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Jimco Software Reviews - Sony Vegas 6 (continued)
Video FX
The Video FX window contains a list of the effects that you
can apply to video (or to still images) on any video track.
Effects can be chained as well so that you can apply them on top
of each other. In this sample clip,
we have altered the previous sample by applying two video
effects to the first scene (a sepia tone and a newsprint filter)
and a lens flare to the second scene. We key framed the
lens flare so that it moves with the image.
There's so much more that you can do with the effects included
with Vegas (including professional quality color keying or blue
screen effects) that we can't possibly scratch the surface
appropriately in this review. Your best bet for getting a
feel of the power here is to download the trial of Vegas from
Sony's Web site.
Media Generators
The Media Generators window provides a selection of colors,
gradients, color bars, text, scrolling credits and more.
The Mixer Window
The Mixer window is perhaps one of the most under-used features
of Vegas by many video producers. By default, you are
provided with a master bus that controls the audio for the
entire video, but you can add as many busses as you choose.
In figure 7, we have added two additional busses.
You'll also notice that we have labeled these busses Sleeper
and Cactus. This area of the mixer (often called
the scribble pad by professional audio engineers) provides a
perfect way to keep track of what each bus is for. (A more
common use of busses is to separate different tracks of audio so
that you can have full control over the balance between, for
example, drums and other instruments, etc.)
Figure 7 - Busses
In the insert part of figure 7, you can see that we've
assigned track 3 to bus A and track 4 to bus B.
Reassigning these tracks to a different bus is as simple as
clicking on the button (outlined in red in figure 7) and
choosing the new bus. Vegas allows you to add effects to a
single bus or to the Master bus. You can also automate
effects on any bus. The possibilities are just about
endless.
Speaking of sound, Vegas does provide full support for Dolby 5.1
surround sound. In figure 8, you can see a sample
of the kind of control you have for surround sound audio.
This is another of many areas where Vegas shows its
professional-level focus.
Figure 8 - Surround Sound
The Video Preview Window
The Video Preview window provides a real-time preview of your
video as you are editing it. In addition to a view of your
video, you can also overlay other features onto the preview
window. One of the most useful overlays is the "safe-area"
overlay. A computer screen does not display video the same
way that a television displays it. Because of that, the
position of captions, etc. changes when you look at your video
on a television after you've rendered it. The safe-area
overlay provides an outline of the area that should always be
visible on a television screen.
If you want to ensure that you are seeing what the final product
will look like, it's advised that you preview on an external
television monitor. Vegas provides this ability via IEEE
1394 (also called firewire) so that you can preview your video
exactly the way it will appear after you've burned it to your
DVD or printed it to tape.
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