Edit multiple Video tracks in real time

VariousArtist wrote on 9/26/2006, 2:48 PM

I have multiple video feeds on separate tracks. I want to be able to watch these in realtime and select the video to be displayed in realtime.

Basically, the same way a TV production person works in a live situation with various camera displays at their disposal, saying "cut to camera 2", then "fade to camera 1" etc...

I think this capability was added in Vegas 6?

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 9/26/2006, 2:51 PM

DoubleTake is a freebie that allows you to use 2 cams with cuts/fades only. From there, you can move up to several paid-for multi-cam options.

farss wrote on 9/26/2006, 2:53 PM

You could try doing a Search.
A number of products will do cuts and fades.
If you really want the same experience as a live mix with FX preview etc, don't know of any NLE that'll do it.

Bob.

VariousArtist wrote on 9/26/2006, 3:01 PM

Thanks for the quick response Spot/DSE.

This sounds like what I want, but is this product really for live feeds from a camera, or for the recorded video after the fact? I want the latter....

(I only had time for a brief look at DoubleTake, so I'm just asking to save myself a bit of research time)

VariousArtist wrote on 9/26/2006, 3:04 PM

>> You could try doing a Search.
>> A number of products will do cuts and fades.
>> If you really want the same experience as a live mix with FX preview etc, don't know of any NLE that'll do it.

Thanks Bob. I know that the latest Canopus editor will do it. I thought that Video Vegas did it too. I'm sure it must be a much asked for feature!

I did do a search but don't really know what terms to use to get the results I want. I tried "real-time edit" but the responses are not what I'm looking for or are too generic.

Watching the three video tracks I can, in realtime, mute and solo various tracks which gives me the effect that I want. Is there a way to record those events so that this hapens on playback?

This would be hundreds of times faster, and sometimes easier to be more accurate, than if I do it manually.

VariousArtist wrote on 9/26/2006, 3:57 PM

I think I'm getting closer to determining what it is that I was looking for, and if I'm right about it then it is indeed built into Vegas as expected.

Basically it looks like it can be accomplished via the "Automation Settings" in conjunction with the "Mute" button.

With the Automation Settings enabled, I can record an envelope in realtime that allows me to toggle the video track on and off such that the one below bleeds through. I can then adjust this envelope manually afterwards to make certain fine adjustments.

I need to figure out how to extend this form of realtime editing to multiple video tracks. For this I will also need a way to monitor those video tracks in multiple "preview" screens.

Maybe this is obvious to someone else out there. I am going to keep digging but I feel I am on the right track now...and thought I would share this in case it helps anyone else too.

jaegersing wrote on 9/26/2006, 6:35 PM

Hi Various. If you want to monitor several tracks in realtime I suggest you use Edius. It's multicam handling is quite neat and you can view the tracks all together or individually.

If you were to set up something similar in Vegas, perhaps using Track Motion to give a multi-PIP effect, I expect the performance would be too stuttery to be very useful. (Costs nothing to try though.)

Richard Hunter

farss wrote on 9/26/2006, 7:09 PM

As I said and Spot added to above, numerous scripts will do this in Vegas. I've bought Infiniticam from VASST and it works a treat, first job paid for it. Basically yes , it uses track motion to let you see multiple tracks at once. Where the power lies is in using markers to flag which track goes into the final cut and being able to select cut or dissolve.

Michael L wrote on 9/26/2006, 7:18 PM

I have used Excalibur for this with great results for 4 years. I believe Ultimate S works also.

Both come with trial periods to let you experiment I usually limit my edits to 4 tracks. MOre are difficult to watch and bog the machine down.

VariousArtist wrote on 9/26/2006, 8:53 PM

Thanks farss

I'm trying out the demo for VASST Ultimate S 2.0 and it's exactly what I wanted. I was hoping that this kind of functionality would be in Vegas 7....but I appreciate folks pointing me to the kind of tools out there that I was having difficulty locating myself.

I still think I could make this work in Vegas if I can figure out how to make the Mute buttons of the other tracks take effect whenever I hit solo on the current track. That way I could use Automation to record which track is being solo'd. I'm surprised that this isn't in Vegas though, or at least not obvious enough. It seems such a rudimentary feature to me. I do love Vegas for other reasons, so hopefully they will add this one day...

I'll have to give soe of the other tools a whirl too. Thanks again!