How (to what event) have you added the FX? I mostly add the Graffiti FX to an empty event... rather than adding it to an actual existing video or other event.

Do you have another event above this event (on another track) that is
"blocking" the event you are trying to "activate" the Graffiti FX on?

I know that may be a little difficult to follow... but there is a definite issue that will cause this exact problem. Hopefully I have described it sufficiently.

Bottom line... Try adding an empty event to a track (on the very top) and then add the Graffiti FX to that event. Position the cursor within the event and than click to launch the graffiti FX.

Hope that helps.

Thanks Liam,

No luck. I even opened up a new project and put one video track with an empty event on the timeline and added Boris. What a piece of junk!

Marc

BG is not junk. For me it is "Grazie-Interface-Challenged" or a GIC. I've tried. HONEST! Plus, others have tried to help me.

I still can't get the idea that although it is a plug-in, I can't keyframe a Vegas video; I can't supplely time or synch BG stuff to Vegas. I could do stuff outside of Vegas and then render and bring in. But this is NOT my idea of a plugin. IMHO, Satish's stuff is plug-in; Ulti-S is Plug-in; Excalibur 4x is plugin; etc etc etc . .. Where does BG get the plug-in thing?

Question: When does a Plug-in become standalone software?

BG is verrrry powerful. I just wish I could tap into that power. I've now had it for 18 months.

I need a DVD on BG3 - JUST BG3! Not Red or anything else.

Grazie

Like Grazie... I agree the BG3 is definitely lacking in how it truly integrates as a plugin.... but nevertheless the very basic problem you are having is not something I am experiencing. It should not be happening... it does not happen to me. If it did... you can be sure I would be agreeing with you. Something else is going on. Boris support is pretty good. Just call them... or even submit a support incident via their web site. Quite amaziningly you will often get a phone call back from them .

Make sure a video preview window is open and the cursor is above the event on the time line. If the video preview window is not open you get this error.

Hope that helps

Thanks Michael and everyone else,

It turned out I had the effects bypass button pushed on the video preview window.

Ok I stand corrected... BG is not a piece of junk. But I agree that as a plugin it is sorely lacking in the way it integrates with Vegas. Boris says this is because of the way Vegas handles their plugin arcitecture. In my view a plugin within an NLE that does not update to the monitor until you exit the plugin is severly limited. Why can every other NLE do it and not Vegas?

Marc

Why can every other NLE do it and not Vegas

Good question.... I wish I knew the answer.

I would buy BG in a minute if it worked in Vegas as a regular plugin should. It would solve many problems with the current Vegas text tool. But the way it works now makes it very tedious to sync audio/video and adjust video/text timing.

Marc

"It would solve many problems with the current Vegas text tool. "

. . and that, StormMarc, was exactly the reason I bought it . . huh!

Grazie

Now, y'all do know about the open up another copy of Vegas, frame serve the desired area, run Boris as a plugin in the 1st Vegas, then open up the frameserved avi in Boris and turn off the track with the 1 frame preview- that trick, right? That way you get an active preview rather than 1 frame and when you're happy you just turn off or delete the frameserved track, turn the 1 frame track back on, and hit apply.
Still not what I call a plugin either and does take a little longer than using Boris as a standalone, but at least you say the final rendering until the end and if you have a graphics card with open GL acceleration it might be an excellent choice.

"Now, y'all do know about the open up another copy of Vegas,"

" frame serve the desired area, " me?!? Grazie?!? You kidding?


" run Boris as a plugin in the 1st Vegas, then open up the frameserved avi in Boris and turn off the track with the 1 frame preview- that trick, right? " uhuuh?


" That way you get an active preview rather than 1 frame and when you're happy you just turn off or delete the frameserved track, turn the 1 frame track back on, and hit apply. " . . .good!


"Still not what I call a plugin either . .. . " AHA! There you have it!


" . . and if you have a graphics card with open GL acceleration it might be an excellent choice. "

All this is "Juggling Eels" !

Yah wanna come over to London and DO this for me? - When I buy a Plug-in I wanna Plug-in! Period! OR at least something that isn't going to show up my deficiencies as a numbnutz . .. yeah?

Seriously, I really wanted a DVD showing me how to use BG3 and set this up with Vegas - c'mon Spot, Gary, Tim . . et all . .OR at least tell me a good BG3 DVD?

Plug-in?

Grazie

Okay, affraid you lost me a little bit there. Did my explanation of the frameserving thing get lost on you? Am happy to try to explain again if so.
The training dvd that Boris recommends is not the one they make but the class on demand one by Chris V (forget his full last name). It's good as a primer but is not very in depth.
Boris has great potential, but you're damn right that it sucks as a 'plugin'. I dare anyone to try to do a credit roll with it. I experienced more bugs than a folorida swamp in august. God forbid you try to render out an uncompressed avi longer than a minute or so as it's unreadable. Another bug.
Chris V is supposed to be a Vegas user though, so perhaps there is hope.

Musman - the frameserving is something beyond my abilities.

Chris Vadnais (?) and yes, he has tried to help me. Great guy . . he had a lot of patience for me.

I want BG3 [ huh now 4? ] to work and work sweetly. It aint .. I should move on. Wait until V7-8-9-10 for a text tool.

Grazie

Honestly, if I can figure out frameserving than anyone can. I am not good at all with figuring out that kind of thing. Give it a shot. It does come in handy for a number of things like 3rd party programs (Boris, After Effects, etc) also I find it sometimes helps mpeg2 renders with they are preformed from an uncompressed file (which frameserving is). The difference b/t the mpeg2 results in my first short (made to look like an old Charlie Chaplin movie with scrtaches and sped up motion etc) was incredible.
Try it.

Could someone please give a blow by blow explanation on how to frameserve, haven't got a clue.
Mick

Do you mean how to download and install it or how to use it? Do a search and post back here if you can't find what you need and I'll be happy to do my best.

Ok . . count me in . . . .

I did try Frameserving sometime back but did not really see the value for me. But if it gets me further with BG3, who knows where it will take me?!?



Q1 - Why Frameserve? - I read the brief Satish intro to this and I'm still in the dark.

Q2 - What does it mean?

Q3 - What are the advantages?

Q4 - How does Frameserving get me Previewing of BG3 into a Vegas clip for synching?

Q5 - Please explain your Charlie Chaplin thing in more detail?

In summary, is Frameserving a kinda Bridge between NON-communicating software packages? Being ludicrous here, I'm not serious, but would it kinda be like getting AVI into MSWord?!?

I need to understand/appreciate the "philosophy" behind using this to see the advantages. Can I frameserve a Vegas AVI to QT? To Premiere? To TMPGEnc? Is this the idea?

Basic way forward would be for me to install FS and choose : File>Render as> Frameserve . .yes? Then "Open" this signposted file in BG3? Yes? . . Or is it the other way around? BG3 to Vegas? - You see, I need to understand the "flow-charting" of this and the "why" - please?

I'm trying, really!

Grazie

Frameserving is like making an uncompressed avi file instantly. It's almost too good to be true, but keep reading. There are drawbacks.
Gracie, if you've gotten that far you're pretty well there. Once you have it installed in Vegas make a region around the area you want to export or the whole project if that's what you want and go render as- debugmode avi. Here I rename the file to something that says debugmode on it just so I can find it more quickly. Anyway, just pick a place you want this 'signpost' file to go and click 'save'. You're then given some setup options. I choose RGB 32 and don't mess with anything else (but check with Satish's forums to see if you should use RGB 24 or the YUV options). But RGB 32 has always worked for me. Then just click next and your 'sign post' file will be created where you designated it.
Lots of reason to frameserve. If you're doing work in something like After Effects then you often have to have uncompressed avis from Vegas for it to work properly. Believe me, I wasted days trying to figure out what was wrong with clips I rendered out of Vegas as regular DV25 avis until I learned AE needs uncompressed files.
With regards to the Charlie Chaplin movie, I found with all the fx and speed changes that I had done that rendering mpeg2 files caused artifacts. Most notably they occurred during fades. However, these problems disappreared when rendering from uncompressed avi files.
Another advantage of frameserving is you can open that uncompressed file you sent out of Vegas to any program that can open avi files. So yes, Boris, After Effects, TMPGEnc, Premiere, Procoder, even another copy of Vegas- all should open these files. And, you don't have to wait for Vegas to render out an uncompressed file as frameserving does it instantly. Also, when you get done with the work you need to do you just stop the frameserving from Vegas and you will have lost no space on your hard drive, very nice considering we're talking about uncompressed files here.
So, what are the drawbacks? The frameserved file is probably not as responsive as as an uncompressed avi rendered out normally from Vegas. Depending on your computer's power, you'll have to run your own tests. I know I figured out it was actually a little faster for me adding the rendering times to render uncompressed from Vegas, open that file in Boris, then render uncompressed from there again than it was to frameserve and render uncompressed in Boris. Haven't done tests with mpeg2 renders (like to procoder, etc), so that might be different. Also, trying RGB 24 might speed up the responsiveness.
If you use Boris, then try this route with frameserving:
1- Save you veg file
2- open up another copy of Vegas and open that file
3- go back to 1st project and add Boris as a filter or plugin. Boris will open
4- go back to the 2nd project and frameserve the clip you added Boris to as a filter in the first project
5- In Boris, add a track then open the frameserved clip into the track
6- turn off visability of the 1 frame preview from the 1st project
You should now be seeing only the frameserved clip which should be exactly the same clip as the 1 frame, only the whole clip and NOT 1 frame.
7- Do whatever work you want to do using the frameserved clip as the model for your work
8- When you're satisfied with you work, turn off the visability or delete the track with the frameserved clip. Turn the 1 frame visability back on.
9- Hit apply and everything should open up again in Vegas.

Give it a try and let me know how you do. Also, where di you find Chris V? Been looking for a forum where he haunts.

Pppphooarrgghh . ..

“Frameserving is like making an uncompressed avi file instantly. It's almost too good to be true, but keep reading. “ It doesn’t actually “make” an uncompressed file – yeah?

“Gracie” Grazie! !


“Once you have it installed in Vegas . . “ . .will it do something nasty in my Register? Please don’t tell me I need to muck about with that too?


“Then just click next and your 'sign post' file will be created where you designated it.” - So the signpost file ISN’T an uncompressed file, it is just a file containing “what to do next” – as it were!

”Lots of reason to frameserve.” – I’m starting to see the options for BG3 – are there any advantages while within Vegas? I don’t use AE. But I do make BIG uncompressed for say compositing for text WITH retained transparency - any good here for me?

“Charlie Chaplin movie” - Ah! I’ve noticed when I’ve needed to make a small and petite MPEG1 for competition - the “dissolve-through” can be riddled with artefacts. I just fiddled with rates and the like. You saying I could, in this scenario use an uncompressed avi from F/S and this “might” improve matters – neato!

“And, you don't have to wait for Vegas to render out an uncompressed file as frameserving does it instantly. “ NOW this is the thing I find gobsmackingly difficult to take on noard. I can have another s/w USE something that has not been created? It just uses this sign post file? Is it that the FS is making each and every “frame” (?) when and only when it needs it? For the other s/w? Kinda AVIs on the fly? So, I guess the FS will obviously NEED the original AVI toremain “dormant” on the HDs somewhere for FS to happen?

“Also, when you get done with the work you need to do you just stop the frameserving from Vegas and you will have lost no space on your hard drive, very nice considering we're talking about uncompressed files here.” . . very weird . . excellent. .but weird!

“The frameserved file is probably not as responsive as as an uncompressed avi rendered out normally from Vegas.” Meaning? If it hasn’t been created then it would be kinda making the file up as it goes along? Yes/no? Maybe this is why it isn’t responsive?


“Depending on your computer's power, .. “ ASUS 4P 2 gig RAM 3.2gHz? Good enough?


“If you use Boris, “ . . thank you for the “flow-charting” I have BG3. As yet V6 doesn’t see it in its Video FX, like V5 did.

I need to get BG3 recognised by V6 – uh!?


”Give it a try and let me know how you do.” Many, many thanks!


“Also, where di you find Chris V? Been looking for a forum where he haunts.” Is this the chap?

http://www.borisfx.com/stories/archives/vadnais.php

He was either on the COW or DMN? Can’t find him now on either. . . maybe my low level searching criteria. Spot will know!

Again, thanks for your patience,

GraZie - (lol :) )

My bad, Grazie. Dyslexia boy is terrible with names. You're lucky I got the 'G' right.
I'll try to answer. No frameserving causes no problems to add and use in Vegas. You're safe there.
I really hate what I consider unnecessary terms, which is why Mac products piss me off. Again, dyslexia boy is no good with names and doesn't think with them. So sign post means absolutely nothing to me and I think it's a confusing term. I consider it an uncompressed file made on the fly. I say it is less responsive b/c uncompressed files rendered normally out of Vegas render faster in programs like Boris or After Effects than frameserved uncompressed files. Guess there has to a a trade off somewhere or this would be just magic.
Now, I have 3 year old p4 2.4 and frameserving works fine with me. I was only saving I didn't know what kind of results a faster computer than mine would have when comparing frameserving vs uncompressed renders from Vegas. I suspect though that what I found (that the later method actually is faster in the long run) will be true on other set ups as well.
By the way, some people do very elaborate fraeserving techniques. Like a whole project out of Vegas into another copy of Vegas and out again to Procoder, etc. There was a discussion about it some time ago. Probably all I would do as far as this goes is frameserve to another copy of Vegas for mpeg2 rendering. Rather than playing with the rates, I find this solves the problem straight away.
Good luck! It only sounds hard!