Track Motion ... Drop Shadows ...

ClipMan wrote on 3/19/2006, 9:10 AM
I'm using Vegas 5 and use drop shadows often ... but since it's a track event, it pretty much excludes using that track for anything else in the project if you don't want shadows.... the question is ... does Vegas 6 handle shadows as a clip event and if not, can you bring the shadowed track event in as a nested sequence without affecting the track it'll sit on ...?

Comments

GaryKleiner wrote on 3/19/2006, 10:53 AM
Vegas 6 handles Track Motion shadows the same way as Vegas 5. However, you CAN create a nested veg with a shadow and use it on a track that has no shadow applied.

Gary
Liam_Vegas wrote on 3/19/2006, 10:54 AM
Nested Vegs would allow what you are looking to do.

They are treated as completely independant media on the timeline - so whatever you have going on inside that Veg is entirely isolated from whatever you may be doing inside your "master" project.
Tattoo wrote on 3/19/2006, 11:07 AM
ClipMan-

Probably a more difficult solution than you're looking for, but can't you just keyframe the shadows in & out, as required? Seems like it wouldn't involve too many keyframes, as I don't imagine you'd change the shadows / lack of shadows too many times (or you wouldn't mind giving up that track).

edit: Yep, just verified this works pretty well. Just put in some keyframes in the Shadow line of the Track Motion screen. Used "Hold" as the keyframe type. Seems like this would allow a little bit more editing flexibility than using nested tracks, although as a V5 guy, I don't know anything about nesting. Of course, if you're thinking of upgrading just for that capability then you save some coin, too.

Brian
ClipMan wrote on 3/19/2006, 11:39 AM
... as usual, great input, guys ... thank you ...

tattoo ... been using V5 since forever and I never thought about using keyframes to get back my track after a track event... and getting back the track is important because I need to use a strict hierarchy or I lose my way deep into the timeline ... I've got ten to twelve video tracks on the go at any point in time ... anyway, I'm looking for an excuse to upgrade to V7 so I'm going to totally ignore everything you just told me ... thanks ... :-)



Tattoo wrote on 3/19/2006, 12:19 PM
Oh yeah, I'm jones'in for V7, even though I don't know what features might be included and even though V5 is far more than I'll probably ever need. It just feels like it's about time ... just don't tell my wife! (Okay, maybe a year of reading V6 users discuss features I don't have has worn me down.)
ClipMan wrote on 3/19/2006, 12:38 PM
..yeah, the nested stuff is gonna help bigtime ... I can prepare subclips on the various timelines and bring them together after ... this will save me having to scroll the timeline past China to get where I want to go ... I almost went for V6 but I was still doing only five to seven minute clips and the nesting wouldn't have made much difference to the workflow and I'm nowhere near ready for the HDV Experience ... anyway, I'm ready for V7 ... and I just called your wife and told her that you'll be ugrading your software, hardware and building an extension to your house to fit all your stuff in ... you don't want to know what she said ...
Tattoo wrote on 3/19/2006, 12:46 PM
Dang! Well, that would explain the shreiking upstairs. Good thing I already got my hardware upgrade in recently. The only house extension now, though, might be a doghouse. Think I can get a broadband drop there?
GGman wrote on 3/19/2006, 1:15 PM
Clipman,
You can also use keyframes to turn on and off the drop shadow on one track so you can use just that one track for your project.

GG
ClipMan wrote on 3/19/2006, 1:35 PM
Yeah, I learnt that today ... been using Vegas since Video Factory andI I got my eyes opened for me ... thanks ... there's probably a hundred things I could do to make projects easier on myself but then I'd have nothing to be amazed about and I don't want that NLE Magic to disappear ... anyway, I tried to do the shadows in the image editing program I use but masking for alpha was a bitch and Vegas actually does it better so the shadow effect becomes very important ... too bad Madison didn't make it a clip event ... but I'm sure if I had asked, they would have dropped everything and seen to it ... maybe I could get V7 delayed so they can sneak it in but I don't want to stress them out ...