Managing video tracks in a large project

rlc4810 wrote on 7/13/2005, 9:36 AM
Hello all. I recently upgraded to Vegas 6 from Vegas Movie Studio. I am delighted with the unlimited video and audio tracks, plus a zillion new features I've never experimented with! I have a question in regards to managing a bunch of tracks in a fairly lengthy project. If there is a section in the manual, a tutorial, etc. somewhere that addresses this, please let me know.

Suppose you are putting toether an hour-long project that requires 2 video tracks for most of the production; maybe a video background and an occasional text overlay. But you have an idea for a really flashy 30 second intro for the production that requires 10 tracks to build.

So you have 10 tracks devoted to the first minute, and 2 tracks devoted to the remaining 59 minutes. Do you keep all 12 tracks in the same project, or do you put your flashy intro into its own project which you render separately as an .avi and import into the timeline of your main project when everything is finally put together?

Or is the scenario I'm describing something that you'd use nested projects for?

Thanks for any guidance anyone can offer to an extreme newbie!

Rick <><

Comments

FrigidNDEditing wrote on 7/13/2005, 9:50 AM
NESTING!!!! - It's a space saver

Yea that's what you'd use Nesting for - just do the first bit in one project, and then do the rest in your main project.

Then the "bookends" (intro and ending) can be placed just using the nested projects feature.

DAve
rlc4810 wrote on 7/13/2005, 12:45 PM
Dave:

Thanks for the response. I haven't tried nesting projects yet, but I'll be sure to give it a try.

This is something that was really puzzling me. I've studied various examples of how to achieve some eye-popping visual effects, but they often times utilize a track for just one layer of a short section of footage. I've been trying to figure out how to manage a selected group of tracks (designated for a special purpose) within a larger project. It looks like nesting will work well.

I certainly appreciate the help!
Rick <><
Chienworks wrote on 7/13/2005, 1:03 PM
Or you can leave all those tracks in the full project. Generally when a track is empty it has no effect so most of the time this is an acceptable way to work. Try multiple methods and see what works best for you.

Something to watch out for though with this method is that if you have certain things such as 3D track motion enabled for a track that may greatly slow down rendering for the entire project, not just where there are events in the track.
rlc4810 wrote on 7/13/2005, 1:52 PM
Chienworks:

I wondered about that. If I have a track with an effect that may slow down the entire rendering process, will vast sections of the video where that track on the timeline isn't populated with events also render slowly? From what you said, it sounds like it would slow down the overall process.

Now I have another question, if I may: will a slow sequence in a nested project carry over to the main project and slow its rendering as well? Suppose track #1 in my opening sequence project is doing some real intense 3d stuff that renders slowly. I then nest the slow-to-render opening sequence project inside my main project, and kick off a render. Will that slow 3d effect on track #1in the nested project cause track #1 in the larger project to render slowly?

I certainly appreciate the help! This is kinda fascinating to learn!

Rick <><
Chienworks wrote on 7/13/2005, 2:06 PM
Yes it will, and probably even more than if you had that section directly in the main project because Vegas has to "dereference" the nested files. However, before rendering hits that nested section and after it has progressed past it there should be no speed penalty due to effects used in that section.