After trying like 4 different video programs (Adobe Premiere, Camtasia Studio, Final Cut, even Windows Movie Maker), I finally went and toke the advice of the Doin' Stuff commentary and got Vegas. And it's just as you said Mike, it truly is the ultimate program! At least when it comes to video editing...havn't gotten a single error in it yet, unlike all my other video editing programs...

So I figured, you've been using it alot more than me, and alot longer than me, so you have any tips on using it that you won't get just be starting up? I know I had a really hard time figuring out how to cut videos in half...so any tips in using Vegas Mike? Also are you able to import layers into Vegas (as in keeping the translation around the image)?

I remember first learning to use Premiere. I hated it.
Now I love it.

I wouldn't really know where to begin on general tips...way too much ground to cover. If you run into specific questions, I can gladly help. You can have as many video layers in Vegas as you want, transparencies and alpha channels in-tact. However, if you have a layered Photoshop file, you can still only manipulate it as a single layer - no importing it as separate layers like you might in After Effects.

-Mike

Thanks for moving the topic into the right place, Mike... *hits head*. So if I want to make stuff like a 3D object appear as part of the video, I'll still need to go to After Effects to edit it I assume?

But wow, as many as you want? I mean, it's highly unlikely I'll be putting over 5 videos at once without putting it into After Effects anyways, but still...

I've also been meaning to ask. After watching the movies (mainly Doin' Stuff 5) so many times, is the reason because the video quality between the normal editing and the special effects are different from each other? Such as how the special effects parts of the videos would look abit more darker and not in the same frame rate as the other parts? Or is it because of transfering over to Barry that changes the quality of the video?

Any shots that go through After Effects always come back looking slightly different. There must be a difference in the way AE outputs avi's, I don't really know. But I have always noticed that you can pick out an AE shot pretty easily when watching our stuff.

And yes, if you have a 3D object that you want to manipulate in 3D, you'll have to use AE. You can scale objects as well as animate them on the x and y axis, but that's all.

-Mike

Mike sends me a link to the avi file which I download to add effects to.
It's approximately 30fps (Should be 29.97) and I also notice it looks smoother in framerate than the edited video. I add effects using a composition at the native resolution of the video and framerate of 29.97 (NTSC). So I'm guessing also that it must just be the way After Effects export avi files.

As for psd files they are compatible with all adobe programs, so any layers in the file can be used across all other adobe programs.

That Adobe thing makes a lot of sense, so I'm abit surprised that file from Maya, made by Autodesk, works pretty well as IFFs or PSDs for Adobe projects.

It's too bad Vegas can't do very special effects, but this is why we have After Effects anyways. Still, I'm very pleased with Vegas and the quality of the video it produces...without lagging on the player too. And when I compress it, it still looks very good...

Speaking of Vegas...did you guys hear about Vegas Pro 9? Looks quite promising.

There's a Vegas 9 now?! And I just got Vegas 8 too...