Editing and Adding Tracks in Presto (Vegas Pro only)

Presto's auto-magical functions perform well on a wide range of inputs, but there may be times when the presenter tracking or slide synchronization is not perfect. You may also want to add additional content to your presentation video, such as a logo sting or credits slide. This section explains how to tweak your presentation accordingly with a look at the finer points of editing a Vegas Pro project generated by Presto.

 

Editing your workflow

It is best to do any editing of your presenter and screen video before Presto processes them. Removing unwanted media also speeds up processing.

You are likely to need to edit out superfluous video footage. For example, you may have started recording before the presenter began speaking, or sections of the presentation may need to be deleted. Similarly, you may also have extra video at the end of your recordings. 

It is advisable to do any editing of the presenter track before Presto processes it. Since Presto defines the timing of each layout sequence transition with respect to the overall project, deletions or repositioning of video events may mean these events are now out of sync with  layout sequence transitions. After processing by Presto, adjustments to the beginning of events or splitting events can produce unexpected effects if the pan-crop keyframes produced by Presto are not refreshed after these edits.

 

 

Adding additional content to your presentation video

Additional video content (such as a video file provided to you as part of the presentation materials, or a logo sting) should be put on a new track above the presenter track.

Additional slides such as a production credits slide can be added manually anywhere on the slide track. It is best if the size of these additional images matches the size of the other slides on that track. It's a good idea to refresh the layout after making additions to the slide track, and you may want to add layout changes in relation to your additions.

Another really useful feature in Vegas Pro is the ability to embed (or nest) a Vegas Pro project in the timeline of another Vegas Pro project without having to render that project as a media file. The embedded project acts just like any other media. To embed a project, open a new project, then drag and drop the Presto project file onto the timeline of this new project. You can now easily add additional tracks and media, and split/delete regions of the Presto project as needed without modifying the Presto project itself. If you go back to the Presto project and make changes, those changes will automatically appear within the project that refers to it.

 

 

Using "No Tracking" regions

You can speed up presenter tracking by telling Presto about any regions on the timeline where it should disable tracking. For instance, when there was no presenter on stage, when someone was introducing the presenter, or during a panel discussion. To do this, simply add a region to the Vegas Pro timeline with the label no tracking wherever you want Presto to skip presenter tracking. 

To add a region, drag a selection with the timeline cursor and then press the "R" key, or choose the menu item Insert > Region. Then enter the text "no tracking", and press Enter. Vegas Pro shows region markers in green, with matching numbers at each end of the region, as illustrated below.  You can add as many "no tracking" regions as you wish. The default layout for these regions is "slides-only", but you can easily change the layout to suit your presentation.

 

 No tracking region

 

 

Using "No Slides" regions

Similarly, you can speed up slide synchronization processing (and avoid spurious slide matches) by telling Presto about any regions on the timeline where it should ignore the screen video (e.g. when a movie was played instead of slides, or the projector was turned off). To do this, simply add a region to the Vegas Pro timeline with the label no slides wherever you want Presto to skip slide processing. You can add as many "no slides" regions as you want.