Graffiti-Vegas Problem

InterceptPoint wrote on 7/15/2004, 9:12 AM
I have generated a 50 second Credit Roll in Graffiti and rendered it uncompressed with a straight Alpha Channel. This Credit Roll plays in Windows Media Player as expected with the end of the text rolling off the screen at the 50 second point. Exactly the way it plays in Graffiti.

Importing this file into Vegas 5.0, setting the Alpha Channel up in Properties and playing it on the timeline yields a Credit Roll that runs at what appears to be exactly twice the actual speed with the end of the text rolling off the screen at the 25 second point. This leaves 25 seconds of blank screen while the clip plays out.

Rendering the same file in Windows Media Video format (thus losing the Alpha Channel) yields a file that plays perfectly in Vegas.

What's going on here?

Comments

JaysonHolovacs wrote on 7/15/2004, 9:18 AM
Not sure why this is happening, but you can render it in WMV with a black background and Chromakey out the black so the video behind the credits is visible. I've done this before on video where I had with credit rolls on black that came from a tape so I had no way to render the text myself.

Exactly 1/2 time? Maybe this is a stupid suggestion, but could it have something to do with interlacing settings on the video where the fields are being recombined and in the process halving the number of frames. Sorry if this is crazy; I'm not an expert on interlacing.

-Jayson
InterceptPoint wrote on 7/15/2004, 9:36 AM
I'm rendering Lower Field First in Graffiti and setting it that way for the clip in Vegas so it is not obvious how it could be an interlace problem. Based on my limited experimenting with Graffiti, this is the right choice. Using interlaced along with the 1:2:1 deflicker option yields the best credit rolls for me. Much smoother with interlaced than with progressive coming out of Graffiti and heading to an NTSC screen via Vegas.

The Chromakey trick probably wouldn't work for me since I am using fuzzy shadows in Boris.

BTW, this doesn't happen every time. Maybe something is just messed up in Vegas. I will re-boot and see if that makes any difference.
InterceptPoint wrote on 7/15/2004, 9:53 AM
Well re-booting didn't help.

But setting the playback rate for the clip (Properties-Video Event-Playback Rate) to .500 yields a perfect Credit Roll. Very little flicker. Perfect.

I have done a little experimenting with streching Credit Rolls from Graffiti in Vegas and the results have been uniformly bad in terms of flicker. I have never been able to get the smooth performance that you get with an unstretched clip.

This one is the exception and I have to believe that it is because Vegas is playing the Graffiti clip at EXACTLY 2X so slowing it down by EXACTLY .5X does the trick.

It is still a mystery but at least the Credit Roll is now OK.
kentwolf wrote on 7/15/2004, 11:17 AM
Is there a chance that your project settings in Grafitti were not set correctly?
InterceptPoint wrote on 7/15/2004, 11:42 AM
I'm pretty sure they are OK. I used these same settings to export a compressed version of the Credit Roll and it plays fine in Vegas. And the uncompressed file plays fine in Windows Media Player - it runs the full 50 seconds, just not in Vegas.

The problem seems to me to be that Vegas is not processing the 2 GB (yes that is big) 32 bit Graffiti file. There is a disconnect somewhere and it could be with Vegas.

Just to check, I loaded the 50 second Credit Roll up in (don't shoot me) Premiere Pro. The result: it works just like it does in Vegas. That is it runs the 50 second clip at 2x speed and finishes in 25 seconds leaving the last 25 seconds blank.

So I have to eat my words. The problem is clearly not exclusive to Vegas.

Any Graffiti, Red, FX, Boris experts out there who can explain this?

kentwolf wrote on 7/15/2004, 5:09 PM
>>Any Graffiti, Red, FX, Boris experts out there who can explain this?

I *just* got Red after owning Graffiti and FX7. I'm no expert, but one thing's for sure...I hope I never come across your issue! :) All has worked well for me.

If you would, if you find a solution (or even a cause), it would be helpful if you would please post it.

Thanks!
InterceptPoint wrote on 7/15/2004, 9:25 PM
"if you find a solution "

Well the .5x speed trick discussed above is "a solution" but not one that I would want to have to count on.

I plan to use Graffiti for all of my credit rolls so I will have lots of opportunities to see the problem again if it is common. It could be that I just set something up oddball in Graffiti and it messed things up. I am just learning the program and you know how it always goes with a new software applcation - they all (Vegas excepted) seem a little screwy until you finally figure out what was in the software designer's head and after awhile things just start flow. I'm assuming Graffiti will be like that.
kentwolf wrote on 7/16/2004, 4:09 PM
>>I am just learning the program...

I'll tell you what, while the learning curve takes some doing, the results are absolutely supurb.

I personally, have just decided to dive headlong into it and learn it (Red).

It seems that if you can learn Red, you can do just about anything. One nice thing is the common interfaces; once you know one, you pretty much know them all.

The Boris products really deliver, but you've got to take the time and learn them.