally I wouldn't colour correct in Vegas Only editing! As I embark on making my first feature film I want to know what I can and cant do.

Most likely I will edit segments using proxies then send the edit to Resolve or AE for colour correction. I will probably assemble the film in AE and make two DPX files One with colour correction one without!

Vegas is my fav editing program but for anything else. NO.

Just thought I'd ask though in case things have changed or someone knows something I don't.

mark2929
Not sure why you seek such a workflow - although if you are very familiar with Resolve it would be a good choice for color grading...what kind of file do you send to Resolve?
directly from the Vegas Edit?
Not sure what you mean by AE - but sounds like After Effects by Adobe? Is that true?
Why do you deem that a workflow for file assembly?

I've done it both ways.

Certainly if the NLE is flaky with longer projects or if there is a lot of team collaboration then it makes a lot of sense to build the project in sections. But for my projects it works just as well to have the whole enchilada on the timeline at once, and then do one big render to mpg at the end for delivery on DVD. Last year I switched to the mpg method rather than the mpv as I'd done for years because of the ability of Vegas to smart render such a file in a re-render situation. If in the final prototype DVD I found a goof or two, I could very easily fix it and get a new render of the whole project in just a few minutes. The initial render could take many hours, which is why I'd typically run it overnight.

And Vegas (at least 9c) has been bulletproof. It can render for many hours with no issues. So no need to break up a project into sections just for the sake of a reliable render.

Just did a 2:15 HD project to DVD a month ago. Two cameras, nothing exotic beyond color correction, deshaking, and a few other things, wild sound, all on the timeline, no issues.

That's good to know riredale. Thanks :) I wonder how it would be rendering a feature as an Uncompressed AVI or DPX. Should be easier Right!

Oh apologies about Vegas I actually do a lot of colour correction using MB for various work. Just wouldn't use it for Professional colour correction and I really hate the stupid levels thing when rendering. About time that was fixed. Nine times out of ten I forget and end up with a darker film Which on reflection often looks better anyway!

AE is After Effects.

The last two features edited at my workplace were done in Final Cut Studio. I had no real involvement except for some major archival stills retouching but I know that the project was definitely edited in segments then assembled in a master project. The nearest analog would be for you to have a master project consisting of nested Veg files.

I can tell you that there have been numerous instances over the years of forum users happily editing their entire long form project on one timeline up until they got to a point where they crossed some barrier where Vegas could no longer handle it. In some cases the Veg file may have been corrupted and unopenable. In others, Vegas just refused to complete very long renders. So, while you *might* have complete success working this way, problems seem most likely to arise at the end of the process when you've just got way too much time and money invested to cope with a roadblock. Much better to work in segments and then assemble them in a master project.

Unfortunately Vegas doesn't have much of a concept of a "Project" so you'll need to manage a lot of that manually.

Rob

rmack350

I've come up against this barrier on previous short films. For example I want to edit a single shoot day and marry up the vocals there might be a couple of hours footage to sift through in order to edit out the bad takes. Sometimes Vegas crashes and I have to make two Vegas projects and whittle them down to edit on a single project

That was then This is now, Sounds like large long timelines can still be problematic then. Maybe best just to render out in AE and edit in Vegas,

Really though an NLE should be able to handle this, or do other NLE's have these same boundaries?