Favorite Scripts for Vegas Pro
UPDATE: I found an error in two of the download archives in this post. I have fixed the archives and they are ready for you to download.
One of the things that I love about Sony’s Vegas Pro software is the scripting API that they have provided. This allows Vegas Pro to quickly add many time saving functions quickly and easily. Chances are that if you have a repetitive set of tasks that you need to be easier, there is a script to take care of you. If not, there are some great folks in the Vegas community who are good with C# or JS who just might whip up a script to solve your needs.
Two of the great script and extension writers, Edwards Troxel and John Rofrano have each delivered script solutions large and small. John’s Ultimate S Pro and Edward’s Excaliber are tool kits full of time saving functions. (I personally use Ultimate S Pro for many things.) They also continue to contributed a wealth of free scripts to the community.
John and the VASST team worked with Sony Creative Software to give us Production Assistant. This extension to Vegas Pro not only includes great tools like Photo Montage, but it can take a Vegas Pro project as a template for episodic or prepackaged videos and create your rough edit for you, saving hours of work on every project. I consider Production Assistant a “must have” for serious Vegas Pro editors.
Beyond the commercial scripts above there are a wealth of free scripts available. I have four favorites that take care of my particular needs. Here is a bit about each one and a download link if you would like to put them to work for you.
Favorite Free Scripts
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While Vegas Pro 9 does not have a track lock feature, Edward Troxel has provided us a solution. These scripts provide a way to lock all the events on a selected track with one easy move. Select the track at the track header and the LockSelectedTrackEvents.js script. All events will be locked. To unlock them, select the track at the track header and run UnlockSelectedTrackEvents.js.
Sometimes you are on an underpowered machine or the format you are working with just isn’t meant for editing. One of the solution is to edit the project using proxies. Proxy Stream will batch transcode your files and place proxies in your project media. Then after you have the edit complete, you can tell it to switch out the proxies for the original files for render. It also is a great batch transcode tool.
John Rofrano has brought us another useful script for Vegas Pro. This script will set the Alpha Channel on the selected events to Straight. This is particularly useful when working with animations from Digital Juice. Without the script you have to right click the events and select properties. Then you have to select the media tab and set the Alpha Channel type. With a lot of animations, this gets tedious and time consuming. With this script, you select all of the events that need setting, and then run the script (preferably by just pressing a button on the toolbar).
John Rofrano has brought users of Production Assistant another timesaver script for Vegas Pro. You can now easily convert any Vegas Project into a template for Production Assistant. Select the events on your timeline that you want to become slugs for replacement by Production Assistant and then run the script (preferably by just pressing a button on the toolbar). The script will clear the media leaving the pan and crop and fx for that event intact.
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These are my favorites. What about you?
It is very helpful!