"I would like to see a plugin to draw a road on a map."

Such a Vegas plug-in already exists since a few years downloadable -> here.

I often wish I could have two keyboard shortcuts or toolbox icons which let me toggle between two different RAM preview values (with having set a minimum and a maximum before which are used for toggling).

A FX masking tool which can be used with each single FX.

I hope we remain aware that Satish asked for tools/plugins/effects requests. Although that's sufficiently broad, this thread is sounding a bit more like a Vegas feature request forum. Satish is a third party, not a primary software developer.

Satish:I'm now starting to develop commercial plugins and other tools to improve workflow of Vegas users. If you have any requests for tools/plugins/effects that would make it easier in your daily workflow...

musicvid10 : this thread is sounding a bit more like a Vegas feature request forum. Satish is a third party, not a primary software developer.

Please explain? I'm now confused. I wasn't before, but your well-meant comment has made this non-IT bloke question just WHAT he should be asking for or suggesting.

Grazie

Further thoughts:

Media Manager: I think this could be profitable for Satish if it's allowed to run as a standalone application with hooks into Vegas, Premiere etc. as Frameserver has. Definitely a $99 app if done well. Maybe more, as there's no competition. I also think it could surpass the existing Media Manager with reasonable effort, depending how experienced Satish is with database stuff. If I switched to Premiere today, I would still run Media Manager inside Vegas 8 as a "standalone" app.. Assets from Media Manager can be dragged into other programs, but what a clumsy solution. p.s. If you do it Satish, please try and allow it to import data from the existing media manager.

Deinterlacer: I think it would be extremely hard to match from scratch what QTGMC is capable of because of the development that has gone into it. John Meyer's idea of an updated plugin adapter that provides access to AviSynth filters is very attractive. Maybe such a plugin adapter could be built into a "Frameserver Plus" app that allows some processing while frameserving? Maybe a GUI for some of the more popular AviSynth filters would be an idea... or a way for the community to contribute their own such GUIs to plug in?

Color Curves: Yes it exists but it's terribly basic and fiddly. Not sure what bug you were referring to Bob but if it was the tangency bug, that was fixed really fast.

Levels/Color Correction: There is definitely scope for a fully-featured color correction/color grading environment within Vegas. Such a plugin could include better color curves, levels, color wheel controls, autolevels etc., and it could be modular so you introduce one tool at a time and don't have to develop the whole thing at once. It could also automatically take care of the whole Vegas levels issue for the user. Color correction and grading is a hot topic as more cameras are shooting flat profiles. I'd definitely pay a couple of hundred dollars for a suite of tools that means I can stop looking at Colorista, Speedgrade, DaVinci Lite etc.. AAV Colorlab has never really done it for me.

Credit Roll. A good idea and probably fairly straightforward to pull off, but probably not much money in it. One important thing is to make it roll a round number of lines per frame so that it doesn't flicker, as per John Meyer's post here.

@Satish:
> 2. Plugin: Color curves
there are now several availables tools for CC and also the new matching plugin from Vegas can achieve good results.
Perhaps some of these tools needs some masking tools to specify the video areas that need correction.

@Johnmeyer
> Monitor which plugins people actually use.
I think that this is illegal in several countries without prior explicit consent from the user !

> Replace bad frame
This is interesting, expecially for flashes at ceremonies..
I can't believe at the demo, really impressive !!!!

Are you on BoS forum ?

@all
> Script spill checker

What is a "script spill" ?

Yes, it's that "tools, that make it easier in your daily workflow …"

A RAM preview toggle maybe just needs an application extension.

I know about the power of Satish. ;).

[I]" Color Curves: Yes it exists but it's terribly basic and fiddly."[/I]

I don't see any better effort in any other plugin in any other app. I think it would be good if values could be entered for nodes but that's about it
Beyond that you're into a full blown grading app and some of them do let you tweak things in multiple ways whilst still showing what you're doing in Colour Curves. A very neat trick but I think Satish should be asking for serious money for such a plugin.

[I]"Not sure what bug you were referring to Bob but if it was the tangency bug, that was fixed really fast."[/I]

Yes, the tangency bug. You're right it is fixed, after a decade.
I've lived with it for so long I never even noticed it was fixed in V10e

Bob..

all i can say is welcome back to the bear pit ;-)

as to what script / plugin tool is wanted / needed i'll leave to the power-users to sort out their priorities, that said, i used to use your frame server regularly, and would do so again if in 64bit.

in fact, i wouldn't waste your time on 32bit....

but whatever you do (other than 32bit) i'd be more than happy to pay for given your track record!!!

I am using the latest Frameserver in 64bit Vegas 12 with no problems whatsoever.

Willem

What is a "script spill" ?

I was about to ask the same thing then the penny dropped. Alternative spillings might be spall checker, spel checker, spell cheker... And he means script as in text rather than a script script.

I'd like to see a SloMo / Motion Blur plugin available at a resonable price. For SloMo, Twixtor is pricey and frameserver->avisynth->MVtools->VirtualDub is very cumbersome to use.

Also, I've never been very happy with Sony Vegas Resampling (see: Whither Smart Resample ).

Possibly a single plugin could be developed to address both issues?

...Jerry

@Nick - Check!

I just meant that several of the requests seem to go beyond the scope of the author's capabilities. Satish is not a Vegas core developer.

Once you've developed a good motion-estimation/interpolation engine (no easy feat), or provide access to one such as MVTools2 or SVPflow (if that's legally possible for a paid plugin), it opens up a whole raft of possibilities. Not just slomo, but also motion-compensated deinterlacing, high-quality framerate conversion, frame-replacement, frame-doubling (e.g. 30p to 60p), motion blur etc.. So many possibilities.

Once you've developed a good motion-estimation/interpolation engine (no easy feat), or provide access to one such as MVTools2 or SVPflow (if that's legally possible for a paid plugin), it opens up a whole raft of possibilities.Nick,

I always feel like I'm exactly the same page with you. I actually wrote a long letter to the Sony development team about six years ago, strongly encouraging them to invest heavily in developing motion estimation technology. I listed exactly the same set of possible features, along with the possibility that they could also develop their own MPEG-2 rendering engine, thus eliminating all the issues with the MainConcept MPEG-2 rendering engine (like quality, lack of smart rendering, no local control, etc.). I think I even found a quote from the old Dick Tracy comic strip (Sony's profanity filter censors the name of Chester Gould's comic strip) where, for those who remember reading it back in the 1960s, used to have a little box in one of the panels with the statement: "the nation that controls magnetism controls the universe!." The same thing is true of motion estimation because once you can track blocks and pixels, you can do just about anything, including things like motion tracking, which would let Sony develop a separate product that competes with AE.

However, Sony instead decided to spend a fortune developing 3D features for Vegas. Sometimes you develop something that doesn't find a market, but there was no way you could have known this before you started. However, with 3D, it was almost 100% certain the market would not develop, based on everything we have learned from all the earlier attempts. "This time it's different" did not, as usual, apply. I don't think anyone on this forum with gray hair posted anything positive about Vegas' 3D features when they were first announced.

So, we could have had motion estimation and all of the amazing things it would have provided, but instead we got 3D.

But I digress ... the main point is that motion estimation is a fundamental strategic technology investment. However, it is a huge effort, and I have to agree with MusicVid (rev 10) that it is probably beyond the scope of what Satish can undertake as an individual plugin developer.

There probably isn't too much of a demand for it, but I am interested in a script to import Mocha Pro stabilization and tracking data.

Peter

I'm not sure if this is even a possibility through plug-ins, but I would LOVE to see an interface where keyframe data could be taken from a track or plugin animation, edited with more user control (i.e. After Effects style interpolation and velocity curve editing - or Bezier paths for motion) and reinterpreted into Vegas keyframes. Maybe we just have to wait till SCS decides to give us more control, but it's a shame to have to either make compromises or spend way too much time refining keyframe animation.

If this was possible, it seems that keyframe data from other apps, tracking, etc., could be imported into Vegas as well.

This thread keeps getting better and better! Thanks for all the discussion and ideas :)

Motion estimation related plugins sound quite interesting. I'll research into SVPFlow and MVTools more (both seem to have a large open source codebase that will help bootstrap the effort). I'm not sure how much of it would be possible as a plugin, but I'll be happy to dig into it. So that I don't hijack this thread, if you can think of specific ways on how you'd use motion estimation if available as a plugin, please feel free to drop me an email (satish @ debugmode.com) and I'll try to incorporate such workflows into a plugin.

"Motion estimation related plugins sound quite interesting."
Oh yeah! A poor man's Twixtor maybe?

"Not just slomo, but also motion-compensated deinterlacing, high-quality framerate conversion, frame-replacement, frame-doubling (e.g. 30p to 60p), motion blur etc.."
Yeah, those too.

;?)

Satish,

Per your request above, I sent you a long email, with copies to Jerry and Nick.

John

John, If you would, copy me too please.
Thanks, Mark