Pinnacle Systems Studio 1.0 Instruction Manual
Avid Studio
Version 1
Avid Studio Ultimate
Your Life in Movies
Documentation by Nick Sullivan and Terri Morgan. Contributors: Dieter
Huber, Jim Sugg and Markus Weber.
Copyright ©1996-2011 A vid Technology, Inc. All rights reserved.
Please respect the Rights of Artists and Creators. Content such as music,
photos, video and celebrity images are protected by the laws of many
countries. You may not use other people’s content unless you own the
rights or have the permission of the owner.
This product or portions thereof are protected in the United States by one or
more of the following United States Patents: 5,495,291; 6,469,711;
6,532,043; 6,901,211; 7,124,366; 7,165,219; 7,286,132; 7,301,092 and
7,500,176; and in Europe by one or more of the following European
Patents: 0695094 and 0 91 6136. Other patents are pending.
Mpegable DS 2.2 ©2004 Dicas Digital Image Coding GmbH. Manufactured under license from Dolby Laboratories. This product contains one or
more programs protected under international and U.S. copyright laws as
unpublished works. They are confidential and proprietary to Dolby
Laboratories. Their reproduction or disclosure, in whole or in part, or the
production of derivative works therefrom without the express permission of
Dolby Laboratories is prohibited. Copyright 1993-2005 by Dolby
Laboratories. All rights reserved. MPEG Layer-3 audio coding
technology licensed from Fraunhofer IIS and Thomson Multimedia.
Portions of this product were created using LEADTOOLS ©1991-2006,
LEAD Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. Portions utilize Windows
Media Technologies ©1999-2005 Microsoft Corporation. Real Producer
SDK ©1995-2005 Real Networks Inc. This product contains portions of
imaging code owned and copyrighted by Pegasus Imaging Corporation,
Tampa, FL. All rights reserved. MPEG Layer II Audio by QDesign
Corp. This product contains a YouTube API.
MPEG Audio technology may be included with this product. Audio MPEG,
Inc. and SISVEL, S.P.A. require this notice: This product contains MPEG
Audio technology licensed by Audio MPEG and SISVEL only for use in
accordance with Avid’s EULA.
No part of this manual may be copied or distributed, transmitted,
transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any human or
computer language, in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical,
magnetic, manual, or otherwise, without the express written permission of
Avid Technology, Inc .
Avid
280 North Bernardo Avenue
Mountain View, CA 949 43
ii Avid Studio
Table of contents
BEFORE YOU START ..................................................................... IX
Equipment requirements .............................................................................. ix
Abbreviations and conventions ................................................................... xi
On-line help ................................................................................................ xii
CHAPTER 1: USING AVID STUDIO ................................................. 1
The Library ................................................................................................... 3
The Movie Editor and the Disc Editor.......................................................... 5
The media editors ......................................................................................... 6
The Player .................................................................................................... 7
CHAPTER 2: THE LIBRARY ............................................................. 9
Understanding the Library ...................................................................... 11
Location tabs .............................................................................................. 13
The Asset Tree ........................................................................................... 14
Collections .................................................................................................. 16
Managing Library assets ............................................................................ 17
The Browser ............................................................................................... 19
The Library preview ................................................................................... 23
Using the Library ..................................................................................... 25
Choosing what to display ........................................................................... 25
Tags ............................................................................................................ 28
Correcting media ........................................................................................ 30
Video scene detecti on ................................................................................. 30
Table of contents iii
SmartSlide and SmartMovie ................................................................... 32
SmartSlide .................................................................................................. 33
SmartMovie ................................................................................................ 35
CHAPTER 3: THE MOVIE EDITOR ................................................ 39
The project timeline ................................................................................. 41
Timeline fundamentals ............................................................................... 41
The timeline toolbar ................................................................................... 43
The timeline track header ........................................................................... 48
Timeline audio functions ............................................................................ 49
Editing movies .......................................................................................... 49
Adding clips to the timeline ....................................................................... 50
Title Editor, Scorefitter, voice-over ............................................................ 54
Deleting clips .............................................................................................. 54
Clip operations ........................................................................................... 55
Using the Clipboard.................................................................................... 64
Speed .......................................................................................................... 65
Movies within movies ................................................................................ 66
Transitions .................................................................................................. 68
Clip effects ................................................................................................. 71
Clip context menus ..................................................................................... 72
CHAPTER 4: MEDIA EDITING: CO RRE CTI O NS ........................... 75
Media editing overvi e w .............................................................................. 77
Correcting photos ..................................................................................... 81
Photo editing tools ...................................................................................... 81
Photo corrections ........................................................................................ 82
Correcting video ....................................................................................... 86
Video tools ................................................................................................. 87
Video corrections ....................................................................................... 89
Correcting audio ....................................................................................... 90
iv Avid Studio
CHAPTER 5: MEDIA EDITING: EFFECTS ..................................... 91
Effects in the media editors ........................................................................ 92
Effects on the timeline ................................................................................ 95
The Settings panel ...................................................................................... 96
Working with keyframes ............................................................................ 98
Video and photo effects ............................................................................ 100
Pan-and-zoom ........................................................................................... 102
CHAPTER 6: MONTAGE ..............................................................107
The Montage section of the Library ......................................................... 108
Using Montage templates ....................................................................... 109
Montage clips on the project timeline ...................................................... 111
Anatomy of a template ............................................................................. 112
The Montage Editor ............................................................................... 115
CHAPTER 7: THE TITLE EDITOR ................................................117
Launching (and leaving) the Title Editor ................................................. 118
The File menu .......................................................................................... 120
The Library ............................................................................................. 120
The Presets Selector ............................................................................... 121
Preset Looks ............................................................................................. 122
Preset Motions .......................................................................................... 123
Creating and editing Titles .................................................................... 125
Background settings ................................................................................. 127
Look settings ............................................................................................ 128
The Edit window ...................................................................................... 131
Text and text settings ................................................................................ 133
The Layer List ........................................................................................ 137
Working with the Layer List .................................................................... 138
Working with layer groups ....................................................................... 142
Table of contents v
CHAPTER 8: SOUND AND MUSIC ..............................................145
The Audio Editor .................................................................................... 147
Audio corrections ..................................................................................... 151
Audio effects ............................................................................................ 154
Audio on the timeline ............................................................................. 156
Timeline audio functions .......................................................................... 157
Audio creation tools................................................................................ 163
ScoreFitter ................................................................................................ 164
The Voice-over tool.................................................................................. 165
CHAPTER 9: DISC PROJECTS ....................................................169
Disc menus ............................................................................................... 170
Adding disc menus ................................................................................... 172
Previewing disc me nus ............................................................................. 174
Menu editing on the timeline ................................................................. 176
Timeline menu markers ............................................................................ 176
Authoring tools ......................................................................................... 177
The Chapter Wizard ................................................................................. 179
The Menu Editor .................................................................................... 182
Menu buttons ............................................................................................ 183
The Disc Simulator ................................................................................. 185
CHAPTER 10: THE IMPORTER....................................................187
Using the Importer ................................................................................... 188
Importer panels ...................................................................................... 189
The Import From panel ............................................................................. 189
The Import To panel ................................................................................. 192
The Mode panel ........................................................................................ 195
The Compression Options window .......................................................... 197
The Scene Detection Opt ions window ..................................................... 198
The Metadata panel .................................................................................. 199
The Filename panel .................................................................................. 199
vi Avid Studio
Selecting media for import .................................................................... 201
Import from file-based media ................................................................... 201
Selecting files for Import .......................................................................... 201
Scan for media .......................................................................................... 207
Import from DV or HDV camera ............................................................. 207
Import from analog sources ...................................................................... 211
Import from DVD or Blu-ray Di sc ........................................................... 212
Import from digital cameras ..................................................................... 213
Stop motion .............................................................................................. 213
Snapshot ................................................................................................... 215
CHAPTER 11: THE EXPORTER ...................................................219
Output to disc media .............................................................................. 221
Output to file ........................................................................................... 224
Output to the web ................................................................................... 231
CHAPTER 12: SETTINGS .............................................................235
APPENDIX A: TROUBLESHOOTING ..........................................241
Contacting support ................................................................................. 242
Top support issues .................................................................................. 243
Compatibility with past content................................................................ 243
Capture hardware compatibility ............................................................... 246
Serial number information ........................................................................ 247
Error or crash while installing .................................................................. 248
Hangs or crashes while launching ............................................................ 249
Troubleshooting software crashes ............................................................ 250
Export problems ....................................................................................... 255
Disc playback problems ........................................................................... 255
Resources, tutorials and training .............................................................. 258
Table of contents vii
APPENDIX B: VIDEOGRAPHY.....................................................259
Creating a shooting plan ........................................................................... 259
Editing ...................................................................................................... 260
Rules of thumb for video editing .............................................................. 263
Soundtrack productio n ............................................................................. 264
Title .......................................................................................................... 265
APPENDIX C: GLOSSARY ...........................................................267
APPENDIX D: KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS ...................................279
INDEX .............................................................................................283
viii Avid Studio
Before you start
Thank you for purchasing Avid Studio. We hope you enjoy using the
software.
If you have not used Avid Studio before, we recommend that you keep the
manual handy for reference even if you don’t actually read it all the way
through.
In order to ensure that your movie-making experience gets off on the right
foot, please review the topics below before continuing to Chapter 1: Using
Avid Studio.
Equipment requirements
In addition to your Avid Studio software, an efficient editing system
requires certain levels of system performance as noted below.
Remember too that while specifications are important, th ey do not tell the
whole story. For instance, the proper functioning of hardware devices can
also depend on manufacturer-supplied driver software. Checking the
maker’s web-site for driver updates and support information can often be
helpful in solving problems with graphics cards, sound cards and other
devices.
Operating system
A 64-bit operating system is recommended if you are planning to edit HD
material.
RAM
The more RAM you have, the easier it is to work with Avid Studio. You
will need at least 1 GB of RAM to achieve satisfactory operation, and we
highly recommend 2 GB (or more). If you work with HD or AVCHD
video, the recomme nda t ion rises to 4 GB.
Before you start ix
Motherboard
Intel Pentium or AMD Athlon 2.4 GHz or higher – the higher the better.
AVCHD editing demands a more powerful CPU. The minimum
recommendation ranges up to 2.66 GHz for editing 1920-pixel AVCHD
video. A multi-core system like Core i7, Core i5 or Core i3 is
recommended.
Graphics card
To run Studio, your Direc tX-compatible graphics card needs:
• For typical use, at least 128 MB of onboard memory (256 MB
preferred).
• For HD and AVCHD, at least 256 MB (512 MB preferred).
The hard drive
Your hard drive must be capable of sustained reading and writing at 4
MB/sec. Most drives are capable of this. The first time you capture, Studio
will test your drive to make sure it is fast enough.
Video files are often quite large, so you also need a good amount of
available hard drive space. For instance, video in the DV format fills
3.6 MB of hard drive space per second of footage: a gigabyte every four
and a half minutes.
Tip: For capture from video tape, we recommend using a separate hard
drive in order to avoid competition between Avid Studio and other
software, including Windows, for use of the drive.
Video capture hardware
Studio can capture video from a variety of digital and analog sources.
Please see “The Import From panel ” o n pa ge 189 for details.
Video output hardware
Studio can output video to:
• Any HDV, DV or Digital8 camcorder or VCR. This requires an OHCI-
compliant IEEE-1394 (FireWire) port (as provided by Avid Studio DV).
The camcorder must be set up to record from DV Input.
x Avid Studio
• Any analog (8mm, Hi8, VHS, SVHS, VHS-C or SVHS-C) camcorder or
VCR. This requires Avid Studio USB-700, PCI-500, PCI-700, or
another Avid device with analog outputs. Output to analog camcorders
or VCRs is also possible using a Avid Studio DV or other OHCIcompliant 1394 port if your DV or Digital8 camcorder or VCR can pass
a DV signal through to its analog outputs (see your camcorder manual
and Chapter 11: The Exporter, for more information).
Abbreviations and conventions
This guide uses the following conventions to help organize the material.
Common terms
AVCHD: A video data format used by some high-definition camcorders,
and for creating DVD discs that can be read on Blu-ray players. Successful
editing of AVCHD files requires more computing power than other formats
supported by Avid Studio.
DV: This term refers to DV and Digital8 camcorders, VCRs and tapes.
HDV: A ‘high-definition video’ format that allows video in frame sizes of
1280x720 or 1440x1080 to be recorded in MPEG-2 format on DV media.
1394: The term ‘1394’ applies to OHCI-compliant IEEE-1394, F ireWire,
DV or i.LINK interfaces, ports and cables.
Analog: The term ‘analog’ applies to 8mm, Hi8, VHS, SVHS, VHS-C or
SVHS-C camcorders, VCRs and tapes, and to Composite/RCA and SVideo cables and connectors.
Buttons, menus, dialog boxes and windows
Names of buttons, menus and related items are written in italics to
distinguish them from the surrounding text, whereas window and dialog
names are written with initial capital letters. For example:
Click the Edit menu button to open your menu in the Menu Editor.
Choosing menu commands
The right arrowhead symbol () denotes the path for hierarchical menu
items. For example:
Select File Burn Disc Image.
Before you start xi
Context menus
A ‘context menu’ is a pop-up list of commands that appears when you click
with the right mouse-button on certain areas of the application interface.
Depending where you click, a context menu may pertain either to an
editable object (like a clip on an editing timeline), to a window, or to a zone
such as a control panel. Once open, context menus behave just like the ones
on the main menu bar.
Context menus are available in most parts of the Avid Studio interface. Our
documentation generally takes for granted that you know how to open and
use them.
Mouse clicks
When a mouse click is required, the default is always a left-click unless
otherwise specified, or unless the click is to open a context menu:
Right-click and select Title Editor. (Or, one might say, “Select Title
Editor from the context menu.”)
Key names
Key names are spelled with an initial capital and are underlined. A plus
sign denotes a key combination. For example:
Press
Please refer to Appendix D: Keyboard shortcuts for a comprehensive table
of available shortcuts.
+A to select all the clips on the Timeline.
Ctrl
On-line help
Two kinds of immediate help are available while you are working in Avid
Studio:
• Help file: To open the Avid Studio help file, click the
.
help button in the main menu bar, or press
• Tool tips: To find out what a button or other Studio
control does, pause your mouse pointer over it. A ‘tool tip’ pops up, like
‘Help (F1)’ in the illustration above, to explain the control’s function.
xii Avid Studio
F1
CHAPTER 1:
Using Avid Studio
For a simple outline of the digital movie-making process, you don’t have to
look any further than the central tab group of Avid Studio’s main window.
Avid Studio’s main control bar summarizes the movie-making process.
(The Export button does not appear if you have the Li brary tab selected.)
The Importer
Import, on the left, is a preparatory step. It involves procedures like
‘capturing’ video from your analog or DV camcorder, bringing in photos
from a digital camera, and copying media files to your local hard drive
from a network location.
Principal controls in the Importer’s Snapshot tool.
Chapter 1: Using Avid Studio 1
The Avid Studio Importer provides tools for these tasks, along with a
Snapshot feature for grabbing frames from video files, and a Stop motion
tool for building up video frame-by-frame. See Chapter 10: The Importer
for details.
The Exporter
At the other end of the movie-making process is Export. By the time you
get to this stage, the hard part of the task is behind you. The creative energy
that went into making your movie has paid off in a production that now
lacks only one ingredient – an audience.
Preparing to create a video file in the Exporter.
The Avid Studio Exporter helps you over that last hurdle with tools for
taking your movie to its viewers, whoever and wherever they might be.
Create a digital movie file in the format of your choice, burn a DVD , or
even upload directly to your YouTube account.
Like the Importer, the Exporter opens in a separate window, and returns to
the main window after its work is done. Turn to Chapter 11: The Exporter
to learn more.
The central tabs
The three central tabs, Library, Movie and Disc, are where most of your
work in Avid Studio takes place. The first of these opens the main view of
the Library, where you can ‘curate’ your media collections.
The other tabs open the two project editors, one for digital movies, and the
other for disc projects, which are digital movies enhanced with interactivity
in the form of DVD menus.
2 Avid Studio
The Library
The Library is a cataloging and management tool for all the file-based
resources – or assets – that you can draw on when authoring. Almost all of
the materials of your movie – video footage, music and audio files, and
many specialized resources such as transitions and effects – originate as
assets in the Library. Many Library assets are supplied with Avid S tudio,
and are available for royalty-free use. These include professionallydesigned titles, DVD menus, sound effects and more.
The Library uses watch-folders for keeping up automatically with the
changing population of media files on your system. On the watch-folders
page of the Avid Studio Settings, enter the names of your media directories,
especially those that you update frequently. From now, the Library will
scan those directories regularly for changes, and update itself accordingly.
See “Watch-folders” on page 235 for details.
Main view: When you click the Library tab, the Library takes over the
main window. This ‘main view’ gives you spacious access to a number of
cataloging and search tools, including those for categorizing assets by
means of ratings and tags, and those for creating user-defined asset
collections.
The main view of the Library consists of navigation controls for
exploring the catalog structure (left) and a browser for examining and
selecting assets (right).
Chapter 1: Using Avid Studio 3
Compact view: The ‘compact view’ of the Library squeezes virtually the
whole functionality of the main view into a panel embedded within certain
other windows, such as the Movie Editor and the Disc Editor. The primary
purpose of the compact view is to allow assets to be brought into a movie
or disc project from the Library by drag-and-drop.
Player: The tools available from within the Library include the Player, a
viewer that works for all media types handled by the application. When
used from the main view of the Library, the Player opens in a separate
window. When the compact Library is used, an embedded version of the
Player appears in the same window. See “The Player” on page 7 for further
information.
Previewing a Library video asset in the resizable Player window, with
full transport controls including a shuttle wheel. You can keep working
in the main window while the pop-up Player is open.
For comprehensive coverage of the Library and its uses, please see Chapter
2: The Library.
The next step
The next step, once you know your way around the Libr ary and have made
any changes needed to the default set-up, is to start creating a movie. There
are two ways to go about this.
The usual way: If you want to exert detailed control over the way media
assets are used in your production, you will usually start building your
movie or disc project from scratch in one of the two project editors. These
are described below.
4 Avid Studio
The easiest way: For ultra-quick results, the Library offers another way.
Clicking the SmartSlide or SmartMovie tools at the bottom of the Library
main view opens an extra tray of controls. With either of these you select
some visual media assets to serve as the basis of the project, choose music
for a soundtrack, and make a handful of other customizations. Then the
software takes over, automatically generating a full-scale Avid Studio
project containing the media and options requested. You can export the
project immediately, or edit it further by hand as you choose. For details,
please see “SmartSlide” on page 33 and “SmartMovie” on page 35.
The Movie Editor and the Disc Editor
Once you have gathered your materials together and organized them to your
satisfaction in the Library, it’s time to get to work on a video or a
slideshow. If you are working on a disc production specifically, you can
immediately start work in the Disc Editor, which is just like the Movie
Editor but has extra tools for creating and setting up DVD menus. The Disc
Editor is described in Chapter 9: Disc projects.
If you aren’t planning on creating a disc, or aren’t sure, or if disc is only
one of the output media you are targeting, the Movie Editor is the right
place to start. Once your movie is completed, you can export it to the Disc
Editor and add in the menus.
The Movie Editor and the Disc Editor exist side-by-side, but apart from the
export feature just mentioned, they do not interact. If you want, you can
have a regular movie project and a disc project loaded simultaneously, and
switch from one to another at will.
In both the Movie Editor and the Disc Editor, a multitrack timeline
occupies the lower part of the display. Most of the ‘clips’ on the timeline
come from the Library; a few types, like automatic background music,
are generated with special tools.
Chapter 1: Using Avid Studio 5
As mentioned above, both project editors include embedded versions of the
Library and the Player in addition to the timeline display. To build a
project, drag assets from the Library onto the timeline tracks, where they
are known as ‘clips’.
The preview type control above the Player lets you switch between viewing
the current Library asset (‘source’) and the current timeline clip. In the Disc
Editor, an additional preview type (‘menu’) lets you use the Player as an
editor for linking disc menus to points on the project timeline.
Timeline editing, a central activity in project authoring, is covered in detail
in Chapter 3: The Movie Editor.
The media editors
When needed, both the Library and the project timeline open additional
windows for working with particular types of media and other assets. In
general, you can open an editor window appropriate to any asset or clip by
double-clicking the item.
Corrections from the Library: The editors for the standard media types of
video, photo and audio are particularly important. When invoked from the
Library (by double-clicking an asset), each of these editors provides a suite
of correction tools appropriate to its media type. These tools can be applied
directly to Library assets in order to remove camera shake from video, trim
unwanted material from a photo, or suppress audio hiss, to give just a few
examples.
When a correction is applied to a Library asset, the media file is not
modified. Instead the correction parameters are saved in the Library
database. They can be altered at any time, or removed, as your needs
dictate. The corrections you make in the Library are brought with the asset
when you add it to your project timeline as a clip.
Corrections from the timeline: When you open one of the standard media
editors by double-clicking a timeline clip, the correction tools are again
available, although in this case they apply only to the clip in the pr oject, not
to the underlying Library asset.
Effects: When they are invoked from the project timeline, the media editors
also offer effects, which cover a wide-range of enhancements in all three
media types. Effects range from the practical (Brightness and contrast) to
6 Avid Studio
the theatrical (Fractal fire). Effects can be animated with keyframed
parameter changes to any degree of complexity. They provide innumerable
ways to add creative interest to your productions.
Pan-and-zoom: The Photo Editor provides one more tool, pan-and-zoom,
of its own. Like the effects just discussed, pan-and-zoom can be animated
with keyframes to create any desired combination of simulated pan and
zoom camera moves within the boundaries of a single photo.
The Correction tools, and the media editors in general, are the subject of
Chapter 4: Media editing: Corrections. The effects, and the pan-and-zoom
tool, are described in Chapter 5: Media editing: Effects.
The Player
The Player is a preview screen in which you can examine Library media,
play back your movie project, work on disc menus, and much more. In each
window or context in which it is used, the Player exhibits somewhat
different controls.
For an introduction to the Player and its basic controls, please see “The
Library preview” on page 23. For the use of the Player in trim mode on the
timeline, see “Clip operations” on page 55. For information on using the
Player with Montage, see “The Montage Editor” on page 115. For the use
of the Player in editing disc menus, see “Previewing disc menus” on page
174.
Chapter 1: Using Avid Studio 7
CHAPTER 2:
The Library
The Avid Studio Library, or simply ‘the Library’, is a cataloging and
management tool for all the file-based resources you can draw on when
authoring. Its purpose is to let you choose and use the video segments,
photos, sound bites, transition effects, titles and other ‘assets’ (as they are
often called) for your movies as easily, rapidly and intuitively as possible.
The Avid Studio Media Library opened on a folder of graphic images.
The Library’s classification scheme resembles what you might see in a filesystem viewer. While the viewer groups files under their physical storage
locations such as hard drives, the Library groups assets under their type –
video, photo, and so on. In other respects, the tree view concept for
accessing subgroups of assets is virtually identical and should feel
immediately familiar.
In addition to audio, photo and video files in standard formats, the Library
includes specialized auxiliary media like titles and disc menus. They are
found, along with transitions, filters and other effects, in the main category
called ‘Creative Elements’.
Chapter 2: The Library 9
The Library can easily manage large media holdings such as are often
found nowadays even on a home system. All of the dozens of media file
types usable in Avid Studio can be browsed, organized and previewed
within its integrated interface.
Assets are displayed either as icons or text records within collapsible
folders that stack up in the Library’s Browser. The folders may correspond
either to real directories in your computer’s file system, or to virtual
groupings based on ratings, file type, creation date, or membership in a
user-defined Collection.
Adding assets to a project
Two views of the Library are found in Avid Studio. The Main view takes
over the application window when you click the Library tab. It uses the full
available space to provide as much information as possible.
To open the Main Library view, click the Library tab
at the top of the Avid Studio application window.
The Compact view of the Library is a panel, either docked (as in the Movie
and Disc project editors) or floating (as in the Title Editor). The Co mpact
view retains the full functionality of the Library. Its pri mary purpose is to
allow you to bring Library assets into a movie or disc project with dragand-drop.
The current set of Library tabs, and the contents of the Browser, are
common to all views of the Library. For instance, if you are browsing in a
particular folder of disc menus in the Main view, that same folder will be
open in the Compact view if you now switch to the Movie Editor.
Correcting media files
With regard to technical quality, media files are not all created equal.
Occasionally, you do come across the perfect photo, clip, or sound effect.
More often, though, the photo needs cropping, the video is shaky, or the
10 Avid Studio
sound starts with an annoying hiss. Avid Studio’s media correction tools let
you fix these and similar issues by applying correction filters to a problem
clip after you have placed it on the timeline of your project.
Often, however, an even better solution is to apply the correction to the
Library asset itself, before adding it to a project. That way, any production
using the asset will start with the corrected version, not the uns atisfactory
original. Such corrections can quickly be made by opening media editors
from the Library. The file underlying the corrected asset is not modified:
instead, the correction parameters are stored in the Library database and
reapplied whenever the item is displayed or used.
Instant gratification: SmartSlide and SmartMovie
In addition to the core functions mentioned so far, the Library offers a
matching pair of tools for automatically constructing a complete project
using media resources you specify. Just select some photos or video
sequences, enter a few settings, and start. You can output the proj ect Studio
generates without further modification, or refine it with manual ed iting as
you prefer.
UNDERSTANDING THE LIBRARY
The Avid Studio Library lets you manage and efficiently use the entire pool
of media and other assets available for use in your productions.
What exactly does the Library contain?
The full range of assets that you can draw on for your projects is
summarized by the four main branches of the Asset Tree. Each branch is
further divided into more specialized subsections.
All Media contains the standard media files on your system in subsections
named Photos, Video and Audio. Many standard file types are supported.
The purpose of the fourt h s u bsection, Missing media, is described below.
Projects are your own Avid Studio movie and disc projects, with
subsections named accordingly. You can open a project right from the
Library and begin editing it, or you can add it to the timeline of another
project to serve as an ordinary clip.
Chapter 2: The Library 11
Collections are custom groupings of Library media. The more time you
spend on media management, the more you will probably use Collections.
They can serve as temporary holding places while you work, or for
classifying and setting aside media for later use. Collections may be
automatically generated, but most are user defined. Hierarchicallyorganized Collections are also
supported. The top-level Collections in
the hierarchy are used as the
subsections of the Collections branch.
The Creative Elements branch is
shown open in the illustration at right,
revealing its subsections. Each is
either a type of special effect (Effects
and Transitions), or a special media
type (the rest). Ready-to-use, royaltyfree collections of all seven types are
included with Avid St udio.
Storage of Library assets
Every asset in the Library – every clip, sound, transition, and so on –
corresponds to a file somewhere in the local storage of your computer
system. The Library doesn’t ‘own’ these files, and never modifies them
unless specifically requested to do so. Rather, it keeps track of their names,
locations and properties in an internal database. The information stored also
includes any tags and ratings with which you have annotated particular
items, and the parameters of any correction filters you have applied.
The database
The files that make up the Library database are stored in a folder with
single-user rather than shared access rights under Microsoft Windows. If
Avid Studio is used on your computer by multiple users with individual
log-ins, a separate Library will be created for each.
Missing media
Operations like adding, removing and renaming a Library asset are database
operations that have no effect on the media file itself. When you remove an
asset from the Library, an option on the confirmation dialog box does let
you go one step further and delete the actual file as well, but the option is
off by default – you have to specifically request the action.
12 Avid Studio
By the same token, when you delete or move an
asset file in Windows Explorer or another
application outside of Avid Studio, the database
record of the file continues to exist. Since the
Library can’t actually access the file, however, an
error graphic is added to the f ile’s listing. If the file
still exists, but has simply been moved to another folder or device, relinking
it to the Library is easy. Double-click the item to pop up a standard File
Open dialog with which you can point the way to the file’s new location.
Incidentally, to check if there are missing media anywhere in the Library,
look in the special subsection All media Missing media of the Asset Tree.
The Asset Tree is descri bed below (page 14).
Location tabs
Editing a video project involves coordinating the various media and other
assets at your disposal. As you proceed, it’s likely that you’ ll find yourself
browsing repeatedly in various parts of the Library that are relevant to the
project. No doubt you will also change your viewing and filtering options
from time to time, depending on the material you’re reviewing.
Like a web browser that uses a row of tabs to allow flipping effortlessly
amongst multiple open web sites, the Library lets you create and configure
location tabs as you work. The tabs provide direct access to each of the
various locations in which you are currently working.
Here three tabs give access to media required by different parts of a disc
project. The mouse pointer is poised to create a new tab. To close a tab,
click the x icon to the right of the tab caption.
To set the location of the current tab, click a name in the Asset Tree.
Changes you make to viewing and filtering options while the tab is active
are retained between accesses.
Chapter 2: The Library 13
The Asset Tree
The entire gamut of Library assets is organized into a folder tree whose
structure and general usage should be familiar from file-system tools like
Windows Explorer. When you select a location in the Asset Tree, the folder
name appears on the caption of the active location tab, and its contents are
displayed in the neighboring Browser.
In the Main Library, shown here, the Asset Tree occupies the left-hand
pane of the workspace. In the compact view of the Library used by Avid
Studio’s project and media editing tools, the Asset Tree is presented
instead as a dropdown li s t on the active tab.
The four main ‘branches’ of the Asset Tree were introduced above (page
11).
The Group By menu
The header line of the All media
branch offers a small dropdown menu
of options to control how the
groupings within each subsection of
the branch are created.
When you group by folder (the
default), the folder structure corresponds to actual directories on your hard
drive, flash drive, or other file-system device. Some standard folders are
included by default; you can add others at will using the watch folder
system. Grouping by folder is shown in the Main Library illustration above.
14 Avid Studio
When you use another grouping, by rating, by date or by file type, exactly
the same asset files are listed within each subsection as with the by folder
grouping. However, instead of classifying them by the file system folders in
which they are stored, the Asset Tree groups them into ‘virtual folders’
according to the chosen property.
Grouping by rating, for example, divides each subsection into six virtual
folders. Five of them display media files to which you have given star
ratings; the sixth is for those you haven’t rated yet. See “The Browser”
(page 19) for more information about file ratings and their uses.
The Main Library with grouping By Date selected in the All Media
branch of the Asset Tree. The bottom-level folders in the Asset Tree are
displayed in the Browser (right). These ‘virtual’ folders each represent
all the photos whose file date falls within a particular month.
In the illustration above, the Photos subsection of the All Media branch is
shown grouped by file type. The virtual folders have names like bmp, gif
and jpg – one virtual folder for each recognized file extension in the
subsection’s media files.
Under group by date, the fo lders represent the year of the file’s creation;
within these, the files are further grouped by month.
Grouping in other subsections
The Projects and Creative Elements branches of the Asset Tree also
provide a group by menu, so it is possible for branches to be in different
grouping modes. The menu commands are the same as described above for
the All Media branch, except that the by file type option is not needed and
doesn’t appear.
Chapter 2: The Library 15
The add collection button
The Collections branch does not exhibit
a group by menu. This button on the
branch header lets you create a new
Collection as described under
“Collection operations” below.
Collections
From the Library’s point of view, a Collection is just an arbitrary grouping
of assets – a set of Library items with no organizing principle. You may
well have a good reason for gathering certain files into a particular
collection, but the Library doesn’t have to know what it is. Inside a
Collection, any asset can rub shoulders with any other.
One special Collection, with the name Latest import, is automatically
updated after each import operation to display the media added.
Immediately after importing, you can turn to this Collection and start
working with the new material.
Another automatically-generated Collection is Latest Smart Creation,
which stores the media you selected for your most recent SmartSlide or
SmartMovie production.
Collection operations
To create a new Collection, click the icon in the header line of the
Collections branch and enter a name in the provided text field. Complete
Enter
the process by pressing
Create new collection from any asset’s context menu.
Manage Collections: The context menu for any Collection provides
commands for renaming and deleting the Collection, and one for creating a
subcollection that has the current Collection as its parent ‘folder’.
Drag and drop: Collections can be organized in the Asset Tree with the
mouse. A dragged Collection becomes a subcollection when dropped upon
another.
16 Avid Studio
. Alternatively, choose Add to collection
Displaying collected assets
Clicking the name of a Collection causes it to be displayed in the Browser.
There is one important difference between the Browser view of Collections
and those of all other categories: The media assets in any subcollections are
visually merged with those of the selected Collection, but not subgrouped.
However, a special feature of the Browser makes it easier to keep track of
the assets when viewing Collections, even if you’re not a robotically
systematic sort of person: As your mouse pointer passes over any listed
asset, the Collections to which the asset belongs ‘light up’ in the Asset
Tree.
Operations on collected assets
These operations can be performed from the context menu of any
Collection item. To act on a group of items, first select them with the
mouse (using
by dragging out a frame around the items. Then right-click within the
selection to access the context menu.
Add to collection: Choose a target Collection on the Add to collection
submenu to add the selected item or items. Alternatively, drag the selection
onto the target Collection.
Ctrl-click and Shift
-click for multiple selections as needed) or
Remove from Collection: The Remove command removes the item (or
items) from the Collection. As usual with the Library, the underlying media
items involved are not affected, so removing a video or other item from a
Collection in the Library will neither delete the media file from your hard
drive nor from the asset type category.
Managing Library assets
Media and other assets find their way into the Library in several ways. For
instance, the original contents of the Creative Elements branch of the
Library are installed with Avid Studio.
The Library automatically discovers some assets on your system by
regularly scanning Windows-standard media locations. These are set up on
Avid Studio installation as watch-folders. Media files in these locations will
Chapter 2: The Library 17
automatically be brought into the Library. You can add your own watchfolders (see below), and they will be automatically updated, too.
Finally, you can import media manually by any of several methods (see
“Importing” below) .
Watch-folders
‘Watch-folders’ are directories on your computer that Avid Studio
monitors. If you add media files such as video clips to a watch-folder, or
one of its subfolders, they automatically become part of the Library.
Updating occurs each time the application is launched and while the
application is running.
Watch-folders are set up on the Watch-folders page of the Settings dialog.
For each folder that you add, you can specify that either one particular
supported media type will be ‘watched for’, or all of them.
Importing
If you need to import a large amount or variety of media, or to import from
analog media such as VHS tape, click the Import button near the top of the
application window to open the Importer. See Chapter 10: The Importer for
full information.
Quick Import
The Quick Import button at the top left of the Library opens a
Windows file dialog for fast import of files from a hard drive or
other local storage.
New folders in the corresponding media categories (video, audio and
images) are created for the files specified. In addition, the imported items
are included in the Last Import Collection. (Collections were described
earlier in this chapter, on page 16.)
Direct import via drag and drop
To select and import items in one step, use drag-and-drop from Windows
Explorer or the desktop into the Browser. The new items are immediately
displayed in the Collection ‘Latest Import’, which is created for the
occasion if necessary.
18 Avid Studio
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