How Can I Overlap Several Clips At the Same Time?

AndroidDigest wrote on 11/19/2022, 4:46 PM

I have Vegas Pro 20 Edit. And I could use some help!

I'm a Youtuber (Android Digest) that reviews tech products, so I do a "talking head" style of video. Normally I cut out dead air by splitting between clips, and then I drag my clips together to create a cross-fade. It's worked great! And Vegas has been the only program to do that.

Well I recently found a way to save a LOT of time. There's a program called Recut that cuts all of your dead air for you, and you can export it into an XML file.

So I imported that XML file into Vegas, and boom, I've got 60 different splits in my timeline, and all the dead air is gone, GREAT!

The only problem is there are no cross-fades between clips. So that's what I need help with!

I have one video, split into 75 clips on my timeline. Somehow I need all 75 clips to be dragged into one another. Doing it 1 by 1 is going to be a pain! Is there any way to do this easily? Remember I'm a noob so if you mention another program to use, or even a "script". I don't even know how those work, or what to do with a script, so any extra information you give is helpful.

 

Thanks!

Comments

jetdv wrote on 11/19/2022, 6:04 PM

Write a script that will overlap them for you.

walter-i. wrote on 11/20/2022, 2:21 AM

This function must be selected before adding the events to the timeline:

Afterwards you need a script, as jetdv said.

jetdv wrote on 11/20/2022, 6:57 AM

But if he's importing from an XML, either the XML would need to be adjusted before importing or he'll need a script. Take a look at this tutorial. It's not exactly this task but does show how to go through events on the timeline and even how to move events.

 

AndroidDigest wrote on 11/20/2022, 12:07 PM

But if he's importing from an XML, either the XML would need to be adjusted before importing or he'll need a script. Take a look at this tutorial. It's not exactly this task but does show how to go through events on the timeline and even how to move events.

 

Exactly! It sounds like the only way to do this would be with a script. And I have no idea how to do it. Hopefully it's easy especially with the tutorial. But I would essentially have to move the second video clip 3 seconds to the left into the first video clip to create a Crossfade. That would make the third video clip 6 seconds away. And the next video clip would be 9 seconds away and so on. Each time I move a video to the left it's going to be a bigger time that the video on the right has to move. So hopefully a script can somehow accomplish this without being super complicated

3POINT wrote on 11/20/2022, 12:37 PM

Activating "auto-ripple" before starting moving events solves this.

AndroidDigest wrote on 11/20/2022, 12:40 PM

Activating "auto-ripple" before starting moving events solves this.

Can you explain that in a little more detail? I'm interested to hear it

3POINT wrote on 11/20/2022, 12:45 PM

Activating "auto-ripple" before starting moving events solves this.

Can you explain that in a little more detail? I'm interested to hear it


3POINT wrote on 11/20/2022, 12:47 PM

Another option (when "auto ripple" is de-activeted), press F after each move, gap will be closed.

jetdv wrote on 11/20/2022, 4:55 PM

But "auto ripple" will not "overlap all events. The tutorial I posted shows how to go through events on the timeline and even shows how to move events. Instead of moving them using "event.end", you would use event.end minus the timecode length you wanted them to overlap and you would just use the "foreach" method to go through them forward.

Without knowing how you want to determine which events get overlapped, this will assume you want ALL events on the FIRST track overlapped by 15 frames. You can adjust from there.

using ScriptPortal.Vegas;

namespace Test_Script
{
    public class Class1
    {
        public Vegas myVegas;

        public void Main(Vegas vegas)
        {
            myVegas = vegas;

            Track myTrack = myVegas.Project.Tracks[0];
            {
                bool isfirst = true;
                Timecode PrevEnd = new Timecode(0);
                foreach (TrackEvent evnt in myTrack.Events)
                {
                    if (!isfirst)
                    {
                        evnt.Start = PrevEnd - Timecode.FromFrames(15);
                    }
                    PrevEnd = evnt.End;
                    isfirst = false;
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

public class EntryPoint
{
    public void FromVegas(Vegas vegas)
    {
        Test_Script.Class1 test = new Test_Script.Class1();
        test.Main(vegas);
    }
}

Just copy that text into notepad and save as "OverlapEvents.cs" in [My Documents]\Vegas Script Menu

Then adjust the script to figure out which events you really want to adjust and change the amount of overlap. What you're wanting to do is really not that complicated script-wise.

3POINT wrote on 11/21/2022, 2:02 AM

But I would essentially have to move the second video clip 3 seconds to the left into the first video clip to create a Crossfade. That would make the third video clip 6 seconds away. And the next video clip would be 9 seconds away and so on. Each time I move a video to the left it's going to be a bigger time that the video on the right has to move. So hopefully a script can somehow accomplish this without being super complicated

Auto ripple indeed doesn't create overlaps but it prevents creating the gaps when doing above scenario.

AndroidDigest wrote on 11/21/2022, 2:09 AM

But I would essentially have to move the second video clip 3 seconds to the left into the first video clip to create a Crossfade. That would make the third video clip 6 seconds away. And the next video clip would be 9 seconds away and so on. Each time I move a video to the left it's going to be a bigger time that the video on the right has to move. So hopefully a script can somehow accomplish this without being super complicated

Auto ripple indeed doesn't create overlaps but it prevents creating the gaps when doing above scenario.

That's a good point but I'm needing it to cross fade them automatically which is why I'm wanting to move them

3POINT wrote on 11/21/2022, 4:25 AM

You can hope that each time @jetdv is so kind to write a script for an unusual scenario like this or you can buy for example https://vegasaur.com/Vegasaur and achieve such repeating tasks (and a lot more) with just one mouse click.

jetdv wrote on 11/21/2022, 6:36 AM

@AndroidDigest, if you want to provide more information detailing how the events should be found and the amount of the overlap, the above script can be easily adjusted to suit those needs. But the above script will do what you've requested and overlap events automatically.