Script Request

bstep1 wrote on 10/20/2004, 10:03 AM
I have searched the forum and looked at some existing scripts but couldn't find anything that does this. Can someone help?

I would like to be able to play through an event and mark it with specific text. Steps would be similar to the new toolbar buttons in Excalibur Multicam:

Play an event (decide if I want to mark), pause
Script:
Go back to beginning of event
Add Marker with text "XXXX"
Go to beginning of next event
Play

I would probably have 2-3 versions of this on the toolbar that would mark the event with different text.

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions

Comments

jetdv wrote on 10/20/2004, 11:53 AM
Placing a marker with specific text at the beginning of the selected event is a fairly simple process. However, the process would have to be as such:

1) Manually stop playback
2) Select the event for the marker
3) Run the script to add the marker with specified text to the selected event
4) Manually start playback
jetdv wrote on 10/20/2004, 12:05 PM
The script for step #3 can be downloaded here.
bstep1 wrote on 10/20/2004, 1:32 PM
I figured I could program my Shuttle controller to handle the moves, but the script you reference below is just what I was looking for. Thanks for the quick response.
jetdv wrote on 10/20/2004, 1:49 PM
NOTE: The cursor does NOT need to be moved. It is only necessary that you actually SELECT the proper event before running the script. Plus you must also manually stop and start the playback.
johnmeyer wrote on 10/20/2004, 4:14 PM
Ed,

FWIW, in many of my scripts, I have found it very handy to use the cursor position, rather than the selection of the event, to determine what the script will do. While this is obviously not a good idea when you have dozens of tracks, when doing cuts-only on a single video/audio pair of tracks, or in other similar simple situations, it just seems a lot more intuitive (at least to me) to not have to think about selecting events, much less force the user do this selection each time.

It's not just a matter of eliminating mouse clicks (which my approach does do), but also about eliminating thinking. Every time I press the delete key (or cut) in Vegas, I always have to think, "what is selected?" The only way to be sure that the event under the cursor is the only event selected is to click on it, but the act of clicking almost always moves the cursor location. It just seems much easier to tell the script: "Do something with the event under the cursor, at the exact location where the cursor is located, whether that event is selected or not."

Obviously a track needs to be selected before you can do this (which is why my approach isn't a good idea for a project with dozens of tracks).

Since I wrote my cuts-only scripts a month ago, I am editing in less than 50% of the time it used to take -- it is a HUGE difference.
jetdv wrote on 10/20/2004, 7:48 PM
John, I can certainly see your point. However, you DO need a precise way of finding the exact event they are wanting to affect. If you have more than one track, that starts to become more difficult. For example, what rules do you follow?

First event found under the cursor going top down on the tracks?
First event found going down but only looking at selected tracks?
All events under the cursor?
All events only on selected tracks?
Only look at specific kinds of tracks?

By requiring selecing the event, I can guarantee I am operating on the desired event.

I do understand that the cursor can move slightly. I also don't mind looking for "under the cursor" instead of selected. I also don't mind hearing ideas that can make the scripts better. But the "under the cursor" action would need to be strictly defined.

So, everyone, what are your thoughts on this? Positives? Negatives? Rules that should be followed? Anything else?
bstep1 wrote on 10/22/2004, 10:18 AM
For the problem I was addressing, I actually did not want to have to select the event each time, so I modified your script a bit to place the marker at the current cursor position (only have one video track).

My process is now:
Play video
Pause when I find an event I want to mark
Hit [ to move to beginning of event
Click on ToolBar Icon for correct text (I have 4)
Hit ] to mover to end of event (saves time replaying the event

(I am using this to mark highlight plays from football games. Each play is an event, so I play through the events and use this process to mark each play Offensive Highlight, Defensive Highlight, Interception or Touchdown. At the end of the season, I will have every game already marked when I get ready to produce a season highlights video. I have also figured out a fairly easy way to export the marker info to excel, sort by marker (Offense, Defense, etc) and create a txt file that I can then open that will pull all of the clips in automatically - all of the highlights from 8 games on the timeline by category. When I did this last year, I had to go to each game, find the highlights, organize them and copy and paste the clips into a master file. Took forever. This will take about 5-10 minutes at the end of the season.)

This has sped up the process significantly but I still intend to program my shuttlepro with the [,], and 4 marker commands and I should be able to do everything from the shuttlepro in even less time.

Thanks again to all for the suggestions!