Comments

briggs wrote on 11/3/2004, 1:55 PM
I edited a 3 camera stage production that was a couple hours in length. It had two Acts and each act have several scenes.

For me, it worked fine to have 3 main tracks for the three cameras and just move down the timeline to the right to edit each subsequent scene. Once I finished them all I deleted the empty time in between to make one long video file (with scenes marked by chapters). It was all done in one project.

The short answer is you could do it either way.

Note that applying effects at the track level will obviously apply to each segment (event) along the timeline on that track. If the segments are dissimilar enough, that may be a reason for using separate tracks or even creating separate projects.

-Les
TheHappyFriar wrote on 11/3/2004, 8:45 PM
I normally edit in 1 project with 2 Vegas windows open. I load my project in one window, then, when I get so far, I save it, open it in the 2nd, then render out the completed part in the first window& edit the next part in the 2nd window. Then when the first part has finished rendering (normally to a DV file) I don't have to wait around for it to render when i'm done. :)
johnmeyer wrote on 11/3/2004, 9:31 PM
How do you eat an elephant?

One bite at a time.

Try to find natural places to break up the production and work on each piece separately. You can then either render into individual MPEG-2 files (if you're delivering on DVD) and then assemble in DVDA (although it is still not quite optimized for this workflow), or you can render to separate AVIs, and then assemble all these into Vegas and produce the DVD from there.
JackW wrote on 11/3/2004, 10:27 PM
Which ever way you decide to edit, get in the habit of saving your work, especially with a long project. A glitch, a crash, just a mistake in judgement when moving things around within the project can destroy or seriously mess up hours, even days of work.

For what it's worth, I've gotten in the habit of saving before I make any major change to the timeline -- which can be as often as every few minutes.

Also, when I open a project I immediately save it to a new veg file: e.g., open XYZ_Corp_project.veg and save it as XYZ_Corp_ project1.veg. That way, if you mess up or lose XYZ_Corp_project1 you can always fall back on the earlier veg file. The veg files are so small that you can afford to have several in a directory without compromising much hard drive space. Also, if you think it necessary, you can back up everything relating to a project except the avi files onto a CD. This saved my backside recently when one of our computers went down.

Paranoia in saving is a GOOD thing!

Jack
farss wrote on 11/4/2004, 4:51 AM
Good advice but get into the habit of using "_01" rather than "_1" lest things get messy.
tjglfr wrote on 11/4/2004, 7:01 AM
Thanks for all the great ideas.
Questioin for Johnmeyer:
I recently rendered straight to mpg2 and the original veg file (the one with all the tracks and effects and events), disappeared I only have the rendered project. Is this common or did I messed up?
apit34356 wrote on 11/4/2004, 7:13 AM
tjglfr, while you wait johnmeyer, rendering to mpeg2 doesn't destory or reset your veg file. After rendering, did you start a new project and press save when exiting vegas?
johnmeyer wrote on 11/4/2004, 8:19 AM
I recently rendered straight to mpg2 and the original veg file (the one with all the tracks and effects and events), disappeared I only have the rendered project. Is this common or did I messed up?

That should never happen. You messed up somehow.