Script to have sony vegas automatically add media to a layer?

[poisondeathray]

I just had a peek at the vegas scripting SDK and API - it looks like it might be possible to detect

under "class VideoColor" , Public Properties it's possible to get or set , the R,G,B components as a float or byte value

Syntax:
class VideoColor

Public Properties: 	Summary:
Single Red 	Get or set the red component of the color as a float value.
Single Green 	Get or set the green component of the color as a float value.
Single Blue 	Get or set the blue component of the color as a float value.
Single Alpha 	Get or set the alpha component of the color as a float value.
Byte R 	Get or set the red component of the color as a byte value.
Byte G 	Get or set the green component of the color as a byte value.
Byte B 	Get or set the blue component of the color as a byte value.
Byte A 	Get or set the alpha component of the color as a byte value.

You can also ask in the Creative Cow forum if you don't like "filling out a shitty form" for the Vegas scripting sub forum

Good luck

[bigass]

Well, how about that?

So, maybe it's possible...somehow....eventually. If OP is a programmer, it might make sense to proceed. Otherwise, elbow grease and a lot of clicking will get those borders around the teleconference speakers' heads.

[poisondeathray]

I don't know about you, but filling out a stupid form is a hell of a lot better than wasting hours every week on tedious clicking

Below is the modified approach in avisynth, using the same conditionalfilter() idea posted earlier. (There are many variations on how you could do it in avisynth, for example you could do the overlay directly in avisynth, gscript to do multi conditionals instead of splitting into stackhorizontal calls ) . There are probably more elegant ways to use input variables instead of hardcoded values, but it's just a quick demonstration. The script and all the assets are in the .rar archive for learning purposes .

Assuming all your recordings are the same dimensions, setup, spacing - all you have to do is set it up once , then everything is automatic.

The pattern "holes" in your overlay design are too small, so the 4:2:0 chroma subsampling wreaks havoc in the output video example, but the animated gif is RGB

[supercain]

Sorry where is the Creative Cow forum? If that exists because it sounds as a sarcasm to me but i may be wrong. Thanks for the example with avisynth. There is only a problem, doing it like that wouldnt imply to encode twice? Because the frame placing is only one of many edits i have to perform on that avi in Vegas. Thats why i need to do it altogether in Vegas and encode only once.

[budwzr]

Hey man, that's not cool to bite the hand that feeds you.

The Vegas Forums are strictly moderated, that's why you have to fill out a form. Creative Cow is strict too. If you go into either, you should humble yourself a little or they'll bounce you.

Those two forums are the most likely places to get answers.

[poisondeathray]

Sorry where is the Creative Cow forum? If that exists because it sounds as a sarcasm to me but i may be wrong. Thanks for the example with avisynth. There is only a problem, doing it like that wouldnt imply to encode twice? Because the frame placing is only one of many edits i have to perform on that avi in Vegas. Thats why i need to do it altogether in Vegas and encode only once.

It's a legit website / forum. Probably THE original forum for professional video / production/ post production work circa 2001. (The webpage design looks about that old too LOL)

http://forums.creativecow.net/
http://forums.creativecow.net/sonyvegas

You can use a lossless intermediate for import into vegas (this will require encoding once extra, but no quality loss from compression), or use avfs to import the avs into vegas (this won't require encoding an extra time - it's a frameserver extension of avisynth - to vegas, the avs script will "look" like an uncompressed video) . For large edits and videos, I recommend the lossless route, because you can run into memory and instability issues

What kind of edits and manipulations do you have to do in vegas ? There might be an easier /faster workflow

[poisondeathray]

Looking at the documentation, Vegas's scripting is way way more powerful and flexible than other NLE's like Premiere, FCP... I was wrong earlier about it's limitations. It's not quite as comprehensive as AE's or avisynth (which is all script based) . But I don't have the time to delve into the syntax but it looks like it might be possible . Definitely ask at creativecow, and fill out the "shitty" form so you can ask at the vegas forum

[supercain]

So the creative cow forum whatever is the one with the shitty form? I didnt fill it out because honestly i couldnt get it right so i said fuck it and came here instead.

Ah, i just seen its not the same forum. Thats good. I will ask there and see what happens, thanks.

[poisondeathray]

Looks like your idea got shot down, and I misunderstood what "VideoColor" meant
http://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/24/974208

I take back my praise for Vegas' scripting...LOL . Just kidding.. it's still way ahead of other NLE's for scripting.

[Cornucopia]

Lossless DI AVISynth output or AVS Frameserving is still the simplest and yet most powerful way to go here.

Why are you trying to reinvent the wheel? Yes, you will have to learn some AVISynth. Sounds to me like you're already at the stage where you'd need to learn some scripting anyway (be it AVISynth or Vegas, AE, etc).

Scott

[budwzr]

I figgered Vegas scripting couldn't be "all that". If it was that well endowed, venders would use scripting instead of Openfx.

[poisondeathray]

You can still probably do a workaround in vegas like the one suggested earlier, if you're willing to compromise a bit on the overlay . Sure its not as elegant as the avisynth method, but who cares how you do it , if it saves you hours of tedious work per week

Recall that it wouldn't work "as is" because your replacement borders were thicker than the original "blue box" area . So a combination of chroma key (set to show mask only, so whenever it's "blue" that area becomes "transparent"), median or min/max filter to adjust the keyed area size +/- bezier masks on that track to set limits , and the replacement border overlay on a track underneath (actually an "underlay" in this case). The problem is the boxes & overlays are too close together, but if you modify them slightly it should work

If you upload a screenshot of the chat (you can blank out the faces if you think you or your friends are not "presentable" ) it will help to refine the technique or provide more specific instructions . It needs to show the exact sizes of the boxes , the background colors, the size of the overlay . All these little details affect how you might do this in vegas . There are a lot of things that can go wrong with this method - for example if you're wearing a blue/teal shirt, the same color as the outline blue box, so you might need to combine with masks.