User Guide

ARCSOFT SHOWBIZ DVD 2.1
- 11 -
THE TIMELINE & ADVANCED EDITING
Look how much you've learned! You now know how to add still images, video clips, and transitions to the
Storyboard. You know that when you compile your movie, everything on the Storyboard is smooshed together to
create a single video. You know how to enhance your still images and trim video clips. Now, let's find out how to
add a soundtrack, special effects, and text to your movie. In order to do this, we need to leave the comfort zone of
the Storyboard and use the slightly more complex Timeline.
As you already know, the Timeline displays all the same information as the Storyboard, and more. Things may
look a little jumbled at first, but once you have a basic understanding of the layout, things appear much less
confusing. The Timeline is divided into separate tracks. The tracks are: Text, Video, Audio 1, and Audio 2. As you
may have guessed, the Text track is where you can add text effects. The Video track is where you can add still
images, transitions, and video clips. The Video track also has a section that displays any audio that may be
included with a video. The two audio tracks are where you can add audio files. Two different audio tracks are
provided so that you can layer multiple audio files. You can effectively include an ongoing soundtrack, along with
a narration or special sound effects track.
ADDING AUDIO
Adding audio to the Timeline works exactly the same as adding still images, videos, and transitions to the
Storyboard. Choose your audio from whichever album, and double-click it. You can move audio tracks around
from Audio Track 1 and 2 freely. Click-and-drag them anywhere you want.
TRIMMING AUDIO
If you've added a song that's really long or you only want to include a single verse or chorus or whatnot, you can
trim the clip just like you would a video. You can also click and drag the respective edge of the file on the Timeline
to change the start/end point. (Coincidentally, this works for video clips on the Video track as well.)