Pinnacle Studio™ 18 User Guide Including Pinnacle Studio™ Plus and Pinnacle Studio™ Ultimate
Contents Before you start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Abbreviations and conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Buttons, menus, dialog boxes and windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Help and Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Finding your version information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Upgrading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Thumbnails and details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Optional indicators and controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Library preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Choosing what to display in the Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Correcting media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Correcting video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Video tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Video corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stabilize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Correcting audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 146 149 152 152 Chapter 5: Effects . . . . . . . . . .
The Edit window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Text and text settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Titles and stereoscopic 3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Layer List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Working with the Layer List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Working with layer groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Import To panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Mode panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Compression Options window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Scene Detection Options window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Metadata panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Filename panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Storage locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375 Chapter 13: Screen capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377 Starting a screen capture project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377 Recording your screen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378 Appendix A: Troublehooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381 Contacting support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Playing and transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Importer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Movie interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Media editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Title Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429 430 430 432 432 Appendix E: The installation manager .
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Before you start Thank you for purchasing Pinnacle Studio™. We hope you enjoy using the software. If you have not used Pinnacle Studio before, we recommend that you keep the user guide handy for reference even if you don’t actually read it all the way through. In order to ensure that your movie-making experience gets off on the right foot, please review the topics. Note: Not all features described in the user guide are included in all versions of Pinnacle Studio. For more information, please visit www.
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’ applies to OHCI-compliant IEEE-1394, FireWire, DV or i.LINK interfaces, ports and cables. Analog: The term ‘analog’ applies to 8mm, Hi8, VHS, SVHS, VHS-C or SVHS-C camcorders, VCRs and tapes, and to Composite/RCA and SVideo cables and connectors.
Mouse clicks When a mouse click is required, the default is always a left-click unless otherwise specified, or unless the click is to open a context menu: Right-click and select Title Editor. (Or, one might say, “Select Title Editor from the context menu.”) Key names Key names are spelled with an initial capital and are underlined. A plus sign denotes a key combination. For example: Press Ctrl+A to select all the clips on the Timeline.
• YouTube — http://www.youtube.com/user/pinnaclestudiolife • StudioBacklot.tv — http://www.studiobacklot.tv/studio18 Get a 6-week, all-access pass to StudioBacklot.tv, featuring brandnew Pinnacle Studio 18 content, loads of other training and a royalty-free stock library. (Training is in English only.) Tool tips To find out what a button or other Studio control does, pause your mouse pointer over it. A ‘tool tip’ pops up to explain the control’s function.
Chapter 1: Using Pinnacle Studio For a simple outline of the digital movie-making process, you don’t have to look any further than the central tab group of Pinnacle Studio’s main window. The same steps apply to any type of production, from an unpretentious slideshow with dissolves between each frame to a 3D extravaganza containing hundreds of carefully-arranged clips and effects. Pinnacle Studio’s main control bar summarizes the moviemaking process. The Importer Import on the right, is a preparatory step.
these opens a Windows file dialog to permit import of files from a hard drive or other local storage. • Import previous Pinnacle Studio Projects lets you load movie projects created with earlier versions of Studio. • Import Studio for iPad App Projects lets you b ring in projects exported from Studio’s companion app for the iPad. • Quick Import lets you directly select ordinary media files—photo, video, audio and project—for import. Principal controls in the Importer’s Snapshot tool.
Preparing to create a video file in the Exporter. The Pinnacle Studio Exporter helps you over that last hurdle with tools for taking your movie to its viewers, whoever and wherever they might be. Create a digital movie file in the format of your choice, burn a DVD, or upload directly to destinations in the Cloud like YouTube and Vimeo, or to your personal Cloud-based storage area in Box. Like the Importer, the Exporter opens in a separate window, and returns to the main window after its work is done.
The other tabs open the two project editors, one for digital movies, and the other for disc projects, which are digital movies enhanced with interactivity in the form of DVD menus. The Library The Library is a cataloging and management tool for all the file-based resources – or assets – that you can draw on when authoring. Almost all of the materials of your movie – video footage, music and audio files, and many specialized resources such as transitions and effects – originate as assets in the Library.
primary purpose of the compact view is to allow assets to be brought into a movie or disc project from the Library by drag-and-drop. The main view of the Library consists of navigation controls for exploring the catalog structure (left) and a browser for examining and selecting assets (right). Player The tools available from within the Library include the Player, a viewer that works for all media types handled by the application.
Previewing a Library video asset in the resizable Player window, with full transport controls including a shuttle wheel. You can keep working in the main window while the pop-up Player is open. For comprehensive coverage of the Library and its uses, please see “Chapter 2: The Library” on page 17. The next step The next step, once you know your way around the Library and have made any changes needed to the default set-up, is to start creating a movie. There are two ways to go about this.
The easiest way For ultra-quick results, the Library offers another way. Clicking SmartMovie at the bottom of the Library main view opens an extra tray of controls. With either of these you select some visual media assets to serve as the basis of the project, choose music for a soundtrack, and make a handful of other customizations. Then the software takes over, automatically generating a full-scale Pinnacle Studio project containing the media and options requested.
In both the Movie Editor and the Disc Editor, a multitrack timeline occupies the lower part of the display. Most of the ‘clips’ on the timeline come from the Library; a few types, like automatic background music, are generated with special tools. Both project editors include embedded versions of the Library and the Player in addition to the timeline display. To build a project, drag assets from the compact Library onto the timeline tracks, where they are known as ‘clips’.
Corrections from the Library The editors for the standard media types of video, photo and audio are particularly important. When invoked from the Library (by doubleclicking an asset), each of these editors provides a suite of correction tools appropriate to its media type. These tools can be applied directly to Library assets in order to remove camera shake from video, trim unwanted material from a photo, or suppress audio hiss, to give just a few examples.
Effects range from the practical (Brightness and contrast) to the theatrical (Fractal fire). Effects can be animated with keyframed parameter changes to any degree of complexity. They provide innumerable ways to add creative interest to your productions. Some effects are particularly designed for 3D material. Pan-and-zoom The Photo Editor provides one more tool, pan-and-zoom, of its own.
To manage projects, Studio must keep track of everything that goes onto your timeline, and all the editing decisions you make with regard to trimming, adding effects, and much more. Much of this information is stored in the project file, which is in axp (Studio Movie) format. In order to conserve hard drive space when dealing with files that can be very large, the project file does not include the media items in your movie. For these, only their location in the Library is stored.
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Chapter 2: The Library The Pinnacle Studio Library, displayed when you click the Organize tab, is a cataloguing and management tool for all the file-based resources you can draw on when authoring. Its purpose is to let you choose and use the video segments, photos, sound bites, transition effects, titles and other ‘assets’ (as they are often called) for your movies as easily, rapidly and intuitively as possible.
concept for accessing subgroups of assets is virtually identical and should feel immediately familiar. In addition to audio, photo and video files in standard formats, the Library includes specialized auxiliary media like titles and disc menus. They are found, along with transitions, filters and other effects, in the main category called Creative Elements. The Library can easily manage large media holdings such as are often found nowadays even on a home system.
To open the Main Library view, click the Organize tab at the top of the Pinnacle Studio application window. The Compact view of the Library is a panel, either docked (as in the Movie and Disc project editors) or floating (as in the Title Editor). The Compact view retains the full functionality of the Library. Its primary purpose is to allow you to bring Library assets into a movie or disc project with drag and drop.
production using the asset will start with the corrected version, not the unsatisfactory original. Such corrections can quickly be made by opening media editors from the Library. The file underlying the corrected asset is not modified: instead, the correction parameters are stored in the Library database and reapplied whenever the item is displayed or used.
The Projects branch of the Asset Tree contains your own Pinnacle Studio movie and disc projects. You can open a project right from the Library and begin editing it, or you can add it to the timeline of another project to serve as an ordinary clip. Collections are custom groupings of Library media. The more time you spend on media management, the more you will probably use Collections. They can serve as temporary holding places while you work, or for classifying and setting aside media for later use.
unless specifically requested to do so. Rather, it keeps track of their names, locations and properties in an internal database. The information stored also includes any tags and ratings with which you have annotated particular items, and the parameters of any correction filters you have applied. The database The files that make up the Library database are stored in a folder with single-user rather than shared access rights under Microsoft Windows.
Incidentally, to check if there are missing media anywhere in the Library, look in the special subsection All media >Missing media of the Asset Tree. Location tabs Editing a video project involves coordinating the various media and other assets at your disposal. As you proceed, it’s likely that you’ll find yourself browsing repeatedly in various parts of the Library that are relevant to the project.
Here three tabs give access to media required by different parts of a disc project. The mouse pointer is poised to create a new tab. To close a tab, click the x icon to the right of the tab caption. To set the location of the current tab, click a name in the Asset Tree. Changes you make to viewing and filtering options while the tab is active are retained between accesses.
In the Main Library, shown here, the Navigator occupies the left- hand pane of the workspace. In the compact view of the Library used by Studio’s project and media editing tools, the Navigator is presented instead as a dropdown list on the active tab. The Group By menu The header line of the All media branch offers a small dropdown menu of options to control how the groupings within each subsection of the branch are created. The Photos subsection of the All Media branch is shown grouped by file type.
.gif and .jpg – one virtual folder for each recognized file extension in the subsection’s media files. When you group by folder (the default), the folder structure corresponds to actual directories on your hard drive, flash drive, or other file-system device. Some standard folders are included by default; you can add others at will using the watchfolder system. Grouping by folder is shown in the Main Library illustration above.
The Main Library with grouping By Date selected in the All Media branch of the Navigator. The bottom-level folders in the Navigator are displayed in the Browser (right). These ‘virtual’ folders each represent all the photos whose file date falls within a particular month. Grouping in other subsections The Projects and Creative Elements branches of the Navigator also provide a group by menu, so it is possible for branches to be in different grouping modes.
Collections From the Library’s point of view, a Collection is just an arbitrary grouping of assets – a set of Library items with no organizing principle. You may well have a good reason for gathering certain files into a particular collection, but the Library doesn’t have to know what it is. Inside a Collection, any asset can rub shoulders with any other. One special Collection, with the name Latest import, is automatically updated after each import operation to display the media added.
Displaying collected assets Clicking the name of a Collection causes it to be displayed in the Browser. There is one important difference between the Browser view of Collections and those of all other categories: the media assets in any subcollections are visually merged with those of the selected Collection, but not subgrouped.
Library locations. Managing Library assets Media and other assets find their way into the Library in several ways. For instance, the original contents of the Creative Elements branch of the Library are installed with Pinnacle Studio. The Library automatically discovers some assets on your system by regularly scanning Windows-standard media locations. These are set up on Pinnacle Studio installation as watchfolders. Media files in these locations will automatically be brought into the Library.
top of the application window to open the Importer. See “Chapter 10: The Importer” on page 291 for full information. Quick import: The Quick Import button at the top left of the Library opens a Windows file dialog for fast import of files from a hard drive or other local storage. New folders in the corresponding media categories (photos, video, audio and projects) are created for the files specified. In addition, the imported items are included in the Last Import Collection.
clicking the File icon and browsing. You can also delete files from the list before burning. Removing items from the Library To remove an item from the Library, or a selection containing multiple items, choose Delete selected from the context menu or press the Delete key. A confirmation dialog lets you approve the list of media files to be removed from the Library database.
items that aren’t relevant to your purpose. See “Choosing what to display” below for details. Controlling the Browser display A group of controls in the Library’s footer bar provides general functions for managing the way assets are presented in the Browser.
The zoom slider lets you magnify the thumbnails to get a closer look, or pull back for a wider view. This slider is always found at the right-hand end of the footer bar. Thumbnails and details Each asset is displayed in the Library Browser in one of two formats, depending on the view selected. Because the icons of thumbnails view and the text records of details view represent the same assets, they have certain features in common.
boxes beside any of these – File size, File type, Date, Tags, Rating and Duration – you wish to be shown. In Details view, each asset is displayed as a one-line text record. A pop-up checklist beside the Details view button lets you select which columns to show. In the illustration, ‘animals’ and ‘scenery’ are the names of folders in the All Media branch of the Library.
the Player occupies a floating, resizable window. See “The Library preview” on page 41 for more information. In either version of the Library, Alt-clicking the preview button will give you a mini-preview on the asset icon itself. With video and audio media, you can control the mini-preview manually by means of a scrubber that appears below the thumbnail whenever the mouse is over the icon. If the asset is a photo, a pop-up preview button replaces the standard play symbol.
However, a translucent ‘watermark’ logo will appear on the locked content. The locked content watermark. To purchase and unlock the content, use one of the following options: • In the Library, click the lock symbol on the icon. • During export of a project with locked content, a dialog will appear prompting you to click the lock symbol. • When editing effects in one of the media editors, click the lock symbol on the Settings panel. For more information, see “The Settings panel” on page 178.
Optional indicators and controls The optional indicators and buttons on an asset icon in the Library Browser let you access and in some cases modify information about the asset without having to burrow deeper. Use the pop-up checklist on the thumbnails view button to determine which indicators and buttons are displayed. Caption: The caption below the icon is the Library alias for the asset, which you can set with the Edit caption context menu command for any asset.
the asset. The creation and application of tags is discussed in “Tags” on page 50. Collection indicator: Just above the tag indicator, the presence of this symbol indicates that you have included the asset in one or more Collections. To see which ones, hover the mouse over the symbol. As with the tag indicator menu, a remove button is shown as you position the mouse on each Collection name; click it to remove the asset from the Collection.
Ratings: The row of stars above the top left of the icon lets you set the asset rating. If no stars are lit, the asset is said to be unrated. To set the rating of one asset or a selection of assets, either click the corresponding star on the indicator (click the first star twice to make the asset unrated again) or choose the setting on the Apply rating context submenu. The Ratings control appears at the left above the asset thumbnail. At top right is the Info button.
Information indicator: Clicking the information indicator opens the information panel in the pop- up Player, where you can edit the asset’s rating, title, and tags as well as view all its properties. Like most of the other indicators, the information indicator can be turned on and off using the thumbnails view pop-up. The Library preview Most types of Library asset support previewing in the Browser.
Previewing a video clip in the Library Player window. The transport controls are at the bottom, starting with a Loop button at the far left and a shuttle wheel. The third in the group of five arrow buttons starts playback. The two buttons on each side of it are for navigating from asset to asset in the Library folder. Along the top of the Player, the current viewing position is displayed. At the bottom is a toolbar of transport controls and function buttons.
Click the mute button to the right of the transport controls to toggle the audio associated with the clip. A volume slider appears next to the mute button when the mouse is over it. Function buttons Some buttons in the final group at the bottom of the Player appear only with particular asset types. A video file uses all four types, in the order shown and described here. Scenes view: This button activates a mode in which the Browser displays a separate icon or text record for each scene in the video file.
clicking the info button on a media asset icon in the Browser. Audio assets have no separate playback view; instead, full scrubbing controls are shown in the information view. In the information view, the properties that can be edited are Rating, Title, Tags and Comment. Here, data regarding a Library asset, a video, is displayed in the Information view of the Player. Click the highlighted Info button to return to the Playback view of the asset.
projects. The icon for the current mode is displayed beside a dropdown arrow used for switching modes. The available modes are: Left eye, Right eye: The preview for stereoscopic content can be set to show only its left or right eye view. This helps keep things simple at times when a stereoscopic preview is unnecessary. Editing in these views is carried out as for a 2D movie.
In the Control Panel Preview settings, choose Second Monitor from the “Show external preview on” dropdown menu. Set up Studio with a 16x9 stereoscopic timeline. Finally, on the Player, click the Full Screen button. Please see “Export and Preview” on page 366, and “Timeline settings” on page 78 for help with these configurations. Anaglyph: An Anaglyph stereoscopic preview is suitable for viewing with red-cyan stereoscopic glasses, with no additional hardware support required.
readily defined (click the ‘+’ icon at the right end of the tab list), and come in handy for keeping track of multiple things simultaneously. Clicking within the Navigator sets the location for the current tab; conversely, clicking another tab transfers you to its saved location on the tree. Only the assets within the chosen location are displayed in the Browser. If the location has subfolders, however, their contents will be included.
In this close-up, three stars are highlighted, meaning that only assets with ratings of three stars or better are on display. Here the mouse pointer is poised to click the fifth star, which would set the rating filter to hide all but five-star assets. Filter by stereoscopic 3D To display only stereoscopic 3D content, click 3D at the top of the Library. To return to viewing 2D assets as well, click 3D again. Filter by tags Another way to narrow the field of displayed assets is with filtering by tags.
Even when multiple terms are separated by spaces, partial-word as well as whole-word matches are allowed in each term. A dropdown list lets you choose whether the search will be satisfied if even a single search term matches the asset text, or if all terms must match for the asset to be accepted. Inadvertent filtering The various filtering methods can be combined at will.
A filter alert like the one shown here is displayed at the top of the Browser whenever filtering is in force. Click the x icon at the right-hand end to clear all filtering at once. Tags The Library is capable of handling a great number of asset files, sometimes far more in even a single folder than can be viewed conveniently. The Browser therefore provides a number of methods of winnowing out irrelevant assets from the display.
The tags panel, with existing tags listed alphabetically. At the top of the tags panel is a text box for entering new tag names. The panel also lists all the tags you have defined so far, lets you delete or rename them, and lets you choose which assets you want displayed in the Library. Creating, renaming and deleting tags To create a new tag, click in the text box at the top of the tags panel and type in your tag.
Hovering over a tag reveals the Rename and Delete buttons. Clicking the tag itself applies it to any currently-selected assets. Hovering the mouse over a tag reveals the controls for renaming or deleting the tag. To rename, click the Rename icon, type in the new name, and press Enter. Click the Trashcan icon to delete the tag. To delete all tags at once, use the Delete all tags button at the bottom of the panel.
Partial selects assets with any of your tags, which happens to be exactly those hidden by ‘No match’. If you leave ‘dog’ and ‘cat’ checked, but switch to ‘Partial’, all the dogs and cats will be displayed, including the handful of photos in which both animals appear. Photos with neither tag will be hidden. Full selects only the assets that have all your tags. Now with the same boxes checked you should see only those photos in which at least one cat and one dog appear.
Videographic terms (‘two-shot’, ‘silhouette’, ‘exterior’) can also serve as good tags by making it easier to find assets that fulfill particular structural or creative requirements. Correcting media You can apply the media correction tools in the Video, Photo and Audio editors directly to Library assets. This kind of editing does not change the underlying files. Instead, the editing parameters are stored in the Library database and are reapplied whenever the asset is recalled.
formats, such as DV and HDV, a discontinuity in the recorded timecode data occurs whenever the camera is restarted after being stopped. These shooting breaks are treated as scene breaks under the option. By content: Under this option, the scene detection tool analyzes the image content of the material frame by frame, and establishes a new scene whenever there is an abrupt change in content. However, a quick pan or rapid movement across the frame may produce some unneeded breaks.
A single video file can contain many scenes. This makes the footage easier to manipulate during editing than if it were treated as a single segment. During editing, scene clips behave identically to other video clips. Manually creating scenes If you want to manually divide a video file into individual scenes, select Show scenes from the asset’s context menu, or click the Scenes view button. If you haven’t previously subdivided the file, it will now appear in the Browser as a single scene.
To remove individual scenes, select one or more scenes then press Delete. SmartMovie SmartMovie is a built-in project generator that allows you to create a slideshow or movie production automatically based on media you supply. The created production will include animated transitions, a full music soundtrack and eye-catching image effects. At the bottom of the Library, just click SmartMovie. To begin, select from the Library a series of photos or video files.
Adding media To add media to the production, drag them from the Browser into the upper bin in the storage area. Drag thumbnails within the storage area to get the order you want. Continue adding further images until you are satisfied. To add music, drag one or more sound files to the lower bin in the storage area. Alternatively you can click the clef button in the bottom left corner of the audio bin to create a music soundtrack in ScoreFitter.
When the presentation is the way you want it, click Export to burn a disc or create a file for upload. The storage area The photos in the upper bin are displayed as icons, while the music and sound files in the lower bin appear as text lines giving the file name and duration of each asset. Both bins support multiple selection, drag-anddrop reordering, and a context menu with just two commands: Delete selected: The selected media are removed from the SmartMovie production.
The settings entered will be used the next time the production is generated. The video settings button lets you set up the timeline options that will apply if you take the production into the Movie Editor. The clear project button removes all media from the project and returns to default settings. Title: Enter a caption to be used as the main title of the production. Pan and zoom: Checking this option enlivens your presentation with simulated camera moves.
bottom left corner of the audio bin to create a music soundtrack in ScoreFitter. As media are added, the total running time of the source material is displayed in the top-left corner of the bin. This is not necessarily the length of the resulting movie. Preview, edit and export Having placed your media, click Preview on the footer bar below the tool. The project is created and opened in a preview window. If necessary, you can return to SmartMovie to modify your media selections.
When the presentation is the way you want it, click Export to burn a disc or create a file for upload. The storage area The visual assets in the upper bin are displayed as icons, while the music and sound files in the lower bin appear as text lines giving the file name and duration of each asset. Both bins support multiple selection, drag-and-drop reordering, and a short context menu: Delete selected: The selected media are removed from the SmartMovie production.
The settings entered will be used the next time the movie is generated. The video settings button lets you set up the timeline options that will apply if you take the production into the Movie Editor. The clear project button removes all media from the project and returns to default settings. Title: Enter a caption to be used as the main title of the movie. Clip lengths: The visual tempo of your movie increases as the clip length is shortened. Maximum uses the original length of the asset.
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Chapter 3: The Movie Editor The Movie Editor is Pinnacle Studio’s main editing screen for digital movie creation. The editor brings together three main components: The Library, in its compact view, provides the assets available to your project. The Timeline lets you organize the assets as clips within a schematic representation of your production. The Player lets you preview Library assets before adding them to your project.
To make navigation easier in the compact view of the Library, the location tabs across the top bear icons that indicate the type of content that will appear in the Browser when the tab is clicked. To display a different part of the Library, click the expand-collapse triangle beside the icon. This opens the folder tree through which you can access any Library asset. Finding Library assets using the expandable Navigator in the compact Library.
Previewing in the project editors You can operate the Player either in single or dual preview mode. Click the Preview Mode button in the upper right corner of the Player to toggle between them. The Player in single mode. You can choose to view either ‘Source’ (Library) or timeline material. Single mode conserves screen space by providing only one Player preview.
The player in dual mode. The side-by-side previews let you browse the Library while keeping your current movie frame in view. In dual mode, Source (Library) material is shown in the left-hand preview, and timeline material in the right-hand preview, each with its own set of transport controls. The dual view makes it easier to locate Library assets that fit well with your movie by making both the existing and the prospective material visible simultaneously.
A portion of the Movie Editor display, with the compact view of the Library at upper left, the Player at upper right (partly visible), and at bottom the timeline, with the Navigator panel open in its upper region. Disc editing If you plan ultimately to release your movie on DVD with interactive menus, you will at some point need the special features of the Disc Editor.
Editor even if you end up targeting DVD for output instead of or as well as the other options. Please turn to Chapter 9: Disc projects for information about the special features provided for disc authoring. The other aspects of timeline editing are covered in this and subsequent chapters. Slideshow productions In addition to all types of video productions – ‘movies’ – the Movie Editor (and the Disc Editor) can be used for authoring complex slideshows and presentations from still images.
At the left end of the timeline are track headers with several controls per track: a lock button, the track name, and monitoring buttons for the track’s video and audio. Here the current default track is ‘Main’. The track header: To the left of each track is a header area that provides access to functions such as disabling video or audio monitoring for the track. The default track: One track is highlighted with lighter background color, and is also marked with an orange bar to the left of the track header.
The toolbar Above the tracks, the timeline toolbar provides several clusters of editing-related tools. (In the Disc Editor, the toolbar also includes tools specifically for disc authoring.) The Navigator The Navigator is an auxiliary navigation panel that can be revealed or hidden by clicking its icon on the Navigation tool selector near the left end of the timeline toolbar. The full-width strip appears just below the toolbar. It gives a bird’s- eye view of your whole project at a reduced scale.
A portion of the Navigator strip, showing the current position (vertical line, left) and the translucent draggable view window. The gray rectangle that encloses a portion of the Navigator display – the view window – indicates the section of your movie currently visible on the timeline tracks. To change which part of the movie is in view, click and drag horizontally within the view window. The timeline scrolls in parallel as you drag.
The Storyboard Assembling a movie can involve juggling a large number of photos and video clips, as well as deciding where to place titles, Montages and the like. In the Storyboard, the clips on one track of your movie are presented as a sequence of icons, so you can see at a glance what is included and where. To choose which track to view in the Storyboard, use the Storyboard link button in the track header.
The Storyboard displays a sequence of icons representing the contents of one track. Effects (magenta) and corrections (green) are indicated on the top edge of the icon; the length of the clip is shown on the bottom. The space just below the toolbar where the Storyboard appears is also used by the Navigator (and in the Disc Editor by the Menu List). Which tools is visible, if any, is controlled by the Navigation tool selector near the left end of the timeline toolbar.
the effect onto the clip. The clip’s context menu offers the same set of commands here as on the timeline. Any editing that takes place on the Storyboard is immediately reflected in the timeline, and vice versa. Adding clips: Any photo, video, audio clip, project, Montage or title can be added to your project by simply dragging it from the Library to the Storyboard. An insertion line appears to indicate where the new clip will be placed. You can select multiple clips to add them all at once.
Reordering clips: To pick up a clip and move it, click on it until it is selected, and then drag it to its new location. If necessary, the Storyboard will scroll until you reach the desired position. Resizing The height of the timeline, along with the relative proportions of the Library and the Player, can be adjusted with the sizing grip in the form of an inverted T in the middle of the screen.
The Customize toolbar panel, with all available buttons selected for display. Clicking the button brings up a panel upon which all the other toolbar buttons can be individually set as visible or hidden. The gray check marks beside the Timeline settings button and a few others indicate that these buttons are not optional and will be displayed as a matter of course.
Imaging: Choose between Regular (2D) and Stereoscopic (3D). Size: Choose amongst the HD and SD pixel resolutions available for the given aspect ratio. Frame rate: Choose from a selection of frame rates consistent with the other settings. These settings can be changed at any time during the development of your movie, but you should be aware that a change of the frame rate can cause a slight shifting of clips on the timeline as they adjust to new frame boundaries.
Navigation tool selector The space just under the toolbar can be occupied by the Navigator or the Storyboard, or by neither. (In the Disc Editor there is a third possibility – the Menu List.) The Navigation tool selector includes a dropdown that lets you select which tool you want displayed in that area. Clicking on the selector icon toggles the visibility of the area itself. See “The Navigator” on page 72 and “The Storyboard” on page 74 for more about these navigation tools.
Title The Title button opens the Title Editor. If none of the many supplied titles answers your need, why not author one of your own? See “Chapter 7: The Title Editor” on page 195. Voice-over The voice-over tool lets you record commentary or other audio content live while viewing your movie. See “The Voiceover tool” on page 263. Razor blade To split one or more clips at the playhead position, click the razor blade button.
Snapshot If, while previewing video on the timeline, you see a frame that you would like to capture as a still image, click the Snapshot button. This creates a photo of the image currently being previewed, and puts it in the Snapshot folder under Photos in the Library. Using the Snapshot button on the timeline is a quick way to grab a frame; for more control, use the Snapshot tool in the Video Editor. Please see “Snapshot” on page 151 for more about the Snapshot tool.
Dynamic length transitions Ordinarily when a transition is added to the timeline, it is given the default length you have configured in Setup. Click this button if you would like to override the default length. When the button is highlighted, the transition durations can be set by dragging the mouse to the right or left while placing the transition onto a clip. For more about transitions, please see “Transitions” on page 116. Magnetic snapping Magnet mode simplifies the insertion of clips during dragging.
Audio scrubbing By default, the audio portion of a project can be heard only during playback in the preview. The audio scrubbing button on the timeline toolbar provides an audio preview even while just ‘scrubbing’ through your movie by dragging the timeline scrubber control. The shuttle wheel of the Player also provides audio scrubbing. Editing mode The editing mode selector at the right- hand end of the timeline toolbar determines the behavior of other clips when editing changes are made.
Insert mode is always non-destructive: it moves other clips on the track out of the way before inserting new material. It will also automatically close gaps created by removing material. Only the target track is affected. Any prior synchronization with other tracks from the edit point rightwards is lost. Insert is most useful in the early stages of a project, when you are collecting and arranging clips on the timeline.
versa. All you need, therefore, is a method of overriding smart mode’s default behavior. To change insert to overwrite behavior, or overwrite to insert, hold down the Alt key while carrying out your edit as usual. You can press (or release) Alt as you please while setting up the edit: what counts is the state of the key at the instant the operation is finally enacted, such as when you drop dragged items onto the timeline. The trick works in all editing modes, so it’s always available when you need it.
destination track for certain functions, including send to and paste. Newly-created titles and ScoreFitter songs are also added on this track. For more information see “Sending to the timeline” on page 94, “Using the Clipboard” on page 111, “Chapter 7: The Title Editor” on page 195 and “ScoreFitter” on page 261. To make another track the default track, simply click anywhere within the track header other than on a button or other control.
simplify the preview. The same buttons in the all tracks area toggle audio and video monitoring for the entire project. Additional track functions The following functions are available in the track-header context menu: New track: You can insert a new track either above or below the existing track. Delete track: Delete a track and all clips on it. Move track: Drag the track header up or down to a new layer position. As you drag, a bright horizontal line appears at valid placements.
To edit an existing movie: Select a recent project from the File > Recent menu; click File > Open to browse for a movie project to open; or locate the movie you want to open in the Projects folder of the Library, and double-click the thumbnail. If your movie has been stored as a project package, it must be unpacked before editing. Find your project in the Studio Projects group in the Library, and use the Unpack project package command on the thumbnail’s context menu.
To open a Studio project: Choose File > Import previous Pinnacle Studio projects. Please note that some features of projects created with a previous version of Studio may not be supported in the current version. To import a Studio for iPad project: Choose File > Import Studio for iPad App projects. Timeline settings To start editing a new project, verify that the video format settings of your project – aspect ratio, 2D or 3D, frame-size and playback speed – are as you want them.
Adding clips to the timeline Most types of Library asset can be brought onto the timeline as independent clips. The types include video and audio clips, photos, graphics, ScoreFitter songs, Montage and titles. You can even add your other movie projects as container clips that work just like video clips in your project. Disc projects, however, cannot be added as container clips to a timeline, since they require a capability – user interactivity – that timeline clips don’t have.
markers, as if drawn by a magnet once the mouse pointer gets close to the potential target. On the other hand, don’t worry about whether the first clip is right at the start of the timeline. Not every movie starts with a hard cut to the first scene! Live editing preview In order to eliminate the confusion created by complex editing situations, Pinnacle Studio provides a full dynamic preview of the results of editing operations as you drag clips around on the timeline.
• Fill a gap with clips. • Insert some clips before a specific clip. • Replace a clip already on the timeline with a different one. The smart editing mode helps you achieve these goals with ease. Filling a gap Smart mode makes it simple to fill a particular timeline gap with new material, for example. Rather than having to painstakingly pre- trim the new material to the space available, you simply drag items into the gap.
In smart mode, synchronization of the target track with all other tracks is maintained by inserting in each of them a gap of length equal to the new clip. To avoid affecting the other tracks in this way, use insert instead of smart mode. Alternatively, pressing Alt as you drop the new material will cause it to overwrite a portion of the existing clip.
command is found on the context menu of an individual asset or multiple selection in the compact view of the Library. Sending from the Player There is also a second ‘send’ method that provides greater control. If you click on a Library asset when working in the Movie Editor, the Player switches to Source mode for previewing. For trimmable media (video and audio), the Player also provides trim calipers for cutting out a starting or ending portion of the asset.
Once your editing is complete, both titles and ScoreFitter clips will be sent to the default track on the timeline using the Send to timeline function, while voice-over clips will go to the special voice-over track instead. For details please see “Chapter 7: The Title Editor” on page 195, “ScoreFitter” on page 261 and “The Voice-over tool” on page 263. Deleting clips To delete one or more clips, first select them, then press Delete.
Clip operations The timeline of your project provides comprehensive support for selecting, adjusting, trimming, moving and copying clips. Selecting Select clips in preparation for performing editing operations upon them. A selected clip receives an orange frame in the timeline and in the Storyboard, and is displayed as solid orange in the Navigator. To select one clip, click it with the mouse. Any previous selections are removed.
Grouping and ungrouping clips You can select and group multiple clips so that you can move the clips together. To group or ungroup clips: 1 In the timeline, select two or more clips. 2 Right-click one of the selected clips and choose Group > Group. To ungroup the selection, right-click a group and choose Group > Ungroup.
Over-trimming Over-trimming occurs when you try to extend the duration of a clip beyond the limits of its source material, a situation you typically want to avoid. Notice that if you have over-trimmed your clip the invalid parts are shown in pink. Overtrimmed clip: The first and last frames will be frozen in the over-trimmed sections. Over-trimming is not a crisis situation. You do not need to take action immediately.
Multitrack trimming is a valuable editing skill. By trimming multiple tracks at once, you can assure that the clips coming later on the timeline maintain their relative synchronization. Trimming clips without consideration for content later on the timeline can disrupt the synchronization of your project. Soundtracks that don’t match the action and badly-timed titles are the kinds of problem that may result.
Opening trim points To open a trim point on the active timeline track, position the timeline scrubber near the cut you want to trim, then click the trim mode on the timeline toolbar. To open one trim point on each button non-empty track simultaneously, Shift-click the trim mode button. Once in trim mode, you can open trim points with the mouse pointer at the beginning or end of a clip. Notice that the trim pointer faces left at the start of the clip and right at the end.
The Trim Editor in dual mode. The yellow rectangle shows the currently selected trim point at the start of a clip; the left side shows the final frame of the outgoing clip. When a trim point is opened several things happen: • The left or right edge of the clip is highlighted with a yellow bar, showing that it is currently selected. Trim points that are not currently selected are shown with an orange bar. • The Trim Editor opens, with the Player in dual preview mode.
The Trim Editor In dual preview mode, the Trim Editor shows two frames from the timeline. The currently selected trim point is always shown and has a yellow rectangle around it. If the trim point is at the beginning of the clip, the first frame of the clip is shown; at the end of the clip, the last frame. You can switch the selected trim point by clicking in the other preview window, or by pressing Tab. The Trim Editor in a slip trim operation.
rectangle. In other cases, the second preview window shows the frame on the other side of the cut at the selected trim point. Above each preview window, the number of frames that have been trimmed is displayed. If you think of the original cut point position as zero, the number indicates how many frames the new position of the cut point has moved. The Trim Editor is by default in solo mode. The clip that has the trim point is shown without the tracks above it and without any transitions applied to it.
The Trim Editor opens in dual preview mode. To switch to single preview, click the preview mode button in the upper right corner of the preview area. Closing trim mode: Trim mode can be closed by clicking the trim mode . button Editing modes The current editing mode – smart, overwrite or insert – determines how trimming will affect other clips on the timeline. Select the mode from the dropdown list at the far right of the timeline toolbar.
a trim point thus established, you can add or remove frames from the beginning of the clip. To trim on the clip, drag the trim point to the left or right. To trim on the Player, use the trim buttons to trim one or ten frames either forwards or backwards. Click the loop play button for a looping preview of the trim region. The position of the playhead relative to the trim point helps distinguish the in-point of a clip (left) from the out-point of the previous clip (right).
of a gap. All clips to the right of the gap are shifted as a block when this is done. Also, when you need to open a trim point on each track in order to maintain synchronization while trimming, you may often choose to trim the duration of a gap rather than that of a clip. (Remember the rule: one trim point on every track is required for keeping in sync.) Trimming a gap, whether at the start or the end, is accomplished in exactly the same way described above for trimming a clip.
To start, click at the end of the left-hand clip to open the first trim point, then Ctrl-click at the beginning of the right-hand clip to open the second. When positioned over the adjacent trim points you just opened, the mouse pointer should be a horizontal two-headed arrow. Drag left or right to move the clip boundary, or use the Player in trim mode. Trim both: Adjacent out and in trim points have been selected.
Slip trim: With the in and out trim-points of a clip selected, dragging the clip changes its in and out points relative to the original material, but doesn’t affect its start time or duration on the timeline. Slide trim A slide trim is an extended version of the trim both technique described above. In this case you open trim-points at the end of one clip and the beginning of another later on the timeline.
Slide trim: An out-point has been opened for trimming on the first clip, and an in-point on the third. Dragging either point moves the center clip – or multiple clips, if more are present – along the track while other clips remain stationary. Both slip trimming and slide trimming can be useful for synchronizing clip contents to material on other tracks.
Moving and copying To move a selection of one or more clips, place the mouse pointer on any selected clip and watch for it to change to a hand symbol. When it does, start dragging the clip to the desired position. Move can be thought of as a two-step process. First, the selection is deleted from the current timeline, according to the rules of the current edit mode. Second, the selection is moved to the desired end position, where it is inserted in a left-to-right fashion per track.
From the Library After selecting one or more clips in the Library, select Copy from the selection’s context menu or press Ctrl+C to put the selection on the application’s Clipboard. (Cut, the other usual command for adding to the Clipboard, is not available in the Library.) On the timeline, position the playhead at the point where the paste operation should begin, and select the desired track by clicking in its header.
Effects on the Clipboard Clips to which effects have been added have a magenta line along the upper edge. Right-click on the clip, or right-click the line, to access the Effect context menu, which provides Cut all and Copy all commands for transferring or sharing a set of effects between clips. Select one or more target clips, then press Ctrl+V or click Paste on the timeline context menu. The effects stack will be pasted to all selected clips. The target clips retain any effects they may already have had.
The Speed Control window The actual playback speed of your project always remains the same. It is set once and for all by the frames per second rate in your project settings. To achieve slow motion, new frames are interpolated between the original ones; for fast motion, some source frames are suppressed. The options provided on the dialog are divided into several groups. Constant Select the clip playback speed as a value from 10 to 500 percent relative to the original material.
position of the playhead, to serve as the anchor. This can be useful for coordinating action between the speed-affected clip and material such as background music on other tracks. Stretch Under this option, the first and last frames of the clip as currently trimmed will remain locked when the clip is trimmed on the timeline. Shortening the clip, instead of trimming material from the end, speeds it up just enough so that it finishes at the same frame as before.
assets is to serve as the ingredients of movies. What will happen if you try to drag Movie Project A onto the timeline of Movie Project B? The answer is simple enough: As with most types of assets, Project A becomes a single clip on Project B’s timeline. From the standpoint of timeline editing, it behaves just like any of your other video assets. You can trim it, move it around, apply effects and transitions, and so on. (The same is not true of disc projects.
Creating a default fade-in transition by ‘folding back’ a clip’s upper left corner. Two transitions can be assigned to any clip, one at each end. A clip newly created on the timeline has neither. When a new clip starts, it does so with a hard cut to the first frame. When it ends, it switches to the next clip (or black) with equal abruptness. Pinnacle Studio offers a wide variety of transitions for softening, dressing up or dramatizing the change from one clip to another.
If you are trying to add the transition to a clip which is shorter than the default transition length, the transition will not be applied. One way to avoid this problem is by making sure the dynamic length transitions button on the timeline toolbar is active. While it is, you can control the length of a new transition by dragging to the left or right as you place it on the clip. You will see the corner of the clip fold back as you drag.
Finally, transitions can also be created in the applicable media editor, which opens when you double-click the timeline clip. The media editor provides editing controls similar to those for other types of special effect. Please see “Working with transitions” on page 172 for full information. A fade-out transition is applied in ripple (or insert) mode, which creates an overlap by shifting the right-hand clip and all its neighbors somewhat to the left.
once on each track. Since each track will be affected in the same way, they will all remain synchronized. When a fade-in follows a fade-out, the result is termed a ‘fade through black’. The left-hand clip fades all the way out, then the right-hand clip fades all the way in. It is not necessary to leave a one-frame gap between the clips.
Replacing a transition Select the transition you want and simply drag it onto an existing transition. This replaces the transition animation while retaining the original type (in or out) and duration. Alternatively, you can choose Replace by on either the transition’s context menu or the clip’s context menu. You will be offered a selection of transitions to use. Adjusting transitions The durations of transitions can be adjusted just like those of clips.
Transition context menu Find in Library: This command opens the Library Browser at the folder containing the transition. Edit: This command invokes a pop-up window, the basic transition editor, where the transition duration can be set. If the transition is one that offers a custom editor for configuring special properties, the Edit button in the basic transition editor provides access. A Reverse check box is available with some transitions for reversing the transition animation.
The Replace By submenu on the context menu for a transition pops up a convenient palette of standard, recently-used and 5-star transitions. This pop-up is also seen when transitions are added or replaced via a clip’s context menu. Ripple: This command appears if more than one clip is selected. For more information, see “Rippling transitions” on page 120. Remove: This command deletes a transition. Fade-in transitions are removed without further ado.
To apply a specific effect to a clip, either locate it in the Effects section of the Library and drag it to the clip you want to enhance, or doubleclick the clip and select the effect from those offered under the Effects tab of the clip’s media editor. Multiple effects can be applied to a clip using either or both of these methods. By default, multiple effects are processed for playback in the order they were added.
Edit music: This command is for editing ScoreFitter clips. (See “ScoreFitter” on page 261.) Edit Montage: Edit a Montage clip in the Montage Editor. (See “Using the Montage Editor” on page 191.) Open effects editor: Opens the media editor for the clip, whatever its type, with the Effects tab selected. Montage, title and container clips are treated in the same manner as ordinary video clips.
Adjust duration: Enter a duration numerically in the pop-up window. All selected clips will be trimmed to the duration requested by adjusting their out points. Detach audio: In clips with both video and audio, this command detaches the audio stream into a separate clip on a separate track, allowing advanced editing operations like L-cuts. Find in Library: This command opens the Library Browser at the folder containing the asset that is the source of the video, photo or audio clip.
Chapter 4: Corrections Pinnacle Studio provides media editors for each of the three main media types: video, photos (and other images), and audio. The usual way to access one of these editors is by double-clicking either a media asset in the Library or a media clip on your project’s timeline. All three editors provide two main families of tools, called Corrections and Effects. These are presented as tabs at the top of the editor window. (The Photo Editor has a third tab, for the Pan-and- zoom tool.
(associated with a particular clip). Correcting Library assets Just one tool-family tab – Corrections – is available for use when you bring Library assets into a media editor. The Effects tab, and Pan-andzoom for photos, appear only when the editor was opened to work on a timeline clip. Using corrected assets: When you apply Corrections to a Library asset, the correction settings ride along with the asset when you add it to a project. All future projects get the benefit of the correction.
Working with the Enhance group of corrections in the Video Editor. Removing corrections: The context menu for Library assets that have corrections includes a Revert to original command for restoring the uncorrected state. Corrections under direct export: If you choose to export Library media directly, rather than build a project on the movie or disc timelines, the correction settings are applied to the output.
If you want to remove corrections from a clip on the timeline, select the context menu command Open Effects Editor, then switch to the Corrections tool. The settings panels indicate with highlighting which settings have been modified. Use this to locate and reset the corrections. For details on using a particular media editor, please see “Correcting photos” on page 138; “Correcting video” on page 145; or “Correcting audio” on page 152.
• Use the context menu Effect > Edit on the colored strip that appears along the upper edge of clips to which any effects have been applied. To close the media editor window: • Do one of the following: • Click the Cancel button; leaving the clip unchanged. • Click the close (X) button in the upper right corner. If you have made changes, you will be given a chance to save them. • Click the OK button, confirming your changes.
Title bar File and Edit menus: If you invoked the media editor from the Library, the File menu offers the ability to save a new copy (or ‘Shortcut’) of the currently-loaded asset. A Shortcut is a special type of asset that has its own parameters and settings but applies them to a media file that is already associated with an existing asset. This lets you have multiple versions of the same asset without having the overhead of storing a separate media file for each one.
The current item is highlighted. You can switch to editing a different item by clicking a different element in the Navigator, using the arrows at right and left to assist scrolling if required. When you do so, any changes made to the currently-loaded item are automatically saved, as though you had clicked the OK button. You can hide the Navigator by clicking its button the media editor window.
Full screen: When active, this button scales the preview image to the size of the current monitor and removes other tools from view. To exit the full screen mode, press Esc, or use the close (X) button at the top right of the window. The full-screen view includes its own small overlay panel of transport controls. Preview zoom options: Fit window adjusts the size of the preview so that the height and width of the image do not exceed the available space even when all tools are open.
available in the Select preset dropdown menu near the top of the panel; these provide prepared combinations of settings that you can adapt or use directly. Setting numeric values: Numeric settings fields have a gray slider bar within a darker gray field. Click once within this field to put it into numeric input mode, where you can type the desired value for the parameter. Alternatively, drag the slider bar to the left or right using the mouse. Double-clicking restores the default value.
The settings panel lets you adjust the available settings for a correction or effect. Here the settings for the Enhance group of photo corrections are displayed. Photo editing tools These tools are located on the bottom bar of the Photo Editor. They are available for photos and other graphic images loaded from the Library only. Images opened from the timeline do not have access to them.
For information about opening the Photo Editor to access the correction tools, along with general functions of the media editors, please see “Media editing overview” on page 130. Image rotation Two rotary arrow icons are located to the left below the image preview. Click the icons to rotate a Library image either clockwise or counterclockwise in 90-degree increments. Rotation is only available in the Photo Editor when a photo is opened from the Library.
Full image above and below: The lower image shows the corrections. Correcting photos The five corrections available within the Photo Editor are Enhance, Adjustments, Crop, Straighten and Red-Eye. The first two are controlled by means of panels that open in the upper-right corner of the Photo Editor; the other three are controlled interactively on the image preview. Enhance (photos) This correction opens the Image Correction CPU panel of tools for fixing problems to do with color and illumination.
The Brightness and Vibrance sliders can take on values ranging from – 10 to +10. A zero setting represents no change to the automaticallychosen value. Brightness provides a general boost or cut in brightness that is applied equally across the whole image. Vibrance, which is designed primarily for use with images of people, is similar to a saturation control, but minimizes the unnatural appearance characteristic of oversaturated skin tones.
Saturation instead. A related adjustment is Vibrance, which is often preferred in portraits because it preserves skin tones. Clarity: Increasing Clarity boosts contrast in the midtones, tending to sharpen edges in an image. A small increase in Clarity often improves a picture’s overall appearance. Haze: Increasing Haze lightens the image by compressing its dynamic range upwards. What was originally black becomes gray; lighter tones are also brightened, but to a diminishing degree.
Fill light: Increasing this slider may produce better detail in shadowy (but not black) areas of a full-contrast photograph. MidRange: The zone impacted by this slider includes the entire medium range of illumination. Highlights: This slider affects the bright locations in the image. It can be used to mute areas overexposed due to flashes, reflections or brilliant sunshine. Whites: This slider impacts the parts of the image that are considered ‘white’. Edit Whites and Blacks last.
Interlacing If the Interlacing options on the image were misidentified on import, use this dropdown to impose the correct setting. Stereoscopic 3D If the format of a 3D image file was wrongly identified on import, set the correct stereoscopic layout with this dropdown list. Crop Use this tool to emphasize a specific section in an image, or to remove undesired components. Cropping an image. Bounding box (cropping frame): After you select the cropping tool, a resizable frame is placed over the image.
proportion while being resized. Standard (4:3) and wide (16:9) frame aspect ratios are supported. Preview: This function displays the cropped image without the surrounding material. Press Esc or click the image to return to the editing view. Clear, Cancel and Apply: Clear returns the bounding box to its original dimensions; Cancel closes without saving any edits made; Apply saves the changed image without exiting the editor.
Several functions pertaining to Straighten are provided on the toolbar below the preview. Guide line options: The two buttons at the far left of the toolbar set the mode for the lines that are superimposed on the preview as a guide to straightening. Selecting either button deselects the other. The Crosshairs (leftmost) button adds a pair of crossed lines that can be dragged with the mouse to serve as a reference for true vertical and horizontal alignment anywhere in the image.
Correcting video Like the other media editors, the Video Editor has a central preview display, and an area at right for correction and effect settings. If the video includes an audio track, floating panels for audio management will also appear. These are positioned originally at upper left, but you can drag them to new docking positions on either side of the window.
Video tools These tools are located on the toolbar below the Video Editor preview. Just below the tools is a time-ruler with a scrubber for moving through the video. At the left are the marker controls. For more information, see “Markers” on page 148. The remaining controls are devoted to previewing and trimming the media. Many of the controls are also to be found in the Audio Editor. Unless otherwise noted, the descriptions here apply to both.
Transport controls: The oval arrow icon activates looping playback. The remaining controls are (from left to right): Jump backward, Frame backward, Play, Frame forward, Jump forward. Audio monitor: The loudspeaker icon sets the system playback volume but does not affect the recorded audio level. Click once on the loudspeaker to mute, or click on the slider to the right of the icon to adjust monitoring volume. To set the playback level of the clip itself, use the channel mixer.
arbitrarily by clicking and dragging the scrubber, or by dragging within the waveform. Scroll bar and zoom: By dragging the double lines at the end of the scroll bar to the right and left, you change the zoom level of the display. When the bar becomes smaller, the scroll bar can be moved back and forth as a whole, enabling you to zoom into an audio clip’s waveform or scrub with extra precision. Double-click the scroll bar to return it to the full width of the clip.
Deleting the marker: Click the marker to move the playhead to that position, then either press M or click the toggle marker button. You can also delete markers using the list on the Marker Panel, which opens when you double-click a marker on the ruler, or click the downarrow next to the toggle marker button. The Marker Panel shows the markers that have been set within the media currently on view, in ascending order, with color code, name, and position.
Enhance (videos) The Enhance corrections for video are the same as those for photos and other images. See “Enhance (photos)” on page 138. Adjustments During import, Studio automatically detects certain parameters, but a variety of factors can lead to the occasional incorrect identification. Adjustments allows any of these basic image properties to be changed, if needed. Alpha If your video has an Alpha channel and you wish to remove it, choose the Ignore Alpha option.
Snapshot The snapshot tool enables you to acquire a single frame from a video, crop it, and save it as a photo. Its controls are similar to those for the Crop correction for photos. Selection Frame and Aspect Ratio: The frame for selecting an image cutout can be resized by grabbing its sides and corners, or dragged within the preview by grabbing it in the center. Correcting the stereoscopic 3D properties of a Library asset. Preview: Preview shows the selected cropped image without the snapshot tools.
[Registered User]\My Documents\My Pictures\Images Clear and Cancel: Clear sets the selection frame back to its original setting (whole image), while Cancel exits snapshot editing without creating any new media. Stabilize Similar to the electronic stabilization in digital camcorders, this tool minimizes shake and jitter caused by inadvertent camera movement.
Chapter 5: Effects Pinnacle Studio has three media editors, one each for video, photos and audio. Their general operation is described in “Media editing overview” on page 130. One of the main functions of the three media editors is to provide applicable add-on tools in three families – Transitions, Corrections and Effects – along with the specialized Pan-and-zoom function in the Photo Editor only. Working with visual effects in the Photo Editor. At top, several groups of effects are listed.
Only the Corrections family is provided when the media editors are opened from the Library. When they are opened from the timeline of a movie or disc project, however, the full range of tools becomes available. This chapter provides a general introduction to effects editing, then focuses on the visual effects in the Photo and Video editors, as well as Pan-and-zoom. Audio corrections and effects are described in “Chapter 8: Sound and music” on page 235. Corrections vs.
effects may be needed. For each effect, parameters must be adjusted to get the results you are looking for. Once you have found the right combination, the set of effects can be saved as a special type of asset– an effect composition. With effect compositions, even complex manipulations of your media can be readily achieved.
usual features – Collections, ratings, tags, and so on – to help you organize the many effects available. You can apply an effect from the Library directly to a clip on the timeline of a project with drag-and-drop. Clips to which an effect has been added are indicated by a brightly-colored upper border. When you double-click a timeline clip, its media editor opens automatically with the Effects tab preselected.
effects, as your mouse pointer hovers over the effect icons, the preview shows how the clip you are editing would appear if each effect were applied. When you have made your choice, click the effect’s thumbnail to apply it. Customizing an effect Once you have applied an effect to a clip, by either of the methods mentioned above, you can return to the media editor at any time to manipulate the effect’s settings.
Each clip in your project is represented in the Navigator by a colored bar. The layout of the bars on a horizontal time axis with verticallyarranged tracks exactly matches the timeline. The bar representing the clip now being edited is highlighted in orange. Here the mouse pointer is poised over the compass-rose button to turn off the Navigator panel immediately above, where project clips are represented by horizontal bars.
• Show media and the tracks below: Under this option, the current layer and all layers below it are previewed, but the clips on layers above the current layer are hidden. • Show media only: This option allows only the layer you are currently working on to appear in the preview. Previewing effects In the Creative Elements section of the Library you can preview a sample of each effect either directly on the icons in thumbnails view, or in the separate Player window.
A clip with corrections displays a green stripe along the upper edge, but there are no relevant context menu commands. Clip context menu Open effects editor: This opens the media editor appropriate for the clip, with the Effects tab preselected. There you can apply new effects to the clip, or modify existing ones. Paste: Effects can be cut or copied to the Clipboard using commands on the Effect submenu. The Paste command lets you apply the effect to one or more other clips.
Find in Library: Open to the page of the Library Browser that contains a particular effect, with its thumbnail already selected. Real-time vs. rendered Adding effects to a clip increases the amount of computation Pinnacle Studio must do to give you a smooth preview. Depending on your computer’s hardware, the ‘rendering’ process for a clip can easily require more computing time than can be managed in real time; that is, while the preview is actually running.
inspection and editing in the parameters area below the list. Most effects also offer a dropdown list of preset parameter combinations. Though a clip might have transitions, Corrections and Pan-and-zoom in addition to effects, the Settings panel on the Effects tab does not list these. Turn to the other tabs to access the settings information for their tools.
The Settings panel: Here, three effects (Water drop, 2D Editor Advanced, White Balance) have been applied to the current clip. A preset for the 2D Editor Advanced effect is being selected (highlighted box). Modifying parameters Parameters are organized into named groups of related controls. Click the expand/collapse triangle on the group header to open the group and access its parameters, or close it and conserve screen space. The currently selected element is highlighted with an orange frame.
move forward to the next element, use Tab; use Shift+Tab to move backward. 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.
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 halfsize by the middle of the clip and return to full size by the end, you would need to add at least a third keyframe.
Keyframe operations For each effect, only one keyframe can be attached to any frame of the clip. The keyframe defines the instantaneous value of every clip parameter for the frame where it is set. Add or delete a keyframe: To add a keyframe at the playhead position without adjusting any parameters, or to delete an existing keyframe at the position, click the toggle keyframe button on the far left of the transport toolbar.
Method 1: Set up the Size keyframes first, then add the more numerous Rotation frames where needed. At each of these, a correct Size value will be calculated. Method 2: Add the effect twice: once to adjust the keyframes for overall changes (Size, in the example), then another time to make multiple keyframe changes (Rotation). Video and photo effects The effects provided for use with video also work with photos, and vice versa. Only Pinnacle Studio-supplied effects are described here.
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. Bevel crystal: This effect simulates viewing the video through a pane of irregular polygons arranged into a mosaic. Sliders let you control the average dimensions of the polygonal ‘tiles’ in the image and the width of the dark edging between neighboring tiles from zero (no edging) to the maximum value.
Water wave: This effect adds distortion to simulate a series of ocean waves passing across the video frame as the clip progresses. Parameters allow you to adjust the number, spacing, direction and depth of the waves. Black and white: This effect subtracts some or all of the color information from the source video, with results ranging from partly desaturated (the ‘Faded’ preset) to fully monochrome (‘Black and white’). The Amount slider controls the strength of the effect.
(color information). The YCrCb model is often used in digital video applications. Lighting: The Lighting tool enables correction and enhancement of existing video that was shot with poor or insufficient lighting. It is particularly suitable for fixing backlit outdoor sequences in which the subject’s features are in shadow.
to every pixel of the image. If the reference white is well chosen, this can make the coloration seem more natural. Effects and stereoscopic 3D Some video and photo effects have features designed for 3D media. For instance, some of the provided effects offer a stereoscopic mode that is activated by a check box in the effect parameters. Meanwhile, the effects in the Stereoscopic group itself let you modify the 3D properties of your material.
The Shift settings in the S3D Depth Control effect allow you to change the relative position of the left and right eyes horizontally and vertically. S3D Eye Selector: The Eye Selector effect is presented in two variations; one for left eye, and the other for right; it is used for uniting left and right eye video streams on a 3D timeline.
be edited on the timeline. The media editors also provide transport controls and a time-ruler to help in previewing the transition and adjusting its duration. Choosing a transition in the media editor. The same transitions and controls apply to both in and out transitions. When you have chosen a transition at the top of the screen, its settings panel will open on the right side of the media editor.
A white fade bar on the time-ruler below the media editor preview controls the duration of an incoming transition at the left end of the scale, or an outgoing one at the right. Only a transition currently being edited is active, as determined by whether the Transition In or the Transition Out tab is selected. Click the Play button to preview the selected transition, or grab the scrubber to preview the transition at your own speed.
with simulated camera movements as it moves smoothly from one area to another. The pan-and-zoom tool utilizes the full available resolution of your original photo, so if the picture is large enough you will not forfeit detail by zooming in. Adding pan-and-zoom To apply pan-and-zoom to a photo clip on the timeline, double-click it to open the Photo Editor. Because you are opening from the timeline, the Effects tab will be preselected in the Photo Editor. Switch to the Pan-and-zoom tab.
clip. In the Animated mode, separate regions are defined for the first and last frame of the clip; on playback, a smooth ‘camera move’ from one to the other is shown. Animated mode also allows keyframing, in which any number of additional defined regions can be added to the pan-and-zoom camera path. Static mode In Static mode, a gray selection frame with round control points is displayed over the image. You can enlarge, reduce, and move this frame, but you cannot change its proportions (aspect ratio).
To support the extra functionality of Animated mode, the color of the selection frame is used to indicate its place in the animated sequence. The start frame is green, and the end frame is red. Frames at any intermediate point are drawn in white. When multiple frames are visible, you can drag the frames as needed by positioning your mouse over either the edge of the frame or the center dot. Moving the white frame will automatically add a keyframe at the current position.
Manually adding a keyframe: To add an explicit keyframe at the playhead position without altering the current animation path, click the toggle keyframe button on the far left of the transport toolbar. Moving a keyframe: You can drag a keyframe along the timeline to reposition it in time. Jumping to a keyframe: To jump to a keyframe in order to modify or delete it, use the arrow buttons to the left and right of the keyframe button, or click directly on the keyframe in the keyframe line.
Chapter 6: Montage Pinnacle Studio’s Montage is a method of enhancing your movies with off-the-shelf slideshow, animation and multitrack editing effects. Numerous professionally designed sequences, called templates, are available to give your productions instant impact. The templates are grouped into matching themes, so that along with the technical sophistication of the templates you will also find it easy to maintain a consistent look. But the prepared templates are only half the magic of Montage.
project as ‘Montage clips’. You can create attractive, visually consistent sequences that integrate artist-created titles and animations with your own photos and video. See “The Montage section of the Library” on page 181 for further information. Montage titles vs. standard titles Although you can make fancy ‘titles’ from Montage templates, these are not the same as those made in the Title Editor. Each has its particular strengths.
Segue templates you can use when transitioning from one video or image clip to another. Montage in your project The first step in using a chosen template is to drop it onto your project’s timeline. Once there, the Montage template is treated as an ordinary, self-contained video clip. To customize the clip by filling in the template’s blanks, you will double-click the Montage clip to open the Montage Editor. For more information, see “Using the Montage Editor” on page 191.
Click the Play button on the icon to preview the template. To use a template in your project, drag the icon from the Compact Library in the Movie Editor or the Disc Editor to the project’s timeline. Using montage templates Montage templates are stored in the Montage section of the Library, where they are grouped by theme. To use a template, simply drag its thumbnail to the timeline of your project from the Compact Library in the Movie Editor or the Disc Editor.
To use a template, drag its thumbnail onto the timeline. The numbers on the clip indicate that five subclips are available for customization. Montage clips on the timeline can be trimmed and edited much like ordinary video. You can add transitions and effects, adjust their audio, and so on. You can even fill the slots in the Montage with timeline clips. For fully customizing the clip with your own content, however, a special editing tool is needed.
The Montage Editor lets you specify template elements such as video or image clips, property settings, and text captions. Clips are added by dragging them from the editor’s Compact Library to drop zones below the Player. Here, a Library clip is ready to drop on the second zone. The clip will replace the igloo graphic now occupying the zone. Template backgrounds Some templates have built-in graphical backgrounds, a selectable background color, or both.
A Montage template dropped onto the timeline is added by one of three methods: insert, overwrite and replace. When the editing mode button on the toolbar is set to smart, the replace method is chosen automatically. The default length of the clip varies from one template to another. Inserting a Montage template: A Montage can be added anywhere on the timeline.
overwrite. The length of the Montage clip will determine how much of the track is overwritten. Trimming Montage clips Although trimming operations on the timeline are the same for Montage clips as for video clips, the actual result produced by trimming may vary depending on the nature of the template. In an all-animated template, such as a fancy rolled title, the animation always runs to completion. The animation speed therefore depends on the clip duration.
To edit, copy or delete an effect on a Montage clip, right click on the magenta line along the top of the clip and make the applicable choice on the Effect context submenu. Anatomy of a template For examples of how themes work, let’s examine the included ‘50s Modern’ theme, which contains five templates. All the templates in this particular theme use the same backdrop design – an abstract, scrolling pattern. It is continuously visible except during full-frame video segments.
Schematic representation of the Opening template in the ‘50s Modern’ theme, at its default length of about 14 seconds. Just as the second caption is leaving the frame, an animated panel containing the running video subclip is launched. The video zooms to full frame by 11:18 in the template clip, and remains so through to the end (the white portion of the ‘Video’ bar in the diagram). By default, the length of this template clip is 14:00.
Segue A integrates multiple video sources. Segue B: This Segue achieves the basic aim of connecting two video clips more simply than the previous one. The first subclip starts at full frame, then zooms out while rotating away from the viewer. When the reverse side of its rotating panel comes into view, the second subclip is seen to have replaced the first. The panel zooms in to fill the frame towards the end of the clip. Segue B creates a simpler transition.
Segue C includes a bridging video subclip. The final subclip is again expandable. Ending: The purpose of an Ending template mirrors that of an Opening template, and in this example the internal structure is also mirrored almost exactly. Full-frame video recedes to a flying panel that gives way to animated captions – exactly the opposite of the Opening sequence described above. The one difference is that in this case the full-frame video portion of the clip is not extendable.
A useful trick lets you add timeline clips directly to a Montage clip via the Clipboard. Copy the chosen clip using the Copy command on its context menu or Ctrl+C. Then right-click the Montage clip to open its context menu. Choose Paste to Drop Zone, then choose from the graphical submenu of all the available slots in the Montage to select one as the destination.
Part of the Montage Editor, with the timeline (bottom) and drop zones for video or images (middle). The lower portions of the Library and the Player are also visible. Click and drag on the timeline to adjust the timing of the Montage. For a detailed explanation of the template structure, see “Anatomy of a template” on page 187. Working with drop zones Clearing drop zones: To delete a subclip from its drop zone, right- click the zone and select Remove Media from the context menu.
If the drop zone you are working with is active at that time index, the preview will reflect any changes to the start frame. When you are fine tuning the start frame of a subclip, it’s a good idea to set the scrubber position to the location where the Player preview will be of the greatest assistance. Using the start of clip slider changes neither the position of the subclip within the template nor its duration, but only which excerpt of the subclip is used.
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Chapter 7: The Title Editor Pinnacle Studio’s Title Editor is a powerful tool for creating and editing animated titles and graphics. Its extensive suite of text and image effects and tools provides innumerable possibilities for the visual design of your movie. Areas of the Title Editor: 1. Presets Selector; 2. Library; 3. Edit Window; 4. Settings Panel; 5. Toolbar; 6.
often applied to text. See “Preset Looks” on page 201 and “Preset Motions” on page 202 for further information. Hover your mouse over any preset to see how it will affect your title. A single click applies the preset to the current layer. After being applied, Looks can be customized using the Settings Panel. 2 The Library provides resources for building your titles. The tabs across the top provide access to all available media and content.
The process of building up an image in layers is called ‘compositing’. Because the information in each layer is maintained separately, to be combined only when the image is output, it is possible to return to the composition at any time and add new layers, and to adjust, reorder, remove or replace existing ones. Building up an image in layers starting with an empty frame (top left). The checkerboard pattern indicates transparency.
Keywords in title names Some of the provided titles in the Library have transparent areas through which the content of underlying tracks will be visible. The names of these titles all contain the keyword ‘overlay’. ‘Full-screen’ titles have no transparent areas: they fully occupy the video frame. Their names contain the keyword ‘fullscreen’. In the Library, you can easily view only the titles of one or the other type by searching on the appropriate keyword.
• Click the Cancel button (X) at the top right of the window. This is equivalent to clicking Cancel, except that if you have made changes you will be given an opportunity to save before closing. The Library The Library appears in the Title Editor as a tabbed panel on the left side of the window. The tabs across the top give access to all the available media and content. This compact view of the Library is functionally the same as the main view described in Chapter 2.
Adding Library media to a title To add a video or photo to the title, drag it from the Library into the Edit Window. The new element is created at a default size where you drop it in the Edit Window. You can then move, resize or rotate it as you like. To add a video or photo as a full-screen background for your title, drop it onto the background drop-zone of the Background Settings subpanel. See “Background settings” on page 207 for details.
The Presets Selector, with the Looks tab selected. Clicking the name of one of the listed preset families opens a pop-down tray of icons. To give your title some visual impact, there’s nothing like a bit of animation. Click the Motions tab of the Presets Selector. The three groups of presets available correspond to phases in the life of a layer. The Motion presets are categorized by the role they play in introducing the layer, displaying it, or removing it from view.
Applying a Look To apply a preset Look to a text or vector graphics layer, first select the layer with the mouse by clicking in the Edit Window or the Layer List. You can also affect more than one such layer simultaneously using multiple selection or a layer group. To begin using Looks, select a family of presets: Standard, Shadow, Beveled or Outlined. Hover over thumbnails to preview presets; click the thumbnail to apply one to the current layer.
• An enter Motion controls the arrival of the layer – its first appearance within the running title. • An emphasis Motion maintains audience focus on the content of a layer by giving it an attention-getting action during its time onscreen. • An exit Motion takes the layer off-stage again, completing its life cycle. Each layer is allowed to have one Motion of each type. All Motions are optional, however, and it’s also quite possible to have a title with no Motions at all.
Page-based Motions affect the entire layer simultaneously. One example is the enter Motion Barrel roll, which ‘rolls’ the layer into position from above as though it were painted on the side of an invisible rolling barrel. Matching the enter and exit Motions Most enter Motions have a corresponding exit Motion with which they can be paired if visual consistency is desired. For example, a layer that enters with the ‘Words from infinity’ Motion could be configured to exit with ‘Words to infinity’.
Adding Motions To add a particular Motion to a particular layer, first select the layer, then do one of the following: • Click the Motion’s thumbnail in the Presets Selector. • Drag the Motion’s thumbnail from the Presets Selector to an accessible layer (one not masked by other layers) in the Edit Window. • Drag the Motion’s thumbnail from the Presets Selector onto any of the layers or grouped layers in the Layer List header.
Text and shape layers: These are ‘vector-based’ layers, meaning that they are stored not as bitmapped images like video and photo files, but as a kind of ‘recipe’ for recreating the images from straight and curved line segments to which properties (e.g. color) and special effects (e.g. blur) can be applied. Like video and image layers, these vector-based layers can be dragged, resized, rotated and grouped, and you can apply Motions to them.
Editing layers The remainder of this chapter provides details on editing the background and layers in the Title Editor. • To learn about customizing the Background layer, see “Background settings” on page 207. • For information on moving, resizing, rotating and rearranging all types of foreground layers, see “The Edit window” on page 213 and “The Layer List” on page 224. • To learn about editing text and setting text properties, see “Text and text settings” on page 216.
The Background Settings panel lets you create the background of a title. The small preview area serves as a Color Selector button, and also as a drop target for videos or images from the Library. Here the Aspect Ratio menu has been opened by clicking the button just above. The default background for a title is fully transparent. If your title appears on an upper track in your project’s timeline, any video or other imagery on the tracks below will be visible behind the title foreground.
To make the background translucent, position the opacity slider anywhere between fully transparent (all the way to the left) and fully opaque. Double-clicking the slider returns it to full opacity. To reset the background to its default state (with no background), click the trashcan button. Look settings The Settings panel provides access to the Look Settings, where you can examine, modify, add or delete the individual detail layers that are overlaid to generate a particular Look.
There are three types of detail layer: face (surface), edge and shadow. The three types differ not in the settings they support, but in the default position at which they will be inserted in the layer stack. Unless explicitly dragged out of position, face details always appear at the top of the stack, followed by edges, and finally shadows. After a detail has been created, however, it can be dragged up or down in the layer stack as desired.
Look is applied. The range of offset is -1.0 (left, or bottom) to +1.0 (right, or top). The maximum offsets represent one eighth the width and one eighth the height of the Edit Window work area. In this example, a Look with three detail layers has been applied to a single text layer. The detail layers are configured identically except for their offset values, as follows: top left (1.0, 1.0); center (0, 0); bottom right (1.0, -1.0).
The detail layers in this example differ only in their blur settings. From left to right: 0.15, 0, 0.40. • Opacity: This slider sets the opacity of the detail layer from 0 (transparent) to 1 (opaque). • Fill: Click the color swatch button to open a color picker in which the fill color of the detail layer can be set. The color picker includes an eyedropper button to pick up a color from anywhere in the Title Editor. To set a gradient background, choose the Gradients button at the top of the color palette.
To delete a detail layer, click the trashcan button in the header bar of the detail’s edit panel. To rename a detail layer, double-click its name, type the name you want, and press Enter. To temporarily hide a detail layer, click the dot-shaped visibility toggle icon in the detail’s header. To close down or open up the edit panel of a detail layer, click the arrow button at the left-hand end its header bar. To reorder detail layers, drag the header bar of the edit panel to its new location.
A necessary first step for most kinds of editing is to select the layer or layers your want to affect. Selected layers are drawn within a frame having eight control points for sizing and a rotation handle at the top for rotating the selection in one-degree increments. Most types of layer can be ‘grabbed’ for dragging to a new position by clicking directly on the control frame. Rotating a shape object within the Edit Window.
To select a layer in the Edit Window, click in the layer rectangle with the mouse. This causes the layer’s control frame to appear, ready for editing. Layers respond to mouse clicks anywhere within their containing rectangle (the rectangle shown by their control frame when selected). This means that you may not be able to manipulate a layer that is visible only because it lies beneath a transparent area within the rectangle of another layer.
two adjacent sides in succession, you can produce any desired size and proportion. To rotate a layer, click down on its rotation handle and drag. For finer control over the rotation, move the mouse pointer away from the center of rotation while dragging. The extra distance makes it possible to define smaller angles between one mouse position and the next.
• Changing fonts, font sizes and styles • Setting text justification and flow • Copying and pasting text properties The areas of the Title Editor of most interest in text work are the Edit Window and the Text Settings panel. For styling a text layer, the Looks section of the Presets Selector and the Look settings panel also come into play. See “Preset Looks” on page 201 and “Look settings” on page 209.
A text layer with all text selected. From left to right, the text editing controls in the header bar above govern letter styling (bold, italic, underline); text alignment and text flow; and font name and size. In text-edit mode, the mouse pointer over the layer has the ‘I-beam’ shape as shown here. To modify the text itself, simply start typing. The highlighted text disappears and the text you type takes its place.
The Text Settings panel The topmost Settings subpanel is this group of controls for editing and styling the content of the current text layer. Using the text field In cases where text in the Edit Window is difficult or impossible to access for editing, the text field in the panel provides another convenient way to select and edit your text. This is the approach to take if the text is off-screen at the scrubber position, which can happen when Motions are involved.
Font name: Your titles are the perfect place to experiment with fancy display fonts, so you’ll likely be accessing this dropdown list quite often. If you have many fonts on your system, the list can be quite long. For ease of navigation, pressing the first letter of a font name will take you instantly to the corresponding alphabetical location in the list. Click the font you want, or move to the name using the up and down arrow keys and press Enter.
another without having to open the Looks section of the Presets Selector. With text, this operation also replicates the font name, size and style from one text layer to another, and also works on partial selections within text layers. Text alignment For titles with multiple lines of text, the Title Editor provides a standard menu of justification options.
a Look affects only the highlighted text. In principle, each of individual character in your title could be given its own Look. Titles and stereoscopic 3D If you are working on a stereoscopic 3D project, you don’t have to settle for a 2D title. The Library includes many titles identified as 3D, but any title at all can make use of stereoscopic text. To set a 2D title as stereoscopic, select a text layer, then check the Stereoscopic box on the Stereoscopic Settings subpanel.
A stereoscopic title that has been opened from the Library or a 3D timeline will provide a stereoscopic preview. A stereoscopic title on a 2D timeline will preview in 2D only; the timeline settings must be changed to 3D in order to get stereoscopic playback. Text depth: To change the depth of a text layer – its apparent distance from the viewer – select the layer and open the Stereoscopic Settings subpanel. Make sure the Stereoscopic box has an orange checkmark displayed.
The Layer List The Layer List, which occupies most of the bottom part of the Title Editor display, has two columns: one of layer headers, and one of timeline tracks. In each row, the header contains the name of the layer, and a visibility button. To the right of the header, the timeline track serves as a graphical editor for controlling the lifespan of the layer within that of the title as a whole, and the durations of any Motions that have been assigned to the layer.
The Layer List toolbar is home to several important groups of controls (see “The toolbar” on page 227). Working with the Layer List The Layer List is a multitrack timeline very similar in conception to the timeline of the project itself in the Movie Editor or Disc Editor. Some operations, such as those to do with Motions, are particular to the Title Editor, however. Layer operations The procedures described here are all carried out in the header area of the Layer List.
The name of a new text layer is the same as its default text (“Your text here”). Unless you give the layer a custom name, its default name will continue to match whatever text you type into the layer. Once you do rename a text layer, further changes to the text are no longer reflected in the layer name. The default behavior can be restored by setting a blank name, however. To rename the primary layer, click its name. An edit field opens with the existing name selected.
Hiding and locking layers A complex title can get crowded very quickly as you add layers to the composition, and Motions to the layers. The visibility button at the right-hand end of the layer header is handy for simplifying such situations. Click the eye-shaped visibility button to temporarily remove a layer from the Edit Window.
shape opens a pop-up menu from which you can select a particular shape as the contents of the new layer. • Each of the align, group and order buttons opens a pop-up menu of commands that can affect multiple layers. These commands are covered under “Working with layer groups” on page 230. • The 3D viewing mode switcher appears if you are editing a stereoscopic 3D title. Please see the “3D viewing mode switcher” on page 44 for information on the available formats.
• The System Volume and Mute button allows you to adjust the speaker volume of your system. It does not change the audio level of any clips on your timeline. • The counters show the duration of the title and the current position of the Layer List timeline scrubber in the usual hours, minutes, seconds and frames format. For titles that come from your project rather than the Library, the scrubber position shown is relative to the start of your project’s timeline, not the start of the clip.
be adjusted. Enter and exit Motions are each anchored to their respective ends of the layer lifespan, but the end of the enter Motion and the start of the exit Motion can be freely edited with the mouse. If the layer has an emphasis Motion, it occupies whatever unused duration remains (up to the whole length of the title). Three layers with Motions. The top layer has only an Emphasis Motion (solid line), which therefore uses the full duration.
layers resume their individual existences. In a temporary group, the control frames of each member are all visible at once. To create a permanent group, you first create a temporary group, then click the group button on the Layer List toolbar (or use the Group command from any member’s Grouping context submenu). Once created, the group stays together until you explicitly disband it with the ungroup button or menu command, or by dragging the member layers out of the group in the Layer List.
An ordinary layer and a group with three member layers in the Layer List. The timeline graphics show that Motions have been applied to the group itself and to one of its members. The mouse pointer is positioned to collapse the group, which would hide the names of the member layers. Temporary groups and permanent groups respond differently to many commands as detailed below.
Another approach to multiple selection uses the Layer List. For more information, see “Working with the Layer List” on page 225. Edit Window operations on the group Both temporary and permanent groups can be repositioned, resized and rotated. To reposition any group, drag it to the new position as though it were an individual layer. To rotate a permanent group, drag the rotation handle of the shared control frame.
• If you apply a Look, any text or shape member will receive it. • If you add a Motion by right-clicking a Motion icon and choosing Add to selected layer(s), the result will be the same as if you had added it to each member individually. • If you select a font, or change any other text styling attribute, every text member of the temporary group will be updated.
Chapter 8: Sound 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 television productions include numerous types of audio, beginning with the dialog and other sounds created during live action. In your movies, that raw soundtrack – the original or synchronous audio – is imported along with the video, and remains bound to it unless you explicitly separate them.
In this group of timeline toolbar buttons the first button opens the mixer panel, the second creates background music, and the fourth initiates a voice-over. For instance, the timeline track header area includes a pop-out mixer panel, and the timeline toolbar includes a button for controlling clip dynamics with keyframes. At the right-hand end of the toolbar, these buttons activate audio keyframing (left) and audio scrubbing (right). Some other buttons on the toolbar also provide audio features.
equalization, to audio clips in your project. Unlike effects (discussed next), these tools can also be applied to audio assets in the Library. When you later use the asset in a project, the corrections will come with it; you can modify them further from the timeline if you choose. Corrections are non-destructive, meaning that the corrected audio file is not modified in any way. The effects in the Audio Editor provide a number of ways of enhancing, transforming or having fun with sound clips on the timeline.
Trimming and editing the stereo soundtrack of a Library video asset. At left is a video monitor panel and the channel mixer. The darkened portion of the waveform (center) represents material removed from this stereo sound by trimming on the timeline at bottom. The Compressor correction filter has been applied (right). The Audio Editor provides two sets of tools for different purposes. These are Corrections and Effects.
used in a project. Changes to a clip on the timeline, however, have no impact outside the project to which they belong. For information about opening the Audio Editor to access the correction tools, along with general functions of the media editors, please see “Media editing overview” on page 130. The transport and marker controls are the same as for editing videos, and are described in “Video tools” on page 146. For descriptions of the audio editing tools themselves, see “Audio corrections” on page 243.
If you need functions the channel mixer does not provide, consider applying the Channel Tool effect to the clip. See “Audio effects” on page 248 for information about the Channel Tool. Level adjustment: Click on the slider under the level meters to set the playback level of the clip. The level you set will be used whenever this clip is played or used in a timeline. The red area on the meters represents overmodulation of the sound and should be avoided if possible.
can be applied without overmodulation (harsh digital clipping) of any sample. Unlike compression and limiting, which modify the dynamics of audio material, normalization preserves dynamics by uniformly increasing (or decreasing) amplitude. Waveform graph and frequency spectrum The waveform The waveform graph of the audio is shown in the central display. It shows statically how the amplitude of the sound changes with time.
The waveform and frequency buttons at the lower right of the Audio Editor let you switch between these complementary displays at will. The frequency spectrum breaks down the audio signals by frequency bands, showing the sound level in each band. Lower frequencies are on the left. Peak levels are shown as a small box above each main bar for which a peak has been detected in the past few seconds.
Video monitor If synchronous video exists for the currently-selected audio, a small video preview panel opens at the upper left of the Audio Editor. While you are previewing the sound, the video monitor lets you follow the action visually as well. If you switch to the Video Editor, you will see a waveform display panel at the same screen location. See “Correcting video” on page 145.
Preset list: A number of fixed presets can be selected from the dropdown list; for example, you can select a ‘telephone voice’ effect. Gain: Using the Gain parameter, you can determine the amount that the respective frequency band contributes to the overall sound (from 18 to +18). Settings and presets for the Equalize and Compressor audio corrections. Most Expander settings (not shown) are the same as those of Compressor. See the description for details.
LoCut and HiCut: These controllers completely eliminate frequencies below or above a set value. The default values allow all frequencies. Adjustments The only parameter available under the Adjustment tool the is LFE (Subwoofer), which lets you either activate or deactivate the Subwoofer channel for a particular clip, or to stay with the Library’s setting, determined on import.
Attack and Release: Attack governs how quickly the compressor responds to an audio signal that has crossed the threshold. Larger values delay the onset of compression, allowing (for example) the brief attack of a piano note to remain distinct, while applying compression as usual for sustained sounds. Release controls the speed with which compression is switched off when the signal falls back below the threshold. Gain: It is best to make adjustments to the gain after it has already been compressed.
De-esser This audio filter inconspicuously removes distracting sibilance from recorded speech. The available parameters allow individualized fine adjustment of the effect. Frequency: This knob sets the frequency above which the De-esser is deployed. Range: This knob controls the maximum attenuation that will be applied to the detected sibilance. Setting and presets for the De-esser and Noise Reduction audio corrections.
Since a new setting may take a few seconds to go into effect, make changes slowly and in small steps, carefully auditioning each change. Level: Outdoor video recordings in which the subjects are far from the microphone frequently suffer from excess background noise. It may even be enough to obscure sounds of interest, such as the subjects’ voices. Under the same conditions, the operating noise of the camcorder itself, or the words of its operator, may be amplified to an off-putting degree.
Adding the Grungelizer audio effect to the current clip. Usually, though, effects are added with the help of an Effects panel in the Audio Editor, which lets you easily preview and customize them. The panel is available whenever you are working on timeline clips with audio. The panel is not available when you open the Audio Editor from the Library. (In contrast, the tools on the Audio Editor’s Corrections panel are always provided.
volume from one repetition to the next, a variety of results is possible, including flanger-like sounds and other special effects. Grungelizer: The Grungelizer adds noise and static to your recordings. It can make your clips sound as though you were hearing them on a radio with bad reception or a worn and scratched vinyl record.
Stereo spread: This effect allows you to decrease or increase the apparent width of the stereo listening field in an audio clip. Most often it is used to create a mix that sounds more open and spacious. Audio on the timeline The audio levels and stereo or surround positioning of individual clips can be adjusted directly on the timeline using audio keyframing.
Master playback level Above the timeline track headers is a master playback level indicator. As you preview your project, it shows the total output from all tracks as currently mixed. The expand icon to the right of the indicator opens a small floating window with separate level indicators for each output channel, and a master gain control to trim the output level up or down uniformly.
level. You can also set it by dragging horizontally within the small window. Clip level: The other knob sets the level of the current clip at the scrubber position. If no clip is currently selected on the track, this second knob is unavailable. The volume contour of a clip can be controlled with keyframes, as discussed immediately below. When keyframing is in use, the clip level knob causes new keyframes to be created or existing ones to be repositioned.
If there are no keyframes on a clip, the volume contour is a horizontal line representing the default clip volume. To add a keyframe, make sure the volume keyframe editing button on the timeline toolbar is selected, then click on the volume contour of the clip. Alternatively, you can position the scrubber to the desired keyframe location, then simply click the clip level knob; this second method works whether or not the keyframe editing button is lit.
wandering up and down along ‘ramps’ in the contour line. In cases where this does not produce the editing result you desire, try again while holding the Alt key. This turns off any automatic adjustments that might otherwise be made. Insert a new keyframe by clicking the contour line. Instantly create a keyframed fade by Ctrl-clicking the contour line. This inserts both a new keyframe at the point you clicked and a second one with the volume set to zero.
Set a linear fade-in or fade-out by dragging either of the upper corners of the clip horizontally toward the center. Notice before you start that the unfolded corner of the clip becomes slightly dog-eared when the mouse hovers over it. The corner can now be dragged further into the clip, creating a fade. The wider you make the ‘folded-over’ area, the longer will be the duration of the fade. Fade durations can be edited with the mouse as shown here.
In the Audio Mixer, the third icon in each track gives access to the Panner, where you can control the positioning of the track’s audio output in a two-dimensional ‘surround’ listening space. For the purposes of timeline editing, all panning occurs in surround mode, so you only have to deal with a single version of the Panner controls. The surround-panned clips can be mixed down to other output configurations after editing of the project has been completed.
two-dimensional grid. The listener is situated in the center, facing forward. Positioning the clip audio using the Panner in Dialog mode. Note that the icons for the front corner speakers are translucent, indicating that they are not used in this mode. As adjusted here, the audio for the track will be heard coming from the right. Selection list The dropdown list at the top of the Panner window provides three methods for distributing the sound across the set of six surround speakers.
5.1 is the best general purpose setting for natural sound reproduction. Use it for general atmospheric sounds, such as barking dogs, or cars passing by. The five main speakers are represented by icons in the work area. The sixth, the LFE (low-frequency effects) speaker, is too lowpitched to provide positional cues. Its level in the surround mix is controlled by a slider beneath the work area. Center channel off is the preferred setting for an immersive music track.
symbol automatically switches to Delete if you are positioned on an existing keyframe’s position. Audio creation tools The Movie Editor provides two authoring tools that allow you to build your own soundtrack rather than depending solely on Library- supplied media. Both tools are accessed with buttons on the toolbar above the timeline of your project. ScoreFitter is Pinnacle Studio’s resident composer. You can use it to generate either incidental music or a full background scores for your production.
Locating the Library asset As mentioned above, a new Library asset is created each time you make a voice-over, and one can optionally be created from ScoreFitter as well. In both cases, a new button appears on the Library footer bar. A new button is temporarily added to the Library footer bar when a new ScoreFitter or voice-over asset is added to the Library. Click the button to locate the Library folder containing the asset.
The ScoreFitter window. Select a Category, Song, and Version, then click the Add To Movie button. To create music for a particular set of clips, select those clips before clicking the Create song button to open ScoreFitter. (To select your whole movie, use Edit > Select All or press Ctrl+A.
When you have made your choice, click the Add to Movie button. Studio creates the new clip on the active track beginning at the current time index (as shown by the timeline scrubber and the preview frame in the Player). Expanding your song collection ScoreFitter songs come in collections called ‘libraries’. The Standard library, which is included with Studio, includes more than 40 songs in styles ranging from Folk to Electronica.
Position the microphone for use and try speaking a test phrase to check your recording level (see “Voice-over level” below). When you are satisfied, click the Rec button (which toggles to a Stop button during recording). A three-second countdown is displayed, then your movie begins to run in the Player. Perform your narration, and click the Stop button when done. Now you will be asked if you want to keep the recording.
Filename: With this text field you can preset the file name used for voice-over audio files. The first file is given the name you specify; if you leave it unchanged, later files are given a numeric suffix – e.g. ‘Voiceover (1)’ – that increases with each take. Location: Clicking on the folder icon lets you navigate to a new file system folder for storing voice-over clips. Adjust the recording level slider as necessary to stay in the right range. The slider is located immediately below the peak meter.
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Chapter 9: Disc projects With the advent of DVD, Blu-ray and AVCHD discs, video technology has developed into an interactive medium that gives both the videographer and the audience new possibilities. In a disc project you can go beyond the old idea of creating a movie to be viewed in strict sequence from beginning to end. Now the audience themselves can decide which parts of the production to view, and in what order.
The Disc Editor in Pinnacle Studio. Here, two menus have been added to the Menu List, and are now available for use. The Player (top right) in this window provides a special mode for editing the behavior of menu buttons. Your disc project can begin in the Disc Editor, using the same controls and techniques that you would in the Movie Editor, or you can import a movie project into the Disc Editor to add a disc menu to it.
navigation tools: the Menu List, where the your project’s menus are stored, the Navigator, and the Storyboard. Only one of the Navigator, the Storyboard, and the Menu List can be visible, or this area can be hidden altogether The Navigation tool selector, near the left end of the timeline toolbar, controls this area. Under the navigation area is the timeline for the media that will be the primary content of your disc. All use the full width of the window.
limit of 99 on the total number of chapters and return markers allowed in a single production. The Menu List Unlike timeline clips, the menus in your production are not bound to a particular time offset. Instead, a disc player will loop the menu until user interaction is received. Because menus exist ‘outside of time’, Pinnacle Studio provides the Menu List, a special area above the Disc Editor timeline to accommodate the menus in your project.
• Another page of the same menu: Multipage menus always include next and previous buttons for navigating between their pages. Automatic page creation As you insert new chapter links into a multipage menu, additional pages are created automatically as needed. These appear in the Menu List alongside those already in the project. A connector graphic links pages belonging to the same menu. To insert new linked chapters, use either the Insert Link button on the toolbar, or the Chapter Wizard.
Multipage menus in the Menu List The icons of multipage menus are connected in the Menu List by a special graphic. It shows that the menus are linked, which is to say that you can navigate from one page within the menu to another by means of the next and previous buttons. Splitting and joining: To unlink neighboring menu pages from each other, click the connector graphic between them. The graphic is removed.
Adding disc menus The disc menus section of the Library contains a collection of menus for a variety of occasions and in a spectrum of visual styles. Each menu comprises a background picture, a text title, and a set of navigation buttons appropriate to the menu’s purpose. To add a disc menu to your production, open the Compact Library in the Disc Editor, choose a menu in the Disc Menus (under Creative Elements), and drag it to the Menu List.
view move between pages within the same menu; while a home button causes a transfer to the project’s first menu. Tip: To display the main menus side-by-side with their matching multi-page menus in the Library, right-click in the gray area next to a menu and choose Sort by > Name. Menu buttons The number of chapter buttons per page varies from one menu design to another, so one criterion for selecting a menu is the number of clips you want it to handle.
A special indication is also given in the Player for menu buttons that have not yet been linked either to a timeline location (a chapter) or to another menu. A linked button shows which chapter (e.g. ‘C1’) or menu (e.g. ‘M1’) it connects to. An unlinked one shows a questionmark icon instead. (If the button indicators are not visible, click the show/hide chapter numbers check box below the Player.
With Menu selected as the Player input mode (top), the Player provides interactive zones on the preview screen for assigning chapter links. Here ‘C1’ shows a chapter link has been assigned to the Play Movie button; the ‘?’ over the Scene Selection button shows that it is not currently assigned. Show Link Numbers checkbox : Check this box to cause link numbers to be displayed in the preview over every button in the menu. The link numbers match the format and color of the timeline chapter flags.
Link indicators As seen in the illustration above, when a menu with unlinked chapter buttons is previewed, those buttons are indicated by red question marks rather than a chapter number. Except perhaps for an unused subset on the final page of a multipage menu, all the chapter buttons on your menus should link to your movie.
Return markers, which mark automatic exit points from the timeline back to a disc menu, are also shown in the Chapter Track. The caption of a return marker is the letter ‘M’ with the sequence number of the target menu. Regardless of the length of your production, you are limited to a combined total of 99 chapter buttons and return markers. The color of chapter and return markers matches the Menu List icon color of the menu to which the markers are assigned.
Create link: This button links the currently-selected chapter button in the Player to the location of the timeline scrubber. Insert link: This button facilitates work with multipage menus by moving all existing button links (starting at the currently selected chapter button in the Player) one position towards the end.
Create unlinked chapter: Unless the timeline scrubber is exactly positioned at a chapter or return marker, clicking this button will add a chapter marker to the Chapter Track, but will not link it to any menu. An unlinked chapter can also be created by double-clicking in the Chapter Track area just above the other timeline tracks. The unlinked chapter can later be manually linked by drag-and-drop to a button on the Menu Preview if that’s what you want.
Delete return: If there is a return marker at the scrubber position, the Create return button converts to Delete return, with an appropriately changed symbol. The Remove chapter button, and the Delete selected chapter context menu command, can both also be used to delete return markers.
Why use the Chapter Wizard? The Chapter Wizard provides a fast way to create chapters for your movie. Chapter markers will be added to the Chapter Track on the Disc Editor timeline to show where each chapter begins. With the Link chapters to menu buttons option (see below), each chapter will be represented by one chapter button on a series of automaticallygenerated menu pages; these pages are linked into a series by next and previous buttons.
pages created can be arbitrarily long. Its length depends on how many chapters are created and on how many chapter buttons are provided in the menu’s page design. Incidentally, the Chapter Wizard does nothing that you could not do yourself using the available disc authoring tools within the Disc Editor (and they remain available for tweaking the generated menu afterwards). Its purpose is to speed your creative process by taking over much of the routine work that setting up a multipage menu entails.
Apply to The second panel in the Chapter Wizard provides options that control the scope of the wizard’s operation. Whole movie: Chapter markers will be created throughout the entire movie. Selection: Chapter markers will be placed only within the range from the beginning of the first selected clip to the end of the final one. Options The third panel offers two final choices, which may be set independently.
The Menu Editor The Menu Editor shares most of its controls and usage with the Title Editor (see “Chapter 7: The Title Editor” on page 195). The present section focuses on features particular to the Menu Editor. Starting the editor To open a menu in the Menu Editor, either click the Edit button on the Player while previewing the menu, or double-click it in the Menu List. As with the Title Editor, when the Menu Editor opens, one line of text is already highlighted. To edit it, just start typing.
Button types A menu button’s type is the only factor that determines its behavior. Its text and appearance should almost always be consistent with that behavior in a well- authored disc production, but they don’t affect it. Five button types are available. Normal: This type of button lets your text, image or shape serve as a link to any chapter marker on your disc project timeline, or to a menu in your Menu List.
Buttons for multipage menus If you add both a Next and a Previous button to any menu, it can serve as a multipage menu. If either button type is absent, the menu cannot be used in the multi-page mode. Button presets Click the Buttons tab at the top of the Menu Editor to view the available categories of premade menu buttons. Select a button and it will appear in the middle of the preview area, where it can be dragged to the desired position. The three categories reflect the button types discussed above.
The Button Settings panel is part of the Menu Editor. The Disc Simulator To preview your project after setting up its menus, click the play button at the bottom of the Player. This activates the Disc Simulator window.
When the Disc Editor Player is previewing a menu in your project’s Menu List, a button (bottom center) is provided for testing your project in the Disc Simulator. Provided the project is built correctly, the simulator should open at the main menu, with ‘Play Movie’ and ‘Scene Selection’ links ready for the viewer to use. To move from link to link within the preview, use the DVD navigation buttons on the bottom right or click the links directly in the preview.
In the Disc Simulator, you use a control set similar to that found on a DVD remote control. Menu interactions and playback can be fine-tuned and fully tested before you burn the project to disc. Once you are happy with the project, it can be exported as a movie file, saved to a disc image file, or burned to a disc. See “Chapter 11: The Exporter” on page 337 for more information.
Chapter 10: The Importer Pinnacle Studio lets you incorporate many kinds of media into your video productions. When these are stored externally to your computer – on a camcorder tape, say, or a memory stick from your digital camera, or a cloud-based service – they must be transferred to local storage before you can use them. This transfer process is variously called ‘capturing’, ‘importing’ or ‘downloading’, depending on the media involved and the method of transfer.
The next step After Studio has finished importing your assets, you will be able to access the imported files for use in your productions. For more information, see “Chapter 2: The Library” on page 17. Using the Importer The very first step in importing is to open the Studio Importer by clicking the Import button at the top left of the screen. The Importer consists of a large central area surrounded by a number of smaller panels.
Here the Importer is configured for importing material from DVD. For disc sources, the central area lists the ‘chapters’ available for importing. Importing can be regarded as a four-step process: 1 Select the import source on the Import From panel. 2 Confirm or adjust the settings on the other panels. 3 Select material to import from the chosen source. 4 Initiate the import operation.
Importing stereoscopic 3D content Pinnacle Studio will recognize content as stereoscopic 3D and mark it as such for files with the following properties: • MTS: MVC, SBS50, SBS100 (if H264 stream markers are present) • WMV: Multistream, SBS50, SBS100, TAB50, TAB100 (if metadata tags are present) • MP4, MOV with H264: SBS50, SBS100 (if H264 stream markers are present) • MPO: Multistream • JPS, PNS: SBS50, SBS100 If Studio has not correctly identified your 3D media, choose the correct setting from the Stereosc
The photos, music and video footage or projects you want to import may reside on a variety of device types and technologies. The supported import sources include: • All types of auxiliary file-based storage media, including optical drives, memory cards and USB sticks (see “Import from file” on page 312). Click My computer in the Import From panel to select individual files for import from drives connected to the computer.
Single-frame import Studio provides two special modes for importing single frames, rather than continuous footage. These modes are: • Stop motion: Create an animated film by importing one frame at a time from a live video source. See “Stop motion” on page 330. • Snapshot: Import individual images from tape or from a live source like a webcam. See “Snapshot” on page 333.
To access the controls, select the analog source, then click the more beside the source name. This opens the Analog Input button Levels window.
The Analog Input Levels window lets you adjust a number of video and audio parameters. The Hue slider (fourth from left) is not used with PAL sources. Although you can also adjust these levels with the appropriate correction in the Video Editor, setting them correctly for capture can save you from having to worry about color correction later on. Setting your audio options correctly as you capture will help in achieving consistent volume levels and quality.
• The hue slider can be useful for correcting unwanted color shifts in NTSC material; it is not available when capturing from a PAL source. • The saturation slider regulates the ‘color saturation’ – the amount of color – in the image. (An image with zero saturation has only black, white and gray tones.) Audio: The sliders on the right side of the panel let you control the input level and stereo balance of the incoming audio.
folder, click either the small folder button or the current folder path. (See “Selecting an import folder” on page 301.) The folders you choose for each asset type, whether default or custom, serve as base locations for your imported files. In order to manage your file-based assets effectively, you can also specify either a custom subfolder name or a method of automatically- generating a name based on either the current date or the creation date of the imported for the material.
shows how much room will be required by any currently-selected media files or project files awaiting import. Available storage space display Note: If a destination device reaches 98 per cent full during import, the operation is halted at that point. Selecting an import folder To choose a different base folder for a given asset type, click the corresponding folder button or folder name on the Import To panel.
Setting a subfolder To designate a subfolder of the base folder as the actual import destination for the asset type, click either the set subfolder button or . These buttons open a dialog window that the more button represents an expanded version of the Import To panel, one that includes controls needed to set the subfolder name or the naming method for each asset type supported by the currently-selected import source. The expanded Import To dialog window for file-based assets.
Custom: When you choose this option, an in-place edit box appears. Enter the name of the subfolder in which to store your next import or imports of the asset type. Today: Your imports will go to a subfolder named with the current date, in the format “2012-10-25”. Creation date: Each imported file will be stored in a subfolder named with the creation date of the asset, in the same format as above.
Presets: The Presets group offers two standard configurations for video and audio compression, and a custom setting that lets you fine-tune compression parameters in the Compression Options window, which is clicked. For more opens when the upper more button information, see “The Compression Options window” on page 307. The fixed presets are: • DV: This provides full-quality DV capture, using about 200 MB of disk space per minute of video.
Provided you have avoided leaving any blank spots during shooting (by slightly overlapping neighboring shots), this option allows for unattended capture. Import options for analog media The options for analog import are similar to those just discussed for digital sources. See below for explanations of the Compression Options and Scene Detections Options windows. Import options for file-based assets The Mode panel provides two options affecting importing from file.
Delete original: When this option is enabled, the original copies of the files you import will be deleted after copying. This option is handy if you are using the Importer to consolidate your assets and don’t want your hard drive cluttered with redundant copies. Ignore duplicates: This option helps you deal with redundant media files or project files you already have, by telling the Importer not to import extra copies of files that may be differently-named but are apparently identical.
The Compression Options window The options provided in the Mode panel for both DV / HDV and analog import include access to this window for fine-tuning compression preferences. If you select either of the DV and MPEG presets, you can use this window to review the actual settings used. Editing the settings here automatically selects the “Custom” preset. Because some options are contingent on others, not all will be visible simultaneously.
Audio settings Compression: This dropdown shows the codec that will be used to compress the incoming audio data. Record audio: Clear this checkbox if you are not planning to use the captured audio in your production. The Scene Detection Options window The options provided in the Mode panel for both DV / HDV and analog import include access to this window for configuring scene detection preferences. Automatic scene detection is a key feature of Studio when working with DV and HDV sources.
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 immediately after capture is completed. The four scene detection options are: • Automatic based on shooting time and date: This option is available only when you are capturing from a DV source. Studio monitors the time stamp data on the tape during capture, and starts a new scene whenever a discontinuity is found.
Collection, or create a new Collection by entering a new name. (See “Collections” on page 28.) You can enter tags for the asset in the Tag field; these can later be used to find the asset. (See “Tags” on page 50.) The Filename panel This panel of the Importer is where you specify the names under which your imported media files or project files will be stored. Each type of input source has a default filename assigned by Studio. For instance, the default filename when importing a Snapshot is “Snapshot”.
If you want a custom name, enter it into the edit box as usual; however, in the case of file-based assets the target filename has two parts: a stem, which you supply, and a tail, which is generated by one of three simple rules at the time of import. The default rule adds a unique sequence number to every filename. While you are entering your custom name, the edit box shows only the stem. But when the name is displayed at other times, the rule for the tail part of appears as well.
The Import Filename configuration window. Selecting assets for import Each source supported by the Importer has its own appropriate set of controls for selecting the material to be imported. When you click the source name in the Import From panel, the central area of the Importer configures itself appropriately with the controls you need.
When importing from file-based assets, the Importer provides a folder and file browser in the central area. This is flanked on the left by the Import From and Import To panels, and on the right by the Mode, Metadata, and Filename panels. The Start Import button at bottom sets things in motion after the desired asset files have been selected. • Select Scan For Assets in the Import From panel to select one or more folders and import all assets of the desired types that are found in those folders.
The folder and file browser The left hand column of the browser is a hierarchical view of all folders on all file-storage devices attached to your computer. These devices include hard drives, optical disc drives, memory cards and USB sticks. Navigation in this “folder tree” is similar to that in Windows Explorer and other programs. Folders containing other folders are indicated by a plus sign to the left of the name when they are closed and by a minus sign when they are open.
Here, the folder ‘Photos\Winter’ is open, revealing a set of image files. To select (or unselect) files for import, click the checkbox in the top right corner of one or more icons. In the illustration, four files have been selected. Previewing media and project files Previewing audio and video: The file browser includes built-in previewing for all supported asset types. Click the play button in the center of video, audio, and project file icons in the Library to preview the assets they represent.
Scrub preview: Audio, video and project file icons provide a scrubber control immediately below the file icon. Click and drag the scrubber knob to manually review any part of the file. The mouse pointer changes to a two-headed horizontal arrow when it is correctly positioned for scrubbing. Marking files for import To mark asset files one at a time for importing, click the checkbox at the top right corner of the file icon.
• Click while pressing Ctrl to add or remove the highlighting from one file without affecting the others in the group. • Click while pressing Shift highlights the clicked icon and all those between it and the previously clicked icon, inclusive. Highlighting is removed from any icons not within the range. A group of four highlighted image file icons. Marking or unmarking any one will affect the whole group.
Use the Check All button to mark all asset files in the current folder. Each time a file is added to or removed from the list of those to be imported, the file browser updates the count in the selection status indicator at the bottom right of the display. Customizing the browser Several controls allow you to configure the file browser appropriately for your display hardware and requirements.
Hovering over the Audio files option brings up a list of file types from which audio import is supported. Zoom slider: A final tool for managing screen real estate is the zoom slider at the bottom right of the browser. Move the slider leftwards to reduce, or rightwards to increase, the size of the preview images in the file browser. There are three ways of moving this slider with the mouse: • Click on the slider knob and drag to the left or right.
Adjusting the import file date and time The internal clocks of the recording devices are often set incorrectly, resulting in incorrectly timestamped media files. The Importer can correct this kind of problem by setting the date and time of the imported files according to your specifications.
checkbox appears next to each name in the folder tree, and four popup lists are offered on the toolbar at bottom. These lists offer a menu of file types to import in each category: Video, Photo, Audio and Projects. By default, the file extensions on each menu are all checked, meaning that all the appearing file types will be included in the import operation. Uncheck the file extensions for any types that you do not wish to import. To start importing, mark all the folders from which you want to import files.
Previewing video The video currently playing on the source device should now be visible in the preview area at the central area of the display. Along the right edge of the video preview is a scale showing the moment- by-moment audio level.
When a DV or HDV source is selected, the central area of the Importer provides controls for previewing and importing the taped material. Below the preview image is a row of controls for automating capture by setting mark-in and mark-out points. For more information, see “Recording video and audio” on page 325. Another row of controls, the transport bar, serves as your navigation console for the source device.
when it was shot. The four fields represent hours, minutes, seconds and frames respectively. To the left of the indicator is a pair of arrow buttons; use these to jog the position one frame back or frame forward at a time. are play/ From left to right, the transport buttons pause, stop, rewind and fast forward. These buttons relay commands to your camera. Using them is equivalent to using the camera’s onboard controls, but typically more convenient.
Recording video and audio The Importer supports two approaches to selecting a range of video to be imported. In the manual approach, you simply watch the preview playback and press Start Capture at the start of the desired footage. When you reach the end of the segment, press Stop Capture. If you have continuous timecode on the source footage, and have set Stop at tape end to ‘Yes’ in the Mode panel, you can walk away and leave the Importer to switch off when the input is exhausted.
To capture manually with the Start Capture and Stop Capture buttons: 1 Make sure that the mark-in and mark-out points are not set. If needed, use the button associated with the field to clear it with one click. 2 Manually start playback of the source tape before the desired starting point of the capture. 3 Click the Start Capture button when the starting point is reached. The button caption changes to Stop Capture. 4 At the end of the segment click the button again.
Import from analog sources To record analog video (e.g. VHS or Hi8) you need a converter that connect to your computer and that has the required video and audio connections. This is also the case when recording from analog sound sources, such as a record player. Currently supported devices include Pinnacle and Dazzle products such as 500/510-USB, 700/710-USB and DVC 100, and webcams based on DirectShow technology.
To capture from an analog source: 1 Verify that the input device is connected (e.g. “Video S-Video”). 2 Start the playback device just before the point at which you would like capture to begin. Video and audio previewing should now be active. (If not, check the cabling and the converter installation.) 3 Click the Start Capture button to start recording. 4 At the end of the segment click the button again. The captured material is stored in the Library. 5 Halt the source device.
Note: Blu-ray authoring is not activated by default. To activate it, choose Help > Enable Blu-ray authoring. To begin, insert the source disc in its drive and select it in the Import From panel of the Importer. If you have more than one optical drive, choose the correct device among those listed. Note: Copy-protected media cannot be imported.
Previewing the disc files The media on optical discs are accessed through the computer’s file system. For this reason, the previewing controls in the central area, the methods for selecting files, and the procedure for importing, are the same as for ordinary file-based assets (except that the unneeded folder view starts in the closed position). Please see “Import from file” on page 312.
Before starting the capture, make sure that your destination folder, options and file name are set up in the other panels the way you want them. For more information, see “Importer panels” on page 294. If your source equipment is functioning correctly, you should have a live preview in the central area of the Importer window. Click the fullscreen button at the right-hand end of the transport bar to preview on the full monitor screen. When you are ready to capture an image, click the Capture Frame button.
simultaneously in translucent layers so that the differences can be clearly seen. This feature can be configured on the control bar. The number of images shot so far and the duration of the film (based on the number of images, rounded off) are displayed to the right below the control bar. The Stop Motion control bar This bar provides transport and other functions for Stop Motion import.
addition to the current one, that will take part in the effect. Experiment with both settings until you find the levels that work best for your movie. Importing the animation When you have added all the frames you want to the animation, click the Start Import button. The Importer adds your animated movie, and/ or the individual frames you captured, to the appropriate sections of the Library.
When you want to capture an image as it goes by, click the Capture Frame button. A thumbnail of the grabbed frame is added to the Image Tray at the bottom of the window.
Capturing snapshots in the Importer. While previewing live or taped video in the central area of the window, use the Capture Frame button to grab still images. Grabbed frames accumulate in the Image Tray at the bottom of the window until you click the Start Import button to transfer them to the Library. Capture as many additional frames as are required. The Importer adds each one in turn to the collection growing in the Image Tray.
and activates the File indicator. You can also activate the indicator by clicking it directly. Click the File indicator or any thumbnail in the Image Tray to review images already grabbed. Here, thumbnail 5 has been clicked, and the mouse pointer is poised over the trash-can icon to delete it. The heavy line to the right of the selected thumbnail is where the thumbnail of the next grabbed frame would be inserted.
Chapter 11: The Exporter 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. When you have finished editing your project, open the Exporter by pressing the Export button at the top of the screen.
The Exporter. The buttons at upper left set the export destination to File, Disc, Cloud (the Internet), or (portable) Device. Other controls let you set output options as needed for the chosen output type. The name of the project appears above the Player, while the panel below it shows the currently-selected output format. Begin by selecting one of the File, Disc, Cloud and Device buttons to set the media type of your finished project.
Cloud output creates a file for uploading to a cloud-based service provider, where you can decide whether to limit your audience to a few close friends or share your project with the world. See “Output to cloud” on page 357. Device output creates a file that can be viewed from your portable movie player, mobile phone, tablet computer, or similar device. See “Output to a device” on page 362.
Preparing your movie for output Before your movie is completely ready for output some preprocessing will usually be required. In general, Pinnacle Studio will need to ‘render’ (generate video frames in the output format) any transitions, titles, disc menus and video effects you’ve added to your movie. Any files generated during the rendering process are stored in the auxiliary files folder, whose location you can set in the application settings window.
Output to disc or memory card Studio can output movies directly onto DVD and Blu-ray discs, if the requisite disc-burning hardware is available on your system. Whether or not you have a disc burner, Studio can also create a ‘disc image’ – a set of files containing the same information as would be stored onto the disc – in a directory on your hard drive. The image can subsequently be burned onto a disc or transferred to a flash memory card. Note: Blu-ray authoring is not activated by default.
• On a computer with a Blu-ray drive and suitable playback software. SD card, Memory Stick and Built-In Media AVCHD 2.0 disc structures can be written to flash memory cards, such as SD cards or Memory Sticks, or even to devices with built-in media support (e.g. camcorders with AVCHD 2.0 support). Creating 3D discs If your project is in stereoscopic 3D, you can easily create 3D discs in DVD, AVCHD and AVCHD 2.0 formats. On the Settings panel, the S3D dropdown menu lets you choose the correct mode.
Exporting a multistream project. Outputting your movie Studio creates your disc or disc image in three steps: 1 First the entire movie must be rendered to generate the MPEGencoded information to store on the disc. 2 Next, the disc must be compiled. In this phase, Studio creates the actual files and directory structure that will be used on the disc. 3 Finally, the disc must be burned. (This step is skipped if you are generating a disc image rather than an actual disc.
be stored in that folder. The dropdown list on the lower display specifies the disc burner to use if more than one is available. 2 On the Settings panel, select the disc Type you are using, then whichever video quality and disc usage Preset best matches your intent. If you wish to fine-tune your output settings, choose the Custom preset then click the Advanced button to bring up the Advanced Settings panel. 3 Click the Burn Disc button.
• DVD (AVCHD): Each disc holds about 40 minutes of full-quality AVCHD video per layer. • BD: Each disc holds more than 270 minutes of HD video per layer. Output to file Studio can create movie files in all of these formats: • 3GP • Audio only • AVCHD/Blu-Ray • AVI • DivX • DivX Plus HD • Flash Video • Image • Image Sequence • MOV • MPEG-1 • MPEG-2 • MPEG-4 • MTS • *Real Media • Smart • Windows Media • XAVC *Supported in 32-bit only.
Choose whichever format matches the needs of your audience and the details of their viewing hardware. The size of the output file depends on both the file format and the compression parameters set within the format. Although compression settings can easily be adjusted to produce small files, heavy compression comes at the expense of quality. The detailed settings for most formats can be adjusted by choosing the Custom preset and clicking the Advanced button.
When you are exporting a movie to a file, these panels on the Exporter display your export settings. As a convenience after output has completed, the Exporter provides shortcuts for opening Windows Media Player and the QuickTime Player. To view your output file as soon as you have created it, click the icon representing the player of your choice. Ready for viewing 3GP Pinnacle Studio can generate movies in this widely-used file format using your choice of MPEG-4 or H.
The list of presets for this file type offers 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 entertainment footage, and video recordings of interviews and speeches are instances in which an audio-only version might be desirable. Pinnacle Studio lets you save your soundtrack in wav (PCM), mp3 or mp2 format.
Click the preset that best meets your needs; or choose Custom, then click the Advanced button to open the Advanced Settings panel. AVCHD/Blu-ray AVCHD/Blu-Ray is the ‘transport stream’ version of MPEG-2. It may contain video in MPEG-2 or H264/AVC compression. Its applications include HD playback on AVCHD-based camcorders and Sony’s PlayStation 3 home game console. Click the preset that best meets your needs; or choose Custom, then click the Advanced button to open the Advanced Settings panel.
Click the preset that best meets your needs; or choose Custom, then click the Advanced button to open the Advanced Settings panel. DivX This file format, based on MPEG-4 video compression technology, is popular for video files disseminated over the Internet. It is also supported by a range of DivX-compatible hardware devices, from DVD players to portable and handheld units.
Click the preset that best meets your needs; or choose Custom, then click the Advanced button to open the Advanced Settings panel. DivX Plus HD This file format, based on H264 video compression technology, is popular for HD video files disseminated over the Internet. Click whichever of the quality presets matches your needs; or choose Custom, then click the Advanced button to open the Advanced Settings panel. Flash Video Studio supports output in Flash Video (flv) format, version 7.
Click the quality preset that matches your needs; or choose Custom, then click the Advanced button to open the Advanced Settings panel. Image A frame of your video project can be exported as an image, a JPG, TIF or Custom. If you select the Custom option, use the Advanced button to open the Advanced Settings panel. Image sequence A section of your video project can be exported as a series of images, one per frame. The video selected must be at least one second long.
Each second of video will generate between 25 and 60 images, depending on the frame rate setting. The images can be TIF, JPG, TGA, or BMP, in a variety of sizes. If the project is in stereoscopic 3D, you will be offered S3D formats for output. MOV Video This is the QuickTime file format. It is particularly suitable when the movie will be played on the QuickTime player.
The presets provide a variety of size and encoding options. MPEG MPEG-1 is the original MPEG file format. 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 PCs with appropriate decoder software installed. Several of the MPEG-2 presets support HD (High Definition) playback equipment.
MPEG-4 is another member of the MPEG family. It offers image quality similar to MPEG-2 but with even greater compression. It is particularly suitable for Internet use. Two of the MPEG-4 presets (QCIF and QSIF) create ‘quarter-frame’ video sized for cell phones; two others (CIF and SIF) create ‘full-frame’ video suitable for handheld viewers. Custom presets: With all MPEG variants, Custom lets you configure movie output in detail by clicking the Advanced button to open the Advanced Settings panel.
Click the Advanced button to configure your output with the Advanced Settings panel. Windows Media The Windows Media file format is also designed for streaming Internet playback. The files can be played on any computer where the Windows Media player – a free program from Microsoft – is installed. Click the Advanced button to configure your output with the Advanced Settings panel.
Output to cloud The Pinnacle Studio Exporter lets you share your movie creations with your social network on Facebook, with your professional peers on Vimeo, and with potentially the entire world on YouTube. Storing your media and projects on the Cloud means they are also accessible from your smart phone or tablet, and can easily be transferred between computers for collaboration and convenient access.
When uploading to the Cloud, whether to Facebook, Vimeo or YouTube, the only action available within the Exporter itself is ‘Publish’. Settings are chosen after logging in to the service provider. After selecting a sharing provider, click the Start Publishing button at the bottom of the Studio Exporter window. If you are not already logged in to the provider’s site, a log-in page will appear. After logging in, select a format for uploading your project.
Privacy settings Use the Start button at the bottom of the Studio Exporter window to render and upload your project. Vimeo After logging in to your Vimeo account, you can modify the movie’s Title, Description and Tags. Choose the Format you prefer from the dropdown menu.
Setting the quality to HD (1080p) When ready, click the Start button at the bottom of the window to render and upload your project. YouTube After logging in to your YouTube account, you can enter a new Title, Description, or new Tags. Choose your Format and Privacy settings from dropdown menus.
Adding tags When the settings are to your satisfaction, click the Start button at the bottom of the window to render and upload your file. After uploading When the upload is finished, you have the option of opening a web browser to view your creation, or returning to Studio. For Facebook, YouTube and Vimeo, your file must be processed before it can be viewed online, and so may not be immediately available.
Output to a device Studio can create movie files that are compatible with the following list of devices: • Apple • Microsoft Xbox and Xbox One • Nintendo Wii • Sony PS3 and PS4 • Sony PSP If you are exporting a stereoscopic 3D project, you will be offered the 3D formats compatible with the selected device. Apple Studio supports exporting files that are compatible with popular Apple devices like iPod, iPhone and iPad, and Apple TV as well.
quality presets select different data rates, each providing a different balance of quality and file size. Apple TV as well as iPad compatible files are based on the H.264 video compression standard. Output frame size is either 960x540 for Apple TV (first generation) or 720p (later generations). Microsoft Xbox and Xbox One Microsoft Xbox presets allow you to create files for full-screen playback on your Xbox. Two formats are available: DivX SD based on MPEG-4 video compression technology, and WMV HD.
Sony PS3 and PS4 You can export files to your PlayStation by selecting the Sony PS3 or Sony PS4 export type. Studio supports the following file formats: Full size, which is in DivX file format at 720 x 400, and HD 1080/60i. Sony PSP Studio allows you to export files which are compatible with the popular Sony PlayStation Portable devices. Output files are based on MPEG-4 video compression technology.
Chapter 12: Setup Pinnacle Studio’s central configuration window is called the Control Panel. (Note that it is for Pinnacle Studio settings only. The Microsoft Windows Control Panel is unrelated.) To begin, select Setup > Control Panel on the Pinnacle Studio main menu. When the Control Panel appears, choose a page from the directory on the left side of the window. The Pinnacle Studio Control Panel is a central configuration window for the application.
Watchfolders Watchfolders are folders on a hard drive or other storage medium that are monitored by Pinnacle Studio. When the contents of a watchfolder change, the Library is automatically updated. You can create as many watchfolders as you wish and optionally set them up to watch for only one media type (video, image or audio) instead of all three, the default.
Quality: These options control the quality of video previewing throughout the application. • Best Quality: Provides previewing at full resolution – the resolution at which the project will ultimately be exported. Under this option there may be dropped frames during playback on slower systems. • Balanced: At this setting, the recommended one for ordinary use, some quality optimizations are omitted for the sake of a faster preview. In most cases the difference is barely noticeable.
If optimization threshold is set to Off (zero), on the other hand, the yellow and green markings that indicate rendering progress are not displayed; instead, all effects are played back in real time. However, this can result in reduced playback quality (lost frames, ‘jerky’ playback) if the number and complexity of effects outstrips the available processing capacity of the system.
Hardware Acceleration options Default 3D Viewing Mode: This setting selects the default for stereoscopic 3D content throughout Pinnacle Studio. See 3D viewing mode switcher for more information. Please see “Choosing what to display in the Library” on page 46 for more information. • Left eye or Right eye: The preview for stereoscopic content can be set to show only its left or right eye view.
• 3D Vision If your system is 3D Vision capable and stereoscopic 3D is turned on in your driver settings, any stereoscopic content will be previewed in 3D Vision by default. No stop when activating 3D Vision: This setting is available when Studio is run on a PC with a 3D Vision- capable system which has stereoscopic 3D turned on in the driver setting. By default, the No stop when activating 3D Vision setting is set to off.
Selecting a video subfolder type on the Import Settings page. After locating and selecting the folder you want to serve as the base folder, you can optionally set up a subfolder: • No subfolder: With this option, the files you import will be stored in the base folder. • Custom: When you choose this option, a Custom Project Subfolder box will appear. Click it to enter a name for the Subfolder for that media type.
• Current month: This is the same as the Today option but without the day portion, e.g. “2012-10”. • Scene detection: This sets the default detection method for scene detection. “The Scene Detection Options window” on page 308. • Stop motion: This sets the default import method for the frames you capture with the Stop Motion feature. See “Stop motion” on page 330. Keyboard Studio provides both an extensive default set of keyboard shortcuts and a means of customizing them.
To add a keyboard shortcut: 1 Select the target command. 2 Click in the Press shortcut keys edit box. 3 Press the keys for the desired shortcut. If the shortcut is currently is already in use, the Shortcut currently used by dropdown list will show any conflicting commands. 4 Click the Assign button to assign the entered shortcut to the selected command. Adding a shortcut does not delete associations between a particular keyboard sequence and other commands it gives access to.
Project settings On this page of the Pinnacle Studio Control Panel, you can select your default settings for new projects, titles and transitions. New movie project format: Select a resolution (such as PAL or HD 1920x1080i), as the default for every newly created timeline. Alternatively, let the first clip placed on the timeline define the format for the project with the option Detect format from first clip added to project.
Storage locations This page allows you to set where to save media and projects you create with Pinnacle Studio. You can separately specify locations for each of the following file types: • Studio Movie Projects • Studio Disc Projects • Titles • Menus • Restore Project This folder is used both for project packages that have been unpacked for further work and for projects imported from Studio for iPad.
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Chapter 13: Screen capture Record computer actions and mouse movement by using the screen capture feature in Pinnacle Studio. This feature lets you create videos that require visualization in a few easy steps. You can also define the capture area for more emphasis and focus or integrate voice-overs.
Screen Capture toolbar basics 2 1 3 4 Part Description 1 Capture area frame Specifies the display area to capture. This covers the entire screen by default. 2 Recording Controls Contains the buttons that control your screen capture. 3 Capture area frame dimensions Specifies the active program to capture and the exact dimensions of the area to capture in the Width and Height boxes. 4 Settings (default view) Lets you specify file, audio, display and keyboard shortcut settings.
• Filename — Enter a filename for your project. • Save to — Lets you specify the location where you want to save the video file. Note: Screen captures are saved to your Documents folder (...Documents/Pinnacle Studio Screen Capture/18.0) by default. Click to add a new folder and change the location where the file is saved. • Format — Choose an option from the available formats in the drop-list. • Frame rate — Lets you specify the number of frames to be used when recording.
6 In Monitor Settings, choose a display device. Note: The program automatically detects the number of display devices available on your system. Primary monitor is selected by default. To record your screen capture 1 Choose one of the following options: • Full screen — lets you capture the entire screen. When you launch the Screen Capture toolbar, this option is enabled by default. • Custom — lets you specify the area to capture. The capture area dimensions are displayed accordingly.
Appendix A: Troublehooting Before you begin troubleshooting, take some time to check your hardware and software installation. Update your software: We recommend installing the latest operating system updates for Windows. Check your hardware: Ensure that all installed hardware is functioning normally with the latest drivers, and is not flagged as having a problem in Device Manager (see below). If any devices are flagged you should resolve the issue before starting the installation.
Contacting support Learn about all of your support options on our website: www.pinnaclesys.com/support Most common issues are already documented in our Knowledgebase and we encourage you to use these options first. To search the support Knowledgebase effectively, please include the name of the product in your query. Forums Please visit our discussion forums to join the conversation on Pinnacle Studio. Scroll down the forum list to find the forum in your language: go.pinnaclesys.
Pinnacle Studio. For some others, no compatible version has been released.
NewBlue Video Essentials VI Supported – Included in Pinnacle Studio NewBlue Video Essentials VII Supported – Included in Pinnacle Studio Winter Pack Supported* ScoreFitter Volume 1 Supported – Included in Pinnacle Studio ScoreFitter Volume 2 Supported – Included in Pinnacle Studio ScoreFitter Volume 3 Supported* Title Extreme Supported – Included in Pinnacle Studio Third-party Ultimate/Ultimate Collection content discs Studio 11 - Stagetools: Moving Picture Support Not supported Studio 11 -
Studio 14 - Red Giant Trapcode Particular Supported* Studio 14 - Red Giant Shine Supported* Third-party eStore content Support BIAS SoundSoap V2 PE Supported* Studio 17 - Red Giant Magic Bullet Supported* Looks Indie Pack Studio 17 - RedGiant Particular Studio Preset Pack Supported* Studio 17 - RedGiant Shine Studio Preset Pack Supported* Studio 17 - RedGiant ToonIt Studio Supported* Preset Pack Studio 17 - RedGiant Knoll Studio Preset Pack Supported* Studio 17 - Red Giant Trapcode Starglow S
Third-party bonus DVD plugins Support Bravo Studio 1, 2 & 3 Not supported BWPlugins 1, 2 & 3 Not supported Dziedzic Effects Pack 1 & 2 Not supported eZedia Effects Not supported NewBlue Art Effects 1 Not supported NewBlue Effects Not supported NewBlue Time Effects 1 Not supported PE CameraPOV Not supported proDAD Adorage Supported* proDAD Heroglyph 1 Not supported proDAD Heroglyph 2 Supported – Included in Title Extreme proDAD Vitascene 1.
Capture hardware compatibility Document ID 384431 Pinnacle Studio has been tested and found to work successfully with a wide variety of video capture hardware. However, some older devices are not supported. Supported hardware The following capture devices will work with all versions of Pinnacle Studio.
Unsupported hardware The following list of hardware came with older versions of Studio and is no longer in warranty or supported. • DC10 • DC10 Plus • MovieBox DV • Dazzle DVC 80, 85 • Linx • MP 10 • S400 Serial number information Document ID 384215 This FAQ will give you information on the location of your Pinnacle Studio serial numbers, and how to use your serial number from a previous version to activate an upgrade to Pinnacle Studio.
Looking up your customer information: 1 Start by logging in at www.pinnaclesys.com. 2 Browse to ‘Your Product’. 3 Choose your products again from the products section. 4 Your serial number is listed in the ‘Your products’ window that comes up. Using a serial number when upgrading To upgrade Pinnacle Studio, you will need the serial number from the old version. For information about finding your serial number, see “Serial number information” on page 388.
General troubleshooting Here are some further avenues to explore if you are having trouble getting the application to install. Try cleaning the disc: Inspect the install disc, checking its surface for smudges and dirt. If cleaning is necessary, use a soft cloth, not paper towels or any abrasive material. Wipe from the center of the disc to the outer edge rather than a circular motion. Once the disc is clean, try installing again.
possible clues. If necessary, undo the changes to see if the problem goes away. Further troubleshooting steps: 1 Restart the computer: Unstable software behavior of undetermined cause can often be fixed by resetting the system. This is almost always a good place to start when troubleshooting. 2 Wait a few minutes: If Pinnacle Studio still won’t launch, wait a few minutes to let it finish launching. On some computers it may take a little while for the launch to complete.
Alternatively, you can also use the Microsoft System Configuration Utility (msconfig), which is part of Windows, to disable start-up programs. Whichever route you take, we recommend disabling all programs and then re-enabling them one at a time until the conflicting program is located. 7 Reinstall: If all of the above fail, you may want to try uninstalling Pinnacle Studio from the Control Panel “Programs and Features” list. Once it is uninstalled, reinstall Pinnacle Studio and try launching again.
Case 3: Pinnacle Studio crashes repeatedly when you perform some specific combination of steps. Case 1: Studio crashes randomly Here are some troubleshooting steps to try. You can work through them in order until you get a result. Get the latest version Make sure that you have the latest version of Pinnacle Studio installed. Optimize settings Check these Preview settings in Pinnacle Studio that may be adjusted to get better results. Quality: Select ‘Fastest Playback’ and see if your results improve.
Occasionally, however, one of these may be the cause of instability in a particular application. In Windows 7 or Windows 8, the Ctrl+Alt+Delete key combination leads to the Task Manager. The Processes tab will show you what is running. See knowledge base document 229157, How do I turn off background programs that are interfering with system performance and software installation?, for detailed instructions about how to proceed.
Optimize computer performance Windows provides a built-in tool for this purpose. 1. Right-click Computer (or My PC) and select Properties. 2. Click the Advanced System Settings link. This will bring up the System Properties window. 3. Click the Settings button in the Advanced section. 4. Select Adjust for best performance, and click OK. Free space on boot drive Make sure you have 10 GB or more on your boot drive for paging. If you do not have 10 GB, you will need to free up some space.
Check for corrupt media If the instability seems to occur when you manipulate certain audio or video clips, you should recapture or import the audio or video. If the media were imported and created by another application, you should capture with Studio and create a test project. While Studio works with many video formats, the clip you have may be corrupt or in an uncommon variant format.
Explorer, then the OS has a problem. Frequent random crashes are another common sign of a corrupt Windows installation. Case 2: Studio crashes after a user action If Pinnacle Studio crashes, or tends to crash, when you click on some particular tab or button, start by trying all of the steps in Case 1 above. Such a problem usually means that Studio is not installed properly or has become corrupt, so uninstalling Studio, then reinstalling it, and then patching the latest version should correct the situation.
Export problems If errors are reported, or the application freezes or performs incorrectly while exporting a file or disc, please check our knowledge base for articles regarding the specific failure scenario you are experiencing. Disc playback problems Document ID: 384235 If you have a problem with DVDs created by Studio not playing back, or appearing to be blank, the steps below should help to resolve it. Other kinds of playback problems may be addressed elsewhere in the knowledge base.
There should be two folders on the DVD, named ‘audio_ts’ and ‘video_ts’. The ‘audio_ts’ folder should be empty, while ‘video_ts’ should contain files with bup, ifo and vob extensions. If the files are present, the issue definitely relates to playback as such rather than the burning of the disc. Conversely, if the disc is in fact blank, you are looking at a burn problem rather than a playback problem. In that case, follow the instructions in document 214533, Studio burn problems.
To check the project video format, click the gear icon at the top left of the timeline in the Disc Editor. Opening the timeline settings dialog. On the Timeline Settings dialog, make sure that the Size dropdown is set to the right standard. Checking the Size setting. You can also set the default video standard for projects on the Project Settings page of the Pinnacle Studio setup dialog.
Appendix B: Videography 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 that stage, you should be looking ahead to the editing phase by making sure you will have a good set of shots to work from. Editing a movie involves juggling all your fragments of footage into some kind of harmonious whole.
described in detail along with notes about duration, lighting and props. Title: Jack on the kart track No. Camera angle Text / Audio Duration Date 11 sec 1 Jack's face with helmet, “Jack is driving his first camera zooms out race...”. Noise of engines in the background. 2 Music is played in the hall, 8 sec On the starting line, driver's perspective; low noise of engines. camera position. 3 Man with a starting flag “Let's go...”. is accompanied into the Carry out the start, add starting signal.
tape events from more than one camera angle (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 protagonists or the protagonists may be seen in a reverse angle. This can be helpful later when trying to establish a sense of balance in the movie. Close-ups Don’t be stingy with close-ups of important things or persons.
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 editorial choices can make the juxtaposition so smooth that the viewer bridges the gap without conscious attention. The secret to a successful transition is establishing an easily-felt connection between the two scenes.
unless the story line is logical. Capture viewer interest from the very beginning with a fast-paced or spectacular start and maintain that interest until the very end. Viewers can lose interest or become disoriented if scenes are strung together in a manner that is illogical or chronologically false, or if scenes are too hectic or short (under three seconds). There should be some continuity of motif from one scene to the next.
Do not string together pan shots Pan shots should not be strung together unless they have the same direction and tempo. Rules of thumb for video editing Here are some guidelines that may be helpful when you come to edit your movie. Of course, there are no hard and fast rules, especially if your work is humorous or experimental. • Do not string together scenes in which the camera is moving. • Pans, zooms, and other moving shots should always be separated by static shots.
Ordering your video sequences in a deliberate manner not only permits you to produce certain effects, but even enables you to convey messages that cannot or should not be shown in pictures. There are basically six methods of conveying messages through cuts. Let’s look at each in turn. Associative cuts Shots are strung together in a certain order to trigger associations in the mind of the viewer, but the actual message is not 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 fights with his wife and, in the very next shot, is seen sleeping under a bridge. Formal cuts Shots that vary in content can be strung together if they have something in common – the same shapes, colors, or motions, for example. Examples: A crystal ball and the earth; a yellow raincoat and yellow flowers; a falling skydiver and a falling feather.
the recording equipment captures noises from aircraft and cars that do not appear in the scene later. Sounds such as these, or loud wind noises, which can be distracting or annoying, should be masked, filtered or replaced with appropriate narration or music. Select appropriate music Appropriate music adds a professional finishing touch to your movie and can do a lot to reinforce the message of a video. The music selected, however, should always be appropriate to the message of the film.
systems are unable to handle contrast ratios in excess of 1:40 and are unable to reproduce such titles in detail. Time on screen As a rule of thumb, a title should be displayed long enough to be read twice. Allow about three seconds for a title with ten letters. Allow an additional second of on-screen time for every five additional letters.
Appendix C: Glossary Multimedia terminology contains computer and video terminology. The most important terms are defined below. 720p: A high-definition (HD) video format with a resolution of 1280x720 and progressive (non-interlaced) frames. 1081i: A high-definition (HD) video format with a resolution of 1440x1080 and interlaced frames. ActiveMovie: Software interface by Microsoft for the control of multimedia devices under Windows.
intermediate in color between the edge and the background, making the transition less apparent. Another method of anti-aliasing involves using higher resolution output devices. Aspect ratio: The ratio of width to height in an image or graphic. Keeping the aspect ratio fixed means that any change to one value is immediately reflected in the other. AVI: Audio Video Interleaved, a standard format for digital video (and Video for Windows).
Blacking: The process of preparing a videotape for insert editing by recording video black and continuous control track on the entire tape. If the recording deck supports timecode, continuous timecode will be recorded simultaneously (also called “striping”). Brightness: Also “luminance”. Indicates the brightness of video. Byte: One byte corresponds to eight ?? bits. With one byte, exactly one alphanumeric character can be displayed (i.e. a letter, number).
Color depth: Number of bits delivering the color information for each pixel. A 1-bit color depth allows 21=2 colors, an 8-bit depth allows 28=256 colors, and a 24-bit depth allows 224=16,777,216 colors. Color model: A way to mathematically describe and define colors and the way they relate to each other. Each color model has its own strengths. The two most common color models are ??RGB and ??YUV. Color saturation: Intensity of a color.
Data transfer rate: The measurement of the speed at which information passes between the storage device (e.g. CD-ROM or hard drive) and the display device (e.g. monitor or MCI device). Depending on the devices used, some transfer rates may offer better performance than others. DCT: Discrete Cosine Transformation – part of JPEG image data compression and related algorithms. The brightness and color information is saved as a frequency coefficient.
DMA: Direct Memory Access. Driver: A file containing information needed to operate peripherals. The video capture driver operates a video capture board, for example. DV: Digital videotape format for recording digital audio and video on ¼”-wide metal evaporated tape. Mini-DV tapes hold up to 60 minutes of content, while standard DV tapes can hold up to 270 minutes. ECP: “Enhanced Compatible Port”. Enables accelerated bi-directional data transfer via the parallel port. See EPP.
FireWire: Apple Computer’s trademarked name for the IEEE-1394 serial data protocol. Field: A frame of interlaced video consists of horizontal lines and is divided into two fields. The odd lines in the frame are Field 1; the evennumbered lines are Field 2. Frame rate: The frame rate defines how many frames of a video sequence are played in one second. The frame rate for NTSC video is 30 frames per second. The frame rate for PAL video is 25 frames per second.
HD: High Definition video. Most HD formats in use have a resolution of either 1920x1080 resolution or 1280x720 resolution. A substantial difference exists between the 1080 and 720 standards: the larger format uses 2.25 more pixels per frame. This difference substantially increases requirements for processing 1080 content in terms of encoding time, decoding speed, and storage. The 720 formats are all progressive. The 1080 format has a mixture of progressive and interlaced frame types.
IDE: “Integrated Device Electronics” – a hard-drive interface that combines all drive control electronics on the drive itself, rather than on the adapter connecting the drive to the expansion bus. IEEE-1394: Developed by Apple Computers and introduced as FireWire, this is a serial data transmission protocol with rates up to 400 Mbits/sec. Sony offers a slightly modified version for transmitting DV signals named i.LINK, providing transmission speeds up to 100 Mbits/ sec.
JPEG: Joint Photographic Experts Group, and the standard developed by them for compressing digital frames based on DCT. Kbyte (also KB): One Kbyte (kilobyte) contains 1024 bytes. The “K” here stands for the number 1024 (210), and not 1000 as in the metric prefix. Key color: A color whose display is suppressed so that a background image can show through. Most commonly used when overlaying one video sequence on top of another, allowing the underlying video to display wherever the key color appears.
Modulation: The encoding of information upon an empty carrier signal. Motion-JPEG (M-JPEG): A Video for Windows format, specified by Microsoft, for encoding video sequences. JPEG compression is used to compress each frame individually. MPA: (File extension for) an MPEG file that contains audio data only. M1V, MPEG, MPG 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.
of transmission is much faster than serial transmission, but is not appropriate for long-distance connections. Parallel ports are often named “LPTn”, where n is a number (e.g. “LPT1”). See Serial port. Pixel: The smallest element of a monitor image. The word is an abbreviation of “picture element”. Port: Electrical transfer point for the transmission of audio, video, control or other data between two devices. See Serial port, Parallel port.
RGB: Red, Green and Blue: the primary colors in additive color mixing. RGB designates the method used in computer technology of encoding image information in pixels, each containing some combination of the three primaries. ROM: Read Only Memory: Memory storage that, having been programmed once, retains its data without requiring electrical power. See EPROM. Run Length Encoding (RLE): A technique used in many image compression methods, including JPEG.
Single frame: A single frame is part of a series or sequence. When this series is viewed at sufficient speed, the illusion of a “moving picture” is created. 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. See Codec, Hardware codec. Still video: Still images (or “freeze-frames”) extracted from video.
TrueColor: The name indicates an image with enough color resolution to appear “true to life”. In practice, TrueColor normally refers to 24-bit RGB color, which allows about 16.7 million combinations of the red, green and blue primary colors. See Bit, HiColor. TWAIN driver: TWAIN is a standardized software interface allowing graphics and capture programs to communicate with devices that supply graphical data.
Video scan rate: Frequency with which the video signal is scanned onto an image display. The higher the video scan rate, the higher the image quality and 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 amplifiers for the three color channels (red, green and blue) so that white areas of the scene do not show a color cast.
Appendix D: Keyboard shortcuts The tables below display the default hotkey assignments in Pinnacle Studio. Keys can be individually remapped in Setup. The defaults can also be restored there, either individually or for all the shortcuts at once. For more information, see “Keyboard” on page 372. The terms Left, Right, Up and Down in the tables refer to the arrow (cursor) keys.
General shortcuts Ctrl+C Copy to clipboard Ctrl+V Paste from clipboard Ctrl+X Cut to clipboard End Go to end Home Go to beginning Alt+Enter Play using full screen Esc Exit full-screen viewing, or close panel Delete Delete without copying to clipboard Double-click Open appropriate editor (Media, Titler, Project, Montage etc.
Playing and transport Spacebar Play and pause Shift+Spacebar Loop playback Alt+Enter Play using full screen Esc Exit full-screen viewing Alt+Click Play in thumbnail J Fast reverse (hit multiple times for faster playback) K (or Shift K) Pause playback L Fast forward (hit multiple times for faster playback) Shift+L Slow forward (hit multiple times for slower playback) Shift+J Slow reverse (hit multiple times for slower playback) Right (or X) Step forward 1 frame Left (or Z) Step back 1
Importer Enter Stop Motion: Capture Frame (when capture frame is open) Right Expand folder in tree Left Collapse folder in tree Arrow keys Navigate up, down.
Movie interface Delete Delete selected clip(s) from timeline Double-click on clip in timeline Open media editor for clip B Send preview clip to the primary track on the timeline (at scrubber position) H Swap Preview between timeline and source Ctrl+5 Open Title Editor F5 Show/Hide Audio Mixer F7 Create Song Numeric pad + Zoom in the timeline Numeric pad - Zoom out the timeline [ (left bracket) Zoom out on the timeline ] (right bracket) Zoom in on the timeline Ctrl+[ Fit timeline to wi
Movie interface Shift+Click on trim Open similar trim point on all tracks Tab Cycle focus on open trim points Media editors Numbers 1-8 Choose a corrections or effects category Double-click slider Return slider to default Ctrl+L Rotate Photo Left Ctrl+R Rotate Photo Right Alt+Enter Play using full screen Esc Exit full-screen viewing Title Editor Shift+Left Expand character selection left Shift+Right Expand character selection right Shift+Ctrl+Left Same as Shift+Left (expand by word) Sh
Appendix E: The installation manager The Pinnacle Studio Installation Manager looks after the job of installing Pinnacle Studio and any additional content included in your purchase of the application. Before you begin For a trouble-free installation of Pinnacle Studio, we recommend a number of preparatory steps. Begin by confirming that your computer meets the minimum system requirements for the product. Note that some operations, such as AVCHD encoding, have more stringent requirements.
Upgrade Installation If a qualifying previous version of the software is currently installed on the computer, the Installation Manager will automatically recognize its presence and permit the upgrade. Qualifying versions include: • Pinnacle Studio 9 to 16 • Avid Studio • Avid Liquid 6 to 7 If none of these is currently installed on the machine, you will be prompted to provide instead the serial number of the previous product.
without registering the product, registration is recommended. In addition to making possible streamlined product support for problems like losing your serial number, registration entitles you to such immediate benefits as 25 GB of complimentary additional storage on Box. Supporting installations The application requires a number of Windows software components, including the .NET Framework, to be present on your system.
customized installation if you need to change the selection. Items with a green checkmark are already installed. Standard Installation installs the application and all available plug- ins. It is recommended for most users. The Customized Installation option lets you choose to install only a subset of the add-ons available. The Customized Installation screen lets you choose which add-ons to install. Green checkmarks indicate alreadyinstalled items; orange checkmarks denote available items.
• The links provided under Learn while installing give access to information on just about any Studio-related topic. Installing plugs-ins and bonus content As described above, the Installation Manager can optionally install a rich variety of content in addition to the Pinnacle Studio application itself. In a Standard Installation, all available add-ons and plug-ins are installed. In a Customized Installation, you can choose exactly which items to install.
RAM The more RAM you have, the easier it is to work with Pinnacle Studio. You will need at least 1 GB of RAM to achieve satisfactory operation, and we highly recommend 2 GB (or more). If you work with HD or AVCHD video, the recommendation rises to 4 GB. Motherboard Intel Pentium or AMD Athlon 2.4 GHz or higher – the higher the better. AVCHD editing demands a more powerful CPU. The minimum recommendation ranges up to 2.66 GHz for editing 1920- pixel AVCHD video.
For capture from video tape, we recommend using a separate hard drive to avoid competition between Pinnacle Studio and other software, including Windows, for use of the drive. Video capture hardware Studio can capture video from a variety of digital and analog sources: • All types of auxiliary file-based storage media, including optical drives, memory cards and USB sticks. • Files from drives connected to the computer. • DV or HDV video cameras using an IEEE-1394 connection.
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Pinnacle Studio™ 18 User Guide Copyright 2014 Corel Corporation. All rights reserved. Product specifications, pricing, packaging, technical support and information (“specifications”) refer to the retail English version only. The specifications for all other versions (including other language versions) may vary. Corel patent information: www.corel.
