The mystery of Boris....

PeterWright wrote on 10/4/2003, 9:24 AM

I downloaded the Red demo and installed it.

When I drop Boris onto a clip or a transition, new windows open up, there's timelines, stacks of icons in rows, but it's not at all obvious what to do next!

To reduce my confusion, I look under "Help"
Oh good - there's an entry called "Boris Red User Guide Volume 1"
I click, but nothing happens. Why is this disabled for the demo version?

This may be an amazing plug in, but unless there's more help available, I'm not going to know how to use it.

I try and close down Boris, and Vegas crashes with an exception error -that's new.

Comments

BillyBoy wrote on 10/4/2003, 9:43 AM

I haven't had a chance to get back to it. Apparently the help is totally disabled or more likely just missing in the demo. Fairly common for demos especially when they are such complex programs. What I've done so far is use the free standing version. Then you can just open a file, it appears on the left side of the work area similar to Media Bin in Vegas. Then you can drag and drop your source on one of the tracks. Then the track itself gets expaned when you click on those little buttons and there is a whole bunch of things you can start to play with. Not a very technical explination, but maybe get ya a step or two further.

Udi wrote on 10/4/2003, 10:08 AM

You should download the documents - this is a separate download of pdf files.
Volume 1 have good tutorials.

Udi

Spot|DSE wrote on 10/4/2003, 10:16 AM

Make sure your Preview Ram is set to "0" as a starting point. Which version of the demo did you download? the Help file doesn't have a ton of info in terms of 'how to use' in it. That infomation is best found on the Boris website.

PAW wrote on 10/4/2003, 10:43 AM

Peter,

The manual is at www.borisfx.com/download/#manual

As somebody mentioned manual 1 has some tutorials to get started. Also download the installation guide. Manual ii has an appendix that deals with host application specifics.

At the boris site look around for Tim's Corner for additional tutorials such as motion stabalizer

I am not sure of the demo comes with any presets, you can also download some presets which can help to get you started.

It's a big app and will take some time to become familiar with.

Have Fun, PAW

PeterWright wrote on 10/4/2003, 6:39 PM

Thanks for the tips guys - I was floundering trying to get started.
Time to do some reading. It's version 3.0.0.030912RC !!

Peter

Tim_at_Boris wrote on 10/7/2003, 12:40 PM

Hey Guys-
Absolutely check out the website tutorials, and the manual and its tutorials. They help a lot.

Also check out the Library Browser (under windows menu). There in lies.. Hundreds of canned effects, Presets and Fx compositions. I like to use these to learn features, or to save presets in client or project folders. Load them, mess with them, break them, fix them... see what happens.

You guys are doing a very good job of checking us out on your own, but this might help too.

The following is are instructions, considerations, and work arounds for our integration with Sony Picture's Vegas Video. If you have any questions or feel something should be added, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Tim Doyle
tdoyle@borisfx.com
Phone 888.772.6747 ext 114

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For Sonic Foundry's Vegas Video, we have created both a filter and transition (please note, you can also create synthetic media or what Vegas terms a "media generator" - please see below).

To Prep Vegas for a Red Effect:
1) To view a Boris effect in the Vegas Preview window, you must disable Vegas' video caching by setting the "Dynamic RAM Preview max (MB)" in the Vegas user prefs under the video tab to '0'. It may be left on, but any changes to an effect within Red's UI will not show up until Vegas caching is turned off.

To launch an effect:
Both the Boris filter and transition are applied as any other Vegas effect. After applying the Boris effect, you will find one launch button on the Boris effect property page. Clicking it will launch the RED interface. Note that there may be a pause of a few seconds when an effect is first applied, and when our UI can be launched. When a RED effect is first launched, it must be manually initialized with the following parameters:

1- Project size (in our Prefs)
2- Project FPS (in our Prefs)
3- Video Aspect ratio (in our Prefs)
4- Effect duration (in the upper left hand corner of the RED timeline window is Red's timeline duration. Just click on it and enter the total. Please note: this means that If you change the effect's duration (changing the length of the associated media clip, etc) in Vegas, the duration must also be updated in RED).

Applying the effect from RED's UI:
It's the same as with all our hosts. Create your desired effect in RED and hit apply. Once applied you will now be able to see the effect you created in the Vegas Preview window. Vegas will save the RED settings along with their project.

The Media Generator (or synthetic importer):
Vegas, like Premiere, has a concept of a synthetic importer which they term a media generator. We do not have a true Boris media generator but it is a very simple task to emulate one within Vegas:
1 - Create a slug in Vegas (the easiest way of doing this is to click on the 'Media Generators' tab in Vegas, select and apply a solid color).
2 - Apply to it a Red filter. Voila - a Boris media generator.

Other considerations:
- The frame Vegas sends the RED UI to display is not necessarily the same as their project size, but rather the size of the frame being displayed in the Vegas preview window. This can result in what appears to be a low rez image in the RED UI. Though any Vegas preview window setting will work, best results within RED can be achieved by setting the Vegas preview window at Best/Full within Vegas before launching RED. (what that translates to is this: even if the Vegas proj size is 720 x 480, if the Vegas preview window is set to a 320 x 240 display then that will be the image size we'll receive.)
- For the length of the effect, RED can only import the one frame the Vegas cursor (or cti in RED terms) is placed on. To work around, simply import the clip into RED as a reference point.
- To preview a Boris effect in Vegas, you must first apply out of the Boris UI. You will not be able to preview changes in Vegas while the Boris UI is launched (the frames within the Vegas preview window will appear black).