Hi! Welcome to this video! We will see here how to use Sony Vegas Pro 13 in
a few and easy steps!
Leave feedbacks in comments to improve us.
Sony Vegas Pro is a professional video editing software, to create your own
videos or slideshows.
When you open it, a new, vacant project is opened. In the future, use the
New icon on top to open a new one from the start.
Let's see the workspace. On top you have the Menu bar, that lists all the
features this software has. A little below, there is the Toolbar, very
useful for its quick options. On top you can have different windows opened.
Each window has different options. We will see these during this and the
following videos.
These windows can be customized. Click on the cross to close them, or move
them dragging from the small points on a side. You can open windows closed
going to View.
At the bottom you have the timeline, where you will work on your video.
more at the bottom, other quick important buttons and the player.
First of all, you have to import files. You can import three kinds of them:
videos, pictures and sound files. All you need to do is to click and drag
them on the timeline. Files imported inside are also called clips.
These files are welcomed inside rows called tracks. The Video Tracks
contain anything visible, such as video frames, pictures and text. These
have a frame icon next to their position number, on the left. Then you have
the Audio Tracks, that have anything that can be heard, like music, speech,
or audio inside video files. These are recognized through a loudspeaker
icon on the left.
Vegas shows you thumbnails of the pictures and the videos you added, to
recognize them better. Audio files are shown through their waveforms
instead. Stereo audio files have two of them, one for the left channel, and
one for the right one.
Remember that, when you import files, you just add a link of them. This
means that, if you move the source files in another folder or elsewhere,
Vegas will lose the link, and the file will be shown as ''(Media Offline)''.
So make sure not to move the source files as long as you work with them!
You can zoom in and out the timeline using your mouse wheel. You will
always zoom around the playhead. You can also use the bars at the bottom
and on the right to move left/right and up/down.
While you are working with your video, it is very important the Preview
window. If you have it closed, just go to View and then to Video Preview.
This window shows off how your project is at the instant of time where the
playhead is. You can move the playhead simply dragging it by holding your
click on and moving.
It is more comfortable to use the Loop Region. To create it, simply click
and drag on a vacant part of your project, or above the timeline. The
playhead will snap to it and follows as long as you drag. In this case
sound is not played.
You can also use the player at the bottom of the Preview. In particular, if
you have created a Loop Region, the player plays just that region and
stops. Moreover, if you press Q or click on the Loop Playback icon, the
player will go on playing that region in loop. Click again to disable
the loop.
You can play and stop fast using your keyboard. If you use Enter key, you
will always go on after stopping. If you use Space key instead, you will
always come back to the starting point when you stop playing.
On top of the preview, you have different important options. Click on
Project Video Properties to set all the properties of your video project,
such as aspect ratio and quality.
If you want to know how to render in High Quality, watch the related video
in this guide. Use the second icon to watch the preview in Full Screen.
Then you can also choose the Preview Quality. Remember that, the better the
quality is, the slower your pc becomes. Put the right quality you
can afford.
If you have clips overlapping, it's always shown the clip that stays in the
upper track. So the tracks order sets the order followed by clips to appear
above others. You can change this order by clicking and dragging tracks up
or down, on the left.
Let's see how to work with the clips. You will mainly work using the Normal
Edit Tool at the bottom. New in Vegas Pro 13 are all the other tools listed
inside the arrow. We will see some of them.
You can select a clip clicking on it. Hold CTRL down and click to select
more of them. If you want to select a huge number of clips, activate the
Selection Edit Tool at the bottom, and click and drag to create a selection
area. All that falls inside it will be selected. Click elsewhere to undo
all selections.
You can move a selected clip dragging it on the left or right in the same
track, or in another track that can welcome it. If you have more clips
selected, these all will be moved together. Plus, if you move a video clip,
you will always move its frames and audio part together. But if you press
U letter from your keyboard, you will separate and make them independent.
In case the two parts are in phase no more, they will be both shown in a
light red color in the background.
You can change the length of a clip dragging it edges. If the clip has a
fixed duration, like a video or a sound file, it will simply looped over
and over. In the instant where a new loop starts, a small grey triangle is
shown on top of the clip.
In case you want to stretch a clip, without looping it over and over, you
need to trim it, that means making it longer in time by slowing its playing
speed. To do this, simply drag the clip's edges while holding CTRL down. If
you play the clip, it will be shown as slower as the longer it is. On the
contrary, if you shorten the clip, it will be played faster. A trimmed clip
is recognized through a jagged line between its thumbnails.
You can use also the Time Stretch/Compress Tool for this.
You can cut, copy, paste or delete clips right-clicking on them. You can
duplicate a clip fast dragging it while holding CTRL down. Remember that
you can undo any action done pressing CTRL+Z or clicking on the undo button
in the Toolbox. Approach the top side of the visible clips and drag more at
the bottom to make it more transparent. In Audio clips, this means to
adjust its volume instead, measured in dB. The opacity/volume level will
stay visible under a blue line. Hold CTRL down to move more carefully. You
can also change the opacity just at the beginning or in the end of the
clip, to make it appear or disappear. This is called transition fade.
Simply approach the top corners of the clip, and drag towards it. The
longer the fade is, the longer it will last. If you right-click on it, and
go to Fade Type, you can change its curve. The curve can change the ways
the opacity level evolves to make the clip appear or disappear.
Transitions are also created when you approach two clips enough. In this
case you will pass from the first clip to the second one in a smooth way.
In audio clips it's right the same.
You can add other amazing transitions in Vegas Pro. Check out the related
video to know how to add and manage them.
You can split a clip in two selecting it and pressing the S letter from
your keyboard. The clip will be split right where the playhead is. You can
also use the new Split Trim Tool at the bottom to do this action. If you
want to cut parts of a selected clip instead, create a Loop Region that
covers such part, and then right-click and go to Cut. Just what falls
inside the Loop Region will be cut.
New in Vegas Pro is the ability to apply a phase shift while you play a
clip. Just activate the Slip Tool and click and drag on a clip.
The clip does have two important icons on it, visible if the track is big
enough. These are important to apply effects on clips, such as zoom, blur
or vignettes.
To see how to apply effects on clips, watch the related video in this
guide. As we have seen, clips are inside Video and Audio Tracks. You can
create new ones right-clicking on a vacant space and going to Insert Audio
or Video Track. To delete one instead, right-click on the track where it is
not filled and go to Delete Track. Mind that this will delete any clip
inside such track.
On the left you have some options to manage these tracks. Remember that any
effect applied on a track will affect all and just its clips inside. So use
Level to set the right opacity in Video Tracks. In Audio Tracks, use the
Volume bar to adjust its volume, and the Panning bar for the balance
between the two stereo channels. Make sure that the dB meter never reaches
high red volume values, or sound will be distorted. Both kinds of tracks
share the Mute and the Solo buttons. The first one disables the selected
track, while the second one disables all the tracks of the same kind except
the one selected. A disabled track is, for Video Tracks, to be invisible;
for Audio Tracks to be muted.
When you are done, simply save your project pressing CTRL+S or clicking on
the Save icon above. Vegas Pro projects are saved as .veg, and you can open
them later when you need to edit your project again.
Thanks for watching this video! Check out the following one to know how to
export videos and how to get HD quality on them!