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Videoon 2/5/2005
torn, worn, speckled text
DGates- Very cool look, thanks for the demo. Even more aged than I was thinking of. Looks pretty easy to do, and I do have Elements. Your example wasn' t the exact look I'm thinking of, but I can get there from here. Still like to have it internal to Vegas, but that may not be possible. nickle - Cool effect, surprisingly close to what I was looking for with the chunks missing. My preview is showing some horizontal lines on the "aged" but not missing parts, though. Very cool how you can achieve different looks by combining different "ingrediants." Unrelated, but cool effect of keyframing the Threshold starting at 1 and ending at 0, as your text appears to beam-in like the old Star Trek. <Wow, I just did a Google search for Star Trek beam-in effect to see how they did that back in 1968. No luck, but I did find a long argument about whether a Star Wars jedi lightsaber could deflect a Star Trek phaser set on wide-beam. And I thought *I* had no life!>
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Videoon 2/5/2005
torn, worn, speckled text
Oops, see, I knew I wasn't communicating well. By "aged" I simply meant that the text itself looked like it had been around the block and back, not the "paper" or background that it was on. As if the letters were painted on something, and chips of paint were missing. Kinda reminds me of the old ads painted on barn sides, which is probably why I used "aged." I'm talking about where the text (usually a larger, thicker font) has fairly large particles (up to around 10% of the letter) missing from it. Some times there are extra particles just hanging around the text (not attached). Hmm ... edge effect. I assume that's one of the million things in Vegas I haven't learned yet. Got a long way to go. zcheema - I'd rather use an effect than a special font, because 1) it's free! and 2) it's more flexible in that I can use *any* font, and the particles will be in different locations on the same letter (i.e. won't be the same particle missing from the same location of every "o," or whatever). However, a special font was my first thought, too.
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Videoon 2/5/2005
torn, worn, speckled text
Tried the film effect, but I couldn't get the grain large enough and I'm looking for static grain/noise versus the variable grain that film effect gives. Maybe there's some way to overcome this. Hmmm ... can't say I followed you on the "scanner" part of your reply. I'm guessing, though, that I could make a decent mask in Photoshop/Paint Shop Pro with textures or something. Would be nice to have a method of doing the same thing completely internal to Vegas, though.
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Videoon 2/5/2005
New guy questions
I'm new to Vegas, and certainly no pro, but I'll echo BillyRoy's statement. The primary reason I chose Vegas was because of the forums. I found very few users on other forums who had used Vegas more than superficially and chosen another product, versus a number of folks here who have converted to Vegas. Also, I found a higher percentage of posts about "this doesn't work" on other forums, versus mainly "what's your technique/opinion" on the Vegas forum. That was a year ago. If you have the time to search/monitor the forums of the major products for a couple weeks, I think you'll find the same. Brian
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Videoon 1/15/2005
Echo firewire audio
A good idea, no doubt, but one that will fail the Spousal Test in this house. She really likes our current slim and sleak computer speakers, and is still bitter that I didn't get the Bose cubes for our stereo. "Good enough" quality and "out of sight" are quick to roll off her tongue. Dang, I need a bigger house (and a LOT more money) so I can make a "man room" for me and my toys!
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Videoon 1/15/2005
Echo firewire audio
Hmmmm, a little bit of a pain. Perhaps I should just get the Revolution 5.1 for now, and add a high end card/firewire when I require it? I'd love to have the high end card, but I don't want my real-world everyday use to be a pain for some theoretical, may-never-happen, benefit.
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Videoon 1/15/2005
Echo firewire audio
The Gina3G appears to have 5.1 support. I don't know if that requires some type of workaround, or if it makes playing games a little more difficult (special setups, etc.). Anyone with the Gina3G play games with 5.1? And, other than a $280 difference in price (gulp!), does anyone know of any *downside* to getting the Gina3G versus something like a Revolution 5.1? I know it's more than I need, since I currently don't record anything, but it'd be nice to have the option. I appreciate everyone's remarks. So much nicer to get real-world feedback rather than just manufacturer's specs and promises. Unfortunately, the Echo web site seems a little sparse on information.
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Videoon 1/12/2005
Echo firewire audio
No, MyST, you're right. I've yet to record anything. It'd be nice to have the capability, but the Revolution is probably perfect for me in reality. The only audio I work with is in Vegas from my miniDV, and some puttering in Acid. Still ... I am somewhat of a techno snob ... Still curious about any theoretical advantages a Firewire audio setup might have.
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Videoon 1/10/2005
SPOT: Would like advice on Sound
Was looking at the M-Audio options. Read a user review that said the M-Audio (OmniStudio, I think) didn't have the connector from the CD player and that normal Windows programs (like MusicMatch jukebox) couldn't use their built in volume adjustment - had to use the physical volume knob on your speakers. Basically said it was a great audio setup for recording enthusiasts, but not for the average joe. I realize many internet reviews aren't worth the nanometer of hard drive space they take up, but would love to hear from you M-Audio users (and Echo, for that matter): Do you use the M-Audio card as your only sound card, and if so, is that on your "everyday" computer or do you have a computer dedicated to video/audio applications? Thanks, Brian
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Videoon 1/9/2005
AMD Athlon 64 FX
Kentwolf & Woznme - 3500+ is exactly what I'm considering, as well. What CPU cooler are you guys using and how cool & quiet is it? Thanks, Brian
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Videoon 12/18/2004
Defragging disks.
Coursedesign: I'm no computer newbie - I've been a geek since my first Apple II. Of course I read the instructions, especially when it didn't do what I wanted it to. I don't care why Diskkeeper thinks multiple passes is better. As long as my data is safe and the job gets done, which they all guarantee. I don't appreciate the extra time (my time, not computer time) involved to get it done, though. And the "set & forget" is one of Diskkeepers big selling points, but I found it to be a$$-pain. The Scandisk may very well be a hardware issue. But Diskkeeper detected something it couldn't handle and commanded the Scandisk as required. Hard to believe you haven't run into this, as I've had it on multiple computers over the years. In fact, it seems like the Windows 98 defrag program forced you to run Scandisk before even attempting a defrag. Maybe it was Win 3.1, I dunno. Both Diskkeeper & Perfect Disk are good programs, and I highly recommend defragging to everyone. However, for better control & more complete one pass defrag, I highly recommend Perfect Disk over Diskkeeper. Maybe Diskkeeper has better features for a network administrator or something, but Perfect Disk is the superior program for me.
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Videoon 12/16/2004
Defragging disks.
Having bought & used Diskkeeper (8.0, I think) for several months, and then tried Perfect Disk, I MUCH prefer Perfect Disk. Diskkeeper is much better than the standard Windows defrag (a dumbed down version of Diskkeeper), but I had issues with it requiring multiple passes to "completely" defrag, requiring more free disk space than I had (over 15%), and I didn't like the lack of control that the "set it & forget it" setting caused (it'd start defragging in the middle of a video capture, which did cause some dropped frames on my system). It also caused my system to run Scan Disk on bootup too frequently for my tastes (I have 2 drives / 4 partitions total). Perfect Disk requires less free space and does a complete job realigning all files on the first pass. I only used it once (trial version), but it did a great job. I didn't look into whether it had some type of "set it & forget it" option, or how that was meched, but I'm sure it at least has some type of scheduled defrag option. If you're looking for a defrag program, I'd highly recommend Perfect Disk. It's not something that most people would buy if they already owned Diskkeeper, but I am going to.
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Videoon 11/25/2004
Blackout Effect?
Highly recommend you use the "search" function of the forum to find previously written solutions. Search for "pixelate" and you'll definitely find one or more solutions to the blurring question. Search on "censor" and you'll probably find solutions for both, as these are the two most commons TV censorship techniques. I'm no Vegas "power user," so I'm sure there's an easier/better solution, but I was able to achieve the black bar effect by inserting a "Color Gradient" (Media Generator). Select "rectangular" for the gradient type, with 2 control points. Make #1control point black, #2 control point completely transparent, and put #2 just a hair outside #1 (on the "Distance" option). Move them around to get the size you need. If you're having problems with that, just set the aspect ratio you want and use the Pan/Crop to zoom in/out as required. Keyframe the on the Pan/Crop section to keep the black bar in the right place as your subject moves. Again, I'm sure there's a better way. That was just what I figured out while satisfying my curiosity. There's some friggin' brilliant people on this forum, and you know this topic HAS to have come up before. T
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Videoon 11/14/2004
track motion drift - weird
That worked like a champ! But why? ... Ah ... I've got it now. Even though I only have 2 keyframes per image (Vegas help says "3 or more" for Smoothness to work), I have multiple images per track, and hence well more than 3 keyframes for the track. The "smoothness" is attempting to create a big looping position trace through all of the keyframes. Useful if you need it. Wacky if you don't. Thanks, JohnnyRoy, I'd have NEVER figured that out on my own. And now I understand what the heck "smoothness" is as a bonus! T
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Videoon 11/11/2004
missing media files in Spot's book?
I've searched the forum, but this seems to be the only thread about this. I'm trying to go through the tutorials on the DVD from Spot's Vegas book, but some of the media files are missing. Yes, I had it search the DVD, but some of the media is either not there or named different. A good example is "wedding.veg", which is referrenced on p. 328 of the book. I don't think ANY of the media files are on the DVD. Am I doing something wrong, or is there a known work-around for this?
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Videoon 9/30/2004
Spot's new book
It wasn't clear in my last post (about 4 above) that I CANCELED my Amazon order and then ordered via their "other" merchants. My patience ran out with Amazon! Hope everyone gets their book soon, but I had to jump ship to another vendor. Couldn't take the chance ...
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Videoon 9/30/2004
Spot's new book
I ordered my book from Amazon on 10 Jul, and after contacting them they said it'd probably ship "sometime in October." Said they had "supply fluxuations," which I find hard to believe. How could they not 1) know how many pre-orders they had to at least fill them, and 2) how does a company like Amazon NOT have "pull" with every publisher out there??? In any case, I ordered from one of their "Marketplace Merchants" (A1Books) (click on the "4 books available New & Used from $35.31"). Had to pay a couple more dollars ($35) and pay for shipping ($3-something), but the book ACTUALLY SHIPPED yesterday, so just waiting for UPS ... Can't wait to get my hands/eyes on that book & DVD. Got a lot to learn ...
Tattoo
Offline, Member since 6/20/2004