Hey there, I'm a VMS 17 Newbie here with questions.

jonathan-d4510 wrote on 9/3/2023, 8:07 PM

Hey there folks Pokejedservo here, I'm a newbie who just recently got Vega Movie Studio 17 from Steam on sale for 10$ recently. Anyways I was planning on using this program to make Visual Novel videos (kind of like the Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney games from Capcom). And well perhaps this document might help explain on what I'm talking about at...

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hmE7LaB_qAq5Y8MUe7r80sPfmd7g5j_U5ssGygqlb-w/edit?usp=sharing

While I did notice on how one can put in typewritten text on the screen with character pics above. Also that one can put in Character Sprites/Portraits in on a background (which seems to require opening two "Video" reels.) But what I'm wondering is what would be the best way to handle the typewritten text in question for these scenes, either...

A. Put the text in the lower center dialogue box (like in the 2nd pic on that Google Doc) of the Visual Novel Panel. But how do I get the text to actually properly fit in the Dialogue area? That seems to be the real issue here. (I recently tried to recreate the first picture in that Doc via VMS 17 and I was having a little trouble with the text function.)

B. Put the VN background along with the characters in a Upper Center portion of the screen. Then put the Dialogue/Text in the lower center so I don't have to necessarily worry about spacing.

While I was initially wanting to use this program for typewritten text on these video projects. Fortunately I do recall on how VMS can also handle Character Sprite Animation .gif pictures as well which can potentially help matters even more so. So in other words I've in the past been told that this program can really help out in my projects but I need a little help figuring out how to do so. Are there any plug-ins that would make the projects I'm thinking of going a little smoother or would that not be necessary? So what do you say folks, got any advice for me on how to use VMS 17 this way?

Comments

FayFen wrote on 9/4/2023, 5:08 AM

$10 is a good price for something that is of that age. VMS 17 was the last in the Vegas team and the steam editions are limited in some odd ways compare with the official versions.

Do you have any VMS/Vegas experience? your best way is to google in youtube for VMS/Vegas text related ideas.

vkmast wrote on 9/4/2023, 5:42 AM

The basic ("classic") VEGAS Movie Studio versions (including v.17) were just that. Platinum versions had a lot more advanced features. To quote a well-known VMS guru: "The non-platinum version is only very, very basic and does not allow customization.--- I have never recommended anyone buy this version."

I'd suggest you look out for possible special upgrade offers for a version of VEGAS Pro in your email (or when opening your VMS. As you have a Steam version, these may not appear though.)

EricLNZ wrote on 9/4/2023, 6:49 AM

Yes, we tend to forget there was a basic edition but looking at the Steam site they appear to have Platinum on sale for not much more, probably around US$12.

@jonathan-d4510

jonathan-d4510 wrote on 9/4/2023, 6:29 PM

Well OK I refunded the basic VMS 17 and got the Platinum version instead on Steam since it was $14 on sale. But alas aside from the additional "Picture on Picture" mode that was already present on the screen when I start I did not see much difference so far.

In other words I'm still having a slight issue with the text namely how do I get the Text box within a certain part of the picture? (Without it going over the screen?) Or am I just simply unable to fully control the size of the text box if the text is animated and maybe I should just put the text on a regular colored background?

But as for the "Picture on Picture" mode I do have a question. If I increase the Picture's size enough it seems to automatically crop out the portion that is reaching the upper center of the screen. How do I get that to stop? Or am I unable to and need to keep the character portraits relatively small enough to fit in the center? Also will I be able to work with animated .gif pictures such as characters talking for example? Or should I just simply keep my character pictures static?

I must confess that VMS is a bit different from what I'm used to. (In the past I've used the likes of NCH VideoPad, Microsoft Clipchamp) and the like. But since I've heard on how this program has better capabilities I would like to learn how to be able to use it though.

EricLNZ wrote on 9/5/2023, 5:54 AM

@jonathan-d4510 I'm not sure that I correctly understand what you are trying to do. I had never heard of Character Sprite Animation so sorry that's way above my head.

Forget the PIP (Picture in Picture) track, unless you really need it. Delete the track or delete the FX from the track. You can add as many new Video and Audio tracks as you like.

Place a Media Generator solid colour Event (clip) on a track above your main track. Crop and position it to the size and position where you want it. Then using Titles and Text from Media Generators add a text Event to the track above. If you need to resize the text box to how you want it. Position it where you want it to appear over the solid colour box on the track below.

The Platinum version does have a lot that the basic version doesn't have but don't ask me to list the differences as I gave up using the basic version years ago. Like all good consumer editors VMS has great depth but it takes a while to learn. After seven years I'm still learning. .

vkmast wrote on 9/5/2023, 10:43 AM

@jonathan-d4510

https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/tutorials/basic-training-for-vegas-movie-studio-platinum-17--121001/ and more in this thread: https://www.vegascreativesoftware.info/us/forum/new-vegas-movie-studio-platinum-17-tutorials--120827/ (all by VMS expert Steve Grisetti, author of several muvipix.com guides to VMSP).

jonathan-d4510 wrote on 9/6/2023, 3:27 PM

@jonathan-d4510 I'm not sure that I correctly understand what you are trying to do. I had never heard of Character Sprite Animation so sorry that's way above my head

Well OK I guess I can explain that. It can potentially mean things like talking character portraits like this for Capcom's Phoenix Wright for example. But it can also lead to various other actions such as these from Ryu of Street Fighter fame for example.

Anyways I think I am getting the hang of how to work on Text Boxes. I admit I guess the reason why I was having a bit of trouble was on the "Scale" feature namely on how you can control the width just fine but seemingly not the length of the Text Box. Are there any plugins that can fix that? If not I understand, however there was something I did discover. That normally when you put a picture like this for example on the timeline.

It will remain sized into the center of the screen. However if you go into the "Pan/Crop" mode go into the Source Options and turn off the "Maintain Aspect" then the picture will cover the screen. Which would make trying to fit the Text Box into the Dialogue Section on the lower center of this scene panel here go a bit easier. But I have also learned how to have a regular background into the upper center on the screen so I can have the text in the lower center. Though I guess my othet little issue is that it seems to be that the program can be a little finicky on whether it will recoginize the transparent background on .png character portrait pics. Fortunately its not always the case and I figured it might be just simply an issue with certain pics though. But while I may still have some issues to work with I think I am starting to get the hang of how to use this program though.