Keeping video and sound tracks together

zbig wrote on 4/21/2002, 8:32 AM

Hi from Downunder
I've had such fun with VF5! And most of what I have learned has been from this forum.
Can anyone help me with an irritating problem? I have put together 3 movies to date and I still cannot predicatably keep video and sound tracks attached to each other when I move them along the timeline. I capture clips off my Sony Camcorder, put them onto the timeline and the first time I use them they move along together. However later they sometimes(?)move separately but I cannot identify what it is that I am doing which makes them become detached. I've often been left with a terrible mess of sound track pieces positioned under the wrong piece of video. When I remember I attempt to group the affected pieces but this is very tedious and I often forget!
Also how do you easily group all the events along a section of timeline i.e. events sitting on say 4 tracks (title video, main video, sound 1 & sound 2)?
Hope this isn't too long.
Zbig

Comments

zbig wrote on 4/21/2002, 8:57 AM

Please ignore last question on my original query. I have worked it out myself. You simply use the 'selection edit tool which creates a marquee around the tracks/events that one wants to group.
Still haven't solved the 'orphan' sound track problem in the earlier part of my query!
Zbig

jimcho wrote on 4/21/2002, 7:20 PM

I was also confused with grouping when I first started. But it's easy if you remember one simple rule:

1. Every event can only belong to one group.

When you drag or insert an AVI to the timeline, the video and audio events are automatically grouped together. If you add these to another group, they lose their association to each other since they now belong to the larger group. If you forget to select both the audio and video portion when adding them to a larger group, then only the selected portion will be added. The other event will be left stranded.

To remove an audio/video event pair from a larger group, just select the audio and video event and Group them again. They will separate from the larger group since they can only belong to one group.

Ungrouping events will separate all selected items into their elementary elements.

Another thing to remember is that you don't have to group events to move them as a group. Selecting events is good enough to move them together. One common method of selecting events is to right-click and select "Select Events to end". This will let you do editing near the beginning of your project and move the tail end as a group.

Grouping behavior is very predictable, whether the group is an audio/video event pair or a larger group of varied event types; they all behave the same for all editing tasks.

Practice makes perfect. Try playing with grouping until you have a good understanding of how they work and behave.

safari_tim wrote on 4/21/2002, 7:27 PM

I have a question about the select to end.

Can you select to end on multiple tracks to keep things lined up?

When I try it by holding shift or control, it tends to unselect the other track.

-Tim

zbig wrote on 4/22/2002, 3:51 AM

Tim
I have had the same problem and the only way I see around it is to use the 'selection edit tool' which creates a marquee around the tracks/events that one wants to group. Once they are selected just press G and they will move as a group. I use the minus button below the timeline to squeeze all clips together before using the 'selection edit tool' so that you can see the start and end of your movie on one screen. Then click on the clips you want to work on and press the plus button to expand the clips into a more workable view on the timeline. I use the same method for ungrouping except that I press U instead of G.
The largest movie I have made has been a half an hour movie and it fits on one screen but I don't know what would happen if it were much longer!

I must say it would be much easier if there was a left mouse button option which said
'select all events to the right of this point on the timeline'.
Hope this helps. Zbig

safari_tim wrote on 4/22/2002, 10:58 AM

Zbig,

Thanks for the info. I will try it out.

-Tim