Trimmer question. - General, not technical

Ross-Jackson wrote on 6/19/2021, 5:20 AM

I have a couple of old videos that instruct about Vegas Pro 12 and Vegas Pro 13. They are really good. I'm using them as my learning base for my new purchase of Vegas Movie Studio 17 Platinum. I am also using the tutorials available from this forum.

One thing I find puzzling is the use of the trimmer. In the older tutorials, the trimmer is used to prepare clips for the time line. It is considered as an integral and basic part of instruction. In the newer tutorials the trimmer is not even mentioned or used. All work on the clips is done in the time line, using the preview window as confirmation.

Am I wrong in learning to use the trimmer for preparation? I am getting quite competent in either way. However, am I limiting my learning of the new version of VMS and Vegas Pro by using the trimmer?

Will amending the clip in the time line create a larger file when a movie is completed?

Excuse my lack of technical statement.

Regards

Ross

Comments

Dexcon wrote on 6/19/2021, 5:38 AM

Am I wrong in learning to use the trimmer for preparation?

There's nothing wrong at all in knowing how to use the trimmer - in fact its good to know how to use it. Whether you use the trimmer to trim media or do the trimming on the timeline is usually by personal preference IMO.

Generally, I just use the trimmer for previewing events from the Explorer window, and usually the only times I use the trimmer to 'trim' is if the media event is very long and I only need a snippet from it. The trimmer is good to roughly select the wanted snippet and then move that snippet to the timeline for finer trimming.

Will amending the clip in the time line create a larger file when a movie is completed?

Whether you trim an event on the timeline or in the trimmer will not make any difference at all. The final render will only render the edited/trimmed media that is on the timeline regardless of whether that editing/trimming took place in the trimmer or the on the timeline. The trimmer does not alter the length or size of the original event - it just lets you select a portion of the event in the same way that occurs when you shorten an event on the timeline.

Ross-Jackson wrote on 6/19/2021, 11:41 AM

Dexcon

Thank you. I understand the difference now. From the trimmer, the clip is set to the in and out. Can't go beyond or before the markers. Using the 'S' twice in the time line allows me to extend either end without a problem. Simple now, but confusing to begin with.

Ross

Former user wrote on 6/19/2021, 12:12 PM

The trimmer is good if you have a lot of scenes you shot, you can weed out the extra before addiing to timeline I use the timeline for editing if I have one long scene that I need to slice down.

Ross-Jackson wrote on 6/19/2021, 3:06 PM

DougT

Have to agree. Using the facility of the Subclip has been so beneficial

Marco. wrote on 6/19/2021, 3:12 PM

Another good use for the trimmer is to apply markers which are based on the clips itself, not on the timeline.

Ross-Jackson wrote on 6/19/2021, 5:21 PM

Marco

Thank you. Have not yet begun to use or understand markers. I think it is something I need to look at.

Regards

Ross

studio-4 wrote on 6/19/2021, 9:47 PM

Sorry for the add-on question: How do you jump from marker to marker? (i.e., Is there a hotkey?)

Dexcon wrote on 6/19/2021, 11:54 PM

How do you jump from marker to marker?

On the timeline, use Ctrl+left arrow to go to the previous marker, and Ctrl+right arrow to go to the next marker to the R.

You should find under Help on the top of the Vegas window a selection called Keyboard Shortcuts which lists all the shortcuts (hotkeys). The shortcuts are actually in the second last section of the user manual.

studio-4 wrote on 6/20/2021, 12:47 AM

@Dexcon

Cool! Thanks again, man!

Former user wrote on 6/20/2021, 6:08 AM

@studio-4 you can also jump to a specific marker by typing its number on the number buttons across the top of the keyboard.

studio-4 wrote on 6/24/2021, 4:19 PM

@Former user

Oh, great tip, Doug! Thanks! Going print-out that hot-key list from the manual right now! Still have to bookmark the help-menu workaround link (searching Vegas' help crashes VMS build 221 on my machine).