Thoughts on project management

rmack350 wrote on 1/4/2005, 12:01 PM
A few weeks ago I posted asking what sort of project management features people could envision for Vegas. I don't think there were many responses and I didn't have anything on my mind at the time. Now I do, because I'm recatpuring 10 or 12 clips spread across several tapes shot over the last two years. There are maybe 50 tapes in this project. Here's what comes to mind:

1: Vidcap really bogs down if you've got too many clips in a vidcap file. It needs to be able to handle much, much bigger catalogs of tapes and shots.
2: Vidcap doesn't keep track of media that's been moved. It should. It would either allow you to search for media or it would get the info from the current project whenever that project has to find offline media.
3: vidcap files need to be more "Project Based". Users should be encouraged to use Vidcap as a project database, and vidcap should be useful as a project database.
4: Vidcap files could also keep track of what veg files are using the media files. Much like edit details, vidcap should show you where and how many times a media file is used within a project, assuming that a project encompasses many veg files.
5: Vidcap needs to be more integrated with the main Vegas program. Definitely when Vegas has to find media Vidcap should also know the media was moved.
6: If vidcap fails for some reason in the middle of a batch capture, it would be nice if the files already captured were usable. Currently, you have to wait until Vidcap successfully finishes the batch job before the media files have names applied and are added to the current media pool.

I guess what I'm saying here is that Vidcap could become an overall project management tool, coordinating itself with all of the Veg files associated with it. In the Vegas project you would specify the vidcap database to associate with the project. You should be able to specify "none" if you like.

Rob Mack

Comments

Logan5 wrote on 1/4/2005, 2:05 PM
Rob, I’m new to Vegas but not to NLEs – I got a list(in my mind) of simple refinements that I would love to see V use. When things slow down for me soon, it would be great to discuss your ideas, mine and others users as well.

I’m migrating to Vegas because it has many of the great features that my $40k (back in the day) hardware does. My editing hardware has very powerful edit tools. (Like I mentioned similar to Vegas) The hardware’s interface was developed by editors and the programmers built it, and just hid all the gears and pulleys. What you end up with is a clean fast way to – Load – Edit – Done.

Paul
Strategic Media
winrockpost wrote on 1/4/2005, 2:20 PM
........vidcap files need to be more "Project Based
Agree, it would be nice if in batch capture we could assign bins for captured clips. For instance if tape one has b-roll , and 2 interviews, the clips would be assigned to appropriate bins. Now I would assign all to tape 1 bin and add new bins and move later. If this is possible now, i havent figured it out.
rmack350 wrote on 1/4/2005, 10:00 PM
Of course the best thing is to have options without being forced into them. Users should always be able to work the way they have been. The trick is to lead people into using the improvements.

I find it a little annoying that when you recapture media, Vegas automatically opens up the last vidcap file used and dumps the offline media records into it. Sometimes the last vidcap file I had open has nothing to do with the current project and so I have to go into this vidcap file and delete the media records Vegas just added to it.

Better would be to specify the vidcap file to be used when you first start a veg file.

I've always felt as though Vidcap was a program that SoFo bought somewhere and bolted onto Vegas. I don't really think this is what happened but the program has always had a feel of being scabbed on.

The trick to adding better media management to Vegas is to keep everything easy and fast. I don't think anyone wants Vegas to be slower or more cumbersome. As it is, V5 seems like it made Vegas into a slightly overweight gazelle.

Rob Mack