I would like to create a scene made up of 4 different images. I would start with a black background and bring in each picture, one at a time to fit in each quadrant of the frame. Any suggestions on how to do this?
It won't be very straightforward in Movie/Vegas Studio because you've only got 3 tracks. You'll have to build this up a part at a time.
Place the first image on the video track and use Pan/Crop to shrink it. You can drag the cropping border out larger to make the image smaller, and move it so that the image is positioned in a corner. Repeat on the other two video tracks for the 2nd and 3rd images.
Now you're out of tracks so you'll have to render this 3/4 result to a new DV .avi file. Start a new project with this new file you've created on the video track. Place the 4th image on one of the other tracks and repeat the process.
Yes, I had the same issue while using ScreenBlast Movie Studio.
Am using VMS now but am always hampered by the lack of video. 3 is really low.
Maybe Sony can provide more with the next upgrade.
As a habitual user, 5~6 would be just nice and I do not have to waste time doing the 1st 3 then putting in back into another project.
VEGAS 5.0 has unlimited, but really too expensive. It's a great program, but the chances of us (home users) really utilizing all it's features are downright low.
This sort of comment crops up in here now and then. If SONY added every feature to Vegas Studio that users request who also say that the full version of Vegas is too expensive, then Vegas Studio would have all the features of the full version and it would cost as much too. For $100 Vegas Studio does an incredible amount of stuff. In cases like the question that started this thread, there are easy work-arounds for many of it's limitations. If you want more than that, you've gotta pay for it.
Don't get me wrong.
VSM or the older SMS are excellent products and I love them.
One of the primary reasons why I upgraded to VSM from SMS.
I have also used ULEAD VS5, VS6 SE before.
Nothing really beats VSM in terms of simplity and ease of learning and usage.
My grimace is only that it takes time and effort to do say 4-6 images as we got to output the 1st 3 to a AVI file and superimpose on the next 3.
This is especially tiring when in my case, 4 pictures were moving and rotating on the screen. I keep adjusting the sequence, output to AVI and superimposeand realise they do not match and re-do the 3, output to AVI etc..etc...
Not many of my projects really need 4-5 video timelines, but when you do it once, you really do not want to do it again, telling myself the hassle and sometimes limiting my ideas for video to just 3 video lines
In addition to unlimited tracks, the full version of Vegas also has Track Motion which will make your composition process vastly easier than using only Pan/Crop. It includes keyframes so that you can adjust sizes and positions often and fluidly along the entire length of the clip instead of being limited to the Begin/End that the Studio version allows. The full version has compositing layers and masks and 3D compositing that can simplify the creation process and also give you many more options for creating interesting effects. You get a lot more than just additional video tracks!
So, i guess your decision is, is it worth saving the money to put up with the hassle of the Studio version's limitations? If you find yourself doing this sort of thing often then it would probably be worth paying more for the full version. If you're getting paid to do this then your time wasted is worth more than the price difference.