Could Someone Give me Advice on Transitioning from Movie Studio Platinum to VEGAS Pro?

Hello there,

I have been using Movie Studio Platinum for years and absolutely love how user friendly it is for small video projects. Although, I recently learned that Movie Studio has been discontinued; and I have started exploring VEGAS Pro as the next step. I am a bit overwhelmed by the new interface and advanced features; so I am hoping to get some advice from this amazing community to make the transition smoother.

How difficult was it for you to transition from Movie Studio to VEGAS Pro? Are there any specific tutorials besides the ones here on Movie Studio Zen, which are fantastic that you could recommend?

What are the most significant differences between the two programs that I should be aware of? For example, are there tools or workflows in VEGAS Pro that do not exist in Movie Studio?

I noticed VEGAS Pro seems more demanding in terms of system requirements. I currently have a mid-range PC Intel i7-9700, 16GB RAM, GTX 1660 GPU. Is this sufficient for most projects, or should I consider upgrading?

Also, I have gone through this post, which definitely helped me out a lot.
www.moviestudiozen.com/forum/movie-studio-platinum/1819-upgrading-from-vegas-movie-studio-to-vegas-pro

My projects are mostly for personal use family videos; YouTube content; and occasional event videos so I do not need to utilize all the high-end features just yet. I would really appreciate any guidance or resources to help me get comfortable with VEGAS Pro without feeling overwhelmed.

Thanks in advance for your help and assistance.

Hi David

Sorry for the delay in approving your message and replying to you. That should never happen again.
Unfortunately the day you posted your message, was the day I entered hospital for an operation on my brain. LOL
I don't have any other senior moderators on this forum, who can help with new accounts when I'm not here. Today is my first day back at work.

Now to answer your questions!

How difficult was it for you to transition from Movie Studio to VEGAS Pro?

I do remember feeling overwhelmed when I first started using VEGAS Pro. The trick is to basically ignore all the extra settings you see and stick to the things you are familiar with first.
Movie Studio Platinum was a stripped down version of VEGAS Pro, so all the core functions/workflows work in a very similar way.
The problem with YouTube, is there are a lot of terrible tutorials out there, where people who don't understand things correctly, are teaching the wrong things.
There are also very good tutorials as well.
Start simple and don't try to do anything too advanced, until you have learnt the basics.

Are there any specific tutorials besides the ones here on Movie Studio Zen, which are fantastic that you could recommend?

My health has been a big problem for the last couple of years, which is why I stopped uploading new tutorials. Hopefully that is all behind me now, since my last operation.
The first thing on my VEGAS Pro "to do list" is to make the very tutorials you are looking/asking for.
I will be making new tutorials for VEGAS Pro beginners, as a top priority, which means they will be coming in the next few weeks!

What are the most significant differences between the two programs that I should be aware of? For example, are there tools or workflows in VEGAS Pro that do not exist in Movie Studio?

The workflows in VEGAS Pro are really no different to using VEGAS Pro.
Most of my old Movie Studio Platinum tutorials will also work in VP.
Some of the main differences are Colour Correction tools are Colour Space Settings, as well as the ability to work in 3 dimensions, instead of only 2.

I noticed VEGAS Pro seems more demanding in terms of system requirements. I currently have a mid-range PC Intel i7-9700, 16GB RAM, GTX 1660 GPU. Is this sufficient for most projects, or should I consider upgrading?

For now, your computer should work just fine with VEGAS Pro, as long as you are mainly working with 1080p video and not 4K.
You could edit with 4K, but it will be slow and you would need to lower settings while editing, to reduce playback lag.
One of the most important Hardware components to make VEGAS Pro work well, is a decent Graphics Card (GPU), because most functions are GPU accelerated and make a big difference when decoding/encoding.
At the moment I only have an RTX 2060 and I find it works very well. I bought my GPU back when graphics cards were insanely expensive. It is something I would like to upgrade soon, but I get by quite OK with the 2060.

Thanks for your questions David, because they were all great questions that apply to a great many people.
As I already said, I am about to begin uploading beginners tutorials for VEGAS Pro, that will be especially helpful for VEGAS Movie Studio users who have upgraded to VEGAS Pro.
In the meantime, feel free to ask any questions about using VEGAS Pro and the type of tutorials you would like to see the most !

Regards
Derek
p.s.
Sorry once again for the 4 week delay.