Presets

Using the Preset dropdown list for most Vegas tools, you can quickly choose predefined settings. In fact, the windows for choosing some of these tools display thumbnails that represent the effect they will have on your video. But an underused capability available to Vegas editors is to create and use their own presets.

After adjusting the settings for any of these tools, if you think you’ll need those settings again later, type a new name into the Preset dropdown and click the Save Preset button to the right. Not only will it be added to the Preset list, but if it’s for a transition, media generator, or video FX, it will also get its very own thumbnail.

Render Templates

When it’s time to render / encode your project to a file, each file type has several render templates available. Render templates tell Vegas in one click what video and / or audio settings to use for your rendered file.  If none of the installed templates are quite what you need,  you can click the Custom button on the Render As dialog and adjust the settings as needed.

But if you expect that you’ll need those custom settings again, don’t just click OK to accept the settings this one time. First, save those settings to your own render Template by typing a new name into the Template dropdown and clicking the Save Template button. Vegas will add it to the list of Templates for that file type so you can select again anytime you want.

Plug-In / Filter Packages

When you add an FX to anything — a piece of media, an event, a track, or the project itself — Vegas creates a plug-in chain for that object. Every FX that’s added to that same object gets added to the chain. If the chain you come up with is something you think you’ll need again, you can save it as a package.

To do this, start by clicking the Plug-In Chain button. Vegas will open the Plug-In Chooser dialog. There, click Save As, type in a name for your Plug-In Package, and click OK. From then on, your Plug-In Package will be availble in the Filter Packages folder of the Plug-In Chooser. (I don’t know why Sony named it “Filter Packages” instead of “FX Packages” or “Plug-In. Packages”). The package won’t appear in the dockable Video FX window since it’s not a preset, but you can click the Plug-In Chain button or a standard FX button to get the Plug-In Chooser dialog again and Add it from there.

Replace Plug-In

The Vegas interface uses the term “Plug-In” for several elements, but obviously they can’t all have the same options. Video FX are considered “plug-ins,” as are Transitions and Media Generators. But there’s no such thing as a Transition Chain or a Media Generator Chain — for them, it’s strictly one item per customer. And yet, they both have that familiar green button. Why?

Well, if you open up an existing transition or generated media and hover over that little green button, you’ll get a hint. In this context, it’s labeled “Replace Plug-In.” Click it, and you will be presented with the Plug-In Chooser dialog where you can a plug-in (of the same type) to replace the one you already have. You won’t be able to carry over any of the settings from the previous plug-in, but any cuts you’ve made, FX you’ve applied, track motion you’ve done… all these and other changes will remain.

Reuse Your VEG Files

Many programs have wizards or templates with predefined objects. For example, a video template might already have an audio tracks, four video tracks, a common background, a logo graphic, and a title overlay already set up. Vegas doesn’t have such templates or even an automated way to create them, but it’s simple enough to create your own. Create a boilerplate project with the most essential tracks, media, FX, transitions, and all the settings that you need, and save that to a Vegas project (VEG) file.

When you need to create a project using that template, open it, save it as a new file, and customize it for your current project. Your template project can even include temporary content in the form of generated media. When you’re working on the “real” project, go to the Project Media, select that piece of generated media, and choose Replace. Vegas will let you browse for the video or image that you want to use instead.

In fact, you can reuse such templates — as well as completed projects — within other projects if you are using Sony Vegas 7 or higher. In that version, Sony introduced the ability to nest VEG files. Dragging an existing VEG onto a Vegas timeline adds it as an event just as though you had rendered it to a file. And any changes you make to the original VEG will be reflected in the projects in which it’s been nested. (Sorry, nesting is not available in Vegas Movie Studio at this time.)

Do you have any suggestions on reusing work you’ve already done in Sony Vegas?

The Media

Create a new project and set it to the properties you want for your final video. I’m still working with standard definition, so I’ll stick with the default 720×480 NTSC properties. Insert a video track by going to Insert > Video Track or hitting Ctrl+Shft+Q, and then do it again for a second video track.

In the Media Generators window, select Solid Color from the list, find a preset for the color you want, and drag it to the second video track. Adjust the color if you’d like – I’m going to use the Orange preset, and I’ll hold down Shift when I add it so I can bypass any options.

That’s our color. Now we need some texture. Still on the Media Generators window, select Noise Texture and find the Charcoal Scribbles preset. Drag that to the first track and drop it directly above the solid color event. We need to adjust options for this one, so allow the Video Media Generators window to open (don’t hold down Shift).

Figure 1: Added Media

When we change the composting mode later, it will “mold” the solid color event based on the value of this noise texture event, with the result appearing 3D-ish. Pure black will form valleys, pure white will form peaks, and shades of gray will form the slopes. The default Charcoal Scribbles preset is too harsh for a “pool of melted Crayons or plastic,” but it’s closer than any other preset.

The most important settings to change here are the Noise Parameters. These essentially determine which of the texture’s two colors will dominate and how smooth the gradients between them will be. Here are the Noise Parameter settings I’m using:

• Min: 0.600
• Max: 0.900
• Bias: 0.250
• Amplitude: 0.500
• Grain: 0.000

Next, change Color A to pure black and Color B to pure white, and you’ve got a wavy black and gray gradient. You can adjust it so there’s more white, but keep in mind that a lot of white is going to give you flat bluffs instead of smooth peaks. So now we’ve got something that looks like it might “ripple,” but it’s doesn’t yet because we haven’t gotten to the “animated” part.

We do that by adding a keyframe to the end of the keyframe timeline and adjusting the Progress setting at that keyframe. Using a larger value produces faster movement (because it’s trying to make that much progress in the allotted time — kind of like when you’re on a deadline, and the boss keeps giving you more work). I feel like working slowly, so I’ll change the Progress value at the second keyframe to two (2). We’re done with the Video Media Generators window for now, so close it.

Figure 2: Softened Noise Texture

(Note: If you can’t find the keyframe timeline in the Video Media Generators window, Vegas probably hid it. Hover your cursor near the bottom of the window until it becomes two horizontal bars with arrows pointing up and down. Then click and drag up to reveal the keyframe timeline.)

What is a Keyframe?

Simply put, a keyframe is a point in time where you define one or more settings. When you create multiple keyframes, Vegas interpolates what needs to happen to get from one keyframe to the next. Not only that, but you can define the speed in which the transition from one state to the next takes place. You do all this using the Keyframe Controller, which you will find at the bottom of the window for several Vegas functions. We’ll examine each of those windows in detail later. But first, let’s have a look at the Keyframe Controller.

One point to make before we move forward: Much of this information is not relevant to the ProType Titler that was added in Vegas Pro 8. The ProType Titler interface is very different from that of, well, most of the rest of Vegas. Do not attempt to apply the instructions here to the ProType Titler. While it does use keyframes, their usage is very, very different from anything you’ll read here.

The transition I want to achieve is similar to a linear wipe. But while a linear wipe in Vegas can have a soft edge, it’s still rather tidy. I want a deeper and more random blend between the two clips — something that resembles fog or smoke. For this, I’m going to combine two types of generated media, a standard Vegas transition, and some parent-child track relationships.

To begin, insert two video tracks by hitting Ctrl+Shift+Q twice. The top track will be for a noise texture that will make up the “edge” of the transition. Go to the Media Generators window, select Noise Texture from the list, and drag the Plasma preset onto Track #1. Vegas will open the Video Media Generators window for you to edit the new piece of media.

Make Color A transparent by entering 0 for its Alpha value (beneath Color A’s color picker, textbox labled “A”) and set Color B to white. The “smoke” is a bit too heavy for my taste, so under Noise Parameters, I’m going to raise the Min value to .250. I also want this mask to be much brighter, so I’m rising Amplitude to 2. You can tweak these and other settings if you like, but this is essentially what we need for the edge to look like smoke. Not let’s make it move like smoke, too.

At the bottom of the Video Media Generators window is a keyframe timeline. It takes a minimum of two keyframes to animate something — Vegas has already given you the starting keyframe with the settings you just adjusted. To animate this media, click the Last Keyframe button to move to the end of the keyframe timeline. Now change the the Progress setting to 10. Vegas will add a new keyframe to the end of the timeline (which represents the end of this media’s event) and give it the new setting. If you preview your video, you will now see that Vegas animates the event, making this resemble billowing smoke. You can now close the Video Media Generators window.

Figure 1: Settings for Smoke

We also need the smoke to move across the screen. We’ll do this with a linear wipe. Hover the cursor over the top left corner of the smoke event until you see the Fade Offset indicator (a quarter circle) and click and drag all the way to the end of the event. Then go to the Transitions window, select Linear Wipe from the list, and drag the Left-Right Soft Edge preset onto the smoke event.

So now we have a mask made of “smoke” that gradually fills the screen. If we applied this to our clips, we’d be left with relatively equal parts of them. That’s not exactly a transition, is it? No, what we’re trying to achieve is a wipe where only the edge of the wipe is smokey. Let’s fill in the rest of this moving mask.

Figure 2: The Completed Mask

On the second track of your Vegas project, add a Solid Color from the Media Generators tab. Use white to match the white for the smoke. Using the same method as before, apply a linear wipe transition to the entire event. If you preview your moving mask now, you may notice that the “edge” of the wipe is still awfully clean. That’s because the wipe for the solid color on Track #2 is filling in quite a bit of our nice smoke on Track #1. This is because they start and finish at the same time. But if we shorten the solid color’s event, the smoke event will have a chance to “pass” it up, therby giving the edge a smokier look. Grab the left edge of the solid color event and drag it further in. With both events originally being 10 seconds, I shaved two seconds off the solid color’s event. This completes the mask.

To apply a mask, we need to use parent-child track relationships and compositing modes, which can get a bit tricky when your mask uses more than one track itself. Luckily, current versions of Vegas Pro have the ability to nest projects. Save this file as smokemask.veg. Then create or open the project with your two clips. Put the two clips on separate tracks with the incoming event on the upper track. Also line up the incoming clip where you want it to first start coming in.

Now let’s get that mask in here. Insert a track above your incoming event and add smokemask.veg to it. Line the nested mask up with the incoming clip. This puts a white mask above your incoming clip, with your outgoing clip completely hidden during the “transition.” To use this properly, click the Compositing Mode button on the mask’s track header and choose Multiply (Mask). Then on the incoming clip’s track header, click its Make Compositing Child button. Now if you place the cursor on the timeline between the start and end of the mask event, your preview should show the incoming clip where the mask was white and the outgoing clip where the mask was transparent. Play your project, and you should see one the smoke transition we’ve been trying for.

Figure 3: The Mask Applied

Unfortunately, what you will probably also notice is that when the mask event ends, so does the incoming clip. This is because the track with the Compositing Mode determines which of the lower content is visible. In the case of Multiply (Mask), white will completely reveal its child track(s). The catch here is that when the mask event ends, the track is no longer white. No white, no child track(s). You have a few options to fix this, each of which essentially adds a solid white to this track following the end of the mask event. The options are:

1. From the Media Generators tab, insert a Solid Color of white. Make it as long as you need in order to reveal the child track.
2. Grab the right edge of the mask event and drag it out for as long as you need to reveal the child track. Then right-click the mask event, choose Properties, and uncheck Loop. What this does is extend the last frame of the event, which was solid white.
3. Right-click the track with the mask event and go to Insert/Remove Envelope > Fade to Color. By default, the colors for this envelope are black (lower) and white (upper). Add one point to the envelope exactly at the end of the mask event and add another to the envelope soon after. Grab the second point, drag it all the way to the top of the track and then shift it over so that it’s above the first point. If, for some reason, you need to return this track back to normal (but remember, it’s only masking its child track — it has no effect on any other tracks), then add two more points where necessary and drag the line back to the vertical center.

Using these techniques, you can build your own aresenal of transitions to use in Vegas.  Combine noise textures, text, gradients, any kind of generated media. Apply transitions and add video FX to twist that media into a mask that works for your content. Lastly, use compositing modes (usually Multiply, but go ahead and experiment with the others) to use this mask to combine multiple tracks in interesting ways. As interesting or, quite possibly, even more interesting, than this: