trim video

wiscoy wrote on 12/13/2002, 2:01 PM
Hi Guys.. Well, I'm back in business. The Canopus that I had to send back to be reprogramed (or whatever they did to it) came back to me today..I plugged it in, and SHAZAM...everything worked and I captured some video. ;-)

Now, I am just finding my way around VF (I had used Video Wave previously) I had a question about cutting and slicing video. In Video Wave I would place the video in the view screen, go to the cutting room, cut the pieces I wanted to work with and then those clips would go to the timeline for splicing, etc.

It's a bit different in VF, isn't it? So far, all I can figure out is that I have to first place the video in the timeline and then *trim* pieces that I want from there.. it's a bit backwards to what I was used to...am I missing something here, or is this the way to do it?

thanks!!

-Jill

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 12/13/2002, 2:32 PM
Jill, good news about your converter!

You've got it right. Just slice and dice on the timeline. I think once you've tried it for a while you'll find out it's faster and easier than using a separate trimmer. It's kind of nice to be able to do your trim work and preview the result in place with the other clips.

If you decide you do absolutely need a trimmer, VideoFactory has one but it's hidden and can only be turned on by fiddling with system preferences. We can walk you through turning it on if necessary, but i'm pretty sure you'll find you don't need it.
Hammer wrote on 12/13/2002, 2:34 PM
You hit the nail on the head. I went through the same transition and I promise it will feel natural soon enough. I used to really miss the story board mode, but now I like time line editing much better.
Grazie wrote on 12/13/2002, 3:29 PM
Jill - If you think about it, SoFO is an audio s/w outfit. They supply top end audio editing suites. They deal with musos [musicians] and need to provide a truly "flowing" and moving interface for their users. Try and think of the/your timeline as a piece of music - cutting a bar here - slicing out what you don't want there - slotting in something were and when you want it. If you hold down the LEFT button on your mouse you can highlight and view what you are wiping across, you'll see what I mean. NOW that's something you dont see everyday in an NLE!

VF is a moving feast of opportunities. It is by far the most intuitive NLE I've come across. And I've kissed some real frogs along the way.

Once you get to look under the "simple" shell, you've got a host of functionality which amazed me enough to take the leap into Vegas. Jill - it's true - I aint just waxing lyrical, this s/w does have remarkable capabilities. Give it time and it will repay your most demanding creative wishes. And if not - well - there is always Vegas Video to explore.

Story boards were and are a way that graphic artists "explain" how a film will look and feel. This type of - well storyboard - is something else. It tries to give you the best "moving" depiction you can see. Am I making sense? - or should I take some sedatives now?

Hey ho....

Grazie
IanG wrote on 12/13/2002, 5:00 PM
Jill

I had the same concerns, and got much the same advice from Chienworks. I tried the trimmer (it's a boys 'n' toys thing!) but couldn't see any advantage. In fact the advice was that you can do "most" trimming on the time line - I still haven't found anything I can't do!

Ian G.
randy-stewart wrote on 12/13/2002, 5:21 PM
Jill,
Maybe before you ask..here are some tips. First, to trim, click on the end (either end) of a clip and drag in to shorten or out to lengthen. If you lengthen too far, the clip will start over (little indent on the top shows where it starts over). To drag to a specific frame, press the arrow key to go one frame at a time when you get close. You can also expand the clip with the plus or minus sign to get where you want to be. Also, you can split the clip (see the split tool) and then delete the unwanted portion. Now, for a cool part, if you hold the control key down when you lengthen or shorten the clip, you will get slow motion or fast motion. Cool, eh? Copy a clip up above to the overlay line and add effects (cookie cutter, PIP, blurs, etc.) and the options are endless. Have fun!
Randy
wiscoy wrote on 12/13/2002, 6:47 PM
Okey Dokey... after playing around with it for the past 3 hours..I'm getting used to the trimming/cutting. What I've been doing is highlighting the parts of the video that I want (while on the timeline) right clicking *copy* and then pasting it somewhere else on the timeline in the order I want. Not sure if that's exactly the way I should be doing it...but it works for me. ;-)

Now what I need your help on is panning..or coming in for a close up on the video.. I figured out how to do that with that little window that opens up when you pan...and it looks exactly how I want it when I play it in the preview window, but when I render the video to movie..I am seeing the entire frame.. the stuff I *thought* I had cropped. What am I doing wrong now?

Gosh, there is so much to learn with this software..I feel like a complete dolt. I remember when I first got PhotoImpact for graphic editing..I looked around and said **I'll NEVER be able to learn this stuff* That's how I feel now.

I'm gonna play around a bit more with it tonight, and then in the morning I am off to Cleveland for a dog show (if the weather isn't too dicey) I'd appreciate any answer you might have about this cropping I'm having trouble with. If I figure that out..I'll be a happy camper (for a while) ;-)

thanks AGAIN!!

-Jill
wiscoy wrote on 12/14/2002, 9:14 AM
Hi again.. I think I figured out what I was doing wrong.when I was cropping the frame, I wasn't going all the way to the end with it..I was just doing the frame in the view window. I need to play around with this some more.

From what I can see, the view in the preview window to the right, is not what you actually end up with when the video is rendered, is it? When I crop a piece of video, I have that window that opens on the left, where I can drag the frame around, and that changes the the view of the video in the video window on the right, I thought what I would end up with would be the video that I saw in the right hand window, but that's not right.

Another thing that is different..I see when you trim video and place it in the time line somewhere else, all the *untrimed* video is tucked in behind it. Does the way I am trying to explain this make any sense? ;-)

Ok, I am off to the dog show now and will be back tomorrow afternoon.

thanks again,

J
Chienworks wrote on 12/14/2002, 5:58 PM
Jill, this may or may not sound helpful, but i think you're trying too hard to crop. It should be much easier than what you seem to be going through. What you see in the preview window in the lower right corner should be the same thing you see when you render. When you crop, the dashed line represents the outline of the screen. Move this line in smaller to zoom in on a smaller part of the picture ... which will then become large enough to fill the frame. That's really all there is to it. The one fancier thing you can do is to zoom in on one part of the image, click the [End] button and zoom in on another part. Then the image will Pan from one place to the other when played back.

When you say "tucked in behind", do you mean that you can pull the edges out and see the part you trimmed off? If so, then this is normal. Trimming, splitting, cropping, cutting, etc. does not change the clip at all. All you're doing is selecting what part of it you want to use on the timeline. The whole clip is still intact and you can change your trim in/out points any time you want, even after you have placed the trimmed clip on the timeline.

If you mean that you still have another copy of the clip on the timeline, then i would guess that when you use your copy & paste method, you're not deleting the original version. Is that possibly what you're seeing?
discdude wrote on 12/14/2002, 6:55 PM
> I remember when I first got PhotoImpact for graphic editing..I looked around and
> said **I'll NEVER be able to learn this stuff*

I have PhotoImpact. I'm impressed that you know how to use it. If you can learn your way around Ulead's UI, Video Factory should be no problem.

I hate to say it but I thought Photoshop was easier to learn than PhotoImpact (gasp!).
wiscoy wrote on 12/15/2002, 8:54 PM
The weather co-operated and I made it back from the dog show in Cleveland . Now back to this cropping and trimming confusion... it DOES sound like I'm trying too hard , doesn't it? ;-) I need to sit down and just keep at it.

Thanks for the input Chienworks.. I thought that what I saw in the lower right hand preview window was supposed to be what I got when rendered, but it wasn't.. it was for the first few seconds, but then it went back to the full frame (uncropped) I have to be doing something wrong when I am doing the actual cropping. I think I may have been using the *end** command you were just talking about.. and panning.

I almost wish I hadn't started with Video Wave.. I'm sure that's affecting the learning curve (or lack of) ;-)

I'll keep plugging away at it.. I will be doing allot of trimming and cutting. Most of my video work has to do with the show dog stuff, and there is always allot that needs to be edited out.

And yes, when I said **tucked in behind** that is exactly what I meant. ;-) That is so different for me coming from Video Wave where you work with a story board.. when I would crop or trim video with VW, I would be actually just splicing pieces of **JUST** what I wanted out of the tape and placing it on the story board. When I first discovered all the **tucked behind** video with VF, I thought perhaps I was doing something wrong.

I think the **Storyboard** way of doing this in VW was simpler to use, but I think the way VF handles it will offer much more flexibility, that is once I learn how to get around in it. I can see it taking me months of playing around in it to even start feeling comfortable in it.

I want to thank ALL of you for being so patient with me and answering my questions. You have to know that your generosity is invaluable to *newbies* like myself.

Thanks!!
-Jill