FX GUIs really need a revamp

Mindmatter wrote on 3/21/2019, 10:23 AM

Hi all,

after having worked intensively on a very FX heavy project for the last 20 days, I found that the FX GUIs really are a workflow killer and absolutely tediuos to deal with.

* each single time, the FX panel opens with all menus closed. Each time, each submenu and sub-submenu has to be reopened again to access the specific FX.

* the long horizontal name / FX chain makes no sense whatsoever.You have to open the panel almost lull screen to read what's in the chain and access the last FX of the row.

* The 1 inch or so square used to move the cross hair to actually move an object makes it almost impossible to position things on a full HD field. Precise minuscule movements are next to impossible, a milimeter of mouse movement translates to far too big and erratic jumps in the big picture. Having to mouse wheel 2 different axis numerically is really a poor option, especially that the mouse sometimes moves too big or too small decimals. The sliders also react far to brutally and are simply too small for precise moves.

* Why can't there be several FX opened next to each other?

* Why is the workspace size of pan/crop not remembered? Each and every time, I first have to scroll it to a workable size.

" Why don't they open with all the submenus displayed right away, and why are some designs in such a vertical size that you have to scroll down to get to the parameters? Most designs really are prehistoric considering the great designs of, say, audio plugins these days.

* and last but not least, the most minimal track hight does not allow the FX and crop buttons to be displayed anymore. Why? On crowded projects with lots of tracks, it's a drag to each time change the track hight again to access the FX button.

Ok...that's it. Thanks for reading and any ideas for improvement.

Comments

Marco. wrote on 3/21/2019, 4:40 PM

For now I can only help on the last one. If you select "Event Header" in the Event's options, then all activated Event buttons keep being visible even on minimal track height.

And maybe a half or quarter of a solution for this one:

"why are some designs in such a vertical size that you have to scroll down to get to the parameters?"

Double-clicking the upper bar of the FX windows will always open them in optimized vertical and horizontal size so you would not have to scroll (assumed it isn't an FX with so many adjustments that its window will be just too big for your display).

AVsupport wrote on 3/21/2019, 9:19 PM

+1, and further wishlist:

Pan / Crop as Track FX. Fix Pillarboxing / Letterboxing issues
Fix the 'Search FX' speed
Create 'Favourite FX' Folder with ability to drag&drop copies of various FX in there
Allow the saving of a whole Plugin-VFX-chain (including all key parameters) from within the window

Grazie wrote on 3/22/2019, 2:40 AM

Allow the saving of a whole Plugin-VFX-chain (including all key parameters) from within the window

@AVsupport - We have this already. Been using it for ages.

I must be missing something - not unusual for me.

AVsupport wrote on 3/22/2019, 4:04 AM

OMG @Grazie what a revelation! Thanks for that! Will check that out immediately, thanks! (took me a while to find though..obviously)

Grazie wrote on 3/22/2019, 4:46 AM

OMG @Grazie what a revelation!

Oh yes . . .

(took me a while to find though..obviously)

And that, right there, dear heart, is what I thought you were alluding to. And yes, I'd like that option to be more obviously available. I hadn't even thought you'd not known it actually existed at all. 🙂

@AVsupport - Yeah, once you've played around with it, you'll find it indispensable and a total bonus to your creativity. I must've locked-in over 2,000 Packages for various Projects for VP. Word of warning, if you add another Package it WILL wipe the one that's presently there, you can't CHAIN Packages together, no biggie but you need to know.

Great things come in small packages! 🤓

Mindmatter wrote on 3/22/2019, 6:00 AM

Thanks Marco. The thing with the event headers is that I then don't see the thumbnails anymore, which sometimes is very useful. Some FX have insanely long and extensive menus if all submenus are opened, like BCC edge lighting or colorfast, they absolutely cannot fit into a vertical design. It would be really nice to have all the parameters open in a nice graphic interface.

Dexcon wrote on 3/22/2019, 6:14 AM

From the OP's original post:

* each single time, the FX panel opens with all menus closed. Each time, each submenu and sub-submenu has to be reopened again to access the specific FX.

I absolutely agree. Further, even if I have all my selected menu parameters opened in an FX such as Colorfast 2 (but applies to any FX), when I copy and paste the FX from the original event into another event, all the menu options are closed again in the copy. Grrr!

fan-boy wrote on 3/22/2019, 4:38 PM

@Mindmatter

hold Ctrl key , when making adjustments with the mouse , to get ultra slow\fine tuning of sliders and sizing box corners .

Kinvermark wrote on 3/23/2019, 9:44 AM

@Mindmatter

Totally agree. And it's an important point to make to the dev's that it isn't just the capabilities of the FX, but also how efficiently you can use them.

Case in point: Colour correction & grading. You can do a lot with simple curves and the numerous other colour tools in Vegas' toolbox, but it takes a lot of time... like hours & hours of time! Grading clip-by-clip, its click-click-click-click.... too slow. IMO, Vegas colour tools can to 90% of what a dedicated colour program like Resolve can do, but Resolve's interface makes it an order of magnitude faster to do the work. I think there is a huge oportunity For Vegas to make gains here and they should even consider supporting some of the new hardware panles like Tangent Wave, Loupedeck, etc.