Question on Sony movie studio 13 platinum

lifeleadership

Hi,
Does anyone use sony's movie studio 13 platinum with hitfilm 2 ultimate, and if so, any thoughts on this program and how well they work together ? How exactly do they work together?
I have power director 12 which I use and it's not bad. However, I like the idea of being able to seamlessly use both a Sony editor and hitfilm together. I've tried Sony Vegas pro, but only need an editor like movie studio, ( a more simple and cost effective program for editing) provided it's a decent program. Thanks for the input.
Ben

GKDantas

I think that Platinum version doesnt support HFU2 integration.

CalebK

My friend bought that and wasn't too impressed. If your looking for a good linear editor with good color grading and some effects I would check out lightworks. They do have a demo as well.

Marcin

HF2 (Ultimate and Express) integration works with Sony Movie Studio Platinum. You can import HF project into SMSP and put it on the timeline. You can also apply HF to a video event on the timeline. Also generating proxy for HF project works. But, after few experiments, I found that it is still better to export HF project ans image sequence and use it SMSP- maybe my GPU is to weak (GTX 650Ti Boost 2GB), but adding motion blur and shadows caused preview in SMSP to stutter, so I understood why export to image sequence is so important
I used Power Director v9 and I think SMSP is better.

GKDantas

Good to know... maybe we can use a trial to test Sony pack with HFU2

lifeleadership

Thanks for the input. I'm not crazy about vegas pro or movie studio. I've been using power director and although it has it's limitations, I like it. Thanks again

lifeleadership

I'll look into light works, thanks. Anyone here have any experience with it? I'll download the trial program and report back on what I think of it.

Triem23

As Marcin said, Hitfilm/Vegas integration works well, but, yeah, I'll usually export image sequences from Hitfilm, or uncompressed AVI if I'm doing heavy work with 3D and particles--Look at it like this: I'm not a coder, so I don't know exactly how it works, but Hitfilm has functionality that Vegas doesn't. It can't be built into a Vegas library, because--well, Vegas would then have that power (That's what Hitfilm plug-in's are for), which means Vegas is making system calls to an outside program, then rendering--this will slow previews down, although it's not bad if you're doing something fairly simple, like grading with Hitfilm effects.
That said, I've used Vegas, Avid, Premiere, FCPX, and others--when I HAVE to for work, I'll use that other software. Vegas happens to be my NLE of choice. Personal opinion--Vegas does work differently from any other NLE, but those differences work well for me, and make me 4-to-10 times faster in Vegas than any other NLE.
I would say the additional money for Vegas Pro is worth it--Vegas Pro supports scripting, Studio doesn't There are many free scripts to automate tasks, and some excellent script-based plug-ins that have tools that turn an already fast editor into a faster editor. I personally own Ultimate S pro, Vegasaur and Production Assistant 2. PA2 and Ultimate S are from the same company and mostly do the same things--of the two, I prefer Ultimate S. Theres also Ecalibut for Vegas and Veggie-Toolkit for Vegas., As well as Vasst's Fasst App line, and specialty tools like Scattershot 3D. (Scattershot 3D turn building a 3D slideshow into about 30 seconds of mouse work).

lifeleadership

Excellent post, thanks.

Triem23

And, of course, Lightworks, Premiere, Vegas, etc all have demos. Download the demos, give them all the same footage/project, and see which one feels best to you.