Pinnacle Systems NewsCutter XP User's Guide

Avid® NewsCutter® XP

Effects Guide

Release 2.0

for the Windows 2000® Operating System

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Footage

Arizona Images — KNX-TV Production — Courtesy of Granite Broadcasting, Inc., Editor/Producer Bryan Foote . Canyonlands — Courtesy of the National Park Service, Harpers Ferry, VA. WCAU Fire Story — Courtesy of NBC-10, Philadelphia, PA. Paragliding — Courtesy of Legendary Entertainment, Inc. Renaissance Cruises Aegean I — Courtesy of Sondra Byington — Reel Art Productions, Irving, TX.

Avid NewsCutter XP Effects Guide for the Windows 2000 Operating System • Part 0130-04910-01 Rev. A • July 2001

Using This Guide

Who Should Use This Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

About This Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Symbols and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

If You Need Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Related Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

If You Have Documentation Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

How to Order Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Chapter 1 Preparing to Work with Effects

Effect Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Effects Creation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Displaying Effects On-the-Fly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Interrupting Render On-the-Fly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Using the Effect Palette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Displaying the Effect Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Resizing the Effect Palette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Understanding the Color Coding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Displaying Effect Templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Playing Effects in a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Using Third-Party Plug-in Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Chapter 2 Basics of Effects Editing

Deconstructing Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Applying Effects to a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Applying an Effect to a Single Transition or Segment . . . . . . . 39

Dragging an Effect from the Effect Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Double-Clicking an Effect Icon in the Effect Palette . . . . . 41

Applying an Effect to Multiple Transitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Applying an Effect to Multiple Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Deleting Effects in a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Deleting a Single Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Deleting Multiple Transition Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Deleting Multiple Segment Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Using the Fade Effect Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Working with Transition Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Types of Transition Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Applying a Dissolve Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Using the Effect Palette to Create a Dissolve E ffect . . . . . . 50

Using the Quick Transition Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Using the Quick Transition Button to Apply Effects to

Multiple Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Understanding the Graphical Displa y in the Quick

Transition Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Adjusting the Effect by Dragging. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Repositioning the Effect with the Alignment Buttons. . . . 61

Creating a Dissolve in Trim Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Sizing the Effect to Fit the Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Trimming a Transition Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Creating Motion Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Rendering Considerations When Creating Motion Effects . . . 64

Rendering and Rerendering Existing Motion Effects . . . . . . . . 66

Understanding Motion Effect Type Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Creating a Freeze Frame. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Controlling a Freeze Frame w ith a Single Button or Key . . . . . 71

Creating a Rolling Clip That F reezes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Creating a Variable Speed Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Creating a Strobe Motion Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Creating Mosaic Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Using the Effect Editor with the Mosaic Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Creating a Mosaic Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Modifying a Mosaic Object. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Stabilizing an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Using the Region Stabilize Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Making Adjustments to the Region of Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Chapter 3 Customizing Effects with the Effect Editor

Opening the Effect Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Customizing the Effect Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Understanding the Effect Preview Monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Understanding the Tracking Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Displaying the Safe Title and Safe Action Guidelines . . . . . . . 94

Moving an Enlarged Image in the Effect Preview Monitor . . . 95

Changing Position in an Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Replacing an Effect in Effect Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Using the Effect Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Effect Editor Buttons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

About Effect Para m ete rs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Using Parameter Sliders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Using Parameter Enable Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Using the Other Options Button to Access Parameters. . . . . . 105

Adjusting a Color Parameter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Using the Eyedropper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Using the Windows Color Dialog Box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Using Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Adding a Keyframe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Selecting a Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Moving a Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Changing a Keyframe’s Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Copying and Pasting Keyframe Paramete rs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Deleting a Keyframe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Manipulating Effects Directly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Defining Motion Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Moving the Image Directly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Resizing a Foreground Image by Dragging Handles. . . . . . . . 116

Using an Effect Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Saving an Effect Template. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Applying an Effect Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Playing an Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Basic Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Playing an Effect in a Continuous Loop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Playing a Preview of an Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Rendering Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Creating and Using Render Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Creating a New Render Setting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Adjusting Render Settings Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Activating a Render Setting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Partial Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Interrupting Rendering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Customizing Render Ranges Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Rendering a Single Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Rendering Effects at Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Rendering Effects Between IN and OUT Points. . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Using the ExpertRender Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Using ExpertRender to Render Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Modifying ExpertRender Results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Considerations When Using the ExpertRender

Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Examples of ExpertRender Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Example 1: Nested Effect with Dissolves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Example 2: Titles with a Dissolve Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Managing Effect Media Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Understanding Effect Media Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Revealing Effect Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Deleting Effect Media Files from a Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Chapter 4 Creating Layered and Nested Effects

Creating Key Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Using the Chroma Key Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

About the Chroma Key Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Creating a Chroma Key Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Creating a Luma Key Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Creating a Matte Key Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Using the Color Effec t to Prepar e a High-Contrast Image . . . 155

Working with Imported Graphics and Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Editing with Imported Matte Key Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Editing with Imported Master Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Nesting Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Expanding Nested Effects in the Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Creating a Simple Nested Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Nesting a Matte Key Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Submaster Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Applying the Submaster Effect to a Multilayered

Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Using the Submaster Effect with a Series of Short Clips . . . . 170

Collapsing Layers into One Submaster Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Performing a Video Mixdown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Chapter 5 Creating Titles and Graphic Objects

Creating Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Opening the Title Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Understanding the Title Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Understanding the Toolbar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Using the Selection Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Setting Up the Drawing Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Installing Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Previewing Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Using Title and Action Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Using Safe Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Selecting a Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Using a Video Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Updating the Video Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Creating a Color Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Using the Alignment Grid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Displaying a Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Snapping to a Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Bringing the Title Tool to the Foreground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Working with Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Creating Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Copying and Pasting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Resizing Text Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Repositioning Text Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Editing a Text String. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Formatting the Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Selecting Text for Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Setting the Default Text Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Selecting a Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Changing the Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Changing the Point Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Making Text Bold or Italic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Justifying the Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Kerning the Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Adjusting Leading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Creating Graphic Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Drawing a Square or Rectangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Drawing a Circ le or Oval. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Drawing a Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Selecting Line Attributes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Rounding Corners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Selecting a Line or Border Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Adding Arrowheads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Changing Arrowhead Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Creating Crawling Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Page Count Limits for Crawling Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Using Auto Size Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Setting Up Text Formatting for Craw ling Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Workflow Options for Creating Crawling Titles . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Typing the Crawling Title Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Resizing the Width of a Crawling Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Scrolling Through a Title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Going to a Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Adding Pages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Copying or Moving Objects to Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Inserting Blank Pages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Deleting Additional Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Formatting Crawling Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Selecting Colors and Setting Transparency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Adjusting the Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Blending Two Colors in an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Using the Title Tool Color Picker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Adjusting the Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

Blending Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

W o rki ng with Shadows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Applying Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Adjusting Shadow Color and Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Adjusting Shadow Softness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Setting Shadow Softness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Adjusting Shadow Softness On-the-Fly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Viewing Shadow Softness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Creating a Glow Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Manipulating Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Basic Manipulation Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Layering Text and Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Grouping and Ungrouping Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Locking and Unlocking Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Alignin g Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Distributing Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229

Saving Titles and Title Styles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Saving a Title and Exiting the Title Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Saving Multiple Titles in a Session. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Using the Fast Save Option. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Saving a Title with Fast Save. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Viewing Fast-Saved Titles in a Bin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Rendering Fast-Saved T it les . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Revising a Title in a Bin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236

Saving and Recalling Title Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Saving a Title Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Recalling a Title Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Confirming Function Key Mapping of Title Styles . . . . . 240

Applying Title Styles to Text Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Managing Title Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Creating and Using Title Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Creating T itle Templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Using Title Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Exporting a Title as a Graphics File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Chapter 6 Editing with Titles

Workflow for Editing with Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Restrictions on Title Playback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

About Title Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Displaying T itle Frames in the Bin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Editing a Title into a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Setting Marks in Crawling Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Splicing or Overwriting a Title into a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Dragging a Marked Title into a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Dragging an Unmarked Title into a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Trimming the Du ration of Crawling Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Removing Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Replacing Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Fading a Title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

Adjusting Title Effect Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Revising a Title in a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Replacing Fill Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Rendering T itle s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Re-creating Title Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Troubleshooting Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Title Does Not Display over Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Wrong Title Format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Chapter 7 2D Effects Reference

2D Effects Paramete rs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Global and Keyframeable Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Acceleration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Color Effect Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Luma Adjust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Luma Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Luma Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Chroma Adjust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Color Style. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Color Gain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Crop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Foreground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Key Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Secondary Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Spill Suppression. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Matrix Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Mosaic Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Feathering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Mosaic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Motion Effect Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Freeze Frame Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Variable Speed and Strobe Motion Parameters. . . . . . . . . 291

Plug-in Effect Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Region Stabilize Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Region of Interest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Auto Zoom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Scaling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Transition Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Transition Effect Alignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Transition Effect Duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

2D Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Blend Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Dip to Color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Dissolve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Fade from Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Fade to Color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Picture-in-Picture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Superimpose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Box Wipes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Bottom Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Bottom Left to Top Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Bottom Right to Top Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Left Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Right Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Top Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Top Left to Bottom Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Top Right to Bottom Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Conceal Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Bottom Left to Top Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Bottom Right to Top Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Bottom to Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Left to Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Right to Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Top Left to Bottom Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Top Right to Bottom Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Top to Bottom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Edge Wipes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Horizontal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Horizontal Open . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Lower Left Diagonal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Lower Right Diagonal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Upper Left Diagonal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Upper Right Diagonal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Vertical Open . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Vertical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Image Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Color Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Flip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Flip-Flop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

Flop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Mosaic Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Region Stabilize. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Resize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Submaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Key Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Chroma Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Luma Key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Matte Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

L-Conceal Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Bottom Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Bottom Right. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Top Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Top Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Matrix Wipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Grid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

One-Way Row. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Speckle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Spiral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Zig-Zag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Motion Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Freeze Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Variable Speed and Strobe Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Peel Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Bottom Left Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Bottom Right Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Bottom to Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Left to Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

Right to Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Top Left Corner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

Top Right Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

Top to Bottom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

Push Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

Bottom Left to Top Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Bottom Right to Top Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Bottom to Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Left to Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Right to Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Top Left to Bottom Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Top Right to Bottom Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Top to Bottom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Sawtooth Wipes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Horizontal Sawtooth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Horizontal Open Sawtooth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

Vertical Open Sawtooth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

Vertical Sawtooth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Shape Wipes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

4 Corners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Center Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Circle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Clock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Diamond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Ellipse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Horizontal Bands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Horizontal Blinds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Vertical Blinds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Spin Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

X Spin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Y Spin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Squeeze Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Bottom Centered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Bottom Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

Bottom Right. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

Bottom to Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Centered Zoom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

Horizontal Centered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Left Centered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Left to Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Right Centered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Right to Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Top Centered. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Top Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

Top Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

Top to Bottom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Vertical Centered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Title Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Comparison of Similar Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Appendix A Using AVX Plug-Ins

Installing AVX Plug-Ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Locating the AVX_Plug-Ins Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Upgrading AVX Plug-ins and Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Assigning Multiple Tracks in Plug-in Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Using AVX Plug-in Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Accessing an AVX Custom Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Custom AVX Controls in the Effect Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Troubleshooting AVX Plug-Ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

Plug-in Does Not Appear in the Effect Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Plug-in Does Not Load. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

NewsCutter XP Cannot Render the Plug-In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Blank Effect Icons in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Missing Effect Categories in the Effect Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Index

Tables

Table 2-1 Playback Capabilities of Motion Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Table 3-1 Effect Editor Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Table 3-2 Render Settings Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Table 5-1 Toolbar Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Table 5-2 Maximum Pages and Object Heights for Titles. . . . . 205

Using This Guide

This guide is your introduction to the wealth of effects and design

options available for use in your projects. This release of the Avid NewsCutter in creating professional broadcast output. You also have at your fingertips all the sophisticated effects capabilities of a high-end postproduction suite, combined with the versatility of a digital nonlinear editing system.

You can use the tools an d techniq ues described in this guide to create and incorporate into your sequence titles and effects with a wide variety of attributes. This guide also describes how to apply third-party plug-in effect filters for stunning effects formerly available only on high-end graphics workstations.

The documentation describes the fea tures and hardware of all models. Therefore, your system might not contain certa i n features and hardware that are covered in the documentation.

XP system includes the standard editing features used

Who Should Use This Guide

This guide is intended for all NewsCutter XP users, from beginning to advanced. The term “user’s guide” refers to the Avid NewsCutter XP

User’s Guide.

About This Guide

This guide leads you through even the most complex procedures with task-oriented instructions. The informatio n provided here builds on editing procedures described in the user’s guide for NewsCutter XP, while adding a complete explanation of all the tools and techniques required to create, apply, and adjust various effects and graphics, including useful tips, shortcuts, and custom options.

Keep the Avid NewsCutter XP User’s Guide and the Avid NewsCutter XP Quick Reference available during each editing session.

The Contents lists all topics included in the guide. They cover the following general areas:

• Effects editing: Chapters 1 through 4 of this guide describe various beginning and advanced techniques for incorporating literally hundreds of digital video effects (DVEs), third-party effect filters, keys, and layering options.

• Creating and editing titles and graphic objects: Chapter 5 and

Chapter 6 cover titling and use of the tools to create and control

the attributes of on-screen text, backgrounds, lines, boxes, ovals, and other graphics objects. You can create multiple titles without exiting the Title tool, and apply shadows, color, transparency, layers, and alignment to both objects and text.

• 2D effects reference: Chapter 7 provides quick access to specific information about the 2D effects and parameters available with NewsCutter XP.

• Using AVX plug-ins: Appendix A covers the installation, use, and troubleshooting of third-party plug-ins supported by the Avid Visual Extensions (AVX

™

) standard.

• The Index helps you locate specific topics.

Symbols and Conventions

Look here in the margin for tips.

Unless noted otherwise, the material in this document applies to the Windows

The NewsCutter XP documentation uses the following special symbols and conventions:

1. Numbered lists, when the order of the items is important.

• Bulleted lists, when the order of the items is unimportant.

t One arrow indicates a single-step procedure. Multiple arrows in a

Courier Bold font identifies text that you type.

In the margin, you will find tips that help you perform tas ks more easily and efficiently.

A note provides important related information, reminders, recommendations, and strong suggestions.

2000 operating system.

a. Alphabetical lists, when the order of secondary items is

important.

- Indented dashed lists, when the order of secondary items is

unimportant.

list indicate that you perform one of the actions listed.

A caution means that a specific action you take could cause harm to your computer or cause you to lose data.

A warning describes an action that could cause you physical harm. Follow the guidelines in this guide or on the unit itself when handling electrical equipment.

If You Need Help

If you’re having trouble using NewsCutter XP, you should:

1. Retry the action, carefully following the instructions given for that task in this guide.

2. Check the documentation that came with your hardware for maintenance or hardware-related issues.

3. Check the release notes supplied with your Avid application for information on accessing the Avid Web site and the Avid Knowledge Center.

4. For support services, call Avid Customer Support:

-Broadcast products — call 800-NEWS-DNG (639-7364).

-Postproduction products — call 800-80 0-AVID (2843).

Related Informati on

The followi ng do c u me n t s provide more information about NewsCutter XP:

• Avid NewsCutter XP Release Notes

This document describes new features, hardware and software requirements, software installation instructions, and summary information on system and memory requirements.

• Avid NewsCutter XP Setup Guide

This guide provides installation and configuration ins tructions as well as suggestions for troubleshoot ing problems that might arise with system hardware.

• Avid NewsCutter XP User’s Guide

This guide provides complete information on all editing tasks, such as recording footage, viewing and marking footage, editing, trimming, importing, exporting, and generating final output. This guide also provides a glossary that defines and explains many industry terms.

• Avid NewsCutter XP Quick Reference Card

This folded card lists convenient keyboard shortcuts.

• Avid Products Collaboration Guide This guide provides step-by-step instructions for transferring

project files, audio files, and graphics and effects files between various Avid products.

The most recent update of the Avid Products Collaboration Guide is provided online. Check the release notes supplied with your Avid application for information on a cces sing online documentation.

• Avid NewsCutter XP Online Publications

This online collection provides electronic versions of this guide and other guides listed in this section. You can view these

documents with Adobe

Acrobat® Reader™, which you can install

from the CD-ROM.

• Avid NewsCutter XP Help The NewsCutter XP application includes a Help system that can

be viewed using your default Web browser. Help can be run as a standalone application from the Avid NewsCutter XP Online

Publications CD-ROM.

If You Have Documentation Comments

Avid Technology continuously seeks to improve its documentation. We value your comments about this guide, the Help, the Online Publications CD-ROM, and other Avid-supplied documentation.

Simply e-mail your documentatio n comments to Av id Technology at

TechPubs@avid.com

Please include the title of the document, its part number, r e vision, and the specific section you’re commenting on in all correspondence.

How to Order Documentation

To order additional copies of this documentation from within the United States, call Avid Telesales at 800-949-AVID (2843). If you are placing an order from outside the United States, contact your local Avid representative.

CHAPTER 1

Preparing to Work with Effects

NewsCutter XP offers many effects that you can apply to your sequences. This chapter describes concepts you should understand before you begin creating and editing effects into sequences.

• Effect Types

• Effects Creation Tools

• Using the Effect Palette

• Playing Effects in a Sequence

• Using Third-Party Plug-in Effects

Effect Types

Much overlapping occurs between the various types of effects you can create, as well as the methods used to create them. Your system offers four basic effect types.

• Transition effects (dissolves, wipes, and so forth) are applied at the cut point between two video clips that are on the same video track (that is, the same video layer). For more informatio n on creating transition effects, see Chapter 2, “Basics of Effects Editing” and Chapter 3, “Customizing Effects with the Effect Editor.”

• Segment effects are applied to an entire clip or group of clips. There are two types of segment effects:

-A single-layer segment effect, such as the Mask effect, is

applied to a segment on one video track. Single-layer segment effects use one stream of video. For more information on creating single-layer segment effects, see Chapter 2, “Basics of Effects Editing” and Chapte r 3, “Customizing Effects with the Effect Editor.”

-A multilayer segment effect, such as the Picture-in-Picture

effect, is applied to the top layer or a middle layer of segments that contain two or more video tracks that will be played simultaneously. For more information on techniques for creating multilayer effects, see Chapter 4, “Creating Layered and Nested Effects.”

• Title eff ects are created with the Title tool and are edited onto their own layers in a sequence. For more information on techniques for creating and editing title effects, see Chapter 5, “Creating Tit les and Graphic Objects” and Chapter 6, “Editing with Titles.”

• Motion effects (freeze frame, variable speed, and strobe) are created by manipulating the playback characteristics of a clip of footage. For more information on techniques for creating motion effects, see Chapter 2, “Basics of Effects Editing.”

Effects Creation Tools

The following chart presents the basic tools used to create effects.

Sources of effects:

Effect Palette

Apply transition and segment effects directly to tracks.

Effects editing in default editing mo de:

Motion Effect dialog box

Title tool

Title and motion effects appear first as clips in the bin.

Edit effect clips into the Timeline.

Effects adjustment in Effect mode:

Effect Preview monitor: Allows you to preview an effect, manipulate keyframes, and manipulate wire-frame representations of the effect.

Effect Edi tor: Allows you to adjust effect parameters.

Displaying Effects On-the-Fly

The Render On-the-Fly option allows y ou to preview non-real-time effects frame by frame, immediately after applying them.

To display effects immediately during effects editing:

t Choose Render On-the-Fly from the Clip menu.

Interrupting Render On-the-Fly

Using Render On-the-Fly can slow down your editing of a sequence. If you are compositing and then change the frame you are monitoring, the system automatically renders the single frame.

Instead of waiting for the system to finish rendering, you can interrupt Render On-the-Fly . Interrupting Render On-the-Fly interrupts only the rendering of non-real-time effects.

To interrupt Render On-the-Fly, do one of the following:

t Drag the position indicator in the Timeline.

While you are dragging, the sequence appears in the Source/Record monitor as it would if Render On-the-Fly were not selected from the Clip menu.

t If you click in the Timeline and the system begins to re nder,

quickly move to another location in th e Timeline. This interrupts the rendering process until you release the mouse button.

Using the Effect Palette

The Effect Palette is a window that lists all the effects available on NewsCutter XP. Other effects that are available on your system depend on what third-party plug-ins you m ight have installed. You select transition and segment effects from the Effect Palette.

The left side of the Effect Palette displays a scrollable list of effect categories that includes the following sta nd ard categories as well as categories for any third-party plug-ins you have installed.

• AVX Sample

• Blend

• Box Wipe

• Conceal

• Edge Wipe

• Image

• Key

• L-Conceal

• Matrix Wipe

• Peel

• Push

• Sawtooth Wipe

• Shape Wipe

• Spin

• Squeeze

The effect categories list also includes open bins when those bins contain effect templates or other kinds of effect files.

The right side of the Effect Palette shows a list of the individual effects that are available for the currently selected effect category. Each effect has its own effect icon.

Displaying the Effect Palette

To display the Effect Palette:

You can also display the Effect Palette by pressing Ctrl+8 on your keyboard.

Scrollable list of effect categories

1. Choose Effect Palette from the Tools menu. The Effect Palette opens.

2. Click an effect category on the left side of the Effect Palette to select it and display effects in that category on the right side.

Resizing the Effect Palette

Blend effect choices

You can resize the Effect Palette to display more effects when a particular category includes a long list of icons.

To resize the Effect Palette:

t Click any corner or side of the palette, drag the palette to the size

you want, and then release the mouse button.

Understanding the Color Coding

Effect icons in the Effect Palette and in the Timeline might display color-coded dots. Ef fects pr eceded by a gr een dot indicate that the ef fect can be fast rendered.

The Submaster effect has a green dot in the Effect Palette. Other effects might show a green dot in the Timeline, based on the complexi ty of the sequence.

Non-real-time effects have no dot in the Effect Palette. In the Ti meline, the effect icon contains a blue dot until you render the effect.

When you edit a non-real-time effect into a sequence, the effec t icon appears with a blue dot in the Timeline, which indicates that you must render the effect to play it in real time. After you render the effect, the effect icon appears in the Timeline without a dot.

All color-coded dots disappear in the Timeline when you render effects.

No dot in the Effect Palette indicates a non-real-time effect.

A non-real-time effect icon contains a blue dot in the Timeline until the effect is rendered.

A green dot indicates a real-time effect that might not be playable in real time.

Displaying Effect Templates

Effect templates allow you to save the parameters of an effect to a bin and use them again to create or modify other effects .

In addition to displaying all the standard effects, the Effect Palette allows you to view and access effect templates stored in open bins. The names of open bins containing effects appea r in a list below the effect categories.

To view the effect template:

1. Op en the bin containing the effect templates.

2. Choose Effect Palette from the Tools menu. The Effect Palette opens.

3. Click the bin name below the effect category list to view the effect templates in the bin.

Effect category list

Bin name containing effect templates

Effect templates

For example, in the preceding illustration, the bin named Effects contains a series of effect templates using the Picture-in-Picture, Mask, and Superimpose effects.

The Effect Palette also displays other effect files, such as ma tte key clips and titles.

Whenever you open or close a bin or whenever you drop an effect in to a bin, NewsCutter XP automatically updates both lists. Once a template appears on the right side of the Effect Palette, you can apply it as you would any other effect.

Playing Effects in a Sequence

Some effects in NewsCutter XP are non-real-time, which means you must render them before you play them. You can preview non-real-time effects frame by frame by using Render On-the-Fly, as described in “Displaying Effects On-the-Fly” on page 29, or you can play the effects after rendering them explicitly. For more information see “Rendering Effects” on page 123.

You can also use Play Preview in the Effect Editor to preview effects before rendering by using their outline form. An effect’s outline is a wire-frame representation of the effect’s position, scale, and path of motion. See “Playing a Preview of an Effect” on page 1 22.

Using Third-Party Pl ug-in Effects

You can use third-party plug-in effects to add new effects to NewsCutter XP or to update existing effects.

Third-party plug-in effects are compatible with the Avid Visual Extensions (AVX) standard. AVX is a cross-platform software architecture designed to allow software effect modules to be dynamically linked with a host a pplication such as an Avid editing system.

After you install third-party plug-ins, the effects appear in the Effect Palette in their own category (usually the name of the plug-in vendor). Individual effects all have a plug icon. The plug icon also appears in the Timeline when you apply a third-party plug-in effect. After you create an effect, you can save it as an effect template and reapply the template to other transitions or segments in your sequence. Effect templates also appear in a special section at the bottom of the Effect Palette.

For more information on AVX plug-ins, see Appendix A.

CHAPTER 2

Basics of Effects Editing

This chapter explains how to create basic transition and single-layer segment effects, including motion effects.

• Deconstructing Effects

• Applying Effects to a Sequence

• Deleting Effects in a Sequence

• Using the Fade Effect Button

• Working with Transition Effects

• Creating Motion Effects

• Creating Mosaic Effects

• Stabilizing an Image

Deconstructing Effects

Breaking down existing effects into their basic elements provides one good way to understand how NewsCutter XP works. By learning how the various pieces fit together, and how NewsCutter XP allows you to manipulate them, you can begin to construct new effects from these building blocks.

The sequence depicted in the following screen image contains a series of effects that cover all the basic techniques — from simple dissolves to nested layers — described throughout Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of this guide.

Layered background elements

Layered foreground elements

Imported title elements set in moti o n w ith a wipe effect

In the PDF version of this guide, available on the Avid NewsCutter XP Online Publications CD-ROM, you can double-click the following image to

view the entire sequence.

The following Timeline for this sequence includes both transition and segment effects applied horizontally, vertically, and nested within video tracks. The callouts summarize deconstructed elements and list the sections of this guide that describe them in more detail.

Deconstructing an effects sequence

Imported graphic used as a wipe:

See “Working with Imported Graphics

and Animation” on page 156.

Effect template applied repeatedly to crop and position foreground images on V2:

See “Applying an Effect Template” on

page 119.

Nested segments add more layers to the foreground track:

See “Nesting

Effects” on page 160.

Submaster segment, created from collapsed layers, forms the background on V1:

See “Submaster Editing” on page 167.

Title graphics imported as Matte Key effects:

See “Working with Imported Graphics and

Animation” on page 156.

Keyed titles are faded in and out: See “Using

the Fade Effect Button” on pa ge48.

Dissolve sequence forms the foreground on V2:

See “Applying an Effect to Multiple Transitions”

on page 42 and “Working with Transition Effects” on page 49.

Various effect parameters adjusted throughout to soften, distort, or position images: See “Using the

Effect Editor” on pa ge98.

Applying Effects to a Sequence

This section explains how to apply an effect to a sequence in the Timeline. You can apply an effect to:

• One transition or segment on a single video layer

See “Applying an Effect to a Single Transition or Segment” on

page 39.

• Multiple transitions or segments on a single video layer

• Multiple transitions or segments on multiple video layers

See “Applying an Eff ect to Multiple Transitions” on p age42 and

“Applying an Effect to Multiple Segments” on page 44.

The effect type (transition or segment) determines where you can place the effect in the sequence. For an explanation of the effect types, see “Effect Types” on page 26. For information on each individual effect, see “2D Effects” on page 299.

After you apply an effect, the next step is to adjust the effect’s parameters. To understand how to adjust the effect parameters, see

“About Effect Parameters” on page 10 3.

Applying an Effect to a Single Transition or Segment

This section describes how to add a single transition or segment effect to a single video layer by dragging an effect from the Effect Palett e or by double-clicking a segment or transition.

Y o u can also apply several of the most common transition effects, such as the Dissolve effect, by clicking the Quick Transition button. For more information, see “Using the Quick Transition Button” on

page 51.

Dragging an Effect from the Effect Palette

To apply an effect to a single transition or segment:

For information about editing a sequence, see the Avid NewsCutter XP User’s Guide.

1. Create a sequence in the Timeline, using standard Avid editing procedures.

2. Choose Effect Palette from the Tools menu. For an explanation of the Effect Palette, see “Using the Effect

Palette” on page 30.

3. Click the effect icon in the Effect Palette, drag it to the segment or transition in the Timeline, and release the mouse button.

The effect icon appears in the Timeline as shown in the following example.

Drag the effect icon from the Effect Palette to the sequence.

Effect icon

Double-Clicking an Effect Icon in the Effect Palette

If you apply a segment effect, one segment at a t ime is highli ghted as you dr ag the effect within the Timeline. If the effect is a transition effect, one transition at a time is highlighted as you drag the effect within the Timeline. Some effects are both transi tion and segment effects; when you drag such an effect within the Timeline, both transitions and segments are highlighted.

To apply an effect to a single segment:

1. Create a sequence in the Timeline, using standard Avid editing procedures.

2. Choose Effect Palette from the Tools menu.

3. Click either the Extract/Splice-in button or the Lift/Overwrite button.

4. Click the segment to which you want to add the effect.

5. Double-click the effect icon in the Effect Palette. The effect icon appears in the Timeline.

To apply an effect to a single transition in Trim mode:

1. Create a sequence in the Timeline, using standard Avid editing procedures.

2. Choose Effect Palette from the Tools menu.

3. Click the transition where you want to add the effect.

4. Double-click the effect icon in the Effect Palette.

This procedure for adding a transition effect works only in Trim mode. See

“Creating a Dissolve in Trim Mode” on page 62.

Applying an Effect to Multiple Transitions

To apply an effect to multiple transitions:

1. If there is not already an effect on one of the transitions, add a transition effect. NewsCutter XP allows you to perform this procedure only if one of the transitions already has an effect on it.

2. Click the Effect Mode button in the Othe r tab of the Command palette to open the Effect Editor.

3. Click the tra nsition effect described in step 1.

4. If the Effect Editor is blank, click the Effect Editor to display the information for the transition effect.

5. Click above the Timeline and begin dragging to activate a selection box. Continue to drag down and either to the left or right to include additional transitions in the selection.

Pointer selection box

6. Release the mouse button when you have lassoed all the transitions you want.

The transitions that you selected are highlighted, and the pos ition indicator moves to the first transition.

7. If the transitions where you want to apply the effect are not contiguous, Shift+click any transition to deselect it.

8. Open the Effect Palette, and double-click the icon for the effect that you want to apply to the transitions.

The effect appears on the highlighted transitions in the Timeline.

If the sequence does not have enough incoming or outgoing media to apply the transition effect, a dialog box appears. For more information, see “Sizing the Effect to Fit the Media” on page 63.

Applying an Effect to Multiple Segments

You can apply an effect to multiple segments on the same video layer or on multiple video layers in a single step. The following procedure describes selecting multiple segments in the same video layer. You can also use this procedure to select segments on multiple layers.

You cannot apply effects to multip le segments while in Trim mode.

To apply an effect to multiple segments:

1. In normal editing mode or in Effect mode, click above the Timeline and to the left of the leftmost segment that you want to select, and begin dragging to the right and down to activate a selection box.

2. Continue to drag the selection box to the right unt il you lasso the rightmost segment that you want to select.

Pointer selection box

3. Release the mouse button. NewsCutter XP highlights the segments you selected.

4. If the segments where you want to apply the effect are not contiguous, Shift+click a segment to deselect it. You can also Shift+click to add one or more segments.

5. Open the Effect Palette, and double-click the effect’s icon to apply the effect to the segments.

NewsCutter XP applies the effect to the highlighted segments in the Timeline.

Deleting Effects in a Sequence

Y ou can delete transition effects from a sequence in the Ti meline at any time. Y ou can delete segment effects fro m a sequence in the Timeline at any time except when you are in Trim mode. Use the following procedures to either delete a single effect from a sequence or delete effects in multiple segments.

Deleting a Single Effect

To delete a single effect:

1. Move the position indicator to the Timeline segment containing the effect’s icon.

The track containing the effect is selected.

2. If multiple tracks contain effects at the same position in the Timeline, select only the track where the effect to be deleted resides.

In this example, only track V1 is selected.

If you delete a segment effect and the segment contains a transition effect, the transition effect will be deleted also, because the transition effect resides “on top of” the segment effect. If necessary, you will have to reapply the transition effect.

3. Delete the effect by doing one of the following:

t If the Effect Editor is not active, click the Remove Effect button

in the Tool palette.

t When the Effect Editor is active, select the effect and press the

Delete key.

t In Trim mode (for transition effects only), either press the

Delete key or click the Remove Effect button.

The effect is removed.

When you delete an effect from a sequence, NewsCutter XP does not delete the associated media file. To delete the effect’s media file, you must manually remove it from the drive. NewsCutter XP operates t his way so that you will be able to undo the deletion of an effect or undo the change you made to an effect. T o delete an effect’s media file, see “Managing Effect Media Files” on

page 143.

Deleting Multiple T r ansition Effects

To delete multiple transition effects:

1. Shift+ click each transition effect you want to delete.

2. Click the Remove Effect button, or press the Delete key.

You must be in Effect mode for this procedure to work. For more information on editing in Effect mode, see “Opening the Effect Editor” on page 91.

Deleting Multiple Segment Effects

To delete multiple segment effects:

1. Click either the Extract/Splice-in button or the Lift/Overwrite button below the Timeline.

2. Shift+click each segment that contains a segment effect you want to delete.

3. Click the Remove Effect button, or press the Delete key.

Using the Fade Effect Button

You can use the Fade Effect button to fade segment effects quickly and easily. A dialog box appears that allows you to enter the number of frames to fade up and fade down.

The Fade Effect feature automatically creates keyframes for the effect. You can access the keyframes in the Effect Editor.

To fade one or more segment effects in a sequence:

1. M ake a selection in the Timeline by doing one of the following: t To fade a single segment effect, move the position indicator to

the segment.

t To fade multiple segment effects, click either the

Extract/Splice-in button or the Lift/Overwrite button below the Timeline; then Shift+click the segments.

2. Click the Fade Effect button in the FX tab in the Command palette. The Fade Effect dialog box appears.

3. In the Fade Effect dialog box, type the number of frames to fade up and fade down, and click OK.

You can immediately view the Fade effect by playing the segment or segments.

Working with Transition Effects

You apply a transition effect to the cut point between two clips on the same video track. You can adjust the alignment and duration of a transition effect. Depending on the specific effect, other effect parameters might also be available.

Types of Transiti on Effects

Transition effects are included in all effect categories in the Effect Palette, except the Image effect category. For an explanation of the transition effects in each effect category, see Chapter 7.

Applying a Dissolve Effect

One of the most common transition effects is a dissolve. NewsCutter XP ha s three methods for applying the Dissolve effect:

• Select the Dissolve effect from the Effect Palette. For more

information, see “Using the Effect Palette to Create a Dissolve

Effect” on page 50.

• Click the Quick Transition button in the Tool palette. For more

information, see “Using the Quick Transition Button” on

page 51.

• In Trim mode, use the Transition parameters to create a dissolve.

For more information, see “Creating a Dissolve in Trim Mode”

on page 62.

Using the Effect Palette to Create a Dissolve Effect

To apply a Dissolve effect by using the Effect Palette:

1. Create a sequence in the Timeline by using the standard NewsCutter XP editing procedures. For information about editing a sequence, see the “First Edits” chapter of the Avid NewsCutter XP User’s Guide.

2. Choose Effect Palette from the Tools menu.

3. Click the Blend category.

4. Drag the Dissolve Effect icon to the transition in the Timeline, and release the mouse button.

The Dissolve Effect icon appears in the Timeline.

If the sequence does not have enough incoming or outgoing media to apply a transition effect, a dialog box appears. See “Sizing the Effect to Fit the

Media” on page 63.

Using the Quick Transition Button

You can also click the Quick Transition button to create a transition. This button allows you to app ly the following transition effects without using the Effect Palette:

• Dissolve

• Fade to Color

• Fade from Color

• Dip to Color

Y ou can choose to add the same transition effect to multiple transitions at the same time by marking IN and OUT points in your sequence that select all the transitions to which you wa nt to apply the effect. When you click the Quick Transition button, the Quick Transition dialog box will contain a check box for Apply to All Transitions (IN -> OUT). For more information, see “Using the Quick Transition Button to Apply

Effects to Multiple Transitions” on page 5 5 .

To create a transition by using the Quick Transition button:

1. Move the position indicator to the transition in the Timeline.

2. Cli ck the Quick Tran sition button in the Tool palette. The Quick Transition dialog box appears.

The dialog box includes a graphical display of the outgoing media and incoming media, with the effect icon applied to the transition. For more information, see “Understanding the Graphical Display

in the Quick Transition Dialog Box” on page 59.

3. Choose a transition effect from the Add pop-up menu.

For an explanation of individual effects shown in the menu, see

Chapter 7.

When you choose a color transition with Quick T ransition, the default color is black. Yo u must enter Effect mo de to choose another color. For more information, see “Using the Effect Editor” on page 98.

4. Select the transition duration by doing one of the following:

t Type the duration in frames in the Duration text box. t Click either the left or the right edge of the Dissolve Effect icon

and drag it to change the duration. For more information, see

“Understanding the Graphical Display in the Quick Transition Dialog Box” on page 59.

The graphical display changes — the size of the effect icon gets smaller or larger, an d the numbers in the Duration and Start text boxes change — to reflect the new duration.

5. Adjust the effect’s alignment relative to the cut point in one of the following ways:

t Choose an alignment from the Position pop-up menu to have

the effect end at the cut point, center on the cut point, or start at the cut point.

t Choose Custom from the Position pop-up menu, and then

type a number in the Start text box to specify how many frames before the cut point you want the effect to begin.

The system automatically sele cts the Custom opt ion in the Position pop-up menu when you click in the graphical display.

t Click inside the effect in the graphical display, and drag it to

position the effect with respect to the cut point.

t Click one of the alignment butto ns below the graphical

display. For more information on the graphical d isplay options, see

“Understanding the Graphical Display in the Quick Transition Dialog Box” on page 59.

The system positions the effect, updates the gr aphical display to show the new position of the effect, and updates the value in the Start tex t b o x .

If you select an alignment for which there is not eno ugh media, the system comes as close as it can to the alignment you requested.

6. Click Target Drive, and from the pop-up menu choose a drive on which to store the effect if you choose to render it.

The Effect Source Drive is the drive where the media files on the outgoing shot of a transition reside.

7. ( Option) If you have IN and OUT points marked in your sequence, the Quick Transition dialog box contains a check box for Apply to All Transitions (IN -> OUT). Select this option to apply the same effect to all transitions between the IN and OUT points. Deselect this option to apply the effect only to the transitio n to which you have moved the position indicator.

8. Do one of the following:

t To add the effect without rendering it, click Add. t To add the effect and render it, click Add and Render.

NewsCutter XP adds the effect to the selected transition in the sequence, or, if you selected Apply to All Transitions (IN -> OUT), the system adds the effect to all transitions between the IN and OUT points.

Using the Quick Transition Button to Apply Effects to Multiple Transitions

You can select multiple transitions by marking IN and OUT poi nts. Then apply an effect from the Quick Transition dialog box to all the selected transitions at once.

To apply an effect to multiple transitions by using the Quick Transition button:

1. Mark IN and OU T points around the transitions to which you want to apply the effect.

2. Make sure that the Record Track buttons in the Track Selector panel are selected for the tracks to which you want to add the effect.

3. ( Option) If you want to see a particular transition in the graphical display of the Quick Transition dialog box, move the position indicator to that transition.

The graphical display in the Quick Transition dialog box always shows the transition closest to the position indicator. When you are defining an effect to apply to multiple transitions, the positioning details of any one transition might not be useful since you need to create an effect that will fit all t he transitions. However, you might want to choose one transition as a model. For example, you might use the transition with the least amount of frames as a model. If your effect fits that transition, it should fit all the ot he rs you have selected.

Apply To All Transitions check box

4. Cli c k the Quick Transition button. The Quick Transition dialog box appears.

5. Choose a transition effect from the Add pop-up menu.

For an explanation of individual effects shown in the menu, see

Chapter 7.

When you save a Dissolve effect template into a bin named Quick Transitions, the effect template appears in the Add pop-up menu. See “Using an Effect

Template” on page 117.

6. Select the transition duration by doing one of the following:

t Type the duration in frames in the Duration text box. t Click either the left or the right edge of the Dissolve Effect icon

and drag it to change the duration. For more information, see

“Understanding the Graphical Display in the Quick Transition Dialog Box” on page 59.

The graphical display changes — the size of the effect icon gets smaller or larger, an d the numbers in the Duration and Start text boxes change — to reflect the new duration.

7. Adjust the effect’s position relative to the cut point in one of the following ways:

t Choose an option from the Position pop-up menu to have the

effect end at the cut point, center on the cut point, or start at the cut point.

t Choose Custom from the Position pop-up menu, and then

type a number in the Start text box to specify how many frames before the cut point you want the effect to begin.

The system automatically sele cts the Custom opt ion in the Position pop-up menu when you click in the graphical display.

t Click inside the effect in the graphical display and drag it to

position the effect with respect to the cut point.

t Click one of the alignment butto ns below the graphical

display. For more information on the graphical d isplay options, see

“Understanding the Graphical Display in the Quick Transition Dialog Box” on page 59.

The system positions the effect, updates the gr aphical display to show the new position of the effect, and updates the value in the Start tex t b o x .

8. Click Target Drive, and from the pop-menu choose a drive on which to store the effect if you choose to render it.

The Effect Source Drive is the drive where the media on the outgoing shot of a transition resides.

9. S e lect Apply to All Transitions (IN -> OUT).

10. Do one of the following:

t To add the effect without rendering it, click Add. t To add the effect and render it, click Add and Render.

This adds the selected effect to all the transitions between the marked IN and OUT points on the selected tracks in the sequence.

If there is not enough incoming or outgoing me dia m ate rial to ap ply the effect to a transition, a dialog box appears. For more infor mation, see “Sizing the

Effect to Fit the Media” on page 63.

Understanding the Graphical Display in the Quick Transition D ialog Box

The graphical display of the transition effect that appears in the Quick Transition dialog box allows you to control the length and position of the effect with frame accuracy simply by dragging. You can also quickly reset the position of the effect by using the three alignment buttons.

Features of the Graphical Display

The following illustration shows the graphical display in the Quick Transition dialog box.

Frames of incoming media available for the effect

Outgoing media

Handle on incoming media

Transition effect

Alignment buttons

Handle on outgoing media

Frames of outgoing media available for the effect

Incoming media

The graphical display shows the following:

• The outgoing (A) and incoming (B) media for the transition to which you are applying the effect. The amount of handle that is available for each piece of media is clearly indicated both as a darker area on the graphic itself an d as a number of frames.

• The transition effect that you are applying. The display shows the effect icon and indicates the length and position of the effect in relation to the media.

• Three alignment buttons. These buttons appear when you choose Custom from the Position pop-up menu or click in the graphical display. They allow you to quickly reposition the effect so that it either ends at the cut point, is centered on the cut point, or starts at the cut point.

The system draws and scales the gra p hical display so that it always represents the relative size and position of the transition effect in relation to the media. For example, in the preceding illustration, the effect is 23 frames long while the outgoing handle is 17 frames long. The effect is therefore shown 35% longer than the outgoing handle.

Adjusting the Effect by Dragging

You can control the length o r position of the transition effect by dragging in the graphical display.

To adjust the length of the effect:

1. Do one of the following: t To adjust the length of the effect without changing its start

point, move the pointer over the right edge of the effect.

t To adjust the length of the effect without changing its end

point, move the pointer over the left edge of the effect.

The pointer changes to a resizing arrow.

Resizing arrow

2. Do one of the following: t Drag away from the effect icon in the center to lengthen the

effect. t Drag toward the effect icon in the center to shorten the effect. The graphical display and the Duration text box update to reflect

your adjustment. If you are dragging the left edge of the effect, the Start text box also updates to reflect the changed start point.

To adjust the position of the effect:

1. Move the pointer inside the effect. The pointer changes to a hand .

2. Drag th e effect to adjust its position with respect to the cut point. The graphical display updates to show the new effect position,

and the Start text box updates to show the new number of frames before the cut point.

You cannot drag an effect beyond the ends of the handles on the media because the system cannot create a transition unless both incoming and outgoing media are available for every frame of the transition. You also cannot drag an effect beyond the cut point.

Reposition in g the Effect with th e A lignment Buttons

You can use the alignment buttons to quickly reposition the effect so that it either starts at the cut, is centered on the cut, or ends at the cut. The buttons have the same effect as the Ending at Cut, Centered on Cut, and Starting at Cut commands in the Position pop- up menu.

Centered on CutEnding at Cut

Starting at Cut

To reposition the effect with an alignment button:

t Click one of the following buttons:

• Ending at Cut, to have the effect end at the cut point

• Centered on Cut, to center the effect on the cut point

• Starting at Cut, to have the effect begin at the cut point

Creating a Dissolve in Trim Mode

You can create a Dissolve effect in Trim mode by using the Transition parameters displayed in the Effect Editor and in the Source/Record monitor.

To create a Dissolve effect by using the Transition parameters:

1. Click a transition in the Timeline while in Trim mode.

2. In the Transition Effect Duration box in the Effect Editor or in the Source/Record monitor, type the dissolve’s duration.

The Duration set ting above the Source/Re cord monitor determines the duration format (for example, seconds:frames). For more information, see the

“Working in Trim Mode” chapter of the Avid NewsCutter XP User’s Guide.

Transition Effect Alignment button

Transition Effect Alignment pop-up menu

This adds the Dissolve effect at the transition and a Dissolve effect in the Timeline.

Transition Effect Duration box

3. Click the T ransition Effect Alignment button, and select the effect’s position relative to the cut point from the pop-up menu.

For an explanation of the Transition Effect Alignment pop-up menu selections, see “Transition Parameters” on page 297.

Sizing the Effect to Fit the Media

When you select a transition effect from the Effect Palette and not enough source media exists to apply the effect, the Insufficient Source dialog box appears.

The dialog box shows a graphical display that indica tes whether the source that has insufficient material is Media A (outgoing footage), Media B (incoming footage), or both.

To automatically size the effect to fit the media:

t Click Size to Fit.

NewsCutter XP sets th e durati on of the effect to fit the available media. If you have selected an alignment, NewsCutter XP attempts to preserve it.

To change the al ignment or duration of the transition effect, see

“Creating a Dissolve in Trim Mode” on page 62.

Although the graphical display in the Insufficient Source dialog box is similar to the graphical display in the Quick Transition dialog box, you cannot adjust an effect by dragging in the Insufficient Source dialog box.

Trimming a Transition Effect

NewsCutter XP lets you do the following:

• Trim a transition effect, using the standard transition trim procedures. For more information, see the “Working in Trim Mode” chapter in the Avid NewsCutter XP User’s Guide.

• Customize a transition effect, such as changing the fade color. For a description of how to change effect parameters, see Chapter 3.

Creating Motion Effects

A motion effect, applied to a clip in the Source/Record monitor, allows you to alter the playback characteristics of the clip. Motion effects include Freeze Frame, Variable Speed (such as slow motion or fast motion), Reverse Motion, and Strobe Motion effects. You can also combine Va riable Speed and Strobe Motion effects in a single clip.

NewsCutter XP creates a motion effect by creating a new clip in a bin. You then edit the clip into your sequence using standard editing techniques.

Rendering Considerations When Creating Motion Effects

Motion effects require rendering before they will play. When you first create a motion effect that requires rendering, you can render immediately or create an unrendered version that you can r ender later in your workflow.

NewsCutter XP creates motion effects using one of fou r different types — Duplicated Field, Both Fields, Interpolated Field, and VTR-Style. All types always require rendering. You choose motion effect types based on the quality you need for the final motion effect, the rendering time that each type requires, and the media with which you are working (some types are useful only when you are working with two-field media).

and their compatibility with different types of media, see “Motion Effect

Parameters” on page 289.

NewsCutter XP allows you to preview some kinds of unrendered motion effects in real time even if they require rendering for final playback. NewsCutter XP cannot preview other kinds of unrendered motion effects; these effects will play as filler until they are rendered.

Table 2-1 provides a summary of playback capabilities for motion

effects.

Table 2-1 Playback Capabilities of Motion Effects

Effect Playback Capability Preview Capability

Freeze Frame (all types) Non-real-time Play in real time as

Duplicate Field motion effects until rendered

For more information on motion effect types, including their relative quality

Variable Speed effects — forward slow motion — created by using the Duplicated Field or Both Fields type. (Use a value between 0 and 100 in the % speed text box of the Motion Effect dialog box.)

Non-real-time Play in real time as

Duplicate Field motion effects until rendered

Variable Speed effects — forward slow motion — created by using the Interp olated Fie ld or VTR-St yle type. (Use a value between 0 and 100 in the % speed text box of the Motion Effect dialog box.)

Non-real-time Play in real time as

Duplicate Field motion effects until rendered

Table 2-1 Playback Capabilities of Motion Effects (Continued)

Effect Playback Capability Preview Capability

Variable Speed effects — fast moti on and reverse motion (all types). (Use a value over 100 or a negative val ue in th e % speed text box of the Moti on Effect dialog box.)

Strobe Motion effect s (all types) Non-real-time Play back as filler

Strobe Motion effects combi ned with Variable Speed effects (all types)

Non-real-time Play back as filler

(black image) until rendered

Non-real-time Play back as filler

(black image) until rendered

Rendering and Rerendering Existing Motion Effects

In certain situations, you might need to render or rerender existing motion effects. To do this, follow one of the procedures described in

“Rendering Effects” on page 123.

Information about the type and render status of motion effects appears in the Timeline in the same form as that used for other effects. Each motion effect type has a distinct effect icon, as shown in the following illustration.

Duplicated Field Motion Effect icon

Both Fields Motion Effect icon

Interpolated Field Motion Effect icon

VTR-Style Motion Effect icon

Color-coded dots appear on Motion Effect icons to indicate whether they require rendering. The following illustration shows several typical examples of Motion Effect icons in the Timeline.

Rendered VTR-Style motion effect (no dot)

Unrendered Both Fields motion effect

If you use the ExpertRender

™

feature, ExpertRender correctly

Unrendered Interpolated Field

motion effect (blue dot — plays as a Duplicated Field motion effect until rendered)

identifies motion effects that require rendering.

When you render motion effects, NewsCutter XP checks the Motion Effects Render Using option in the active Render setting. If the Motion Effects Render Using option is set to Original Preference (the default setting), the system makes no change to the type of motion effects when it renders them. If the Motion Effects Render Using option is set to a specific motion effect type, NewsCutter X P cha nges all motion effects to that type when it renders them. This option is particularly important for controlling the look of motion effects when you are working with two-field media.

Whenever NewsCutter XP changes the motion effect type during rendering, a message appears in the Console window, providing information about the change. For more information, see “Creating

and Using Render Settings” on page 1 23 and “Understanding Motion Effect Type Changes” on page 68.

The following is a list of the circumstances in which you might need to render or rerender motion effects.

• You need to render any motion effect that requires rendering for successful playback if you did not render that effect at the time you created it. This kind of effect appears with a blue dot in the Timeline until it is rendered.

• You need to render a motion effect so that it will play successfully in a complex sequence even if that effect would not normally require rendering.

• You might need to render or rerender motion effects when you edit them into a sequence and perform trims or apply transition effects. If an effect that was previously rendered (no colored dot in the Timeline) or that previously played in real time changes in such a way that it requires rendering, it will appear with a blue dot in the Timeline. Only those parts of the Motion Effect clip that have been changed by your editing require rendering. You can see which parts of the motion effect require rendering by using the Render Ranges command in the Ti meli ne Fast menu. For more information, see “Customizing Render Ranges Display” on

page 128.

Understanding Motion Effect Type Changes

Whenever motion effects in the Timeline are rendered or rerendered, the system uses the Motion Effects Render Using option in the active Render setting to define the motion effect type for the new versions of the motion effects. For example, you might start a project using single-field media and the Duplicated Field type for motion effects. Later, you might rerecord the media at a two-field resolution, set the Motion Effects Render Using option in the active Render setting to VTR-Style, and submit the whole sequence for rendering. By doing this, you create new motion effects that are higher quality and that can play with the two-field media.

Changes to mo tion effect typ es are permanent ch anges to both the Motion Effect clip and its associated media. You can return to the old motion effect type only by rerendering. To avoid unnecessary rerendering, make sure that the Motion Effects Render Using option in the active Render setting is set to the motion effect type you need.

NewsCutter XP writes a message in the Console window w hen ever it changes the type of a motion effect during rendering. You can check these messages to verify the changes that the system has made to your motion effects. Motion Effect icons in the Timeline also change to reflect the new motion effect type.

Creating a Freeze Frame

A Freeze Frame effect is a still image, based on a chosen frame from a clip, that continues to display for the duration that you choose. When combined with the original clip, the footage plays and then “freezes” and holds on the frame that you specified.

To create a Freeze Frame effect:

1. Open a clip in the Source/Record monitor.

2. Cue the clip to the frame that you want to freeze.

3. Choose Freeze Frame from the Clip menu. A pop-up menu appears.

4. Choose Two Field Freeze Frames, and then choose one of the following:

• Using Duplicated Field — NewsCutter XP creates the effect

using a single field. This option reduces the vertical resolution of the image by one-half, resulting in a lower quality image. If the footage contains motion, however, this option can be useful in eliminating any jitt er in the image caused by motion between the two fields.

• Using Both Fields — NewsCutter XP uses both fields to create

the effect. This option is especially useful when there is little or no motion in the footage since it preserves all vertical resolution.

• Using Interpolated Field — NewsCutter XP creates a second

field for the effect by combining scan line pairs from the first field in the original media. This might result in a slightly softer look to the freeze frame.

The chosen option becomes the default until you choose another option.

5. Choose Freeze Frame from the Clip menu, and then do one of the following:

t Choose a preconfi gured duration. t Choose Other and type a custom duration in the dialog box;

then click OK to enter the new duration.

A dialog box appears, prompting you to choose a drive for the freeze frame media.

6. Choose a drive from the pop-up menu, and click OK. A new clip appears in the Source/Record monitor and in the

current bin preceded by a Motion Effect icon. The new clip has the original clip name followed by the letters FF.

Controlling a Freeze Frame with a Single Button or Key

You can map the Freeze Frame command to a button or key. The system remembers the duration of the freeze frame and the option for two-field media if appropriate. Af ter you have ma pped the command, you can create a freeze frame of the same type and duration simply by clicking the button or pressing the key.

To map the Freeze Frame command to a button or key:

1. Choose Freeze Frame from the Clip menu, choose Two Field Freeze Frames, and then choose one of the following:

• Using Duplicated Field — NewsCutter XP creates the effect

• Using Both Fields — NewsCutter XP uses both fields to create

the effect. This option is especially useful when there is little or no motion in the footage since it preserves all vertical resolution.

The Command palette opens.

2. S elect Menu to Button Reassignment.

3. Do one of the following:

t To map to a button, click a blank button in the Tool palette. t To map to a key, click a blank key in the Keyboard palette.

4. Choose Freeze Frame from the Clip menu.

5. Do one of the following:

t Choose a preconfi gured duration. t If you want to type a custom duration when you create a

freeze frame using the button or key, choose Other.

NewsCutter XP maps the Freeze Frame menu command to the button or key.

6. Close the Command palette.

Creating a Rolling Clip That Freezes

One common use for freeze frames is to create a segment that plays normally and then freezes, either to superimpose text information or to add emphasis to the end of a sequence before fading.

To create a rolling clip that freezes:

1. Edit the clip int o the s equen ce.

2. Mark an IN point in the sequence at the frame where you want the freeze frame to occur.

3. Create the Freeze Frame effect from the source footage as described in “Creating a Freeze Frame” on page 69.

4. Click either the Extract/Splice-in button or the Lift/Overwrite button below the Timeline to edit the freeze frame into the sequence at the previously marked IN point.

When you play the sequence, the footage plays full-motion and then freezes at the chosen frame.

Creating a Variable Speed Effect

V ariable Speed effects involve changing the rate of playback to achieve fast-motion or slow-motion effects. NewsCutter XP creates slow-motion effects by duplicating fram es in the original media. It creates fast-motion effects by eliminating frames from the original media.

Variable Speed option

To create a Variable Speed effect:

1. (Option) If you require a fixed duration for the clip based on a segment in the sequence, mark the segment in the Timeline with IN and OUT points.

2. (Option) If you want to use only part of the source clip for the motion effect, mark IN and OUT points in the Source/Record monitor.

3. Clic k the Motion Effect button on the Source/Record monitor. The Motion Effect dialog box appears.

4. Se lect the Variable Speed option.

5. Specify the play speed for the Variable Speed motion effect in one of the following ways:

t Type a number of frames in the Frames text box.

t Type a frame rate in the FPS text box. To indicate reverse

motion, enter a negative number for the play rate.

t Type a percentage of the current play rate in the % Speed text

box. To indicate reverse motion, enter a negative number for the percentage.

t Select the Fit To Fill option to automatically set the Variable

Speed parameters so that the duration of the motion effect will match the IN to OUT duration marked in the Source/Record monitor.

When you set one of these, all values change to reflect the specified play rate.

6. (Option) If Original Preference is set as the Motion Effects Render Using option in the active Render setting, select one of the following four available options:

• Duplicated Field — NewsCutter XP creates the effect using

one field.

• Both Fields — NewsCutter XP creates the effect using both

fields.

• Interpolated Field — NewsCutter XP creates a second field for

the effect by combining scan line pairs from the first field in the original media.

• VTR-Style — NewsCutter XP creates a second field for the

effect by shifting selected video fields of the original media by a full scan line. This technique is similar to that used by high-quality professional video decks when playing footage at less than normal speed.

For more information on these options, see “Motion Effect Pa ram eter s” on

page 289.

7. (Option) If a specific motion effect type is set as the Motion Effects Render Using option in the active Render setting, NewsCutter XP automatically selects that type in the Motion Effect dialog box, makes all other types unavailable, and displays the Ignore Render Setting check box. If you want to override the Render setting, click the Ignore Render Setting check box, and then select one of the four options described in step 6.

8. Complete the effect by doing one of the following: t Click Create to create the new clip and close the dialog box. If

you have more than one bin open , another di alog box appe ars, asking you to select a bin for the effect.

t Click Create and Render to render the clip — creating new

media files — and close the dialog box. If you have more than one bin open, another dialog box appears, asking you to select a bin for the effect.

A new clip appears in the Source/Record monitor and in the current bin. The clip has the original clip name followed by the frame rate in parentheses. You can then edit this clip into your sequence as you would any other clip.

Creating a Strobe Motion Effect

Strobe motion results in a stuttering effect during playback of a clip. You determine the degree of the “stutter” when you create the effect.

Strobe Motion option

You can also combine the Strobe Motion effect with the Variable Speed effect. For more information on the Variable Speed effect, see “Creating a Variable

Speed Effect” on page73.

To create a Strobe Motion effect:

1. (Option) If you want to use only part of the source clip for the effect, mark IN and OUT points in the Source/Record monitor.

2. Clic k the Motion Effect button on the Source/Record monitor. The Motion Effect dialog box appears.

3. Select the S trobe Motion option.

4. Specify the update rate in frames for the Strobe Motion effect. For example, a rate of 5 causes every fifth frame to be held for five frames before updating in the Strobe Motion effect.

5. (Option) If Original Preference is set as the Motion Effects Render Using option in the active Render setting, select one of the following four available options:

• Duplicated Field — NewsCutter XP creates the effect using

one field.

• Both Fields — NewsCutter XP creates the effect using both

fields.

• Interpolated Field — NewsCutter XP creates a second field for

the effect by combining scan line pairs from the first field in the original media.

• VTR-Style — NewsCutter XP creates a second field for the

For more information on these options, see “Motion Effect Pa ram eter s” on

page 289.

6. (Option) If a specific motion effect type is set as the Motion Effects Render Using option in the active Render setting, NewsCutter XP automatically selects that type in the Motion Effect dialog box, makes all other types unavailable, and displays the Ignore Render Setting check box. If you want to override the Render setting, click the Ignore Render Setting check box, and then select one of the four options described in step 5.

7. Complete the effect by doing one of the following: t Click Create to create the new clip and close the dialog box. If

you have more than one bin open , another di alog box appe ars, asking you to select a bin for the effect.

t Click Create and Render to render the clip — creating new

media files — and close the dialog box. If you have more than one bin open, another dialog box appears, asking you to select a bin for the effect.

You must render a Strobe Motion effect to play it back in real time. If you do not render a Strobe Motion effect when you first create it, the effect will play back as filler until you render it.

A new clip appears in the Source/Record monitor and in the current bin preceded by a Motion Effect icon. The new clip has the original clip name followed by the word Strobe and the number of update frames in parentheses.

Creating Mosaic Effects

The Mosaic effect utilizes many of the tools and parameters common to other effects, but it also includes several features unique to this effect:

• Feathering parameters

• Mosaic parameters

• Z-rotation tool

• Reshape tool

• Bring Forward and Send Backward buttons

The Mosaic effect allows you to obscure part of an image, such as a face, by distorting the pixels into a tile pattern within a defined area.

The Mosaic effect is a non-real-time effect. When you have finished creating a mosaic in a segment, you must render the effect to play it in real time.

Using the Effect Editor with the Mosaic Effect

For more information on working with the Effect Editor, see “Using

the Effect Editor” on page 98 .

The following illustration identifi es the d ifferent sections of the Effect Editor that are available when you apply a Mosaic effect to a segment and enter Effect mode.

Acceleration parameter

Feathering parameters

Mosaic parameters

Reduce and Enlarge buttons

Selection tool

Z-rotation tool

Reshape tool

Bring Forward and Send Backward buttons

Rectangle tool

Oval tool

Play Loop button Play button

You control the Mosaic effect by using the following parameters in the Effect Editor:

• Acceleration – Adjusts the effect’s speed from one keyframe to the next when the mosaic object moves within a segment.

• Feathering – Adds soft ed ges to a mosaic object. Modifying the outline can make an object stand out from or blend into the background.

• Mosaic – Controls the overall appearance of the object area, allowing for varying degrees of distortion.

The following buttons appear on the right side of the Effect Editor for the Mosaic effect.

Button Description

Reduce Decreases the magnification of objects in the Effect Preview

monitor.

Enlarge Increases the magnification of objects in the Effect Preview

monitor.

Selection tool Selects an object so you can change its parameters, move it, or

delete it. With the Shift key pressed, selects multiple objects.

Z-rotation tool Rotates an object around the Z axis.

Reshape tool Reshapes objects by manipulating anchor points at locations

where new curves begin or straight lines intersect. Inserts additional control points.

Bring Forward Brings an object one layer forwar d on the screen.

Send Backward Sends an object one layer backward on the screen.

Play Loop Click to play back the current effect repeatedly in a loop. Click

again or press the space bar to stop play. Rendered ef fects play at full speed; unrendered effects play at single-frame rate.

Play Click to play the effect from the current position in the effect’s

position bar. Click again or press the space bar to stop play. Rendered effects play at full speed; unrendered effects play at single-frame rate.

Rectangle tool Creates a square or rectangle to create an object. The pointer

changes to a crosshair when clicked.

Oval tool Creates a circle or oval to create an object. The pointer changes

to a crosshair when clicked.

Creating a Mosaic Effect

To create a mosaic effect:

1. Choose Effect Palette from the Tools menu.

2. Click the Image category.

3. Click the Mosaic Effect icon, drag it to a segment in the sequence, and release the mouse button.

4. Click the Effect Mode button in the Othe r tab of the Command palette to enter Effect mode.

The Effect Editor opens.

5. Click either the Rectangle tool or the Oval tool.

6. Click in the Source/Record monitor and drag to create an object. A wire-frame outline of the object appears, and the default Mosaic

effect appears in the Effect Preview monitor.

Wire frame outlining mosaic object

Modifying a Mosaic Object

To modify the attributes of a mosaic object:

1. Click the Selection tool, and select the object you want to change.

2. Use the sliders in the Feathering parameter category to adjust the appearance of the outline of the object:

• The Hor (horizontal) slider extends the mosaic to the

surrounding pixels along the X axis.

• The Vert (vertical) slider extends the mosaic to the

surrounding pixels along the Y axis.

Clicking the Fixed Aspect button lock s the horizontal and vertical sliders so that they move in unison. This controls how smoothly the effect blends with the background image.

Clicking the Anti-alias button reduces the jaggedness of the edges of the mosaic.

3. Use the sl iders in the Mosaic parameter category to adjust the appearance of the mosaic distortion:

• The Opac (opacity) slider controls how prominently the

mosaic appears against the background image. A va lue of 0 makes the mosaic transparent; a value of 100 makes it fully opaque.

• The Hor (horizontal) and Vert (vertical) sliders lengthen each

tile within the effect along the X or Y axis, respectively. They control the coarseness of the mosaic.

The Mosaic Visible button switches the effect on and off in the Effect Preview monitor.

Left resize handle selected

4. Use the Z-rotation and Reshape tools to customize the shape of the mosaic object:

• Z-rotation allows you to rotate the object around a Z axis by

manipulating the resize handles.

• Reshape allows you to create an irregular object by moving

the resize handles individually.

The Bring Forward and Send Backward buttons apply to segments with two or more mosaic objects when the objects overlap. You use the buttons to define which object appe ars closer to the vie w er.

5. Drag the center handle of the object to match the mosaic to the movement of the image in the clip. NewsCutter XP automatically adds a new keyframe each time you drag the object to a new position.

Stabilizing an Im ag e

The Region Stabilize effect eliminates unwanted motion in a video clip, such as motion from an unstable camera. Region Stabilize allows you to select an area of the image that you want to remain stationary and then uses the information to reposition each frame in the clip to keep the region steady.

Stabilization exposes black around the edges of the repositioned frames. You can resize (and, if necessary, reposition) the rendered clip to remove the exposed edges. The Auto Zoom parameter does this automatically (see “Auto Zoom” on page 296).

Using the Region Stabilize Effect

To stabilize a segment:

1. Choose Effect Palette from the Tools menu.

2. Click the Stabilize category.

3. Dra g the Region Stabilize Effect icon to the segment you want to stabilize.

Wire frame marking the region of interest

4. Click the Effect Mode button in the Tool palette. A wire frame appears in the Effect Preview monitor to indicate the

region of interest. This is the area you want to use in stabilizing the image.

5. Reposition and resize the wire frame by doing one of the following:

t Use the sliders in the Region of Interest parameter category. t Click the wire frame and drag it in the Effect Preview monitor.

Select a region that contains one or more features that do not change much from frame to frame, for exam ple, objects such as buildings or rocks. Another approach is to shoot the scene with stabilization in mind: include an object, such as a reflective sticker, that you intend to use as your region of interest.

6. S e lect the type of stabilization from the Model pop-up menu:

• Translational keeps the region of interest steady along both

the horizontal and the vertical axes.

• Horizontal constrains horizontal motion in the region of

interest. Features in the region of interest can move vertically but not horizontally.

• Vertical constrains vertical motion in the region of interest.

Features in the region of interest can move horizontally but not vertically.

7. (Option) Select the Auto Zoom option. A check mark appears in the check box when the option is

selected. Stabilization exposes black around the edges of the repositioned

frames. Auto Zoom compensates by resizing and, if necessary, repositioning the clip to remove the exposed edges.

8. Render and review the effect. If the rendered clip does not perform as expected, see “Making

Adjustments to the Region of Interest” on page 89.

9. (Option) Add keyframes to refine the motion of the stabilized clip.

10. Continue to review and refine the effect until you achieve the result s yo u wa nt .

11. (Option) Resize and, if necessary, reposition the clip to eliminate black edges.

Making Adjustments to the Region of Interest

If the Region Stabilize effect does not perform as expected, it might be due to one of the following:

• Large motion. If an object in your region of interest moves too far

away from the region from one frame to the next, the rendered clip might display unexpected results.

• Extraneous motion. Something in your region of interest might

move over the course of the clip in a way that unpredictably affects the stabilization.

• Insufficient texture. The region of interest might not have enough

features to allow Region Stabilize to track it effectively.

When you encounter unexpected results in the rendered clip, experiment with the following adjustments:

• Increase the size of the region of interest, or reposition it, to encompass large motion.

• Decrease the size of the region of interest to eliminate extraneous motion that is affecting the stabilization.

• Choose a new region of interest.

• Add keyframes to reestablish or refine the region of interest over

the course of the clip.

CHAPTER 3

Customizing Ef fects with the Effect Editor

After you have created an effect and have applied it to a transition or segment in your sequence, you can adjust its appearance and operation by changing its effect parameters in the Effect Editor. This chapter explains how to use the Effect Editor to adjust effect parameters.

• Opening the Effect Editor

• Customizing the Effect Display

• Changing Position in an Effect

• Replacing an Effect in Effect Mode

• Using the Effect Editor

• Using Keyframes

• Manipulating Effects Directly

• Using an Effect Template

• Playing an Effect

• Rendering Effects

• Managi ng Effect Media Files

Opening the Effect Editor

After you add an effect to a sequence, you must open the Effect Editor to change the effect’s parameters. Opening the Effect Editor transforms the Source/Record monitor into the Effect Preview monitor.

To open the Effect Editor:

1. Move the posit ion indicator to the effect’s icon in the Timeline.

2. Click the Effect Mode button in the Othe r tab of the Command palette.

NewsCutter XP opens the Effect Editor and displays the values for the current effect. At the same time, NewsCutter XP transforms the Source/Record monitor into the Effect Preview mon itor.

Effect Preview monitor

Effect Editor

Timeline

If the Effect Editor is blank, click an effect icon in the Timeline and then click in the Effect Editor.

Customizing the Effect Display

You can adjust the appearance and functionality of various aspects of the Effect display by resizing windows and images, by displaying tracking information, or by displaying guidelines for the placement of effects and titles, as described in this section.

Understanding the Effect Preview Monitor

The Effect Preview monitor displays the selected effect in the sequence where the position indicator is located in the Timeline. The effect’s position bar, located directly below the Effect Preview monitor, represents only the selected effect, not the entire sequence.

Effect Preview monitor

Effect’s position indicator (blue line)

Effect’s position bar

Keyframe Pop-up scale bar

for expanding the position bar

Tracking information

Length of effect

Current position in effect

sure that you have selected the Record Track Monitor button in the Track Selector panel. If a black frame appears in the Effect Preview monitor, the position indicator might be at a location in the Timeline where an effect has not been applied to the sequence.

Understanding the Tracking Information

The two boxes above the Effect Preview monitor display the length of the effect in seconds and frames and the current position in the effect’s position bar. If you are working with two-field media, the current position display indicates the field that appears in the mon itor. The current position display ends with .1 for the first field of a frame and with .2 for the second field. These boxes replace the name of the sequence that appears in this position in the Source/Record monitor.

If the effect you ex pect does not appea r in the Effect Preview monito r, make

Displaying the Safe Title and Safe Action Guidelines

Many effects can utilize the outer edges of the viewing screen area. If you are editing material that will be viewed on screens with more limited viewing areas, such as standard televisions, you can use the Safe Title and Safe Action options to provide visual guidelines in the Effect Preview monit or that replicate the actual viewable area on a standard television screen.

For example, you can use the Safe Title option as a template for the area in which you want the effect to operate. In this way, you can avoid the appearance of the effect floating off into a nonviewable area of a standard television screen .

To display the safe title and safe action guidelines, do one of the following:

t Click the Grid button in the Tool palette. t Click the Grid button in the Effect Editor. t Choose Safe Title Area/Global Grid from the Object menu when

using the Title tool.

Two outlined boxes appear in the Effect Preview monitor. The inner box is the safe title area. All text and objects should remain within the inner box. The outer box is the safe action area for video display.

Safe title area

Safe action area

To display the safe title and safe actio n areas in the Source/Record monitor:

t Click the Grid button in the Tool palette of the Source/Record

monitor.

Moving an Enlarged Image in the Effect Preview Monitor

You can use the Enlarge and Reduce buttons in the Effect Editor to zoom in or out on an image in the Effect Preview monitor. This allows you to view parts of an image in detail or to view parts of effects and effect controls that extend beyond the limits of the standard-size image. For more information, see “Effect Editor Buttons” on page 98.

When you use the Enlarge button to increase the size of the image in the Effect Preview monitor, you cannot view the entire frame. When you are creating an effect that requires great detail, you can repos itio n the enlarged frame in the monitor to view the sections that need your attention.

This feature applies only to an enlarged image in the Effect Preview monitor, not to a standard-size or reduced image.

To move an enlarged image within the Effect Preview monitor:

1. Click within the boundaries of the Effect Preview monitor.

2. Press a nd hold Ctrl+Alt. The pointer changes to a hand. If the image is enlarged, the zoom

ratio appears on the screen.

Zoom ratioPointer

3. Drag th e ha nd in any direction to reposition the image within the Effect Preview monitor.

Changing Position in an Effect

To change your position i n an effect, do one of the following:

t Drag the position indicator in the effect’s position bar. t T ype the timecode in the same way you do when you are editing a

sequence. For more information, see the “View ing and Marking Footage” chapter of the Avid NewsCutter XP User’s Guide.

The type of timecode you enter (master timecode or absolute timecode) depends on the tracking information you are displaying. The position information boxes above the Effect Preview monitor update as you change position.

Replacing an Effect in Effect Mode

While in Effect mode, you can replace an existing effect.

To replace an effect:

1. Choose Effect Palette from the Tools menu. The Effect Palette opens.

2. Click an effect c ategory.

3. Do one of the following: t Click the icon for the new effect on the right side of the Effect

Palette, and drag the icon to the Timeline. To replace an existing effect, move the new effect’s icon on top of the existing effect’s icon.

t Click the icon for the new effect on the right side of the Effect

Palette, and drag the icon to the Effect Preview monitor.

t Select the effect in the Timeline, and double-click the new

effect’s icon in the Effect Palette.

4. Set the applicable effect parameters in the Effect Editor.

Some effects cannot replace other effects. For example, some segment effects, such as the Mask effect, cannot replace transition effects. In addition, two-layer effects, such as wipes, cannot replace three-layer eff ects, such as matte keys.

Using the Effect Editor

The Effect Editor contains the buttons and parameter controls that you use to adjust effects. Effect Editor buttons contr ol the ef fect adjustment process. Parameter controls allow you to set values that define the appearance of an effect. The following sections explain how to access and use Effect Editor buttons and parameter controls.

Effect Editor Buttons

This section describes the buttons in th e Effect Editor. Not all buttons apply to each effect. If a button is not applicable, it does not appear in the Effect Editor for that effect.

The following illustration sh ows the location of buttons within the Effect Editor. Table 3-1 describes each button in detail.

Triangular opener

Other Options button

Reduce button

Enlarge button

Play Loop button

Play button

Render Effect button

Outline/Path button

Grid button

Transition Effect Duration box

Transition Effect Alignment button

Table 3-1 Effect Editor Buttons

Button Location Description

Triangular opener Left side of Effect

Editor

Other Options Inside some

parameter categories

Reduce Right side of Effect

Editor

Enlarge Right side of Effec t

Editor

Play Loop Right side of Effect

Editor

Play Right side of Effect

Editor

Click to display or hide the paramet er categor y. A downward-pointing triangle displays the parameter category; a right-pointing triangle displays only the parameter name.

Click to access additio na l parameters for some effects, including access to th e Windows Color dialog box for color selection. For more information, see “Using the Other Options

Button to Access Parameters” on page 105.

Click to reduce the size of the image in the Effect Preview monitor.

Click to enlarge the size of the image in the Effect Preview monitor.

Click to play back the current effect repeatedly in a loop. Click again or press the space bar to stop play. Rendered effects play at full speed; unrendered effects play at single-frame rate.

Click to play the effect from the current position in the effect’s posit ion bar. Click again or press the space bar to stop play. Rendered effects play at full speed; unrendered ef fects play at single-frame rate.

Render Effect Bottom of Effect

Editor

Click to render the current effect.

100

Pinnacle Systems NewsCutter XP User's Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

Tables

Using This Guide

Who Should Use This Guide

About This Guide

Symbols and Conventions

If You Need Help

Related Informati on

If You Have Documentation Comments

How to Order Documentation

Preparing to Work with Effects

Effect Types

Effects Creation Tools

Displaying Effects On-the-Fly

Interrupting Render On-the-Fly

Using the Effect Palette

Displaying the Effect Palette

Resizing the Effect Palette

Understanding the Color Coding

Displaying Effect Templates

Playing Effects in a Sequence

Using Third-Party Pl ug-in Effects

Basics of Effects Editing

Deconstructing Effects

Applying Effects to a Sequence

Applying an Effect to a Single Transition or Segment

Dragging an Effect from the Effect Palette

Double-Clicking an Effect Icon in the Effect Palette

Applying an Effect to Multiple Transitions

Applying an Effect to Multiple Segments

Deleting Effects in a Sequence

Deleting a Single Effect

Deleting Multiple T r ansition Effects

Deleting Multiple Segment Effects

Using the Fade Effect Button

Working with Transition Effects

Types of Transiti on Effects

Applying a Dissolve Effect

Using the Effect Palette to Create a Dissolve Effect

Using the Quick Transition Button

Understanding the Graphical Display in the Quick Transition D ialog Box

Adjusting the Effect by Dragging

Reposition in g the Effect with th e A lignment Buttons

Creating a Dissolve in Trim Mode

Sizing the Effect to Fit the Media

Trimming a Transition Effect

Creating Motion Effects

Rendering Considerations When Creating Motion Effects

Rendering and Rerendering Existing Motion Effects

Understanding Motion Effect Type Changes

Creating a Freeze Frame

Controlling a Freeze Frame with a Single Button or Key

Creating a Rolling Clip That Freezes

Creating a Variable Speed Effect

Creating a Strobe Motion Effect

Creating Mosaic Effects

Using the Effect Editor with the Mosaic Effect

Creating a Mosaic Effect

Modifying a Mosaic Object

Stabilizing an Im ag e

Using the Region Stabilize Effect

Making Adjustments to the Region of Interest

Customizing Ef fects with the Effect Editor

Opening the Effect Editor

Customizing the Effect Display

Understanding the Effect Preview Monitor

Understanding the Tracking Information

Displaying the Safe Title and Safe Action Guidelines

Moving an Enlarged Image in the Effect Preview Monitor

Changing Position in an Effect

Replacing an Effect in Effect Mode

Using the Effect Editor

Effect Editor Buttons