Thanks for this - its amazing that this version of vegas can offer so much more then for little extra cash> Whats your opinion of vsn 8 - the thing i didnt like about 6 was the titling ability - i wanted to add scrolling titles but it was cumbersome and time consuming - has this got better in 8?

Thanks
Mark

Scrolling titles has not changed, and are not slow to do. Check a previous post on this forum about a ticker, about a week ago. I have a .vf sample file there showing how to do it. It only requires 2 keyframes pretty much. By doing via keyframes instead of a canned version of a drag n drop thing, it allows for more versatility. For example, on Vegas you can make the titles hopping from one side to the other while scrolling. Good luck doing that with a canned plugin that has fixed functionality.

Again, is what you want: true editing, or quick and dirty chopping. :)

Hi EUgenia

Thanks once again. Im very new to this and keen to develop my skills - but ive to do some research as I have absolutely no idea what a keyframe is. As for the .vf file I downloaded it from your ticker posting - but I dont no how to use it as it opens as 'gobble-ge-gook'

BW
Mark

Think of a keyframe as a defined point in time where you can
define one or more things happening at that time (position,
zoom, color etc). It is just a marker along the timeline where
you assign events to be in a particular state at that point.
Keyframes are very powerful when you learn to use them - spend
the time to learn them and have fun !!

mikey

I tried to locate the keyframe tool to see how to do it - but i couldnt find out where it was. Keyframes are mentioned in the help guide - but how i activate them it wasnt clear - could you can point me in the right direction?

Thanks
Mark

Keyframes are in the bottom of each plugin window, and on the pan/crop window of each clip in the main timeline. It's that horizontal timeline thing, that has some small buttons + - etc, below it. Clicking + will add a keyframe in the place where cursor is placed in that timeline. This way you can control what different thing a plugin or pan/crop should do at that specific point in time of the clip.

So for example, if Ulead has a plugin to scroll some ticker text, it doesn't give you much control over it other than some color, font options. With Vegas you can animate that ticker text, make it go back and forth (like dj scratching), change the font momentarily, make the font bigger or smaller during the animation etc etc. Keyframes, these rectangular little points you add in the mini-timeline of a clip, lets you assign different values to specific plugins at different times (e.g. from the 3rd second to 5th second), so this way you have all the flexibility you want.

Great tricks Eugenia, but doesn't sound like he has the experience as you do. I've been video editing for 5 years using MANY editors including Ulead. I find key framing way too tideous and time consuming even on my 42" monitor. The final results still can look bad if you don't know what you're doing which means even MORE time trying to fix it.

In many ways, Ulead Video Studio is more advanced than Vegas Studio 8 Platinum. 7 video tracks. MPEG Optimizer analyzes the bitrates of all clips on the timeline, and suggests encoding settings to ensure the least re-rendering for the best quality and speed. Being aimed at less experienced users would probably be a better fit for this user.