If the actual captured clip itself is only 10 seconds long, and you are going all the way to the end of it, you can grab the end and drag it out for the extra amount of time you want. Then right-click on the clip, select "Switches", and make sure "Loop" is un-checked. (If loop is checked, the clip will start over at the begining again)

Again, this only works if you are wanting to hold at the actual end frame of the original clip. If you are working with 10 seconds out of the middle of a 2 minute video, you'll have to take the approach that ritsmer suggests.

Tim L

Hi ritsmer,
'For the best quality set preview quality to Best and Full first.'

I didn't know that the quality of the 'save snapshot' was affected by the preview setting. Did I understand that right? Thanks. Cin

Hi OhMy
Yes - And it is easy to see:

Save a snapshot with lowest quality and you get a JPG image with 12 KB.
Save the same snapshot in best quality and size and you get the same image - but with 300KB - and you will not notice any change when going from the "living" clip to the snapshot.

You guys are great ! Thanks so much for your help !

I tried both suggestions. I thought just dragging to extend the clip to where I wanted it and then turning the "loop" switch off would be the easiest. But I had some problems with this and it's probably due to the way the effect is constructed within the clip.

The clip is simply a word that starts out all "scrunched" together and as the clip plays, the letters of the word spread out so they're readable. Once they spread out to where they look like a "normal" word, that is where I would like to "hold" that look until the effects of another track are complete.

I used keyframes to accomplish this. The keyframe at the start of the clip has "tracking=0.0". The keyframe at the end of the clip has "tracking=2.0". This seems to work pretty well, but when I grab the end of the clip to extend it, the letters keep expanding to the point that they're off the screen. This could be a cool effect, but not what I need for this particular project. I'm guessing the keyframe at the end of the clip gets repositioned to the "new" end of the clip after I drag it to extend it, rather than staying at the "original" end of the clip.

I also tried the idea of saving the last image to a file and then placing that file immediately after the clip. I was concerned that I might see a "flicker" between the video clip and the still frame. But it looks fine, completely smooth.

I hope I made some sense about the problem of extending the clip and having the letters of the word keep expanding. Any way to prevent that ? Creating a separate still file is not that big a deal, but if possible I would like to learn how to deal with keyframes when the clip is extended. Any way to keep the keyframes in their "original" location, rather than moving as the clip is extended ?

Sorry for the loooooong reply. Thanks again everyone ! I really appreciate your help !

Ahhh, the answers you got were probably assuming you were working with a video clip, but you're using a generated text event.

To accomplish this much easier than any of the answers that were given ... set the length in the text generator window to the entire length you want. Then move the end keyframe to where you want to "spread" to stop. Now the stretching will continue from the beginning until that last keyframe and stop. The text will remain static after that.

However, the other answers given are very appropriate for video clips, so keep them in mind.

Chienworks, thanks for your comments.

Sorry, I didn't know it was important to distinguish between a video clip and a generated text event. Please excuse my ignorance.

When I try to set the length in the text generator window as you suggested, it doesn't seem to change the length of the clip in the timeline of the track. Do I change it at the very top of the window right after where it says "Frame Size" ?

It seems that no matter what I specify, the text event seems to have a default length of 10 sec. After the 10 sec, it seems to repeat itself.

What am I doing wrong ? Again, I'm sorry for asking such basic questions. Please excuse my stupidity.

Would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks !

--------------------------------------------------------------------

I just tried starting with a brand new text event and it comes up with a default length of 10 sec. I typed in 30 sec and hit return. The event stayed at 10 sec on the timeline. When I played it, it stopped after 10 sec.

As much as I need to figure out my initial question, I think I've stumbled onto something much more basic that I need to make sure I understand. I think there is something about the basic concept of event length that I'm missing.

I hope I'm making some sense about what is confusing me. How do I adjust the length of an event.

Please excuse me. I'm ashamed to be asking questions like this.

Please help ! Thanks !

When you drag the text generator to the timeline, it has a media length of 10 seconds (the length of the source item) and an event length of 10 seconds (the length it occupies on the timeline).

When you type in a media length of 30 seconds, it doesn't change the event length on the timeline. At this point, it would be the same thing as using only the first 10 seconds of a 30 second video clip.

If you now go to the event on the timeline and drag the end out to the right, you will be using more and more of the 30 second long text item. If you drag past 30 seconds, you will notice a little notch in the top of the event on the timeline. This indicates the natural end of the source media. Beyond the notch, the event will begin repeating the source media. If "Loop" is checked, it will begin to repeat at the start of the item. If "Loop" is unchecked, it will simply repeat (hold) the last frame of the item.

In your case, you can drag the end of the text event out. If you want your expanding letters to expand for 10 seconds and hold for 5, then drag the event out to a total of 15 seconds, then open up the text event and drag your ending keyframe to the 10 second mark. Events will always "hold" the last keyframe values, if the last keyframe appears before the end of the event.

Tim L