Does VMS let you alter the playback envelope? If so, you could simply drag that to 0x for the frame to freeze at, then return to 1x at the when you want playback to resume. Also gives you the opportunity to do slow-mo and stuff...Even less effort :)

HTH

Ken

Easiest way: Use a velocity envelope

Vegas Movie Studio doesn't have the velocity envelope feature (unless it was just added in VMS 8, but I doubt that it was.)

Alternate Method: If you want to freeze the very last frame of a captured clip, you can right-click on the event, select "Switches", and then make sure "Loop" is un-ticked. If so, you can just drag the end of the event out on the timeline, and it will repeat the last frame for as long as you want. BUT... this only works if this is physically the last frame of the captured file. (Note: VMS doesn't have sub-clips either... only Vegas Pro does)

Tim L

As a modification to this, since you Split the media at the desires frame, you can set this option to the left side, then simply drag it to the right-side, if you want to have the action go normal, then pause, then continue from there.

I'll have to try this myself some time ;-)

OneBuckFilms: "since you Split the media at the desired frame, you can set this option to the left side, then simply drag it to the right-side"

I'm pretty sure this won't work. If you split a clip, take the left section, and drag its end out, it will simply add back video from the point where the split occured. Just like taking an event and dragging the end to the left to trim it shorter: if you then drag the end back to the right, you just get back the original video from that point in time.

Dragging the end of the event out will work only if you are dragging out the very last frame of the captured file -- the true end of that media file.

However, in the full Vegas, I think you can do just what you described if you make a "subclip" from the split event -- which Vegas treats just as though the subclip ended at the split point. With the subclip, you can uncheck "Loop" and drag the end out and it will freeze on the point where you split it.

Tim L

Tim L-- your suggestion works like a charm, thanks. Regarding the velocity envelope, I don't think MS Platinum has that feature. If it does I would love to find out how to access it. I looked in the envelope menu and didn't see it. I did create a slow motion sequence by holding down ctrl while dragging out a clip which was very cool.

Thank you everyone...
Jon

I favor VMS in many ways over adobe premiere LE (what I used before), but IMO this is one feature where VMS is lacking compared to Premiere. In Premiere, you could simply set a marker anywhere on a clip, and then say "freeze" on that marker, and voila the clip is frozen on that frame for as long as you want. If you do freeze frames a lot (which I do), this certainly keeps the media bin less cluttered (no need for a million additional images).

I also found that modifying clip speed was better in Premiere - set speed to "200%", "300%", "400%", etc. etc. or to reverse "-200%", "-300%", etc. etc. No 4x limits and so forth. And more importantly, when you speed up the clip, ***the in & out points for the clip are preserved.*** I find it annoying when you change an event's speed in VMS, and it preserves the *event duration*. For example you increase the 5-second event to 2x and the event remains 5 seconds on the timeline, and now has 10 seconds of video that occur within the event. This forces me to have to re-find & set the in/out point where I had the event ending before I changed speed.

I'm an overall VMS fan so I'm not saying all this to rip on it. I'm simply saying I wish VMS would improve its usability in these two areas.

Do you think either of these is worthy of an enhancement request?

Probably so; many others have already made similar requests. While the full version of Vegas has the event velocity envelope that does what you like in Premier and more, it still doesn't preserve the out points. Also, it only affects video and not the audio.