VEGAS Movie Studio 14: More than just a pretty face

Good reasons drove every UI change in the new version

It’s not hard to notice the first major change in the new version of VEGAS Movie Studio. As soon as you open the application for the first time, you notice how different it looks. So what gives? Did we just make it look different so that people would think it is different? Of course not!

First of all, the new user interface is by no means the only new feature of VEGAS Movie Studio 14. There are powerful multicamera editing tools, cool Trimmer hover scrub functionality, a beautiful Vignette plug-in, and more, including amazing partner products in the Platinum and Suite versions. All of these are great new features that you will enjoy with the new VEGAS Movie Studio 14.

But it’s true, in addition to all of that, we did change the user interface (UI) substantially. In this article, I’ll talk about the reasons behind the changes and why this matters to you beyond just looking “modern and cool.”

 

Darker interface

First, and most noticeably, the entire interface is obviously darker for both VEGAS Movie Studio 14 and VEGAS Movie Studio 14 Platinum (the version also included with VEGAS Movie Studio 14 Suite). Now some may ask, “Why darker?” Well, it’s about more than just what the application looks like. It’s a complex topic when you dig into it, but the summary is that the darker interface produces less eye strain over long editing sessions. And this is especially true if you tend to edit in a dark room as many people do. In addition, the darker interface doesn’t influence your perception of color as much as a bright interface can, so if you’re doing critical color adjustment work, the darker interface will help you get more accurate results.
Beyond the obvious background color change, there are other UI changes to talk about. If you’ve tried to use previous versions of VEGAS Movie Studio on your Hi-DPI computer monitor (like a new 4K laptop, for instance), you will have noticed that the software “didn’t play nicely” with that monitor. Earlier versions were not optimized to work at these resolutions. Version 14 fixes that problem and looks just as elegant on your new 4K monitor as it does on your old HD monitor. So no matter what display resolution you run at, VEGAS Movie Studio 14 looks great.

 

Easily focus on your work with redesigned application buttons

Perhaps almost as noticeable as the darker interface, we’ve completely redesigned the application buttons in this version. Instead of the large buttons in version 13, we’ve designed smaller, less obtrusive buttons. This makes for far less visual clutter in the UI so that your eye is more easily focused on your work instead of UI elements. The new buttons are still easy to find and use, they are just not so “in your face” as in the previous version. Oh, and the buttons are still big enough that you can effectively use them on your touch-screen computer if you want to.
The buttons have also largely been redesigned to be more understandable and recognizable. Good examples are the Mute and Solo buttons on the track headers. The FX buttons that lead to video and audio effects throughout the application are another good example. Most buttons and controls have been modernized. The button positions haven’t changed, so experienced users won’t have any trouble finding them, but the new glyphs make it easier for new users to learn and understand what the buttons do and for experienced editors to recognize their favorite tools more easily.

 

Cleaned up buttons, bars and menus

Next, button bars, menus, and preferences have been substantially cleaned up (this is most noticeable in the basic version, but also in the Platinum version). We carefully went through every button, menu, and preference to remove anything that was not particularly relevant to that version of the software. The basic version is now especially clean in this respect.

In general, the VEGAS Movie Studio 14 UI has been greatly simplified. Not only was clutter removed, but so were obscure attributes of the software that the basic user is not likely to ever need, much less actually use. Many of these were just confusing to beginning users and caused them problems they didn’t need. We worked closely with our customer support experts to identify topics that were consistently problematic for users and resulted in high support activity. Anything that we felt we could remove from the basic version without hampering important functionality, we did.

Of course, they’re all still available in the Platinum version or in VEGAS Pro, so it’s not as if we made them unavailable. We just put them in the appropriate application. In other words, we’ve done a lot to refine the line and position each product to more effectively align to the video editors who will actually use these features. If you’re an advanced user who needs more advanced features, then the basic version isn’t right for you! You’ll want to look at Movie Studio Platinum or Suite. At some point, you may consider going all the way up to VEGAS Pro.

 

So, now you know what was behind the changes in the VEGAS Movie Studio 14 interface. It’s more than just a face lift for the sake of looking different. There are logical, functional reasons behind every change we’ve made. But we have to admit, it is a nice side-effect perk that in addition to being more modern, intuitive, and less cluttered, VEGAS Movie Studio 14 really does now have a pretty face!