Editing for newbys?

mcmahan55 wrote on 2/28/2007, 1:46 PM
OK, I am brand new to " Vegas Movie Studio + DVD" and I need some help!
I have many (75-80) video clips in .mov format. Most of these clips are 20-25 sec. long and I need to trim them, some on both ends, add text to each clip and put them together into a movie to burn to DVD. What is my best (easiest) option to trim these clips?
I have played with this program a little and have been able to get a clip into the trimmer window, although I'm not sure how I did it, and have been able to set the flag at the point I want the clip to start but, I can't figure how to remove the part of the clip I want to discard.
I have no doubt this is a simple process, guess I may be too simple to get it!
When I am able to get the clips to my desired length, I want to add text to the bottom of each clip. I was able to do this one time but don't know how I did that and have not been able to do so again.
ANY HELP will be greatly appreciated. I am sure this is an awesome product and will be a pleasure once I learn how to use it!
THANK YOU !

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 2/28/2007, 3:25 PM
It's easy to open a clip in the trimmer. In the Explorer window, right-mouse-button click on the clip and choose "open in trimmer." I wouldn't bother with the trimmer though. I think it would be a lot easier to select the whole bunch in the explorer window at once and drag the lot of them onto the timeline at once. They'll all be added sequentially with the one you drag first, followed by the others in whatever order they were displayed in the explorer window. Drag them around to rearrange them if necessary, or add them in small groups to begin with if that makes more sense.

Zoom in with the up arrow so that the first clip fills your window. You can drag the edges of the clip in to trim. You can move the cursor around first either with the mouse, the arrow keys, or by playing the timeline to find the right spot, then when you trim the mouse will "snap" to the cursor. With ripple editing turned on all the clips to the right will automatically move to the left to take up the space removed by trimming. Trim too much? Not a problem; just drag the end back out and what was trimmed off reappears. You can even trim while previewing if you wish.

To add text, make sure your clips are on a lower video track, 2, 3, or 4, doesn't matter which. In the Media Generators / Text window select the text preset with the checkerboard background and drag it up to the top track above the clip you want to label. Change "Text 1" to whatever you want to say instead. Use the same trimming process to have it match the length of the clip. Repeat for each clip. If you've made changes to the properties of the text, such as font, color, size, position, etc. it may be easier to copy that text event and paste as new for the next set of text rather than dragging from the media generator window. That way you'll get the same properties and all you have to do is edit the text.