snicholshms wrote:
"FIRST!!!! Right click on each still and select "Properties" then select "Resample" and "Reduce Interlace Flicker". If you don't, each still could vibrate during playback...and some still might."

Another approach is to put a light blur on the video channel in question. I put a Quick Blur on the Video Master FX and set it to .500. TV screens don't handle lines that are 1-2 pixels wide. It seems wrong but a light blur will actually "sharpen" up the image on TV. The resample idea is a good one but unless you could apply it to all stills it think its alot of busy work.

Also don't forget the NTSC color filter so your still colors match the TV colors.

Regarding matching cuts to a beat, you need to get familiar with "reading" an audio wave form. Zoom in a bit on the wave form and listen/watch. You will see the wave sync with the music. If the music doesn't have a pronounced beat then drop markers to the beat and edit accordingly. Remember cut on the 1 or 3 beat primarily or the 2 or 4 beats secondarily in a measure. I find cutting between a beat doesn't work right. If your using a transition have it end on one of the beats not start.

As I recall Magix has an video editor that's total hobby and it advertises that it will sync transitions to a beat automatically. I tried it and found it really buggy and you had define the beat of the music to the software. It wouldn't take an acidized wav and do it automatically. Lame.

Good luck
jack

Thanks. Those suggestions will help me out. Also, I just remembered that I saw a video on the sharing site that had an excellent beginning that had such a sequence of stills. It was a vacation film in Alaska. I need to go back and see who made that and hopefully its creator will chime in with some advice.

While you're listening to your music, you can also hit the "M" key on those special punches you want to add a further special effect/special cut/whatever. It puts a marker for eventual reference.

Thanks, Futz. I wonder if that method will also help me inside the keyframer. There are a few stills that I want to have a several orchestra hits while the camera appears to zoom in in coordination with each hit. I think I know how to position the keyframes to make the zoom effect have distinct leaps but then I have to coordinate that with the music. I've got a lot to do on this one. I still have to find some fill music for certain portions, including the orchestra hits. I knew I would one day regret not learning to play music when I was a kid. Later.

Hi, one suggestion I can add is that you may have to zoom into the timeline to make sure your still falls on exactly the beat you intend it too. I use the match the picture to the wave file method here at work and most of the time although I think I have the events in perfect sync I'm off by a few frames. I've learned to zoom far enough into the timeline so that the cursor keys jump one frame at a time. Also you may have to turn on quantize to frames to get events to line up.

A question for anyone: Is it possible to use a midi sync into vegas to add markers or regions to the timeline or the media control bar?

- franco

If you hi-light the time line with the curser from one beat to the next, then put the still in the trimmet hit the ADD MEDIA from cursor (A) the picture fills the area in the timeline and the highlighted bit moves over ready for the next clip

This is the kind of thing which Vegas 4's scripting might take care of: set a start time and an end time, specify a time interval (this assumes the tempo doesn't vary) and set of stills, run the script and hey presto.

Ideally it would be possible to programatically search for each peak over a certain level and insert a still for each match but this would seem to be more the province of Sound Forge.

Very pleasantly surprised that scripting is now a possiblility. Very excited. Looking forward to having a look at the object model.

This might be easy:

Drop your same-duration stills in the TL butted together and group them all.

Ctrl-drag the last one (which should stretch-compress them all) until they hit the beats right.


HTH, MPH

Tips:
http://www.martyhedler.com/homepage/Vegas_Tutorials.html

If the music was not recorded to a click/metronome, it will be difficult to do this automaticaly.

Most professional music is recorded to a click. Another method might be to change the time view (right click on the time code)to "Beats and Measures." Turn on the metronome (Options Menu). Butt the music up to the far left. Open up file/properties/ruler tab. Keep adjusting the number until the metronome and the beat of the music match. If you start at the beginning of the timeline, the first click will be on. From there you can determine if the click is too fast or too slow. Adjust until it lines up.

Once you do this, the grid which is showing beats and measures will line up perfectly with the music. You can just snap your pictures to the grid. I have done this a number of times. It takes about 5 minutes to get it right, but it will save you a lot of time after that.

Al

Great idea Al, I would also throw this in: check the song at the intro with a metronome and then go to end to make sure they did indeed use a click track. If the tempo is the same then your technique would be a big time saver!
If it didn't match up then it seems Marty's technique would work for at least several bars at a time.
Randy