Happy New Year

I can't do anything fancy without my computer here, so I'm just leaving a simple Happy New Year. Have a good time for me, because I'm going to be doing absolutely nothing. I was supposed to spend the occasion with my girlfriend, but instead it'll be me and three other dudes watching movies.

So, for my sake, enjoy yourselves. :)


Also, I just wanted to say that my girlfriend has become a really good indication of how many people read the blog, because since she first left a comment a few days ago, her profile has gotten way more hits than mine has in the two months I've been here.. <33

>.<

Hasn't affected me? I haven't slept well in a week, and.. Well it's not like I'm going to rant about my personal problems here, Rachael. :( I think Brad and Elle have stopped talking to me because they're sick about hearing about it. Hah.. :o
And I bought you a present. I obviously can't give it to you, but uh.. it's the thought, right? :)





Uh...
Anyway. I'm getting on a plane in four hours. So assuming I traverse the nation safely without falling from the sky, I'm sure I'll have nothing to do and will find something to blog about, so I guess it's not really much of a vacation for you guys. I just wanted to say Happy Holidays! <3333
I wish I had a holiday movie for you guys as a present.. But, I don't. Soon, though. Promise.


Oh, uh.. And Kurai, who left a comment on the post below this, is my girlfriend. She's a very important part of my life. She's also a little insane. But I love her anyway.
Hear that? Love you.

Hokay, so..

Alright, so just a few things before I disappear for the day..

Tomorrow I'm heading to my parents house to spend the holidays with them and the rest of my family, so I won't be able to do much of anything while I'm there. I'll have access to a computer so you'll see me a little bit, but in terms of creative work the most productive thing I'll be capable of doing out there is to eat some snow.
DELICIOUS SNOW!

Hopefully Tosan will figure out this blogging thing and he'll be able to throw you some holiday nuggets.


Edit:Let me know if you like the new look. I'll throw up a side banner later if I get more time. <3

Edit:Apparently Soos is releasing another movie tomorrow. His blog seems to indicate that it's a new Unlimited Escapism, but has he had enough time since his last one to even complete a new one? Who knows, the man is a machine. Anyway, keep your eye open for his holiday gift to the machinima community. <3

Tosan added as a Blog Author

So Tosan, of Tosan 3 and Renataki Twins fame, and I have been in cohorts the past few days. I've added him as a blog author, which means that now you get to read the worthless meandering thoughts of two PvPers instead of one.

Anyway, expect posts by this chap.

Ooooh.

This is probably old news to some of you, but Myndflame is planning on releasing the very, very long awaited Escape from Orgrimmar on December 31st, 2007. Good news.. I just hope that with the recent release of TotP3 and the fame other authors have gotten in Myndflame's absence that it doesn't come back to haunt them.

Saru & Tharbad

I'm going to throw up a quick review before I forget what's rolling around in my head..

Two German frost mages from Nathrezim EU released a mage/mage 2v2 arena video that proved to be instructive and, just as important, entertaining.

The commentary is not vocal, but instead can be found at the bottom of the screen. It's done in an unabtrusive way, though, so it's still easy to follow along with the action while reading the commentaries.

While not all of their opponents played perfectly, the fights still had an epic feel to them (the Resto Druid/SL Lock fight at the end of the video was fucking perfect). These guys also had no problems pointing out the mistakes that they made, which is something I have a lot of respect for and is something I wish we saw more in arena videos as people may find it easier to learn from a player's mistakes.

And while the music was nothing you haven't heard before, it was executed flawlessly.
Oh, also, the arena action was spiced up with a bit of machinima that was sometimes awkward but still made me lol.

All in all, great fucking movie with very little critical response from me. <3

Edit: Oh, and ONE thing I forgot to mention earlier in the review is that they use both perspectives in the video, which is pretty much the coolest thing in the world. Granted, Saru's computer isn't as good as Tharbad's and it shows, it's still great to see both members of the team dedicated enough to making the movie that they're willing to go through the effort of sending multiple gigs worth of information through teh internets. It can be very annoying. :)

Again, great job guys.

GC releases a new video

GC of BG9, one of the best Shamans in the world, threw together his second video. Jasi has a nice review of it over at GameRiot, so I'll spare you the little details and just link you to the review.


From a creator's point of view, the movie is a piece of shit, as are all high end arena videos. ('cept for those made by Tosan, who is our hero.) But then again if you don't find the fights interesting as they stand alone then you probably have no idea what's going on and shouldn't be watching anyway.

So for those of you who care, enjoy.

No Blogging Today

Just a quick update for you guys.. This will be the only blog post today, because I'm working on a very last minute entry for the WarcraftMovies.com Christmas contest.

Last minute as in we decided to start last night and got like.. nothing done at all, so I have to enter super mega Dance editing mode right fucking now and throw something together.

HOWEVER, even if we don't make the deadline, the movie WILL be finished and you WILL like it, you cheeky bastards. :P

Blogisode #2 and Tosan is a Dork

Alright, I finished another blogisode and decided that it'd be something I'd start doing on a regular basis. Mostly it's composed of clips I've gathered that make me lulz IRL.

The production quality of this one is nonexistant because I'm rushing a project that I intend on finishing tonight.


Also, Tosan, whose recent pvp video I reviewed a few days back, is a dork and makes me lol. <3

GameRiot

GameRiot is basically an esports BlogSpot. Esporters ranging from players of WoW to Call of Duty throw up blogs there to talk about whatever the fuck they want.
Most of the time this has little to do with esports, because as it stands, GameRiot also happens to be a fucking drama cesspool.

Its bloggers are massive black holes, each one attracting an army of Naruto fans who only play Rogue and argue about the most RETARDED SHIT EVER (there was like a 50 post argument about the smoothness of Sangria).

Personally, I'm fine with arguing about stupid shit. I argue about stupid shit all of the time. That's because I am not, at the same time and in the same place, trying to bring an entire underground movement to the attention of mainstream audiences. These are some of the people trying to make the CGS a household name, but I think they're more likely to just reinforce current gamer stereotypes.
Not the fat one, Halo killed that one for FPSs years ago.

I'm sure that there are other corners of the internet which do a better job representing the gamer image, but for the most part, nobody at GameRiot seems interested in doing that.

I mean, I love drama, so I pretty much troll the GameRiot blogs all the time. But if I were serious about furthering the esport cause, I'd go elsewhere in a heartbeat.

There are a few gems, though. Serennia is doing a stand up job of remaining articulate and drama free, and I really look forward to more posts from him. It's also really nice to read a blogger who isn't Rogue or anti-Warrior. :)

Be Glad We Aren't Playing Runescape

Venick found this video for me:




My favorite part is when he zooms in on the.. things.. on the right, all meaningfully. What the fuck does that even mean?

Is this how people feel when they watch WoW videos? No wonder WoW esports isn't hitting it off.

Ding

Wiggles demands your recognition.

Sometime Today?

I also wanted to bring up a video that I hope most of you have already seen, "10 Paladins vs Karazan". The video's title explains its premise: 10 Paladins take on each raid boss in Karazan. Not usually the type of movie I'd be into, but the editing and music selection for this pve flick are so phenomenal that since its release it has quickly become one of my favorite WoW movies.

The movie is in Chinese, which makes the beginning sequence a little wishy washy, but the humor in the rest of the video transcends language, making this pretty much exactly how I would do a PvE video. :D

Culture Club Strikes Again!

A creative streak hit me tonight. I can't really divulge what I came up with, but I can tell you that a lot of the material I want to do for the movie is finally coming together.


And is the title of this blog post so nonsensical? Maybe. Maybe not.

I MADE THIS 4 U

I got bored and threw this together. There was some screen tearing in the raw footage for some reason so I couldn't really use this in a movie or anything, so I decided to share it with you guys.



I don't know if this stream is going to be any good, I'm testing it out. Just watch it on Stage6.

Anyway I'll try to do stuff like this more often. It doesn't take up much time and it's nice to be able to give you guys the stuff I'd usually toss.

Edit: This stage6 embed works great for me. Just start the stream and double click to blow it up to what it was rendered at. That's pretty fucking cool imo.
Let me know if it doesn't work for you.

Edit: Now that I've figured out the stage6 embed, I uploaded the Grind montage I made a few weeks back to stage6 and reembedded it on the site. Here it is if you haven't already seen it.

100k

I'm 700 downloads away from hitting the 100k mark on SWD3! :3
That'll be nice.

Anywhay, I've been slacking in terms of movie production the past few days. I've pretty much just been dickin around and doing 2s with Armadeous or getting zerged down in AV. So I'll try and edit together something, just to give the project a little momentum. Maybe the WCM promo. <3

Too many cliiipss

Ugh I keep forgetting to filter out the fraps clips I take. I have to sift through all this stuff for footage I want to use. ><

Tosan Twos: Renataki Twins

To break the emo mood in here, I'll go ahead and talk about something that gives me back some hope for this game: Tosan's Rogue/Rogue 2v2 video, Tosan Twos: Renataki Twins. This is such a perfect arena movie, a great example of how to apply editing to the kind of movie that is usually better off without.

Their Rogue/Rogue combo definitely breaks the monotony of the usual 2s groups, and it's so fun to watch this level of coordination. They swap targets on a moments notice over and over again and watching them chain cc is like watching a fucking coordinated dance. One of those crazy ass ones you'd see at Cirque du Solei. Fuckin.. crazy damn clowns.

If you haven't seen it yet, do so. And if you haven't spent all of your skill points for the week, I suggest you throw one his way.

And honestly, the movie is just one more piece of proof that the right kind of comedy will always be the staple of a good pvp video.

Edit: And according to his numbers, he should have Hall of Fame. I don't know why he doesn't. But damn him for beating me to it. :(

I Miss the World of Dancecraft

The World of Dancecraft is a term I use to describe the game I played pre-70. Where I'd just run around like a fool in level 60 pvp gear and a pointy hat and kill people all day. Nobody had resilience in the World of Dancecraft, or flying mounts. Nobody had any reason to farm 9000 gold, and the only member of the Horde was me. The World of Dancecraft was worth my 15 dollars a month. The World of Dancecraft was a fun video game.

More and more, I realize how different the World of Dancecraft is from WoW, the game the rest of you people were playing, the game I regret logging into now that I'm 70. In WoW, the shadowpriest is a non-functioning class unless resilience capped or fighting people who aren't entirely sure what resilience is.
I know it's pretty cliche to complain about the game.. people have been doing it since beta and people will always complain about the game, but that was something I never really did. I always found some minor enjoyment in it, something to make my time spent in game worth it. I really never used to have anything to complain about!

I miss the days when I'd log on and go hunting in Auchindoun or whatever other area was three levels too high for me. Now I log in, I queue up for AV and I just sort of run around like a retard hoping to catch some 1v1s. Sometimes I do, and that's a lot of fun.. until I realize I'm not playing The World of Dancecraft anymore and gear this bad doesn't, can't, cut it.

I imagine that high end arena is fun. I mean, it definitely looks like it. Personally, I don't think I have the knack for it. I know I don't have the gear for it. I've been working hard the past two months, trying to get caught up. I don't feel any closer, though. I mean, I realize that this is an MMO, and that you have to work hard to get to where you want to be. That doesn't make the grind any easier. Or more entertaining. And this makes me sad.

I promised you guys a pvp flick and you'll get one, I'll hold myself to that. I'm not quitting or anything.
Just saying.

/emo
:(

Macro win!

I swapped almost all of my spells/abilities to mouseover macros. Meaning, if I have one chump targeted and I mouseover another chump and hit, say, DIE, then I will cast said spell on the moused target.

Makes silencing and dispelling way easier and more entertaining. Anyway, here's a screeny of the macro list I had to set up. It took forever to find all those god damn icons.

PvP Action! (or not)

I've been really slacking in the PvP department lately.. I could blame finals or my girlfriend but in reality I've had a whole lot of free time lately and I just haven't been playing. I get burnt out easily.. I mean I quit for like four months after I finished the third flick. I don't even play as well when I'm forcing it..

I feel guilty about it because I need to get stfx some footage before break starts. Maybe some magic will happen tonight. :(


Edit: Wow. Mission failed. All it took was one AB for me to remember how much I hate this game. I'm not going to log on for a while or risk giving up on myself and you guys, which would be not good. I already released a trailer. No need to pull a Pathologist.

Tales of the Past 3

Throwing up a quick review of TotP3 before I go see No Country For Old Men. I say quick because there isn't much to say about this flick other than that it is fantastic. I know it's not a pvp movie, but my band of interest doesn't have to be that narrow, right?

Anyway, if you can see yourself sitting through an hour and a half of WoW machinima, you should get on it. And if you can't see yourself sitting through a machinima that long, I suggest you go and rate it a 5.0 anyway, because if I could rate it again I would and now you can be my proxy.

Martin Falch, the author and man who worked on it for a year and a half, deserves a lot of credit. I don't know how other authors feel about the movie, but I can't imagine this flick not raising the bar to some kind of ridiculous height unreachable by even the tallest of men.

Also, I thought this was funny.

I was going to post some of the prettier framegrabs but I've got to head out before movie starts and buy my girlfriend something nice.

I don't think she reads the blog...
I hope not.



Damnit.

Must Have Hall Of Fame

Go go relentless downloading!
So close.

WTF and Interface folders

Because I know people are going to ask about my UI once the trailer hits WCM, I went ahead and uploaded my WTF and Interface folders to Filefront.

The link can be found here.

Anyway, I don't know much about replacing your folders with someone elses.. But I believe I have it right. If I don't, let me know so I can fix it.

• First, replace your Interface folder with mine.
• Then, somewhere inside the uploaded WTF folder you'll find a folder called "Your Account Name Here!". Change the name of that folder to the name of your account and pretty much just replace the folder in your own WTF folder with that.
• Then go further into the WTF folder and replace the folders named "Your Server Here!" and "Your Character Here!" with the names of your server and characters respectively.
• You'll have to copy and rename these folders for each account, server, and character you want to use the UI on.
  

I have no idea if the above explanation is right. So back up your WTF and Interface folders before you go fucking with them. Setting that stuff back up is a pain in the ASS.

Also keep in mind that I play at a resolution of 1022x612 widescreen. All of my UI was scaled accordingly so if you play at like 1200x1024 and you change back to that after installing the UI and it's butt ugly, you'll just have to adjust the scale and positions until you get what you want.

I really don't know enough to answer any of your questions.. So if you see someone confused in the comments here and can answer their question, please do. I'm 'tarded. Anyway, here's a quick picture with an explanation of my current UI. I think some of it has altered since I took this pic, but for the most part this is right on.



If you just want to know what my addons are without downloading them:

• ag_UnitFrames
• Quartz (for my castbar and the enemy castbar)
• CooldownBars
• Natur Enemy Castbar (debuffs underneath target health)
  
• TrinketMenu (not in the pic)
  
• Bartender 3 (the bar mod doesn't really matter to me, since I hide all my bars by default)
  

Collaboration

Last month, I made a post about a movie called Velocity, done by stfx. I really enjoyed the movie and after being contacted by him, we've decided to go halvsies on a pvp flick. By halvsies I mean that I'm going to send him some pvp footage and he's going to edit together something in his own unique vision.

I'm really excited to see how another author approaches my play style. I'm giving him carte blanche; all I'm providing him with is footage, he'll take care of the editing, the music, the publishing, everything. This movie is his baby, and I'm really excited to see what comes out of it.

Anyway, this is why I have no footage set aside for SWD4. I know you guys want me to get on it, and I'd love to.. but with break coming up and my girlfriend flying down in three days, the few days of PvP I have left before winter break are not conducive towards movie making.

The least I can do is send stfx my footage before break starts. I promise I'll get on my own once break ends. <3

Shadow Word: Trailer

Trailer up and running! I did less editing with it than I thought I would. The WCM promo was all that I bothered to do in After Effects. Anyway, you're getting this early because it won't be uploaded to WCM til later.
My treat to you!

A few things: None of the clips seen in the trailer will be in the actual movie. Mostly because I just used what I had frapsed that afternoon, and not all of it is something I'd use in a video. Also, 90% of the footage in the trailer was taken in AV, and that is, again, because I've been AVing a lot lately and I just grabbed footage from the last few days. The trailer is like 16 megs, so you can download it here or just stream it off Stage6.

Also, let me know if there are any issues with any of the streams or downloads. You'll be the first to try and I can fix any issues before this hits WCM. Muchos gracias.

Edit: I have 0 clips set aside for SWD4. I'll explain that in the next blog post. Anyway, that is why all the clips in the trailer are from AV and also why I won't be using any of them in SWD4. I know it's sort of a tease, but life is sort of a tease. Deal!
Much <3.>

Trailer Incoming

I know I forgot to throw you guys a post yesterday..! But I have not been idle. I couldn't sleep last night, so I started on a project I had hoped to have done by this Saturday, the trailer for SWD4. I'm not usually one for trailers but this fell into place so nicely that I can't help but be excited about it.

Anyway, I finished the vegas cut about ten minutes ago. I'm going to go arena with Armadeous for a bit but when the servers go down early tonight I'm going to take the Vegas cut and throw it into After Effects and finish it up. I dont' know how well it'll go, but assuming it fits together as well as the original cut did I should be done by the end of the night. <3

Here's a picture of the work I did in Vegas, in case you're curious. =)

THANK YOU FRIENDS

I have no moral quandaries about being a charity case. I think resale shops and those little free samples they give out at super markets are awesome!

But it isn't until my friends, for no reason at all, decide to give me thousands of gold and devote hours of their time for me that I start to feel guilty. Laiyne gave me 2k gold (WHY LAIYNE WHY) and Arma spent most of his day farming mats for my flying mount. That's right, I didn't have a flying mount.

Don't make fun, because I could probably kick your ass.
/soothe

I've nicknamed my new shadow choppa Sasha. Look at those curves.. /moan


Thank you guys.
xoxo

You Can Celebrate By Buying Me Grenades =)

By the power of some crazed digital god, my monitor has managed to fix itself. In response, I've spent most of the night in AV eating Night Elf corpses and wasting grenades. Already though, I've got some good material and what little creativity I have is in full swing. I can't promise a movie anytime soon, but SWD4 is officially an active work in progress.

What I can promise is that I'll be out looking for fights when I'm not blogging here or turning tricks to raise money for engineering.

Movie Update

Just to keep you all in the loop about the movie, my break starts on the 15th, but I won't be playing much. Or at all. I'll do my best to get some editing in between now and then, but with finals coming up I can't promise anything.

I've got the soundtrack down, minus a few elements I want to throw in. I'd love to edit together one of the promos or the intro, but I won't be getting any frapsing done, not with this monitor. =)

I'd have sex with Drewbie.

To keep myself held over until the next glorious episode of The Grind, I passed an hour or two by making this vid of all the greatest moments from their first four episodes.
While it was mainly for the enjoyment of my roomate and I, now you can have fun too!

I claim zero credit for the entertainment you are about to receive!


Also, if you have no idea what I'm talking about, you can start enjoying all four episodes of The Grind here.

Go Go John Goodman

I'm a little out of the loop, but apparently the WB is making a Speed Racer movie. And here's a trailer out of worstpreviews.com.

WHAT THE FUCK. Speed Racer was lame when I was 8, how do they intend on making this work now?

The ONLY way this movie could pan out is if John Goodman is Speed Racer.

Holla!

I was fucking around with After Effects, trying to get a solid grasp on the thing. I made this. I don't think it's very good, but it's a start, so I'm going to go ahead and upload it anyway. =)


Edit: I fucked around with the layout. Mainly, I just rotated the human and the camera, changed the color of the lighting, added a glow and changed the blur. Then I took it into PS and threw in some splatter. =D

It's not perfect, but in time..!

Answer him, damnit!

So I finished one of the first stages in the process that is creating a SWD movie. That is, I picked out the music tracks and cut them much shorter than their orginal length.

I can't tell you why I do this, because usually I wind up using longer versions. BUT, it's definitely an integral part of the process. <3

The tracks get cut (which usually takes about 20m for a given song) to about a third its original length.. Then I render the song and send it to my girlfriend or my brother or whoever happens to be on MSN and have them check for continuity. If they can't tell where it's been edited, then I win and move on to the next track.

This is one of the more fun parts of editing for me. There are a ton of subtleties involved in audio editing, and it's a lot of fun picking apart songs like this for patterns I can use to string together pieces of the track that are originally minutes apart. :D

Note, the track on top is not cut. I was going to fuck with it but I realized it was a perfect length already. =)

It's harder than it looks. =(

Also, I finished the first part of the basic Vegas tutorial. I still intend on covering video effects and the pan/crop menu in greater detail as they're both very important aspects of pvp video editing. I also added links to the tutorials I've done and will do in the future on the right there. <3

Oh, also, if there's anything you feel needs clarification (in the Vegas tut), let me know. I'm not always crystal about whatever the fuck I'm talking about.

back, again

I'm using a friends monitor. It's much smaller than my old one, but it's better than nothing.. Anyway, I'll finish the vegas tutorial over the next few days.

broken again

My monitor broke. Bad luck? Yes.

How 2 Maek A Moovie - Video in Vegas Part 1

There are two important editing aspects to the making of any high end pvp flick; video and audio.

This is a short tutorial on video editing using the WCM standard video editing software, Sony Vegas.
I'm currently using version 8.0, but it's similar enough to its predecessors that if you have an earlier version, you shouldn't have any trouble applying anything I speak about here.

Keep in mind, these are going to be some very, very simple concepts. But it should be enough to nudge you in the right direction.
Also, I am no Vegas guru. For the most part, everything here is self taught and thus likely flawed. Feel free to comment on anything you feel should be altered or included. If you have any specific questions, I can try to help.. But I make no promises that any of this is pertinent, efficient, or useful in any way. :]
Also, you'll have to click on most of these images to see them fully.

New Project
Creating a new project is obviously the first step. Most of this is self explanatory, but a few things are important and should be noticed. Before you create the vegas file, keep in mind the resolution you're frapsing at (see How 2 Maek A Moovie - Frapsing). If you're not entirely for sure what the dimensions of your footage is, you can check by right clicking the frapsed clip, going to properties and the summary tab. Like this!

Anyway, just be sure to set your Vegas file properties to match the dimensions of your frapsed footage. Otherwise you get skewing and loss of quality and letterboxing.
There are also a few other things to note.

I've pointed out the important things here.

• Project frame rates of 25 or 30 are standard.
  
• Changing your Field Order to Lower field first will make actually working with your material a little bit easier, however note, change it back to Progressive Scan when you render. Nobody ever ever ever wants to watch interlaced movies. Ever. Hear me? So if you're going to forget to change it back to None (Progressive Scan), don't bother changing it to begin with.
• Keep your pixel aspect ratio at 1.00.
• And again, don't forget to set your dimensions to those of your frapsed footage!

General Layout
If you've never worked with Vegas before, then I'll just throw up a quick layout explanation. I expect most of you who are interested have at least fucked around with the program and know this much. Skip this if you haven't literally just downloaded Vegas.

Vegas 7.0 uses a slight variation on this layout, with the timeline at the top and the media manager/tabs and the video preview on the bottom. It really doesn't matter, you get the idea.
For those absolutely lost:

• There are two kinds of tracks in the timeline. Audio and Video tracks. In this picture here, the top most track is an audio track, the middle track is a blank parent video track I use for parent Track Motion (not usually used in pvp videos, so ignore it), and the third track there is just a standard video track with two clips in it.
• The video playing in the top right is for previewing purposes. It allows you to see the changes you've made to your clips. Keep in mind that if you throw any effects onto the clip (blur, color correction, etc), the clip will not play at its full speed, because Vegas has to render the changes as it plays. Still, an obviously necessary tool.
  
• In the top left, we have the primary way we interface with our clips and with transitions or video effects. The tabs at the bottom of this window are pretty self explanatory.
  
• Under Project Media, you'll find the video and audio clips you have ready to use in the video as well as stored media Vegas has had to generate (like texts or gradients).
  
• Under Transitions, you'll find simple preset transitions (like fade to black and wipes).
• The Video FX tab contains the bread and butter of over-the-top Vegas editing. We've got the awesome TV Simulator along with some things that are actually useful, like the Chroma Keyer and Color Corrector (if you haven't already moved on to After Effects for these things).
  
• Any of these Video FX or Transitions can be applied to clips in the Timeline by simply dragging the effects onto the clips. You can apply the Transitions to the clips by dragging the transition to the end of the clip you wish to use the transition on. If you have two clips laying right next to each other in the timeline, you can also drag the transition onto where the two clips meet and it will automatically use that transition to flow from the first clip to the second. Neato.

The Timeline
This is where you'll spend most of your time in Vegas. It's a pretty simple concept, actually. You've got a string of video clips and audio clips that play from left to right. Just transition your clips, throw in some effects, and then osnap you have a pvp video. Honestly, it doesn't get much more complicated than that. Still, we're covering the basics here, SO...

Alright, so I'll explain each of these things:

• The mute button disables both audio and video tracks.
• The solo button disables all BUT the tracks selected as solo. This works independantly for audio and video clips. Soloing a single audio clip will mute every other audio clip while soloing a single video clip will mute all but that video clip. It's lovely!
• The volume and pan sliders obviously adjust audio volume and panning (as in, noise coming out of your left or right speakers)
• The video fx button (the thing that looks like the puzzle piece in the lower right hand corner of the clip) opens up the video fx menu. I'll go into the menu later, but it's where you go to alter any video fx on the clip. Also, it changes color from this grey to green if an effect has been applied to the clip.
• The pan/crop button (it's above the Video FXbutton and look like a, uh, crop button) opens the pan/crop menu. This is a very important menu that allows you to alter the position, size and masking of each clip. Because the menu has a timeline of its own, this allows you to move any clip you'd like across the screen. This is also how you zoom. I'll go more into that later.
  
• The composite mode button allows you to change the way in which that entire video track interacts with the tracks below it. Useful for overlay effects.
• The blue line on the first video clip represents opacity. This blue line can be drawn down by mousing over the very top of the clip until your mouse changes to a hand. Drag down to lower the clip's opacity for the entire length of the clip.
• The green line is the clip's velocity envelope. By default, the velocity envelope is hidden but can be brought up by right clicking the clip, going to insert/remove envelope, and clicking velocity. This is the method by which you control the speed of a given clip. You can add keyframes to the velocity envelope by holding down shift and clicking on the line at a point on the line. This allows you to speed a clip up or slow it down (or reverse it) when and how you want to. :) Like this.

Now that we've gotten that out of the way..
The general idea behind the timeline is this:

String video clips along from left to right by dragging them onto the timeline. You can drag the clips around and connect them end to end, like they are in the picture above. Then you string along audio clips in the same way. Throw on some effects by dragging them from the Video FX tab mentioned above or by clicking the little puzzle thing also mentioned above.
Here are some simple things to keep in mind, however.

Vegas makes fade ins and outs very easy. If you're simply fading a single clip in or out, you can drag the top left (for fade-ins) or the top right (for fade-outs) corners of the clip. Drag them in towards the center of the clip and you'll see something like this:

See the blue line on the left of the clip? This represents a fade-in. Mouse over the corner of the clip until it changes to the Fade offset indicator (looks like a quarter circle with an arrow pointing left and right). Drage the fade offset indicator to create the fade. Right clicking the Fade offset indicator opens up the menu you see here on the right. This allows you to change the fade type.


Simple fading transitions between two clips are easy to do, as well. Set up a fade transition by grabbing one click and dragging it into another. The familiar blue line will appear. You can mouse over until you find the the fade offset indicator and use this to adjust the length and type of fading. Now, you can also go to the Transition tab near the Video FX tab and drag a transition onto these blue lines here to create a transition of that that is the length of the current fade transition.

Now, for navigating the timeline.

By clicking anywhere on the timeline, you move this blinking little line thingy to that position. This line thingy sets the point at which your video clip plays when you hit the space key.

If you click on the empty space in the timeline and drag, you create a loop region. Assuming you have Loop Playback activated (it's the swirl button at the bottom of the timeline), this sets up a region that, when you hit the space button, will loop continuously.

A few more useful things to know: Using the mousewheel zooms in and out on the timeline with the timeline marker as the focal point. Holding Shift and using the mouse wheel allows you to travel to the left and right along the timeline.

back

Yeah, it was my hard drive. Fortunately I had just backed everything up because my intent was to reformat. The problem didn't crop up until I tried. Good news, though, the hard drive I purchased is a good deal bigger than my old one. Which makes frapsing a lot less stressful.

Anyway, carry on.

Also, I'm going to work on getting another movie tutorial out today. But no promises. Expect one this weekend, though, if anything.