Trouble with Trimmer

Peter565 wrote on 5/2/2012, 12:19 AM

Hello,

I wanted to ask if someone could help me out. I am new to Vegas Movie Studio and am having a little trouble with the Trimmer and marking clips properly. Here is my issue:

I will load a clip into the Trimmer and start to shuttle through it using the j-k-l keys. I will hit 'i' and 'o' to mark my points. Sometimes I will make my marks and hit 'a' and the clip goes to the timeline perfectly. Sometimes I will be shuttling through and I mark and in and and out point. But maybe I continue playing more into the clip to see what else is in the clip. If I hit 'a' after I have played past my marked out point, the software seems to ignore my points. It seems to cut in the clip with it going all the way to the end of the clip. Has anyone seen this before? Where it will ignore your in and out points?

Could it be a setting, a bug, or just the way the software works? It's been annoying to me and makes it hard for me to shuttle through my footage and edit it easily. There are times when I want to go past my out point and keep looking, but then later edit that section into my timeline. It seems to ignore my points and just goes from the point where the playhead is until the end of the clip. Can anyone help?

Also another quick thing. When I am in the timeline and I want to 'scrub' through using the mouse.. how can I do that? It seems when I try to drag through the footage it starts to set a region in the timeline. I just want to scrub through the footage quickly in the timeline using the mouse.

Thanks for reading. I really like the software. It seems stable and is nice and quick (especially compared to some other programs). But I am just having some issues with the trimming, editing and scrubbing on the timeline. Maybe my way of working just doesn't work with Vegas.. but I hope I am just doing something wrong. I want to be able to use the software, but it's hard for me to re-think my style of editing.

-Peter

Comments

Jack S wrote on 5/2/2012, 6:08 AM

Hi Peter and welcome to the forum.
Using the trimmer to prepare clips for inserting into the timeline as opposed to simply dragging all the clips onto the timeline is a matter of personal choice.
Personally I think the latter workflow is the more efficient. VMS has numerous facilities for editing clips on the timeline and I always use this workflow. I set the default transition length to 14 frames then drag all my clips onto the timeline. I then start at the beginning, changing the transition lengths and types as required, and trimming the clips to the required length as I go. I find that doing it this way allows me to make subtle changes to the clips that I have already worked on. As I said, it's a matter of preference and others on this forum will probably disagree with me.
As to the question about scrubbing, There's a small tab at the top of the cursor line. Hover your mouse over this and the mouse cursor will change into a horizontal line with two arrows. Left click, hold and pull either left or right. This will scrub the cursor along the timeline.
Steve Grisetti has some good, basic tutorials on
http://muvipix.com/vms11.php
Meanwhile, have fun using the software. The learning curve isn't too steep.

Richard Jones wrote on 5/3/2012, 5:14 AM

I tend to find the opposite approach easier and more efficient. By Batch Capturing from my camera I can have all the shots relating to one subject all together and can then cut and copy from the Trimmer with ease using the I, O and A buttons along with Tab if I want to separate video from audio.. This is very useful when you want to re-order the sequence of the shots or choose perhaps only one of several you might have taken of the same scene or of you want to bring in a shot from much earler or later in the source film (or even a different film).

Believe me, this has been an on-going debate for many years and it really comes down to no more than personal preference at the end of the day.

Richard

Peter565 wrote on 5/3/2012, 1:56 PM

Thanks Jack and Richard for your replies. In this case I agree with Richard that the trimmer works better for me and the way I work. For example if I have a 3 minute long clip (sometimes I shoot long clips) I might only want to use 3 short 10 second clips from that longer clip. I find the trimmer to be the fastest and easiest way to cut those short sections into my timeline. If I have the full clip in my timeline, I find it harder to manipulate it and find the sections I need.

But I guess it's a personal preference. But does anyone know why the trimmer is not working correctly? Is it a bug? If I mark my out point and play past that point and then try to hit 'A' to cut it into the timeline, it ignores my in and out points. Why? It is a bit frustrating.

I like the rest of the software. It runs quick and seems to be an efficient software program. It just slows me down when the trimmer does not use my in and out points and cuts in the wrong clip into my timeline.

I sent Sony a message a few weeks ago, but they have not responded to me. Just trying to find out what I'm doing wrong.. or if for some reason the software will not use your in and out points sometimes.

Thanks,
Peter

Markk655 wrote on 5/3/2012, 2:43 PM

Can you confirm that your in and out points do show up in the trimmer? Please see this preference setting

ForumAdmin wrote on 5/3/2012, 2:43 PM

But does anyone know why the trimmer is not working correctly? Is it a bug? If I mark my out point and play past that point and then try to hit 'A' to cut it into the timeline, it ignores my in and out points. Why? It is a bit frustrating.

Hi Peter,

When this happens, it's because your loop region is not selected. The Add media command will add the selected media to the timeline, and if nothing is selected, it adds the whole clip. Before hitting A to add the media to the timeline, try hitting Shift-L to select the loop region.

Hope this helps,
Paddy
SCS

Markk655 wrote on 5/3/2012, 2:46 PM

Paddy- Looks like we were typing at the same time!

Always nice to see someone from SCS here!

Peter565 wrote on 5/3/2012, 2:49 PM

Thanks for the replies. I can confirm that the in and out points do show up in the trimmer. I can see the selected region, but if I am outside that region and hit 'A' it will ignore my in and out points.

Thanks Paddy for the info. The user manual and help menu are not clear about that function. Why would my selected in and out points not be an active region? I will try the suggestion you gave, but I don't quite understand why my in and out points which I have selected would be ignored and why I would need to hit another key to make them active.

Could there be a setting that would automatically make the region between the in and out point active?

thanks,
Peter

Markk655 wrote on 5/3/2012, 3:55 PM

Peter, please link in earlier message for additional information. If you have "Collapse Loop Region" turned on, the trimmer doesn't work properly.

The setting is in Preferences>Editing>"Collapse Region when no time selection is present". This should be unchecked.

The VMS11 help file states, "When this check box is selected, the loop region is reset when no data is selected. If the check box is cleared, the loop region will retain the last selection."

It should also say that it interferes with setting the in/out marks on the trimmer!

Peter565 wrote on 5/3/2012, 10:23 PM

Hi Mark,

I actually did see that other post you had about that 'Collapse Loop Region' settings. I made sure it was turned off. I am still having the issue where the trimmer does not seem to recognize my in and out points when I hit 'A', even though I can see that the in and out points are set in the clip.

Thanks.
Peter

Peter565 wrote on 5/3/2012, 10:33 PM

Hi Paddy,

Thanks again for the tip. I tried hitting Shift+L before hitting 'A' after I set my in and out points. That does work and it edits the correct section of the clip into my timeline.

I was reading the help menu again and I didn't see anything in the trimmer help area about that command or needing to hit that key combination. I wish the help menu was more clear about using the trimmer and editing clips into the timeline.

Is there anyway the program can use my in and out points without having to select the loop region? For me, when I am trimming, after I set the in and out points (and as long as I don't change the points) and I hit the add media key, I would expect it to edit that section of the clip into my timeline.

I don't understand why I would not want the program to add that section between the in and out point to my timeline. That is the whole point of setting an in and out point.

Could a setting be added to make that behavior work the way I describe? I think that would make Vegas Movie Studio more standard with other editing programs and also a more useful and quick editor.

Thank you again for your help and I am just hoping the software can be improved to be easier and faster to use.

-Peter