Thanks for the suggestion Chienworks! Using track motion to see all the cameras is a great tip! I was bouncing between video tracks using the "mute" button... then doing what you mentioned, splitting the scenes on of the video track I wanted. This will definitely help make my multi cam editing much easier!

>>"though since it's only fading one track some of the transitions won't operate fully as you'd expect. "

I've ran into this also, In the instances where the transitions don't work properly, I split a gap on the longer clip the size of the shorter clip and drag the shorter of the two clips onto the gap of the longer clip then fine adjust the transition until it's just right.

Thanks Cheinworks.

I've been playing with what you suggested and managed to get it working. So that's a great help. Is that the official way to do it as it seems a bit time consuming & messy not to mention a lot of work but maybe that's just the way it is, i'm sure I'll get quicker with 45 songs to edit!

As you say fades are a bit messy but i'll play around a bit more.

If you right click a track header on the left you can select 'expand track layers' which looks as though I should be able to do something useful with this? There is no mention of it in the manual?

Thanks again for your help. Mike

Kelly's (Chienworks) suggestion is probably about as good as it gets for multicam editing with VMS.

If you step up to the Pro version of Vegas (yep, its a lot more money) there are other options for multicam editing. Vegas 8 Pro adds built-in support for multi-cam editing. It operates much the same as Kelly describes, except that Vegas does much of the work for you. Vegas automatically handles the "multiple, little preview screens" for you, and when you want to switch from one camera to another camera you can just click on the view you want in the preview screen (either while the video is playing, or while manually scrubbing through your footage) and Vegas creates the cuts or crossfades for you. Also, all three views end up as multiple "takes" on the same track, so after you are done splitting the events you can easily add transitions at any place you switch from one camera to another.

Other options for multi-cam editing with the Pro version (including older versions like Vegas 6 and Vegas 7) are the script based add-ons "Ultimate S" (from VASST) and "Excalibur" (From Ed Troxel/jeditdv). I don't have any personal experience with either package, but they both get rave reviews from others (and both do a LOT more than just multi-cam support). Again, these options only work with the Pro (or "full) version of Vegas, and must be purchased (they're not free).

Tim L

Okay guys, I kept thinking about this after I posted above, and I think I've come up with a very good multi-cam approach for VMS. As a former VMS user I still have VMS 6 installed, so I played around a bit and came up with the following workflow.

It sort of mimics the way it's done in the Vegas Pro 8 version, but involves more manual work on your part. And even though this post looks very, very long, the actual procedure only takes a few minutes and may save you LOTs of editing time.

Hopefully somebody will have the courage to print this out and give it a try. If you do, please let me know if you find problems or omissions in my instructions, or if you have any improvements to offer.

(And really, in practice it isn't nearly as complicated as it looks below...)

Tim L
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The following describes a method for editing a 3-camera shoot in Sony Vegas Movie Studio, which is limited to four video tracks. It is not as flexible and easy to use as what is available in the Vegas Pro version, but I believe it offers a very acceptable workflow.

This method only works if all three cameras were running continuously. If cameras were started and stopped, you will have to synchronize all the individual pieces on the three camera tracks, then render each camera out individually and bring those "single piece" files back in. (The method described here requires that each camera view is a single "event" that can be dropped onto the multi-cam track as an additional take.)

The basic procedure is this:

- All three cameras are placed onto individual tracks and synchronized.

- The three tracks are then copied and combined as multiple takes on a fourth video track (the multi-cam track).

- While watching reduced-size versions of all three original cameras in the preview window, splits are placed in the multi-cam track wherever camera changes are desired. These splits only show where camera changes were desired, but do not indicate specifically what camera to switch to.

- After the splits are inserted, the three original tracks are muted and only the multi-cam track is enabled. You then step through each "piece" on the multi-cam track and choose any of the original camera angles for that piece.

- Crossfades and transitions can be added between camera switches (splits) just like any other pair of events.

- When rendering, the original camera video tracks are muted and only the "multi-cam" track is enabled.

- You're on your own to figure out your audio. In general, one main audio track would be retained and the others deleted (or at least muted). However, the numerous splits that will end up in all the tracks (including audio) might affect the audio quality, so you might want to render out a "pre-split" audio track as a wav file, then bring it back in just before the final render.


Here is the workflow in just 22 easy steps:

1. Put video from your 3 cameras on three separate tracks. (NOTE: Do NOT shrink them and move them to the corners until step 14 below)

2. Move the events left and right until they are synchronized (look for a drum hit or camera flash, etc.) If you are only going to use the "main" audio track and not the others, you could delete the extra audio tracks now just to simplify things.

3. All three need to be chopped off so that they start at the same point on the timeline (this is critical). Locate a "beginning" synch point somewhere where all 3 cameras were rolling, and press "M" to put a marker there.

4. With none of the events selected, and the cursor still at the marker, press "S" to split all 3 tracks at the same place on the timeline. Delete the extra pieces split off ahead of your start point. You can do the same for the end, but it isn't strictly necessary.

5. It would be a good idea to save the project at this point, then save again under a new name (i.e. save myproject.vf, and then "save as" myproject-1.vf, etc.) so you can always back up to the original, synchronized clips if things get screwed up below.

** NOTE ** This would be a good place to render out a pristine copy of your audio track, before it gets split to pieces.

6. Now add a fourth video track, below all the others. This is where we will put copies of tracks 1, 2, and 3 as multiple "takes" on the same track (kind of what the pro package does).

7. Double-click the video on your top track (camera number 1). This creates a blue "selection" region encompassing the entire event on track 1. Right-click on the camera 1 event and select "Open in Trimmer". This will copy the entire *original* video clip to the trimmer, but the same section highlighted on the timeline will be highlighted in the trimmer. (This is important)

8. Without clicking on anything else, press and release the TAB key until only the video is highlighted in the trimmer (you want the audio to have a white background, indicating it is not selected).

9. Left-Click and drag the video from the trimmer (inside the blue section) to the fourth video track. The marker will help make sure you get it aligned with the other tracks.

10. Next, double-click the camera 2 event on track 2. Again, this creates a selection region. Right click on the event and select "Open in Trimmer". Press the TAB key until only the Video is selected. BUT THIS TIME... RIGHT-CLICK and drag the video from the trimmer and drop it on the camera 1 video ON TRACK 4. When you release the mouse button, select "Add as takes" from the pop-up menu. (This "Add as takes" item is critical to this whole concept.)

**NOTE** You don't have to be at all precise with positioning the additional takes on track 4. When you drop the second video on top of the first one, VMS will automatically align the added take so that it starts at the same point as the existing event on track 4.

11. Do the same for camera 3: double-click the camera 3 event on track 3. Right click on the event and select "Open in Trimmer". Press the TAB key until only the Video is selected. RIGHT-CLICK the video in the trimmer and drag and drop it on the video on track 4. When you release the mouse button, select "Add as takes".

12. If all this has worked, save the file again... You should have your original camera views on tracks 1, 2, and 3, and should have a fourth track showing the last clip you dropped on it and showing "(3/3)" -- indicating you have three takes for that event. At this point, you may want to click on the multi-cam event and press the "T" key as needed until your "Main" camera view is selected, so that it is the default view for all the pieces we are going to create below.

13. If you have never worked with "takes" before, its a feature that lets you insert multiple sources into one event, then lets you cycle through the choices on the timeline by selecting the event and pressing the "T" key. What this means for multi-cam editing is that you now have all 3 cameras on one track, and once you start splitting this event into multiple pieces you will be able to select the camera view of each piece by simply clicking on the event and cycling through the alternatives with the "T" key. No need to "delete" pieces on tracks above. ALL camera views are retained for the entire length of your video, so at any time you can still go back and select any of the original views.

14. Now we are going to create your multiple camera views for the preview window. "Mute" video track 4 by clicking the circle-slash icon in the track 4 header. On tracks 1, 2, and 3, use the track motion feature or pan-crop feature to shrink each camera down and send it to a corner or location of its own in the preview window.

15. Now comes the editing part. Making sure no individual event is selected, play the video, or step through it manually, and simply press the "S" key wherever you want to change camera angles. This will split all 4 video tracks each time you press "S". (Only the multi-cam track actually needs to be split, but it doesn't hurt anything to just let them all split.)

16. Next, mute the top 3 tracks (circle-slash icon) and unmute the 4th track. Select the first "piece" on track 4 and press and release the "T" key until you find the view you want. Now select the 2nd piece on track 4 and find the camera view you want there. Continue with each piece, using "T" to select the desired camera for each event.

17. If you want direct cuts at each split, you've got them. If you want a crossfade or transition, you can convert the cut to a crossfade by putting the cursor on the cut and clicking, then pressing the "/" key on the keypad. The default duration of the crossfade is set by the Options >> Preferences >> Editing >> "Cut to Overlap" setting.

18. If you made splits where you later don't want them, no problem. You can't erase a split, but if you have the same take selected on each side of the split, the output is completely unaffected by it.

19. If you want additional splits, you can add them at any time -- either while the video is playing, or by positioning the cursor manually and pressing "S".

20. If the timing of your split was off a little bit, you can slide an existing split left and right by hovering over the split, pressing the CTRL and ALT keys at the same time (you'll see the pointer change), then dragging the split left or right as needed.

21. At any time you can re-enable the original tracks and view the three original camera views simultaneously. In fact, you could also use track motion to shrink the fourth track down (the multi-cam track) and view it in real-time with the original 3 cameras.

22. When rendering your output, make sure that the three original tracks are muted, and that the multi-cam track is back to full size (no track-motion). Bring in your pre-split audio track and synch it up by butting it up against the original marker. Render out your masterpiece.

ADDITIONAL INFO:
- If you needed to edit more than three cameras, you can do so after step 11 above by deleting the 3rd camera view, adding video from a 4th camera to track 3, synchronizing it, chopping of the beginning, moving to trimmer, then adding as an additional take to the multi-cam track. You can add as many takes as you want to the multi-cam track, but you will only be able to "view" three cameras at a time in the preview window (ie tracks 1,2,3).

Just thinking aloud, would Insert track composite level be of assistance in this situation?

Wow! Brilliant detailed explanation, thanks for your effort on this, I haven't taken it all in yet but will certainly give it a go and let you know the outcome.

Being new to Movie Studio... re: the note about audio in point 5...

" ** NOTE ** This would be a good place to render out a pristine copy of your audio track, before it gets split to pieces. "

Surely if I un-group the master audio track from the video it was recorded on then it won't get effected by any of the splitting of tracks.

Thanks again!

I do a slightly simplified version of this whereby my 3 (or4) camera tracks are stacked so that the more mobile one is at the top and the less important ones down below with the wide shot at the bottom.

To preserve the audio I just ungroup it before I start editing.

Since I pretty much know what the fixed camera shots are going to look like I just watch the top track, cutting out the bits which I don't want to use, and therefore allowing a lower track to show through, depending on which is the preferred shot from the other cameras at that point. Crossfades, where appropriate are added later where appropriate, once the cuts have been decided.

It can be quite a quick way to work once you get the hang of it ...

To preserve the audio I just ungroup it before I start editing.

Strangeman, that's the key! It's what I do as well. I'm working two projects right now, one with 3 cameras and the other with 4. Wide-static cams on the bottom, moving cams on the top. Likewise, as you cut out the upper tracks that don't work (too much camera movement), the lower/static cams show through. (which basically repeats what Chienworks said)

Agreed on the cross fades, if the scenes have quick paced action, straight cuts. If it slows down then I use cross fades if it looks appropriate. But I do that after all the cuts are made. If I decide a cross fade is in order, I'll drag the upper clip enough to add the cross fade.

Tim L, I haven't read through your instructions yet, will look at them and comment later.

mikeg, for you, place camera 2 at the top, camera 1 just below it and camera 3 at the bottom. Ungroup all events. Look at camera 1's track and edit out everything you can't use, then go to camera 2's track and edit out what can't be used there (mute camera 1 track so you can see it in the preview). Then go back and compare camera 1 and 2 so see what should play. Or you may decide that neither is good and you want the wide shot to show through.

Then decide which audio track to keep and mute (don't delete) the others. I say don't delete them because you may need to use one of the others to mask over the primary audio track at some points to cover up talking or coughs.

I know how to put a video in a video, but when I do and play it back it shows at the bottom like Radio Frequency spikes same happens when i do crossfades .

How do I correct this..????

Great idea. I wanted to try this but I can only get a total of 2 video tracks + the video overlay in VMS9. After I add one extra video track, Adding video track gets grayed out. Could this be a processor speed issue? Could Vegas Movie Studio "I have pro Platinum" be limiting me because I only have an amd running at 1.6ghz?

Doug

After I add one extra video track, Adding video track gets grayed out.

Track number 1 labeled "Text" is a video track. Right click on the track header and choose Rename to change the name.

Or don't even bother renaming it. Just ignore the fact that it says "text" since it's exactly the same as any other video track.

Tim L...

Thanks to you and the others for a great, detailed scheme for doing multi-camera video editing. I had no idea oneI could do that so easily with VMS.

mike_in_nc

Thanks for confirming my suspicions. I Didn't know, but I thought those were the other two video tracks.


Doug

Good grief, I scanned over all these answers and right off the bat did not see the simple procedure outlined in this YouTube demo video titled

Multi video track editing in Sony Vegas & Movie Studio

He has the user highlight the desired video track, right click, choose the item about the "envelope," and then select composite. Then a purple bar will draw in over the video tack. Do the same for the other 2 video tracks. Then he demos how to double click one the purple bar of one track and draw it down to purple bar of another track. If you go straight down, you'll get an abrupt cut; if you draw the line down at an angle, you'll get a cross dissolve. Then all your footage is still visible. If you tried this in iMovie 06, the video/audio get literally pulled together, and you could easily get out of sync.

It was because of this video that I bought Movie Studio Plat. 9...I thought all multi camera (snyched) was impossible until one used the full Vegas or Final Cut...or the new iMovie 09. I just got the program this afternoon, and followed his instructions before even going on a tutorial tour.

From must working with purple line and connecting tracks, I got cross fades between tracks fine, but now have to figure how to keep the audio going on the primary track ONLY, as well as switching between full audio/video.

From the projects I might work on, I will probably also have the other option of including a sound mix from the board...or I have a Zoom H2 and also a digital voice recorder with lapel mic.

I will reread all these suggestions again, but think that YouTube demo will be valuable and a big time savings for people interested in mulit- camera. By the way, these point and shoot cameras now have good enough quality to be your fill in cameras...as long as you know their limitations.

Just fooling with that aspect for a few moments.

Just saw the tutorial! Composite level envelope, very helpful tip!

Thanks for sharing!

-bK