Film project in Vegas - best workflow

cinefilm wrote on 12/24/2013, 2:23 PM
Hi guys, i'm new here and loving vegas pro so far. I'm planning to edit mostly films in vegas pro and i'm wondering about the best steps to take for dialogue, music and effects.

Is it best to edit scenes with the dialogue stem, nest it to a new project and then add the music and fx stem or is it wiser to do all stems under one project? What do you find is the best approach please?

Comments

willqen wrote on 12/24/2013, 2:28 PM
Wow !!!

I bet you get ten different answers from ten different people!!

I tend to run all of my media on one timeline. I do short pieces and nest those to a main project so as not to overload Vegas.

I hope this answers your question

Will
videoITguy wrote on 12/24/2013, 3:05 PM
You WOULD think that nesting in Vegas Projects answers everything, but not so.
For projects that will have moderate to heavy compositing in parts of the timeline - you should create separate small projects for each difficult part and render to a digital intermediate.- my fav is Cineform.
For parts of the master project that might have some complexity in staging (not necessarily compositing alone as a factor) then complete separate small projects to be nested into a sub-size to master project - and render to digital intermediate.

The key is to keep nesting to less than three levels (preferrably two) for very short timelines. Keep use of digital intermediates to insertion into one master timeline for a final rendering to your output goal. Cineform can be used successfully to five generations of rendering, but workflow that is efficient should prevent you from getting into this kind of bind.
cinefilm wrote on 12/24/2013, 3:12 PM
So rendering is better, ok. I'm guessing the downside is that if you wanted to make any changes to the original rendered track then you have to render again instead of being able to edit it.
cinefilm wrote on 12/24/2013, 3:13 PM
So you mix all your dialogue, music and effects under one project?
CJB wrote on 12/24/2013, 3:28 PM
I don't think that pre-rendering is best unless you reach the nesting limit. IMHO. I was unaware of a limit and have never really gotten past nest within nest, i.e. 3 total levels including top.

Workflow is dependent on the kind of editing you do. Wedding videos, Docs, feature length, youtube short, corporate training, etc. all have a different work flow.
videoITguy wrote on 12/24/2013, 4:29 PM
As for limits to nesting - some member's testing has shown there are practical limits and it can be sensitive to what's in the nested projects. I just make a practical limit of 3 do to the field variables you may encounter.

Music mixes can be a separate project in VegasPro or embed links to other capable programs. The one issue that will keep you at work late at night - is that timecode sync can not be maintained (ie, exported out of Vegas to other programs) hence you need a process that will keep your A/V containers inside of the VegasPro app.

Rendering in a good intermediate codec like Cineform is indeed preferable for a number of good reasons to making nesting your only source of complex compositions. Treat the DI as your friend.
cinefilm wrote on 12/24/2013, 5:02 PM
Ok, thanks for your suggestions. I guess nesting is not the best option. I will do some testing with rendering. Thank You all.
willqen wrote on 12/25/2013, 3:15 AM
Don't forget Sound Forge - Vegas will link with it such that you can open audio (even with video still attached) in Sound Forge from within Vegas.

You will preserve timecode, or at least exact placement of the clip on your Vegas timeline if you open it within Vegas. Try it.

It would be under the Tools menu, then select Audio, then open in Sound Forge ....

Also, You must have Sound Forge selected in your options as your preferred audio editor.

You will find it under Options/Preferences/Audio.

You can select a different audio editor if you wish and Vegas will try to utilize whatever program you select but I have found through experimentation that Sound Forge's functionality is superior to other editors probably because it is another SCS product.

This can save you much time and a few headaches!

At least it has for me.!

Will