I see what you're doing maybe.

I plan to teach myself the HOS method this week, and test it against irfanview, mostly for time and ease of use.

I don't see myself having to use this often and as mentioned earlier I prefer to stick to using the tools I'm comfortable using today where Vegas is my hammer and Photoshop is my screwdriver. Here's how I plan to do it, if I had to do this with a large number of photos.

1. Open original photos in photoshop

2. Render to lower res into a new folder using batch conversion in photoshop.

(How to batch convert photos in photoshop video)

3. Place original photos on timeline in Vegas

4. Rename folder of original files

5. Vegas will prompt you to locate missing files, guide Vegas to point to low res folder location.

6. Perform playback and editing in Vegas

7. When time to render, rename low res folder

8. Vegas will prompt you to locate missing files, guide Vegas to point to high res folder location.

If I am dealing with only a few photos, then I would just add the low res photos as a take and switch between takes during playback vs render.

Which method is easier/faster is debatable but for me personally since I'm comfortable working in Photoshop and Vegas, and won't have to spend additional time setting up and configuring additional tools and scripts this would be the method which is easier/faster for me. YMMV.

@Rednroll

I see your point about using the tools you know vs something new (that may be better) so as to avoid the learning curve. I'm sure my own workflow can be improved if I'd only get with this or that (like using a Shuttle Pro) .. The counter to that argument is that working the old brain in new directions is beneficial to more than just saving time editing. In this case I dove into HOS and so far, I'm glad I did.

@xberk

You definitely make a valid point and I would definitely be more open to exploring additional tools if this is something I was having to deal with on a regular basis which may be the case for yourself.

My preference is to 1st answer the question which you originally asked which was "How can I do this inside of Vegas?" Then once I learn how to do it within Vegas using the tools I already own and I've had more time to evaluate using that method and later find myself doing this task on a regular basis where it seems tedious, I then start asking the follow up question "Are there any additional tools I could be using to make this task quicker and easier on myself?" If HOS ends up being that tool, then that's awesome and I would add it to my tools and workflow. I just don't feel the additional tools should be the 1st option solution answer provided when there's an available answer to your original question using the tools you already own.

>>I plan to teach myself the HOS method this week

While your at it Mark, take a look at the ImportAssist. This works pretty much the same as Irfanview or Photoshop. It's a Batch process to reduce image size. You can alter or keep the same file names. So you use a proxy folder with all the reduced size images and then before rendering you change that folder name and point Vegas back to the originals. No need to rename -- and everything is done within Vegas. Nifty! .. Congrats to Wayne!

I'll also add...

I feel user forums 1st and foremost should be focused on users helping each other and sharing information and providing solutions for each other using the tool which is the main topic of the forum. In this case it's the Vegas Pro video forum. I don't particularly like it when developers start using it as a platform to promote and sell their products.

I'm sure many on this forum are familiar with Spot and Johnny Roy from the Sony Forums. They were using those forums under the guise of assisting users to ultimately promote their Vaast and Ultimate Ass products. I was on those forums assisting others by sharing my experience on how to perform tasks using the actual tool. Spot and Johnny Roy were always 1st respondents to every how to thread discussions showing how the task could be done using their Ultimate Ass scripting tool and suggesting to purchase their Vaast training books where a lot of that information was already available in threads I had already posted on the forums answering the same question for users in a step-by-step fashion on how to achieve that task. Let's just say Spot and Johnny Roy didn't particular like me because I was sharing information with users for "free" while they were there promoting their products to sell to them. They would often go out of their way to attempt to discredit information I posted. They had connections at Sony where they pushed them to get me banned from the Sony forums. Now where are Spot and Johnny Roy with their Ultimate Ass and Vaast support on this Magix hosted forum? Nowhere to be found?

I don't currently view wwaag on that same level as those Vaast individuals, I highly respect the work wwaag is doing for the community with scripting support and his HOS tool. He's definitely a valuable asset to this community but I just don't particularly care for responses when the tool is being promoted as the solution before sharing how it can 1st be achieved using the actual tool that is being asked about. If you're not even attempting to describe how to accomplish the task using the actual tool combined with tools the user may already own, then that clearly says you're here for the main purpose to promote and sell your tool without it costing you a dime to do so.

Here's an example of something I used to do in Photoshop when needed that has been included in the ImportAssist tool that I have no idea how it would be done within Vegas. Suppose you want to import tiny images such as icons?

E.g. the iconTools png. Drag it to the timeline and you get this.

Vegas always "fills the screen" when importing.

Click on Small Image Import within HOS and you get this.

The resulting png that is created can then be moved to any location such as.

Again, you can easily do this in Photoshop or other apps such as Affinity Photo, but a "one-click" solution (perhaps 2 or 3) is a lot simpler.

HOS is more of a project for Wayne, not a profit-making business yet, and as such, he has dedicated a thousand hours to making it do what we want it to do, many times inventing individual customizations, only because he wanted to. Comparing personalities is not an appropriate topic for discussion here, nor in any professional setting.

I met Douglas as a consummate concert musician long before Sonic Foundry came into existence, and before his accident.

Wayne can never hope to be paid for his efforts, no matter when there is to be a stable release or how much it costs. That lack of profit-centricity and focus on features hardly qualifies as promotion or sales, making comparison to commercial developers a nonstarter afaiac.

Wayne implemented a scalable UI based on the accessibility needs of me and two other users. When I found his donations page is not ready yet, I emailed him and offered to buy him a coffee via PayPal, he politely declined and said "maybe later."

Hardly the actions of someone who is "here for the main purpose to promote and sell your tool without it costing you a dime to do so." Its costing Wayne plenty, while we all continue using the beta for free. Maybe it's time he changed that.

Ahhhhhhhhhh ... I find no fault with Wayne. He's been amazing ..

When I click the button to resize in Import Assist, I get this:

That's not good. I've tried and tried but cannot replicate that crash. I would first reset the script settings (right-click on IA icon and select Reset Script Settings) and try again. If it crashes again, then send the Crash Report if the crash dialog is launched.

I will reset the script (today's download) and send another crash report if needed.

The desktop folder is used every day, and is a legit sequence created in Vegas -- img000.PNG, img001.PNG, .... etc.

I created a desktop folder and filled it with some images from a png sequence. I did discover one problem. If you drag and drop the folder, it works OK as far as adding the individual files to the listbox. However, if you use the Add Folder dialog (which IMHO is a real pain), it doesn't work. The files are not added. That is a definite bug which should be an easy fix. However, I still could not make it crash.

HOS is more of a hobby for Wayne, not a profit-making business yet, and as such, he has dedicated a thousand hours to making it do what we want it to do, many times inventing individual customizations, only because he wanted to. Comparing personalities is not an appropriate topic for discussion here, nor in any professional setting.

I met Douglas as a consummate concert musician long before Sonic Foundry came into existence, and before his accident.

Wayne can never hope to be paid for his efforts, no matter when there is to be a stable release or how much it costs. That lack of profit-centricity and focus on features hardly qualifies as promotion or sales, making comparison to commercial developers a nonstarter afaiac.

Wayne implemented a scalable UI based on the accessibility needs of me and two other users. When I found his donations page is not ready yet, I emailed him and offered to buy him a coffee via PayPal, he politely declined and said "maybe later."

Hardly the actions of someone who is "here for the main purpose to promote and sell your tool without it costing you a dime to do so." Its costing Wayne plenty, while we all continue using the beta for free. Maybe it's time he changed that.

 

Did you read what I wrote or just decided to focus on the parts that you got upset about because you chose to make assumptions that they were focused directly at Wayne and then decided to go on a rant about your incorrect assumptions?

See how what I wrote aligns with what you just went on a rant about?

"I don't currently view wwaag on that same level as those Vaast individuals, I highly respect the work wwaag is doing for the community with scripting support and his HOS tool. He's definitely a valuable asset to this community but I just don't particularly care for responses when the tool is being promoted as the solution before sharing how it can 1st be achieved using the actual tool that is being asked about. If you're not even attempting to describe how to accomplish the task using the actual tool combined with tools the user may already own, then that clearly says you're here for the main purpose to promote and sell your tool without it costing you a dime to do so."

I rather just be comfortable using my hammer and screw driver

Here I downsize 700 stills from 1080 to 720, rename, and store in a different folder, in well under a minute with Irfanview (although several already know me as an HOS fanboy). Just the hammer though -- didn't need a screwdriver this time.

Nor did I need Happy Otter Scripts. But if I can get it working, xberk's method may be a little easier.

@wwaag, Yes, it works if I drag and drop the folder, as I've also had to do with some mkv formats.

And a little easier, because it adds the files to the Timeline and Project Media, saving a step in my workflow.

@Musicvid

The folder dialog bug has been fixed and will be available in the next build release. Not much of an issue IMO since it is so much easier just to drag n drop. Guess that's the reason no one has reported it before. The only time it becomes necessary is when you launch Vegas in admin mode which disables all drag n drop operations.

I agree, except once the dialog is opened, I cannot reduce the main Vegas interface in order to pick up the folder or file I wish to drag. I'm stuck until I close the HOS dialog, resize the Vegas window, and start afresh. Maybe this ("allow application resizing while HOS dialog is open ") could be a feature request?

I'm not exactly sure what you mean. Whenever either the add folder or add file button is clicked, the resulting dialogs always opens on top and you can select either the folder or files from the respective dialog. One thing you CANNOT do, is drag files or folders from either of those two dialogs. You can only drag and drop using windows File Explorer. I always have File Explorer pinned to the taskbar so that it can always be opened and drag drop used. If I'm still missing the boat, send me a screen recording.

@wwaag, thanks for following up, and thanks for fixing the folder / file buttons.

All I can figure is that our UI behaviors may be different.

Right now, in order to see my desktop, I must:

1. Close all HOS dialogs
2. Resize the main Vegas UI
3. Do whatever work I find I must do on a file before importing
4. Re-open HOS dialogs and re-enter the settings.

I'm certainly not in the habit of starting with a downsized Vegas UI, only when I need it. Right now I'm ending up doing everything twice.

Question: Can it be made possible, when using HOS, to use these paralyzed buttons to resize or minimize to get the dang Vegas UI out of the way so that I may access my desktop?

@Musicvid

Answer to question: No. Scripts in Vegas are what's called "modal dialogs". Once they are launched from an application (Vegas), the launching application (Vegas) cannot be accessed until the script is closed. Launch any script in your ScriptMenu folder (E.g. batch render) and you will see the same thing. Only true extensions such as OtterBar or OtterInfoBar in HOS or many of the tools in Vegasaur that are usually dockable are "modeless" in which the application itself can be accessed.

More tomorrow.

@Musicvid

Pressing this little sliver at the far right end of the Taskbar should expose your desktop without regard to how many dialog boxes are open.

Of course, the one in Windows 7 was beefier...