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Create a project, import video clips and save the project
Overview
Name of explainer: Create a project, import video clips and save the project
Creative theme: Video editing
Software used: Vegas Pro
User level: BEGINNER
This is explainer 1 of 5 in this series
This series includes:
- Create a project, import video clips and save the project
- Sequence video clips and render to an mp4 file
- Trim video clips, add fades and transitions
- Add text and music
- Putting it all together: Stonehenge!
The Software
This series of beginner explainers uses Vegas Pro. You can download a free 30 day demo version from the Vegas Website.
The Vegas website refers to ‘Vegas Edit, Vegas Pro and Vegas Post’. These are three different software ‘bundles’ / subscription levels, with Vegas Pro and Vegas Post including additional functionality and plug-ins. The core editing program used in these explainers, Vegas Pro, is included in all three options.
If you decide to purchase Vegas Pro, please review the subscription options in full first, bearing in mind different the different bundles and pricing plans available.
This month we’re also running an explainer series for Premiere Pro (which requires a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud).
The final product
Here’s the simple ‘Spring is sprung’ video we create as we work through explainers 1 to 4. Notice the added text, fades, transitions and music track:
The pre-requisities
This is a BEGINNER workflow explainer, so you just need to install and open the software. We’ll take it from there.
If you’re new to IT / computing, you may need help downloading and installing the software. Start with a search for ‘how do i install vegas pro’ or speak with someone who’s familiar with downloading and installing.
Why would I do this?
It’s important to make key decisions about your project when you set it up. For example:
- What will you call it?
- Will you be creating an HD or 4k video?
- What will the frame-rate be?
Making these decisions at the outset will help as you start to add assets including video clips, still images and titles.
Let’s do it!
Click the play icon to watch this video. Subtitles are available – Click the settings cog at the bottom right for options. You can also watch this video full-screen by clicking the full-screen icon at the bottom right.
Good to know
Vegas Pro includes project ‘templates’ to help you select a resolution and frame-rate. In the explainer we used the ‘1080-30p’ template highlighted below:
‘HD 1080’ is also refered to as ‘full HD’ and is the most common resolution for outputting general purpose videos, including those destined for YouTube and Vimeo. Using lower resolutions can leave your video looking ‘fuzzy’ on modern devices while higher resolutions (E.g. 4k) can be unnecessary for general use and can require a more powerful computer to edit.
Download the video clips used in this series
If you’d like to follow this series using the video clips demonstrated, you can download them below. These files are only to be used for personal practice and must not be sold or used commercially.
Where to next?
You can over-ride any of the Vegas templates above. For example, if you’d like to work with HD 1080 and 60 fps (which is common when using action camera footage), you can enter these settings directly into the fields as below:
Notice the ‘Template’ field updates to show ‘custom’ as we’re no longer using a built-in option.
Remember, this is part of a series of explainers for this software – Join us again for the other explainers in the series 🙂
Notes and updates
There are no notes or advisories at this time. This video explainer was last updated in March 2023. This page was last updated in March 2023.
We at pixels.cool are not responsible for the content of any external webpages or software downloaded from third party sites. Links are included in good faith at the time of writing. All explainer content is compiled in good faith using processes and methods used by the team. Modern software gives users many ways in which to accomplish the same task, and for reasons of clarity we choose not to reference multiple options. All computer users should run up to date virus / security software at all times to minimise risk.
This is number 1 of 10 explainer videos for video editing month. Make sure you check out the others!
