New Photoshop and Vegas...

StormMarc wrote on 5/30/2005, 2:07 PM
The new Photoshop CS2 has output to firewire and opens some new possibilities for titling in Vegas. I've found that using the usual Vegas 655x480 image size however does not preview properly when sending to NTSC monitor from Photoshop. Here's a workaround.

Create a new image and select NTSC DV 720x480. Under the image>pixel aspect menu set it to D1/DV NTSC (0.9)

Now under the file>export menu set the Photoshop the video preview window image option to:

1. Aspect Ratio 4:3
2. Center
3. Image size - Do not scale
4. And check "apply pixel aspect ratio to preview"

Now you can either File>export>send preview to video device or to make it easier set it up as an action with a hotkey. This is nice because now you don't always have to switch back and forth between Vegas and Photoshop to check changes.

Now when bringing the title into Vegas make sure that once it's on the timeline you right click the clip go to properties and uncheck "maintain aspect ratio". Now it will look proper. Still a bit tedius but until Sonyfixes their 1980s titler or 3rd party plugin preview support it's another option.

Marc



Comments

kentwolf wrote on 5/30/2005, 9:50 PM
>>The new Photoshop CS2 has output to firewire...

That is the feature that put it over the top for me to upgrade.

Also, the one click red eye reduction is a HUGE timesaver. It also has some other cool things that I will never use...but they're still cool. CS2 is a very, very good upgrade.
StormMarc wrote on 5/31/2005, 1:13 AM
Yeah... Photoshop is such an amazing program. It just keeps getting better.
Paul_Holmes wrote on 5/31/2005, 4:34 AM
Sounds like a nice feature but not that much faster than having your photo-editing program and Vegas open, with the saved png or whatever on the time-line. I just alt-tab back and forth, make changes in the photo-edting program, save, then alt-tab back to Vegas and see the updated preview on my monitor.

The other nice thing about using Vegas to do the preview is that you can add various fx to see how that will affect the image, possibly saving some tweaking in the photo-eding program.
rextilleon wrote on 5/31/2005, 8:24 AM
Question--do you have to go to export--everytime you make a change to the image in Photoshop---I was working on a project and every time I made any changes to the image, I had to go rexport in order to see it on my monitor?
MUTTLEY wrote on 5/31/2005, 1:07 PM
I'm with Paul on this, it's just as easy to Alt+Tab back to Vegas to preview and doesn't do a lot to save time. I was stoked when I heard about this feature but File>Export>Send Video Preview To Device is just two steps to many. Considering Adobe is knee deep in the video business I don't see why they didn't push the technology so you could just toggle external preview on and off, now that would have me swooning.

- Ray

www.undergroundplanet.com
kentwolf wrote on 5/31/2005, 1:08 PM
>>do you have to go to export--everytime you make a change to the
>>image in Photoshop---

Yes. It is not constant updating like in Encore DVD.

I (custom) assigned the F2 key to do the export action.

This is faster than going through the menus to Export.
StormMarc wrote on 5/31/2005, 1:50 PM
If you make alot of fine tuning changes it's still faster to hit a single hotkey (F2) then to Cntrl+save and alt+tab to Vegas and then alt+ tab again to get back to Photoshop. Not groundbreaking but useful.

I personally would like to see something like Adobe's title designer in Vegas. Something that will actually update the changes while you make them, give you a full work area and complete control over text. Vegas is sorely lacking in this area and I was really surprised they did not address this in the recent update. Another year hope and waiting I guess...

Marc
Maestro wrote on 5/31/2005, 10:04 PM
>> If you make alot of fine tuning changes it's still faster to hit a single hotkey (F2) then to Cntrl+save and alt+tab to Vegas and then alt+ tab again to get back to Photoshop. Not groundbreaking but useful.

Not to mention that often times I'd have a PSD on the Vegas timeline, view it externally, switch back to Photoshop, make some changes, and then try to save only to find that Vegas had locked the file for some reason and I couldn't save it. I really like the external preview in CS2. It was enough to put my decision to upgrade over the top.

-Brent