JCC Video Editing Tutorials

If you wish to produce a DVD with several clips of movies and wish it to start with a menu so that the user can select which clip to view this is how to do it.

Some of the photos showing what to do are too large for the blog so if you want to see more just click on the photo and you will get to its source for a better view.

In Pinnacle, load your clips using the folder icon and, select the location you have stored your clips. Select the first one you want and open it to Pinnacle. It will appear in boxes on the left hand side. Select all clips (either drag across all boxes or select EDIT, then Select all.) Drag to timeline. (or you can even drag each box individually).

Now add all other clips.

Return your cursor to the beginning of the first clip.

Now select Toolbox from the top tab and then select Set Menu Links

Click on Create Menu this will open a pop-up box asking if you want to open Pinnacles own templates (album) or the editor. In this case we want to make our own so check the box Open menu editor then click OK.

You now have the familiar titling interface.

Firstly we want to select a background. At this point you can select a Pinnacle background or, click on the folder icon (creates new pop-up box then you can then scroll to where you have a suitable picture stored, click on it and it will fill the title space.

Next, click on the finger icon to select which Buttons you want and select by double clicking it from the new gallery. Now you can resize it by clicking on it and dragging the corner handles to the size you want.

(TIP: when you have the right size click EDIT, COPY PASTE and a duplicate will appear, drag this to where you want it positioned, repeat PASTE for more if you want them).

Once you have all your Buttons placed on the background, click OK which returns you to the timeline.

The Menu Editing box is still open and now you want to create the individual clips in the buttons you have just made.

Place your cursor on the first button and click once, (it will turn the borders green) Now, place a tick in the box marked RETURN AFTER EVERY CHAPTER. You will notice that M1 appears over the title frame. Move your cursor to the beginning of the first clip on the timeline and select the first round button on the menu editor (place the pointer on it and it will say “place a chapter link” click on it. You will notice C1 has appeared at the start of the clip and the clip is inside the button in the preview window. Now put your cursor on the start of the second clip and change the chapter number to 2 (C2 has now appeared at the start of this clip. Repeat this process till all your clips have been tagged. (Always remember to change the chapter number incrementally).

If you want your clips to play whilst on display in the button boxes, click in the box marked Motion Thumbnails

Now click OK and return to timeline

Finally, you need to increase the display time of the title you have created so drag the end of the title clip to 15 or 20 seconds.

If you want to add music to the title clip you can do so using any stored music or CD you have, go to Album tab and select Music and either scroll to where your music is stored or to the drive of your music CD.

To check all is in order, click on DVD on the preview monitor and then enlarge to full screen, test each button by placing the pointer on it and you will see it highlight, click to play.

Now you should go to "Make Movie" and burn directly to disc (choose whether DVD,SVCD etc)

Congratulations, You are now able to make your own designer menus for DVDs

Sunday, 6 April 2008

JCC VidEd HELP

HELP!!!!!
Where to go and what to do

Video Editing Weblog
http://jccvidedtutorials.blogspot.com/

Beginners

nCapturing Video

nBasic Editing

nMaking your Movie

nMoving On

nCreating Overlay & Full Screen Titles

nAdding “Smartsound” music to your movie

nAdvanced

nAdding CD tracks to your Movie

nAdding CD/DVD content to your Movie

nAdding a Voice-Over track

nCutting Edge (how to trim Clips)

nMiscellaneous

nConverting Analogue to Digital

Simple but often forgotten

TIP 1

Get the fastest CPU you can afford

The faster your CPU, the less it will take to render your video project. This becomes an important consideration if your project is large and/or complicated, or if for some other reason you have a lot of rendering to do.

TIP 2

Get as much RAM as you can get.

For some reason NLE video editing programs are insatiable when it comes to RAM. The more RAM your computer has, the less likely it is to crash while you edit. It is recommended a minimum of 768 MB of RAM, but really, the more the better.

TIP 1

Before installing ANY Studio product, you are advised to

close down all other running programs:

press CTRL-ALT-DEL and 'END TASK'

for each running program in turn EXCEPT for EXPLORER (which is actually Windows itself!) and SYSTRAY.

TIP 4

Get a large dedicated hard disk for your video files.

Remember that DV footage occupies approximately 200 MB per minute when saved as a high-quality AVI file. The truth is that there is virtually no limit to how much disk space you can use up. If you are serious about editing video, you will never regret buying an enormous hard disk.

TIP 5

DEFRAGMENT THE HARD DRIVE

Hard drives can become fragmented over time, so it is important to defragment the hard drive on a regular basis. Alternatively, if you use a second hard drive for your captures (as you should), and work on only one movie at a time, you can delete everything on the drive.

TIP 6

Before using ANY Studio product, you are advised to

close down all other running programs:

press CTRL-ALT-DEL and 'END TASK'

for each running program in turn EXCEPT for EXPLORER (which is actually Windows itself!) and SYSTRAY.

Useful Websites

http://declic-video-fx.com/Pinnacle-Studio/Tips-Tricks.aspx

nhttp://www.mikeshaw.co.uk/

nhttp://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/242171

nhttp://www.digital-director.tv/index.php

nhttp://www.videoforums.co.uk/pinnacle-studio-edition-including-avid-xpress-liquid/

nhttp://forums.pinnaclesys.com/forums/148849/ShowThread.aspx

Sunday, 27 May 2007

The Cutting Edge

Pinnacle & Cutting Edge

Get off to a good START

Captures

Ensure you select the Capture Folder and Scene Detection Option first pinnacle/004.gif

Time Line

Working in the Time Line Editing Mode and extend the time line to get a better visible view of the individual clips. Ensure you have the Clock symbol when extending the line

Cutting

1. Double click on a Clip to see the Trimming Screen. Trim from either end and when satisfied close the screen.

2. On the Video Track move the cursor to the edge of the clips until it is a single or double arrow. This will cut the clip back or extend it. Play the clip to ensure it is correct

3. Play and Pause the clip to where you want to cut it. Click on the Razor blade. Continue to play to the end of the cut ,pause and click on the blade again. Make sure the part to want to cut is highlighted in blue and click on the rubbish bin. Your unwanted footage will be deleted.

4. If one of the Clips from the capture is very long then sub-divide it. In the capture screen right click on the clip that is long and select subdivide. Input the number of seconds required. This way you can then bring down shorter portions of the capture.

5. If your timeline has a group of small clips which can make it difficult to insert transitions. Then select the small clips, right click and select the option to combine clips. This will join them together as one video clip. Again play to ensure then play smoothly. Combine Clips Options only apply to previously cut items.

Transitions

These have a default time but this can be either extended or shortened. However it should be noted that a transitions will shorten each video clip on either side. A 2 second transition will take 1 sec off each clip.

Project

Save your project frequently!

Making Movie Option – if selecting Make File then Save it in a different folder from the captured video and most certainly a different name. Suggest that you have a naming convention that identifies captures from projects.

Examples

Capmyhouse for the video capture and projmyhouse for the edited footage.

The file extension is determined when you select what type of file you want to create. It can be .avi or .mpg or wmv etc

Auxiliary Files

These are automatically created during a project rendering. Remember they do take up a lot of hard disc space and should be cleared after the project has been finished. They can easily be identified by _zmyhouse.avi the underscore and the z in front of the name. DO NOT DELETE THESE UNTIL THE VIDEO IS IN THE CAN!

Good Luck

Sylvia

May 2007

Thursday, 26 April 2007

Grabbee ii Video Converter

This is a link to obtain an analogue to digital converter for changing your VHS tapes into digital format so you can edit them in Pinnacle.

http://www.serif.com/SerifExtra/TemplatePages/Product/258/183/1.htm