>>> Who among us can say they use Vegas ALONE to turn out really eye catching video. Is AE essential to move on to the next level or is Vegas more powerful than I am aware?<<<

Define "eye catching" and "next level".

Not knowing what you mean I will offer this - as an editor After Effects is not needed. If you are trying to edit using After Effects you are using the wrong tool for the job. So if, on an editing level, you want to move to the "next" level you might want to say "I have shot video and used Vegas. Now I want to shoot film and do a matchback. What would be the next level?" and for that you would need an NLE that offered matchback because Vegas does not. You could also get a stand alone tool that could do it for you based on an EDL. Avid Xpress Pro offers up film matchback for example. Trakker tech offers software that works stand alone that I would say would be more of the "next level" for doing film matchbacks than After Effects. Why? Well After Effects does not offer film matchback. Again - wrong tool for the job. In theory you could use Vegas as a starting point but the EDL export would need to get better. Some of the supported NLE's include Premiere, FCP and Avid XPress Pro.

Now if you are talking about things like effects creation and composite building - sure, After Eftects is a good next step and, for the most part, "essential". But do you "need" it to create "eye catching video"? Not at all.

As has been pointed out, almost any NLE will allow a person to create "eye catching video". People have been doing amazing things with Flash for example and that is not an NLE. But each piece of software will have its own limits and its own strong points. Those who read my posts will know what comes next - just because something is edited with the "de facto standard" gear/software does not mean you could turn out the same thing simply by using it. Matter of fact it is a pretty standard film school thing to give a class all the same footage and let them all edit it with the same gear and see what each person turns it out. In my day we used raw 16mm footage from the tv show Gunsmoke and used uprights to cut. Some people had no rhythm in ther cuts, others had "perfect" cuts and everything flowed. Very few cut way outside the box and just blew everyone away. But even that, in the context of the project was not the right thing to do - because the show had a style and a theme, so the point was to cut as if you were cutting for the show. Being brillant and cutting outside the box didn't mean it was good in the context of the show.

And that goes back to the question of define "eye catching" and "next level". Could a person edit Gunsmoke using Vegas alone? Yes. Could someone do all the effects shots in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films using Vegas alone? No. But they most likely could not do it using After Effects alone either.

EDIT: Spelling

Sherman -
the truth???

the next level is in your head -
and Vegas will let it out, just fine.

Compared to cutting film on a Moviola, ANY non-linear editor is - well - just AMAZING!

But Vegas does have a simple and reasonably intuitive interface and a lot of easy to implement effects. Decent titler. Amazing sound and color correction - and BTW After Effects is not an editor at all. It's an "After" (after you've cut your basic film) "Effects" ( figure that one out yourself) program.

Your "next level" should be to win a prize, not to buy some new software or hot shot equipment. That's what I'm working on -

All the verbiage above should prove one thing to you. No where else will you find the knowledge, support, tutoring and friendly advice like this forum supplies. And that's worth more than any individual program on the market today.

Save your money and "go for it".

v