Help

mrmike wrote on 12/14/2003, 6:05 AM
I have recently purchased Vegas Video + DVD as the next logical step from Video Factory. I have been a Sonic Foundry customer for a number of years now. I am primarily using it for assembling footage of events that go on at home and in my class (I teach 4th grade).

So far, this looks like video factory with a couple of extra effects. It is not what I expected for hundreds of dollars more.

Nonetheless, I have a project I’m trying to assemble before the holiday of a project I did last spring. I want to burn DVDs for the kids to take home for Christmas gifts for their parents.

I have two questions.

First: At the end of the video, I want to have footage of each kid. I want them moving and then freeze, then fade to the next kid. And I want all of them the same length. I have all the threads. But am still confused (so much for a university education). How do I do it?

Second: Am I missing a CD? I can’t find one music bed on any of the three CDs that came with the product.

Comments

kameronj wrote on 12/14/2003, 6:13 AM
there are a couple of ways you can go about doing this, but since you are new to this - maybe the best way is to put each child on their own track.

Have the footage run....then, make a still image of the child and have that still fade into the next footage....and so on.
Spot|DSE wrote on 12/14/2003, 6:22 AM
Ouch! Video Factory isn't remotely close to Vegas in terms of 'just having a couple extra effects. Either you're a complete novice or you've not spent much time working with Vegas. The interface is similar, it's designed that way for folks working with Video Factory that upgrade (like you did) so that they can open their VF projects in Vegas, and also not feel intimidated by the power of the tool.

To create this effect, there are several approaches. Easiest is to create the first velocity-controlled event, do the fade on it, etc. then double click to create a region. This will create a region indicator at the top of the timeline. Grab the middle, slide to right so that the beginning of the region indicator is snapped to the end of the completed event.
Now open next kid's video in Trimmer, park the cursor where you want him to come in at, and press "A" to add him to the timeline for the length of the selected area. Now it's just a matter of copying that action, adding all kids to the timeline.
Next, copy the first event you did (the one that's completed) and then select all other events. Right click on the next event on the timeline, choose Paste Attributes. This will copy the fade and velocity settings to every other event.
I don't know if you are confused about how to set the freeze, it's just a matter of setting velocity to 0. There are several tutorials on this, 2 on the Sundance site.
As far as beds, I've not had a boxed copy for years, so can't help with what's on the CD. I do know that the CD containing the blue screen footage had an audio folder containing several audio files though. Why not point your search tool to the CD drive and do a search for .wav?
ArmyVideo wrote on 12/14/2003, 6:42 AM
I can't help with the music you mentioned, but would recomend a light instumnental holiday tune.

As far as freezing and the fading to the next slide, you can do it on one track ( A and B roll). In describing this, please forgive me if I tell you things you already know...

First, Expand track one (or which ever track you woul like to use) to reveal the A, transition, and B layers. (if you don't already know how to do this, p204 of the V4 manual explains it very well). Next place the clip of the first child on A of track one. Move your CTI to the point in this clip where you would like it to freeze, then split (S) the clip and discard everything right of the split. move your CTI to the last frame of the moving clip, set your preview monitor to "Best / Full" and click on the floppy disk icon in the upper right hand of the preview window. Name the jpeg with the childs name. It will now be saved to the destiation of your choosing and also added to the media pool.
Drag the still image from the media pool to the A line of trck one, ensuring it is butted against the end of the motion clip. ( enabling 'snapping' helps this process along). Now drag the still clip out to the length you would like it to be.
Now, repeat the steps above for the next child, except use the B line of track one.
Repeat these steps for each child, alternating between A and B. This should give you the effect you are looking for, and by keeping it all on one track, you are saving render time.
If you have any more questions, feel free to post them as follow-ups.

It sounds like you are a very dedicated teacher, and doing anything extra for the kids is quite impressive! Kudos to you, and all the other teachers out there!