Getting Started in Fan Videos with Sony Vegas Movie Studio
Make fabulous fan videos with Sony Vegas Movie Studio (or Sony Vegas)
Welcome to my next grand experiment! In this tutorial, I'm going to try to teach you how to create and edit fan videos with the popular (and moreover, CHEAP) video editing program, Sony Vegas Movie Studio. [UPDATE JULY 2010] This tutorial is for version 9 of Movie Studio, which still is being sold as Vegas Movie Studio HD (the cheap $50 version). Vegas Movie Studio 10 is similar in features and interface. This tutorial does not yet cover editing fanvids in genuine Blu-Ray HD quality, but after you've completed the lessons, you can find relevant HD vidding tutorials on my vanity site.
What's so great about Sony Vegas Movie Studio?
It's well-regarded in fan video circles: I call it "The Church of Vegas." (I'm just kidding, okay?) The enthusiasm for Vegas is quite remarkable. A lot of vidders swear by it, as do many professionals. You'll find plenty of tutorials for it on YouTube. It's got a lot of features for such a low price: (See above entry for "It's cheap.") This really is a main point for me, and a big part of what inspired me to write these lessons. For such a low price (and remember, it can be had for a lot less if you look for used copies) you can do so much. Is it easy to learn?There are many who say that Vegas was extremely easy and intuitive to learn. But there are also plenty of people who open up Vegas for the first time, and go, "Huh?" Its interface and its way of doing things can be foreign and strange at first. (I count myself as being one of the ones who was initially very confused.) But in my experience, if you stick with it for a little while, everything starts to "click" and you really get into the Vegas Groove, and then it's much better. |
About this Tutorial:
Contained within the lessons are some important (but often missed) details that all vidders need to know. I try to infuse bits of (hopefully) easily-digestable technical info throughout these tutorials. Sometimes you might be thinking, "I just want to get to the editing part. Surely I don't need to learn all this about [preparing my footage, codecs, whatever] just yet." YES, YOU DO need to learn it now. I'm trying to get you started on the right foot, by making you aware of vital information that you'll be glad you know later on. So please, just indulge me on this and don't skip any steps in the lessons.
And, it should go without saying, that you need to FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS. I try to be explicit, and will show you lots of screenshots to explain what to do. Please do not stray too far from the tutorials, especially at the beginning. Later on, you will learn of the other options and choices available to you.
A FINAL NOTE ABOUT THE DIFFERENT LAYOUTS OF VEGAS: This tutorial mainly focuses on Movie Studio (the cheapest version of Vegas), but if you have Vegas Platinum or Vegas Pro, etc., you can follow along as well.
Please note that there are two main default layouts for Vegas (Vegas Pro and Vegas Movie Studio). They're basically the flip side of each other (timeline on top for one version, timeline on bottom for the other). If I show you a screenshot that looks different from your version of Vegas, do not get distressed. Just keep looking, and you'll find the button or feature that I'm talking about in a different spot.
Okay, let's get started!
What you'll need for starters:
Sony Vegas Movie Studio Demo. Get the latest version Sony Vegas Movie Studio, or use any other incarnation Sony Vegas. Movie Studio, Movie Studio Platinum, Vegas Pro, etc. They'll all do. Aim for version 6 or above.
MPEG Streamclip. This is a powerful video conversion tool you'll need to convert video clips to a suitable format for editing in Sony Vegas. You can also make finished iPod files and HD files (suitable for uploading to YouTube). MPEG Streamclip has so many uses, and the best thing is, it's FREE!
VLC Player. This versatile media player will be useful for previewing the clips that you make. (Not every video file plays easily in Windows Media Player, but almost anything plays in VLC!)
Quicktime Player or Quicktime Alternative. If you have iTunes, you already have Quicktime. If you do not care to install Quicktime, you can opt for Quicktime Alternative. But don't install it just yet—go to the MPEG Streamclip site first and read the instructions under "Requirements" for installing and configuring a particular version of Quicktime Alternative. (Please note that some users may find that using Quicktime Alternative may disable apps like iTunes. Proceed with caution. For the most hassle-free results, hold off installing QT Alternative until you are aware of all your options.)
A Windows-based PC, with Windows XP or above (Windows 2000 if you have Movie Studio 6). One of the great things about Vegas Movie Studio is that it has low system requirements. But even so, for best results, you want to have something with a little punch to it! Aim for a PC with 1 GHz processor, and 512-768 MB of RAM, or more. But if all you have is something that barely meets system requirements, then that's okay. You'll just have to wait a little longer for things to get done. Read the full list of Vegas Movie Studio's System Requirements.
At least 20 GB of free disk space. (More is better.) Editing video is a disk space hog. There's no way around this. You'll be having to rip (extract the contents of) your DVD (that's about 7 GB) and then you're going to have convert the clips you'll need to an editable format. These converted clips also take up disk space. (Do not consider editing with those small downloadable DivX or XviD AVI files—these will not look good and moreover, can be unstable and "crashy." Read this page for more. Rest assured, we'll be covering video formats later in these tutorials.)
A DVD drive. Obviously, you need this to rip DVDs to get your clips. Some vidders get around the lack of a DVD drive by downloading clips, and you can do this also, if you have no other option. (But you'll still need to convert any downloaded clips to a better format for editing. And, you'll have lower quality overall.)
OPTIONAL DOWNLOAD: MPEG-2 Playback Component. $20 USD; you may need this in future tutorials (for converting clips from your DVD). There are workarounds that are free which will be discussed in the next lesson. I wanted to alert you early in that this $20 plug-in might be something that you'll eventually end up buying. (I recommend that you consider paying the $20 for the plug-in. It'll probably be the only money you'll end up spending for converting of your clips—all the other DVD ripper, converter and encoder software we discuss here is free of charge.)
On to the next page: Lesson One of Sony Vegas Movie Studio—preparing clips for editing, learning Vegas's features, beginning editing, & exporting an WMV file out of Vegas. >>
Go to Lesson Two (making your first fan video, for YouTube and sharing with your friends) >> (this tutorial depends on information contained in Lesson One. Do not jump ahead).