Retouching videos with Vegas Pro 9.0

SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 provides us with the possibility of adding to our video editing, details that will enhance the final product. These actions are easier to do than what the average user thinks, thanks to the tools that SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 offers. Next we’ll see how to know the properties of the videos we are working with, divide screens and add security bands.

SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 offers multiple ways to know the video properties. The simplest is clicking with the secondary button on the file on the timeline. There it will open a menu in which we’ll have to go to the option Properties, click on it, and it will open a window with three tags that will give the information about the media that is active on the timeline.

We can also know the properties of the project we are working with and modify it if necessary. To do it, we have to click on the icon that we can find on the pre-visualization monitor area on the top left part, to open the project properties’ menu. There we’ll find all the information about the project.

Divided screen

As we said before, SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 allows us to put two video sequences together to do a parallel editing, what will let us put two different videos on screen.

The easiest way to do this is adding two videos on top of the timeline in two different layers and delete the audio from one of them so they don’t collide with each other or delete it from both of them and add an external audio track on a new layer (see guide 1 to know how to open files). To ungroup the sound+video joint, we must select the file, press the U key and ready. Subsequently we choose the audio to be deleted and we do it. Once we’ve decided which audio to use, we click on the panoramic view / cut icon that we find on the video file queue and a window will open. Scrolling down the mouse, we’ll zoom out to work better. Next we need to escalate the image but contrarily to what we want to see on

Retouching videos with Vegas Pro 9.0

the preview.

In this case, to shrink the image (as we want two images to share the screen) we need to enlarge the image escalating it so it shrinks on the preview monitor. Actually, what we are doing here is not enlarging the image but the focal area. To move the image to a side, we grab the focal area and we move it to the contrary side to where we want to place it on our project.

Once we’ve chosen the size and location of the video, the same procedure is done with the other video, and we now have a way of doing a parallel editing with simultaneous images, an alternative to the classic that is done through direct cut.

Movie effect

Another option that SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 offers is the one of adding security bands to simulate the cinema format or simply to delete undesirable objects that we have in the raw cut. To do this we need to go to the area where the tools are located and choose the media generator folder> Solid Color and pick the color black, to simulate the cinematographic bands. Attention!! These generated media must be always on the first layers, because what we need is to step on the audio file.

Retouching videos with Vegas Pro 9.0

Once the two medias were generated on two new layers, we’ll go on and create the bands. To do it we need to enlarge, taking one of the edges of the file, to the generated media until we get all of them have the same length as the video file. After we’ve done this, we need to go to the option panoramic view / cut that is located on the queue of the media generator and click on it. A new window will open, in which you need to move up the focal area on one of the generated media and down on the other.

To have a true reference of the bands size we can activate the security area to help us. The final result of our new video will be the following

To add, retouch and adjust a trademark, the same logic is used with the difference that instead of generating a media, you must open a media on one of the upper layers.

As it can be seen, achieving almost professional results for the amateur users, but with a certain level of knowledge about SONY Vegas Pro 9.0, is really easy!!

Retouching videos with Vegas Pro 9.0

First steps to edit videos with Vegas Pro 9.0

SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 has gained a favorable position as one of the most used digital video editor programs by professionals on the industry. But beginners also use it, as if they know the basic use (load a file to be edited, make cuts, transitions and export videos) they’ll be able to edit their own audiovisual pieces.

To start editing with SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 we need to load the file/s which we want to work with (the program calls it media). To do it, we need to go to the File menu, choose the option open, and there we need to select the desired file. Once opened, the media will appear visualized on the media explorer, on the pre visualization media and on the timeline.

Once the file is open, we’ll do a cut to a transition on it. Cutting our videos is important because they give rhythm to our story, as well as determining the length of the take. On this guide, we’ll do two types of cuts: the direct cut and the cut by transition.

To perform a direct cut with SONY Vegas Pro 9.0, we’ll use two different medias and we’ll indicate how to edit them to be able to do an alternation of shots through cuts. On the file that can be seen on the upper image, we have a video that shows us the actions of a random game; on the one below, we have the stand. To alternate these two files through direct

First steps to edit videos with Vegas Pro 9.0

cuts, we’ll select pieces of one file and chose, using the timeline cursor, the moment where we want to cut the action. Once we have the cursor on the desired moment, we just need to select the S key and the software will let us know that the cut was successful because the part that follows the cursor will be colored.

Once we’ve finished with this, we need to do the same with the other video and start alternating the different pieces of the files to perform the cuts and add rhythm to our audiovisual through editing.

First steps to edit videos with Vegas Pro 9.0

The other type of cut is the one by transition, which unlike the direct cut, implies a mixture of the shots that we want to edit using fade in and fade out and has another narrative purpose. In order to do it with SONY Vegas Pro 9.0, we just need to select the pieces we want to make the cut by transition with, and add one on top of the other on the same layer. There will appear on top of the representation, blue lines as in shape of waves to use them to control the length and speed we want to give the transition.

Now the last step that we can see is the one of processing our audiovisual. To do it, we must select the piece we want to process using the time cursor, and then go to File and open the option render. The window of the option will open, and we’ll need to name our file, select the location where we want to save it and which video format we want it to be processed.

First steps to edit videos with Vegas Pro 9.0

Once we click on accept, we need to wait until SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 renders the file so we can see our piece of work finished.

Sony Vegas: an excellent option to edit digital videos

The evolution of video digitalization brought as a consequence video editing to be handy for everyone who wants to do it and counts with a camcorder and a system powerful enough to run the video editing programs. Among them, we find one of the most popular available in the market: SONY Vegas Pro 9.0.

SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 interface isn’t any different to other digital video editing programs, what makes the user experience very intuitive and anyone with basic knowledge on this subject can use it. SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 works with layers, what allows you to work audio, video and texts separately, and comes with professional quality filters, which will optimize the audiovisuals’ final result if we are amateurs or it won’t disappoint if we are professionals.

In SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 interface we can find three well-defined zones. The first one is the editing tool, where the different tools to edit are organized in contextual folders. Among them we can find: project media tab, that shows us the medias (files) that we are working with; explorer, to navigate through our computer or the net to which it is connected to look for files; predetermined transitions, useful doing the different cuts among the different takes; video effects, to add different predetermined filters to sublimate or make corrections to the images colors; the media generator, that allows generating key stills, inserting texts, creating final credits similar to the professional movies ones through the creation of a new layer digitally produced.

On the left we can find the preview button (a monitor) that lets the user visualize the evolution of his work in real time, without the need of rendered images. This option gives us the possibility to know properties of the project we are working with, as well as enabling the connection with an external device (editor monitor, tv, etc.). Furthermore, this pre visualization tool allows you to have different quality previews, to see the list with all the predetermined video effects that we have available, and shows us the security area we have to work with, or divides the screen in grids. It also lets us select any half of the screen or capture the still we are visualizing and save it.

On the lower area of SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 interface we can find the timeline and the different layers -audio and video- we are working with. On the timeline it is simple to recognize the files we have on each layer, as its representation form is clear, being the video layer represented through stills and audio layers through sound waves. SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 also offers a timecode for the audiovisual project we are working with. On the left we have a window that displays the different layers, with their properties and the possibility to rename them. On the right part we have the timeline, where we can see the progression of the editing and the different pieces of the files we are using. Below this, we can see the controllers on the left part of the screen and on the right part we find three time indicators that are: the cursor position, the final selection on the timeline, and the total time of the selection. Below the layers window we can see a speed control of the cursor reproduction.

SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 doesn’t consume too many resources from the system when it’s running, although to take major profit from all the possibilities SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 gives us, we should have a powerful computer, with a good video card. The requirements to install SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 are: to have as operating system Microsoft Windows XP 32 Bits, Windows Vista 32 or 64 Bits, a 1 GHZ processor, 1 GB RAM memory, OHCI board-compatible i.LINK® connector/IEEE-1394DV card, among other technical requirements. Sony Vegas gives the possibility to work with different video formats in our projects, among the most popular DV and the new HDV and export to DVD, MPEG 4 and VCD formats, to name a few.

Without a doubt, one of the weakest points of SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 is that its trial version is only for thirty days of use and to be able to use it, we need to provide the company with registration information to obtain the key activation order to register. This application contains very powerful tools, what puts SONY Vegas Pro 9.0 on an optimum place as regards other programs of its class, being chosen, not only by amateur users, but also by professional video editors.