multicam editing

[booggerg]

I'm going to be attempting my first multicam(2 cams) edit in Vegas. I've typically been doing it in XpressDV. My workflow has been to lay the uncut footage from both cam on top of each other, sync them up, and then cut off from the top layer whenever I want to cut from cam to cam. Can I do this in Vegas? Is there a razor-type tool in vegas where it lets me make In/Out cuts on the top layer and then easily select the in-between segment and punch it out?

[David Jimerson]

Yeah. The S key is your razor tool, but be sure to select only the top track for it.

Or, select the area you want to eliminate as a region, and hit "delete" -- one-step process. But again, make sure you only have the top track selected.

[MrBeaker]

Yes, I Just got done editing a theatre play were we had two cameras going. i did exactly what you are talking about. I put one camera on the top layer and the other on the bottom. I then sync the two cameras up on the time-line so everything matched up. When i wanted to use the top image i just selected the point i wanted it to start and hit the "s" key (split). then went to the point i wanted it to end and hit the "s" key agian. When doing this i had to make sure that when i hit the "s" key that it split both of the layers. After i did that i selected the bottom layer and deleted it. (dont worry about the footage when you delete it form the timeline, the original is still in the midea pool. :) ) After i deleted the bottom layer i took the top and dragged it down to the bottom. it really does not matter if you drag it down or if you just leave it where it is. When you render it out the layers will be combined together to make one layer. If i had a question about which layer i wanted to use, i would just hit the mute button so i could see the othe layer.

I hope this kind of answered your question :)

[Jive]

Vegas also has other workflows for multicam editing that many find very intuitive.

Firstly, there's a $75 plugin for Vegas called, Excalibur (link (http://www.vegastrainingandtools.com/plugins.html)) that does basically automates everything I'm going to explain below in a very simple and polished way. The plugin does a lot more as well, but if you do any amount of multi-cam editing, you might want to look into this plugin. At any rate, you can download the demo and test out all of it's features for 15 uses before it expires. You can't really lose by trying it out :)

Here's the basic workflow:
1. Lay footage from each track on a different track
2. Sync them up
3. Duplicate tracks.
4. Using the duplicate tracks, resize and position (using track motion for instance) so that you can see each track in the viewer simultaneously.
5. Play through the timeline.
6. Wherever you want a camera change, add a marker (M-key on the keyboard).
7. Now that you've got your camera changes laid out, you can either select/cut or drop-opacity of footage on the different tracks at the marker positions to get your multicam edit.

This may seem like a lot of work, but it's not really. However, multicam editing is not really my cup of tea. That's why I find the plugin to be far simpler to use; it auto creates the duplicate tracks with resized footage (resized properly for the amount of tracks that you're using), numbers every track so that you know what camera you're looking at, then as you play through the timeline, you set markers as if you were saying "go to cam 1, go to cam 2 with transition, etc.". Once you've set all your markers, the plugin automatically creates a new track of your edit, and you can still make changes to it if you'd like to. :)

Also, if you can do the edit in less than 15 calls to the plugin (it's possible to do it in only 2), then you could use the plugin for free! :)

...at least until it expires :)