Standard crossfade, duration for stills, etc

owh wrote on 2/23/2005, 6:31 PM
I have the Screenblast MS 3.0 for quite a while and am just starting to learn to use it. I get to this forum from its help menu, and been reading this forum for few weeks. I have been using MS Movie Maker 2.0 and ArcSoft ShowBiz. I am still new in video editing though. So far I found ShowBiz the easiest to use and some of the featuers it has, I am still searching if it is available in Screenblast MS. I would be most grateful for answers to:
1. What are the differences between Screenblast MS and Vegas MS?
2. How do I set the standard duration for still image in Screenblast / Vegas?
3. How do I set the standard transition to crossfade, with standard transition duration in Screenblast / Vegas? I learnt from its tutorial that we have to manually drag the video clips to overlap by desired amount. That means I would have different amount of overlap each time. In other software, it is simply dragging the transition onto the storyboard, between the two clips.
4. Anyway to have the storyboard in Screenblast / Vegas?
5. How to add video track in Screenblast MS? Or, it only has 2?

Thanks in advance.

Comments

billynmi wrote on 2/23/2005, 7:52 PM
hello. I can tell you how Vegas Movie Studio handlles the length of slides. You can drag them in or out to change the duration or go to Options to preferences to video tab and there you will see New still image lenght . I hope this is similar to what you have.

good Luck


Billy
Clarke wrote on 2/23/2005, 11:08 PM
I have some input for you, in my own personal experiences

1) Differences between SMS and VMS: DVD Authoring tools are different.
My SMS 3.0 was bundled with Sonic MyDVD, VMS comes with DVDA (lower version) but a powerful enough tool. VMS has additional 3D transistions which SMS does not have.
2) Default still image (how long per still) is done at Preferences. Typically from other forums a 5 sec is sufficient.
3) Just by overlapping, the default transistion is cross fade. So far I have not found a way to have a default time duration. It is manually done in the transistions or FX menus per overlap.
4) VMS does not have a storyboard concept. IMHO, I have VS6 (story board style) and I find timeline is always better, this is specially when you have different video tracks, transistions coming in at the same time. Timeline works better.
3) Both SMS and VMS have 3 'video' and 3 'audio' tracks. They may not name it that way, But "Title", "Overlay", "Video" to me is video tracks.
You cannot add more video tracks. VMS does not allow it, but VEGAS (full version) has unlimited tracks.
Adobe Premier Elements (another lower cost version) allow 99 video and audio tracks.

Hope my input was helpful and have a nice day
owh wrote on 2/25/2005, 10:50 PM
Thanks a lot for the replies. They are really helpful. I have learnt to set the default still duration, from another threads. I will just have to get used to the timeline. I have to find ways to work around to see if I can have the crossfade automatically and with preset duration; and how to change all (or group of) transitions. I noticed when I add media on the track, the media does not automatically follow the previous one, i.e. it goes where I dropped it rather than automatically continue from the previous clip. Any solution?
Clarke wrote on 2/26/2005, 9:44 AM
There is no solution at least in VMS or SMS.
I really do not see any problem in it.

The only run around about it is to like
a) Start at time 0:00
b) Choose all the clips you require
c) Drag into the video track
In this way, then they are loaded continously

IMHO, the current add (it drops to where you stop ) is the way to work.
You prefer it to add to the end of the previous media is cause you are used to working in a storyboard line. E.g. VideoStudio (though it also allows Timeline.
The reason I prefer is that when you are adding say a sound effect like a rocket taking off to the middle of the sound track, you do not want it to move to the end right? Especially when you have zoomed (microsecond level) to place it correctly and got to zoom out take the clip to the estimated place, zoom back in, adjust and move the track etc....

Just a matter of getting used to it.
I have VideoStudio and VMS and prefer VMS much better, VEGAS would be even better but it's too pricey for me

Cheers and have a nice day