HitFilm 2 Ultimate – Compositing and Effects in Vegas Pro Suite

Doddleme by Jeremian Hall

Sony’s Vegas Pro Suite is not one program, but a collection of software that works together for different post-production tasks. Vegas Pro Suite includes Vegas Pro 12, DVD Architect 6, Sound Forge 10, the Vegas Pro Production Assistant, and the odd-man out, HitFilm 2 Ultimate.

I call HitFilm 2 the odd-man out because it is not developed by Sony. It is developed by UK group FXhome. The other parts of Vegas Pro Suite all have a very similar UI look and feel – except the non-Sony developed HitFilm 2. Don’t read that as HitFilm 2 won’t play well with Vegas Pro - it does, but more on that later. HitFilm 2 is also a stand-alone product, capable of video editing as well as compositing and motion graphics.

HitFilm 2 Ultimate’s UI, Tools and Layout

Opening HitFilm 2 Ultimate initially takes you to the Home screen. On the Home screen you find your recent projects and a button for a new project, as well as a Tip of the Day, Blog updates, links to both basic and advanced Video tutorials from the HitFilm website, and Forum posts from the HitFilm community board.

Pressing the New Project button takes you to the Project tab, where you set your video, audio and color bit-depth settings for your project. When I made a new project, I set it up to be different from the video I was going to be working with to see how it handled differences in project settings versus the format of the imported video. As soon as I imported a file, it asked me if I wanted to change the project settings to match the video file. Along the right-side of the Project screen are explanations of what each property is, and how to use it. Once I had my settings, I clicked Start Editing and was taken to the Edit and Effects screen. read more...

Click here to watch the 1-Hour webinar: Creative Composititng and Effects with Vegas Pro 12 and HitFilm 2 Ultimate