editing three-camera shoot in NLE as if live switched?

jbeale1 wrote on 3/7/2003, 4:17 AM

I'm new to Vegas Video having just purchased Vegas 4 (previously I used Premiere 6.)
I have an event I shot with three cameras, and each view is loaded into a video track in Vegas and aligned exactly (thank goodness for all those camera flashes!)

Now, in Premiere I would make a separate cut at each point that I wanted to change camera views, and then separately disable the video from each camera I didn't want to see. I think I can do this in Vegas as well, but just wanted to check first if there is any easier or more efficient way to do this sort of thing. Seems like there ought to be a mode where you edit as if it was a live switcher, ie. you play back the timeline and simply hit the 1, 2 or 3 keys to select the corresponding track, and the application handles all the cutting and edit points for you, which you can tweek later frame-by-frame, if necessary. Can it be done?

Comments

Tyler.Durden wrote on 3/7/2003, 6:38 AM

Hi John,

A number of users have methods they prefer... searching this forum on "multicam" should net a wide varitey of ideas.

A nice new feature of V4 is the ability to split on the fly as you play the timeline.

There is some more brief info here:

http://www.martyhedler.com/homepage/Multicam.html

(Click on "Multicam"...)

HTH, MPH

Tips:
http://www.martyhedler.com/homepage/Vegas_Tutorials.html

TheHappyFriar wrote on 3/7/2003, 6:40 AM

I did this for my dad. I just put each camera view on a seperate track (like you did), then made each cut. I didn't just play it and hit the "s" ksy (to split the tracks. You could do that but then all 3 tracks would be split. I didn't want that.), I would usually play, find where I want my cut, pause playback, select the tract(s) I want to split, move my curser where I want to split, then hit the "s" key to cut them. Then I'd split the 2nd point and delete the unwanted segment. I hope this helps.

Caruso wrote on 3/7/2003, 11:12 PM

You don't say what sort of event this is, but when I do multi-cam events, I like to keep the sound constant unless I am actually changing settings (one room to another, etc.).

If this is a theatrical or musical event, you'll want an unbroken audio line.

I usually approach it this way:

Do as you have done, bringing the footage from each cam to the timeline and align.
Decide which audio will be used and mute the other two.
Add a video track above or below the other A/V tracks.

When you isolate the cam-view you want to use in your final production, drop markers at your split points. Make your splits (to me, it doesn't matter whether I split all tracks at this point, or just the one I'm pulling from . . . I usually split 'em all). Since you've dropped markers, you can drag the desired cam-view clip to the empty timeline and let it snap in place to the markers.

I'll assemble the entire project this way, splitting and dragging portions from the three video tracks to that blank (I call it a master) video track.

In this way, except that you've made many splits in them, your original video tracks remain intact, so that, if you get mixed up or change your mind as you review your work, all video tracks will maintain their alignment to the audio track.

Follow the suggested links. There will be many helpful suggestions to help you. Vegas makes this sort of work very easy, and the results are very pleasing.

I've shot three and four cam stuff (musicals) where different cams caught different parts of the action and have used Vegas' compositing ability to create PIP - all over one sound track. It' not hard, but wows my "don't know any better" crowd like the dickens.

Good luck.

Have fun.

Caruso

jetdv wrote on 3/8/2003, 7:04 AM

I, too, use the master track method. Track 1 is the final output track while tracks 2,4,& 6 would be the separate camera's video. Tracks 3,5, & 7 would be the separate camera's audio.

On the first pass, I always ONLY adjust the audio using volume envelopes to determine the final mix.

On the next pass, I edit the video. When I decide where I want to switch cameras, I just do a CTRL-A (select all) and "S" (split). Yes, this splits ALL tracks but I don't care at this point. The process is to then move the selected clip to the master track after which I move to the beginning of that clip and add a very short dissolve from the previous clip. This requires the following keypresses: Numpad 8 (one or more times to move the clip to the master track), CTRL-ALT-Left Arrow (to get to the beginning of the clip), Numpad / (to add the dissolve) and then moving back to the end of the clip.

So, I wrote a script so that now I only need to press CTRL-A, S, and press a button to automatically do the rest. The script can be found at: MultiCamDissolve.js.txt.