Duration of Stills Question

Lawson wrote on 1/9/2006, 5:15 PM
Hi, new user here.

I'm messing with a little test project to try and learn the product and am working with a few stills on the timeline. I can't seem to figure out how to set the duration of each still.

I can see how to set the default length, and I know I can stretch them on the timeline. But sometimes the length that shows up in the "hover box" is the absolute length, and sometimes it shows the delta from the default, and neither seems to be very precise.

I was wondering if there was a way to edit the "properties" of the timeline still somewhere and precisely set the duration, hopefully down to the fraction of a second.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Lawson

Comments

GerryLeacock wrote on 1/9/2006, 6:01 PM
Do this before you put any stills in the time line. Click on Options ---> Preferences ---> Editing Tab. About a third of the way down, you'll see a box labelled "New Still Image Length (Seconds): " Put whatever value you want in there. This sets the image length for any stills placed in the timeline.
Lawson wrote on 1/9/2006, 8:33 PM
Thanks Gerry, but as far as I can tell that only affects still durations prospectively. But after they are placed on the timeline, I can't see how to change an idividual still's length with precision. For example, if I'm trying to line up the beginning of a particular still in the timeline with a precise point in a song on the audio track, I'd like to be able to make minute changes to the duration of the preceding still or clip until I get it just right. So, other than stretching a particular still or clip with the cursor, is there any way to set its duration once it's on the timeline?

Lawson
rustier wrote on 1/9/2006, 10:06 PM
(For Sony Vegas Studio +DVD Platinum V6) Have you tried this? Find the precise moment on your sound track that you want your video synced with. You can either grab your little slider button on top and drag it to the point or simply click on the spot you want your video event to happen with your mouse. Then put a marker on it by typing the letter m. Enable your snapping if you haven't already by pressing F8 or going to your options window and clicking enable snap. Then click the side of your still (if you want to extend the events) and simply drag your picture to the marker line and it should "snap" into place. Markers can be a big help for such things. Hope this helps BTW if you want a "stretch" to affect several preceding pictures I think all you have to do is to put them into a group and the "stretch" will apply evenly to them all. One extra step. You have to select all stills you want to stretch in the group by holding the control key and clicking them with your mouse. Then when you stretch the change will affect all the selected stills in the group.
JeffD wrote on 1/10/2006, 4:21 AM
> I was wondering if there was a way to
> edit the "properties" of the timeline still
> somewhere and precisely set the duration,
> hopefully down to the fraction of a second.

I have the same question as Lawson. The snapping solutions others offered are good, but there ought to be a way to type in a length in seconds & frames. Doing so in the length box of the properties dialog box seems to do nothing. Please advise, if anyone has guidance here. (Movie Studio Platinum)

Thanks,
JeffD
IanG wrote on 1/10/2006, 6:27 AM
>there ought to be a way to type in a length in seconds & frames.

I don't think there's a way to do this, but I'm curious as to how you'd use it - whenever I want to set something to a precise length it's because I want to synch with something that's already there, usualy something in the music. Stretching events on the timeline works perfectly for this. Perhaps there's another way to do what you want?

Ian G.
Lawson wrote on 1/10/2006, 6:54 AM
Thanks Rustier, I'll definitely try that when I get a little more into things. Still I think there will always be some trial and error involved, and am disappointed if there is no other way to tweak the duration of a particular still....
rustier wrote on 1/10/2006, 8:09 AM
Just one other comment: I am not sure what your project is, but if it is just music and photo's you may want to try using DVD Architect. You can make compilations where you can specify exactly the duration of a picture - or you can click one button and have the whole show adjusted to fit the length of the music. I have made some very nice slide shows with music on DVD's for my family. There is a limitation to one song, but you can work around that with sound forge - But thats a topic for another forum. P.S. I hope you have noticed that you can zoom in on your work in SVMS so that you can get to within fractions of a second. It would be good to have a seperate preview monitor to run the project on before you render, just to make sure you have it the way you want before rendering.
Lawson wrote on 1/10/2006, 8:27 AM
Thanks, didn't think about zooming in - I'll give that a try as well.
Lou Sander wrote on 1/10/2006, 5:14 PM
Learned by accident:

You can adjust the amount of "zoom" by dragging the width of the "traveler" on the horizontal scroll bar beneath the timeline. When the traveler is narrow, you are zoomed in close. When it is wide, you are zoomed out.

You can zoom out all the way by double clicking in the middle of the traveler.

You can change the zoom by dragging the little vertical rectangles on either end of the traveler.

It's pretty easy to zoom in to see single frames. Makes timing things a snap.
Lawson wrote on 1/10/2006, 5:33 PM
Pretty cool Lou, I just tried it. Especially the double-click thing to get back to the compressed view. Thanks.