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Jeff B wrote on 4/17/2008, 2:52 PM
Let me introduce myself. I began videography with 8mm and a Matrox Rainbow Runner about a decade ago, interacting with other endless configurers and tweakers on "This Idiot's Guide to the Rainbow Runner" (evolved today to the "MURC Desktop Video" forum). I've built and bought a few computers along the way.

This year I decided to go "tapeless" and picked up a Sony HDR-CX7, and like it very much. I "impulse bought" a Gateway GT5676 at Circuit City about a month later, and am still expecting Vista to ruin my life... but it hasn't happened yet. Playing around with the trial of Sony V8b for about a week convinced me to purchase it, and here I am.

I don't do video professionally (having deadlines would ruin all the fun), but I do end up producing one or two projects each year with a few dozen recipients who appreciate my efforts, apparently. I just shoot what I want, basically, and it's an activity that I enjoy immensely.

I expect that I'll be posting here if I run into trouble... But for now, I'm still chugging through the learning curve of going from 10 years of using mini-DV and Ulead (now Corel) MediaStudio Pro, and porting entirely over to AVCHD and Sony Vegas 8b.

Comments

busterkeaton wrote on 4/17/2008, 3:03 PM
This one of the most knowledgeable forums on the internet.
ushere wrote on 4/17/2008, 4:55 PM
surprising what happens when you eat your veggies....
Serena wrote on 4/17/2008, 4:59 PM
Welcome to the business.
blink3times wrote on 4/17/2008, 5:08 PM
I used MSP8 for a while... you'll find Vegas quite similar... Make a cut, drag one clip so it overlaps and either go with the default transition or drag and drop one of your choosing.... couldn't be simpler.

Of course Vegas is quite a bit more powerful and there's a lot under the hood that's not really explained well in the manual. Spot's book (Douglas Spotted Eagle) on Vegas8 pro would be a real help for you. You can find it on Amazon.com
Jim H wrote on 4/17/2008, 6:12 PM
Welcome Jeff. Don't be afraid to ask simple questions, no one bites (hard) and we all learn from even the simple quesions.

Goood luck and have fun.

Jim
Rory Cooper wrote on 4/17/2008, 9:41 PM
even ask stupid questions so that i don't feel alone

if you cant have fun learning well then just have fun stuff the learning
UlfLaursen wrote on 4/17/2008, 10:43 PM
Welcome here, Jeff.

You will sure find this a great place to hang arround - a lot of people really know their stuff reg. video and editing.

/Ulf
mark-woollard wrote on 4/18/2008, 3:39 AM
Jeff, thanks for speaking up as someone new to Vegas. That should help other new folk feel more comfortable about posting here.

You probably already know that searching the archives here for answers is quite fast --especially following the recent tweaks by Sony Creative Software.

Perhaps this group could add some helpful tips to a new user like yourself. Let me begin by suggesting:

Make use of the ability to have two instances of Vegas open and running at the same time. While you said you're not typically working to deadlines, this is really helpful for anyone wanting to render part of a project while continuing to edit that, or another, project. In your work, you may have created opening or closing elements--titles, images, credits--that you'd like to reuse in another project. Just copy and paste between the old and new projects using two instances of Vegas.

Another approach here is to use nested projects, but I'll leave that to the manual, which by and large is really well done.

An area you may initially be intimated by is ProType Titler (PTT). I was. And the manual is not as helpful as it could be. PTT was developed by a third party so works a little differently than everything else in Vegas. But I made the effort (a few hours) to get the hang of it, and can now easily create some really cool, and classy, text effects that my clients love.

Welcome aboard and happy editing.

Mark

Jeff B wrote on 4/19/2008, 4:55 PM
Tnx for all the greetings. I spent the last couple of days shooting some video and using it to groove in to the workflow on V8. My two main output formats at this stage are NTSC DVD and streaming video. Both routes from AVCHD to final output have been frightenly fast and painless so far... I mean, I tend to be the sort of person who prepares for the worst, but nothing has even hiccupped with this yet.

I'll post regarding some low light work I shot last night, once I'm done experimenting with all the endless options for project/output settings.