User Manual

USING ADVANCED VIDEO FEATURES | 273
Working with still images
You can use still images for a number of purposes including slide shows, overlay graphics, and titles. You can insert still images into
projects just like any other media files. The default length for a still image event when it is first added to a track is five seconds (this
is an adjustable preference), but this duration can be modified by dragging the edges to create a still image event of any length.
Images cannot be looped, but share many characteristics with video files, including transparency. In addition, you can use many of
the same tools on image events that you can on video events, such as track motion, panning and cropping, and video effects
plug-ins.
Creating still images for use in Vegas Pro software
Many image formats can be imported, including BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, TIFF (requires QuickTime™), PSD (flattened), and TGA. If you
have the option to create PNG files in your graphics software, this is the recommended file type. PNG files use lossless compression
and can also include alpha channel information, which is one of the cleanest methods of creating transparency for overlays. an
alpha channel can automatically be detected, if present, in PNG files.
If you know your media file has an alpha channel and it is not detected properly, right-click the media file in the Project Media
window or an event on the timeline and choose Properties from the shortcut menu. Then, in the Media tab, select the appropriate
alpha channel type from the Alpha channel drop-down list. Premultiplied is the recommended setting. You can save this setting so
that the alpha channel is properly detected on other media files with the same properties.
For more information, see Setting custom
stream properties on page 289.
Correcting images for DV pixel aspect ratios
For best results when importing still images, create images that account for the pixel aspect ratio of your desired output format.
Vegas Pro software does a good job stretching images to fit the output format, but some distortion occurs if the pixel aspect ratio
for the source format does not match the destination format.
To calculate pixel aspect ratio correction, use this formula:
Output frame pixel width X Output format pixel aspect ratio = Still image pixel width
For example, this is the formula for NTSC DV format:
720 (DV screen frame pixel width) X .9091 (DV pixel aspect ratio)= 655 (pixel width)
Use these figures as a guide when creating images:
• Full frame, pixel-aspect-corrected still images for use in NTSC DV projects are 655x480.
• Full frame, pixel-aspect-corrected still images for use in PAL DV projects are 787x576.
Automatically cropping still images added to the timeline
Vegas Pro software can automatically crop still images you add to the timeline to match the project frame size.
Note: The alpha channel may not be automatically detected in TGA images. Right-click a TGA image in the Project Media window
or an event on the timeline and choose Properties. Then, in the Media Properties dialog, select the type of alpha channel from the
list. For more information, see Editing properties for a video file on page 287.
Automatic crop setting turned off
Portrait still image with pillarboxing
Automatic crop setting turned on
Portrait still image cropped to fill frame