PIP-Studio
for the Casablanca Avio
and the Casablanca Kron
User's Manual
Safety notice
To avoid making mistakes when operating this program, we recommend that you carefully
follow the instructions provided in this manual.
We would also like to point out that the PIP-Studio program has been designed with the
hobby enthusiast in mind.
We have taken a great deal of care whilst programming and checking this software. Nevertheless, since it is not possible to guarantee totally error-free software applications in all
environments and at any time, we unfortunately cannot rule out the possibility that some
errors may have crept in. If, contrary to all expectations, this is indeed the case, we will remedy any errors in the program and supply the affected customers with the new software free
of charge. We cannot, however, accept any liability for loss of data/time or any consequential
damages that may occur as a result, particularly since we have no influence over correct
software installation and operation by the customer. MacroSystem Digital Video AG and its
dealers therefore cannot be held liable for any defects or unintentional damage in connection
with the installation or use of the PIP-Studio program.
MacroSystem Digital Video AG and its dealers do not guarantee fault-free use of the product
or complete flawlessness of the product.
Any implied guarantee is null and void, including guarantee of suitability of the software or
operating instructions for a particular purpose.
Neither MacroSystem Digital Video AG nor its dealers are responsible for any damages
resulting either directly or indirectly from the use of the software or the operating instructions,
e.g. for profit loss, costs, hardware or software problems or other difficulties.
Contents
General ..............................................................................................................1.1
Installation.........................................................................................................1.1
What is PIP-Studio? ..........................................................................................1. 3
Sample Tutorials ...............................................................................................1 . 5
Reference ..........................................................................................................7.1
1. Personal Logo......................................................................................1 . 5
2. Personal Logo II...................................................................................2. 1
3. Moving scenes in front of a background.............................................3.1
4. Moving scenes within the video footage .............................................4. 1
5. Circling scenes within the video footage ............................................5. 1
6. Moving scenes in various sizes...........................................................6.1
1.1
General
Thank you for purchasing PIP-Studio from
your Casablanca dealer.
We would like to thank you for placing your
confidence in this product and hope that it
will fulfill all of your expectations.
PIP-Studio enhances the power of your
Casablanca system.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you
have any further questions or wish to provide
us with suggestions for improvement. To do
so, please use the address and/or telephone
number printed in your Casablanca Avio or
Casablanca Kron (hereafter referred to collectively as “Casablanca II”) manual.
We kindly ask you to provide the serial number of your unit or your customer number
whenever you contact us.
Installation
PIP-Studio must be installed on your Casablanca II before you can use it.
To do so, you will need at least version 1.6 of
the Casablanca II system software.
You can look up your system version using
the information item in the “System Settings”
screen (bottom left of the screen).
Leave your Casablanca powered on and, in
“System Settings,” select the “Install Product”
button to open the corresponding window.
Now insert the SmartMedia software installation card into the Casablanca’s SmartMedia
drive. When you insert it, make sure the
gold-colored contacts are facing downwards
and the clipped-off corner is pointing towards
the front and left (i.e. towards the Casablanca II).
Push in the card until only around half a
centimeter remains protruding from the unit
and you feel some resistance. You will now
see the PIP-Studio program listed in the
window.
Select it in the list and click on “License” (or
“Show” if you are running a demo version).A
numerical keypad will enable you to enter the
license code that you acquired from your
dealer. A message will then inform you that
the installation process is complete. You can
now remove the SmartMedia card.
1.2
1.3
What is PIP-Studio?
The PIP-Studio program is based on the
Casablanca’s popular Picture-in-Picture
feature but this enhanced program offers
numerous additional functions that provide
you with a whole range of different options.
The software will let you place a scene anywhere within another scene and inside various different shapes. Let your scenes fly in
and out of the picture or allow them to fade in
and out anywhere you like!
PIP-Studio comes with twelve different
shapes (e.g. rectangle, circle, heart) within
which your video scenes can appear. The
shapes can be sized and freely positioned to
suit your requirements.
You can also adjust the shadow or configure
the transparency and blur properties of the
picture, border and shadow separately. Let
your imagination run wild!
time. The only exception to this is the PIP
that is displayed whilst an effect is being
edited.
You can choose whether you want to display
a PIP on a video background or place two
PIPs on a patterned or colored background.
In the first case, the background video is
defined as a full-screen image by default. In
the second case, you can configure all the
parameters for both PIPs independently from
one another. This method gives you considerably more options but requires more computation time.
If you make changes to the PIP (e.g. adjustments to size, position, border or shadow),
the PIP will always be displayed within a
rectangle in preview mode. Once you have
finished making changes to the parameters,
the PIP will be recalculated immediately
using the new settings and displayed in its
final form.
Notes on general concepts:
You will frequently come across the term
“PIP” in this manual. When we use this term
(i.e. picture-in-picture), we are referring to the
video scene or video picture that overlays
your background video. So, generally speaking, PIP is the small superimposed picture.
Each PIP comprises three parts: fade-in (IN),
hold-time and fade-out (OUT). These three
time periods add up to the total duration time
of the effect.
You can freely choose the length of the fadein and fade-out times. The length of the holdtime arises from the fade-in and fade-out
times and the length of the transition effect.
The PIP that is displayed during editing is
always the PIP as it appears during the hold-
1.4
1.5
Sample tutorials:
The following tutorials are intended to help
you familiarize yourself with the PIP-Studio
program’s various buttons and their functions.
Of course, our suggested settings only represent a small sample of the many variations
available. When working through the examples, we recommend that you keep to our
suggestions and the sequence of working
steps so that you will more easily understand
the explanations of how the various options
work.
Please follow us through these instructions
button by button. You will soon discover just
how easy it is. We definitely advise you to
work through the examples several times so
that you quickly learn how to use PIP-Studio
with confidence.
You can, of course, later replace our suggested settings with your own ones. You will
soon see that just a few minor changes
provide a whole wealth of variants and will
distinctly influence the results achieved.
1) Personal Logo
This tutorial will allow you to superimpose
your own personal logo onto the video footage.
If you regularly use footage in your Casablanca that you recorded from television, you
will no doubt sometimes have wished that
the TV channel’s logo did not appear in the
material. Up until now, you’ve only had the
option of using various programs or tricks to
retouch and remove the logo. But now you
have the ability to cover it up with your own
personal logo.
You can of course also use PIP-Studio to
superimpose your logo over your own footage so that your films become unmistakably
“yours.”
That probably sounds complicated at first but
it is actually very simple to do using PIPStudio and is an ideal introduction to the
program. We will only introduce you to a few
buttons in this first example. Later tutorials
will go into greater detail.
The given length of the scenes can of course
also be varied. In this manual we have restricted ourselves to using only short scenes
so that the examples can be calculated and
displayed more quickly.
You will be introduced to the program’s interface in the first tutorial (entitled “Personal
Logo”), in which you will practice making a
few adjustments to the settings. This example is highly detailed and contains many
program screenshots (i.e. examples of what
you will see on-screen) to help you recognize
which functions you are working with and find
your way around more easily.
For this tutorial, take a 10-second long video
scene – which you will use to represent your
entire film – and insert it into the storyboard.
The second scene should be of the same
length and contain material that you would
like to use as your logo. Use, for instance,
your initials on a textured background. (To do
so, create a 10-second long scene in the
New Scene menu, add it to the storyboard,
create the required letters of your initials
using the “Pages” title effect in the Titling
menu and allow the title effect to be calculated.
Next, using the Scene button (if available),
create a separate scene using this effect.
This will then appear in the scene bin in the
1.6
Edit screen. Now, in the storyboard that is
located in the Edit screen, replace the previous mask scene with this new one. If your
system is a Casablanca Avio without a
Scene function, you can also let the scene
containing the calculated title effect be
placed in the storyboard.)
In the storyboard you will now first see the
scene containing your video footage and
then the scene containing your logo – both
are 10 seconds long.
Hintergrundsze
Note: Please note that the background
scene is always represented by the footage
located on the left in the storyboard and that
the second (i.e. right-hand) scene represents the PIP.
Open the Transition Effects menu and select
PIP-Studio from the list of effects. Insert the
effect between the two scenes and, using the
x s button, set the effect duration parameter
to 10 seconds, i.e. the entire duration of both
scenes.
Now launch the program using the Launch
PIP-Studio button. In a few moments, you
will see your first scene (i.e. your video footage) as the background picture, and your
second scene (your logo) in a small picture
superimposed on the background scene.
You’ll see the program toolbar located at the
bottom edge of the screen. You can now
start positioning your logo.
If you find that the toolbar is obscuring your
view, you can use the arrow button (bottom
left in the toolbar) to move it to the top edge
of the screen or use the minimize button
located above it to turn off the toolbar (and
of course turn it back on again when you
need it). Make sure that the selector button
next to PIP is set to “Single.”
In this case, you cannot operate the next
button (“Background”) since it is not active.
We shall be skipping the “Effect” button in
this example, so we will not describe its
functions for the time being.
Now we have reached the actual design
stage of your logo. Click on Shape so that
the selector button opens up offering you a
list of twelve different shapes to choose
from. Now select Elliptic so that your logo
takes on the shape of an ellipse.
1.7
Next, click on Size to turn off the toolbar so
you can read the size in pixels at the bottom
edge of the screen. The size ranges from
0 x 0 to 636 x 520.
You will no doubt have noticed that your logo
is now framed by a rectangle again. This will
only happen (for technical reasons) whilst
you are changing various settings – thereafter it will of course return to the shape that
you selected.
Now move the trackball and you will notice
the little box containing your logo moves as
well. If you roll the trackball to the right the
little box increases in size, if you roll the
trackball to the left it shrinks.
After you have set the required size (let us
take, for instance, the size 172 x 140), click
on the left trackball button to confirm the size
setting and return to the toolbar. (Although
you can also return to the toolbar by pressing
the right trackball button, your size settings
will, however, not be applied.)
The logo is now framed again by an ellipse.
Since your logo is still located in the center of
the video footage picture, now click on the
Position button.
The toolbar is turned off and you will see the
coordinates at the bottom edge of the screen
(please note that the coordinates refer to the
center of the PIP).
Now position your logo in the top left corner
but make sure that you don’t move it too far
off the edge of the screen! (If this does happen, however, the screen display changes
and you will see a gray area.)
Since we won’t be going into this function in
this tutorial, move your ellipse back into the
displayed background picture. (Further information on this function can be found in Tutorial 6.)
1.8
Once you have found the right position for
your logo (e.g. at the coordinates 128, 84),
confirm it by pressing the left trackball button
and the toolbar is turned on again.
Select the color blue with an alpha value of
100% (i.e. not transparent) and confirm these
settings. Now click on the next button (Size)
to activate the slider control.
As you can see, you can adjust the thickness
of the border to between 0 and 40. Select a
setting of 5 here.
Finally, you can see the Blur button, which
allows you to set the edge blur to between 0
and 100%. Simply select any setting you like
or leave the default setting as it is.
Once you have made your settings changes,
you can leave this toolbar by pressing the
button in the bottom right corner and return
to the original toolbar. You can now select the
Shadow button which in turn opens a new
toolbar dealing with the shadow settings.
Now you have already placed your elliptically
shaped logo in the top left corner and configured its size settings. The next button is
labeled “Border.” Click on it to replace the
existing toolbar with a new one. This new
toolbar contains settings that refer to the
border that is displayed in the top right corner
of the toolbar.
The first button in this toolbar is labeled
“Direction“. Click on it to display a selection
of 8 directions. Select the fifth in the list, i.e.
the one pointing downwards. You can then
open the color box again using the “Color“
button and select the color black. You can
configure the transparency here as well –
this time select an alpha value of 50%.
You will now see the Color button. Click on it
and open the color box.
Using the next button labeled (Distance), you
can determine how long the shadow should
be beginning from the edge of the logo.
Select a value of 5 here.
1.9
The Blur button determines the blur of the
shadow (i.e. blurred contours) in percent.
Select a value of 10% here. Next, close this
toolbar again by clicking on the button in the
bottom right corner.
After having made these settings changes,
you will finally see the Preview button. Click
on it and you will see a small window appear
superimposed on the PIP-Studio program.
The window contains a preview of the scene
sequence with the applied settings that you
adjusted.
Last, you will also see the Archive button in
this program. You can use it to save and load
settings.
If you click on Archive you will see the Load,
Save, Delete and Cancel buttons.
the configured settings again later on for a
totally different PIP. However, for editing,
calculating and later changing this current
PIP, all the relevant displays are automatically saved and are applied again at the next
start without you having to use the archive
function.)
You can now let the system calculate the
effect in the Transition Effects menu and then
sit back and watch this example scene at
your leisure.
Now click on Save so that an empty yellow
field appears. Click on the lower yellow bar
and the keyboard will then appear. Enter the
required name (e.g. “Logo”) and you’ll see
the name appear in the list.
Now confirm with OK and close the program
by clicking on the Transition Effects menu
symbol in the bottom right corner. (If necessary, read about how to use the archive in
the standard Casablanca II manual. You only
need to use the archive if you want to use
1.10
2.1
2) Personal Logo II
Since you’ve been given an overview of the
program interface with the first tutorial, we’ll
presume knowledge of the basics and the
instructions will be less detailed than those in
the first. Although you will be using many of
the same functions, you’ll employ different
settings. If you already feel confident about
using PIP-Studio, you can, of course, skip
this tutorial.
First, take another 10-second video scene
(which you will use to represent your entire
film) and insert it into the storyboard. The
second scene should be the same length
and contain footage that you would like to
use as your logo. You can use your initials
again or create another personal logo.
The settings (position, size, etc.) from your
previous tutorial will remain unchanged.
AYou will see the program toolbar located at
the bottom of the screen. Please make sure
once more that the selection button next to
„PIP“ is set to “Single.“ Now click on “Shape“
to open the selector button and this time
select “Star 2.“ You will see your PIP take on
a star shape after you confirm your selection.
Open the Transition Effects screen and
select “PIP-Studio“ from the list of effects.
Insert the effect between the two scenes.
Using the “x s“ button, set the effect duration
parameter to 10 seconds. Now launch the
program using the “Launch PIP-Studio“
button. In a moment you will see your first
scene as the background picture and your
second scene as an on-screen PIP.
Next, click on “Size“ and set the value to 204
x 168.
Once you’ve confirmed the size, you can
proceed to the “Position” setting. Click on the
corresponding button so you can position the
PIP at the coordinates 580, 100 (i.e. the top
right corner).
2.2
Now move on to Border again. Since you will
be setting the “Size“ to 0 this time, selecting
a color becomes irrelevant because the
border will not be displayed anyway. However, you do still need to set Blur, since the
edge of the PIP is still affected by this function. Set a value of 5 here.
shadow should be starting from the edge of
the logo. Select a value of 5. The Blur button
determines the blur of the shadow in percent.
Select a value of 30%. Close this toolbar
again by clicking the button in the bottom
right corner or by clicking the right trackball
button.
If you wish, you can save your configured
settings in the archive.
You can generate the effect in the Transition
Effects screen and then enjoy watching the
final results.
Once you have configured all these settings,
close the toolbar and click on the Shadow
button. Select the sixth direction setting in
the list (i.e. the arrow pointing towards the
bottom left). Next, you can open the color
box again using the „Color“ button and then
select black. This time, choose an alpha
value of 70%. Using the next button („Distance“), you can determine how long the
3.1
3) Moving scenes in front of a
background
In this tutorial, you’ll learn about one of PIPStudio’s more extensive functions - the ability
to display two moving scenes in front of a
background image (we’ll assume that you
have prior knowledge of the buttons covered
in previous tutorials).
Find two scenes that you want to use as
PIPs superimposed on a background picture
and insert them into the storyboard. We’ve
decided to use two wedding scenes, but you
can select any video footage you like.
you want two scenes as PIPs in front of a
separate background picture, while the “1”
stands for the first scene; in this case, the
bride and groom.
(Please do not be alarmed if you only see the
bride and groom scene as a PIP once you
change the setting to “Double 1” – the other
scene is simply hidden behind this PIP.)
First, we inserted a scene of a bride and
groom, followed by a scene of a priest. Once
you’ve inserted the required scenes (each
with a length of 5 seconds) into the
storyboard, insert the PIP-Studio effect. The
PIP-Studio effect must be configured to last
the entire length of the scene (i.e. 5 seconds). Now launch the program using
Launch PIP-Studio. In a moment, you’ll see
the priest scene appear as a PIP in front of
the scene of the bride and groom.
Make sure that the “PIP” selector button is
set to Double 1. Here, “Double” means that
Now select the ”Background“ button to open
the ”Select Pattern“ window, in which you
can choose a background of your choice.
The Marble 1 background picture that we’ve
chosen can be found by selecting
Casablanca in the Product menu and
Monochromatic in the Type menu. Now
3.2
select the twelfth pattern in the list (Color:
White, Mode: Positive). Once you’ve set the
background picture, close the Select Pattern
window by clicking on “OK.“ You’ll see that
the background is no longer black, but now
has a marbled pattern. You can now move on
to configuring the other settings. Define the
shape of the first scene by clicking on
“Shape“ and selecting “Circle.“
Next, click on the Size button and select the
636 x 520 setting. You can then click on the
“Position” button to set the position of the
bride and groom scene to 468, 320. You will
now see your second PIP again in the top
right corner .
Since you won’t be applying a shadow in this
tutorial, set the distance to 0 in the Shadow
menu. The remaining settings in this menu
(direction, color and blur) are irrelevant, so
you can leave the current settings as they
are. Close the Shadow menu.
Now you’re going to configure the Border
setting. Since we won’t be placing a border
around the video scene, you should set the
Size to 0. In this case, the Color setting is
irrelevant. You can, however, use the Blur
button to adjust the contour of the scene’s
edge. In this tutorial, set it to 40%.
Once you’ve finished configuring the settings
for the first scene and positioned it in the
bottom right corner, you can proceed to the
second scene. Click on the PIP button and
select “Double 2.” In a moment you’ll see the
scene of the priest brought into the foreground, thus allowing you to edit it.
Click on “Shape” for this scene and select
“Elliptic.”
Next, set the Size of this scene to 292 x 240.
The priest scene should be placed in the top
left corner, i.e. at the coordinates of 156, 120.
3.3
Again, in “Border” you will only need the Blur
setting, which you should set to 20%.
You do not need “Shadow” in this second
scene, so you can set the “Distance” to 0 –
just as you did for the first scene – and ignore the remaining settings in this menu.
Once you’ve changed these settings, you
can save them in the archive again, as described in the first tutorial. Now return to the
Transition Effects screen and make the
system generate the PIP-Studio effect. You
can now sit back and view the wedding
scene!
3.4
4.1
4) Moving scenes within the
video footage
This tutorial is a little more complicated than
the three previous ones. Therefore, we ask
you to first work through the previous tutorials so that you can get a handle on operating
the PIP-Studio program. In this tutorial you’ll
fade one small picture (PIP) video scene in
and out of a larger video scene.
Choose two scenes each with a length of 6
seconds for this tutorial. The first scene
should show a person and a potential love
interest (in this tutorial, we used footage of a
man and a woman at the beach).
Insert the PIP-Studio effect once again and
set its length to 6 seconds as well. Now
launch the program.
Make sure that the Single function is selected under PIP. You’ll see the man as the
large background picture and the scene with
the image of the woman as a PIP.
in the video footage. In this tutorial, we’ve
decided to use the 264 x 216 setting.
Now let’s proceed to the Position option. You
should select the top left corner for the
woman – we’ve chosen the coordinates of
132, 116. (Please make sure that the man
appearing in the background video is not
hidden from view.)
Now proceed to the Border menu and select
a nice shade of red as the Color and leave
the alpha value set to 100%. Set a value of
15 for the Size of the border and 50% for the
Blur.
Let’s turn our attention to the PIP settings.
Select the Heart shape and then proceed to
the Size settings. You should adjust the size
according to how large the woman appears
Close the Border menu by clicking the right
trackball button or by pressing the on-screen
4.2
button in the bottom right corner, and then
open the Shadow menu. In this menu, select
black as the Color, but this time give it an
alpha value of 50% so that the shadow
appears slightly transparent. Now set the
Distance to a value of 3 and the Blur to 10%.
For the Direction, select the fourth from the
top (i.e. falling towards the bottom right).
Once you’ve configured these settings and
closed the Shadow menu, click the Effect
button located on the left to open the Effect
window where you can determine whether or
not you want to edit the IN or OUT (i.e. the
fade-in or fade-out).
Let’s start with the fade-in. Click on IN to
activate the button (i.e. it turns blue) if it’s not
active already.
Any other settings changes that you make in
this window will now relate to the fade-in.
Click on the Effect selector button to open
the list of twelve different fade-in options. In
this tutorial, use the Fade option. Next, set
the fade-time to 000.02:00 (i.e. to 2 seconds). The total fade-time is made up of the
fade-in time plus the time during which the
effect remains stationary plus the fade-out
time. In this case, the 2-second setting
means that the PIP will fade-in gently for
precisely 2 seconds.
Since you do not want to make any further
changes with the Edit Effect button, you can
proceed to the fade-out settings and activate
the OUT button. In this tutorial, set the same
parameters that you did for fade-in, i.e. the
“Fade” option and a fade-time of 2 seconds.
You’ll notice that for this setting, you now
only have 4 seconds available instead of 6,
since 2 seconds are already taken up by the
fade-in effect.
Since you don’t want to make any further
changes to this effect, click on OK in the
Effect window and close the PIP-Studio
program saving your settings.
4.3
Afterwards, have the system generate your
effect in the Edit screen.
4.4
5) Circling scenes within the
video footage
For this tutorial select two scenes that are
each 6 seconds long. (We’ve decided to use
two randomly selected scenes and we recommend that you do the same for the time
being so all you have to do in this tutorial is
simply apply our suggested settings.)
Insert your two scenes into the storyboard,
then switch to the Transition Effects screen
and place the effect between the two scenes.
Then set the effect length to span the whole
time period – in this case 6 seconds.
Once you’ve launched the program, you
should again make sure that the toolbar’s
Single function is set to PIP.
5.1
Set the Blur of the Border to 20% and the
Size to 0 (the color setting therefore becomes irrelevant). Then proceed to the
Shadow settings and set the Distance to 0,
thus making the other settings in the Shadow
menu also irrelevant.
For Shape, select a Circle, set the size to
200 x 164 and position the scene in the top
left corner at the coordinates of 128, 116.
Once you’ve finished configuring these settings and have closed the Shadow menu,
click on the Effect button.
In this window, first activate the IN button, set
the fade-time to 2 seconds and then click on
the Edit Effect button. You now see a new
toolbar at the bottom edge of the screen and
the Effect window is no longer displayed.
5.2
You’ll see your background picture without
the PIP (e.g. image of your car) superimposed on it (unless, of course, the PIP button
was activated).
Instead of the PIP, you now see either one or
two small dots. Depending on the effect
(Fade, Zoom, etc.) you selected in a previous
exercise, the display will be modified by that
effect in this menu. If you only see one dot, it
will be green in color and will be located in
the same position at which you previously
placed your PIP. If you see two dots next to
one another, the active dot is green and the
other is yellow.
If you worked through our tutorial exercises
in the order in which they were presented,
you’ll see two dots displayed one on top of
the other. You can recognize that this is the
case by looking at the slider control on the
right – it is now no longer completely gray but
can be adjusted. You can decide which of the
two dots to activate using this slider or by
clicking the separate buttons next to the
slider.
You can see your video scene still in the
same position in which you previously placed
it (i.e. at the top left). If you like, you can
reposition it with the Position button or move
one of the two dots to another position. Since
the first dot is located in the top left corner,
activate the second dot and reposition it with
the Position (or by clicking on it again) in the
bottom right corner. When the dot is shown
blue it means it can be moved. The dot’s
coordinates are also displayed at the edge of
the screen.
First, activate the PIP button to provide a
clearer display – your PIP will now appear
around the active (green) dot. (You can
deactivate this function by clicking on PIP
again).
The line indicates the path which the video
will later follow. After you’ve repositioned the
point that you selected, confirm the setting by
pressing the left trackball button.
Now that you have configured these settings,
you can start setting the waypoints to define
the path that your second video scene (the
PIP) will later follow within the first video
scene. To do so, click on Insert. You’ll see
another waypoint appear halfway between
the two existing points.
So you have now defined the path’s starting
and finishing points diagonally across the
screen and you have positioned a waypoint
in the middle. If you want to configure the
size or the alpha value (i.e. the transparency)
of one of these points, click on Edit to open
the Waypoint Parameters window and in it
edit the currently active (i.e. green) point.
5.3
While you are making your settings changes,
only the point that is being edited is visible.
These size and alpha value settings offer you
the advantage of being able to influence how
the size and transparency changes at each
particular point. For instance, activate the
first waypoint (top left) simply by clicking on
it, then click on Edit, leave the currently set
size as it is and set a low alpha value (e.g.
10%).
On the right next to the settings you will see
two yellow boxes containing dash marks. If
you click on these buttons, the dashes will be
replaced by tick marks. The Size or Alpha
button will then be activated therefore allowing you to adjust your settings. The tick
marks for the first and last waypoints cannot
be deactivated since a value has be to entered there or else interpolation will not be
possible.
Now confirm by clicking on OK.
Next, select the last waypoint (i.e. the finish-
ing point), leave the size as it is and set the
alpha value to 100%. These settings will
cause the scene (i.e. the PIP) to move slowly
across the background and display a smooth
transition in size and transparency. The sizes
and alpha values for all the inserted
waypoints will be rendered automatically.
5.4
Please make sure that the IN button is active
the whole time, since in this case we are still
working on the fade-in effect.
Now that you have changed the two points
(starting and finishing point), you can insert
additional waypoints. To do so, click on „Insert“ to make the next point on the path
appear.
You can insert up to a maximum of 10
waypoints (for the fade-in effect). The points
are always inserted after the active point (i.e.
in the direction of the finishing point). You will
notice that the slider control appears smaller
and smaller. You can activate it and slide it
back and forth to activate the various
waypoints.
Naturally, you are not just restricted to defining the size and alpha value – you can also
reposition the points by following the steps
described above.
Now that a total of 10 dots are displayed, you
can use them to shape the path. To do so,
click on the various points and move them
around to form a curve that goes from the top
left corner via the top right corner to the
bottom right corner.
In the beginning you may have to practice
this a little to learn how to use the correct
points to form a smooth path. If you like, you
can now use the Preview button to view the
path that the curve traces in a small window.
You can then close this toolbar by clicking on
OK and the Select Effect window appears
again. Now click the OUT button to activate it
and therefore make it turn blue. Please make
sure once more that Custom appears under
Effect, and set the Fade-Time to 2 seconds.
Select Edit Effect again. Once again the
toolbar opens in which the OUT button is
now also active.
You see two dots on-screen which you can
position (if not done so already) in the bottom
right and top left corners. The dot at the
bottom right is both the starting point of the
fade-out as well as the finishing point of the
preceding fade-in. (If you now change the
starting point of the fade-out you will of
course also be altering it in its function as the
finishing point of the fade-in!) Under Edit,
check whether the alpha value of the starting
point (bottom right) is still set to 100%, and
then set the alpha value of the finishing point
(bottom left) to 10%.
Now proceed in the same way as you did for
the fade-in. Insert up to another 10 waypoints
along the path and change their positions.
You can the use the Preview button to view
the PIP’s complete path comprising a twosecond fade-in plus a two-second hold-time
(in the bottom right corner) plus a two-second fade-out.
You can then close this toolbar by clicking on
OK. The Effect window appears and you can
close this too by clicking on OK. You will now
only see your original toolbar, which you can
use to archive your settings if you wish.
Close the PIP-Studio program and allow the
effect to be rendered in the Transition Effects
screen. You’re finished!
5.5
You can of course also set these waypoints if
you decide to use a double PIP. In this case
you can define separate paths for each PIP.
Give it a try!
5.6
6.1
6) Moving scenes in various
sizes
In this tutorial you will once more be making
a moving scene circle in front of a background. Though this time we will be showing
you some additional features.
Choose two scenes, each should be 5 seconds long.
Insert them into the storyboard, switch to the
Transition Effects screen and place the effect
between the two scenes. Then set the effect
length to span the whole time period – in this
case 5 seconds.
Once you have configured these settings,
click on the Position button. You can now
position your rectangular PIP. Move it to the
top left corner and off the screen. You will
notice the display change as soon as one of
the coordinates becomes less than or equal
to 0.
Once you’ve launched the program, select
the Single function for PIP in the toolbar.
First of all, proceed to the settings that you
are already familiar with and select a Rectangle for the Shape. Skip the size settings in
this tutorial and deal with the positioning a
little later. First, configure the border and
shadow parameters. Now that you have had
a little practice using this program, you can
choose the settings in this tutorial yourself.
Give it a try!
The outermost edge of the screen still contains your background video but it is now
superimposed with a gray surface. The outer
area of this surface is light grey and represents the invisible area of the screen. The
inner rectangle is dark grey and represents
the visible screen area, i.e. your background
video. The blue-colored rectangle is your
PIP. By the way, in this display your PIP is
always shown as a rectangle regardless of
what shape you have actually chosen for it.
This display therefore allows you to see
where you have positioned your PIP in the
video footage.
In this tutorial exercise, position it at the
coordinates 0, 0 and then confirm your setting. (Since the coordinates always refer to
the center of the PIP, this setting will cause
the bottom right quarter of the PIP to be
displayed in front of the background video.)
Now click on Effect, activate the IN button,
set Custom under Effect, set the fade-time to
2 seconds and then click on the Edit Effect
button. You will see the corresponding
6.2
toolbar once more at the bottom edge of the
screen.
Depending on the settings that you selected
previously, you might now see several
waypoints. Delete these by selecting them
and clicking on Delete. Repeat this process
until all the waypoints have been deleted
except for the one located in the top left
corner. You can now still see the gray surface
with the blue rectangle in the top left corner
representing the starting point. Since you
have already defined the position, click on
Edit. First the Waypoint Parameters window
appears in which you should click on Size.
Set the size to 24 x 20 and then click on
Alpha value and set it to 50%.
Once you’ve finished editing the starting
point, close the window with OK and click on
Insert to insert another waypoint. Since this
waypoint is placed in the center of the background video, the display switches back and
you see the dot representing the rectangular
PIP superimposed on the background video.
Now move the Position of the finishing point
so that it is located in the bottom right corner
(e.g. at the coordinates 620, 500). Now click
on Edit to open the Waypoint Parameters
window again, and click on Size. Set the size
to 244 x 200 and the alpha value to 100%.
You have now defined the values for the
finishing point. With these settings your PIP
would move from the top left to the bottom
right while at the same time increasing in
size and becoming less transparent. Close
the Waypoint Parameters window by clicking
on OK and you will not only see the finishing
point in the bottom right corner but also your
rectangular PIP. Next, click on Insert to insert
another PIP halfway along the path. You will
see that’s slightly transparent (alpha value
75%) and medium sized (134 x 112). So the
system automatically renders the transition
between the starting and finishing points.
Now add a few more waypoints and change
their position in the same way as already
practiced in the previous tutorial. Furthermore, by clicking on Edit you can change the
size and alpha value for each waypoint.
6.3
(If you want to subsequently change the size
or alpha value for some waypoints, you first
have to activate the corresponding buttons in
the Waypoint Parameters window by clicking
the dash mark on the right and thus replacing
it with a tick mark. The buttons in this window
are initially blocked because they refer to
automatically rendered values – they are
therefore initially unchangeable.) Let your
imagination run free and enter any values
that you like. You can of course position
some waypoints off-screen again – why not
just try it out!
Next, close this screen by clicking on OK and
activate the OUT button in the Effect window.
Set the Custom effect here again and set a
fade-time of 2 seconds.
Again, insert several waypoints with the
required position, size and alpha value to
create a nice path for the fade-out. Next,
close the program and make the system
render the effect.
The results will surprise you!
This configured value means that the holdtime will equal one second, since you have
already set a total effect time of 5 seconds.
In other words, your PIP will remain for one
second at the fade-in finishing point, which is
the same position as the fade-out starting
point.
Now click on Edit Effect again and, if necessary, delete the waypoints in the menu that
then appears. Your starting point is located in
the bottom right corner since it is, after all,
the same as the fade-in finishing point.
6.4
7.1
Reference
This chapter contains help on dealing with
problems and questions, and explains the
functions in all the screens and sub-screens.
We recommend, however, that you first work
through the earlier tutorial exercises to familiarize yourself with the program and then to
refer to this reference section if you subsequently have any particular questions.
If you selected PIP-Studio from the transition
effects, inserted the effect between two
scenes and launched the program using the
Launch PIP-Studio button, you’ll see the
main screen and main toolbar.
The button in the bottom right corner of every
toolbar returns you to the previous screen.
1.) PIP: The PIP selector button offers three
possible settings – Single, Double 1 and
Double 2.
Every toolbar and every sub-screen allows
you to select the two buttons that are located
on the left edge. You can use the minimize
button to reduce the toolbar to just these two
buttons so that it no longer covers any picture elements. You can use the arrow button
to move the toolbar to the opposite edge of
the screen.
The Single setting means that the first of the
two scenes in the storyboard is played in fullscreen mode as the background and the
second scene is projected onto it with the
selected parameters, i.e. it is played as a
PIP. Double 1 and Double 2 mean that the
starting and finishing scenes can configured
separately and then projected onto a patterned background.
Clicking on Double 1 activates the first of the
two storyboard scenes. Any subsequent
changes that you make to the settings will be
applied to this scene.
Clicking on the Double 2 function activates
the second storyboard scene. Any settings
changes that you now make will be applied
to this scene.
Please note: For technical reasons, when
you are editing PIPs only the PIP that you
are currently working on is displayed in the
foreground. However, while the final PIPs are
being rendered, the finishing scene PIP is
always displayed in front of the starting
scene PIP.
7.2
2.) Background: If you selected Double 1 or
Double 2 mode, the Background button will
be activated.
If you click on it, the Select Pattern window
opens and you can choose a background for
the two PIPs. You will already be familiar with
this Select Pattern window from the Titling
screen or from the New Scene (Pattern)
menu.
If you want to set a monochrome background, select the type Monochromatic and
then the first entry in the list (No Pattern) and
finally open the color box using Color. Both
scenes will be displayed as small PIPs in
front of this background.
3.) Size: If you click on the Size button, the
PIP will become active and you can adjust its
size by moving the trackball. Rolling the
trackball to the left shrinks the PIP, rolling it
to the right makes it grow in size.
To apply the new size setting, click on the left
trackball button. Click on the right trackball
button if you want to reset the PIP to the
previous size setting. Please note that for
technical reasons the PIP is displayed as a
rectangle while its settings are being configured.
4.) Position: You can use the Position button
to change the position that the PIP should be
in during its hold-time and at various
waypoints. In this case too, the PIP is displayed as a rectangle while its settings are
being configured. This function also allows
you to place the PIP outside the visible
screen area. As soon as you move the picture off the screen (i.e. as soon as one of the
coordinates becomes less than or equal to
0), a new screen view is displayed giving you
a complete overview of the PIP’s current
position off the screen.
You will see a gray surface. The outer area
representing the non-visible part is light gray.
The inner area representing the background
video is dark gray. Regardless of the actual
shape of the PIP, in this screen view the PIP
is always represented by a blue rectangle,
even after the settings have been confirmed.
If you move the PIP anywhere within the dark
gray area, you will see it in the visible screen
area again in the original menu, i.e. in front of
the background video.
7.3
6.) Border: If you click on Border a new toolbar
will appear offering several options.
5.) Shape: The Shape selector button offers
the following twelve border shapes for the
PIP: Rectangle, Circle, Elliptic, Heart, Hexagon, Diamond 1, Diamond 2, Star 1, Star 2,
Binocs, Tube and Square. The shape is a
fixed parameter and cannot be changed
during the course of the fade-in and fade-out
periods.
Clicking on Color will open the already familiar color box (including alpha value and
archive). By clicking on the Size slider control
you can adjust the thickness of the border to
between 0 and 40. The Blur can be adjusted
to between 0 and 100%. You can return to
the previous toolbar by either clicking on the
right trackball button or by clicking on the
button located in the bottom right of the
menu.
The thickness of the border is proportional to
the size of the PIP. If the PIP is reduced in
size, the border will automatically become
7.4
thinner as well. Again, the PIP is displayed
as a rectangle while the size setting is being
configured.
7.) Shadow: If you click on this button a new
toolbar will appear.
Here you are given the option of setting a
Direction (from a selection of eight different
ones). You can also set a Color using the
color box (including alpha value and archive).
In addition, this toolbar allows you to set the
Distance of the shadow from the PIP using
the slider control (between 0 and 20). In this
case too, the PIP is displayed as a rectangle
while its settings are being configured. The
Blur can be set to a value between 0 and
100%.
If you click on Load, a window appears which
you will not yet be familiar with: Load PIP.
Here you have the option of deciding which
of the PIP’s components (fade-IN, fade-OUT
or hold-time) should be loaded. You can of
course activate all three items if you wish.
Simply click on the yellow field alongside the
required function so that either a dash mark
(will not be loaded) or a check mark (will be
loaded) appears.
8.) Preview: If you click on this button you will
be shown a preview using the settings that
you have configured so far. You can also
view this preview from the Transition Effects
screen, though to do so you must first close
the PIP-Studio program.
9.) Archive: If you click on this button you will
be presented a selection of four familiar
functions: Load, Save, Delete and Cancel.
For fade-in and fade-out, parameters such as
size and alpha value will be loaded. The
hold-time relates to parameters like the
thickness of the border or the shape. If you
confirm your selection with OK, an additional
window will appear in which the saved settings are displayed and from where they can
be selected. You can confirm your selection
by clicking on OK.
If you click on the Save button, the Archive
PIP window appears. In the upper area you
see the PIPs that have already been saved
and in the lower area you see a yellow line
that you can select. Clicking on it will open
the on-screen keyboard and you can give
your PIP a name. After clicking on OK, the
name appears in the upper area of the window. Please note that when saving a double
PIP, only the settings for the active PIP (i.e.
the selected one in the foreground) are
saved.
If you click on Delete, the Delete PIP window
appears. In the upper area of this window
you see a list of saved PIPs. Initially the OK
button is blocked (i.e. it is gray and cannot be
selected) even if a saved PIP appears selected. This is a security measure to prevent
PIPs from being accidentally deleted. Select
the PIP that you want to delete (even if it is
already highlighted in gray) and then click on
the now active (yellow) OK button to delete it.
The Cancel button can be used to close the
Archive window even if you have not carried
out any actions in the window.
10.) Effect: If you click on the Effect button,
the Effect window appears.
7.5
You will first see the two IN and OUT buttons.
The button that you click on will turn blue and
will therefore be activated.
An activated IN button means that any further settings you configure will affect the
PIP’s fade-in. An active OUT button will
cause any settings changes to be applied to
the fade-out.
Under Effect you have the option of choosing
the type of fade-in or fade-out. The following
twelve effects can be selected: Hard Cut,
Fade, Zoom, Move Left, Move Left/Up, Move
UP, Move Up/Right, Move Right, Move Right/
Down, Move Down, Move Down/Left, Custom. The names of the first eleven settings
options indicate what they do. The Custom
setting means you can set your own values.
If you selected one of the other effects and
subsequently edit the effect, this will automatically cause the settings for the Custom
effect to be changed as well.
.
7.6
The Fade-Time button provides a slider
control for adjusting the duration of the fadein/fade-out. The duration that you are able to
set for this can be no greater than the effect
duration that is set in the Transition Effects
screen. If, for instance, you have a total of 6
seconds at your disposal, you could set 2
seconds for the fade-in and 2 seconds for the
fade-out. The remaining 2 seconds will then
be used for the hold-time. The hold-time is
the length of time during which the PIP remains stationary before it starts being faded
out again. If you set waypoints while editing
your PIP, they will determine the position at
which the hold-time takes place. The last
fade-in waypoint is also the first fade-out
waypoint, which in turn also defines the
position for the hold-time.
The Preview button again allows you to
watch the preview in a small window. This
function lets you view the preview from within
this menu.
The Edit Effect button activates another
toolbar. You can insert waypoints in this
menu to define the motion of the PIP.
11.) Insert: If you click on Insert, another
waypoint is set. The newly inserted waypoint
(and therefore also the active waypoint) is
colored green. When it is inactive it is yellow.
The new point is always inserted behind the
currently active waypoint. If the active
waypoint is not the last one, the new
waypoint will be placed exactly in the middle
between the current and the next waypoint
on the curve (in the case of two waypoints it
is of course actually a straight line and not a
curve).
Note: A waypoint path is made up of between
two and ten waypoints, whereby the
waypoint for the hold-time position is always
displayed as a large octagon. The PIP
moves at a constant speed from the first to
the last waypoint on the curve. So if two
waypoints are close together, the PIP is
located in this section of the curve for a
shorter length of time than when it is located
between two waypoints that are further apart
from one another.
(You should remember this if later you plan
varying the PIP’s parameters between individual waypoints.)
If two waypoints are located on top of one
another, the PIP will not move. However, you
7.7
can still have the PIP’s parameters vary over
the entire fade-time. So, for instance, you
could make a fade-in occur while the PIP
remains stationary in one position. If there
are more than two waypoints in the path and
two consecutive waypoints are in the same
position, the first will have no time value
associated with it, i.e. it will be skipped.
12.) Delete: Clicking on the Delete button
causes the currently active waypoint to be
deleted thus making the previous waypoint
active.
13.) Position: If you click on the Position
button, the active waypoint turns blue and
can be repositioned using the trackball.
While you are moving it you will see its position coordinates at the edge of the screen.
You can confirm the new position by pressing
the left trackball button. The right trackball
button cancels the operation. As an alternative to the Position button, you can also
move a waypoint by clicking on an active
waypoint once or by clicking on an inactive
waypoint twice. This action has the same
effect as clicking on Position.
If you want to position the waypoint outside
the video picture, you will automatically be
presented with a display showing the available area located outside the visible area as
soon as you move the point off the screen.
For further details, please read the Position
description for the main screen.
We will now once more explain the meaning
of the different waypoint colors:
yellow: an inactive point with no special
characteristics of its own. When you click on
it, it turns green (active)
green: the currently active point. The Position/Edit/Delete functions have an effect on
this point. If you click on it, it turns blue
blue: this point can be moved. After it has
been repositioned and clicked it turns green
again
14.) Edit: If you click on Edit, the Waypoint
Parameters window appears in which you
can configure the size and alpha value for the
active waypoint.
If you click on Size, the window is closed and
the PIP becomes active so you can change
its size. You will see the size displayed at the
edge of the screen. Clicking on Alpha activates the control next to it. You can then use
the control to adjust the PIP’s transparency
value to between 0 and 100%.
15.) This is where you see the slider control.
If it is completely grey this means that there
is currently only one waypoint. If the slider
can be clicked and moved then there are
several waypoints in your video footage that
you can activate. Using the separate buttons
located on the right of the slider control, you
can precisely select one waypoint after another.
If the Size and Alpha buttons are blocked
(grey and inactive), you can click on the
yellow boxes beside them to change the
dash mark to a tick mark. (Buttons will be
blocked if you have set intermediate points
whose sizes and alpha values are rendered
automatically using the starting and finishing
points. The tick marks for the first and last
points cannot be deactivated since values
have to be entered there or else interpolation
will not be possible.)
red: an inactive point for which settings were
configured manually under Edit (i.e. for which
at least one tick mark was set manually – in
other words, no interpolation). If you click on
it, it turns green (active)
If you can see a tick mark, the value that is
set to the left of the tick mark will be used at
this waypoint. If, on the other hand, a dash
mark is set, the corresponding value will be
interpolated based on the values of the
7.8
neighboring waypoints – the rendered interpolated value is therefore displayed instead.
You can change the required state whenever
you want.
16.) IN/OUT: These two buttons allow you to
choose whether your settings apply to the
fade-in or fade-out.
Simply click on the corresponding button to
make it active (blue) and therefore selected.
However, if you want to switch from the fadein to the fade-out and make further settings
changes (e.g. changes to the fade-time or
the effect) you will first have to switch to the
Effect window.
Each fade effect has its own curve and of
course its own parameters. It is important to
remember that if you change the parameters
for the large waypoint (the last waypoint for
fade-in i.e. the first for fade-out) then the
large waypoint of the other effect will also be
changed.
19.) OK: This button is used to confirm your
settings, close this screen and return you to
the Effect screen.
As a reminder: the large waypoint is the one
at which the PIP remains stationary between
the fade-in and fade-out.
17.) PIP: If you click on the PIP button it
turns blue (i.e. becomes active). This means
that you will now not only see a green
waypoint, you will also see your PIP displayed at the position of the currently active
point. However, if you selected a small size
or a small alpha value, only a green point will
continue to be displayed.
Since the presence of the PIP can often be
irritating, you should only display it temporarily just as a quick check.
18.) Preview: You also have the opportunity
of displaying a preview in this screen too.
7.9
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