Actually the post effects has little to do with the look of a pro film. You may be referring to the talents of a colorist, who I have to admit can really add a nice polish to a production. VV3 has a nice set of color correction, although nothing like a Symphony, and a good colorist good work with the tools, but there is nothing like a good DiVenci 2K.

The key to a pro looking production is in the content. That means solid script. Solid Direction. Editing without a lot of meaningless tricks. ( I always edit cuts and disolves only first and then only if the story is solid when viewed do I add a transistion or two where it will enhance the meaning.)

The look comes from careful attention to lighting when shooting. Good composition. Careful attention to color choices in scenic and costumes. DV requires differnt lighting and colors than say HDTV or Beta.

I hate to say it, but the best post production can not fix a bad shoot. Yes we have been known to say "Ahh, we'll fix it in post." but everyone knows that can't be done.

OK I will step off my soap box. It was just the comment about that is how the pros do it that got me started. That is not how we do it :)

To answer your questions...
The film effects that VV3 has are to create simulated old films. They are not Cinelook which plays with contrast and a number of other issues. You could do the same with an effects chain in VV3 if you reallly want to go there, but I would not waste the time. Even Cinelook does not look like film. If you want film, shoot 35mm and the telecine it in like most productions used to do. The puplic is now ready for the crispness of DV and HDTV. Even the new Lucas movie was shot HD 24p instead of film.

VV3 does not do rotoscope effects and tracking effects such as lightsabers. You can do that in After Effects if you have a few years to kills. There are also a few other specialty programs that you can do that in. You could shoot the scene using a Green wand and then create a traveling mask in VV3 keyed on the wand and add a pulsing background through the mask I guess. In that respect VV3 could do it, but I am not sure that is the method you are looking for.

The keying and masking in VV3 is very good. I was very pleased with it. Actually it about the best I have worked with.

I prefer VV3 WAY over Premire(sic). Final Cut pro has an advantage in working with uncompressed video. As an edit platform it is not superior to VV3 although if you want to work uncompressed with DigiBeta sources it has that advantage. If you are shooting DV the VV3 is the choice.

Excuse the soap box and happy production!
Keith

thanks for the replies guys.....about the sabers...if you go to www.theforce.net check our their fan movies and they do the light sabers just like star wars....check it out! thanks

Chris

I think you'll love VV3 as a tool to make your productions. If your goal is to make a good Star wars fan film like "Duality", you can finish it Vegas. Those guys did use other tools.

You should buy Adobe After Effects and do your light saber effects and compositing with 3D etc. there. You can then bring those rendered clips back into Vegas for editing, sound mixing, titles etc.

I've made money here in Hollywood using Final Cut Pro, Premiere and Vegas (among other tools). Vegas is the best kept secret in post today... though the secret is beginning to leak out in a big way.

As far as the previous post (a very good post by the way)talking about uncompressed video - it's really not fair to say that Final Cut Pro does this better than Vegas, you need a $6,000 hardware card to add to your $3,500 dual G4 Mac and your $2,000+ external Raid Array to do true uncompressed work.

Vegas on the other hand is resolution independent. I use D1 stock video sometimes such as Artbeats and can simply lay them on the timeline along with my DV footage and edit away - no extra hardware!(it does ad to render times, but that's when I'm done with the project) Try that in ANY other NLE.

There is a great program out their called ALAMDV you try it out at www.alamdv.com. It will alow you to do light saber effects and sooo much more. If you check out the cinema section you can see what some of the users are doing.

True about the cost of a real Final Cut Pro System for uncompressed, but at $12K that is a pretty good price for uncompressed. It realy is not fair to compare that with VV since I can throw that on ANY basic PC and go to work. When I am in the field and need to cut some rushes to web back to a client, I can load it on almost anything I can lay my hands on and do the work. My old laptop works too! Try that with most other Post tools as powerful as Vegas :) I think that leaves Premire(sic). Premire is good but being audio post focused, that makes Vegas my choice.

Smiles,

Keith

Forgive my ignorance here, but what uncompressed formats does Vegas
NOT handle? I can put uncompressed 24 bit 640x480 29.97 fps .avi
files through it very nicely. They're HUGE, but that's only a problem for
my hard drives, not for Vegas.

I agree. I've used uncompressed AVI's in Video Factory 2.0, and they play and edit super smoothly. And just as you said, its only a problem for my hard drive, not VF!