Slightly OT - After Effects w/ Vegas

goodtimej wrote on 5/9/2007, 12:24 PM

I recently have been studying After Effects through books and tutorials and feel that I am ready to start integrating some of its effects into my projects that are being produced in Vegas. The only problem is, in every instance that I have learned, it has been taught on a clip by clip basis.
My question is, how do I apply this to my projects? Say I have a 1 hour video that I want to put stuff all over in, titles at the front, lightning in the middle, fractal noise somewhere in there, you get the point. What would be my workflow going towards this? Do I take the whole rendered movie into After Effects? Do I have to clip by clip it?
Please forgive my ignorance, I am a brand new After Effecter!

Comments

Grazie wrote on 5/9/2007, 12:42 PM

Have a read of this thread!

http://sonymediasoftware.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=475972

BrianStanding wrote on 5/9/2007, 1:01 PM

Well, it really depends how long the sequences are that you're intending to do with After Effects. If you're just doing a relatively short (< 1-2 minutes or so) title sequence, you'll probably find it easiest to render out a selection from the timeline in Vegas and import that into AE to use as the base material.

For longer sequences, or if you're trying to do the whole timeline, the free frameserver plug-in at www.debugmode.com is essential. This lets you export your Vegas timeline into a dummy file that AE can read, without rendering -- an enormous time and disk saver!

Going back from AE to Vegas, you'll most likely have to render out a file from AE. Use uncompressed video wherever possible, but if you have a very long sequency, you may need to use the HUFFYUV or another lossless codec to save disk space. I find that the Quick Time Animation (lossless) preset in AE is the best if you want to use the file as an alpha-channel transparency in Vegas.

Hope this helps.

goodtimej wrote on 5/9/2007, 1:24 PM

Sweet, thanks.

Brian, maybe you can help me understand the frameserving process? I went to the website and read the description, but it isn't crystal clear to me what is transpiring there.
Is this a Vegas plug in? A stand alone app? Is it a codec I render with? Is there even a render?

Sorry for the over noobishness and thank you.

BrianStanding wrote on 5/9/2007, 2:08 PM

It's really a plug-in, but it looks and acts just like a codec. When you install it, the installer will ask which plug-ins you want to install (Vegas, Premiere and Ulead -- I think). After you install it, you should see "DebugMode FrameServer" in the Video for Windows (*.AVI) codec options in the Vegas "Render As" dialog. Pick this option, pick a directory you can find again, and give it a name like "frameserve.avi." The plug-in will then create a "signpost" .AVI file. It's not really a file, it's just a dummy into which the plug-in "serves" your Vegas timeline.

Open this "file" in After Effects, let AE do its thing, then render out to uncompressed, HUFFYUV, or whatever you're using to take it back into Vegas.

Does this make sense?

GlennChan wrote on 5/9/2007, 2:28 PM

AAF export from Vegas also seems to work.

goodtimej wrote on 5/9/2007, 2:51 PM

Thanks and yes, this does make sense.
So, I take it Vegas must be open as well as my project in order to make this work (kinda like transcoding)? Does this slow the work down?

BrianStanding wrote on 5/9/2007, 7:04 PM

Right. Vegas is running while you're working on After Effects. I haven't noticed any slow down in performance.

I haven't tried saving as an AAF file, as Glenn Chan suggests. That could be a useful alternative.

TeetimeNC wrote on 5/10/2007, 6:05 AM

I've used AAF successfully for transferring a Vegas project to AE. But more often I am originating short clips in AE for use in one or more Vegas projects. For those, I create my comps in AE and then render out using Quicktime Animation codec.

Jerry