Steve,

You can change the default setting in project settings. I've read that good is fine for video but it's recommended for still work or resizing you'll want to use Best. It looks better (less interlacing). I'm a quality nazi so I always render my final versions at best when time permits.

Marc

Hi Kyle.

I'm an occasional Vegas user. I use it almost exclusively for producing compilations and demos of my voice-over work for video productions.

Here's a demo that I prepared in Vegas which includes several clips I prepared myself. While almost everything on the demo witch has motion-video came from projects I did for other producers (who use mostly Avid - two of them just bought Vegas and are very impressed.), all of the still-image sequences I created myself in Vegas. I think you'll see that even a person with limited Video editing experience can produce an effective slide show.

(This is also a cheap trick to get Vegas people to view my Documentary Narration demo.)

www.narrate.biz

Thanks,

Travis

Nice job Travis. You have the voice for a narrator. I wish I could speak that well.

Steve

Thanks Marc. Any idea how much longer the rendering takes with "best"?

Sorry, I've never tested it. I come from no rendering with Storm but Vegas is so good I find myself putting up with renders just to use it. (Although hardware support would be really nice :)

Marc

"I will more than likely be using regular stereo sources for the soundtracks, etc. Is there a way I can mix them (somewhat easily) into 5.1 scores?"

Another area where Vegas 4 leads - it has built in surround 5.1 capability
- File > Properties > Audio Master Bus Mode change to Surround and see how easy they've made it. (Have you got the demo version yet?). With DVDArchitect, you can output DVDs ready for Home Theatres.

That's all you have to do? I thought you would have to tell V4 which tracks you wanted for the rear channels, etc. and set everything up manually! Is that really all there is to it?

Thanks,
Steve

Yeah, of course you have to tell it what you want where - I was referring to how easy it is to do this, with the surround tool which replaces the stereo pan slider for each track.

Note: I love Vegas and use it everyday. Premiere is a poorly designed program and I assure you that once you work with Vegas for a few weeks you will bnever go back to Premiere.

DVD-Architect is better than MyDVD, DVDit or any of the other low to mid priced DVD authoring packages. It is integrated with Vegas, saving you time. However, I have not managed to use DVD-A to author the complicted DVDs required by some clients and am now using Sonic's ReelDVD. Probably others will deem ReelDVD grossly overpriced, old and hard to learn but once learned it is easy to use. The versions I have DO NOT require Photoshop, though Photoshop layered psd files will enhance your project. Heck, for really straight forward stuff at work and for freelance I use Dazzle's DVD Complete! It is very fast and there are enough templates to satisfy most requests. The built in music loops suck so you need to build your own with Acid Pro or Vegas. If you are new to the DVD business (an it appears you are) DVD-A is probably your best bet for learning the art of DVD authoring.

I am one of the original Vegas Pro users and have been using Vegas/Sound Forge for all of our multitrack audio work and, lately, favour it for video editing over our AVIDs for my own work. There, I have stated Vegas is the best video editing tool, even though it requires me to transfer BetaSX /Sp to DVCAM in order to use it. Its native titling set is weak but you can work around that with other programs and soon the Boris Plugins will be available.

Peter Burn

I cannot tell you how thankful I am for all the responses and help. I am so very close to buying Vegas. I do have two questions that still haven't been answered in depth, yet:

1. Is anyone out there running Premiere and Vegas on the same computer? If so, have you run into any problems?

2.Has anyone actually made movies entirely composed of stills that are 30 minutes or longer? And can you pan vary the speed of the panning on images and pause, etc?

That may be actually closer to four questions, but I thank anyone who can answer them for me.

Travis, you have an amazing voice. I wish I had a voice like that. . . sometimes I wonder if I HAVE gone through puberty, yet.

Thanks, again, for all the help. I know a lot of you wondering what's taking me so long: "Just buy the damn program :)" --Marc

If these two (or four) questions can be answered for me, I guarantee Vegas Video will be my weapon of choice.

Thanks,
Kyle

"1. Is anyone out there running Premiere and Vegas on the same computer? If so, have you run into any problems?"

I still have Premiere installed without problems.

"2.Has anyone actually made movies entirely composed of stills that are 30 minutes or longer? And can you pan vary the speed of the panning on images and pause, etc?"

No limit to how long, Kyle. (I assume you mean the movie is 30 mins, not each still! - but Vegas could still handle that, if anyone would watch!)

Each still can be indidually "travelled around", or zoomed and panned, using keyframes. Pauses are a simple matter of copying a keyframe and dragging the copy as far away from the first one as you want. You can also control whether movement between keyframes is linear, smooth (starts slowly, speeds up then decelerates towards next keyframe, fast, slow, sharp or hold (keeps previous setting then "cuts" to next keyframe suddenly)

If you're zooming in much, recommend making the resolution of the still high enough to prevent pixels showing.

Thanks, Peter. What I'm actually gonna be doing is scanning in families' pictures and old slides for them and turning them into a "movie." I have worked quite a bit with Premiere 6.0, and I have had horrible problems getting good quality slideshows that are over a couple minutes in length. I made the mistake of buying the Digital Video Collection from Adobe. . . I thought that maybe my problems were my own fault (and they still might be). So now I have Adobe After Effects, Illustrator, and Photoshop, but no dedicated NLE that will produce a really clear picture (more related to codecs) and get the job done. I am very cautious about spending $300 more on a NLE, when I already have a supposed "good one." And for those who don't remember, I am awaiting my new computer that will have Windows XP Pro. Right now I am only running plain old Windows 98, so I cannot download the demo.

Thank you once again for all the help!

Kyle

puptiger81: i've got two suggestions for you.

First, if you are concerned about price you may want to look at VideoFactory instead of Vegas. It's only $70, and if you do decide to move up to Vegas later on the upgrade price plus is quite fair. Video Factory will give you all the quality of Vegas. Your biggest limitation will be somewhat limited panning. Since VideoFactory doesn't have keyframes, you can only pan in single straight moves. This actually may be enough for you, but if you need more complex movements then you can break the still up into multiple events and use a separate move on each section of it.

Second, well, you know your material and audience better than we do, but ... 30 minutes is a long (and dare i say it ... potentially boring) slide show! It might be better to make several shorter shows each with a specific theme, then put all the shorter shows on the same disc. That way your audience can quickly select what they want to watch without sitting through the entire thing. Of course, if you do get Vegas and DVD-Architect then you can produce one long show with chapter points for each section.

I have made a 45 minute slide show for a ship reunion of a WWII ship in Video Factory. It was so impressive that I upgraded to Vegas and created a 30 minute one from the ship builder photos in the National Archives. The quality of both was excellent, but Vegas offers more control in panning and zooming. I am a former VideoWave and Premier user. These programs blow away both. First got VF for the abilty to adjust the sound along the timline and never looked back. Both programs are very stable.

Thanks, Chienworks. The reason I said 30 minute-long slideshows is because I'm going to be making epic slideshows for people. Yes, 30 minutes is long, but four minute increments is too short. I will also be making slideshows that people can put up at kiosks or keep running at graduations, etc., without having to worry about it stopping. Make no mistake about it, I need the functionality of Vegas Video at the very least. Quality, quality, and more quality. I need to have control over as many aspects of the editing process as possible. I also need to be able to roll into and out of After Effects, Illustrator, and Photoshop fairly easily although I don't know if Vegas can do that very well.

Is there any NLE out there that can do a better job for still images?

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.

Kyle

Thanks for all

Thanks, "TomHHI." That is almost exactly what I needed to hear. I might need some slideshows to run in a linear manner, even if 30 or 40 minutes long. I know I may seem like a beginner with some of the questions I have, but I am definitely looking for a professional NLE. I learn fast. Thanks, again, "TomHHI."

Kyle

Kyle one advantage of AE is that you have Bezier curves which will give you better control in some instances. I find AE more cumbursome to work with though for slide shows because of it limited audio support and the looping features of Vegas and instant movement and plugin access are so nice . I would say that as far as NLE's go there is nothing better than Vegas for a slide show. Just the fact that you can drop high resolution images directly on the timline and preseve there original size is a huge advantage. Other programs usually scale the image to project size and require you to interface with a third party plugin (extra steps) to preserve hi-rez. I operate Premiere/Vegas with no problems.

Vegas does not have a edit original command like premiere for opening an image in Photoshop but it's easy to open the image in photoshop and Vegas will automatically give image priority over to photoshop (without having to close Vegas) and then updates the image when you come back to Vegas.

Marc

Thanks, Marc. That was some very good information. What I'm looking at doing right now is installing After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere, and Vegas Video on my new computer arriving in a week. Can Vegas export really smooth uncompressed slideshow movies into After Effects? Or what is the best way to work in AE with Vegas?

Thanks, again, Marc. That was very helpful.

Kyle

I'm a real novice with AE so someone else will have to answer the workflow questions.

Marc