Dear all, welcome to this tutorial dedicated to the newest VEGAS Pro 19!
This video editor is one of the best products for both amateurs and expert
users looking for a powerful and professional tool to realize videos,
slideshows or visual corrections with effects, color grading, great text
templates and loads of nice transitions. It is available for Windows only.
Check our video description to visit the official website and get special
offers with us!
When opening VEGAS this starts with your latest project in progress. You
can click on New Empty Project to start with a new one.
The interface is dark and made by several useful panels on the left, the
Video Preview on the right and the project Timeline at the bottom. You can
also close any panel and reopen it by going to View, Window.
To import media files drag and drop these on the timeline directly. You
may need to wait for a quick installation the first time you import .mp4
and .mp3 samples. All these files are shown as blocks called clips or
Events, collected within rows called Tracks, whose color is also used to
recognize their own clips.
Visual content such as videos and images are collected inside Video Tracks
with useful frame thumbnails; whereas Audio content such as music and
speech inside Audio Tracks with volume waveforms for each stereo channel
during time. Zoom in and out on clips with your mouse wheel.
You can open the Project Media panel to retrieve all your imported files
and also open VEGAS Capture to record from any webcam, desktop screen or
microphone source.
The Video Preview is very useful to check the timeline content. This shows
the project where the main playhead is placed in time. Click over the
timeline to fix its position and either check its frame or playback in
real time from such point with the player.
By default the timeline and the player use seconds as unit but you can
choose frames and other formats by right-clicking on the timeline.
Below the preview you can check the video resolution and frame rate for
both the project and the preview. The project is referred to the final
video; whereas the preview is related to the Video Preview above. Go to
Project Video Properties to adjust the project options by picking any ready
template or defining another with custom size, frame rate, audio sample
rate and so on.
On top, on Preview Quality, you can also set the preview quality,
especially in case you get lags or it is too much for your computer or
graphic card specifications.
To get an immediate preview click and drag above the timeline to create
a blue Loop Region that moves the playhead in time where you like, without
playing any audio. The same region selects a portion of the timeline that
you can put in loop with Loop Playback at the bottom, as soon as the
playhead enters such region.
On the left you get several Track options, affecting all the events
collected inside each Track. Use the Mute (M) button to disable an entire
track, muting any audio or hiding any visual content. Whereas enable Solo
(S) to disable all the other tracks except the current one.
Adjust the opacity level of Video Tracks with the Level bar and the
volume level of Audio Tracks with its dedicated bar. Use the Panning bar
to balance the left and the right stereo channels.
Audio Tracks also include a deciBel meter showing the output volume level
in dB. Make sure to always get it below 0 to avoid any form of distortion.
To create new Tracks or duplicate, remove or rename any just right-click
on these.
Now let's see how to work and edit the events inside the timeline.
To start editing any clip you can enable the Normal Edit Tool and click
on it to select it. Then move the clip by clicking and dragging it in
time or in other Tracks. When moving videos with audio frames and audio
content move together, unless you press the U key to ungroup and make these
independent.
Whereas enable the Selection Edit Tool and click and drag over multiple
clips to select and move these together.
The Video Tracks set the order of visibility in case clips overlap in
time: all the clips placed inside a top Video Track are shown in front of
all the other ones in lower positions.
You can cut, copy and paste any selected clip with CTRL and X, C and V
respectively. You may also remove clips fast by cutting these.
If you do this with any loop region present only such part will be affected.
You can also split any clip by placing the playhead and using the S key.
Remember to use CTRL+Z to undo if you make any mistake.
To adjust any clip length click and drag its edges. This cuts part of its
content if you make it shorter and puts it in loop if you stretch it, every
time you see a grey marker on top.
Whereas if you drag edges while holding down the CTRL key you change the
clip length by acting on its speed rate rather than its content, becoming
faster if you shorten it and slower if you stretch it, avoiding any loop.
This 'time-stretch' won't change the audio pitch by default, unless you
right-click on the clip, go to Properties... and enable Lock to stretch.
Zoom in on any clip to get advanced options for it. Pull down the blue
handle to adjust its opacity or volume level uniformly.
On the right side click on Event Pan/Crop... to open the Video FX
window, used to correct the visual clip appearance and apply effects to it.
On top you get the effects chain, showing all the effects applied to the
clip. By default you always get the Pan/Crop effect applied, showing
the clip size and placement over the project as a dashed 'F' rectangle.
Click and drag it to move it, use its nodes to resize it and drag outside
it to rotate it while checking the Video Preview. You can resize with Lock
Aspect Ratio to zoom in and out on the clip or disable this option
to crop it instead.
To add other effects click on the fx icon on top or the one on the clip
itself. VEGAS Pro 19 now includes a license of BorisFX Primatte Studio,
a very professional tool to get the best from blue, green screens and
chroma keying.
To learn more about Primatte Studio, please click our link in the video
description.
By default VEGAS includes powerful effects such as Blur, Lens Flare,
Bézier Masking to mask clips or effects, automated Motion Tracking and
outstanding Color Grading to apply professional color corrections on the
clip lowlights with Lift, midlights with Gamma and highlights with Gain.
It also includes color wheels, LUTs, color curves and HSL sliders. We
won't see these effects in detail in this video.
As you select the effect from the list click on Add to add it to the
effect chain above in order, from left to right. Then click on OK and
select the effect to open and edit its properties while checking the Video
Preview live. You can also enable and disable each effect by clicking on
its button above.
VEGAS includes audio effects as well, such as delay, chorus, EQ and much
more.
Besides the effects you can also add transitions to introduce, end any clip
or to go from one clip to the next one smoothly. Click and drag from any
clip corner to add crossfades that change the clip opacity (or volume on
audio clips) in time. You can also edit its envelope by right-clicking
from its edges.
From the Transitions panel you can also import outstanding visual
transitions that you can drag and drop on any clip edge, crossfade or
between two clips. Then click on Transition Properties.. to adjust its
options and drag its edges to make it longer (slower) or shorter
(faster) in time.
You can also add great static and animated annotations from the Media
Generators panel, inside Titles & Text. Drag and drop any template inside
the timeline to create a text clip that can be moved and edited just like
a standard visual clip. Then click on Generated Media... to adjust the text
content, its font family, size, style, color and transparency and apply any
animation, background or any outline or shadow effect. You can also move
and resize text from the Video Preview directly.
Make sure to save your project often with CTRL+S. VEGAS projects are saved
with a .veg format that can be reopened any time.
Whereas to render and export your video go to File, Render As... Select
the main format on the left and the correct template on the right. You
can pick MAGIX AVC to export and upload on YouTube in a .mp4 format and
MP3 Audio to render just the audio content.
Go to Customize Template... to edit the selected template and make a new
one that you can rename and save.
At the bottom set the destination Folder, the video name and go to Render
to start rendering! VEGAS Pro exports the whole timeline content, until the
last clip ends. You can render any specific part by creating a loop region
over it and enabling Render loop region only inside Render Options.
Thank you very much for watching this tutorial! Do not lose our special
links in our video description to discover VEGAS and get nice offers!