Sony Vegas: Import text to credit roll

Making a scrolling credit list can be a laborious process. While I like the simple credit roll format made available inside of Sony Vegas Pro, it still has a form that is not fun to fill out. There must be a simpler way, right?

I've been shooting ballets and ballet recitals for the past three years. One thing I always dreaded was entering the extensive credit list for the roll at the end. I recently discovered that you can import a text file into the Sony Vegas Pro credit form, and if the formatting is correct, it will save you a lot of work and time.

The trick to doing this is two fold. One is to get your credit information into a text file. If you have a copy of your project's program in a PDF file, you can go to a site like ExtractPDF and it will rip out the text for you. If it's your own project, you can prepare the text in a word processor (much easier than inside the editor) an export as a text file.

Next, you'll need to format your text properly. The basic credit roll generator allows for three simple formats: titles, subitems, and two columns. Titles are designated with a space before the text, subitems have no space, and dual columns are separated by a tab. See the video for more clarification.

Once I figured out how to do this, I was amazed how easy it was to get the credit roll set up. While tweaking of the properly formatted text is still important, it is so much faster and less of a chore than manual entry. I just wish I knew about it three years ago.