Remove small sections from a video - best way?

Gerry-Peters wrote on 5/12/2019, 1:59 PM

I have Movie Studio Plat 13. I'm editing a 26 min down to a 10 min video. I'd like some suggestions and tips on how to better do this. Currently I view the video and when I see a spot I'd like to remove, I hit M for adding a marker at the beginning spot and then add a marker at the end of the edit. I'll usually go back and use ALT-left arrow and ALT-right arrow to tweak the exact edit spot.

I love this ALT arrow feature, which is moving by 1 frame forward or backward, because I can hold the keys down and it plays the video in real time forward or backward. So once I have the markers set, I remove the video inside the markers by first going to the first marker using Control-arrow and then using Control-Shift arrow to go to the 2nd marker while selecting the space in between.

In the timeline I see the selection in between the markers. I then hit Control-X and it deletes the unwanted section. I'm using auto ripple, so it deletes the hole, which is great.

I've been searching for a more direct way to do this and have tried using I (in) and O (out) to set the selection, but when I hit Ctrl-X it usually does nothing, but some times deletes the whole video.

In my audio program it's so easy I just hit F7 (set beginning of selection) and F8 (set end of selection). I can see the timeline selection and when I hit delete with ripple, the section is deleted and the hole is closed.

I know Movie Studio has tons of features and I think I'm just missing something. How can I do this better?

Comments

Marco. wrote on 5/12/2019, 2:14 PM

Set your in and out with keys "I" and "O".

Then press "Shift+Q" to highlight this selection.

Then press "Del" to delete the highlighted selection.

Ripple modes work fine within this workflow.

Eagle Six wrote on 5/12/2019, 2:31 PM

@Marco. +1

Eagle Six wrote on 5/12/2019, 2:50 PM

Another way is to move cursor to the start point, hold down 'Shift', step through using your 'Alt+Arrow key' to the end point. Release the 'Shift' key and press 'Delete' key. That avoids needing to use the I/O keys or Shift+Q.

BTW: I don't use 'Alt+Arrow Key', I just use the Arrow Keys, left/right to move cursor left right 1 frame, or up/down to expand/reduce the track level.

Gerry-Peters wrote on 5/12/2019, 8:19 PM

Marco and Eagle Six those are great suggestions. I love it. This is far better than the clumsy way I was doing it. Now all I need is a shortcut key to go to the end of the selection. I already saw one for going to the beginning of the selection. Thanks for your excellent suggestions

3POINT wrote on 5/13/2019, 12:00 AM

Just dragging with your mouse a selection and pressing delete, works also very frame accurate and very fast.

Marco. wrote on 5/13/2019, 3:14 AM

"Now all I need is a shortcut key to go to the end of the selection."

This simply is the key "End" (Loop-Region must be selected: Shift+Q).

Gerry-Peters wrote on 5/13/2019, 4:38 PM

Thanks Marco. I see how in different situations the Home and End keys do different things - thanks it works great.

OhMyGosh wrote on 5/16/2019, 10:51 PM

On most of my clips I try and have a couple second head and tail. Is there any way to select the middle and do some sort of invert to where the center is saved and the ends disappear? Also, the up and down arrows change the length of the clip visually, what keys would alter the height? Thanks. Cin

j-v wrote on 5/17/2019, 3:35 AM

On most of my clips I try and have a couple second head and tail. Is there any way to select the middle and do some sort of invert to where the center is saved and the ends disappear? Also, the up and down arrows change the length of the clip visually, what keys would alter the height? Thanks. Cin

If you mean a clip that is placed on the timeline we speak in this program ( and also in the manual) about an "event". How you cut-off the beginning and end of an event and change the hight of an event I will show you in a video with VMS 14

Marco. wrote on 5/17/2019, 3:51 AM

I usually use the keystrokes Alt + [ to cut the in section and Alt + ] to cut the out section.

But you could also set a loop-region like described above in the discussion and then hit Ctrl + T to delete everything outside of the loop-region of the selected event.

EricLNZ wrote on 5/17/2019, 5:05 AM

But you could also set a loop-region like described above in the discussion and then hit Ctrl + T to delete everything outside of the loop-region of the selected event.

That does exactly what Cin wants and is something new and useful I've learnt today. Thanks @Marco.

Edit: Second thoughts after playing around. It of course removes everything outside of the selected area so you cannot use it to trim individual clips after all.

j-v wrote on 5/17/2019, 5:25 AM

With a loop region and Ctrl+T you remove also all the other events on the timeline so it should only work for me when there is only one event on that timeline at that moment.
Not the way I usually work with an edit program.

3POINT wrote on 5/17/2019, 5:27 AM

But you could also set a loop-region like described above in the discussion and then hit Ctrl + T to delete everything outside of the loop-region of the selected event.

That does exactly what Cin wants and is something new and useful I've learnt today. Thanks @Marco.

Edit: Second thoughts after playing around. It of course removes everything outside of the selected area so you cannot use it to trim individual clips after all.

Like Marco stated, the event must be selected. When the event is not selected everything besides the selection will be deleted, also on other tracks. I must admit that this is a different behavior then when deleting inside the selection, where it doesn't matter if the event is selected or not.

Strange thing only, I never used this method, the ripple function seems not to work with CTRL+T.

j-v wrote on 5/17/2019, 5:43 AM

Indeed and because you have to close than manually the empty places with at least also 2 mouseclicks I do not prefer that methode.

Marco. wrote on 5/17/2019, 6:21 AM

While it isn't as comfortable as auto-rippling is, "Delete Gaps" from the Edit menu helps.

j-v wrote on 5/17/2019, 7:02 AM

While it isn't as comfortable as auto-rippling is, "Delete Gaps" from the Edit menu helps.

That option is available beginning VMS 15. I was answering @OhMyGosh. She works with VMS 13 and has problems to update to VMS 16

OhMyGosh wrote on 5/17/2019, 9:28 AM

Wow, those are two great methods!! I'm not sure which one I like the best! Thank you for taking the time to respond and especially make a video j-v, and thank you Marco for that great tip. It's is going to speed up my workflow sooo much. :) Thanks. Cin

Sorry j-v for the misspeak on my 'clip'.

Gerry-Peters wrote on 5/17/2019, 5:23 PM

I've used auto ripple to effortlessly delete sections of my video - so thanks for the excellent suggestions on that.

What if I want to insert a 15 sec video at a certain spot in my 10 min video. I'd like it to automatically move the rest of the video to the right by 15 sec to make room for the new inserted video.

What's the best way of doing this?

Eagle Six wrote on 5/17/2019, 5:36 PM

One way is to simply toggle on Auto Ripple and then drag your clip to the location (cut) who want it added. How this reacts will depend on how many tracks you are using, and which Auto Ripple option you have selected.

OhMyGosh wrote on 5/18/2019, 11:33 PM

If you drag the ends of an event towards it's center as opposed to trimming it, by not removing the extra media will the project be bigger? Thanks, Cin

Eagle Six wrote on 5/19/2019, 8:57 AM

@OhMyGosh yes

EDIT: I miss read your question and apparently thought you meant dragging it to make the event longer, which would make the track longer, unless of course something else was shorten to keep it the same length. My apology for my misleading and incorrect answer. "drag the ends of an event towards it's center" is shortening the event, but it didn't register to be obvious to me at the time for whatever reason!!

j-v wrote on 5/19/2019, 10:29 AM

No,

the project will not be bigger as long as you speak bout the size of the projectfile, Of course will the render of such a project be shorter. But the export is totally different from the project (file).

Former user wrote on 5/19/2019, 12:00 PM

The original material is never altered by trimming or splitting. Only pointers in the project file or changed. So the project file size should not be altered by the type of edit used, it should only store the in and out times (pointers) of the original file.

EricLNZ wrote on 5/19/2019, 6:26 PM

Maybe it could be yes or no! The more you do to a project the more edit instructions the vf file contains, and it will increase in size. So possibly if dragging instead of trimming is recorded differently there might be a slight difference in the vf file size, like one byte!