CyberBen, I missed your post and went back to read it, good stuff. Regardless of the ProType Titler learning curve and any perceived short comings, it is a welcome addition that I will use. I am adding Pixelan RiseShine as and EventFX on ProType Titler collection presents, looks great.

the interface is very very similar to the look of the velvet matter plug-ins - FrigidNDEditing

Dave, looks like you're right.

Why on earth were Velvetmatter (of Madison, WI) allowed to retain their own style if this thing is supposed to be an integrated part of Vegas?

If Sony Creative Software had little involvement in the development it doesn't bode well for it ever being brought into line with everything else.

Well the first time I tried it I was mystified. Five minutes of staring in confusion at the interface and wondering if I could every use this tool. But then it clicked I realised just how simple it really is.

I had no problem changing the colour of the background or the text, adding keyframes was simple, adding preset curves was just a quick drag and drop action, and within a couple of seconds I'd created some animated text.

Despite its non-Vegas look, I quite like ProType. I may not use it much in the immediate future, but it is going to make playing with text that little bit easier and a lot more fun.

>> I can't believe the SCS user interface people (i.e. those behind Vegas' extraordinary elegance) aren't shuddering when they look at this. <<

Agreed. Hmmm, I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but virtually every 'module' that's been added since the demise of Sonic Foundry - eg this, the Media Manager, the keybinding interface etc - has suffered from this problem and has been wholly un "Vegas-like".

Vegas' genius was always its user-interface - other apps did, and do, beat it in terms of sheer number of features. Sadly I think it's very likely that the UI gurus who created Vegas and ACID have long since left, leaving Sony to just bolt on bits and pieces... none of which feel like SoFo/Sony stuff should. I think it's really sad that Vegas' UI increasingly is being compromised.

"The interface is very very similar to the look of the velvet matter plug-ins - FrigidNDEditing

Dave, looks like you're right.

Why on earth were Velvetmatter (of Madison, WI) allowed to retain their own style if this thing is supposed to be an integrated part of Vegas?

If Sony Creative Software had little involvement in the development it doesn't bode well for it ever being brought into line with everything else."

Simialr is not the word.. identical would be more like it.. in fact, i woudltn be surprised if velvet had been working on a titler and sony just decided to buy it out from under them.. sadly, the same cannot be said for the other incredible velvet plugins..
EIther way, from the layouts, to the tabs through to even the buttons being used, i dont doubt that it was designed by the team at Velvet.. whether this is a good thinkg or not, who knows..

Unless something has happened recently as far as I know all but one of the original SoFo team still work on the product(s).

There's an upside to this perhaps. As others have commented it appears to be a .net app and the scripting interface has been opened according to the release notes.

This could, might, let us all pray, mean that finally 3rd parties can actually write some decent plugins. Not knocking what we've got but compared to the breadth of what's on offer with other NLE's we are very, restricted.

Bob.

Farss, I think Sony maybe opening up for third party apps using net3 because of the XDCAM product line. If Sony continues giving a copy of Vegas with the XDCAMs, a lot of 3nd party apps would continue to invest in the vegas line, which would help everyone else outside XDCAM world editing with vegas.

THO, I've then slow looking at vegas8, I see a few things with the new titler that concerns me, but I'm still really clueless about it, at the bottom of the learning curve, -----I think the "look" of the controls are a pain---- don't know way yet.

The Sony guys are trying hard, going in the right direction, just need more staff for some of the old issues that keep popping up!

Why on earth were Velvetmatter (of Madison, WI) allowed to retain their own style if this thing is supposed to be an integrated part of Vegas?


This also could have been assuaged by a little expectation management. If they called it ProTitler Plugin, we would have different assumptions.

precisely.. by integrating it the assumption of plugin in is gone, however the way its integrated, its obviously a plugin as its behaviour is avery much like the velvelmatter filters in their own right.. Frankly i dont care whether or not it is, i DO care about 3rd party support, and if this means opening the doors to additional plugin options, then im all for it.

"Not knocking what we've got but compared to the breadth of what's on offer with other NLE's we are very, restricted."
I Will knock what we have.. frankly its pretty much a joke IMO.. considering the age of teh app, and the available options to the competitors, only the major players are bothering with Vegas.. this is sad as some pretty incredible tools such as Particular and other AE plugins would make a welcome addition to the Vegas line of add-ons.. imagine being able to work with advanced colour correctors like 55mm, digital film lab, Synth Aperture colour finesse etc etc...
Coupled with this titler, it would make jumping to AE obsolete for this kind of work

How do you insert KF?

well, I'll tell you this much, I LIKE IT, and not only that I like the interface as well (it's all slick and contemporary feeling). And I like the Velvet Matter stuff too, so if they were involved in it, then that speaks well of it to me, because I've been very pleased with my velvet matter plugs.

As far as Third Party things go, I have no idea as to what this is (a plug-in to Vegas Pro 8, or a part of the software that has been built and added in), but I can't conceive how it could be bad in any way. This is obviously something that has been built from basically the ground up in one year, and I am sure that as time progresses improvements will be made to it, but I have to say that it speaks very well of whoever designed this that they were able to make something so functional and just generally good in that period of time from what I'm assuming is pretty much nothing but a concept, and I'm glad to see them working with or for Sony helping to make my software better. No ifs, ands, or buts.

Dave

JMES - there is a little swirly icon next to each individual parameter and you enable and disable key framing for each one by enabling this (it allows for very precise control and universal adjustment of appearance as well just by enabling or disabling the key framing for certain effects).

For instance: I can animate my XY position and all types of other moves, and then say, hmmm I want to have the text be slightly slanted throughout the animation and just make sure that is not set to animate and slant my text once (rather than on every key frame I've made) (one of the biggest time suckers of the old titling software)

I have always been a great defender of the Vegas text generator, mostly because of its matter-of-factness. Many times when it has been critizised I have got the feelin that what these people want is a button that instantly produces circus-is-coming-to-town kind of titles.
I think the ProType titler focuses on creating titles seriously, no matter if you love the interface or not (and I don't). Not that circus is unserious, you can create such titles seriously too, but it is a genre where the message is as much in the form as in the content. I want the form to support and enhance the readability. ProType can help me with that.
Btw, it took me a long time to figure out that to get rid of a tool menu that's blocking the workspace window you must press its button again. A bit like the first time I tried to undock a tool window in Vegas. I almost re-installed the whole program.
Tor

I was pleased that V8 installed without any problems on my laptop with XP Media Centre ( not XP Pro).
Titler is of great interest to me because, I believe, my Cayman Graphics titler would not work in V8.

I am disappointed to note that
1- there's no colour picker
2-the text colour select is not RGB but HS.

If it was RGB, one could always use the normal text tool to pick the colour and then tranfer the values to the Pro titler.

One thing that's bugging me. It seems like a stupid question but is there any way to link x and y parameters for things like scale etc.? Thanks!

You can switch the colors to RGB

"One thing that's bugging me. It seems like a stupid question but is there any way to link x and y parameters for things like scale etc.? Thanks! - Matt Stephens

Its a check box in the top of the text box section (looks like a white empty square at the end of the row at the top), just click it and it locks aspect ratios.

Hope that answers your question.

Dave

Checking the 'lock aspect ratio' box just seems to apply when you're resizing the text boxes. I'm talking about when you want to animate x and y parameters using the sliders. Right now it's making me enter in the numbers manually for both x and y sliders. i.e. I can't drag both sliders simultaneously so it's giving me a distorted animation unless I match the numbers. Does that make sense?

Why not just size it in the titler screen rather than the sliders, that creates key frames when it's changed just the same, and wouldn't take as long, and would be able to scale equally etc...

Dave

also a quick tip, if you want to have it size around center (as when you slide the sliders), just click and drag on the top or side handles of the text and it does just that (as opposed to the corner ones which you can use to size anchored on the opposing handle)

I like that, it gives me dual functionality from right on there, that's good by me. (could be better if they made it so it just always did one way, and then CTRL + Drag did it another, but this is the first version, it's gotta get out there and get used to really boost the functionality as it grows.

Dave

FrigidND, thanks very much!!! I had noticed the swirly thingies, but i though, they were cosmetic apperance.

From what I've used of the demo, it appears to be deceptively powerful. By that I mean that the parent child, keyframing, curves and motion almost seem too simple but when digging into each one the stuff gets deep and confusing quick! So far, I like what I see but the lack of the mouse right click action is maddening.

I too fear that the UI is changing. I would seriously hope SCS doesn't get into the "New, easier to use interface..." mantra. It's been my experience with other software packages that if they are behind on sales and and change everything up for something new it actually drives customers away. I figure if I have to learn something new it may be best to learn something else.