There's a script that does it here but it was written for the beta version of Vegas 4 and was never updated for the release version. Shouldn't take much to update it.

Geez, first of all I am not a newbie editor, so i take offence to your comment. Second of all, i have made many, many videos using Vegas, some of which were used by companies I have worked for and the videos received very good reviews. I'm certainly not a professional, but I really don't need somebody else to impose their judgement when I ask a simple question. I don't need to be lectured about how to use the program. If I want to use a thousand transitions then I will use a thousand transitions.

Anyhow...I have never really considered using Vegas for slideshows before, that is why I ask the question. Usually, I use other software, such as Ulead DVD Picture Show or Photodex Pro Show. Since I decided to do a slideshow on Vegas, I thought I would find out if there were such features that would allow random transitions. I like this feature in Photodex's software since all you need to do is highlight all of the pictures, double click on one transition, and select RANDOM.

Although I like these two packages, I find Vegas much better, and of course more flexible, when dealing with the audio and bringing the whole video together into a polished production.

So.....I guess the answer regarding random transitions is "No".

Thanks

TVeith

Hummm... I never did a slideshow, but I was curious to see how it would work.

I went into Pref, under the editing tab and have the check on 'Automatically overlap multiple selected media when added". The Cut-to-overlap amount is 10.000, alignment is Center on cut. Envelope fade is set to smooth. In EXPLORER I click on 2 jpg file and add them to the timeline. Somehow I don't get the automatic crossfades, just a straight cut. Can you see where I went wrong?

P.S. I also like the random selection of transitions, it would be helpful when showing honeymoon pics.

Thanks

Ok, just be sure to incluse a small package of Tylenol with every video you produce and you should be fine.

. . .errmm . . what on Earth IS "Tylenol " U.S. product? What does it do and to what symptoms?

Medically yours,

Grazie

Tylenol is used to help relieve the symptoms of having to painfully watch videos that use a million different transitions and that have been shot by amateurs who are in desperate need of a tripod and some arthritis mediaction. It can also sometimes relieve the dizziness caused by extremely fast zooms in and out often found in amateur video as well.

ask a simple question and you get an expert who wants to lecture the world. Jsnkc, since you will not be watching the slideshow, why do you care how many transitions are used. All you had to do was say "yes" or "no" and try to help me out. I don't think you need to lay your judgements on me or anybody else. enough already. if you don't have anything useful to lend to this thread than spend your two cents elsewhere.

Prozac is another fine medication that can be given to help people that are in low in self-esteem get help and rejuvenate and revive themselves.

Thank you for the very useful information jetdv. I tried to run the script with VV4 but recieved the error:

Error on line 69
Variable 'CurveType' has not been declared

I've posted the error to the author to see what the problem could be, hopefully i will be able to resolve the issue as this script would be very helpful.

Thanks again

TVeith

Ah, Proza! Now you're talking . . ah the '60's . . . . don't remember THING!!

I suppose we're all goimng through some type of transition - one way or another - "California Dreaming" - Mama Cass - ah yes . . . . . chillllllll . . . .

g r a z i e

I could care less how many transitions you use, but for someone like me who is in the video production and duplication field, I can tell you that if you use 1000 transitions in 1 video it is going to look very amateurish. I see videos everyday that make me dizzy and give me headaches just because people don't know some of the basics of video editing, shooting and production. This forum is supposed to be about helping others, and I am just offering advice to help make your (and others) video productions better.

Maybe check out this other post which is very similar to this one if you don't believe me.

http://www.sonicfoundry.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=149973&Replies=28&Page=1

Grazie, "Tylenol" is a USA trade name for acetominophen. Perhaps you'd recognize the name "Paracetamol" instead?

As I said, it was never updated for the release version. Here's a version that should work. For this version, place all images on the track WITH overlaps. These overlaps will then receive a random transition.

/**

* Save this text as ApplyTransitions.js

*

* Apply Transition to Adjacent Video events and optionally move 

* events to overlap events.

*

* For use with Sonic Foundry Vegas Video 4.0

*

* Copyright 2002 murkWare (mj@sightworks.com)

* Modified 7/16/2003 www.jetdv.com/tts

**/

import System.Windows.Forms;

import SonicFoundry.Vegas;

var overlapTime = 1000;



var dialog = new TransitionDialog(overlapTime);



var bFade = false; //Only true if the second list item is chosen

var bRandom = false; //Only true if the first list item is chosen



dialog.m_transList.Items.Add("Random For each event")

dialog.m_transList.Items.Add("Standard Cross Fade")



var count = 0;

var totalTrans = Vegas.Transitions.Count;

var num;

var transEnum = new Enumerator(Vegas.Transitions);

while (!transEnum.atEnd()) {

  var trans = transEnum.item(); 

  if (count > 0) 

    dialog.m_transList.Items.Add(trans.Name);



  count++;

  transEnum.moveNext();

}



try {

  dialog.m_transList.SelectedIndex = 0

  var dialogResult = dialog.ShowDialog();

  var iTrans = int(dialog.m_transList.SelectedIndex);



  if(System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK == dialogResult) {

    if (iTrans == 0) {

      bRandom = true;

    } else if(iTrans == 1) {

      bFade = true

    }



    var plugIn;

    if(iTrans > 1) {

      plugIn = Vegas.Transitions.GetChild(int(iTrans -1));

    }



    overlapTime = int(dialog.overlapTimeBox.Text);

    var startoffset = overlapTime;

    var trackEnum = new Enumerator(Vegas.Project.Tracks);

    var fx;



    while (!trackEnum.atEnd()) {

      var tr = trackEnum.item();

      var eventEnum = new Enumerator(tr.Events);



      while (!eventEnum.atEnd()) {

        var ev = eventEnum.item(); 



        ev.FadeIn.Curve = CurveType.Slow

        if (bRandom) {

          num = int(Math.random() * totalTrans + 1);

          if (num > 23) {

            num = totalTrans - 1;

          }

          plugIn = Vegas.Transitions.GetChild(int(num));

        }



//        var startTime = ev.Start.ToMilliseconds();

//        var length = ev.Length.ToMilliseconds();



//        startTime = startTime - startoffset;



//        ev.AdjustStartLength(new Timecode(startTime), new Timecode(length), true);



//        Vegas.UpdateUI();



        if(ev.MediaType == MediaType.Video && !bFade) {

          fx = new Effect(plugIn);

          ev.FadeIn.Transition = fx;

        }



        eventEnum.moveNext();

//        startoffset = startoffset + overlapTime;

      }



      startoffset = overlapTime;

      trackEnum.moveNext();

    }

  }

} catch (e) {

  MessageBox.Show(e + "\n\nReport this error to mj@sightwork.com\n\n" + num);

}

// Form subclass that is the dialog box for this script

class TransitionDialog extends Form {



var overlapTimeBox;

var m_transList;



function TransitionDialog(overlapTime) {

this.Text = "Add Transitions to adjacent events";

this.FormBorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FormBorderStyle.FixedDialog;

this.MaximizeBox = false;

this.StartPosition = FormStartPosition.CenterScreen;

this.Width = 480;

this.Height = 120;



var buttonWidth = 80;

var buttonHeight = 24;

var buttonTop = 60;



overlapTimeBox = addTextControl("Overlap Time (ms)", 320, 140, 20, overlapTime.ToString());

m_transList = addComboBox(20,80,20); 



var okButton = new Button();

okButton.Text = "OK";

okButton.Left = this.Width - ((buttonWidth+10));

okButton.Top = buttonTop;

okButton.Width = buttonWidth;

okButton.Height = buttonHeight;

okButton.DialogResult = System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK;

AcceptButton = okButton;

Controls.Add(okButton);



var label = new Label();

label.AutoSize = true;

label.Text = "Copyright 2003 murkWare"

label.Left = 20;

label.Top = 80;

Controls.Add(label);

}



function addTextControl(labelName, left, width, top, defaultValue) {

var label = new Label();

label.AutoSize = true;

label.Text = labelName + ":";

label.Left = left;

label.Top = top + 4;

Controls.Add(label);



var textbox = new TextBox();

textbox.Multiline = false;

textbox.Left = label.Right;

textbox.Top = top;

textbox.Width = width - (label.Width);

textbox.Text = defaultValue;

Controls.Add(textbox);



return textbox;

}



function addComboBox(left,width,top)

{



var transList = new ComboBox();



// transList.Anchor = ((System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Bottom Or System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Left) _

// Or System.Windows.Forms.AnchorStyles.Right)

transList.DropDownWidth = width;

// transList.Items.AddRange(tem 5"});

transList.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(left, top);

transList.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(280, 21);

transList.TabIndex = 7;

Controls.Add(transList);



return transList;

}



}

jetdv - thanks a bunch, the new code worked like a charm. Your help is very much appreciated and saves me a ton of time!

TVeith

File under scary triva...

errmm . . what on Earth IS "Tylenol " U.S. product? What does it do and to what symptoms?

It is the best selling brand (in the states anyways) made by Johnson and Johnson. Back in the early 80's some nut still not caught was deliberately tampering with the product placing poision in a few capsules that putting the bad bottle back on the shelf which resulted in several deaths and a big scare nation wide and several copy cat crimes followed.

More than anything else this series of events lead to tightening and so-called 'tamper proof' packaging on many over the counter products, that before were rather easy to tamper with. I remember, it happened near where I lived. TOO close.

http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/w/x/wxk116/tylenol/

This gives me an error "error on line 5 expected transition".
What is that?

sorry - I mean it gives "error on line 5 expected EXPRESSION"

How do I fix that?

I agree on the too many transitions thing - could someone (smarter than me) add code to make it only use say 5 or 10 selected transitions instead of all of them?

Line 5 is a comment. So... I'd have to see your code to determine the error. Make sure the whole thing was copied correctly.

If I just right click and view source, save as .js I get the "error on line 5 expected EXPRESSION" message when I try to run it.

If I highlight all the code, right click, copy, and past into notepad and save as .js, then I get message - Error on line 1 variable transition dialog has not been declared. (probably not starting at the right place)

Admittedly, I don't know what I'm doing. I have copied some of the before and got them to work, but I must be forgetting something. Would someone want to take me from scratch if I'm doing it wrong?

Thanks Jetdv,

This is the first time I'm running a script...I placed a few jpg files on one track (from explorer), then I ran the script. I selected cross fade, and nothing happened.

Thanks.

Sorry Got it to work. I had to manually overlap the images

KatKat,

The blind leading the blind.lol.
Once you saved the script, go into vegas, then TOOLS, the Scripting, you can select SET SCRIPT and point to the notepad file. Then go back to Scripting menu (Tools) and just run the script.

or you can just pick RUN SCRIPT from the TOOLS, Scripting menu.

Before you run the script, pick a few jpg files.

Good Luck!