Pinnacle Studio 12 manual

Pinnacle S tudio V ersion 12 Including S tudio, S tudio Plus and S tudio Ultimate Your Life in Movies[...]

ii Pinnacle Studio Special thanks to Markus Duerr, Trav is White, Bertrand de Vregille, Richard Edgley, Jörg Tewes, Jan Piro s, Jörg Weselmann, Mikel Zwissler and Sulekha Somasekh ar. Documentation: Nick Sullivan Copyright ©1996-200 8 Pinnacle Sy stems, Inc. Al l rights re served. Please respect the rights of artists a nd creators. Conte nt such[...]

Table of contents iii Table of contents BEFORE YOU START .................................................. XI  Equipment requir ements ........................................................................ xii  Abbreviations and conventions ............................................................. xiv  On-line help .................[...]

iv Pinnacle Studio Analog captur e .......................................................................................... 30  Capture quality options .......................................................................... 31  Audio and video leve ls – ana log ............................................................ 31  Importi[...]

Table of contents v CHAPTER 5: VI DEO CLIP S ........................................ 81  Video clip basics ....................................................................................... 82  Adding video clips to y our movie ......................................................... 82  Working with multiple capture files .........[...]

vi Pinnacle Studio Video effects library ............................................................................... 136  Standard effe cts ...................................................................................... 138  Auto color co rrection ........................................................................... 138  N[...]

Table of contents vii CHAPTER 9: T RANSITION S ..................................... 169  Transition types and t heir uses ............................................................ 171  Previewing transitions in y our movie .................................................. 174  Audio trans itions .......................................[...]

viii Pinnacle Studio CHAPTER 13: SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC ........ 229  The Timeline audio trac ks ................................................................... 232  The CD audio tool ............................................................................... 234  The Backgrou nd music tool ........................................[...]

Table of contents ix APPENDIX A: SETUP OPTION S .............................. 283  Capture source settings ........................................................................ 284  Capture format settings ........................................................................ 287  Project preferences .................................[...]

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Before you start xi Before you start Thank you for purchasing Pinnacle Studio. We hope you enjoy using the software. This manual covers a ll versions of Studio, including Studio Plus. Differences between versions will be noted as applicable. Most of the time, the word “Studio” w ill be used generically to refer to all versions. If you have not [...]

xii Pinnacle Studio Equipment requirements In addition to your Studio so ftware, an efficient Studio editing system requires certain levels of hardware performance as noted in th is section. Remember too that while specifications are important, they do not tell the whole story: the proper functioning of hardware devices can also depend on manufactu[...]

Before you start xiii GeForce 6 recommended); 256 MB required for HD and AVCHD editing (ATI Radeon 9600+ or NVIDIA GeForce 6 recommended). • DirectX 9 or higher or compatible sound card. • 1 GB of disk space to install software and 3+ GB to install bonus content. • DVD-ROM drive to install software. The following items are optional: • CD-R([...]

xiv Pinnacle Studio Video capture hardware Studio can capture video from a variety of digital and analog sources. Please see “C apture hardware” on page 23. Video output hardware Studio can output video to: • Any HDV, DV or Digital8 camcorder or VCR. This requires an OHCI-compliant IEEE-1394 (FireWire) port (as provided by Pinnacle Studio DV)[...]

Before you start xv HDV: A “high-definition video” format that allows video in frame sizes of 1280x720 or 1440x1080 to be recorded in MPEG-2 format on DV media. 1394: The term “1394” refers to OHCI-compliant IEEE-1394, FireWire, DV or i. LINK interfaces, ports and cables. Analog: The term “analog” refers to 8mm, Hi8, VHS, SVHS, VHS-C or[...]

xvi Pinnacle Studio On-line help Two kinds of immediate help are always available while you are working in Studio: • Help file: Click the help button in the Studio main menu bar, or select the Help ¾ Help topics menu, or press F1 to open Studio’s help file. • Tool tips: To find out what a button or other Studio control does, pause your mouse[...]

Chapter 1: Using Studio 1 CHAPTER 1: Using Studio Creating movies with Studio is a three-step process: 1. Capture: Import source video material – your “raw footage” – to your PC hard drive. Possible sources include analog videotape (8 mm, VHS etc.), digital videotape (HDV, DV, Digital8 ), and live video from a video camera, camcorder or web[...]

2 Pinnacle Studio storage medium: tape, VCD, S-VCD, DVD, AVI, MPEG, RealVideo or Windows Media. Make Movie mode is covered in Chapter 15: Making your movie . Setting the mode Select which step of the movie-making process you want to work on by clicking one of the three mode buttons at the top left of the Studio window: When you switch modes, the St[...]

Chapter 1: Using Studio 3 • The Premium button lets you expand Studio by purchasing and installing premium content. (See page 11 for details.) All other controls on the Studio screen are dedicated to tasks within the current mode. Setting options Most options in Studio are set using two tabbed dialog boxes. The first lets you control options rela[...]

4 Pinnacle Studio  E DIT MODE Studio opens in Edit mode each time it is launched, because that is the mode you use most often. The Edit mode display includes three main areas. The Album stores resources you will use in your movies, including your captured video scenes. The Movie Window is wh ere you create your edited movie by arranging video an[...]

Chapter 1: Using Studio 5 The Player The Player displays a preview of your edited movie, o r of the item currently se lected in the Album. It consists of two m ain areas: a preview window and playback controls . The preview window displays video images. The playback contro ls allow you to play the video, or go to an exact position within it. These [...]

6 Pinnacle Studio for previewing your DVD, VCD or S-VCD disc productions, including menu interaction. The preview window This is a point of focus in Studio because you use it so often, especially for previewi ng your movie. It can also be used to display: • Any type of Album content. • Still images or titles from your m ovie. • Changes to vid[...]

Chapter 1: Using Studio 7 above the Player to the left of the Undo button when reorganizing the display is possible. Drag the control knob rightward s to increase the Player size, or leftwards to decrease it. The leftmost knob position corresponds to the smallest size, which is also the default. Resizing the Player optimizes your use of screen “r[...]

8 Pinnacle Studio movie uses disc menu navigation, you can play it back as an optical disc with in teractive on-screen menus by using the DVD playback controls . Both groups of controls are covered below. The full-screen preview button: This button, just above the top right-hand corn er of the preview window, switches to a full-screen previe w. It [...]

Chapter 1: Using Studio 9 scan for a particular piece of video you want to work with. Click the buttons repeatedly to loop through the speed factors. Loop: This button causes the currently-selected clips in the Movie Window to play back repeatedly. This feature is especially convenient whilst selecting and editing add-on eff ects and transitions. C[...]

10 Pinnacle Studio you move the scrubber, the preview will jum p frames. The point at which it does so depends on your hardware. The smoothness of the preview also diminishes as the overall length of the material being scrubbed increases. The counter The counter displays the current playback position in hours, minutes, seconds and frames. You can d[...]

Chapter 1: Using Studio 11 Further editing topics Please see the following for details on specific editing topics: • Chapter 5: Video clips • Chapter 6: Themes and them e editing • Chapter 7: Video effects • Chapter 8: Two-track editing with Studio Plus • Chapter 9: Transitions • Chapter 10: Still images • Chapter 11: Disc menus • C[...]

12 Pinnacle Studio Premium content items, like the Hollywood FX transition whose icon appears at left, are listed in Studio with a small treasure ches t symbol in the top-left corner of the icon. Such items can be upgraded by purchasing a code called an activation key . Each key activates a small group or theme pack of related content. You can easi[...]

Chapter 1: Using Studio 13 These buttons can be found whenever premium content is on display within Studio. The one above, when seen in the Audio effects tool and the Video effects tool, would let you activ ate a pack of audio or video filters. You may enc ounter similar buttons in the Album that let you purchase all the media on a particular Album[...]

14 Pinnacle Studio If you don’t have an Internet connection... You can purchase and apply premium content activation keys even if you don’t have an Internet connection on the computer where Studio is installed. When you click one of the unl ock links within Studio, a dialog will be displayed s howing information needed for ordering the specific[...]

Chapter 1: Using Studio 15 current version of the software. Among the item types handled by the wizard are: • Titles • Disc menus • Sound effects • Hollywood FX 3D transitions • RTFx video effects To launch the wizard, look in the Studio group on your Start ¾ All Programs menu, and select Tools ¾ Transfer Content .[...]

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Chapter 2: Capturing video 17 CHAPTER 2: Capturing video Capture is the process of impor ting video from a video source such as a camcorder to a file on your PC’s hard drive. Clips from this “c apture file” can then be used in Studio as ingredients of your edited movies. You can open capture files into the Album in Studio’s Edit mode (see C[...]

18 Pinnacle Studio This opens the Capture mode interface, enabling you to set up and carry out video capture. The details of the interface are somewhat different for analog than for digital video sources. Topics in this chapter • “The Capture mode interface” (below) intro duces the controls and displays for both analog and digital captures. ?[...]

Chapter 2: Capturing video 19 Digital capture If your video source is digi tal, your Capture mode screen will look like this: The Album, at the top left of the screen, displays icons representing the video scenes as th ey are captured. The Player, at top right, lets you view the incoming video while cueing for capture, and m onitor the captur e its[...]

20 Pinnacle Studio Analog capture Both the Album and the Player are used in analog as well as digital captures, so when you capture f rom an analog source the top half of the screen is the s ame as shown and described above for digital sources. Not the bottom half of th e screen, however. It now features a second version of the Diskometer, with two[...]

Chapter 2: Capturing video 21 of video that can be accommodated, which depends on both the available space and the configured capture quality . Capture quality settings are selected using the preset buttons that are d ispla yed on the Diskometer for some capture devices, or by entering custom settings. See “Capture source settings” (page 284) a[...]

22 Pinnacle Studio The Camcorder Controller This panel of transport cont rols is shown in Capture mode if you are capturing fr om a digital video source. (Analog devices must be cued and operated manually.) The Camcorder Controller and a close-up of the transport controls. The counter window above the control buttons displays the current source tap[...]

Chapter 2: Capturing video 23 Performing the actual capture is a straightforward step- by-step procedure (see page 24). As the capture proceeds, Studio automatically d etects the natural breaks in the incoming video and divides the material into “scenes”. Upon detection, each scene is added to the Album, where it is represen ted by an icon of i[...]

24 Pinnacle Studio To select a capture device: 1. Click the Setup ¾ Capture Source menu command. The Capture source options panel appears. 2. Select the devices you want to use from the Video and Audio dropdown lists in the Capture devices area, and click OK . See “ Capture source settings” on page 284 for detailed information about the Captur[...]

Chapter 2: Capturing video 25 Further information relating to some of the steps can be found elsewhere in this chapter. Also see Appendix A: Setup Options (page 283) for detailed descriptions of the Capture source and Capture format options panels. To capture video: 1. Verify that your equipment is properly connected. For a digital capture, your ca[...]

26 Pinnacle Studio 4. Click the Start capture button on the Diskom eter. The Capture Video dialog box is displayed. 5. Type in a name for the video capture file you are about to create, or accept the default name. You can optionally also enter a limiting duration for the capture. 6. If you are capturing from an analog camcorder or VCR, start playba[...]

Chapter 2: Capturing video 27 icon is created in the Video Scenes section of the Album for each scene detected. Depending on which capture device you are using, automatic scene detection is carried out either in real time during capture, or as a separate step imm ediately after capture is com pleted. You can configure scene detection using the opti[...]

28 Pinnacle Studio  D IGITAL CAPTURE This section covers aspects of capturing from a DV source deck (camcorder or VCR) and a 1394 port. To read about capturing from analog hardware, please see “Analog capture” on page 30. You have two choices for the way the video data is encoded and compressed in full-q uality captures. For most purposes, D[...]

Chapter 2: Capturing video 29 directly from the camcorder tape to your PC hard drive with no changes or additional compression. Capturing DV video does consume a lot of drive space, so you may want to pick and choose sm all segments to capture instead of the entire tape if space is an issue on your system. You can calculate the amount of disk space[...]

30 Pinnacle Studio Audio and video levels – digital With digital captures, you are using audio and video that have been encoded dig itally during r ecording, right in the camera. When you tr ansfer the footage through a 1394 port to your computer, the data remains in the compressed digital format throughout, so you cannot adjust the audio or vide[...]

Chapter 2: Capturing video 31 • A USB video camera or webcam. If you are using a digital cam corder connected to your computer via a 1394 port, please refer instead to “DV capture” on page 28. Capture quality options With most analog capture hardware, Studio offers three preset quality choices – Good , Better and Best – plus a Custom opti[...]

32 Pinnacle Studio Video (L) and audi o (R) panels for setting levels during analog capture. Particular capture devices may offer fewer options than are shown and discussed he re. For instance, with hardware that doesn’t support audio captures in stereo, a balance control will not a ppear on the audio panel. Video Choose the type of video you are[...]

Chapter 2: Capturing video 33  I MPORTING VIDEO FROM DVD Although it isn’t capture in the strict sense, you can also bring video into Studio by importing it from a non- protected DVD disc or a DVD disc image on your hard drive. The File ¾ Import DVD Titles menu command opens a dialog that lets you locate and preview the DVD material of intere[...]

34 Pinnacle Studio 3. Enter a nam e for the DVD. This will be used as part of the imported file names. For exam ple, if you name the DVD or image “My DVD”, and import Title 12, the resulting file name will be: My DVD_Title_12.mpg 4. Select the title o r titles you wish to import by checking the boxes next to the names. You can use the player co[...]

Chapter 2: Capturing video 35 Devices that often contain importable media include: • External optical disc driv es, hard drives and flash memory drives • Camcorder or digital camera on-board drives of any of these types The Show Video and Show Photos checkboxes let you specify which kinds of media files to list. By d efault, both video and phot[...]

36 Pinnacle Studio You can select multiple files to import by using standard Windows mouse and keyboard commands, along with the Select All and Deselect All buttons as required. Import options Check Rename Files and type into the provided edit box if you would like the na mes of all the imported files to share a common stem. For instance, if you ch[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 37 CHAPTER 3: The Album The Video Scenes section of the Album. Click the tabs down the left side of the Album to access the materials in the other sections. The source materials you need for making a movie are stored in the various sections of the Album, each of which is accessed by its own tab as follows: Video Scenes: This se[...]

38 Pinnacle Studio Transitions: This Album section contains fades, dissolves, slides, and other transition types, including the elaborate Hollywood FX transitions. To use a transition, position it next to or between video clips and graphics in the Movie Window. See “The Transitions sec tion”, page 55. Themes: A Theme in Studio is a set of match[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 39 are: wav , mp3 , mpa , m4a , wma , avi and ac3 . See “The Sound Effects section”, page 61. Music: In this Album section you can locate and use music files stored on your hard drive. The formats supported are: wav , mp3 , avi , mpa and wma . See “ The Music section”, page 62. Using the Album Each section of the Album [...]

40 Pinnacle Studio particular disk folder. Each of these sections – Titles, Images, Disc Menus, Sound Effects and Music – has a default folder assigned to it, but you can select a different folder if desired. The icons in the Titles section represent files stored in a selected source folder on your hard drive. The dropdown list at the top of th[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 41  T HE V IDEO S CENES SECTION This is where the editing process really begins – in the Video Scenes section of the Album with your captured raw footag e. In a typical production, your first step will probably be to drag som e scenes from the Album down into the Movie W indow (see Chapter 5: Video Clips ). In the Album, s[...]

42 Pinnacle Studio To browse for a video file in the Video Scenes section of the Album, select the Files radio button at the top of the right-hand Album page. View options Both the Files and Scenes modes support m ultiple view options that let you tailor the display to your nee ds by showing more or less information about each Album item. Studio pr[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 43 The two view options available in Scenes mode are: n Thumbnail view and o Comment view. Interface features The Video Scenes section offers several special interface features: • Scenes that have been added to the Movie Window are distinguished in the Album by a green checkmark. The checkmark remains as long as any clip in t[...]

44 Pinnacle Studio Summary of operations Because of its central role, the Video Scenes s ection of the Album provides an exte nsive set of operations. These are covered below in the following topics : • Opening a captured video file • Viewing captured video • Selecting scenes and files • Displaying scene and file information • Comment vie[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 45 The capture folder’s real name is My vide os , but Windows Explorer and Studio customarily call it by an alias, Shared videos . This distinguishes it from My videos in the user’s personal documents folder. See The Video Scenes Section (page 41) for details about modes and view opti ons when working with video scenes in t[...]

46 Pinnacle Studio Opening a file When you open a video file, icons are displayed that represent the scenes in the file: Three ways to open a digital video file: • Select the file name on the dropdown list when the Video Scenes section is in Scenes mode. • Double-click a file listed in Files mode. • Click the browse for file button and use th[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 47 Video aspect ratios Most digital video files provi de format informat ion that allows Studio to detect the frame aspect ratio of 4:3 or 16:9 automatically. If th e f ile does not provide aspect ratio information, Studio defaults to the standard 4:3 format. The Aspect Ratio 4:3 and Aspect Ratio 16:9 commands on the Album menu[...]

48 Pinnacle Studio Viewing captured video Individual or multiple scene s in the open capture d video file can be viewed at any time. To view captured video star ting at a selected scene: 1. Click on the scene’s ico n in the Album. The Player displays the first frame of the selected scene. 2. Click the Play button in the Player. The Player now pla[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 49 Previewing digital video files When a video file is selec ted in the Album’s Files mode, you can use the Player to preview the video without actually opening the file into the Album. Selecting scenes and files Studio offers a variety of wa ys to select scenes and other items in the Video Scenes section of the Album . Selec[...]

50 Pinnacle Studio • Ctrl -click to add or remove i ndividual items from the selection. • Starting with the mouse point er over a blank area of the Album page, click and drag to “m arquee” an area, selecting all the item s that intersect the area . • Use the arrow keys to navi gate the Album grid. Use the arrows in combination with Shift [...]

Chapter 3: The Album 51 Comment view In the default view f or the Scenes mode of the Video Scenes section, known as Thumbnail view , each scene is represented by a thumbnail frame icon. To see more information about each scene, switch to Comment view using any of the methods described on page 42. In comment view, editable captions are displayed for[...]

52 Pinnacle Studio Enter a keyword into the text field and click OK to highlight all Album scenes whose caption contains the keyword. The default captions are not searched – only the ones you have customized. Combining and subdividing scenes After previewing your scenes, you might want to combine or subdivide some into larger or smaller units. Su[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 53 If the scenes you selected were not all neighbors, each set of adjacent scenes is combined, but the different sets are not combined with each other. Several selected scenes (b lack) are merged into two longer scenes. Having no neighbors, scene 4 is unaffected, even though it was part of the selection. To subdivide scenes in [...]

54 Pinnacle Studio You can subdivide these s cenes still further, if desired, down to the minimum duration of one second. Three selected scenes are subdivided to a duration of five seconds. The vertical stripes indicate five- second divisions within each scene. The uneven clip timings at right occur b ecause time left after subdivision is added to [...]

Chapter 3: The Album 55 To redetect scenes: 1. If you need to recomb ine a ny scenes, first select the subdivided scenes, then apply the Album ¾ Combine Scenes menu command. 2. Select the scenes you wish to redetect. 3. From the Album m enu, select either Detect Scenes by Video Content or Detect Scenes by Shooting Time and Date . A progress window[...]

56 Pinnacle Studio a starting set of unrestr icted Hollywood FX 3-D transitions. Obtaining more transitions Besides those installed with Studio, additional packs of Hollywood FX transitions are available for purchase through the Pinnacle web-site. For more information about purchasing prem ium content for Studio, see “E xpanding Studio” on page[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 57  T HE M ONTAGE ® T HEMES SECTION Editing based on Montage ® Themes is a powerful feature unique to Studio. Each theme is a set of matching templa tes. Use the dropdown list to select the Theme whose templates you want to view. The templates available for each them e provide slots for your video, photos, captions and set[...]

58 Pinnacle Studio  T HE T ITLES SECTION This section of the Album contains a collection of text titles in a variety of styles. They can be used in your movie as either full-screen or overlay titles. The difference is that in an overlay title the transparent background is replaced by other material (usually a video clip), whereas in a full-scree[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 59  T HE S TILL I MAGES SECTION This section of the Album displays thumbnail icons of image files, which may include grabbed video frames, photographs and bitmapped drawings. Most standard image file formats are supported. As with video scenes , images that are in use in your current movie are indicated by a green checkmark [...]

60 Pinnacle Studio As with video scenes and ot her visual resources, disc menus that are in use in your movie are distinguished in the Album by a green checkmark symbol. For information on using disc menus in your movie, see Chapter 11: Disc menus . The Disc Menus folder: The icons in the Disc Menus section represent files in the folder named at th[...]

Chapter 3: The Album 61  T HE S OUND E FFECTS SECTION Studio comes with a wide range of ready-to- use sound effects. These wav files are installed into a number of folders, covering categories such as “animals”, “bells” and “cartoons”. The Sound Effects folder: This section of the Album displays the sound files cont ained in one disk[...]

62 Pinnacle Studio  T HE M USIC SECTION This section of the Album displays the music files in a folder on your hard drive. To use a file drag it onto the Music track or a nother audio track on the Movie Window Timeline, The Music folder: The wav , mp3 and other audio files come from the folder named at the top of each left-hand page in the secti[...]

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 63 CHAPTER 4: The Movie Window The Movie Window, where you build your movie from the raw materials in the Album , occupies the bottom half of the screen in Studio’s Ed it mode. To access th e Movie Window, first switch to Edit mode if you are not already there: The Movie Window title bar c ontains several important con[...]

64 Pinnacle Studio To the right of the toolbox buttons is a text area where the project file name is displayed. Status and warning messages are also displayed in this area when required. The next controls relate to clip markers , which are lik e bookmarks attached to clips in your project. In a new project, the only visible c lip marker control is [...]

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 65 No information is lost. If the item is an Album scene, it is split at the indicated point into two shorter scenes. If the item is a clip in the Movie W indow, it is duplicated and automatically trimmed to the split poin t. The razorblade button can be used with the track- locking buttons in the Movie Window’s Timeli[...]

66 Pinnacle Studio for the current track is reversed. That is, on th e main video track, Ctrl+Delete leaves a gap when the clip is removed, while on the other tracks, the gap on the track is closed up. In neither case are other tracks affected. You can also access the delete operations through the right-button context menu for clips on the Timeline[...]

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 67  M OVIE W INDOW VIEWS The Movie Window provides th ree different views of your project: Timeline , Storyboard and Text . Select the one you want to use by clicking the view selection buttons in the upper right co rner of the Movie Window. Storyboard view Storyboard view shows the order of video scenes and transitio[...]

68 Pinnacle Studio • Original (or “synchronous”) audio: The original audio track contains the audio that was captured along with the video from your camera. You can manipulate the audio clips on this track to achieve various effects using insert-editing and split- editing techniques. See “I nsert editing” (page 100) and “Split editing?[...]

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 69 soundtrack can also make use of mp3 and other music files (see page 229). • Disc menus, chapter marks and return-to- menu links: This is an extra track that appears above the video track whenever the movie has at least one disc menu. See Chapter 11: Disc menus for information. Because many editing operations can be [...]

70 Pinnacle Studio dently of the others, thereby excluding it from editing and playback operations. The padlock buttons along the right edge of the Movie Window, can be clicked to toggle locking for the corresponding track. Track- locking gives Studio insert-edit and split-edit capability (see Chapter 5: Video clips ). Track muting and hiding The a[...]

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 71 The status line: The status line area on the left of the Movie Window title bar displays m essages as you place clips and perform other actions. Placement symbols: While you are dragging a clip into position on the Timeline, Studio provides feedback to tell you whether the current placement of the clip is valid. The m[...]

72 Pinnacle Studio control in the group is the add marker button. The remaining controls app ear only after the f irst marker has been added. In a new project, the only visible clip marker control is the Add Marker button n . Clicking the button (or pressing your ‘M’ key) creates a marker at the position of the Timeline scrubber. Once a marker [...]

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 73 The clip marker controls include: • Add marker, Delete marker: In Timeline view, the add marker button is enabled while any clip is selected, provided there is not already a marker at the scrubber position. If a marker is present, the delete marker button appears instead. • Previous marker, Next marker: These butt[...]

74 Pinnacle Studio Text view The Movie Window Text view is a list showing the start and end tim es of clips, as well as their duration. In addition, custom names for clips are visible in this view.  T HE TOOLBOXES The toolboxes provide a convenient point-and-click interface for editing operations – adding clips to your movie, modifying existin[...]

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 75 Select the toolbox you want to open by moving your cursor over the icons. The individual buttons highlight, indicating which toolbox will open when you click. The Album is then replaced by the toolbox display, which contains two main areas: • Tool selector buttons in a panel on the left. Clicking one of these opens [...]

76 Pinnacle Studio tools, or with the Go to Title/Menu Editor command from the right-button context menu in the Movie Window. See Chapter 12: The Title Editor for full information. The Video toolbox The seven tools in this tool box modify or create visual clip types, including video clips, them es, titles, still images and disc menus. Clip properti[...]

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 77 Some theme templates also provide text captions or other parameters that allow customization. See Chapter 6: Themes and theme editing for more information. Titles: This tool lets you edit the nam es and lengths of titles. The Edit Title button provides access to the Title Editor window, where you can change the text a[...]

78 Pinnacle Studio Chroma key effects. See “The Picture-in-picture tool” (page 154) and “The Chroma key tool” (page 160) for more information. Video effects: Studio provides numerous plug-in video effects with this tool. Each video clip, theme clip or still image in your project can use effects, whether alone or in combination. Along with i[...]

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 79 Text view.) The tool’s ot her controls vary depending on the type of clip. See “Trimming with the Clip properties tool” on page 240 for more information. Volume and balance: This tool gives you master volume controls for each of the three audio tracks: original audio (audio capture d with video), sound effects a[...]

80 Pinnacle Studio Audio effects: This tool lets you apply plug-in effects to any audio clip. The popular VST standard for audio plug-ins is supported, enabling you to augment your library with add-on and third party effects. A configurable nois e reduction filter is supplied as a standard effect. Effects available in Studio Plus also include both [...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 81 CHAPTER 5: Video clips The cornerstone of most St udio video projects is the Album section containing your captured video scenes. To create your edited movie, you drag scenes from the Album into the Movie Window, where they are treated as editable video clips . This chapter explains how to set the “in” and “out” (s[...]

82 Pinnacle Studio  V IDEO CLIP BASICS The first step in creating a movie is to introduce som e video scenes from the Album into the Movie W indow, where they become editable clips . At some point you will probably also add some transitions, titles, audio and other extras, but a set of video scenes is the starting point for just about any projec[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 83 Ctrl+C for copy, Ctrl+V for paste), or se lect the desired operation from the right-button menu. When the Movie Window is in Timeline view, you can drop a video scene or clip onto any of the following: • The main video track. If the clip has associated audio, it is added to the original audio track. This video will serve[...]

84 Pinnacle Studio of the files in turn and d rag whichever scenes you want from each file into your movie. To use multiple capture files: 1. Drag scenes f rom the first capture f ile into the Movie Window. 2. Using the dropdown list or the folder button in the Video Scenes section of the Album, open the second capture file. Studio displays scenes [...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 85 format box on the Project preferen ces options panel lets you specify the format for new projects either explicitly (e.g. “NTSC Widescreen”) or im plicitly, from the format of the first clip you add to the project. The current project format is displayed as a tooltip over the project title in the Movie Window. The proj[...]

86 Pinnacle Studio some distortion. Please see “Video aspect ratios” on page 47 for more information. • Use the 2D Editor effect with keyframing to create a “pan and scan” version your video. Studios often use this technique to make their m ovies fit a standard television screen when they are transferred to videotape or DVD. There is no d[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 87 Studio is able to carry out rendering behind the scenes while you work. This featur e is controlled from the Background rendering box on the Video and audio preferences options panel. Following the dialog’s advice regarding the codec to use for background rendering may help reduce the rendering time when your final m ovi[...]

88 Pinnacle Studio long as any clip in the Movie Window belongs to that scene. • To see the original location of a clip in your source video, use the Find Scene in Album command on the right-click menu for Movie Window clips. Studio highlights the Album scene from which the selected clip is drawn. To go the other way, use Album ¾ Find Scene in P[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 89  T RIMMING VIDEO CLIPS In general, captured video s cenes contain m ore material than you actually require for your movie. “Trimming” – the process of adjusting the in and out points of a clip to remove unwanted footage – is a fundamental editing operation. No data is lost by trimming: Studio sets new start and [...]

90 Pinnacle Studio Let’s first consider the sim plest trimming case, in a movie with only one clip. Then we’ll turn to the more usual situation of trimming a single clip that is surrounded by other clips. To trim a single clip on the Timeline: 1. Delete all b ut one clip from the Tim eline. If the Timeline is empty, drag a scene in from the Alb[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 91 left and right. You can reduce the clip to as little as a single frame, or increase it up to the end of the source scene. 5. Release the mouse butto n. Th e clip is now trimmed. Multiple clips The secret to trimming a clip when m ultiple clips are on the Timeline is that you must first select the clip to be trimmed by clic[...]

92 Pinnacle Studio 4. W ith the second clip still selected, move your mouse pointer over the left edge of clip until the pointer changes to a right arrow. 5. Drag the left edge of th e second scene to the right. As you drag, the first frame of the clip is displayed in the Player. As long as the clip remains selected, you can continue to trim more v[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 93 This default trimming behavior simplifies ed iting under most circumstances, but Studi o also gives you a way to invert the behavior when needed. If you press the Ctrl key before you begin trimming a clip on the video track, neither that clip nor an y other will be repositioned, and gaps are not closed up. There is no effe[...]

94 Pinnacle Studio Trimming with the Clip properties tool Although it is possible to trim video clips directly on the Timeline with f ull frame accuracy, rapid, precise trim m ing is often easier to achieve with the Clip properties tool. To access this tool, select the clip you want to change, then use the Toolbox ¾ Modify Clip Properties menu com[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 95 Setting playback position: A scrubber control across the bottom of the tool lets you set the playback position anywhere within the clip. Y ou can also set the playback position using the counter and jog buttons located between the two preview areas. Using the counters: The positions repor ted by all three counters are rela[...]

96 Pinnacle Studio area, set their respective trim points to the current position. You can also adjust either trim point by: • Entering a value directly into its counter • Adjusting a counter field with the jog buttons • Dragging the correspon ding trim caliper The Duration text field: This field shows the length of the trimmed clip in hours,[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 97  S PLITTING AND COMBINING CLIPS If you want to insert one clip on the video track into the middle of another clip, spl it the latter in to two parts then insert the new item. “Splitting” a clip actually results in it being duplicated. B oth clips are then automatically trimmed so that the fir st ends at the split po[...]

98 Pinnacle Studio • Delete one half of the split clip, and trim out the other. To combine clips in the Movie Window: Select the clips you wish to combine, then right-click and choose Combine Clips . The operation is allowed only if the combination of clips will also be a valid clip – that is, a continuous excerpt of the source video. On the Ti[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 99 Such special edits are possi ble using the track lock buttons along the right edge of the Movie Window in Timeline view. Each of the standard tracks (all except the menu track) provides a lo ck button. See “Track locking” on page 69 for more information on track locking. A locked track is grayed out in the Timeline vie[...]

100 Pinnacle Studio Insert editing In ordinary Timeline editing, a video clip and the original audio that was captured with it are treated as a unit. Their special relations hip is symbolized in the Movie Window by the line connecting the video track indicator with the original audio track indicator, showing that the latter is dependent on the form[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 101 2. Clear space on the video track for the video clip you want to insert. Position th e Timeline scrubber at the point you want the insert ion to start and use the Split clip/scene button. Now move to the point where the insertion should end and again split the clip. Finally, delete the po rtion of video that will be repla[...]

102 Pinnacle Studio Insert editing on the original audio track The converse insert-editing operation, in which a sound clip is inserted into the original audio track over unbroken video, is needed less often but is also readily performed in Studio. The procedure is analogous to the one for inserting video: simply reverse the roles of the two tracks[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 103 video periodically cuts away from the speaker to show travel or nature scenes illustrating the lecture topic. Audio and video cut simultaneously. Instead of cutting th e audio and the video simultaneously, you might decide to let the speaker’s voice overlap into the following sc ene. This makes it clear to the audience [...]

104 Pinnacle Studio 2. Select the left-hand clip and trim its right edge to the point where you want the audio to end. 3. Lock the audio track. Now drag the right-hand edge of the same clip’s video leftward to the point where the following clip’s video should start. 4. W ith the audio track locke d, drag the second clip’s video to the left un[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 105 The J-cut In the J-cut, the new audio cuts in before the video switches. This can be effective when the second clip’s audio prepares the viewer for the material in the scene. Returning to the videotaped lecture example, let’s s ay we are now going to switch back to the speaker at the end of the interpolated footag e. [...]

106 Pinnacle Studio Note: The procedures described above for the L-cut and the J-cut are not the only possibilities. With the J- cut, for example, another method would be to trim the right-hand clip to the desired start point of the video then, with the video track locked, drag the audio portion left to overlap the audio of the left-hand clip.  [...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 107 With the visuals in place, add a ScoreFitter,CD audio or digital music ( wav , mp3 ) clip to the background music track. The duration of this clip – and not the amount of visual material you supply – determ ines the length of your music video. If you don’t supply enough visual material, SmartMovie will us e your vid[...]

108 Pinnacle Studio For video styles, you will get the best results if the starting duration of your vi deo footage is about double the length of the soundtrack. Each of the slideshow styles has its own ideal ratio between the number of pictures and the length of the song. The status balloon provides guidance for getting the proportions right. Smar[...]

Chapter 5: Video clips 109 The last configuration step is to enter the tex t to use for the opening and closing titles. Ea ch text line consists of two edit fields. Use Tab and Shift+Tab to jum p between the left and right fields. The big moment… Finally, click the Create SmartMovie button and sit back while Studio generates your movie. Using Sma[...]

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Chapter 6: Montage ® themes and theme e diting 111 CHAPTER 6: Montage ® themes and theme editing Studio’s customizable Montage ® “themes” provide a powerful but easy to learn method of achieving slideshow, animation and multitr ack editing effects. With themes you can quickly give your videos a more pr ofessional look while maintaining a c[...]

112 Pinnacle Studio The themes provided are each designed to co ver a typical need. Within each them e, the available templates are designed to complem ent one another when used in the same project. For instance, m ost themes provide an Opening template and a matchin g Ending template. Many themes also provide one or more Segue templates f or trans[...]

Chapter 6: Montage ® themes and theme e diting 113 U SING THEMES Theme templates are stored in the Themes section of the Album. The Album displays a ll the templates in a given theme, as selected from a dropdown list. To use a template, simply drag its icon from the Album into the Movie Window. Pick a theme from the dropdown list (L) to show the t[...]

114 Pinnacle Studio The Theme Editor tool allows the user to customize a theme clip by adjusting its built-in settings or specifying video and audio subclips for it to use. The editor can also be accessed with the Toolbox ¾ Edit Theme menu command. The Theme Editor tool le ts you specify theme elements such as video or image clips, property settin[...]

Chapter 6: Montage ® themes and theme e diting 115 As with menus, a special editor tool opens automatically when a theme clip is added to the movie. Creating theme clips To create a theme clip, use a ny of the standard m ethods of adding content to your project: • Drag an icon from the Themes section of the Album to the Movie Window. • Select [...]

116 Pinnacle Studio Inserting a theme clip before or after an existing clip: If you drop the new clip near the start or end of an existing theme clip, it is accordingly inserted before or after the existing clip. The placement lines that show the position of the new clip on the Timeline are drawn in green. A new theme clip, represented by the ‘co[...]

Chapter 6: Montage ® themes and theme e diting 117 A new theme clip is dropped onto the middle of the left-hand clip, replacing it. The positions of other clips are not affected. Working with theme clips on the Timeline Theme clips behave like ordinary video clips when it comes to operations like tr imming and adding transitions. When a theme clip[...]

118 Pinnacle Studio can be expanded as far as the length of the subclip will allow – indefinitely, if the s ubclip happens to be a still image. Transitions and effects Transitions can be used at the beginning and end of theme clips in the same way as with other c lip types. Video and audio effects can also be added to theme clips as usual, and ap[...]

Chapter 6: Montage ® themes and theme e diting 119 The scrolling background anim ation runs through most of this sequence. Within the animation, two customizable captions are displayed. They are represented in the dia gram below by lines on the “Animation” bar. Both capti ons are flown into and out of the frame (dark line color), with a one an[...]

120 Pinnacle Studio Segue A integrates multiple video sources. Segue B: This Segue achieves the basic aim of connecting two video clips more sim ply than the previous one. The first subclip starts at full frame, then zoom s out while rotating away from the viewer. When the reverse side of its rotating panel come s into view, the second subclip has [...]

Chapter 6: Montage ® themes and theme e diting 121 Ending: The purpose of an Ending template mirrors th at of an Opening template, and in this exam ple the internal structure is also mirrored almost exactly. Full- frame video recedes to a flying panel that gives way to animated captions – just the opposite of the Opening sequence described above[...]

122 Pinnacle Studio Using the Theme Editor tool Each theme template has its own set of slots for video and photo content, represente d by “drop zones” in the Theme Editor. Most templates have at leas t one of these; the maximum is six. Some also provide text captions and other parameters as required to customize special features. The Theme Edit[...]

Chapter 6: Montage ® themes and theme e diting 123 Working with drop zones Clearing drop zones: To delete a subclip from its drop zone, right-click th e zone and select Delete from the pop-up menu. Copying subclips to the Movie Window: To copy a subclip from a drop zone in the Them e Editor to the Timeline (or other Movie Wi ndow view), right-clic[...]

124 Pinnacle Studio now to control the start of clip slider below the zone. Move the mouse back and forth to set the start frame. As you scroll the start of clip slider, the icon in the drop zone is updated to show the new starting frame. At the same time, the Player shows the fram e at the current scrubber position. If the drop zone you are workin[...]

Chapter 7: Video effects 125 CHAPTER 7: Video effects Most video editing consists of selecting, ordering and trimming video clips, of connecting clips with transition effects and com bining them with other materials such as m usic and still images. Sometimes, though, you also need to m odify the video images themselves, m anipulating them in some w[...]

126 Pinnacle Studio Video effects vs. audio effects In most respects, the V ideo effects tool and the Audio effects tool work identically, except for the type of material they apply to. Working with the effects list Each video or image clip in your project can be modified by one or more vide o effects. Each effect is applied to the original image i[...]

Chapter 7: Video effects 127 To remove the currently-selected effect from the list, click the delete effec t (trashcan) button. The Video Effects browser is open here to the Studio Plus RTFX page, which contai ns an additional set of effects for Studio Plus. The other packs listed contain other premium effects requiring separate purchase. The last [...]

128 Pinnacle Studio list, you can control the position of each effect in the processing chain. The buttons apply to the currently- selected effect. Changing effect parameters When an effect is selected in the effects list, the parameters panel on the right-hand side of the Video effects tool window provides cont rols for adjusting the effect’s pa[...]

Chapter 7: Video effects 129 Using parameter presets In order to simplify the use of parameters, m any effects offer presets that let you configure an effect for a particular use simply by selecting a name from a list. In Studio Plus, there ar e two kinds of preset: static , which store a single set of effect parameters, and keyframed , which store[...]

130 Pinnacle Studio Keyframing The parameters for Studio video effects are ordinarily applied at the first frame of the video clip and continue unchanged to its end. This is the standard behavior for each effect you add to the clip. Ordinarily, an effect’s parameter values do not vary throughout the video clip the effect belongs to. Keyframing ?[...]

Chapter 7: Video effects 131 Between keyframes, numeric param eter values are automatically adjusted from frame to fram e to connect the keyframe values smoothly. A graphical view of the keyframes in the example above. The values of Zoom (Z), Horizontal Position (H) and Vertical Position (V) are set by keyframe 1 at the start of the clip, by keyfra[...]

132 Pinnacle Studio Keyframing gives you sensitive control over the way the effect is applied to th e clip. It becom es a simple matter to ease an effect in and out, for exam ple. With a set of four keyframes you can ease in one or more parameter values at the start of a clip and ease them out again at the end. A pan-and-zoom slideshow li ke that d[...]

Chapter 7: Video effects 133 Using keyframing In the parameters window fo r any effect that supports keyframing, locate and check the Use keyframes box. Until you do this, the effect maintains a single set of parameter values th roughout the clip. When you switch on keyframi ng for an effect, two keyframes are created autom atically. One is anchore[...]

134 Pinnacle Studio At the same time, additional controls are displayed at the bottom of the parameters window: the Add and Delete buttons, the Current keyframe indicator with forward and back arrows, and the Keyframe time counter with jog arrows. New controls appear at the bottom of the parameters window when keyframes are enabled. The Current key[...]

Chapter 7: Video effects 135 The Delete button is availab le whenever the current frame has a keyframe; that is, whenever the Current keyframe indicator shows a num ber rather than a dash. The Keyframe time counter show s the time offset within the clip of the c urrent movie time – the frame showing in the Player. The first keyframe is therefore [...]

136 Pinnacle Studio be instantaneously available in m ost cases. Each time effects are added or removed, or settings are changed, Studio commences “rendering” the clip – recalc ulating its final appearance – in the background without interrupting your workflow. A colored bar appears in the Timescale above the clip while background rendering[...]

Chapter 7: Video effects 137 Plug-in effects are organized into packs of one or more effects each. In this manual, we cover the five effects in the Standard RTFX pack (see page 138), which is included with all versions of Studio. Further on, we briefly describe the more th an 20 additional effects in the Plus RTFX included with Studio Plus (page 14[...]

138 Pinnacle Studio  S TANDARD EFFECTS This section describes four of the five effects included in the Standard RTFX gr oup at the top the Studio effects browser. The fifth, Pan and zoom , is covered under “The pan-and-zoom e ffect interface” on page 188. Auto color correction , Noise reduction and Stabilize are classified as cleaning effect[...]

Chapter 7: Video effects 139 Note: The Auto color correction effect may introduce video noise into the clip as a side-effect of processing. If this happens to a troublesome degree, add on the Noise reduction effect described below. Noise reduction This plug-in applies a noise-reduction algorithm that may improve the appearance of noisy video. In or[...]

140 Pinnacle Studio Studio’s Stabilize effect works by expanding a selected area (inner lines) to full-frame size. The area is adjusted from frame to frame to compensate for slight aiming differences caused by camera shake. Speed This sophisticated effect allo ws you to set the speed of any video clip over a continuous range from 10 to 500 percen[...]

Chapter 7: Video effects 141 This section gives a brief description of each effect in the group, except: • Two of the Overlay effects are covered elsewhere ( Chroma key on page 164, and Picture-in-picture on page 159). • The HFX Filter effect, which allows you to create and edit animated 3D transition s with Pinnacle’s Hollywood FX software, [...]

142 Pinnacle Studio Emboss This specialized effect simulates the look of an embossed or bas-relief sculpture. The strength of the effect is controlled by the Amount slider. Emboss can often be enhanced by adjusting contrast and brightness with the Color Correction effect (right). Old film Old movies have a number of traits that are usually consider[...]

Chapter 7: Video effects 143 Soften The Soften effect applies a gentle blurring to your video. This can be helpful for anything from adding a romantic haze to minimizing wrinkles. A slider controls the strength of the effect. Stained glass This effect simulates th e appearance of viewing the video through a pane of irregular polygons arranged into [...]

144 Pinnacle Studio 2D Editor Use this effect to enlarg e the image and set which portion of it will be displayed, or to shrink the im age and optionally add a border and shadow. Earthquake The Studio Plus Earthquake effect jiggles the video frame to simulate a seismic event, whose severity you control with sliders for speed and intensity. Lens fla[...]

Chapter 7: Video effects 145 Magnify This effect lets you apply a virtual magnifying lens to a selected portion of the video frame. You can position the lens in three dimensions, moving it horizontally and vertically within the frame, and nearer to or further from the image. Motion blur This effect simulates th e bl urring that results when a camer[...]

146 Pinnacle Studio Water drop This effect simulates th e impact of a drop fallin g onto the surface of water, produc ing expanding, concentric ripples. Stages in the Water Drop e ffect (“Big drop” preset). Water wave This effect adds distortion to sim ulate a series of ocean waves passing across the video frame as the clip progresses. Paramete[...]

Chapter 7: Video effects 147 Color correction The four sliders in the parameters panel for this ef fect control the coloration of the current clip in term s of: Brightness: The intensity of light Contrast: The range of light and dark values Hue: The location of light on the spectrum Saturation: The quantity of pure color, from gray to fully saturat[...]

148 Pinnacle Studio This effect uses the YCrCb color model, which has one channel for luminance (brightness information) and two channels for chrominance (color information). The YCrCb model is often us ed in digital video applications. Lighting The Lighting tool enables correction and enhancem ent of existing video that was shot with poor or insuf[...]

Chapter 7: Video effects 149 allows you to apply a color bi as to achieve a particular effect. For example, a ni ght scene can often be heightened by adding blue and slightly reducing overall brightness. You can even make video shot in daylight look like a night scene. Sepia This Studio Plus effect imparts the appearance of antique photography to t[...]

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Chapter 8: Two-track editin g with Studio Plus 151 CHAPTER 8 : Two-track editing with Studio Plus Studio Plus brings the power of multitra ck video editing to Studio with the addi tion of an auxiliary video track on the Movie Window Timeline called the overlay track. Now you can use advanced picture-in- picture and chroma-key effects while retainin[...]

152 Pinnacle Studio Drop video on the title track to open the overlay track. Along with the overlay track, Studio adds an overlay audio track to accommodate th e video clip’s origina l audio information. Once the overlay video and audio tracks have been opened, Studio no longer accepts video clips on the title track. Drag clips from the Album dir[...]

Chapter 8: Two-track editin g with Studio Plus 153 “context” menu that app ears when you click on the Movie Window with your right mouse button. A/B editing The second video track in St udio Plus often simplifies the editing tasks – insert edits, L-cuts and J-cuts – discussed under “Advanced Timeline editing” on page 98. An insert edit [...]

154 Pinnacle Studio In the J-cut and the L-cut, the audio portion of a clip begins a little before (J) or a little after (L) the video. They are often used together to soften the start and end of an inserted clip. Split editing on the overlay track. The over lay video track has been locked, allowing the B clip’s audio to be trimmed. The main audi[...]

Chapter 8: Two-track editin g with Studio Plus 155 Picture-in-picture with optional border, shadow and rounded corners (left). Split-screen effects, like the vertical split at right, ar e among the variations that show off the versatili ty of the PIP tool. To use picture-in-picture, start in the usual way by dragging some video clip s onto the Movi[...]

156 Pinnacle Studio The Picture-in-picture and Chroma key (PIP/CK) tool is really two tools in one. Because they are used independently, we treat them as separate tools. This illustration shows the PIP side of the tool. Click the Chroma Key tab at the top of the tool to switch. Picture-in-picture tool controls Most of the left-hand side of the PIP [...]

Chapter 8: Two-track editin g with Studio Plus 157 • Use the center control points on the edges of the PIP frame to change its dimensions arbitrarily. • Use the control points at th e corners of the PIP frame to change its size but not its proportions (“aspect ratio”). Crop mode: In this mode the layout area rep resents the entire overlay f[...]

158 Pinnacle Studio Border: These controls set the color, width and transparency of the border that will be drawn around the overlay frame. Set the width to zero (slider all the way to the left) if you don’t want a border at all. See page 167 for information on how to use the color controls. The Softness slider controls the amount of blurring on [...]

Chapter 8: Two-track editin g with Studio Plus 159 onto the overlay track, using the same settings that were displayed the last time the tool was open. The PIP effect interface If you prefer to enter your PIP parameter settings numerically rather than gra phically, you can turn to an alternative interface provided by the Video effects tool. You can[...]

160 Pinnacle Studio Cropping: The four sliders in this group trim away a percentage of the original PIP video frame, allowing you to remove unnecessary portions of the image and focus on the main subject. Video: The Transparency slider lets the background video show through the PIP overlay to any desired degree. Border: The parameters in this group[...]

Chapter 8: Two-track editin g with Studio Plus 161 Chroma key effects are often called “blue-screen” or “green-screen” effects because the foreground action is shot in front of a uniform blue or green background. The background is then elect ronically removed, leaving only the foreground action to be superimposed on the actual background of[...]

162 Pinnacle Studio The chroma key side of the PIP/CK tool. Chroma-key tool controls The chroma key tool constructs a “mask”, shown in the Key channel graphic on the left si de of the tool, where the transparent part of the frame is drawn in black, and the opaque part – the part you will see in the final video – is drawn in white. Most of t[...]

Chapter 8: Two-track editin g with Studio Plus 163 saturation and intensity – that in combination with hue make a complete color specification. The chosen hue is shown by the position of the highlighted region on the circumference of the color circle display. The color circle on the Chroma key tool highlights a range of hues (around the circumfer[...]

164 Pinnacle Studio Softness: This slider controls the density of the underlying video. When it is all the way to the left, the main video is entirely black. As you move the slider to the right, the main video is brought up to full density. Spill suppression: Adjusting this slider may help suppress video noise or fri nging along the edges of the fo[...]

Chapter 8: Two-track editin g with Studio Plus 165 Parameter settings for the Chroma key effect. The chroma key tool lets you inspect its transparency key. To get this view in the Player w hile working with the effect parameters, click the Show Key checkbox. Using Show Key: At left the key, at right the real thing. Chroma key tips No matter how goo[...]

166 Pinnacle Studio which favors even, saturated color. Use m ultiple lights on the backdrop to ensure that it is well-lit ac ross its whole area and without hots pots. Diffuse sunlight, as produced by a light overcast sky, can work well when shooting out of doors is an option. Note: A professional background cloth for chroma key work is available [...]

Chapter 8: Two-track editin g with Studio Plus 167 have your subject present a smooth profile to the camera. Hair is particular ly tricky, and should be slicked down if possible. If the subject can wear a hat, so much the better. Use tight framing: The wider your frame, and thus the larger your background, the harder it is to control your shot. One[...]

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Chapter 9: Transitions 169 CHAPTER 9: Transitions A transition is an animated effect that eases – or emphasizes – the passage from one clip to the next. Fades, wipes and dissol ves are common types of transition. Others are more exotic, and may even involve sophisticated 3-D graphics. Transitions are stored in their o wn section of the Album (s[...]

170 Pinnacle Studio bridge between two full-screen clips (or between one clip and blackness if th e transition has only one neighbor, as at the beginni ng of the movie). On the overlay and title tracks, the transition b ridges two neighboring clips (or one c lip and transparency). Diagram: Five snapshots from the life of a 2-second diagonal wipe tr[...]

Chapter 9: Transitions 171 Transition types and their uses Like all effects, transitions should be used not for their own sake but to se rve the overall need s of your movie. Well-chosen transition s can subtly reinforce the meaning of the movie and how it plays without drawing attention to themselves. Observing the way transitions are used in prof[...]

172 Pinnacle Studio next; for instance, when the camera changes pos ition or angle within a scene. Fade: This transition fades into the beginning of a video clip from a black screen, or from the end of a clip to a black screen. A fade dropped between two clips creates a fade down followed by a fade up . The fade transition is the first transition i[...]

Chapter 9: Transitions 173 its home position. The effect is reminiscent of a blind being pulled down over a window. A push is similar to a slide, except that the old video is pushed out of the frame as the new video enters, like advancing a filmstrip from one frame to the next. Hollywood FX for Studio Pinnacle Systems’ Hollywood FX includes a lar[...]

174 Pinnacle Studio Previewing transitions in your movie Studio lets you preview transi tions in the Player. Just drag and drop a transition into the Movie Window, click the Play button (or hit [Space ]) and see how the transition works with your m aterial. You can also preview transi tions by scrubbing through them in the Player or on the Timeline[...]

Chapter 9: Transitions 175 transition is placed between two clips, the audio cross- fades (the audio equiva lent of a dissolve). The only exception to this rule is the Fade transition, which takes the audio completely out then back in again. Normal transitions cause a cro ss-fade in the audio (left). In a Fade transition (right), the audio fades do[...]

176 Pinnacle Studio Studio inserts a duplicate of the original transition between each pair of selected clips.  T RIMMING TRANSITIONS Although transitions are not true clips, they are handled very similarly to cl ips within Studio’s editing environment. Like clips, you can trim transitions either directly on the Movie Window Timeline, or by us[...]

Chapter 9: Transitions 177 Trimming with the Clip properties tool The Toolbox ¾ Modify Clip Properties menu command invokes the Clip properties tool for the selected clip. For all transition types, this too l provides previewing controls, and the ability to s et two properties: • To set the duration of the transition, change the value in the Dur[...]

178 Pinnacle Studio Previewing in the Clip properties tool The Clip properties tool provides previewing controls for transitions sim ilar to those for video clips. See “Trimming with the Clip properties tool” on page 94 for more information. The preview areas show th e last full fram e of the outgoing clip and the first full frame of the incomi[...]

Chapter 10: Still images 179 CHAPTER 10: Still images Video usually means images in motion, but m ost productions also include sta tionary titles or graphics, and may include other types of still image as well. The still images you can use in your movies include: • All types of text captions and graphics, including scrolling credits and “crawle[...]

180 Pinnacle Studio transparent area defined by means of an alpha channel as this format allows. Note: Studio Plus users have an additional option, the overlay track, for adding their images to the Timeline. See Chapter 8: Two-track editing with Studio Plus , for details. The Album has separate sections for titles, bitmapped images and disc menus. [...]

Chapter 10: Still images 181 replacing the video. The transparent area of the image must be defined by means of an alpha channel. Making a slideshow If you would like to assemble a quick slideshow of still images or video clips, you may want to take advantage of Studio’s Ripple Transition f eature to quickly insert a chosen transition between eac[...]

182 Pinnacle Studio duration you choose, whereas a video clip can be no longer than the original Album scene. Effects like Blur , Posterize and Color correction can be applied to still image clips of all typ es in the sam e way as to video clips. See “Video effects – the basic set” on page 136. Editing image clip properties The Toolbox ¾ Mod[...]

Chapter 10: Still images 183 Editing photos and graphics The Clip properties tool for editing bitmapped im ages allows you to perform several important image- processing tasks: • Zoom in on your pictures and photos in order to crop away unneeded material and focus on only the essential part of the image; • Rotate the image in 90-degree increm e[...]

184 Pinnacle Studio If an image needs rotating by 90 degrees to bring it into “landscape” m ode (wider than high), start by clicking one of the image rotation buttons. If needed, clic k the button more than once until the clip is properly oriented. If you want to reframe the image, click directly on the tool’s preview window and, while holdin[...]

Chapter 10: Still images 185 one that encloses the eyes and no more. If the red-eye reduction does not clear up the problem entirely on the first attempt, try again with a differen t rectangle size. Studio’s red-eye reduction al gorithm provides excellent results with a wide variety of photos. However, some photos are better-suited to the process[...]

186 Pinnacle Studio The procedure above describe s the simplest form of pan-and-zoom animation. Effective uses include: • Moving from a full-fram e photograph to a detail view of a person or thing somewhere in the image. This gives a similar result to zoom ing in while shooting video. This might be used to prepare the viewer for a sequence of sho[...]

Chapter 10: Still images 187 previous clip, in order that the sequence of moves will be smoothly connected. On the second clip, and all those that follow, click the Match previous clip button wherever you want continuity. In order to allow the movie to dwell on each detail for a while after you pan to it, insert a non-animated copy of the image bet[...]

188 Pinnacle Studio Animating pan-and-zoom with keyframes Studio Plus users have another option for animating their pan-and-zoom productions: keyframing. The use of this feature enables a string of pan-and-zoom movements to be associated with a single clip, instead of having a single movement on each of a series of clips. See “Keyframing” on pa[...]

Chapter 10: Still images 189  T HE F RAME G RABBER The Frame Grabber can capture a still im age from any video capture source supporte d by Studio, or extract a single frame from any video clip in your current project. The grabbed frame can be added directly to your movie or saved out to di sk in any of a number of standard graphics formats. Onc[...]

190 Pinnacle Studio frame grabber will use your current video source, as configured in the Capture source options panel (page 284) and the Capture format options panel (page 287). Note: Grabbing a frame from the camcorder is not supported for HDV equipment. The Frame grabber in grab-from-movie mode. When you grab from an external source (e.g. a cam[...]

Chapter 10: Still images 191 Grab: Click the Grab button when you have located the frame you want to grab in the Player and configured the Reduce flicker option. The grabbed frame is displayed in the tool’s p rev iew area, and the two output buttons ( Add to Movie and Save to Disk ) are enabled. Add to movie: This button inserts the grabbed frame[...]

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Chapter 11: Disc menus 193 CHAPTER 11: Disc menus With the advent of the DVD, VCD and S-VCD disc formats, video became an interac tive medium, with new possibilities for both videographer and audie nce. Developing – “authoring” – a disc in one of these formats means going beyond the old idea of creating a movie to be viewed in strict sequen[...]

194 Pinnacle Studio Unlike any other kind of clip, menus automatically loop . When the end of a menu clip is reached during disc preview or playback, it is immediately restar ted. This produces a jump in the playback position affecting all clips that run simultaneously with the menu, regardless of type – video (if the menu is an overlay), audio o[...]

Chapter 11: Disc menus 195 second page is the one appearing in the illustration.) We’ve also given each page a link to the M2 m enu. The simple layout of this short movie can easily be extended to organize large numbers of clips. Much more complex movies are also constructed from the same elements: multi-page m enus with links to chapters and to [...]

196 Pinnacle Studio track appears at the top of the Timeline, and a sm all “flag” appears over each of your clips. These represent links from the menu you just added. And that’s it – sit back and watch the show. Instant slideshow: This tim e, start in the Still Images section of the Album. Drag as many im ages as you like onto the video tra[...]

Chapter 11: Disc menus 197 thumbnail frames), and a pair of Next page and Previous page buttons. The number of chapter butt ons per page varies from one menu design to another, so one criterion for selecting a menu is the numbe r of clips you want it to handle. It is generally more convenient for the viewer to browse a few menu page s with many but[...]

198 Pinnacle Studio situation. If you check the Don’t ask me again checkbox, your choice of Yes or No becomes the default action when you drag in a menu in future. You can also set the default action, or reinstate the confirmation window, in the When adding a disc menu area of the Project preferences options panel (see “Project preferences” o[...]

Chapter 11: Disc menus 199 A grouping of DVD controls appears and activates below the Player preview screen: Here are the functions of the individual DVD controls: Main menu: Jumps to the f irst menu in your movie and begins (or continues) playing. Previous menu: Jumps to the most recently activ e menu and begins (or continues) playing. Clicking th[...]

200 Pinnacle Studio Editing menus on the Timeline Menus can be trimmed on the T imeline just like any other still image clip (s ee “Trimming on the Timeline using handles” on page 89). Setting the clip duration is generally less cruc ial for menu clips than for other types, since menus cycle during playback while waiti ng for user input. If you[...]

Chapter 11: Disc menus 201 The next part of the Timescale in the o verview illustration above includes th e fourth chapter link from M1 , and a link (the left-pointi ng arrow) from the end of the previous clip back to the menu. A result of setting this link is that the C4 clip can only be reached from the menu. The C4 clip is followed by menu M2 , [...]

202 Pinnacle Studio To reposition a link: Click the flag for the link and drag it along the menu track to its new position. To delete a link: • Right-click the link flag and choose Delete from the pop-up menu; or, • Select the flag, highlighting it, then press the De lete key. Editing with the Clip properties tool The Clip properties tool for d[...]

Chapter 11: Disc menus 203 every visual aspect of the menu: its background and button images, the appearance and contents of its captions, and more. For fu ll information about the many capabilities of the Title Editor, see Chapter 12: The Title Editor . The preview area on the left side of the tool shows how the menu looks and also has intera ctiv[...]

204 Pinnacle Studio area over every button in the menu. The link numbers match the format and color of the chapter flag s on the menu track. The Menu type options This pair of options determines whether you or Studio will organize the chapter links f or this menu. If you choose Auto scene index , Studio will ensur e that your chapter links ar e in [...]

Chapter 11: Disc menus 205 Button caption text field: Edit the text for the current button with out going to the Title Editor. The “#” character in button captions has a special meaning: Studio replaces it with the button’s sequence number. Use this f eature to ensure that your buttons are correctly numbered regardless of changes in the layou[...]

206 Pinnacle Studio Chapter-editing controls The controls in this area select or modify the individual chapter buttons within a menu. The Set chapter buttons: These set or sever the link between the selected chapter button on the menu and its target clip. To set a link: Position the Timeline scrubber within a menu, video, theme or still im age clip[...]

Chapter 11: Disc menus 207 To create a link using drag-and-drop: • Click the clip in the Movie Window that you want to link to, and drag it onto a button in the Clip properties tool preview area. The button is linked to the first frame of the clip. Or, • Click the button for which you want to create a link, and drag it onto a clip in your move.[...]

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Chapter 12: The Title E ditor 209 CHAPTER 12: The Title Editor Studio’s Title Editor is a powerful facility for creating and editing titles and other graphics. Its extensive suite of text and image effects and tools provides endless possibilities for the visual design of your movie. Creating a title in the St udio Title Editor tool. The large are[...]

210 Pinnacle Studio buttons needed for handling vi ewer interaction with the menus of VCD, S-VCD and DVD movies. Launching the Title Editor Reflecting the versatility of the Title Editor is the variety of ways of accessing it from Studio’s Edit mode, using either one of th e tools in the Video toolbox (see page 76) or a mouse command on one of th[...]

Chapter 12: The Title E ditor 211  T HE T ITLE E DITOR CONTROLS The main Title Editor controls are laid out in c lusters around the Edit Window (see the picture on page 209). Title-type buttons The four buttons in this cluster sit on the left side of the screen above the Title Editor’s Edit Window. On ly one of them can be selected at a time. [...]

212 Pinnacle Studio By the same token, if you click the Menu button while editing a title, Studio au tomatically adds a button to the title. • A menu cannot have rolling or crawling text. The Title Editor does not allow you to add menu buttons to a rolled or crawled title. Because disc menus are allowed only on the main Video track of the Movie W[...]

Chapter 12: The Title E ditor 213 When the object has the size and proportions you want, release the mouse. Whatever its type, the object is created with the specifie d dimensions. Its other attributes – color, shading, shadow, etc. – are determined by the currently selected look in the Title Editor Album. All attributes can late r be changed a[...]

214 Pinnacle Studio About text objects Selecting a text object is di fferent in one important way from selecting a rectangl e or ellipse: the object’s text field is put into a “ready” st ate in which any keyboard activity will cause the field to activate and sta rt displaying the input text. The activation of the text field is indicated by a [...]

Chapter 12: The Title E ditor 215 Advanced text editing features As in a word processing program, the Title Editor allows you to format a sel ected range of characters. Simply mark an adjacent set of characters with the mouse and apply the formatting you desire. Supported operations on character ranges include text styling (font, style and look) , [...]

216 Pinnacle Studio • Clicking the second button enables the skew operation, which requires only a single control point. With text objects, the s econd button provides two further operations, kern and change leading , accessed by control points in the center of each edge of the text frame: Kern (L) and Change leading (R)[...]

Chapter 12: The Title E ditor 217 Object layout buttons The two left buttons in this cluster a re for grouping and ungrouping Title Editor objects. The fi rst button is availab le when multiple objects are selecte d. Its ac tion is to link the objects into a group – a com posite object that is treated as a single entity by ed iting operations. Wh[...]

218 Pinnacle Studio either the vertical o r horizont al directions, and the final three resize the obj ects so that they have equal width, equal height, or both. All of these commands are particularly useful in menu creation, since you generally want menu buttons to be laid out in a regular fashion. The final object layout button opens another pop-[...]

Chapter 12: The Title E ditor 219 Clipboard and delete buttons The buttons in this cluster provide the familiar editing operations Cut , Copy , Paste and Delete , all of which operate on groups, individual objects, or o n selected text within a Title Editor text object. The first three work with the Windows Clipboard, while the fourth sim ply delet[...]

220 Pinnacle Studio The fourth button opens a pop-out menu of text-formatting options. Unlike the other controls in the cluster, which govern the appearance of individual characters, the options on this menu apply to all the text in a given text box . The three justification o ptions – Left, Center and Right – affect the placement of the text w[...]

Chapter 12: The Title E ditor 221  T HE T ITLE E DITOR A LBUM The Title Editor Album is the rectangular panel on the right-hand side of the Title Editor screen. It contains resources for building menus and titles in the same way that the main Studio Album contains resources for creating movies. The Title Editor Album is controlled by the four bu[...]

222 Pinnacle Studio or transparency) for each of the “face” (surface), edge and shadow of the object to which it applies, plus a separate blurring param eter for each. A final parameter is shadow direction, for which there are eight possibilities. To change the look of an ex isting object, simply click on the look you want while the object is s[...]

Chapter 12: The Title E ditor 223 The three option button s across the top select a solid color, a gradient, or no co lor (transparency). Clicking the color swatch beside the first button invokes an otherwise standard Windows color-picker dialog to which an Opacity slider (0-100%) has been added. The swatch beside the second button pops up a gradie[...]

224 Pinnacle Studio The color and gradient options in the Backgrounds section of the Title Edito r work in just the same way as those described above for the Looks Browser (page 221), except that the color or gradient you select is instantly applied to the background of the title you are editing. If you are working on an ove rlay title, you may fin[...]

Chapter 12: The Title E ditor 225 Movie Window. If the movie is shorter than the clip, it is simply repeated as necessary to fill out the required time; if longer, it is truncated. You can adjust the length of the menu by trimming on the timeline or in the Clip properties tool as usual. • If you add a widescreen movie as a menu background in a pr[...]

226 Pinnacle Studio The Buttons section Since buttons are the magic ingredient that tu rns titles into interactive menus, this section of the Title Editor Album is av ailable only when the menu or title being edited is on the main video track, the only track on which menus can be placed. Broadly speaking, a button is an area of the screen with whic[...]

Chapter 12: The Title E ditor 227 program like Adobe PhotoS hop or Paint Shop Pro will show that the transparent portion of the button image, and the special area for th e display of thumbnails (where applicable), are defined by an alpha channel included with the image. As usual, a folder button lets you select the disk directory from which th e di[...]

228 Pinnacle Studio (You can preview this highlighting ef fect in the Player, and interact with the menu using either the mouse or the Player’s DVD controls.) The Title Editor lets yo u assign the color th at will be used for each type of highlight, and a style option that governs how the highlights will be drawn. The controls for these settings [...]

Chapter 13: Sound effec ts and music 229 CHAPTER 13: Sound effects and music Video may be thought of as primarily a visual medium , but the role of sound in your movies is often no less important than that of the images on the screen. Feature film and televi sion productions include numerous types of audio, be ginning with the dialog and other soun[...]

230 Pinnacle Studio • You can drop mp3 files from the Album onto the Timeline or import audio or MP3 tracks from a CD with the CD audio tool. • The Voice-over tool lets you add narration or commentary as you preview your edited video. Audio, whatever its type, is added to your production as clips in the Movie Window. These can be m oved around,[...]

Chapter 13: Sound effec ts and music 231 A surround soundtrack can be output to the DVD in either of two forms: • In Dolby Digital 5.1 format, each of the six surround channels is stored discretely on the disc and will be routed directly to the corresponding speaker when played back on a full 5.1 surround playback system. • In Dolby Digital 2.0[...]

232 Pinnacle Studio The Timeline audio tracks The Movie Window’s Timeline view contains several audio tracks: Original audio track: This contains the audio captured along with your video clips. It is sometimes called “synchronous” audio because it is recorded simultaneously with the video track. Overlay audio track: The original audio for vid[...]

Chapter 13: Sound effec ts and music 233 generated by Studio, and musi c (or other content) from audio compact disks (CDs). Audio files are imported via the Music section of the Album (see page 62). Create ScoreFitter clips with the Background music tool, and CD audio clips with the CD audio tool (see “The Background music tool” on page 235 and[...]

234 Pinnacle Studio The CD audio tool Use this tool to create an audio clip from a CD track. You can preview tracks within the tool, and select either a whole track or an excerpt to add to your movie. If there is a CD in the drive that you have not previously used in a Studio project, Studio will ask you to enter its nam e before c ontinuing. The c[...]

Chapter 13: Sound effec ts and music 235 page 240 under “Trimming with the Clip propertie s tool”. Finally, click the Add to Movie button. Studio captures the music clip from the CD drive and adds it to the background music track beginning at the current time index (as shown by the Timeline scrubber and the preview frame in the Player). The Bac[...]

236 Pinnacle Studio trimming on the Timeline or directly editing the Duration counter in the tool. In the Background music tool, choose a style, song and version from the lists provided. Each style offers its own selection of songs, and each song its own selection of versions. Use the Preview button to audition the song while the tool is open. Ente[...]

Chapter 13: Sound effec ts and music 237 The Voice-over tool Recording a voice-over in Studio is as easy as making a telephone call. Just open the Voice- over tool, click Record and speak into the microphone. You can narrate as you watch the movie play so your words match the action on the screen. You can also use the tool as a quick way of capturi[...]

238 Pinnacle Studio Position the microphone for use and try speaking a test phrase to check your record ing level (see “Voice-over level” below). When you are satisfied, click the R ecord button (which toggles to a Stop button). Wait for a few moments as the recording lamp first signals STAND BY then steps through a 3-2-1 countdown. When the re[...]

Chapter 13: Sound effec ts and music 239 Voice-over recording options The Studio setup dialogs include se veral settings that affect your recording conf iguration and quality. This section provides a brief summary. See “Video and audio preferences” on page 294 for detailed information. To access these options select Setup ¾ Video and audio pre[...]

240 Pinnacle Studio  T RIMMING AUDIO CLIPS As with other clip types, you can trim audio clips either directly on the Timeline or by using the Clip properties tool. See “Trimming on the Timeline using handles” on page 89 for a discussion of the first method. Most types of audio clip can be trimmed from a minimum of one frame up to the full or[...]

Chapter 13: Sound effec ts and music 241 The other controls provided by the tool depend on the type of audio clip you give it. Original audio, sound effects and voice-overs The Clip properties tool provides the same kind of trimming controls for sound-e ffect and voice-over clips as for video clips, but displays a graph of the audio waveform instea[...]

242 Pinnacle Studio ScoreFitter ScoreFitter clips can be ed ited to almo st any length, except that very short clips at some particular durations may not be available in ever y com bination of Style and Song. This tool is essentiall y identical to the tool for creating ScoreFitter clip s (described under “The Background music tool” on page 235)[...]

Chapter 13: Sound effec ts and music 243 Anatomy of an audio clip An audio clip icon on the Timeline has several parts. The boundaries of each clip are denoted by vertical bars. The actual content of the audio is indicated by a waveform graph: Waveform graph excerpt from three neighboring clips. The appearance of the waveform graph tells yo u somet[...]

244 Pinnacle Studio Finally, if you make volume adjustments within th e clip, the line cons ists of sloping se gments that meet at volume adjustment handles . Unlike the waveform graph, or the adjustment lines for balance and fade (see below), the volume adjustment line is scaled logarithmically . Perceived volume varies logarithmically with the st[...]

Chapter 13: Sound effec ts and music 245 To select which of the three adjustm ent lines is currently displayed, use the audio clip’s right-button context menu: . Availability: Surround sound is supported in Studio Plus only. Adjusting audio on the Timeline Audio levels can be adjusted directly within a clip on the Timeline. Use the mouse pointer [...]

246 Pinnacle Studio The volume adjustment cursor will appear: Click the left mouse button, and drag up or down in the clip. The volume line bends as it follows the mouse. When you release the mous e, Studio creates an adjustment handle on the volume line. When your mouse pointer is position ed over an adjustment handle on a sele cted clip, a highli[...]

Chapter 13: Sound effec ts and music 247 the line upwards moves the apparent source of the audio away from the listen er; adjusting it downwards brings the audio closer (t owards the rear speakers). Removing changes Audio adjustment handles can be removed either individually or for an entire audio clip at once. Select the appropriate command on the[...]

248 Pinnacle Studio The Volume and balance tool Compared to adjusting audio on the Timeline, the Volume and balance tool offers a greater degree of adjustment functiona lity organized into one convenient location. It also provides both le ft-right and surround-sound balance controls. The tool operates in a similar way to a traditional audio m ixer.[...]

Chapter 13: Sound effec ts and music 249 surround (two-dimensional) modes. The m ode is selected in the dropdown list above the control. Each audio track has its own set of level controls. The set for the original audio track is shown at left. The individual controls and displays include a track mute button n . When this button is in its down posit[...]

250 Pinnacle Studio The position of the fader knob shows the volume level at the current playback position in your m ovie, relative to the original level. Dr ag the knob up or down to modify the level. The knob is “grayed” (disabled) if there is no clip on the track at the current time index. If the track is muted, the knob is grayed and set to[...]

Chapter 13: Sound effec ts and music 251 The balance control This control has three modes, stereo , surround and dialog , which you select from the dropdown list above the control. The mode can be changed whenever desired – even within an individual audio clip. Availability: Surround sound is supported in Studio Plus only. In any mode, the positi[...]

252 Pinnacle Studio anywhere within the recta ngular listening area defined by the four corner speakers. Dialog mode is similar in concept, but includes the center speaker at the front of the listening area. Sending a portion of a clip’s audi o through the center helps stabilize the apparent loca tion of the sound within the shifting surround mix[...]

Chapter 13: Sound effec ts and music 253 control adjusts the left-ri ght positioning of the audio output from the currently-s elected clip, while the knob on the right adjusts the front-back position ing. Drag track icon directly (L) or with locator knob (R). Viewing volume and balance contours Each audio clip in your proj ect displays a contour li[...]

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Chapter 14: Audio effec ts 255 CHAPTER 14: Audio effects You can modify any audio clip in your project using Studio’s plug-in audio effects, which are accessed with the Audio effe cts tool, the sixth tool in the Audio toolbox. The operation of this tool is identical to that of the Video effects tool. See “Using video effects” (page 125) for a[...]

256 Pinnacle Studio In the illustration, the Noise reduction effect has been applied to both audio clips. The star icon below the video clip shows that one or more of the effects in the Fun category has been applied to it. About the effects The powerful Noise Reduction fi lter is provided in all versions of Studio. It is covered immediately below. [...]

Chapter 14: Audio effec ts 257 amounts then pause to check if there is an improvement. Noise reduction: When a camcorder is used outdoors with the actors distan t from the m icrophone, the “source noise” may be very high, and to make m atters worse the internal noise of the camcorder may be amplified to intrusive levels. If a lapel microphone c[...]

258 Pinnacle Studio  P LUS EFFECTS The Studio Plus pack of audi o effects is included with Studio Plus only. Users of other Studio versions can obtain these effects by upgr ading to Studio Plus. This section briefly introduces each effect in the group. Full descriptions, including all parameters, are available in the context-sensitive help when [...]

Chapter 14: Audio effec ts 259 DeEsser This Studio Plus audio filter unobtrusively removes excessive sibilance from recorded speech. Param eters allow you to fine-tune the e ffect to the particular recording you need to correct. Equalizer Graphic equalizers like this one in Studio Plus are similar in concept to the treble and bass “tone” contro[...]

260 Pinnacle Studio range of 48 dB (-24 to +24). The adjustment to a band is applied full strength at the center frequency, and tapers to zero in either direction. The display above the slider shows the activity across the audio spectrum as your project is played back. Grungelizer The Studio Plus Grungelizer a dds noise and static to your recording[...]

Chapter 14: Audio effec ts 261 in the original audio. For instance, your commentary as you shoot the video may be r ecorded at such a high level that it overwhelms ot her sounds at the location. The trick in using the Leveler is to find a target volum e somewhere between that of th e loud and soft audio in the original clip. Below that volume, Leve[...]

262 Pinnacle Studio Stereo Spread This Studio Plus effect al lows you to decrease or increase the apparent width of the stereo listening field in an audio clip. Most often it is us ed to create a m ix that sounds more open and spacious.[...]

Chapter 15: Making your movie 263 CHAPTER 15: Making your movie One of the great things about digital video is the large and growing number of devices that can make use of it. Studio lets you create versions of your movie for whatever video viewers your audience will be using, from hand-held DivX players and mobile phones to HDTV home theaters. Whe[...]

264 Pinnacle Studio File output creates files that can be viewed from your hard drive, your web-site, your portable movie player, or your mobile phone. See page 270. Tape output records your movie onto tape in a camcorder or VCR. This tab also lets you output the movie to your monitor screen. See page 277. Web output creates a file including for up[...]

Chapter 15: Making your movie 265 If you need hands-on control, click the Settings button to open the correct panel of options for your chosen media type. When you have confirm ed your settings, click the Create button to begin output. Preparing your movie for output Before your movie is completely ready for output some preprocessing will usually b[...]

266 Pinnacle Studio CD formats If your system is equipped with a CD burner or a DVD burner, Studio can create VCD or S-VCD discs on either CD-R or CD-RW media. Your VCD discs ca n be played back: • On a VCD or S-VCD player. • On some DVD players. Most DVD players can handle CD-RW media, but m any will not reliably read CD-R. A majority of DVD p[...]

Chapter 15: Making your movie 267 If your system has an HD DVD or Blu-ray recorder, you can record onto any recordable media supported by the device. Your standard DVD discs can be played back: • On any DVD player that can handle the recordable DVD format your burner cr eates. Most players can handle the common formats. • On a computer with a D[...]

268 Pinnacle Studio Outputting your movie Studio creates your disc or disc image in three steps. 1. First the entire movie must be rendered to generate the MPEG-encoded information to store on the disc. 2. Next, the disc mu st be compiled . In this phase, Studio creates the actual files and directory structure that will be used on the disc . 3. Fin[...]

Chapter 15: Making your movie 269 hardware to use, if you have more than one device available. 2. Select the Disc Type you are using, then whichever Video Quality / Disc Usag e preset best matches your intent. If you wish to fine-tune your output settings, choose the Custom preset then click the Settings button to bring up the Make Disc options pan[...]

270 Pinnacle Studio • DVD: Each disc holds about 60 minutes of full- quality MPEG-2 video (120 m inutes if the disc recorder supports dua l-layer recording). • DVD (AVCHD): Each disc holds about 40 minutes of full-quality AVCHD video per layer. • DVD (HD DVD): Each disc holds about 24 minutes of full-quality DVD HD video per layer. • DVD HD[...]

Chapter 15: Making your movie 271 The size of the output file depends on both the file format and the com pression parameters set within th e format. Although compression settings can easily be adjusted to produce sm all files, heavy compression comes at the expense of quality. The detailed settings for m ost formats can be adjuste d by choosing th[...]

272 Pinnacle Studio The list of presets for this file type off ers two frame sizes in either encoder. Choose Small, at 176x144, or Very Small, at 128x96. Audio only Sometimes a movie’s soundtrack can stand alone without visuals. Live entert ainment footage, and video recordings of interviews and speeches are instances in which an audio-only versi[...]

Chapter 15: Making your movie 273 Studio supplies a DV and an MJPEG codec. If you wish to output your movie as an AVI in some other format, you can use any DirectShow-compatible codec installed on your PC, as l ong as that codec is also installed on the PC that will play your movie. Click the preset that best meets your needs; or choose Custom , th[...]

274 Pinnacle Studio Flash Video Studio supports outpu t in Flash Video ( flv ) format, version 7. Virtually all current web browsers are able to display this popular format, which has been widely adopted by social networking sites and news sites. Click the quality preset that m atches your needs; or choose Custom , then click the Settings button to[...]

Chapter 15: Making your movie 275 MPEG MPEG-1 is the original MPEG file form at. MPEG-1 video compression is used on VideoCDs, but in other contexts it has given way to newer standards. MPEG-2 is the successor format to MPEG-1. Whereas the MPEG-1 file format is supported on all Windows 95 and later PCs, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 files can only be played on[...]

276 Pinnacle Studio Settings button to open the Make File options panel (see page 304). Real Media Real Media movie files are designed for playb ack on the Internet. Real Med ia movies can be played back by anyone around the world who has the RealNetworks® RealPlayer® software, whic h is a free download from www.real.com . See page 308 for inform[...]

Chapter 15: Making your movie 277 Windows Media The Windows Media file format is also des igned for streaming Internet playback. The files can be played on any computer where the Windows Media player – a free program from Micros oft – is installed. See page 311 for information about configuring your output with the Make File – Real Media opti[...]

278 Pinnacle Studio Note: On machines that don’t support recording back to the camcorder, including many PAL devices, the DV connector is called simply DV OUT . Output with analog audio / video cables If you have a Studio product with an analog (TV or video) output, such as Studio DVplus or DC10plus, connect the video outputs of the capture card [...]

Chapter 15: Making your movie 279 Output your movie to videotape Verify that the camcorder/VCR is powered on and configured, and that you have inserted a tape cued to where you wish to begin reco rding. You now have two options: 1. If you are recording your movie onto DV tape, Studio gives you the option to control the DV device automatically. Clic[...]

280 Pinnacle Studio The Yahoo option offers two preset formats, Best Quality and Fast Upload . These provide different combinations of frame size and video data rate: • Best Quality scales your video to a 480x480 frame size, and requires a data rate of 2400 Kbits/second. • Fast Upload uses a 352x240 frame size, and requires a data rate of 1150 [...]

Chapter 15: Making your movie 281 No additional format s ettings are required for either destination. After selecting the upload si te and preset you want, click the Create button. This opens the Web Upload dialog box, where you can ente r editorial information about your production. Set the title, description and comm a-separated search tags as de[...]

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Appendix A: Setup options 283 APPENDIX A: Setup options Settings are provided to ad just various aspects of Studio’s operation. The default values have been chosen to work well for the majority of situatio ns and hardware. However, you may wish to m odify them to suit your work style or e quipment configuration. About Studio setup options Studio?[...]

284 Pinnacle Studio Capture source settings Remember that any changes you make on this panel affect all future captures. If you want to configure only one capture session, make sure you restore the old values before the next session. The settings are grouped in to areas: Capture devices, Scene detection during video capture and Data rate. Capture d[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 285 TV standard: Choose the standard that is compatible with your capture device and your TV or video monitor (NTSC or PAL). NTSC is th e standard used in North America and Japan. PAL is the standard used in most other places. With som e cap ture devices you may have an additional choice: the SECAM standard used in Russia,[...]

286 Pinnacle Studio The first option, “Automatic scene detection based on shooting time and date”, is available only if you are capturing from a DV source. Your DV camcorder records not only images and sound, but also the time, date, and various camera exposure settings (see your camcorder manual for more detail). This information is term ed da[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 287 Capture format settings The options available here depend on the capture device you are using (from the Capture source tab). You will not see all the settings described below displayed at once. Presets The settings in the other areas on the Capture format panel depend on your choice in this Presets area. The available [...]

288 Pinnacle Studio devices on which your movie will be played. Use Low if you are outputting onl y for VCD; Medium if you need to accommodate S- VCD; and High if your movie will be output for DVD. Other types of capture devi ce provide a single list of quality options – generally Good, Better, Best and Custom. Studio AV/DV Analog captures use fi[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 289 Quality, Data rate: Som e codecs present quality options in terms of a compression percentage ( Quality ), and others in terms of the required data transfer rate in KB/sec ( Data rate ). MPEG type: Select one of the two flavors of MPEG encoding: MPEG1 or MPEG2. The former is almost universally supported on Windows comp[...]

290 Pinnacle Studio Options: This button gives you access to any setup options offered by the codec (compression/ decompression software) you have chosen. Compression: This dropdown shows the codec that will be used to compress the incoming audio data . Channels, Sample rate: These settings control audio quality. “CD quality” is 16-bit stereo, [...]

Appendix A: Setup options 291 relating to editing are on the Video and audio preferences panel (see page 294). Editing environment Automatically save and load my projects: If this option is checked, Studio w ill continually update your stored project while you work without you having to save your changes explicitly. If you would prefer to look afte[...]

292 Pinnacle Studio to force new projects to a different format, click Use this format for new projects , and select your desired format from the dropdown list. Default durations These duration times are measured in secon ds and frames. The seconds counter advances every 30 frames for NTSC, or 25 frames for PAL. The three settings here control th e[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 293 until the next menu). The choices on this dropdown list let you avoid the confirmation dialog by specifying that you always don’t or always do want the links to be created, or that you want St udio to create links from a new menu to its chapters and also return links back to the menu from the end of each chapter. A f[...]

294 Pinnacle Studio Video and audio preferences The five areas on this pa nel provide hardware and previewing settings. Video preview Because of the central role of previewing during interactive video editing, Studio provides a number of settings that affect preview behavior. For previewing on a computer monitor, the default preview, at quarter-fra[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 295 full-screen button on the Player. The options available on the list depend on your display hardware. On a single monitor system, a full-s creen preview (other than external) mu st obviously use the same screen as Studio’s own interface. This is the Main VGA monitor option. In this special instance, full-screen playba[...]

296 Pinnacle Studio modes are offered only if your dual-output video card is one of the following types: • ATI Radeon 9600 (or better) with version 5.8 (minimum) of the Catalyst™ display driver. In order to use the add itional preview modes, you must deactivate the second monitor in the Display Properties dialog (or the Ca talyst control center[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 297 Safe mode second VGA, small preview: In this mode, Studio matches your project video format as well as possible to the formats supported by the monitor. For instance, if the 720x480 fram e format is unavailable, Studio will set the display to 800x600 and center the frame on the m onitor screen. Similarly, if the monito[...]

298 Pinnacle Studio Enable background rendering: Uncheck this box if you do not want to use backgr ound rendering at all. One might do this on a slower computer if intensiv e rendering were causing other operations to become sluggish. Set codec automatically: Let Studio decide which codec to use for encoding your rendered video. Use this codec for [...]

Appendix A: Setup options 299 CD drive (for ripping audio files) If you have used any music from CD in your project, Studio digitally transfers (“ri ps”) the audio data from the disc to the computer. The dropdown list here lets you select which CD device to use for ripping, if you have more than one available. Make Disc settings These settings [...]

300 Pinnacle Studio create a DVD readable in mo st Blu-ray devices, choose AVCHD. Video quality / disc usage: These settings ( Automatic , Best video quality , Most video on disc and Custom ) are available except in the case of VCDs, where the format is fixed. The first three settings are presets that correspond to particular data rates. The Custom[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 301 mix on playback requires a surround am plifier and speaker system. Use progressive encoding: Each frame of a norm al television picture is disp layed as two successive “fields”, each containing ha lf of the several hundred horizontal video lines that make up the entire image: the odd-numbered lines in one field, an[...]

302 Pinnacle Studio Burn options Create disc content and then burn: This is the default option for creating discs. In the first phase, the data that will be written to disc is generated and stored temporarily on your hard drive. In the second phase, the generated data is burned to the optical disc. Create disc content but don’t burn: With this ch[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 303 Copies: Select or enter the num ber of copies of this disc that you want to create. Write speed: Choose one of the av ailable speeds, or choose Auto for the default selection. Image type: When you are generating a disc image rather than burning an actua l disc, this dropdown list lets you choose amongst available forma[...]

304 Pinnacle Studio you. This is handy if you want work nearby while the CPU-intensive work of gene rating the movie gets done. Make sure that your speake rs are switched on and that the volume is suitably set when you rely on this feature. Shut down PC when finished: Upon outputting your movie, Studio instructs Wi ndows to shut down your computer.[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 305 for a special purpose (such as distribution via the Internet) where there may be requirements involving characteristics such as frame size. The common Make File setti ngs panel is shared by all file types except Real Media and Windows Media. Not all the options are ava ilable for all file types . Note: MPEG-2 and MPEG-[...]

306 Pinnacle Studio Using codecs that have not been certified by Pinnacle Systems may produce undesi rable results. Pinnacle Systems cannot provide tec hnical support for problems associated with the use of uncertified codecs. Options: The Options button opens a codec-specific option panel if one is available. Compression: Choose the compressor (co[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 307 Quality, Data rate: Depending on the codec being used, you can adjust the quality percentage or data rate with the slider. The higher the percentage or rate you choose, the larger the resulting file. Audio settings If you want to keep file sizes to a minimum, audio for many digital uses can be set to 8-bit mono at 11 k[...]

308 Pinnacle Studio stereo. Audio can be sampled at frequencies as low as 11 kHz for some digital uses , particularly for speech. Data rate: This dropdown controls the data rate, and hence the compression ratio, for audio. Higher data rates yield higher quality at the cost of larger file s. Data settings The Sony PSP Compatible file type provides a[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 309 Keywords: This field accepts up to 256 characters, and allows you to encode keywords into each movie. It is typically used to identify the m ovie for Internet search engines. Video quality: These choices let you balance the rival requirements of im age quality and frame rate. • No video: When this selection is made, [...]

310 Pinnacle Studio information to select the best audio com pression for your Real Media file. Each successive option provides better audio quality but a larger resu lting file. • No audio: When this selection is made, the output file will contain video only. • Voice only: This option provides adequate quality for spoken audio in clips without[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 311 Target audience: This selects the target audience modem connect speed. The lower the speed, the lower the quality of the video. If you wish your viewers to be able to view your movie as it loads, you should select a target audience rate that their modems can handle. When you select a target audience, you are actually s[...]

312 Pinnacle Studio Rating: Entering a rating in this field if it will be helpful to your viewers. Profile: Choose the playback quality of your movie based on the capability of the target platform – the computer(s) that will play the movie. The exact audio and video parameters corresponding to the current choice are displayed in the space below t[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 313 • No markers: The movie file will be created without mark er s. • Markers for every clip: Markers are autom atically created for every clip in the movie. If you have not given the clip a custom na me, a default one will be generated for it based on the project name. • Markers for named clips only: Markers are gen[...]

314 Pinnacle Studio To control printing automatically: 1. Click the Make Movie button on the m ain menu bar. The upper half of the screen changes to display the Make Movie window. 2. Click the Tape tab. 3. Click the Setting s button. The Make tape options panel opens. 4. Check the Automatically start and stop recording box to enable the automatic f[...]

Appendix A: Setup options 315 hand, if your movie begins by holding onto the first frame as though it were a still photograph, you should decrease the setting. Hint: If you wish to send bl ack to your recording device during its record delay time, place a blank title in the video track just before the start of your movie (a blank title is vi deo bl[...]

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Appendix B: Tips and tricks 317 APPENDIX B: Tips and tricks Here are some hints from Pi nnacle technical specialists on choosing, using and maintaining a computer system with video in mind. Hardware To use Studio effectively, your hardware should be optimally prepared and configured. Preparing your hard drive Prior to capturing video, consider work[...]

318 Pinnacle Studio (or set your firewall to bloc k all Internet traffic) when taking this step. Software utilities are available to assist with closing background processes. • Right-click on the name of your capture drive in Windows Explorer, and select Properties on the pop- up menu. On the Tools tab of the Disk Properties dialog, click Check N[...]

Appendix B: Tips and tricks 319 Motherboard Intel Pentium or AMD Athl on 1.4 GHz or higher – the higher the better. Windows Vista and AVCHD editing both demand a more powerful CPU. The m inimum recommendation ranges up to 2.66 GHz for editing 1920-pixel AVCHD video. Graphics card To run Studio, your DirectX-compatible graphics card needs: • For[...]

320 Pinnacle Studio To adjust the display in Windows Vista: 1. Position your mouse over your Desktop, right click, and select Personalize . In the “Personalize appearance and sounds” window click the “Display settings” link. The Display Settings dialog box appears. 2. If you have mu ltiple monitors, select the one to which the new setting s[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 321 APPENDIX C: Troubleshooting Before you begin troubleshooting, take some time to check your hardware and software installation. Update your software: We recomm end installing the latest operating system updates for Windows XP and Windows Vista. You can download these updates from: windowsupdate.microsoft.com/default.[...]

322 Pinnacle Studio Opening Device Manager The Windows XP and Wi ndows Vista Device Manager, which lets you configure your system’s hardware, has an important role in troubleshooting. The first step in accessing De vice Manager is to right- click on My Computer, then select Properties from the context menu. This opens the System Properties dialog[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 323 Access the knowledge base w ith your web browser by visiting: http://www.pcle.com/selfhelp The knowledge base home page will appear. You don’t have to register to browse the knowledge base, but if you want to send a specific question to technical support staff you will need to create a knowledge base account. Plea[...]

324 Pinnacle Studio crashes in Edit”, lists the known causes for this issue and their remedies. If you search instead on the single keyword “Crash”, you will get far fewer hits, all relating to crashes in Studio. If one search does not turn up an article that seems relevant to your problem, tr y modifying the search by choosing a different se[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 325 Errors or crashes during installation Answer ID 13122 Errors during the installation of Studio may appear as a dialog box with the title “CRC Error”, “Feature Transfer Error” or “I/O E rror”. In other c ircumstances, the install routine may crash or appear to freeze. In all such cases, try the following [...]

326 Pinnacle Studio Studio crashes in Edit mode Answer ID 6786 If Studio is crashing, the cause is most likely either a configuration issue or a pr oblem with a project or content file. This type of issue can often be fixed with one of the following methods: • Uninstalling and reinstalling Studio. • Optimizing the computer. • Rebuilding a cor[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 327 Be sure to close all other programs before installing a new version. Adjust Studio settings: Choose No background rendering in the Rendering dropdow n list, and clear the Use hardware acceleration checkbox. Both options are found on the Edit options panel (see page 290). End background tasks: Close other applicatio [...]

328 Pinnacle Studio displayed. Double-clicking the name opens another dialog, where you choose the Driver tab. Now you can view information about the driver’s manufacturer, and the names of the driver’s constituent f iles. The sound card is displayed in the Sound, video and game controllers section of Device Manager. Again, double-clicking the [...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 329 Uninstall, reinstall and update Studio: In case your Studio installation has become corrupted, try this procedure: 1. Uninstall Studio: Click on Start ¾ Programs ¾ Studio 12 ¾ Tools ¾ Uninstall Studio 12 , then follow any on-screen instructions u ntil the process is complete. If the uninstaller asks whether you [...]

330 Pinnacle Studio particular clip you have may be corrupt or in an uncommon format. If you have a wav or mp3 file tha t seems to be problematic, conve rt the file to the other format before importing the file. Many wav and mp3 files on the Internet are corrupt or non-standard. Reinstall Windows: This is quite a drastic step, but if the previous s[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 331 that produces the failur e, you will need to be methodical in your approac h. Creating a small test project, as described for Case 2, helps eliminate variables that may conf use your test results. “Video Device Not Found” error appears in Capture mode Answer ID 13618 This error dialog tells you th at Studio “i[...]

332 Pinnacle Studio If no DV Camcorder option is listed, Windows is not loading the driver fo r the 1394 Host Controller. Skip to the “Device Manager” step below to troubleshoot this problem. On ce the driver is loaded properly, verify that capture in Studio is successful. 2. DV, Digital 8 or HDV camcorder checklist: • Ensure the camera is in[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 333 • The driver for the 1394 card is listed under the heading “IEEE 1394 Bus Host Controller” as a “Texas Instruments OHCI-IEEE 1394 Host Controller”. The chip on your card may be from a different vendor so there may be a different name listed than Texas Instruments. If this device has an exclamation mark err[...]

334 Pinnacle Studio properly, return to Studio to verify that capture now succeeds. 4. AM Capture (often s hortened to “AmCap”): If both the 1394 controller and DV camcorder drivers are listed properly in Device Manager and Studio will still not capture from the device, then try to capture using AM Capture, a small, basic, capture utility from [...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 335 Analog capture devices If you are capturing from an analog source (8mm or Hi- 8 camcorder, VCR, etc), make sure that both video and audio are set to the analog de vice you are using. Select your hardware on the lists provided under Capture Devices in the Capture source options panel: Some analog capture devices have[...]

336 Pinnacle Studio Work through the following troubleshooting steps in turn until you solve the problem: • Cabling: As the error message suggests, an obvious first step is to verify that your cables are properly plugged in. The “video out” connector of your video source (camcorder, VCR) m ust be connected to the “video in” connector of y[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 337 Capture tab. This simple fix has been reported to help in some instances. • Other USB devices: If your capture device is connected to the computer using USB, try disconnecting all other USB devices, then retry the capture. If this is still unsuccessful, shut down the Studio program, disconnect and immediately reco[...]

338 Pinnacle Studio your system. Try rendering the supplied demo video. If this fails, the problem is conf irmed as a system issue, since we have not been able to reproduce a render problem with the demo file during our in- house testing. Possible solutions: • Uninstall and reinstall Studio. • Uninstall other software that m ight conflict with [...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 339 Case 3: Render always stops at the same point If rendering always hangs at the same spot in a particular project, see if ot her projects have the same problem. If not, the problem pr oject could be corrupt; if they do, try to isolate a common factor. Finding a solution to this type o f f a i l u r e i s m u c h e a [...]

340 Pinnacle Studio import the AVI file, and add your menus. Rendering will now consume fewer resources, and thus be more likely to succeed. Studio hangs on launch or does not launch Answer ID 1596 Problems on launch can mani fest in various ways. Studio may give an error me ssage when launching, or it may freeze in mid-laun ch, or it may “hang?[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 341 • Disconnect capture hardwa re. Start with Pinnacle external devices such as Dazzle and MovieBox. If Studio now launches, reconnect the device and reopen Studio. If it fails, con tinue to the next step. • If you have a webcam, try launching Studio with the device unplugged, and again with it plugged in. If the l[...]

342 Pinnacle Studio from ever being run by editing your list of startup programs. Editing startup applications To keep applications from loading when your PC is started (or rebooted): 1. Click on Start ¾ Run 2. In the Open box, type: msconfig 3. Click OK In the System Configura tion Utility window, click on the far right tab called Startup . Remov[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 343 • Restart Studio: Shut down Studio, then relaunch it. Now try to create the disc again using the safe mode setting as above. • Restart the computer: Try opening the door of the DVD burner. If it won’t ope n, shut down Studio, then restart the computer. After relaunching Studio, try to create the DVD usi ng the[...]

344 Pinnacle Studio DVDs created by Studio do not play back, or appear blank. Answer ID 13092 In some cases, a DVD created by Studio may not play back in your DVD player. Th ese steps will help to resolve that problem. • Check the disc for cleanliness. Ensure that there are no obvious smudges or scratches on the disc surface. • Verify that the [...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 345 Tip: While troubleshooting bur n or playback issues, using rewritable media will prevent wasting dis cs. No video or poor quality video in the Capture preview window Answer ID 14008 There are several possible cau ses for video being either absent or of poor quality in the Capture preview window. If you encounter suc[...]

346 Pinnacle Studio • VCR input option : If the video displayed in the preview window is of very poor quality when capturing from a Pinnacle device (Studio 500-USB, Studio 700-USB, or MovieBox Deluxe), it is likely that the VCR Input checkbox has not been checked. Rectify this in the Capture source options panel. • Graphics card hardware accele[...]

Appendix C: Troublesh ooting 347 • Use a single monitor: If multiple monitors are being used, try using only one monitor and see if performance improves. • Run the DirectX Diagnostic Tool: Open the Windows Run dialog (Windows +R ), type “dxdiag”, and press Enter . To check for errors in the DirectX Diagnostic Tool, look at the Notes section[...]

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Appendix D: Videograph y tips 349 APPENDIX D: Videography tips To shoot good video, then create from it an interesting, exciting or informative movie, is something anyone with a little basic knowledge can achieve. Starting from a rough script or shooting plan, the first step is to shoot your raw video. Even at th at stage, you should be looking ahe[...]

350 Pinnacle Studio can be as simple or as complex as you like. A simple list of planned scenes might be enough, or you might also want to include some notes regarding detailed camera directions or prep ared dialog. The really ambitious can go all the way to a full-fledged script in which every single camera an gle is described in deta il along wit[...]

Appendix D: Videograph y tips 351 editing, you can use the best camera angles alone or in combination. Make a conscious effort to tape events from more than one camera a ngle (first the clown in the circus ring, but then also the laughing spectator from the clown’s point of view). Interesting events can also take place behind the prota gonists or[...]

352 Pinnacle Studio and in movies they often have to be represented in severely abbreviated form. N onetheless, the plot should remain logical and cuts should almost never call attention to themselves. This is where the transition from one scene to the next is important. Even if the action in neighboring scenes is separated in time or space, your e[...]

Appendix D: Videograph y tips 353 unable to follow the events unles s the storyline is logical. Capture viewer interest from the very beginning with a fast-paced or spectacular start and maintain that interest u ntil the very end. Viewers can lose interest or become diso riented if scenes are strung together in a manner that is illogical or chronol[...]

354 Pinnacle Studio half of the frame one moment and in the right half of the frame the next, or may appear first with and then without eyeglasses. Do not string together pan shots Pan shots should not be st rung together unless they have the same direction and tempo. Rules of thumb for video editing Here are some guidelines that m ay be helpful wh[...]

Appendix D: Videograph y tips 355 • Make harmonious cuts; a void visual disjunction. • The less motion there is in a sho t, the shorter it should be. Shots with fast movements can be longer. • Long shots have more content, so they should also be shown longer. Ordering your video sequen ces in a deliberat e manner not only permits you to produ[...]

356 Pinnacle Studio Substitutionary cut Events that cannot or shoul d not be shown are replaced by other events (a child is born, but instead of childbirth, the blossoming of a flower bud is shown). Cause and effect cuts Shots are related by virtue of cause and effect: without the first shot, the second would be incomprehensible. Example: A man fig[...]

Appendix D: Videograph y tips 357 Preserve original sounds Spoken commentary should be mixed with both the original sounds and the music in such a way that the original sounds can still be heard. Natural sound is part of your video footage and should not be cut away altogether if at all possi ble, because video without natural sound can easily seem[...]

358 Pinnacle Studio Title colors The following combinations of background and text are easy to read: white with red, yellow with bla ck, and white with green. Exercise caution with very white titles on a very black background. Some video systems are unable to handle contrast ratios in excess of 1:40 and are unable to reproduce such titles in detail[...]

Appendix E: Gl ossary 359 APPENDIX E: Glossary Multimedia terminology contains co mputer and video terminology. The most important term s are defined below. Cross-references are indicated by  . 720p: A high-definition (HD) video format with a resolution of 1280x720 and progressive (non- interlaced) frames. 108i: A high-definition (HD) video form[...]

360 Pinnacle Studio Aliasing: An inaccurate display of an image due to the limitations of the output de vice. Typically, aliasing appears in the form of jagged edges along curves and angled shapes. Anti-aliasing: A m ethod of smoothing out jagged edges in bitmap images. This is usually accomplished by shading the edges with pixels intermediate in c[...]

Appendix E: Gl ossary 361 8-bit: allows 256 colors or gray shades. 16-bit: allows 65,536 colors. 24-bit: allows about 16.7 million colors. Bitmap: An image format m ade up of a collection of dots or “pixels” arranged in rows.  Pixel Blacking: The process of preparing a videotape for insert editing by recording video b lack and continuous con[...]

362 Pinnacle Studio and paste operations. Any new data you place onto the clipboard immediately replaces the existing data. Closed GOP:  GOP Codec: Contraction of compre ssor/decom pressor – an algorithm that compresses (packs) and decompresses (unpacks) image data. Codecs can be implemented in either software or hardware. Color depth: Number [...]

Appendix E: Gl ossary 363 lossy . Files compressed with a lossless schem e can be restored unchanged from their original state. Lossy schemes discard data during compression, so som e image quality is sacrific ed. The loss of quality may be negligible or severe depending on the amount of compression. Cropping: Choosing the area of an image to be di[...]

364 Pinnacle Studio Dissolve: A transitional ef fect in which the video is faded from one scene to the next. Dithering: Increasing the number of apparent colors in an image by the applicat ion of color patterns. Decibel (dB): A unit of m easurement of the loudness of sound. An increase of 3 dB doubles the loudness. Digital8: Digital videotape forma[...]

Appendix E: Gl ossary 365 EPROM: “Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory”. Memory chip that after programming retains its data without power supply. The memory contents can be erased with ultraviolet ligh t and rewritten. Fade to/from black: A digital effect that fades u p from black at the beginning of a clip or down to black at the end. Field[...]

366 Pinnacle Studio per unit of time. Usually m easured in repetitions per second, or Hertz (Hz). GOP: In  MPEG compression the data stream is first divided into “Groups Of Pictures” – sections of several frames each. Each GOP contains three types of frames: I-Frames, P-Fram es (pictures) and B-Fram es. GOP size: The GOP size defines, how [...]

Appendix E: Gl ossary 367 codec, HDV uses a flavor of MPEG-2 . There are two varieties of HDV: HDV1 and HDV2. HDV1 is 1280x720 resolution with progressive frames (720p). The MPEG transport stream is 19.7 Mbps/s. HDV2 is 1440x1080 resolution with interl aced frames (1080i). The MPEG transport stream is 25 Mbps/s. Hi8: Improved version of  Video8 [...]

368 Pinnacle Studio pictures, consisting of pixe ls, that can be shown on a computer display and manipulated by software. Image compression: Method of reducing the amount of data required to store di gital image and video files. Interlaced: The screen refresh method used by television systems. The  PAL TV image consists of two interleaved image [...]

Appendix E: Gl ossary 369 Key frames: In some compression methods, such as  MPEG , the video data of certain frames – the key frames – is stor ed completely in the com pressed file, while any intervening frames are only partially saved. On decompression these partial frames recons truct their data from the key frames. Laser disc: Medium that[...]

370 Pinnacle Studio MPEG: Motion Picture Experts Group, and the standard developed by them for the compression of moving images. Compared to M-JPEG, it offers 75- 80% data reduction with the same visual quality. MPG: (File extension for) an MPEG file that contains both video and audio data.  M1V , MPEG , MPA MPV: (File extension for) an MPEG fil[...]

Appendix E: Gl ossary 371 Port: Electrical transfer point for the transmission of audio, video, control or other data between two devices.  Serial port , Parallel port Primary colors: The c olors that are the basis of the RGB color model: red, green, a nd blue. It is possible to create most other colors on a computer screen by varying the blend [...]

372 Pinnacle Studio ROM: Read Only Memory: Memory storage that, having been programmed once, retains its data without requiring electrical power.  EPROM Run Length Encoding (RLE): A technique used in many image compression m ethods, including  JPEG . Repeating values are not stored separately but with a counter to indicate how many times the [...]

Appendix E: Gl ossary 373 Software codec: Compression method that can create and play back compressed digital video sequences without special hardware. The quality of the sequences depends on the performance of the complete system .  Codec , Hardware codec Still video: Still images (or “freeze-fram es”) extracted from video. S-VHS: Improved [...]

374 Pinnacle Studio TrueColor normally refe rs to 24-bit RGB color, which allows about 16.7 million com binations of the red, green and blue primary colors.  Bit , HiColor TWAIN driver: TWAIN is a standardized software interface allowing graphics and capture programs to communicate with devices that supply graphical data. If the TWAIN driver is [...]

Appendix E: Gl ossary 375 video scan rate, the higher the image quality a nd the less noticeable the flicker. WAV: (File extension for) a popular file format for digitized audio signals. White balance: In an electronic camera, this is the adjustment of the am plifiers for the th ree color channels (red, green and blue) so that white areas of the sc[...]

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Appendix F: Keyboard shortcut s 377 APPENDIX F: Keyboard shortcuts The terms Left , Right , Up and Down in this table refer to the arrow (cursor) keys. Main Studio interface Space bar Play and stop J Fast reverse (hit multiple times for faster playback) K Halt playback L Fast forward (hit multiple times for faster playback) X or Ctrl+Up Step forwar[...]

378 Pinnacle Studio R or End Go to end Left Select previous clip Right Select next clip Delete Delete selected clip(s) Insert Split clip at scrubber position Page up Go to next page in Movie Window Page down Go to previous page in Movie Windo w Numeric pad + Zoom in the Timeline Numeric pad - Zoom out the Timeline C Set menu chapter V Clear menu ch[...]

Appendix F: Keyboard shortcut s 379 Ctrl+Left Reduce horizontal scale of, or squeeze (kern), text selection depending on current edit mode (move/scale/rotate or kern/skew/leading) Ctrl+Right Increase horizontal scale of, or stretch (kern), text selection Ctrl+Down Reduce scale or leading of text selection depending on curre nt edit mode Ctrl+Up Inc[...]

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Index 381 Index 2  2D editor (vide o effect), 144 A  A/B editing, 153 Abbreviations, xiv Activate Explained, 13 Album Aspect ratio, 85 Clipboard operations, 82 Disc Menus section, 59, 196 Drag-and-drop editing, 82 Filled during capture, 19 Image sections, 180 Interface features, 43 Introduced, 19 Menu usage, 43 Music section, 62 Overview, 37 [...]

382 Pinnacle Studio Original, 232 Overlay, 152 Overlay, original, 232 Scrubbing, 64 Settings (for File output), 307 Sound effects, 232 Surround, 248 Synchronized with video, 98 Synchronous, 68, 174, 232 Tracks on Timeline, 232 Transitions, 174, 247 Uses of, 229 Using in Studio, 230 Using without video, 83 Voice-overs, 232 Volume and mixing, 242, 24[...]

Index 383 Split clip, 97, 10 1 Split clip/scene, 64 Start/stop capture, 21 Tool selector, 75 Toolbox, 74 Track-locking, 99 Undo, Redo, Help, Support and Activate, 2 View selection, 64 Buttons section Of Title Editor Album, 226 C  Camcorde r Controlle r, 19, 20, 22, 190 Capture, 17 Analog quality options, 31 And the Album, 19 Audio and video leve[...]

384 Pinnacle Studio Selecting, 167 Combine Clips menu command, 98 Compression Audio, 307 Video, 305, 306 Content Importing, 14 Continuity (videography tip), 353 Controls Clip marker, 64 Conventi ons, xiv Counter, 10 Cross fade In audio, 174 Cut (transition), 171 Cuts Associative, 355 Cause and effect, 356 Contrast, 355 Formal, 356 Parallel, 355 Sub[...]

Index 385 DVD Image on hard drive, 265 Importing video from, 33 Menus, 59 MPEG encoding, 28 Output movie to, 266 Playback controls, 5, 10, 195 Player control, 198 Previewing, 198 E  Earthquake (video effect) , 144 Edit Video clips, 81 Edit line Clips inserted at, 82 Edit menu button, 77 Edit mode Interface, 4 Introduced, 1 Edit Theme command, 11[...]

386 Pinnacle Studio GOP Closed, 362 Size, 366 Grab frames tool Described, 189 Graphics Editing, 183 Groups Temporary, In T itle Editor, 218 Grungelizer (a udio effect), 26 0 H  Hard drive Preparing for capture, 317 Space for video captur e, 29 Speed for video capture, 29 Hardware Capture, 23 HD, 366 HD DVD Output movie to, 266 HDV, xv, 367 Captu[...]

Index 387 Links Adjusting, 201 Automatic creation of, 197 Creating, 201 Deleting, 202 Editing, 202 In disc menu tool, 206 On disc menus, 193 Repositioning, 202 Return to menu, 201 Setting with drag-and-drop, 206 Show numbers while editing, 203 Locked content Activating, 11 Locking tracks, 70 Indication of, 99 Long shots (videography tip), 35 1 Luma[...]

388 Pinnacle Studio In Title Editor, 212 Obtaining Disc menus, 60 Sound effects, 61 Themes, 57 Transitions, 56 Old film (video effect), 142 Optical disc Image on hard drive, 265 Optical disc summary, 269 Options, 283 Aspect ratio for analog capture, 285 Audio for file output, 307 Capture devices, 284 Capture format, 287 Capture source, 284 Data rat[...]

Index 389 Parameters for effects Resetting, 129 Parameters for plu g-in effects Presets, 129 Parameters for vide o effects Editing, 128 Passport, 13 Perspectives Varying, 350 Photos Editing, 183 Panning and zooming, 184 Red-eye reduction, 184 Rotating, 184 Picture-in-picture Tool, 154 Video effect, 159 Playback controls, 5 DVD, 5, 10, 195 Fast forw[...]

390 Pinnacle Studio Save to file, 270 3GP, 271 Audio only, 272 AVI, 272 DixX, 273 Flash Video, 274 iPod compatible, 274 MPEG, 275 Real Media, 276 Sony PSP compa tible, 276 Soundtrack, 272 Windows Media, 277 Save to tape, 277 Save to world-wide web, 2 79 Scanning, progressive vs. interlaced, 301 Scene detection, 26, 46 Menu commands, 55 Options, 285[...]

Index 391 Synchronizat ion (of vide o and audio) Overriding, 98 T  Tape Saving movie to, 277 Technical support, 322 Templates. See Themes Text editing Advanced, 215 Text view, 67, 74, 94 Theme clips Creating, 115 Insert vs. replace, 115 Track selection, 115 Transitions and effects, 118 Trimming and editing, 117 Theme Editor Mini-Album, 114 Theme[...]

392 Pinnacle Studio Tools Audio effects, 80, 255 Automatic background music, 79 Background music, 235 CD audio, 79, 234 Chroma key, 160 Clip properties, 71, 76, 78 , 94, 202, 240 Disc menu, 77, 207 Frame grabber, 77 Pan-and-zoom, 183 Picture-in-picture, 154 PIP and chroma key, 77 SmartMovie, 77, 106 Theme Editor, 76, 114 , 121, 122 Titles, 77 Video[...]

Index 393 V  VCD Menus, 59 MPEG encoding, 28 Output movie to, 266 VGA Output movie to, 315 Video Hiding, 70 Options, 32 Output hardware, xiv Settings (for File output), 305 Video and au dio pre ferences (options pan el), 294 Video capt ure Step-by-step, 24 Video clips , 67 Applying effects to, 125 Changing name, 94 Changing playback speed, 140 C[...]

394 Pinnacle Studio Adding to movie, 81, 82 Album interface features, 43 Combining and subdividing, 52 Comments, 51 Displaying length of, 50 Finding in Album, 43 Folders, 44 In-use indicator, 43, 87 Neighboring, 88 Order of, 41 Redetecting, 54 Section (of Album), 41 Selecting, 49 Splitting, 64 Thumbnail frames, 46 Viewing, 48 Video Scenes s ection [...]