[Mikeyt086]

Hi guys, sorry if this is in the wrong place, I thought I would get the best answer here.

Basically, I'm editing together a video of Ireland's Euro 2012 Qualification campaign, and I have my clips trimmed and put together, but when I try to add an effect (warm vignette to be specific) the clips become choppy, particularly when transitioning from one clip to another and the music skips a bit, as if my computer is struggling, although I don't think it is. Is there something I'm doing wrong? How can I add the vignette and keep the clips running smooth?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[ScumLord]

Do you know it's not struggling somewhere? If you have windows 7 or Vista you can turn on a desktop gadget that will tell you the activity of the CPU, graphics card and ram. I'd guess your running out of ram as the most likely culprit.

I don't know about vegas but in after effects you can reduce the resolution of the files to a half or quarter while your working on them to reduce slow down.

[Average-Ro]

It does sound like your computer is struggling Mikey; and I'm not surprised it's during the transitions as transitioning between two clips with effects added is tough on the CPU in real time.

Try this; highlight a section with a transition (simple click and drag) and then hit shift + B. This renders the highlighted section. See if it plays smoothly.

(I use Sony Vegas Pro 10, so these shortcuts should be the same)

Let us know if that works; if not, I'll have another think....

[Mikeyt086]

Originally Posted by Average-Ro

It does sound like your computer is struggling Mikey; and I'm not surprised it's during the transitions as transitioning between two clips with effects added is tough on the CPU in real time.

Try this; highlight a section with a transition (simple click and drag) and then hit shift + B. This renders the highlighted section. See if it plays smoothly.

(I use Sony Vegas Pro 10, so these shortcuts should be the same)

Let us know if that works; if not, I'll have another think....

Thanks for the tip, that's a cool little trick I didnt know. So I tried it and it does not play smoothly, it goes choppy, then speeds over the next parts to compensate.

[ScumLord]

What are your system specs? It really does sound like a resources issue so you have to eliminate that possibility first.

[Average-Ro]

Originally Posted by Mikeyt086

Thanks for the tip, that's a cool little trick I didnt know. So I tried it and it does not play smoothly, it goes choppy, then speeds over the next parts to compensate.

No worries, I've been using Vegas everyday day for the last two and a half years and I'm still finding little helpful hints and shortcuts.

Maybe try rendering a section out and play it to see if it's still choppy there?

Do your project settings match your footage? (right aspect ratio, pixel width/length etc) You can use match media to make sure.

[Mikeyt086]

Originally Posted by Average-Ro

No worries, I've been using Vegas everyday day for the last two and a half years and I'm still finding little helpful hints and shortcuts.

Maybe try rendering a section out and play it to see if it's still choppy there?

Do your project settings match your footage? (right aspect ratio, pixel width/length etc) You can use match media to make sure.

The project settings match up alright, I'd had no problems up until I went to add the effect. Even when I take the vignette off, it runs fine again. So what I'm going to try is to render out the video without the effect, which should be a smooth video, then bring that back into Vegas and add the vignette, hoping that it being one big file with no transitions means it doesnt slow down. I'll report back when I've done it.

Thanks for the help again guys.

[Average-Ro]

Does a rendered out version of the video WITH the effect still have that choppiness?

[Mikeyt086]

Thanks again for the help guys, I'm sorted now. I just rendered it with the effects and the choppyness was gone. It was just my computer struggling.

[ScumLord]

Originally Posted by Mikeyt086

Thanks again for the help guys, I'm sorted now. I just rendered it with the effects and the choppyness was gone. It was just my computer struggling.

There may be ways around that, Average-Ro will be able to tell you better than I can but in after effects there's a drop down under the main viewer that reduces the resolution of the displayed video putting less stress on the PC, there are also all kinds of hardware acceleration options that could help by being turned on or off depending on your hardware.

There's also setting that controls how much ram after effects can use but overall rendering out the effects and using the resulting video instead will solve your problem it just adds a time delay to the work process.

[Average-Ro]

As ScumLord said, there's an option where you can reduce the resolution of the preview player, this might make it run smoother when there's a few effects added.

It's in the video preview window, directly above the preview screen itself. It might read "Best (Full)" or "Preview (Auto)" or something along those lines. Maybe try changing it to "Good (Half)" or "Good (Quarter)" and it might play a bit smoother.

PS - When do we get to see this video Mikey? I had been thinking of doing something similar for the build-up to that famous "handball" match against France a few years ago. Never got around to it.