Operation Manual

Chapter 5: Media editing: Effects
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Numeric parameters are controlled by horizontal sliders, with a gray
bar that you can drag horizontally to change the value. For more
precise control, use the Left or Right arrow. Double-click the bar to
reset a particular parameter to its default value.
Most effects furnish a dropdown list of preset parameter
combinations for fast selection of variants. Once a preset has been
selected, you can customize it by editing the parameters if desired.
When you are finished with a media editor, and are ready to return to
the timeline, click OK at the bottom of the window to approve your
changes, or Cancel to abandon them.
Working with keyframes
The normal use of some types of effect is to transform the source
material in a uniform way from beginning to end. Atmospheric
effects like Old film, and effects that change only the coloration of
the clip, are among those in this category. Their parameters are
generally set once and for all at the start of the clip. This is the static
use of an effect.
Other effects, such as Water drop, depend on a sense of motion.
They are likely to be effective only when their parameters are
allowed to vary throughout the clip. The easiest way to this animated
use of an effect is to use a preset that has animation built in, like
most of those for Water drop. In this kind of keyframe animation,
one or more parameters of the effect has a different value at the end
of the clip than it did at the beginning. On playback, the parameters
are updated after every frame to move smoothly from the start value
to the end value.
Keyframing isn’t limited to just the start and end frames of a clip.
Keyframes can be defined with particular values of effect parameters
at any point in the clip to produce effect animations of arbitrary
complexity. If, for example, you would like an image to reduce to
half-size by the middle of the clip and return to full size by the end,
you would need to add at least a third keyframe.