Hi,
I just bought Vegas Post yesterday and I want to loop a small animation I made in another composite shot,
while in After Effects it is doable with the loopOut() command, in Vegas Effects I do not see any way to do that, this is an essential feature for any type of animation done in this type of software and it makes no sense to not support it,
is there any way to do it?
Vegas Effects is a trimmed down version of HitFilm Pro by FXHome. I do not recall a looping feature being mentioned in HitFilm Por over the many years that I've owned its many versions; however, I checked FXHome's forum and found that the question about whether or not looping is available has been asked a few times, one question even mentioning AE as an example of looping. Basically, the answer was that HitFilm Pro does not have a similar feature to AE re looping. It therefore follows that Vegas Effects is unlikely to have looping either - as you have discovered.
One approach suggested on a YT tutorial is, in edit mode, to Ctrl+Alt and drag the clip to the R and keep on repeating. That tut doesn't cover composite mode however.
A suggestion on the forum back in 2018 re looping a gif was:
Say your original clip is one second long. Make a new composite shot that's 42x the clip length (42 seconds in this case). Drop your original clip in there twice, with the second copy starting immediately after the first one ends. On the later one, add the Time Reverse effect. This gives you one normal version, followed immediately by a reversed version. A ping-pong effect, essentially.
Above these layers, add a grade layer, and drop the Echo effect onto it. Set the Number of Echoes to 20 (its max value) and Echo Time to -2 * your clip length (-2 seconds in this case). Now you have your original ping-pong version, plus 20 more.
Need more than 21 iterations? Either drop this comp into an even longer comp and add a grade with Echo set appropriately, or drag multiple versions of this comp onto the main Editor timeline one after the other.
Given that I have HitFilm Pro, I should add that I do not have (or need) Vegas Post.
Vegas Effects is a trimmed down version of HitFilm Pro by FXHome. I do not recall a looping feature being mentioned in HitFilm Por over the many years that I've owned its many versions; however, I checked FXHome's forum and found that the question about whether or not looping is available has been asked a few times, one question even mentioning AE as an example of looping. Basically, the answer was that HitFilm Pro does not have a similar feature to AE re looping. It therefore follows that Vegas Effects is unlikely to have looping either - as you have discovered.
One approach suggested on a YT tutorial is, in edit mode, to Ctrl+Alt and drag the clip to the R and keep on repeating. That tut doesn't cover composite mode however.
A suggestion on the forum back in 2018 re looping a gif was:
Say your original clip is one second long. Make a new composite shot that's 42x the clip length (42 seconds in this case). Drop your original clip in there twice, with the second copy starting immediately after the first one ends. On the later one, add the Time Reverse effect. This gives you one normal version, followed immediately by a reversed version. A ping-pong effect, essentially.
Above these layers, add a grade layer, and drop the Echo effect onto it. Set the Number of Echoes to 20 (its max value) and Echo Time to -2 * your clip length (-2 seconds in this case). Now you have your original ping-pong version, plus 20 more.
Need more than 21 iterations? Either drop this comp into an even longer comp and add a grade with Echo set appropriately, or drag multiple versions of this comp onto the main Editor timeline one after the other.
Given that I have HitFilm Pro, I should add that I do not have (or need) Vegas Post.
I feel like it's ridiculous that such a basic feature isn't in those "professional" softwares, it shouldn't even be that hard to implement
Hi SeleDreams,
What you are looking for is called "Nested Timelines." In essence what this does is to take events (clips) you have on your tracks (several tracks if you like) and create a separate project of just these events that will sit on just one track in your current project as a single event (clip) which can then be looped by dragging out its duration. This way if you change your mind about your animation - you can jump into the nested clip and edit to your heart's desire.
Hope that helps?
For Vegas Pro 19 users - the icon has changed...
Hi SeleDreams,
What you are looking for is called "Nested Timelines." In essence what this does is to take events (clips) you have on your tracks (several tracks if you like) and create a separate project of just these events that will sit on just one track in your current project as a single event (clip) which can then be looped by dragging out its duration. This way if you change your mind about your animation - you can jump into the nested clip and edit to your heart's desire.
Hope that helps?
I am talking about Vegas Effects, not Vegas Pro
If you will start a new thread, adjust your approach just a little, and include the words "Vegas Effects Feature Request" in the title, it will get noticed by the right people, I promise.
My reading of @SeleDreams ' post is that he's trying to achieve looping within Vegas Effects' composite timeline that perpetually repeats the animation as an integral part of the project and is thus rendered with that animation being looped. YouTube has a number of tutorials about looping animation in AE, the following being a short 'how to' demonstration of looping in AE: 
My reading of @SeleDreams ' post is that he's trying to achieve looping within Vegas Effects' composite timeline that perpetually repeats the animation as an integral part of the project and is thus rendered with that animation being looped. YouTube has a number of tutorials about looping animation in AE, the following being a short 'how to' demonstration of looping in AE:
Yeah, in AE they rely on a loopOut function to make it loop but there's no equivalent in vegas effects
I am talking about Vegas Effects, not Vegas Pro
It's my understanding that Vegas Effects and Vegas Pro are tightly integrated and one can jump from Vegas Pro to Vegas Effects. My simple suggestion was to use Vegas Pro to loop any Nested Timelines in the parent project. Now these Nested Timelines can be other Vegas Projects with Vegas Effects applied.
The suggestion was made so that everything in the Main project is fluid and can be tweaked before final render.
Although I don't have Vegas Effects to properly investigate (perhaps you can add Vegas Effects directly as Nested Timelines???), I do still recall the same kind of relationship between Sony Vegas Pro 12 and HitFilm 2.
Hope that clarifies the suggestion?
On the point of "This software does this... why doesn't yours?" Personally, I like to find out what the software does do well and use it to the best advantage and if there's something I need which it doesn't do or can't be worked around then I'll consider buying the software that does do it and use that.
I am talking about Vegas Effects, not Vegas Pro
It's my understanding that Vegas Effects and Vegas Pro are tightly integrated and one can jump from Vegas Pro to Vegas Effects. My simple suggestion was to use Vegas Pro to loop any Nested Timelines in the parent project. Now these Nested Timelines can be other Vegas Projects with Vegas Effects applied.
The suggestion was made so that everything in the Main project is fluid and can be tweaked before final render.
Although I don't have Vegas Effects to properly investigate (perhaps you can add Vegas Effects directly as Nested Timelines???), I do still recall the same kind of relationship between Sony Vegas Pro 12 and HitFilm 2.
Hope that clarifies the suggestion?
On the point of "This software does this... why doesn't yours?" Personally, I like to find out what the software does do well and use it to the best advantage and if there's something I need which it doesn't do or can't be worked around then I'll consider buying the software that does do it and use that.
The type of animation I make is done entirely on vegas effects due to how it works, it doesn't rely on any video because it's a Music Video relying on 2D images
on your last point, it doesn't make much sense, it's not just a case of "a special feature of other softwares" it's "a commonly used ability that's an industry standard" looping a video or an audio file has always been something standard
Right now my only way to "loop" the animation is to create a ton of layers which isn't efficient at all