Feature Requests for V4.0c

Sol M. wrote on 4/15/2003, 3:44 AM

I know, I know, no matter what you give them (4.0b is a godsend BTW), they always want more. It's true! So here it comes, a few feature requests that I know would propell Vegas to an even higher level:

1. Multiple Timelines/Sequences - Ever wanted to try mutliple versions of an edit? How about multiple sections of a single project? Sure, you can create copies of a project and accomplish this on a basic level. But that's where project organization starts to go awry. This is important to get users who do long-form projects onboard.

2. Timeline/Sequence Nesting - Absolutely necessary for episodic work. By nesting a timeline in another, you can easily move entire sections/scenes/etc. very effectively. While copying and pasting from one project to another may seem to work, its effectiveness disappears when you make a change to the original section/scene/etc. It would then need to be re-copied/pasted. For larger projects with different people working on different sections (hence the reason why one central project/timeline would become unwieldy), copying and pasting is not an option.

3. Make it free - with FCP express and the looming Avid FreeDV, SoFo will have to do something drastic to "make it" in the "biz". Making Vegas free is the only choice. It doesn't matter than Vegas nearly blows away the full version of FCP and Avid Xpress at a price point of more than half of the next lowest priced product, nor does it matter than you release free updates to a product that exponentially increase its usefulness, making it free appears to be the only course of action. (A small April fools in honor of the month).

Thanks for all the great work thus far, I know it will only get better (especially with these features! ;p).

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Comments

vitalforce2 wrote on 4/15/2003, 6:03 PM

A button that toggles the Media Bay to a reorganizable Storyboard expandable to nearly full-screen a la (of all things) Ulead VideoStudio. And: Make the Storyboard capable of printing out the thumbnails alongside lines of text (imported from leading scriptwriting programs such as Screenwriter 2000 or Final Draft). In other words--a real storyboard. I'm a screenwriter and could even use this feature to create rough storyboards with graphics on the timeline, before filming.

J_Mac wrote on 4/15/2003, 6:54 PM

1. multiple colors for markers
2. some kind of highlight or indicator in the media pool to indicate at a glance
which clips have been moved onto the time line. thanks john

Trichome wrote on 4/15/2003, 7:41 PM

Viscosity type rotoscoping implementation direct from timeline...???

FuTz wrote on 4/15/2003, 7:54 PM

Trichome:
I AGREE!
Something like entering in some "frame-edit mode", zooming in the timline to 1 frame/grid line and then, click on the frame then:boom, you're into some kind of paint shop and more filters to make the job. Then zooming-out back and getting back into the project.
Couldn't be beatten by any other company... let's dream!
:D

taliesin wrote on 4/15/2003, 8:41 PM

I don't think Vegas still needs that much more improvements anymore.
But if we talk about Nesting or Multiple Timelines - I really love the way CineStream does this!

Marco

Sol M. wrote on 4/16/2003, 5:41 AM

SonicDennis:

The Multiple Timelines/Sequence feature would be more a project management feature. Just as BStanding said, you could already have multiple instances of Vegas open, each with a different project. But with the capability to have multiple timeslines in a single project provides the ability to 1)Open one project and all work (sequences,scenes,etc.) are in that one project.

This works on the idea that a project file should represent an actual project one is working on. Without this feature, a single project (for instance a feature length film, or any project with multiple scenes) will have to be composed of many projects, each containing perhaps much of the same source files, but since a separate timeline is needed for a scene to be effectively edited, a completely new project needs to be created.

Media management can be envisioned as a database, where, quite simply, redundancy is avoided wherever possible, often by grouping like/similar assets together. As such, within a single project (i.e. a film), would contain multiple timelines/sequences (i.e. scenes/versions of scenes), all of which will have access to the same source files (whereas if one were to use multiple project files for a single project (i.e. a film), then one would have to go through each project and import each additional file.

Not to sound demanding, but this feature really is quite necessary for anyone wanting to do any sort of larger projects, and with HD and 24p support now supported, the size of projects that Vegas will be asked to undertake will only grow (and that's a good thing).

Grazie wrote on 4/16/2003, 5:55 AM

Oh yes YES YES [a la Meg Ryan? ;-) ] . Some well thought out integration of Graphics with V4 PLEEEESSSeeee . . . I'll even hold yer hand on this one Sonic Dennis!

Grazie

Chienworks wrote on 4/16/2003, 7:41 AM

Personally, i'd like a way to disable the media pool completely, not just hide it, but actually have it not even exist if i wish. Most of the time it's of very little help to me and i can accomplish what i want with the explorer pane. At worst, it slows down Vegas to a very frustrating degree.

JJKizak wrote on 4/16/2003, 8:44 AM

SonicDennis: The snapping tends to frustrate me as it fights between the vertical
default lines, the cursor, and the clip. And it is only sometimes. Depends on how
much the timeline is expanded or not. Also when changing the length of a clip or
sound section if it is near a vertical line or cursor it will start a fight between
all three. Then I have to move the sound clip away from the vertical lines or cursor
and resize the clip then bring it back. I do hundreds of mini sound clips and this
really gets time consuming. I like the way it will snap to the beginning of the
actual sound in the clip rather than the start of the clip. (where the cursor is
positioned). There are times (undefined) that if you want it to snap to the cursor
it will not because of the vertical default line in proximity or the end of another clip. Sometines expanding the timeline will help and sometimes it will not. Once I expand the timeline for these mini sound clips I do not want to constantly keep expanding and contracting the timeline for better snapping. Maybe if you had
some priority menu switches like "snap to cursor only" or "snap to clip and cursor
priority cursor first". Why do the default vertical timeline markers interfere
with the snapping? I know they can be eliminated in the menu but I always forget
to do it. Can I default that function? for what I do those lines are totally useless.
Thanks

JJK

Tyler.Durden wrote on 4/16/2003, 9:11 AM

YOu might try:

Enable/disable snapping
F8

Snap to grid
Ctrl+F8

Snap to markers
Shift+F8

(Default snap width is 7px)

hth, mph

ibliss wrote on 4/16/2003, 9:41 AM

Just over at digitalvideoediting.com and saw a screen shot of 'dpsVelocityQ' - it has picons at the edge of the time line for each track showing the current frame under the cursor, so that you can see all the layers of a composite. Check out the link to get a better idea (third screenshot down)

LINK

Don't know how useful this would be realistically, because of the way Vegas displays picons along the length of clips in the timeline anyway...

riredale wrote on 4/16/2003, 10:50 AM

JJKizak:
Another thing you can do to tame the snapping effect is to reduce the sensitivity of snapping, set by default at 7 pixels. There is a hidden menu entry that controls this, and I have determined that setting the value to "3" makes my editing much more enjoyable.

You'll find the information here:

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=147128

filmjedi wrote on 4/16/2003, 12:33 PM

id love better EDL files so I can take my source tapes and have my entire feature or short film re-imported into another edit system, either avid symphony or apple cinewave for finishing.

also, timecode, would love to be able to see timecode of each clip as it plays in my display window....

AND i would absolutly LOVE a better TRIM window such as final cut pro of MEdiacomposer.

thanks.

Tyler.Durden wrote on 4/16/2003, 2:09 PM

Jedi,

>>>>"also, timecode, would love to be able to see timecode of each clip as it plays in my display window...."<<<<

You might try dropping the TC fx onto your media in the Media Pool. It should display TC visibly. FYI, it will be rendered into prerenders and new tracks unless disabled for those times.

You might also set the editing prefs to "display frame numbers in events as> TC".

hth, mph

vicmilt wrote on 4/16/2003, 2:31 PM

guess I'll put in my two cents worth....
1. I would LOVE to have title names appear in the timeline, ie, if the title is "Get one FREE", I'd like to see that, rather than "Sonic Foundry Title 17". (Titling identification like in Photoshop, is what I'm looking for).

2. The ability to make sub-clips from existing footage and to title and place them into individual folders. We are almost there with VV4, in that we can now make the folders in the Media Pool. But the only way (currently) to make sub-clips is to select and render them. I just need the pointers, to the original AVI. Thus, Master Clip, "At the Farm", could be broken into sub-clips, "Horses", "Cows","Farmer Jones","The Kids", and then could be put into Folders, "Animals", "People" and "Farmer Jones". One more folder could have duplicate files as needed containing "Farmer Jones talks about seed".

Chienworks wrote on 4/16/2003, 3:07 PM

vicmilt, if you right-mouse button click on the title (or any clip for that matter), choose Properties, and change the Active take name, whatever you type there will appear in the ID flag on the timeline.

SonyEPM wrote on 4/16/2003, 4:11 PM

Filmjedi: EDLs for AVID can be generated using the ExportEDL script.

wobblyboy wrote on 4/16/2003, 7:34 PM

Roger 74, Thanks for the script. I just tried it, works great. Wobbly Boy

wobblyboy wrote on 4/16/2003, 7:45 PM

Martyh, There is a display time code in VEGAS effects and a script for setting it in the included Scripts.

vicmilt wrote on 4/16/2003, 8:13 PM

chienworks-
thanx for most valuable tip... many smiles.
but what I REALLY want is for VV to do it automatically - that is, take the clip name from the typed text entry.
v