I’ll start out by showing the end result so you know what you’re aiming for.

Setting Up the Footage

For this example, I’ll be using some footage of the Washington Monument from StockFootageForFree.com. Registering with them is free and allows you to download all the sample clips you want.

Create a new project and insert two video tracks by going to Insert > Video Track or hitting Ctrl+Shift+Q twice. Using the Explorer window or other method to add media, bring in the video you want to work with and put it onto Track #1. Vegas will create an event to hold your video. We need two copies, so hold down Ctrl on the keyboard while you click and drag the event down to Track #2. Per Windows conventions, clicking and dragging an event in Vegas moves it; Holding down Ctrl while clicking and dragging an event makes a copy.

So now we have two events with exactly the same content. And if that didn’t have enough potential for confusion, I want you to select the event on Track #2, place the cursor somewhere in the middle of it, and hit “S” on the keyboard to split it. (If Vegas splits the event on Track #1 as well, then you didn’t select the other event first. Hit Ctrl+Z to undo and try again.) This gives us three events with exactly the same content.

“But, Rob,” you say, “the two events on Track #2 have different content — one has the first half of the video, the other has the second half of the video.” To which I reply, “Back to Vegas 101 with you! Both events have the entire video within them since an event is just a window into the video file. We just happen to have each window small enough so that you can only see part of what’s inside. If you drag an edge of an event to lengthen that event, more of that video will be revealed.”

I know that sounds nit-picky, but it will be important a little later. For now, just understand that we now have three events that point to the same video. Before we start working with these events, let’s do a couple things that will make the following instructions more clear:

1. Let’s give ourselves an easy way to refer to each event on the timeline. Go to View > Active Take Information and make sure that it’s enabled. Once it is, you will see a label at the head of each event. Now instead of saying, “Select the second event on Track #2, I can simply tell you the name of the event to select. Hm, but wait. The default take name for an event from a video file is the name of that file. And since all three events are based on the same file, they all get the same take name. That’s not very helpful, is it? Which leads to workflow tip #2.

2. Luckily, you can change the take name for an event in your project, and it will have no effect on the file from which it comes. Right-click the event on Track #1 and choose Properties. In the Properties window, type the words “Swipe” into the box labeled “Active Take Information,” and click OK. Using the same method, name the first event on Track #2 “B&W” and the second event on Track #2 “Color”.

Figure 1: Editing Take Names

There. Those two steps alone will make the rest of this simple for you to follow (and for me to write!).

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.)

First thing’s first, you’ll need the third party plug-in. It’s a transition called SMLuminance, which you can download from the author’s website. Once the plug-in is installed, load Vegas (or exit and reload Vegas if it’s already open), and you’ll see new item in your Transition window — Luminance. This transition blends one clip with another based on luminance values — either that of the clips involved in the transition or that of an image that you provide. It’s this second method that we’ll be using.

For this tutorial, I’ll be using two video clips (Times Square and Caribbean Beach) from Stock Footage For Free. I’m going to create a transition made up of random shapes. One by one, each shape will reveal another part of the incoming clip. I will be using Adobe Photoshop to create the image, but you should be able to create something similar in most graphics applications. Load your application and start a new image appropriate for your Vegas project size. My Vegas project will be 720x480, so I’m making my image 655x480. (Read up on pixel aspect ratios if that sounds strange to you.)

Figure 1: Creating the Mask

This next step will be familiar to anyone who’s taken more than a couple Photoshop tutorials: Set your foreground and background colors to the default of black and white (by hitting “D” on the keyboard) and go to Filter > Render > Clouds. That gives us a random mix of black, white, and shades of gray.

To turn that random mix into something a little more structured, go to Filter > Pixelate > Crystalize. Set the cell size to whatever looks good to you; I’m using 75. When you’re ready to apply the effect, click OK. Save this image to a file and start up Vegas.

Figure 2: The Media, Crossfaded

In Vegas, start a new project with the settings you want, add your two clips, and overlap them on the same video track for the length of time you want the transition to last. Then go to the Transitions window, find Luminance in the list (you did download and install the SMLuminance plugin, right?). Grab the Bitmap present and drop into on the overlapped area of your clips. This applies the transition and presents you with the Video Event FX window to adjust the Luminance transition settings.

Figure 3: The Transition

Make sure that the Use Bitmap radio button is selected, since we’re using an external image, and then hit the Browse button next to the Bitmap textbox in order to find the image you just created. After locating the image and clicking Open, you can tick the Show Bitmap checkbox to see a thumbnail of your image just to be sure the correct one is loaded. We’ll keep the rest of the values in this window as they are. Close the Video Event FX window and you are done. Preview your new transition and make any changes you like. Here’s is an example video using the image mask we created as well as a couple others.

Using the SMLuminance plug-in and your imagination, you have an endless supply of transitions you could create. Here are a few image masks you can try out and perhaps take inspiration from:

This is the beginning of a series on creating your own custom transitions in Vegas. In part one, we’re going to use a still image to cover up our cut and animate that still using Bezier masking and Vegas’ native transitions.

Figure 1: The Media

If you haven’t already, insert the two pieces of media you want to transition between. Butt them up against one another on the timeline. We won’t be applying any fades or native transitions between them, so they don’t need to overlap. I will be using clips from Stock Footage For Free — video of a trolley and video of someone jet skiing. Feel free to use your own footage, still images, or even Vegas generated media.

Insert a video track above your existing events by hitting Ctrl+Shift+Q or going to Insert > Video Track. Directly above the two events, insert a still image. I’m using a texture from stock.xchng. Again, feel free to use another image. After adding your image, size it to the length you want your custom transition to last. This includes not only the amount of time for the image to enter and exit, but also the amount of time for the image to stay on screen. My image will take half a second to enter, half a second to exit, and will be still for 1 second — for a total of two seconds.

Figure 2: Top Mask

Click the Pan / Crop button for the image’s event. First, we want to make sure this image fills the screen. Right-click inside the Pan / Crop window and choose Match Output Aspect. Now, on the bottom left, enable Bezier masking by checking the box labeled “Mask”. Enable the Anchor Creation Tool by hitting “D” on the keyboard or clicking the tool’s icon on the left side of the Pan / Crop window — and mark points in the Pan / Crop window to create your mask. I’m dividing my image into a top and bottom, so I’m going to follow along some of the diagonal lines and then finish around the top edge.

Figure 3: Bottom Mask

When you’re done creating the mask, close out of the Pan / Crop window. Now we need a copy of this image to act as the other half — in my case, the bottom half. Insert another track, then copy and paste the image’s event onto the new track. (The quick way is to hold down Ctrl while clicking and dragging the original event up to the new track.) Click the Pan / Crop icon for this new image. Under the Path heading, if the Mode is set to Positive, set it to Negative. If it’s Negative, set it to Positive. You have now cut your image in two. One half is displayed on one track and the other half on another track. You can close out the Pan / Crop window.

The last step is making the two halves move. For this, we’ll use Vegas’ transitions. Add fades to the beginning and ends of both of the images’ events. To do this, hover the mouse over the top corner of an event until the cursor becomes a quarter circle and click and drag towards the center of the event. Make this fade as long as you want the entrance and exist to last.

Figure 4: Transitions

Next go to the Transition window and choose transitions appropriate each piece of your image. The texture I’m using has been split into a top half and a bottom half, so I’m using the “Slide In, Top-Down” transition for the top half to enter, “Slide In, Bottom-Up” to bring in the bottom half, and the opposites of these two for the exits. Drag and drop the transitions you want onto the fades for both images’ events.

And that’s one way to create a custom transion in Vegas using a still image. Start there and experiment with different images, more complex Bezier masking, and other Vegas transitions. If you were following along, you should have something like this: