Basically you just hold down the CTRL key and RESIZE the clip - but it actually changes the speed so that the same amount of clip remains. And, yes, it works on a laptop too.

You need to extend the EVENT on the timeline. When you hold down the Ctrl key and drag right you should see a zig zag line through the timeline.

If you do this to a larger file, you may not see the effect. So as a first step just to see if its working break up part of timeline into an event (relatively small section of the timeline, say 20 seconds) then play it back and you should see the slow motion effect.

Or... drop in a event velocity envelope. When you stretch, you add frames and effect the time span. When you use the envelope you effect how fast or slow the event plays, but the time of the effect remains constant. Pretty cool.

You can also right click the video file, choose Properties, and change the Playback rate. If you've got something filling space on the timeline and don't want to make it longer (no changing of event length) but still slo it down, this is the best method, IMO.

SPOT: That last one really got me! It's those small silly tricks that have somehow passed me by -
I noticed you can "feather"/ push with the cursor the nummerical settings up to 4,000 and down to 0,250 in a flash!!! What a timesaver compared to "manually" pulling on the Velocity Envelope bar ...... that's hot!
Thanks!
//Garo
(P.S. OT: Now go vote for my video Tropical Goat Island)

You can also right click the video file, choose Properties, and change the Playback rate.

This is news to me also. Thats why I hang out here , but is there a place to go that has a lot of these tips and tricks? Douglas do you have a little known tips and tricks area at VASST ? I know I've seen somethings there but these little things like this tip make my day.

Jon

Right-mouse-button click on *everything*!!!! For that matter, left-mouse-button click on them too. Take an hour sometime and just explore. That's how i find out most everything i know about any particular piece of software.

Then again, there's always the manual and the help pages. Despite the bad rep these often get, all the information is in there and it is easily findable.

CHIENWORKS: Point well taken . I guess my point for posting was more like a blind man fumbling his way around and it's just nice to have a voice once in a while to point the way .

Wakiyan, there are a couple "tips and tricks" articles on the VASST site, and I'm sure that Edward Troxel's site also provides most of these tidbits. If you look at some of the "Tips of the Day" from the DMN site, there are lots of these little things over there. It's been a while since I've posted them here, maybe I should get back to doing it.