Newbie need Help - Thanks in Advance

Ktawfik wrote on 4/28/2004, 6:16 AM
Ok, I know that this topic has been covered zillion times. I am creating a new DVD for my daughter using Vegas 4 and DVD Architect 1.0. Here is what I learned so far going through the forums

- I should create still images in Photoshop using aspect ratio of 655x480
- I shouldnt change the properties of the media in Vegas to 0.90901 because I already used 655x480 (RIGHT???)
- I should render my project to MPEG2-DVD NTSC to play in DVD quality on my dvd player

with DVD Architect I noticed that the mpeg resolution isnt that smooth, i.e. object edges arent sharp. I thought its because it zooms to fit. Any ideas of how I can make it more smooth

Also can I import Flash files into vegas 4

THanks a lot in advance for your help

Comments

GaryKleiner wrote on 4/28/2004, 8:06 AM
What are you doing with the images, backgrounds? Menu buttons? What are you creating them from?

Vegas 4 will not import Flash. That is a new feature in Vegas 5.

Gary
johnmeyer wrote on 4/28/2004, 8:17 AM
Personally, I would use higher resolutions for still pictures when scanning. Vegas does a good job of downsampling, and if you want to zoom into the pictures at all, you will actually have fewer than the required 720x480 pixels.

If your video contains lots of still pictures, set rendering quality to "Best." You get to this setting on the Render As dialog. Click the Custom button and you'll see the video quality setting on the first tab. Change it from Good to Best. This affects primarily still photos and can be left at Good for most other work (Best slows down the rendering).
plyall wrote on 4/28/2004, 8:32 AM
John -

Really? I have some renders that were literally taking days (old laserdiscs) I was converting to DVD), and I'll take any rendering improvement I can get.

I figured that since these were a one time investment, I should render at 'best' and bite the bullet.
Ktawfik wrote on 4/28/2004, 12:38 PM
I mainly design my backgrounds and lower thirds in Photoshop. I did an Intro using Photoshop, creating background image with some texture in it, another transparent image with objects on it to animate in Vegas

In Vegas everything looks sharp in the preview window, but when I render to include in DVD-A, I find that the movie quality is really bad. All shapes are not smooth any more. Here is what I do and please help me if I am doing it wrong

- In photoshop I create 655x480 images at 72 DPI resolution
- In Vegas I render as MPEG2 DVD- NTSC
Does Vegas always reset Quality back to Good as everytime I put it on Best and come back I see it back to Good
- Load in DVD-A and still image quality isnt that sharp

Thanks again for your help
Cheno wrote on 4/28/2004, 1:01 PM
Under you project preferences, select render as "best" this should default then for you when you render off of that project. Best setting works well for resized images. You may want to try it.

Are you creating images on a 655x480 background in PS? If you're resizing these, you may have some problems. I'll always create them a bit larger than I need and resize if they tend to look bad initially.

mike