Imported PNG Images & Display Size On Timeline

Shandy Elliott wrote on 11/24/2009, 3:53 PM
I'm fairly new to Vegas (usually use Premiere). I've looked in this forum (among other forums) about this issue - I found a similar topic at

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=683497&Replies=11

but the resulting advise seems to be just a work-around (which actually worked in my case), but I would prefer to know the technical solution.

In my example, I have a project video at 800x464, and I'm trying to import a .png (182x208) to the time line. When I place this graphic on the time line, I get this http://www.shan-dysigns.com/userForums/sonyVegas/placedOnTimeLine.jpg. When I apply the work-around, I get this http://www.shan-dysigns.com/userForums/sonyVegas/workaround.jpg.

I can't imagine Vegas requiring additional settings just to allow one to place an image at its intended size. Am I missing a global/project setting, or is this the idiotic way Vegas 9 handles images placed on the time line? I 'can' place my logo on a png background of 800x464 and get the desired graphic size on the time line, but that's not clean and I don't like having to work like that.... what to do?

Comments

JohnnyRoy wrote on 11/24/2009, 4:07 PM
> Am I missing a global/project setting, or is this the idiotic way Vegas 9 handles images placed on the time line?

You are not missing anything. It may seem idiotic to you but to me it's idiotic that NLE's like Premiere make me adjust 350 images to do a photo montage because they don't match the project size. So one man's poison is another man's medicine. This is the way Vegas works and most of us us it because it works this way and eliminates a lot of unnecessary work that other NLE's would have you do. Yes, it's a pain when bringing in a small image like a network bug but it's a time saver 1000's of other times.

You could always submit a product suggestion to have a switch that turns off bringing in media at the project size. It's a great idea actually.

BTW, welcome to the Vegas community. ;-)

~jr
rmack350 wrote on 11/24/2009, 5:34 PM
It is the idiotic way that Vegas handles media, and there's a certain logic to it:

Think of Vegas as a resampling NLE. You can place anything onto a timeline and Vegas will resample it to fit the project.

Got 41k audio files? Drop them on the timeline and Vegas will resample them to play in a 48k project.

Got video at 12FPS? Vegas will resample it to run at 29.97.

Got square pixel images? Vegas will resample all images to match the project's pixel aspect ratio (and this is the point where Vegas really starts to get into trouble)

Got an image that's 20px x 20px? Vegas will happily resample it to 1080x1080px. Which of course is idiotic but at least it's idiotically consistent. We're on Version 9 now and I suspect this has been pointed out to them for the last 8 versions of Vegas.

Rob Mack
Soniclight wrote on 11/25/2009, 2:31 PM
Vegas =Idiotic or non-idiotic, it's all a matter of perspective. Putting a 20x20 pixel image into a 1440x1080 project, now that's kind of idiotic :) I find its auto-adjust to project (re-sampling) time saving and useful. If something doesn't jive, there are workarounds if one uses one's beanie a bit.

I.e. if I still need to use a low res photo, I up-rez it it in my image editor first to at least Vegas project resolution. It won't improve the image, but at least there will be enough pixels for Vegas to latch on to. Otherwise put, I make adjustments to odd or different sized or sampled pieces before putting into Vegas.