Vegas' masking is good, it has 2 options (the old masking tool in video event pan/crop and the bezier masking tool), but if you want the best masking, use Vegas Effects (part of Vegas Post), which seamlessly integrates with Vegas Pro. The masks are easier to animate in Effects, can be motion tracked easier, etc. That gives Vegas masking capabilities easily on par with if not better than what you get with Premiere and After Effects.

@rob-r see if your Movie Studio version qualifies for upgrade pricing. At least the Platinum version does. Vegas Pro Edit is even less expensive and it's the same Vegas Pro without DVD Architect (which you already should have if you got Platinum).

Thanks, I have platinum, I think I'm good - but are you saying that Vegas Pro Edit is the same thing as Movie Studio just minus the DVD Architect?

Also can I ask you a silly question about mask in crop? I'm testing it and while I'm able to use the anchor creation tool, it doesn't seem to actually cut away - in other words I see the points selected, but the rest of the image is still there, not cropped away - is there some obvious thing I'm supposed to do I'm not doing.

If you have a sec - thanks for your help and the info re Pro Edit

I did not say that "Vegas Pro Edit is the same thing as Movie Studio just minus the DVD Architect". I said that "Vegas Pro Edit is even less expensive and it's the same Vegas Pro without DVD Architect". 

Pro Edit is more fully featured than Movie Studio. As for your masking question, make sure you close the mask by connecting the last and first anchor points.

Vegas Pro Edit vs. Vegas Pro

Sorry about confusing studio with pro, my bad. But other than dvd architect rendering options are the same in pro edit and pro I take it - thanks to all for the input.

VEGAS Pro masking is far way superior then Premiere Pro. Simple & straight forward. I wish the feathering can be enable by just highlighting the keyframe. So I don't need to enable it manually every keyframe.

You maybe wondering why don't I just enable the feathering in the beginning of the mask, when I add some feathering in VEGAS Pro, it will slow down & starts to lag rapidly.

So by having this kind of features, it will speed up the editor editing speed by adding the feathering after keyframing.

I have deleted my original question because I am too embarrassed that I couldn't spot where my mistake was (it was in the setting of the level at the head of the layer).

If one is using Premier, the idea is probably to use the dynamic link with Adobe After Effects, which has masking tools which are very good, rotoscoping which can dynamically follow an outline of a figure moving in time, and also Mocha AE, which is included, when you'd need to go beyond.

One could, today, also buy the Humble Bundle Filmakers package (google that) which would give you Hitfilm Pro which includes Mocha -- all for a ridiculously low price (I won't quote that here out of respect) and you could use that inside of Vegas Pro, any version. You could get the Hitfilm Express free version, and add Mocha for a reasonable price, but that would be more than the Humble Bundle Price which will expire in less than 48 hours, so if you miss that, I'd recommend that OR the Vegas version of Hitfilm, Vegas Post (Vegas Edit) but you'd still have to ADD Mocha that way.

Vegas' own masking tools are decent, but not up to the level of the other aforementioned tools. Better than Premiere alone, yes, and for some basic stuff, they'd get the job done, but not serious rotoscoping, and if you don't know what that is, look that up on Youtube etc.

One caveat to point out about the hitfilm bundle mentioned above, it is the same app as Vegas Post, but lacks the direct compatibility (the ability for Vegas to send video to it and for it to send video
+ effects back to vegas without having to render anything) with Vegas Pro that Vegas Post offers.

There is a free trial available for Vegas Post to check out how it works out.