How are YOU using Vegas?

p_l wrote on 3/1/2002, 2:07 AM

I use it to make VCDs and SVCDs of my daughter's piano recitals, among other things. Last year when she was four, I did her Suzuki Book 1 Graduation Recital with VideoWave 4, and it's only a few weeks ago that I was finally able to fix the audio-synch problem In the VW files with VV. Those who know me from the VW forum (pl) now understand my year-long obsession with audio-synch; I figure if my daughter practices and gets beautiful music to come out of her piano, the least her dad can do is make a video where the music comes out at the same time as she's playing the piano keys. Now she's five and next weekend is her Book 2 Graduation Recital, and I'm looking forward to using VV to make a video of it that looks and SOUNDS good.

Caruso wrote on 3/1/2002, 7:25 PM

A bit off-topic, but, I'm glad to see you supporting your daughter's early musical efforts. The classical concerts I mentioned in my posts feature my two children. Seems not too long ago I was videoing their earliest music making endeavors.

Vegas has renewed my interest in those early videos, since I can now edit them into very interesting pieces that are especially appreciated by my children.

Have fun with VV and, of course, enjoy your daughter.

Caruso

kkolbo wrote on 3/2/2002, 11:06 AM

I use it for a couple of different things.

I started out using it to compile rushes and production pictures for my clients while I was on the road shooting large projects; mostly HD and 35mm. I would send them back via the web as quick clips to show them how their money was being used. It was nice becuase it was very portable.

That then ending up by me doing all of the company promos on VV. We have two DPS units and a Media 100 but they like what I do with VV better.

That resulted in all of the marketting pieces and award submissions. Mostly eh things I do in VV end up on a CD-ROM or web delivery.

I recently editted an 18 minute adventure short for my scout troop with it using it to teach movie making techniques.

Last week I did the rough audio track edits for a large museum project I am producing.

I does not replace a large on-line suite, but as a producer's tool box for these kind of things it has been great. Acutually too good. I don't have time to get stuck with all the promotional videos. That is waht the other teams should be doing. Did I mention I had to kick out two DVD's for them last week. SF you have cursed me by making them think I can do anything.

K

BD wrote on 3/2/2002, 12:25 PM

I make family videos, as future memories for our 5-year-old and to help him bond with my relatives who live 2,500 miles away. For anyone to actually watch these tapes, they need to be carefully made and interesting: a quality editing program is essential, or else these movies would serve no purpose. VV3 is terrific and is fast, which reduces the number of late-nite hours needed to edit 90-minute videos. I'm delighted with VV!

buford wrote on 3/4/2002, 8:32 PM

I use it to make cheesy horror movies and funny videos.

SPP wrote on 3/4/2002, 10:31 PM

Thanks eveyone for the great ideas. I am awaiting the arrival of VV in the mail. My intentions are to make and edit home movies of family, pets, etc.

I am also planning on making a CD for the entire family of my grandfather's band. He passed away about a year and a half ago. After the funeral the family went back to his house and I found a gold mine of cassette tapes of thirty years worth of various jam sessions. They also have sound bites of him talking, laughing, and carrying on with his buddies between songs. I play drums and am also going to overdub a song or two of that jam session that we never got around to having.

And of course I'll probably do some demos of my own band. I have a feeling I'll be needing to upgrade beyond my lowly Soundblaster 5.1 + MP3 card to pull this off. Any suggestions with regards to using an external mixer for these applications?

Thanks for a wonderful thread, and have fun creating.

Steve

techead wrote on 3/10/2002, 4:21 PM

I've been using Vegas Video 2 & 3 for about 9 months now. I am extremely pleased with it and chose it over other NLEs after doing head-to-head comparisons. Three overriding factors helped with the decision: 1) The slickest, most common-sense, and easiest user-interface; 2) realtime previewing; 3) loads of included effects, filters, transitions without having to purchase from 3rd parties.

I use Vegas weekly for short video productions, commercials, and multimedia presentations for my church. I find myself reading these forums frequently and have found them helpful. It is interesting to see how everyone is using such a great product.

Chienworks wrote on 5/4/2002, 8:43 AM

Just wanted to bump this topic back up and point out that several of us are posting some examples of our videos at http://www.vegasusers.com/vidshare/

Feel free to peruse and add yor own :)

dcrandall wrote on 5/4/2002, 4:47 PM

Just before my father passed away my sister taped a 2.5 hour video where she questioned my Dad about his life history. I'm taking this "talking-head" video and am inserting still photographs, (utilizing Pan & Zoom of course), that were taken during the period he is speaking about. (I'm attempting to do a Ken Burns type of documentory of my father's life)

dhill wrote on 5/5/2002, 5:33 AM

I made a 70 min. "on tour" video of the band that I perform with using VV2. I synched up the live footage with our live cd. Yes, that took a while being that all of the tempos and arrangements on the raw video were different than the cd! Any way, sales were very good, so, I'm now in the process of completing the dvd version with bonus footage of course! I own premier 6 too, but I never use it any more. VV3a does everything I need it to and is very user friendly for beginners such as myself. I only hope that more of the 3rd party plug-in companies realize what a great program this is and start making their products for Vegas too. I know...it takes time to become a video software giant and VV is relatively new. I love the new transitions recently made available and all of the new effects in VV3. My only regret is that I haven't had any time to use it just for fun! work work work...DH

bryanbailey wrote on 5/5/2002, 10:14 AM

split audio tracks (rarely)

Arks wrote on 5/5/2002, 3:31 PM

Nice thread!

Well, I am just graduating college with a video/film production degree(May 12th!! woohoo!) and I used Vegas Video for many of my video projects for classes and for side jobs. some include:

-A 15 minute promotional video for a company working on the Milwaukee Brewer's New Miller Park.

-A 10 minute training video on how to operate the operable doors behind the scoreboard in Miller Park.

-A 17 minute documentary on life at a local bowling alley (my senior project..should be screening this weekend at UW -Milwaukee)

-A 30 minute documentary on two brothers who live in the north woods of Wisconsin.. I consider them modern day pioneers (my teachers think I should submit this to PBS.. I'm thinking about it.. maybe I could give Sonic Foundry some advertising if It gets aired. hehe)

-Various other videos for local police station(SWAT team video), city hall, and various Rock Bands around the milwaukee area(www.drowningstar.com)

OK, enough with the shameless advertising for myself... I just about use VV3 now for anything I do dealing with video production, and truely love it!

Brian
http://influxmedia.8m.com

where creativity flows...

SonyEPM wrote on 5/6/2002, 2:01 PM

If you haven't already been to this corner of our website, you might want to check this out:

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/showcase/default.asp

GVP wrote on 5/7/2002, 3:27 PM

The rear projected screens have a hot spot in the middle that the camera will see even though you don't see it with your eyes. I have taken a 4 ft. X 4ft. piece of sheetrock and painted it with several coats of flat white paint. Sand with fine sand paper to eliminate any textures that would show up in the projected image. Project the image at it's longest telephoto setting (smallest picture)to obtain the brightest image on the screen. Use a projector with a variable speed control to sync the camera. Use a waveform monitor to determine when you are in sync. (The graph on the WFM does not jump like a flickering flame). I use an external motor control on some projectors to vary the speed. This works for me to get pro results.

GVP wrote on 5/7/2002, 3:30 PM

The rear projected screens have a hot spot in the middle that the camera will see even though you don't see it with your eyes. I have taken a 4 ft. X 4ft. piece of sheetrock and painted it with several coats of flat white paint. Sand with fine sand paper to eliminate any textures that would show up in the projected image. Project the image at it's longest telephoto setting (smallest picture)to obtain the brightest image on the screen. Use a projector with a variable speed control to sync the camera. Use a waveform monitor to determine when you are in sync. (The graph on the WFM does not jump like a flickering flame). I use an external motor control on some projectors to vary the speed. This works for me to get pro results.

fongaboo wrote on 5/8/2002, 12:47 PM

I do visuals for techno parties and I use Vegas to chop up my footage for live sequencing. My VJing software allows me to load banks of AVI files and work with them in a similar fashion that an audio sampler lets one work with audio loops. Vegas is the best app for cutting chunks out of a large pieces of footage and seeing how they loop. *SF: It would be nice if you could add an 'Export Regions' feature like there is in Sound Forge..

I am also starting to work on whole techno songs that are built out of visually rhythmical video loops rather than audio samples alone. I had a lot of my ideas prior to VegasVideo but found it impossible to impliment in Premiere or the like.. Vegas allows me to make these video creations in the same way standard musicians create in Acid.

Having fallen in love with the interface of VegasAudio for production work at my college's radio station, I found myself wishing I could have something that easy to use for video. I remember being as giddy as a schoolgirl when I found out SF granted my wish.

Vegas was an excellent tool for standard editing. I do news package assignments for my television production class in a breeze.. It's like painting with video.

But again, Vegas seemed to be the only capable tool when it came to making my VJ demo reel - a 1/2 hour piece showcasing my live animation and video-sequencing with a soundtrack of various DJs. Vegas literally allowed me to do beat-matched transitions between two video segments with complete ease - not to mention the multi-track layering I needed for such a piece.

If you are doing anything with video that is intensely musical, rhythmical or otherwise tempo-driven, I can't see using anything else.