Simple Question: Where is the Info Pallet?

drmathprog wrote on 1/30/2008, 6:31 AM

I have what I'm sure is a simple question. First, a mea culpa: while I've licensed every version of Vegas since V1, I've only used it for audio. I'm a complete newby for video, so I'm not familiar with the underlying concepts and princples, let alone Vegas' implementatino of them.

That said, I'm working through Hullfish and Fowler's "Color Correction for Digital Video" book. They mention a common NLE tool called "Info Pallet", which looks so useful that Vegas must surely have it, probably by a different name. I see ink dropper tools in the Color Correction (Secondary) plugin, but they don't seem to display the RGB values of the cursor postion. I don't find the text "pallet", or even "color correction" in the manual. The program online help has an entry called "Pallet View", but when I bring up the details, it talks about "Applying tags to media".

1. Where is the Info Pallet-like tool?
2. Is the Vegas documentation known to be a bit sketchy, or am I still just too far down the learning curve to use it effectively?

Thanks in advance.

Comments

drmathprog wrote on 1/30/2008, 9:39 AM

Anyone?

rs170a wrote on 1/30/2008, 9:49 AM

1. Despite repeated feature requests, there is still no "Info Pallet" tool in Vegas.

2. As with most software, the manuals are fairly good but it still takes a lot of experimentation on the part of the user to "decode" some things.
If it's colour correction information you're specifically looking for, I highly recommend the Color Correction in Sony Vegas DVD from VASST. It's $59 and worth very penny!!
Glenn Chan (one of the authors of this disc) has some articles on his web site dealing with colour issues (and more) in Vegas.

Mike

drmathprog wrote on 1/30/2008, 9:54 AM

1. That's pretty surprising, but thanks. Is there a third-party plug-in suite I should be looking at to add this feature, or do most folks just do without?

2. I think I'll do that. Thanks for the advice.

Bill Ravens wrote on 1/30/2008, 10:42 AM

There'sa number of freeware third party eyedroppers that can be used. I use both "Eyedropper" and "Whatcolor". I've validated both against Photoshop and they are in agreement.

rs170a wrote on 1/30/2008, 10:47 AM

Thanks very much for that post Bill.
I'm sure those tools will come in handy for a lot of us.

Mike

bStro wrote on 1/30/2008, 10:55 AM

I'm not sure what all an "info pallet" wold entail, as I don't think any NLEs I've used before have had one; but if your main goal is to find the RGB value of a a spot or area on the screen, use the eydropper in the Chroma Keyer FX. Just be sure to then remove the FX. Or leave it on, and just uncheck its box in the FX chain (at the top of the FX dialog).

Rob

nolonemo wrote on 1/30/2008, 11:02 AM

Good tip, thanks!

I, and I think the OP, would like a plugin that would let me color-match specific items across media by getting RGB values from source and plugging them into a dialog for the targe, like I can do in Photoshop to color-match.