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Videoon 8/18/2005
Special effects software
It really depends on what you are using it for. ParticleIllusion is a very powerful and more expensive program with a couple of little quirks. If you think you will be using particle effects a lot, get Particleillusion. Alam DV or Effects labs is much less powerful and more limiting, but fine if all you need is the occassional lightsaber, laser, explosion or fireball. If you are going to be doing any pro work, I'd get PI. If you want to see your kid with a lightsaber, get EffectsLab. Both are good programs. PI is more for professionals and Effectslab is more for consumers to use at home. If you already have Vegas, why not just render your DV avi clips as something Particleillusion can use, such as the lossless free Huffy codec? That's what I usually do and it works fine. Just render from Vegas using Huffy as 654 x 480 for 4:3 video or 872 x 480 for 16:9 video to convert to 1.0 pixel aspect ratio so ParticleIllusion can display it correctly without stretching.
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Videoon 7/21/2005
Any other HDV digital intemediary formats?
Peter, I couldn't get the Cineform avi's to playback well on an older Athlon XP based PC until I installed Connect HD v1.7. I was getting about 10-12 fps with v1.5. Now with v1.7 I'm getting full 29.97 fps and better capture/print stability even on an old PC. So if you haven't updated Connect HD in a while you might want to give it a try and see if it helps you at all. The upgrade is free. Greg
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Videoon 7/18/2005
Text behind people and objects
I just looked at the link supplied by "epirb" that discusses difference matte creation in Vegas. Sorry for the redundancy. Greg
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Videoon 7/18/2005
Text behind people and objects
Some compositing programs allow you to make "difference mattes." I'm not sure if Vegas can do it or not. You will need 2 shots. One of the plate (background) footage by itself with only the things you want behind the text. Then you have the actors, props, or whatever things you want in front of the text placed in front of the background stuff you just shot and film that. The compositing program can analyze the pixels from the two shots and make a matte with only the "difference" between the two. In this case all of the foreground elements would be different and placed on a matte of their own, kind of like what chromakeyed footage looks like. You would place the background shot on the bottom track, followed by the text, and place the "difference" matte on top. This way the text moves behind all of the foreground stuff and in front of the background. The difference matte usually requires a lot of clean up and only works well with a stationary background. If there are moving elements in the background like moving clouds or trees waving in the wind then it won't work well or at all. Hope this helps.
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Videoon 7/9/2005
48 Hour Film Project
You are allowed to create or obtain music in advance though. We did no script writing in advance last time. I would be very surprised if many teams did not do some kind of scripting in advance, even though this is clearly against the rules. Practice as much of the technical stuff as possible. Know your camera and gear inside out. Practice any piece of software you may use. Check and recheck computer stability. I've been practicing compositing with Commotion, After Effects and Vegas and found that with only a few specific examples, I can do most composing in Vegas easier and faster than with the compositing programs. It is a really great experience and certainly good practice for anyone who wants to do "run and gun" kind of work. Let us know how it turns out for you.
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Videoon 7/6/2005
48 Hour Film Project
I helped out with one in Washington, DC this past year and will be doing my own in Asheville, NC on July 22 as well. It was great fun. One of the best, albeit stressful weekends I've had in a while. The following week they screened all of the shorts to sold out audiences (500+) using digital projection in a real movie theater. Now that was cool as hell. All of the teams got up at the end and discussed their short briefly and equipment and such. Most people seemed to have some pro experience of some sort. (I'm a Physical Therapist with an expensive hobby). Many shot with the Panasonic DVX 100a 24p camera. Most edited with Final Cut Pro. It was amazing to hear how many of them reported catastrophic problems with FCP during the intense editing. I was the only one I knew for sure that used Vegas 5.0. If I had any advice it would be to prep as much as you can in advance. Find and secure locations and talent. Have a few rough ideas for each of the different genres. Set a tight shooting schedule and stick to it. Some of the shorts were amazing. Some were horrible. Everyone seemed to have fun.
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Videoon 5/22/2005
OT: Upgrading To A Better DV Camcorder???
If you are going to buy new I would definitely get the FX1, unless you need the absolute best low light performance. No DV camera within three times its cost can touch it in HDV mode. It produces an excellent DV image that is native widescreen. I would only buy a DV camera if $2500 is the complete maximum you can spend. Even then I would buy a used VX2000 or equivalent instead of a new one. They can be found fully loaded with lenses and filters for under $1500 since many people (like myself) have upgraded to HDV. I still have my old VX2000 boxed up in my closet. What are you going to be using the camera for?
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Videoon 4/25/2005
purchasing Sony DCR-VX2100
I agree with you Ralph. I have a VX2000 and an FX1. I personally would either save the extra money and buy the FX1 or buy a good used VX2000 for cheap. The picture quality is supposed to be almost as good as the 2100. They can be had for under $1500 easily. The FX1 is similar in quality to the VX2000 in DV mode (except the FX1 is true widescreen) and is vastly better in HDV mode. It is more professional looking. Even if you don't need HDV now it is still an excellent DV camera and you could use HDV as a "selling point" perhaps. That just my opinion though. The 2100 is an excellent camera for the price if new is a must.
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Videoon 4/25/2005
60i to 24p in Vegas 6 is incredible!
Spot, I only fooled around with converting 1080/60i hdv to 1080/24p once or twice but my work flow was something like this: Set properties to 1080/60i hdv Cineform preset. Place footage in timeline. Render as mpeg 2, 1080/24p with 2-3 pulldown applied. This seemed to produce much strobing when compared to rendering as dv 24p with 3-2 or 2-3-3-2 pulldown. I may have not had a setting correct though. If you do render Cineform 1080/60i hdv as 1080/24p mpeg2 with 2-3 pulldown, shouldn't this produce a look similar to 24p dv? I need to spend more time fooling with this but I don't have a great functional need to do it right now. It would be nice to know if the film-look techniques for dv work when keeping everything in the hdv realm.
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Videoon 4/25/2005
60i to 24p in Vegas 6 is incredible!
I've been wandering the same thing. In Vegas 5, when I convert HDV 1080/60i to 1080/24p it doesn't look right. It strobes a lot, similar to CF24 setting. It doesn't seem to give the film cadence like when going from DV 60i to DV 24p. Is there anyway in Vegas 6 to make HDV 1080/60i look like 1080/24p? That way we get the film cadence and keep most of our resolution.
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Videoon 4/25/2005
purchasing Sony DCR-VX2100
I've purchased from Dbuys.com. They have full USA warranty and good customer reviews. I purchased my VX2000 and FX1 from them with no problems at all. They have the 2100 for $2188 currently. B&H photo is extremely good like everyone else said.
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Videoon 4/17/2005
OT: Best Camera Under $2000
You may want to consider looking for something used. With the release of the FX1/Z1, prices on most good used 1/3" chip cameras are falling. You could get a used PD150/170 for around $2000. Or you could get a VX2000/2100 (add $150 XLR adapter) for around $1500. Any of those would be very good in regular or low light, depending on what kind of video you are doing. Since I puchased my FX1, I (shameless plug) have a like-new VX2000, wide angled lens, and 12 filters for sale for $1650. You might could find a new VX2100 close to $2000 if you looked hard enough. If you are going to be shooting in low light situations, you may want to avoid the 1/4"chippers. If you have adequate light 1/4" chippers should do just fine. Here is a link to some decent XLR adaptors: http://www.studio1productions.com/xlr-menu.htm
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Videoon 3/16/2005
OT: Practical use of Z1, great piece of kit.
DigVid, Why would you need a DVHS to get the footage back into the camera? With Connect HD you can just print it back to tape. I edit just fine on my old overclocked AMD Athlon 2100! That's right, a 2100. You hardly need a $10,000 computer for this. Comparing the FX1 to the venerable VX2000, HDV vs DV, well there is no comparison. The FX1 wins hands down. If all of your final output is going to be SD, I would not upgrade from the VX2000. I have them both and have A/Bed them on an 8 foot wide screen. As much as I love my VX2000, the FX1 is miles ahead in this comparison. Now I'm sure when comparing the $3,200 FX1 to a $200,000 HDCAM camera, the FX1 is inferior. Common sense should tell us this. But who would have thought just a year or two ago that we would be able to shoot and edit native 1080i footage on a regular desktop computer. I sure didn't think so. I would have estimated that it would take at least five years. These are FIRST generation cameras. This are first generation capturing utilities and intermediaries. They are not perfect. But they are very, very good. I am consistently amazed at the quality an average enthusiast (non-Professional) like myself can now generate with HDV on their home computers. I am never going to use Digibeta or HDCAM. More power those that do. They are clearly out of my reach. If HDV hasn't leveled the playing field between prosumer and professional quality video, it certainly has taken us a giant step ahead of where we were with DV. And that was its intention.
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Videoon 3/1/2005
OT - Camcorders
I have a VX2000 package for sale for a pretty good price if you happen to settle on that model. I didn't think the pro audio features of its professional sibling justied the price increase either. XLR to minijack mixors/adaptors are reasonably priced. If 24p is important, you probably want the Panny 100a or the Cannon XL2. The Cannon is widescreen and 24p. Its audio is supposed to be very good. Most Sonys have excellent low light performance. I upgraded to the Sony FX1. Others don't feel its audio is its strong suit but the video in HDV mode on an HDTV is simply unbeatable for any new camera anywhere near its price. Its a great DV camera as well. Good luck, Greg
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Videoon 2/23/2005
HDV and CF file Yellow Streak
What are your system specs? I had a somewhat similar problem with a discolored verticle tinge down the right side of my Cineform files but not on the m2t files. This was left in the final render though which made my Cineform files practically worthless. I have an AMD Athlon CPU. Thad from Cineform said there was a problem with the old Athlons and the Cineform encoding process. He emailed me the fix for it. Your problem doesn't sound like a problem with encoding though.... If you haven't filled out a support ticket over at the Cineform site yet you may want to. Best of luck. Let us know if you get it fixed. Greg Flowers
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Videoon 1/6/2004
Weird chromakey bug
I made a mistake when I said I was getting a checkerboard pattern in the timeline. It is just the original greenscreen footage. With split screen enabled with FX bipassed I get green on one half, black on the other half and the subject looks normal. The opacities are set to 100% on both tracks. I can get a green channel key from the mask generator to work but it doesn't produce good results. I feel like I am doing everything correctlybut no composite. Its weird that I can render the .avi as uncompressed and take it directly into Commotion fully keyed, which tells me it is correctly keying out the green, just not letting me composite it in Vegas.
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Videoon 1/6/2004
Weird chromakey bug
When I uncheck the "Show Mask Only" box I have the subject against a completely black background, instead of against the desired background located on track #2. I'm not sure about sync cursor enabling/diabling. Would you mind elaborating? A post by a different guy on another forum with a similiar problem uninstalled and reinstalled Vegas and it fixed it. It did not fix my problem though.
GregFlowers
Offline, Last login 3/8/2022, Member since 8/23/2016