Pinnacle Systems Studio - 11.0 Instruction Manual

Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

Including Studio, Studio Plus and Studio Ultimate

Easy, MORE Powerful,

MORE Creative Video Editing

Special thanks to Travis White, Richard Edgley, Kenn LeGault, Jan Piros, Jörg Weselmann, Mikel Zwissler and Sulekha Somasekhar.

affiliates. All rights reserved. You agree not to remove any product identification or notices of the property restrictions from Pinnacle Systems’ products or manuals. Pinnacle Systems, Pinnacle Studio, Scorefitter and the Pinnacle Pinwheel logo are registered trademarks and/or trademarks of Pinnacle Systems, Inc. and its affiliates in the United States and other countries.

Manufactured under license from Dolby Laboratories. © 1992-2003 Do lby Laboratories. All rights reserved. Dolby and the double-D symbols are trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. mpegable DS 2.2 © 2004 Dicas Digital Image Coding GmbH. Intel, Pentium, Centrino, the Intel Centrino logo and the Intel Inside logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. QDesign MPEG-1 Layer 2 Fast Encoder/Decoder © 1996-2002 by QDesign Corporation. AVCHD is a trademark of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. And Sony Corporation. The RealProducer is in cluded under license from RealNetworks,Inc. Real Producer version 8.0. copyright 1995-2002, RealNetworks Inc. “RealProducer,” “RealVideo,” “RealServer,” and “Real” logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of RealNetworks, Inc. All rights reserved.

Windows Media and Windows Vista are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. SoundSoap™ is a registered trademark of Berkley Integrated Audio Software, Incorporated (BIAS, Inc.). StageTools © 1999-2007 StageTools, LLC. All rights reserved. proDAD © 2007 proDAD GmbH. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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 Pinnacle Systems, Inc.

Pinnacle Systems, Inc. 280 North Bernardo Avenue Mountain View, CA 94943

Printed in the USA.

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Table of contents

BEFORE YOU START..................................................XI

Equipment requirements.........................................................................xi

Abbreviations and conventions.............................................................xiv

On-line help..........................................................................................xvi

CHAPTER 1: USING STUDIO.......................................1

Undo, Redo, Help, Support and Premium...............................................2

Setting options.........................................................................................3

Edit mode....................................................................................................4

The Player................................................................................................5

Playback controls.....................................................................................7

Further editing topics.............................................................................11

Expanding Studio .................................................................................. 11

CHAPTER 2: CAPTURING VIDEO.............................. 17

The Capture mode interface....................................................................18

The Diskometer.....................................................................................20

The Camcorder Controller.....................................................................22

The capture process..................................................................................22

Capture hardware...................................................................................23

Capture step-by-step..............................................................................24

Scene detection......................................................................................26

Digital capture..........................................................................................28

Audio and video levels – digital............................................................29

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Analog capture..........................................................................................30

Capture quality options..........................................................................31

Audio and video levels – analog............................................................31

Importing video from DVD.....................................................................32

Importing media from external devices..................................................34

CHAPTER 3: THE ALBUM..........................................37

The Video Scenes section.........................................................................40

Opening a captured video file................................................................44

Viewing captured video.........................................................................47

Selecting scenes and files......................................................................48

Displaying scene and file information...................................................50

Comment view.......................................................................................50

Combining and subdividing scenes....................................................... 52

Redetecting scenes.................................................................................54

The Transitions section............................................................................55

The Titles section......................................................................................57

The Still Images section ........................................................................... 58

The Disc Menus section............................................................................59

The Sound Effects section........................................................................61

The Music section.....................................................................................62

CHAPTER 4: THE MOVIE WINDOW........................... 65

Movie Window views................................................................................68

Storyboard view.....................................................................................68

Timeline view........................................................................................69

Text view...............................................................................................73

The toolboxes............................................................................................73

The Video toolbox.................................................................................75

The Audio toolbox.................................................................................77

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CHAPTER 5: VIDEO CLIPS ........................................ 79

Video clip basics .......................................................................................80

Adding video clips to your movie .........................................................80

Working with multiple capture files......................................................82

The project video format .......................................................................83

Interface features ...................................................................................85

Trimming video clips................................................................................87

Trimming on the Timeline using handles.............................................. 87

Clip-trimming tips.................................................................................91

Trimming with the Clip properties tool.................................................92

Resetting trimmed clips.........................................................................94

Splitting and combining clips..................................................................95

Advanced Timeline editing......................................................................96

Insert editing..........................................................................................98

Split editing .........................................................................................100

Using video effects..................................................................................104

Working with the effects list................................................................105

Changing effect parameters.................................................................107

Keyframing..........................................................................................109

Using keyframing................................................................................112

Previewing and rendering.................................................................... 115

Video effects library............................................................................... 115

Standard effects......................................................................................117

Auto color correction...........................................................................118

Noise reduction....................................................................................118

Stabilize............................................................................................... 119

Speed...................................................................................................120

Plus effects...............................................................................................120

Blur......................................................................................................121

Emboss ................................................................................................121

Old film ............................................................................................... 122

Soften...................................................................................................122

Stained glass........................................................................................122

Luma key.............................................................................................123

2D Editor.............................................................................................123

Earthquake ........................................................................................... 123

Lens flare.............................................................................................124

Table of contents v

Magnify...............................................................................................124

Motion blur..........................................................................................124

Water drop...........................................................................................125

Water wave..........................................................................................125

Black and white...................................................................................125

Color correction................................................................................... 125

Color map............................................................................................ 126

Invert ...................................................................................................126

Lighting...............................................................................................127

Posterize .............................................................................................. 127

RGB color balance...............................................................................128

Sepia....................................................................................................128

White balance......................................................................................129

The SmartMovie music video tool.........................................................129

CHAPTER 6:

TWO-TRACK EDITING WITH STUDIO PLUS.... 133

Introducing the overlay track............................................................... 133

A/B editing ..........................................................................................135

The Picture-in-picture tool...................................................................136

The Chroma key tool...........................................................................141

Selecting colors ...................................................................................148

CHAPTER 7: TRANSITIONS..................................... 151

Transition types and their uses ............................................................152

Previewing transitions in your movie..................................................156

Audio transitions .................................................................................156

The Ripple Transition command.........................................................157

Trimming transitions.............................................................................158

Trimming with the Clip properties tool............................................... 159

CHAPTER 8: STILL IMAGES....................................161

Editing still images.................................................................................164

Editing image clip properties...............................................................164

The Frame Grabber............................................................................... 171

The Frame grabber tool.......................................................................172

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CHAPTER 9: DISC MENUS.......................................175

Disc authoring in Studio......................................................................177

Using menus from the Album..............................................................178

The DVD Player Control.....................................................................180

Editing menus on the Timeline............................................................ 182

Editing with the Clip properties tool...................................................184

The Disc menu tool..............................................................................189

CHAPTER 10: THE TITLE EDITOR ..........................191

Launching the Title Editor...................................................................192

The Title Editor controls ....................................................................... 193

Title-type buttons.................................................................................193

Object toolbox.....................................................................................194

Editing-mode selection buttons...........................................................197

Object layout buttons........................................................................... 199

Clipboard and delete buttons............................................................... 201

Text-styling controls............................................................................ 201

The Title Editor Album .........................................................................203

The Looks Browser ............................................................................. 203

The Backgrounds section.....................................................................205

The Pictures section............................................................................. 207

The Buttons section.............................................................................208

CHAPTER 11: SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC........ 211

The Timeline audio tracks................................................................... 213

The CD audio tool...............................................................................215

The Background music tool................................................................. 216

The Voice-over tool.............................................................................218

Trimming audio clips............................................................................. 221

Trimming with the Clip properties tool............................................... 221

Audio volume and mixing......................................................................223

Anatomy of an audio clip....................................................................224

Adjusting audio on the Timeline.........................................................226

The Volume and balance tool..............................................................228

Audio effects............................................................................................234

Noise reduction....................................................................................235

Table of contents vii

Plus effects...............................................................................................237

ChannelTool........................................................................................237

Chorus .................................................................................................237

DeEsser................................................................................................238

Equalizer.............................................................................................. 238

Grungelizer..........................................................................................239

Leveler ................................................................................................. 239

Reverb .................................................................................................240

Stereo Echo..........................................................................................240

Stereo Spread....................................................................................... 240

CHAPTER 12: MAKING YOUR MOVIE..................... 241

Output to disc media..............................................................................243

Output to file...........................................................................................247

Output to tape.........................................................................................253

Configuring the camera or video recorder........................................... 253

Output your movie to videotape.......................................................... 254

Output to the web...................................................................................255

APPENDIX A: SETUP OPTIONS ..............................259

Capture source settings........................................................................260

Capture format settings........................................................................263

Project preferences ..............................................................................267

Video and audio preferences...............................................................270

Make Disc settings ..............................................................................275

Make File settings................................................................................279

Make Real Media file settings.............................................................283

Make Windows Media file settings.....................................................286

Make tape settings...............................................................................288

APPENDIX B: TIPS AND TRICKS ............................291

Hardware.............................................................................................291

Software...............................................................................................293

Increasing the frame rate.....................................................................294

Studio and computer animation...........................................................295

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APPENDIX C: TROUBLESHOOTING....................... 297

Technical help on-line............................................................................298

Studio crashes in Edit mode................................................................301

Capture error occurs on starting capture..............................................306

Studio hangs when rendering...............................................................308

CD or DVD burner is not detected ......................................................312

Studio hangs on launch or does not launch..........................................313

“Cannot initialize the DV capture device” error appears in Capture mode

.............................................................................................................314

Installation problems .............................................................................317

Operation problems ............................................................................... 318

APPENDIX D: VIDEOGRAPHY TIPS........................ 325

Creating a shooting plan...................................................................... 326

Editing.................................................................................................327

Rules of thumb for video editing.........................................................330

Soundtrack production.........................................................................332

Title .....................................................................................................334

APPENDIX E: GLOSSARY........................................335

APPENDIX F: LICENSE AGREEMENT .................... 353

APPENDIX G: KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS................ 357

INDEX ........................................................................ 361

Table of contents ix

Before you start

Thank you for purchasing Pinnacle Studio. We hope you enjoy using the software.

This manual covers all versions of Studio, including Studio Plus. Differences between versions will be noted as applicable. Most of the time, the word “Studio” will be used generically to refer to all versions.

If you have not used 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 Studio experience gets off on the right foot, please review the three topics below before continuing to Chapter 1: Using Studio.

Equipment requirements

In addition to your Studio software, an efficient Studio editing system requires certain levels of hardware performance as noted in this section. Remember too that while specifications are important, they do not tell

Before you start xi

the whole story: 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, sounds cards and other devices.

Note: Some features mentioned here require free or paid “activation” via the Internet, depending on your version of Studio.

Computer

• Intel Pentium or AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz or higher

(2.4 GHz or higher recommended). Intel Pentium HT or AMD Athlon 2.4 GHz or 1.6 GHz Dual core required for Windows Vista.

• 512 MB of RAM (1 GB recommended). 1 GB

required for HD and/or Vista (2 GB recommended).

1.5 GB required for AVCHD (2 GB required on Vista).

• Windows XP with SP2, or Vista.

• DirectX 9 or higher compatible graphics card with

64 MB (128 MB recommended); 128 MB required for use with Vitascene filters; 128 MB required for Vista (256 MB ATI Radeon 9600+ or NVIDIA GeForce 6 recommended); 256 MB required for HD and AVCHD editing (ATI Radeon 9600+ or NVIDIA GeForce 6 recommended).

• DirectX 9 or higher or compatible sound card.

• 1 GB of disk space to install software and 3+ GB to

install bonus content.

• DVD-ROM drive to install software.

xii Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

The following items are optional:

• CD-R(W) burner for creating VideoCDs (VCDs) or

Super VideoCDs (SVCDs).

• DVD-/+R(W) burner for creating DVD, HD DVD

and AVCHD discs.

• Blu-ray burner for creating Blu-ray discs (BDs).

• Sound card with surround-sound output for preview

of surround-sound mixes.

• A microphone, if you want to record voice-overs

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 in the DV format occupies 3.6 MB of hard drive space per second, so just four and a half minutes of DV video will consume a full gigabyte on the drive.

Tip: We recommend using a separate hard drive dedicated to video capture. This avoids competition between Studio and other software, including Windows, for use of the drive during capture.

Video capture hardware

Studio can capture video from a variety of digital and analog sources. See “Capture hardware” on page 23.

Video output hardware

Studio can output video to:

• Any HDV, DV or Digital8 camcorder or VCR. This

requires an OHCI-compliant IEEE-1394 (FireWire)

Before you start xiii

port (as provided by Pinnacle Studio DV). The camcorder must be set up to record from DV Input.

• Any analog (8mm, Hi8, VHS, SVHS, VHS-C or

SVHS-C) camcorder or VCR. This requires Pinnacle Studio USB-700, PCI-500, PCI-700, or another Pinnacle device with analog outputs. Output to analog camcorders or VCRs is also possible using a Pinnacle Studio DV or other OHCI-compliant 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 12: Making your movie, for more information).

Abbreviations and conventions

This guide uses the following conventions to help organize the material.

Terminology

Studio: “Studio” and “Studio Plus” refer to the editing software.

DV: The term “DV” 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” refers to OHCI-compliant IEEE-1394, FireWire, DV or i.LINK interfaces, ports and cables.

xiv Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

Analog: The term “analog” refers to 8mm, Hi8, VHS, SVHS, VHS-C or SVHS-C camcorders, VCRs and tapes, and to Composite/RCA and S-Video 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 Title Editor.

Choosing menu commands

The right arrowhead symbol (¾) denotes the path for hierarchical menu items. For example:

Select Toolbox ¾ Generate Background Music.

Keyboard conventions

Key names are spelled with an initial capital and are underlined. A plus sign denotes a key combination. For example:

Press Ctrl+A to select all the clips on the Timeline.

Mouse clicks

When a mouse click is required, the default is always a left-click unless otherwise specified:

Right-click and select Go to Title/Menu Editor.

Before you start xv

On-line help

Two kinds of immediate help are always available while you are working in Studio:

• Help file: Click the help button in the Studio

main menu bar, or select the Help ¾ Help topics menu, or press F1

• Tool tips: To find out what a button or other Studio

control does, pause your mouse pointer over it. A “tool tip” appears explaining its function.

to open Studio’s help file.

xvi Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

CHAPTER 1:

Using Studio

Creating movies with Studio is a three-step process:

1. Capture: Import source video material – your “raw footage” – to your PC hard drive. Possible sources include analog videotape (8mm, VHS etc.), digital videotape (HDV, DV, Digital8), and live video from a video camera, camcorder or webcam.

Capture mode is covered in Chapter 2: Capturing video.

Availability: HDV capture is supported in Studio Plus only.

2. Edit: Arrange your video material as desired by reordering scenes and discarding unwanted footage. Add visuals, such as transitions, titles and graphics, and supplementary audio, such as sound effects and background music. For DVD and VCD authoring, create interactive menus that give your audience a customized viewing experience.

Edit mode is the arena for most of your work in Studio. See “Edit mode” later in this chapter (page 4) for a fuller introduction.

3. Make movie: When your project is complete, generate a finished movie in your choice of format and

Chapter 1: Using Studio 1

storage medium: tape, VCD, S-VCD, DVD, AVI, MPEG, RealVideo or Windows Media.

Make Movie mode is covered in Chapter 12: Making your movie.

Setting the mode

Select which step of the movie-making process you want to work on by clicking one of the three mode buttons at the top left of the Studio window:

When you switch modes, the Studio screen changes to display the controls needed for the new mode.

Undo, Redo, Help, Support and Premium

The Undo, Redo, Help, Support and Premium buttons are always to be found in the top right corner of the Studio window, no matter which of the three modes you are currently working in.

• Undo allows you to back out of any changes you

have made to your project during the current session, one step at a time.

• Redo reinstates the changes one by one if you undo

too far.

• The Help button launches Studio’s built-in help

system.

• The Support button opens Studio’s technical support

site in your web browser.

2 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

• The Premium button lets you expand Studio by

purchasing and installing premium content. (See page 11 for details.)

All other controls on the Studio screen are dedicated to tasks within the current mode.

Setting options

Most options in Studio are set using two tabbed dialog boxes.

The first lets you control options related to Capture mode and Edit mode. It has four tabs:

The other dialog box is concerned with options relating to Make Movie mode. It has three tabs, one for each of the three movie output types:

Each panel of both dialog boxes can be opened individually with a corresponding command on the Setup menu (e.g. Setup ¾ Capture Source). Once either dialog box is open, however, all of its panels are available through the tabs. We generally refer to the different options panels independently, as in “the Capture source options panel”.

Detailed explanations of the options in both dialog boxes are contained in Appendix A: Setup Options.

Chapter 1: Using Studio 3



EDIT MODE

Studio opens in Edit mode each time it is launched, because that is the mode you use most often. The Edit mode display includes three main areas.

The Album stores resources you will use in your movies, including your captured video scenes.

The Movie Window is where you create your edited movie by arranging video and sound clips, and by applying transitions and effects.

The Player provides playback and previewing for whichever item is currently selected in Studio. That may be an Album resource – such as a video scene, title or sound effect – or your edited movie, complete with transitions, titles, effects and several audio tracks. The Player is covered below.

See Chapter 3: The Album and Chapter 4: The Movie Window for detailed information on those topics.

4 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

The Player

The Player displays a preview of your edited movie, or of the item currently selected in the Album.

It consists of two main areas: a preview window and playback controls. The preview window displays video

images. The playback controls allow you to play the video, or go to an exact position within it. These controls come in two formats: standard and DVD.

Standard mode

The standard playback controls are similar to those on a camcorder or VCR. They are used for viewing ordinary video.

DVD mode

The DVD playback controls emulate the navigation controls on a DVD player or remote control. Use them

Chapter 1: Using Studio 5

for previewing your DVD, VCD or S-VCD disc productions, including menu interaction.

The preview window

This is a point of focus in Studio because you use it so often, especially for previewing your movie. It can also be used to display:

• Any type of Album content.

• Still images or titles from your movie.

• Changes to video effects in real time while you

adjust the parameter controls for the effects.

• Still frames from your video.

While viewing a still frame, you can step by as little as a single frame in either direction with the “jog” controls.

Resizing the video preview

If your screen dimensions permit, Studio lets you enlarge the Player – and therefore the video preview – by means of the Player size slider. This control appears

6 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

above the Player to the left of the Undo button when reorganizing the display is possible.

Drag the control knob right to increase the Player size, or left to decrease it. The leftmost position corresponds to the smallest size, which is also the default.

Resizing the Player optimizes your use of screen “real

estate” to obtain a larger video preview.

The DVD toggle button

Switch between the two playback modes with the DVD toggle button at the bottom right-hand corner of the Player. This button is only available when your edited movie contains at least one menu.

Playback controls

The Player presents either of two sets of playback controls depending on the playback mode you choose.

When you play your movie back as ordinary video, you will be using the standard playback controls. If your movie uses disc menu navigation, you can play it back

Chapter 1: Using Studio 7

as an optical disc with interactive on-screen menus by using the DVD playback controls. Both groups of controls are covered below.

The full-screen preview button: This button, just above the top right-hand corner of the preview window, switches to a full-screen preview. It is available in both playback modes. On a single-monitor system, the fullscreen display ends when your movie ends, or you double-click the screen or press the Esc key. See the Video preview options in the Video and Audio Preferences panel (page 270) for settings that apply to multiple-monitor systems.

The Video preview options on the Video and audio preferences options panel let you direct the full-screen preview to the secondary monitor on your system if there is one. In Studio Plus, you can simultaneously send your preview to an external device, if desired.

Standard playback controls

These buttons control playback in the Player. Play / Pause: The Play button previews the

movie from the current position. Once preview begins, Play becomes Pause. When playback is

paused, the Album scene or Movie Window clip at which previewing stopped remains selected. The [Space] key can also be used to start and stop playback.

Go to beginning: This halts playback and skips back to the start of the material being previewed.

Fast reverse, Fast forward: These buttons let you preview your movie at two, four or ten times the normal speed, in either direction. Use them to scan for a particular piece of video you want to

8 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

work with. Click the buttons repeatedly to loop through the speed factors.

Loop: This button causes the currently-selected clips in the Movie Window to play back repeatedly. This feature is especially convenient whilst selecting and editing add-on effects and transitions. Click any playback button to halt looping. The loop button lights up while looping is active. Looping is maintained even if you switch playback speeds.

Jog buttons: This pair of controls normally steps your movie forward and backward by one frame at a time. To step by seconds, minutes or hours instead of frames, select the corresponding field in the counter (see below), then use the jog buttons to modify it.

The Player scrubber

Use the Player scrubber to quickly traverse your captured video or edited movie in either direction. The scrubber position corresponds to the position of the current frame in the captured video file (not just the current scene) or in the edited movie (not just the current clip). Thus the scrubber bar always represents the entire length of the content being viewed.

As you move the scrubber, the preview window shows the current frame. If you have activated the audio scrubbing button in the Movie Window, you will also hear snatches of your movie’s audio as you scrub. See page 66 for details.

The ability of the preview to keep up with the scrubber depends on the speed of your computer. If you move the scrubber slowly, the preview display responds smoothly. As you increase the rate at which you move the scrubber, the preview will jump frames. The point

Chapter 1: Using Studio 9

at which it does so depends on your hardware. The smoothness of the preview also diminishes as the overall length of the material being scrubbed increases.

The counter

The counter displays the current playback position in hours, minutes, seconds and frames. You can directly modify the counter fields to select an exact frame to view or at which to start playback. Simply click on the number you wish to change and type a new value. To move to a different field, click again or use the Left and Right arrow keys.

You can also modify the value in a selected field by using the jog buttons beside the counter or the Up and Down arrow keys.

The master volume slider

This control sets the overall audio volume during preview playback. It is equivalent to turning up the master volume on your sound card using the system volume tool. It does not affect the volume of the final movie Studio creates in Make Movie mode. The small loudspeaker icon at the right of the control serves as a master mute button during playback.

DVD playback controls

These controls include the four standard transport buttons detailed above (Play/Pause, Fast reverse, Fast

forward, Go to beginning) plus the

DVD Player Control, which is described under “The

DVD Player Control” on page 180.

10 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

Further editing topics

See the following for details on specific editing topics:

• Chapter 5: Video clips

• Chapter 6: Two-track editing with Studio Plus

• Chapter 7: Transitions

• Chapter 8: Still images

• Chapter 9: Disc menus

• Chapter 10: The Title Editor

• Chapter 11: Sound effects and music

Expanding Studio

One way to add pizzazz to your productions is to use a variety of video and audio filters, animated transitions, titles, VCD and DVD menus, and sound effects.

Studio includes an extensive selection of hundreds of content items and special effects, but it’s also designed to grow along with your needs. When you want a particular filter, transition, menu or effect that isn’t part of the basic set, an easy-to-use upgrade mechanism lets you find, purchase and install the materials you need without even leaving the program.

Most of the premium content available for Studio does not even require downloading.

Studio’s Bonus Content DVD includes numerous items, like the Hollywood FX transition at left, that appear as “bonus” content in Studio,

Chapter 1: Using Studio 11

symbolized by a treasure chest symbol in the icon’topleft corner of the icon. Such items can be upgraded by purchasing a code called an activation key. Each key activates a small group or theme pack of related content.

Additional items of premium content will be provided for download as they become available. These items can sampled and purchased within Studio using the same activation method as for the premium content included with the program installation.

You can easily try out bonus content before purchase to make sure that it meets your needs. Until you actually purchase your activation code for the item, it will produce “watermarked” output when you preview or when you make your finished movie.

New tools, new media, new frontiers

You can purchase additional media and filters in any of three ways from within Studio:

• With the Help ¾ Purchase activation keys

menu command (or the premium shortcut button at the top right of the Studio screen).

This opens a special browser window in which you can access a catalog page for any type of premium content that interests you.

• With the Album commands More transitions, More

sound effects and More menus.

These commands are found on the dropdown lists in the corresponding sections of the Album. They will enable you to download, try out and purchase additional premium content that was not included with the program installation.

12 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

• By clicking the activate buttons found in some parts

of Studio.

These buttons appear whenever premium content is on display within Studio. The one above, when seen in the Audio effects and Video effects tools, would let you activate a pack of audio or video filters.

Here, the “RTFX Volume 2” page is open in the Video Effects tool. The Activate Effect Pack button could now be used to unlock the effects in this set.

Similar buttons in the Album let you purchase all the media on a particular Album page as a theme pack.

The Transitions section of the Album, open to one of the many theme packs of Hollywood FX transitions. Click anywhere in the activation panel on the righthand page to activate this set of transitions.

Chapter 1: Using Studio 13

How activation works

“Activating” premium content for Studio means to obtain a license allowing you unrestricted use of the content on the single machine where Studio is installed. The licensing mechanism employs two distinct but mutually related codes:

• An activation key for each premium content item you

purchase;

• Your Passport, which is a number generated the first

time you install Studio on your computer. You can view your Passport by selecting the Help ¾ My Passport menu command.

Because the Passport is specific to one computer, you will need to obtain new activation keys if you install Studio on a different machine. These will be provided at no charge, but your user licenses for both Studio and any premium content you have obtained then apply to the new machine only.

If you don’t have an Internet connection...

You can purchase and apply premium content activation keys even if you don’t have an Internet connection on the computer where Studio is installed. When you click one of the unlock links within Studio, a dialog will be displayed showing information needed for ordering the specific content you want, including:

• An Internet URL where you can activate the content

• Numeric identifiers for the Studio program and the

item you want to activate

• Your Passport and your Serial Number

Navigate to the given URL from another computer, enter the information, and complete the purchase as

14 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

directed. You will then be given an activation key with which you can activate the content on the original computer by using the Help ¾ Enter Activation Keys menu command.

Note: Although your Passport is specific to an individual computer, it is not affected by ordinary hardware modifications such as adding or removing expansion cards, drives or memory.

Hiding and showing premium content

If you would prefer not to view the premium content and features available in Studio, open the Project

preferences options panel and uncheck either or both of Show premium content and Show premium features.

(See page 267.)

Chapter 1: Using Studio 15

CHAPTER 2:

Capturing video

Capture is the process of importing video from a video source such as a camcorder to a file on your PC’s hard drive. Clips from this “capture file” can then be used in Studio as ingredients of your edited movies. You can open capture files into the Album in Studio’s Edit mode (see Chapter 3: The Album).

Capture is the first step in using your video footage.

Studio is able to capture from both digital (DV, Digital8, HDV) and analog video sources. See “Capture hardware” on page 23 for details on configuring Studio to capture from your equipment.

Availability: Capturing video from HDV camcorders is supported in Studio Plus only.

Switching to Capture mode

The very first step in capturing is to switch into Studio’s Capture mode by clicking the Capture button at the top of the screen.

Chapter 2: Capturing video 17

This opens the Capture mode interface, enabling you to set up and carry out video capture. The details of the interface are somewhat different for analog than for digital video sources.

Topics in this chapter

• “The Capture mode interface” (below) introduces the

controls and displays for both analog and digital captures.

• “The Capture Process” (page 22) covers setting up

your hardware, gives step-by-step capturing instructions, and describes the automatic scene detection feature.

• “Digital capture” (page 28) and “Analog capture”

(page 30) cover topics specific to each type of source.

• Besides video capture, Studio supports two other

methods of bringing in video material. These are accessed with commands on the File menu. Import DVD Titles (see page 32) lets you import files from a DVD disc or image. Import Media From Device (page 34) imports files from auxiliary devices with onboard storage, including many camcorders and digital still cameras.

THE CAPTURE MODE INTERFACE



The tools and controls you see in Capture mode are different depending on whether your capture hardware is digital or analog.

18 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

Digital capture

If your video source is digital, your Capture mode screen will look like this:

The Album, at the top left of the screen, displays icons representing the video scenes as they are captured. The Player, at top right, lets you view the incoming video while cueing for capture, and monitor the capture itself. Readouts on the Player tell you the exact length of the captured video, and the number of frames dropped during the capture (normally zero).

The Camcorder Controller, at bottom left, provides a tape counter display and a set of transport controls for operating the playback device. Finally, the Diskometer, at bottom right, displays the capture space remaining on the drive. It also provides the Start Capture button and buttons for setting capture options.

The Diskometer and the Camcorder Controller are described in detail beginning on page 20.

Chapter 2: Capturing video 19

Analog capture

Both the Album and the Player are used in analog as well as digital captures, so when you capture from an analog source the top half of the screen is the same as shown and described above for digital sources.

Not the bottom half of the screen, however. It now features a second version of the Diskometer, with two fly-out panels for adjusting audio and video levels during capture. (The panels are described under “Audio and video levels – analog” on page 31.)

Digital vs. analog

To summarize, the digital and analog setups reflect two major differences in capability:

• The digital setup lets you control the tape transport

of the camcorder or VCR using the Camcorder Controller.

• The analog setup lets you modify audio and video

levels dynamically during capture.

The Diskometer

The Diskometer displays, both numerically and graphically, the amount of space available on your capture drive. It also indicates the approximate duration

20 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

of video that can be accommodated, which depends on both the available space and the configured capture

quality. Capture quality settings are selected using the preset buttons that are displayed on the Diskometer for

some capture devices, or by entering custom settings. See “Capture source settings” (page 260) and “Capture format settings” (page 263) for information on capture settings.

The Diskometer when capturing from a digital source (L) and an analog source (R). Click the side tabs on the analog version to open fly-out panels for adjusting video and audio levels during capture.

The Start capture button on the Diskometer begins and ends the capture process. The caption changes to Stop capture while the operation is in progress.

The default save location for captured video is your system’s Shared video directory.

Setting the capture directory: To save captured video to a different location, click the file folder button . This displays the Select Folder And Default Name For Captured Video dialog. The folder you assign will be used to store captured video during this and future sessions. The file name you enter will be offered as the default file name on your next capture.

Chapter 2: Capturing video 21

The Camcorder Controller

This panel of transport controls is shown in Capture mode if you are capturing from a digital video source. (Analog devices must be cued and operated manually.)

The Camcorder Controller and a close-up view of the transport controls. The counter window above the control buttons displays the current position of the source tape, along with the current transport mode of the camcorder.

From left to right, the transport control buttons are:

Stop, Rewind / Review, Play, Fast forward / Cue and Pause.

The Frame reverse and Frame forward buttons (second row) let you locate the exact frame you want. These two buttons are available only when the device is in pause mode.

THE CAPTURE PROCESS



Studio lets you capture video from a variety of analog and digital hardware types. Choose the device you wish

22 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

to use on the Capture source options panel. See “Capture hardware” (below) for more information.

Performing the actual capture is a straightforward stepby-step procedure (see page 24). As the capture proceeds, Studio automatically detects the natural breaks in the incoming video and divides the material into “scenes”. Upon detection, each scene is added to the Album, where it is represented by an icon of its first frame. Automatic scene detection is described starting on page 26.

Some capture options apply to digital captures only or to analog captures only. These are covered in their own sections, “Digital capture” (page 28) and “Analog capture” (page 30).

Capture hardware

Studio can capture digital and analog video from the following sources, depending on your hardware:

• Digital: A DV or Digital8 camcorder connected to

an IEEE-1394 (FireWire) port. Capturing from HDV sources is additionally supported in Studio Plus.

• Analog: A camcorder or VCR with analog outputs

connected to a DirectShow-compatible capture board or external device.

• Analog: A USB video camera or webcam.

Pinnacle Systems offers a complete line of DV, analog, and combination capture boards and devices. For more information see your dealer or visit our web-site:

www.pinnaclesys.com

Chapter 2: Capturing video 23

To select a capture device:

1. Click the Setup ¾ Capture Source menu command.

The Capture source options panel appears.

2. Select the devices you want to use from the Video

and Audio dropdown lists in the Capture devices area, and click OK.

See “Capture source settings” on page 260 for detailed information about the Capture source options panel.

Standard vs. widescreen capture

Studio can capture in both the standard (4:3) and the widescreen (16:9) frame-aspect ratios. With digital hardware, the frame format is detected automatically. With analog hardware, you use the Aspect ratio dropdown on the Capture source options panel to select the format that matches the source material. You can’t use this setting to change one format to another: it simply lets Studio know how to display the video at the correct aspect ratio.

Capture step-by-step

Here is a step-by-step outline of the capture process. The instructions apply to both digital and analog captures, with differences noted as required.

24 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

Further information relating to some of the steps can be found elsewhere in this chapter. Also see Appendix A: Setup Options (page 259) for detailed descriptions of the Capture source and Capture format options panels.

To capture video:

1. Verify that your equipment is properly connected.

For a digital capture, your camcorder or VCR must be connected to your PC’s 1394 port.

For an analog capture, connect the source video to the Composite or S-Video input of your capture hardware. Connect your source audio to the audio input of the capture hardware, if there is one; otherwise, connect the audio to the audio input of your PC’s sound card.

2. Click the Capture button at the top of the screen if

you are not already in Capture mode. The Capture mode interface is displayed (see page 18).

3. Click the desired capture setting on the Diskometer.

If you need to make detailed adjustments, click the Diskometer’s Settings button, which opens the Capture format options panel (page 263).

Keep in mind that DV capture uses much more disk space than does MPEG. If you are planning to output your finished movie to disc (VCD, S-VCD or DVD), you may choose to capture in MPEG rather than DV format.

For an analog capture, keep in mind that the higher the quality setting, the larger will be your captured video file.

See “Digital capture” (page 28) and “Analog capture” (page 30) for further explanation of these options.

Chapter 2: Capturing video 25

4. Click the Start capture button on the Diskometer.

The Capture Video dialog box is displayed.

5. Type in a name for the video capture file you are

about to create, or accept the default name. You can optionally also enter a limiting catpure duration.

6. If you are capturing from an analog camcorder or

VCR, start playback now. This is unnecessary with a digital-source capture, as Studio will control the playback equipment automatically when needed.

7. Click the Start capture button in the Capture Video

dialog box. The button caption changes to Stop capture.

Capture begins. The Player displays the incoming digitized video that is being saved to your hard drive (unless you have unchecked Capture preview on the Capture source options panel).

During capture, Studio performs automatic scene

detection based on the current setting in the Capture source options panel.

8. Click the Stop capture button to end capture at a

point you select. Studio stops capturing if your hard drive fills up or

the maximum duration you entered is reached.

Scene detection

Automatic scene detection is a key feature of Studio. As video capture proceeds, Studio detects natural breaks in the video and divides it up into scenes. A new icon is created in the Video Scenes section of the Album for each scene detected.

26 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

Depending on which capture device you are using, automatic scene detection is carried out either in real time during capture, or as a separate step immediately after capture is completed.

You can configure scene detection using the options under Scene detection during video capture on the

Capture source options panel (Setup ¾ Capture Source). Not all scene detection options are available

with every type of video source. Options that do not apply to your setup are disabled in the dialog.

The four possible options are:

• Automatic based on shooting time and date: This

option is available only when you are capturing from a DV source. Studio monitors the time stamp data on the tape during capture, and starts a new scene whenever a discontinuity is found.

• Automatic based on video content: Studio detects

changes in the video content, and creates a new scene wherever there is a large change in the images. This feature might not work well if the lighting is not stable. To take an extreme example, a video shot in a nightclub with a strobe light would produce a scene each time the strobe flashed.

• Create new scene every X seconds: Studio creates

new scenes at an interval you choose. This can be useful for breaking up footage that contains long continuous shots.

• No automatic scene detection: Select this option if

you want to monitor the entire capture process and decide for yourself where scene breaks should occur. Press the [Space] key each time you want to insert a scene break during capture.

Chapter 2: Capturing video 27



DIGITAL CAPTURE

This section covers aspects of capturing from a DV source deck (camcorder or VCR) and a 1394 port. To read about capturing from analog hardware, please see “Analog capture” on page 30.

You have two choices for the way the video data is encoded and compressed in full-quality captures. For most purposes, DV format is the logical choice, but if you are planning to output your finished movie to disc (VCD, S-VCD or DVD), you may prefer the MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 format instead.

Because of the intensive computation required for MPEG-2 encoding, older computers may not be fast enough to achieve a satisfactory MPEG-2 capture. The type of capture hardware you have and the capture quality you choose also help determine the minimum CPU speed needed. In cases where Studio is able to estimate that your computer is not fast enough to carry out a particular capture, it will advise you of the problem and give you a chance to cancel the operation.

DV is a high-resolution format with correspondingly high storage requirements.

Your camcorder compresses and stores video on the tape at 3.6 MB/s, at a quality equivalent to broadcast video. During capture, the video data is transferred directly from the camcorder tape to your PC hard drive with no changes or additional compression. Capturing DV video does consume a lot of drive space, so you

28 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

may want to pick and choose small segments to capture instead of the entire tape if space is an issue on your system.

You can calculate the amount of disk space you will need by multiplying the length of your video in seconds by 3.6, which gives the number of megabytes required. For example:

1 hour of video = 3600 seconds (60 x 60) 3600 seconds x 3.6 MB/s = 12,960 MB (12.7 GB) Hence 1 hour of video uses 12.7 GB of storage.

To capture DV video, your hard drive must be capable of sustained reading and writing at 4 MB per second. All SCSI and most UDMA drives are capable of this. The first time you initiate a capture, Studio will test your drive to make sure it is fast enough.

MPEG

DVD and S-VCD discs both use files in MPEG-2 format, an extension of the MPEG-1 format used for VCDs. MPEGs intended for use on the Internet will be at lower resolutions and in MPEG-1 format.

The Capture format options panel (Setup ¾ Capture Format) includes a variety of options to control the quality of MPEG captures. Refer to “Capture format settings” on page 263 for detailed information about MPEG quality options.

Audio and video levels – digital

With digital captures, you are using audio and video that have been encoded digitally during recording, right

Chapter 2: Capturing video 29

in the camera. When you transfer the footage through a 1394 port to your computer, the data remains in the compressed digital format throughout, so you cannot adjust the audio or video levels during the capture. This is in contrast to analog captures, where the audio and video can be adjusted as capturing takes place.

With digital captures, you defer any needed adjustment of audio and video levels until Edit mode, where Studio provides plug-in video effects for adjusting the visual balance of a clip, and audio effects to enhance the sound. These effects allow you to adjust individual clips rather than having to make global adjustments affecting all the video in a capture file.

For more information see “Analog capture” (below), “Using video effects” (page 104), and “Audio effects” (page 234).

ANALOG CAPTURE



The topics in this section relate to capture with analog equipment, such as:

• A camcorder or VCR with analog outputs connected

to a DirectShow-compatible capture board or external device.

• A USB video camera or webcam.

If you are using a digital camcorder connected to your computer via a 1394 port, please refer instead to “DV capture” on page 28.

30 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

Capture quality options

With most analog capture hardware, Studio offers three preset quality choices – Good, Better and Best – plus a Custom option. Your hardware’s capabilities determine how the presets translate into particular settings for picture size, frame rate, compression characteristics and quality. Keep in mind that the higher the quality, the more disk space is required. Choose the Custom preset to configure your own video capture settings. For more information on video capture settings, see Appendix A: Setup Options (page 263).

Audio and video levels – analog

Studio provides fly-out panels for controlling video and audio levels during capture. This feature is especially useful when you need to compensate for differences in video captured from multiple sources.

Video and audio panels for analog capture levels.

Although you can also adjust these levels with the appropriate Video effects in Edit mode, setting them correctly for capture can save you from having to

Chapter 2: Capturing video 31

worry about color correction later on, while setting your audio options correctly as you capture will help in achieving consistent volume levels and quality.

Particular capture devices may offer fewer options than are shown and discussed here. For instance, with hardware that doesn’t support audio captures in stereo, a balance control will not appear on the audio panel.

Video

Choose the type of video you are going to digitize by clicking the appropriate Source button (Composite or S-Video). The sliders control the brightness (video gain), contrast (black level), sharpness, hue and color saturation of the incoming video.

Note: The Hue slider does not appear when capturing from PAL equipment.

Audio

Use the Audio capture buttons to control whether Studio should capture the audio along with the video. Select the Off button if your source is video only. The sliders on the tray let you control the input level and stereo balance of the incoming audio.

IMPORTING VIDEO FROM DVD



Although it isn’t capture in the strict sense, you can also bring video into Studio by importing it from a nonprotected DVD disc or a DVD disc image on your hard

32 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

drive. The File ¾ Import DVD Titles menu command opens a dialog that lets you locate and preview the DVD material of interest, then import it as an MPEG-2 file to the folder of your choice.

Note: If the audio on the DVD is in AC3 format, it may be necessary to purchase an activation code for the AC3 codec software.

To import DVD video:

1. Select the DVD disc or image using the folder

explorer controls under Choose a disc or image. Studio lists the “titles” (video files) available at the

location under Check the titles to import.

2. Use the folder browser button to select a

destination folder for the imported files.

3. Enter a name for the DVD. This will be used as part

of the imported file names. For example, if you name the DVD or image “My DVD”, and import Title 12, the resulting file name will be:

My DVD_Title_12.mpg

Chapter 2: Capturing video 33



4. Select the title or titles you wish to import by

checking the boxes next to the names. You can use the player controls on the right side of the dialog to preview the content of the currently-selected title.

5. Click the Import button.

Studio displays a progress bar to let you monitor the progress of the import operation. When it is complete, you can access the contents of the file for editing from the Album as with an ordinary capture file (see next chapter).

IMPORTING MEDIA FROM

EXTERNAL DEVICES

The Import Media dialog (File ¾ Import Media From Device) makes it easy to locate still images and movies

stored on auxiliary devices plugged into your system, and copy selected items onto a local hard drive for access through the Album.

Selecting files to import

Begin by choosing a device from those on the Source dropdown list. To appear on the list, a device must offer the widely-supported Mass Storage Devices interface. Those requiring TWAIN or other protocols must be accessed with appropriate third-party software.

Devices that often contain importable media include:

• External optical disc drives, hard drives and flash

memory drives

• Camcorder or digital camera on-board drives of any

of these types

34 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

The Show Video and Show Photos checkboxes let you specify which kinds of media files to list. By default, both video and photos are shown.

The View buttons select either of two listing types:

• Thumbnails view provides a miniaturized image for

each file, along with the file name and datestamp. With video files, the image is the first frame.

• Details view omits the thumbail but lists additional

data such as size and and duration along with each file name. Click at the head of any column of data to sort the listing by the text in that column; click again to reverse the sort.

The sort order chosen applies to Thumbnails view as well.

You can select multiple files to import by using standard Windows mouse and keyboard commands, along with the Select All and Deselect All buttons as required.

Chapter 2: Capturing video 35

Import options

Check Rename Files and type into the provided edit box if you would like the names of all the imported files to share a common stem. For instance, if you check Rename Files, enter the word “Monday”, then import some JPEG files, the imported files will be called “Monday 1.jpg”, “Monday 2.jpg”, and so on.

Check Delete files on source device after Import if you want to reclaim the storage space used on the device by the imported files.

Choose destination folders for your imported videos and photos using the folder browser buttons provided under Put Videos Here and Put Photos Here.

Finally, click the Import button to commence the import operation.

36 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

CHAPTER 3:

The Album

The Video Scenes section of the Album. Click the tabs down the left side of the Album to access the materials in the other sections.

The source materials you need for making a movie are stored in the various sections of the Album, each of which is accessed by its own tab as follows:

Video Scenes: This section contains your captured video footage. You can access and preview the capture files directly, or you can load one into the Album, where its scenes are represented by thumbnail icons. To use some of the scenes in your movie, just drag their icons into the Movie Window. See “The Video Scenes section”, page 40.

Transitions: This Album section contains fades, dissolves, slides, and other transition

Chapter 3: The Album 37

types, including the elaborate Hollywood FX transitions. To use a transition, position it next to or between video clips and graphics in the Movie Window. See “The Transitions section”, page 55.

Titles: This section contains editable titles, which you can use as overlays or as full-screen graphics. You can create your own titles from scratch, or use or adapt the supplied ones. Studio supports rolls, crawls, and many typographical effects. See “The Titles section”, page 57.

Photos and Frame Grabs: This is a section of photographs, bitmaps and grabbed video frames. You can use these images full-screen or as overlays on the main video. Most standard image file formats are supported. See “The Photos and Frame Grabs section”, page 58.

Disc Menus: Studio has an extensive collection of chapter menus to use in DVD, VCD and S-VCD authoring. You can use these as they are, modify them, or create your own. See “The Disc Menus section”, page 59.

Sound Effects: Studio comes ready with a wide range of high-quality sound effects. You can also use files that you have recorded yourself or obtained from other sources. The formats supported are: wav, mp3, avi, mpa and wma. See “The Sound Effects section”, page 61.

Music: In this Album section you can locate and use music files stored on your hard drive. The formats supported are: wav, mp3, avi, mpa and wma. See “The Music section”, page 62.

38 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

Using the Album

Each section of the Album contains as many pages as are necessary to hold the icons representing the items in that section. At the top right of each Album page, Studio shows the current page number and the total page count for the section. Click the arrows to move forward or back through the pages.

All types of Album content can be previewed simply by clicking on the icons.

This chapter introduces each of the Album sections in turn, beginning with a detailed discussion of the allimportant Video Scenes section. Actually using the contents of the Album to create your edited movie will be the subject of chapters 4 through 11.

Source folders for Album content

The scene icons in the Scenes mode of the Video Scenes section come from a captured video file, while the Transitions section is filled from resource files associated with the Studio program.

The icons in each of the other five Album sections, like the Files mode of the Video Scenes section, are different: they represent the files contained in a particular disk folder. Each of these sections – Titles, Images, Disc Menus, Sound Effects and Music – has a default folder assigned to it, but you can select a different folder if desired.

The source folder for the section’s content is listed at the top of the left Album page, next to a small Folder button . To change the source of the current section, either select a folder from the dropdown list, or click

Chapter 3: The Album 39

the button, browse to another folder on your system, and select any file. The file you select will be highlighted in the repopulated Album section.

The icons in the Titles section represent files stored in a selected source folder on your hard drive. The dropdown list at the top of the Album page lets you select either “Standard Titles” or “My Titles” from the installed “Titles” folder. Other folders of installed titles may also be listed. The folder button beside the list lets you look elsewhere on your hard drive. The Disc Menus section works similarly.

Some Album sections also provide a Parent folder button to facilitate moving around within a group of folders containing appropriate media.

In the Video Scenes and Still Images section of the Album you will find one further button , which links to the Import Media dialog. See page 34 for full information.

THE VIDEO SCENES SECTION



This is where the editing process really begins – in the Video Scenes section of the Album

with your captured raw footage. In a typical production,

40 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

your first step will probably be to drag some scenes from the Album down into the Movie Window (see Chapter 5: Video Clips).

In the Album, scenes are displayed in the order in which they were captured. This order cannot be changed, since it is determined by the underlying capture file, but scenes can be added to your movie in any order you choose. Similarly, while you can’t trim (edit) Album scenes, you can use any desired portion of a scene when it appears as a clip in your movie.

Files mode and Scenes mode

Choosing a particular video scene to use in a movie is a two-step process. First, you must select the video file containing the required scene by browsing for it on a storage device – usually a hard drive – attached to your system. Second, you choose the scene you want from amongst those the selected file contains.

To browse for a video file in the Video Scenes section of the Album, select the Files radio button at the top of the right-hand Album page.

Browse folders and video files on your computer by selecting Files mode in the Video Scenes section of the Album. Double-click a video file or select the Scenes radio button to switch into Scenes mode.

View options

Both the Files and Scenes modes support multiple view options that let you tailor the display to your needs by

Chapter 3: The Album 41

showing more or less information about each Album item.

Studio provides several methods of accessing these view options:

• Through commands on the View menu.

• Through the right-button menu on the Album page.

• Through the pop-up menu button that appears

when you click the View button at the top of the right-hand Album page.

In Files mode, the Video Scenes section supports three views at varying levels of detail: n Icon view, o Details view and p Thumbnail view.

The two view options available in Scenes mode are: n Thumbnail view and o Comment view.

42 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

Interface features

The Video Scenes section offers several special interface features:

• Scenes that have been added to the Movie Window

are distinguished in the Album by a green checkmark. The checkmark remains as long as any clip in the Movie Window originates with that scene.

• To see how a particular Album scene is used in your

current project, use the Album ¾ Find Scene in Project menu command. Studio highlights any clips

in the Movie Window that originate in the selected scene (or scenes). To go the other way, use the Find Scene in Album command, which is on the rightclick menu for Movie Window clips.

Nearly all menu commands that apply to scenes are available both on the main Album menu, and on the pop-up menu that appears when you right-click a selected scene. When this documentation calls for a menu command like Album ¾ Combine Scenes, remember that an equivalent command is usually available on the pop-up “context” menu as well.

Summary of operations

Because of its central role, the Video Scenes section of the Album provides an extensive set of operations. These are covered below in the following topics:

• Opening a captured video file

• Viewing captured video

• Selecting scenes and files

• Displaying scene and file information

• Comment view

• Combining and subdividing scenes

• Redetecting scenes

Chapter 3: The Album 43

Opening a captured video file

The default locations for your video files are the Windows default capture folder and the My videos folder. When you are viewing the Video Scenes section in Files mode, both of these locations always appear on the dropdown list at the top of the Album.

You can also choose other hard drive folders to access stored video files. Studio lets you navigate to the folder where your files are located by clicking the icons in the Album’s Files mode.

You can also select a file directly by clicking the Browse for file button in either Files or Scenes mode. Both the current and previous folders are also listed, if they are different from the two standard locations, making four different folders that may appear in the list at any one time.

Under Windows XP, the system capture folder is located in the Windows’ “all users” documents folder. The capture folder’s real name is My videos, but Windows Explorer and Studio customarily call it by an alias, Shared videos. This distinguishes it from My videos in the user’s personal documents folder.

See The Video Scenes Section (page 40) for details about modes and view options when working with video scenes in the Album.

44 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

Opening a folder

Folder contents are displayed in the Album’s Files mode. Both the subfolders and the digital video files within the current folder are shown.

Three ways to open a folder:

• With the Video Scenes section in Files mode, select

the folder name on the dropdown list, or double-click any listed folder.

• Click the parent folder button in either Files or

Scenes mode.

• Click the browse for file button and use the Open

dialog to locate a digital video file in either Files or Scenes mode. When Studio opens the video file,

switch to Files mode to display the contents of its parent folder.

Opening a file

When you open a video file, icons are displayed that represent the scenes in the file:

Chapter 3: The Album 45

Three ways to open a digital video file:

• Select the file name on the dropdown list when the

Video Scenes section is in Scenes mode.

• Double-click a file listed in Files mode.

• Click the browse for file button and use the Open

dialog to locate a digital video file of any supported type on your hard drive.

Scene detection and thumbnails

When you open a video file, the Album fills with the file’s detected scenes (see “Scene detection” on page

26). Each scene is denoted by a thumbnail frame – an icon of the scene’s first frame. It may be that the first frame doesn’t make a good icon for the scene, so Studio lets you pick a different one if desired.

To change thumbnails in the Album:

1. Select the scene to be changed.

2. Use the Player to find the frame you want used for

the thumbnail.

3. Click the Album ¾ Set Thumbnail menu command.

Video aspect ratios

Most digital video files provide format information that allows Studio to detect the frame aspect ratio of 4:3 or 16:9. If the file does not provide aspect ratio information, Studio defaults to the standard 4:3 format.

The Aspect Ratio 4:3 and Aspect Ratio 16:9 commands on the Album menu let you manually set whichever ratio you need. These commands also appear on the right-button context menu for video in the Album. Their method of operation is to stretch the original frames to the new frame size. If you set the ratio of a

46 Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus

4:3 movie to 16:9, for example, people and objects will appear widened relative to their height.

This is different from the frame-size conversion that occurs when you add a scene to a movie project with the “opposite” aspect ratio. In that case, the scene is scaled in both dimensions equally to fit within the target frame, and excess area appears as black.

(L) Original 4:3 frame; (C) Same frame with black sidebars on adding to 16:9 project; (R) Same frame after Aspect ratio 16:9 command is used.

Note: The movie project’s frame format, which cannot be changed after the project is created, can be set for new projects in the Project preferences options panel. See page 267 for more information.

Viewing captured video

Individual or multiple scenes in the open captured video file can be viewed at any time.

To view captured video starting at a selected scene:

1. Click on the scene’s icon in the Album.

The Player displays the first frame of the selected scene.

Chapter 3: The Album 47

2. Click the Play button in the Player.

The Player now plays the selected scenes and any subsequent ones. Progress is indicated in three ways.

• The scenes highlight successively as they are

played.

• The Player scrubber shows the current point of

play relative to the entire movie.

• Scene thumbnails display a progress bar during

preview. As you continue to view your captured video, the progress bar moves from one thumbnail to the next.

Previewing digital video files

When a video file is selected in the Album’s Files mode, you can use the Player to preview the video without actually opening the file into the Album.

Selecting scenes and files

Studio offers a variety of ways to select scenes and other items in the Video Scenes section of the Album.

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Selected video scenes are indicated by a highlighted border. Selected folders and video files are shown with text highlighting.

Selected scenes have a highlighted border (center).

Selection techniques follow standard Windows conventions. Use any of the following, separately or in combination:

• Choose the Edit ¾ Select All menu command or

press Ctrl+A

to select all the scenes (or files and folders) currently displaying in the Album, including those on other pages.

• Shift-click to select a range of neighboring items.

• Ctrl-click to add or remove individual items from the

selection.

• Starting with the mouse pointer over a blank area of

the Album page, click and drag to “marquee” an area, selecting all the items that intersect the area.

• Use the arrow keys to navigate the Album grid. Use

the arrows in combination with Shift to select items as you go.

Selected folders and video files have highlighted text.

Chapter 3: The Album 49

Displaying scene and file information

As you move the mouse pointer over video scenes, the pointer changes to a grabber symbol. If you pause momentarily on the scene, the start

time and length is displayed in a popup box. If you leave the grabber on the scene, the display persists for several seconds. The start time shown is the timecode from the original source video, in minutes, seconds, and frames.

For information regarding video

files when the Video Scenes section is in folder view mode, select Details view in the Album’s right button context menu. The file name, resolution, aspect ratio, duration and frame rate are displayed. Switch back to a more compact listing with Icon view.

Comment view

In the default view for the Scenes mode of the Video Scenes section, known as Thumbnail view, each scene is represented by a thumbnail frame icon. To see more information about each scene, switch to Comment view using any of the methods described on page 41.

In comment view, editable captions are displayed for Album scenes. The usage of these captions is up to you: they might be search keywords, or scene names, or text comments describing the scene content. The

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default caption is generated from the scene’s sequence number and duration (e.g. “Scene 3, 7:21”).

If you click on a video scene, an in-place text field appears for entering the custom name or comment.

Selecting scenes by name

A related option lets you select video scenes by scanning for keywords in the comments. Use Album ¾ Select By Name to open this dialog box:

Enter a keyword into the text field and click OK to highlight all Album scenes whose caption contains the keyword. The default captions are not searched – only the ones you have customized.

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Combining and subdividing scenes

After previewing your scenes, you might want to combine or subdivide some into larger or smaller units. Such adjustments are easily made.

To combine scenes in the Album:

1. Select the scenes to be combined.

2. Select Album ¾ Combine Scenes.

The selected scenes are combined into one. Only selected adjacent scenes can be combined.

Furthermore, they are joined in the order in which they appear in the Album, regardless of the order in which they were selected. (Album order proceeds across rows and then down the page.) To revert, press Ctrl+Z, or click the undo button.

If the scenes you selected were not all neighbors, each set of adjacent scenes is combined, but the different sets are not combined with each other.

Several selected scenes (black) are merged into two longer scenes. Having no neighbors, scene 4 is unaffected, even though it was part of the selection.

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To subdivide scenes in the Album:

1. Select the scenes to be subdivided.

2. Select Album ¾ Subdivide Scenes.

The Subdivide Selected Scenes dialog box appears.

3. Choose the length of the subdivided scenes by

typing in a value. The smallest allowed subdivision is one second.

Any video remaining after subdivision is added to the last scene.

4. Click OK.

A progress bar appears, the scene is subdivided, and new scenes are added to the Album. To revert, press Ctrl+Z, or click the undo button.

You can subdivide these scenes still further, if desired, down to the minimum duration of one second.

Three selected scenes are subdivided to a duration of five seconds. The vertical stripes indicate fivesecond divisions within each scene. The uneven

Chapter 3: The Album 53

clip timings at right occur because time left after subdivision is added to the final divided scene; that is also why scene 2 is ultimately unaffected by the subdivision operation.

Redetecting scenes

If you combine or subdivide scenes and later decide that you’d prefer to restore them to their original state, you may redetect any scene or selection of scenes. The detection results are identical to those obtained after capturing, provided the same scene detection technique is used.

If you have subdivided scenes, you must first recombine them. Even if you cannot exactly recall the initial state and so recombine more than is necessary, the detection process will restore the original scene sequence.

To redetect scenes:

1. If you need to recombine any scenes, first select the

subdivided scenes, then apply the Album ¾ Combine Scenes menu command.

2. Select the scenes you wish to redetect.

3. From the Album menu, select either Detect Scenes

by Video Content or Detect Scenes by Shooting Time and Date.

A progress window appears as Studio detects the scenes and repopulates the Album.

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THE TRANSITIONS SECTION

The Transitions section of the Album provides

a large set of drag-and-drop clip transitions. To keep things manageable, the transitions are divided into groups. Use the dropdown list to select which group of transitions you want to view. All the transitions in the group are displayed, using as many Album pages as necessary.

To learn about transitions, and how you can use them in your movies, see Chapter 7: Transitions.

Studio’s transitions collection includes 74 standard transitions, more than 50 Alpha Magic transitions, a starting set of unrestricted Hollywood FX 3-D transitions, and many more “locked” Hollywood FX transitions (with a treasure chest symbol in the top-left corner of the transition icon).

Note: If no premium transitions are visible, click

Editing environment ¾ Show premium content on the Project preferences options panel to reveal them (see

page 267).

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Using the premium transitions

These demo transitions are freely available for you to try, but a Studio “watermark” will be superimposed on part of the video frame during playback. To make use of them in an actual production, simply open the Album to the desired transition, then click in the activation panel on the same Album page. You can purchase an activation key in just a few minutes, with no need to exit Studio.

The Transitions section of the Album, open to a theme pack of Hollywood FX transitions. Click anywhere in the activation panel on the right-hand page to activate this set of transitions.

For more information about purchasing premium content for Studio, see “Expanding Studio” on page 11.

Displaying the transition name

As you move the mouse pointer over the transition icons in the Album, the pointer changes to a grabber symbol (indicating that the transition can be dragged from the Album to the Movie Window). If you pause

momentarily on the icon, the name of the transition is displayed. The display persists for several seconds or until your mouse pointer moves off the transition.

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Previewing transition effects

When you click on a transition icon, the Player demonstrates the transition using the convention that “A” represents the original clip and “B” the new clip. The demonstration cycles for as long as the icon remains selected.

To see a detailed view, stop the Player and use the jog buttons (Frame reverse and Frame forward) to step through the transition one frame at a time.

THE TITLES SECTION

This section of the Album contains a collection

of text titles in a variety of styles. They can be used in your movie as either full-screen or overlay titles. The difference is that in an overlay title the transparent background is replaced by other material (usually a video clip), whereas in a full-screen title, the background is replaced with black.

In the Album, a gray checkerboard is used to indicate the portion of a title that will be

treated as transparent in overlays. (If you prefer a black background, use the Album ¾ Black background menu command.) As with video scenes, titles that have been added to your current project are indicated in the Album by a green checkmark symbol.

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With Studio’s powerful built-in Title Editor, you can readily create your own titles when needed. However, you may find it easier still to start with one of the supplied titles and customize it in the Title Editor.

The Titles folder: The icons in the Titles section represent files in the folder named at the top of each left-hand page in the section. Titles that you have created or modified can be added to the section by saving them into this folder from the Title Editor. You can also select a different folder to be the source of the section (see “Source folders for Album content” on page 39).

For information on using titles in your movie, see Chapter 8: Still images.

THE STILL IMAGES SECTION

This section of the Album displays thumbnail

icons of image files, which may include grabbed video frames, photographs and bitmapped drawings. Most standard image file formats are supported. As with video scenes, images that are in use in your current movie are indicated by a green checkmark symbol.

The Still Images folder: The icons in the Still Images section represent files in the folder named at the top of each left-hand page in the section. Images can be added to the section by storing them in this folder. For instance, you can save grabbed video frames into the folder from the Frame grabber tool, or save a title from

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the Title Editor. You can also select a different folder to be the source of the section (see “Source folders for Album content” on page 39).

For information on using still images in your movie, see Chapter 8: Still images.

THE DISC MENUS SECTION

This section of the Album contains a collection

of artist-designed menus for VCD, S-VCD and DVD authoring. Menus in Studio are really specialized titles: they can be created and edited in the Title Editor, and either saved from the editor into a disk folder or incorporated directly into your movie.

As with video scenes and other visual resources, disc menus that are in use in your movie are distinguished in the Album by a green checkmark symbol.

For information on using disc menus in your movie, see Chapter 9: Disc menus.

The Disc Menus folder: The icons in the Disc Menus section represent files in the folder named at the top of each left-hand page in the section. Menus can be added to the section by storing them in this folder. You can also select a different folder to be the source of the section (see “Source folders for Album content” on page 39).

The motion background symbol: Some of the menus supplied with Studio incorporate a background of moving video rather than a static picture, and you can

Chapter 3: The Album 59

also create such menus yourself. This “motion background” can help give a professional look to your finished disc.

Availability: The motion background feature is available in Studio Plus only. See “Adding a motion background” on page 206 for information on creating or editing a moving video background.

Menus with motion backgrounds are indicated by a small symbol in the bottom right-hand corner of the Album icon.

Along with the many standard menus that come with Studio, and the motion menus that come additionally with Studio Plus, you will also find several folders of menus in the “Pinnacle Premium DVD Menus” series. These are “premium” menus (indicated by a treasurechest symbol in the top-left corner of the menu icon). Many of these professional DVD menus include looping soundtracks.

Note: If no premium disc menus are visible, make sure you have checked Editing environment ¾ Show premium content on the Project preferences option panel (see page 267).

Activating the premium menus

The demo menus are freely available for you to try, but a Studio “watermark” will be superimposed on part of the video frame whenever one is playing. If you want to use one in an actual production, simply open the Album to the desired menu, then click in the activate panel on the same Album page. You can purchase an

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activation key in just a few minutes, with no need to exit Studio.

For more information about purchasing premium content for Studio, see “Expanding Studio” on page 11.

THE SOUND EFFECTS SECTION

Studio comes with a wide range of ready-to-

use sound effects. These wav files are installed into a number of folders, covering categories such as “animals”, “bells” and “cartoons”.

The Sound Effects folder: This section of the Album displays the sound files contained in one disk folder, named at the top of each left-hand page in the section. You can display the sounds in a different folder – not necessarily one of those installed by Studio – by selecting that folder to be the source for the section (see “Source folders for Album content” on page 39).

Besides wav (Windows “wave”) files, files in mp3 format and avi animation files are also displayed in this section of the Album, and may be drawn upon for supplemental audio in your productions.

Any sound clip can be previewed simply by clicking its name or icon.

For information on using sounds in your movie, see Chapter 11: Sound effects and music.

Along with the many unrestricted sound effects that come with Studio, you will also find several folders of

Chapter 3: The Album 61

effects in the UFX, or “Ultimate FX” series. These effects are premium effects (indicated by a treasure chest symbol beside the sound effect name in the Album).

Note: If no premium sound effects are visible, click

Editing environment ¾ Show premium content on the Project preferences options panel to reveal them (see

page 267).

Using the premium sound effects

These demo effects are freely available for you to try, but a Studio “watermark” will be superimposed on part of the video frame whenever the sound is playing, and an intermittent beep will be added to the soundtrack. To make use of the effects in an actual production, simply open the Album to the desired effect, then click in the activation panel on the same Album page. You can purchase an activation key in just a few minutes, with no need to exit Studio.

For more information about purchasing premium content for Studio, see “Expanding Studio” on page 11.

THE MUSIC SECTION

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This section of the Album displays the music

files in a folder on your hard drive. To use a file drag it onto the Music track or another audio track on the Movie Window Timeline,

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The Music folder: The wav, mp3 and other audio files come from the folder named at the top of each left-hand page in the section. Other music files can be added to the section by storing them in this folder. You can also select a different folder to be the source of the section (see “Source folders for Album content” on page 39).

For information on using background music in your movie, see Chapter 11: Sound effects and music.

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CHAPTER 4:

The Movie Window

The Movie Window, where you build your movie from the raw materials in the Album, occupies the bottom half of the screen in Studio’s Edit mode. To access the Movie Window, first make sure you are in Edit mode:

The Movie Window title bar contains several important controls and displays. The toolbox buttons at the left of the title bar open the Video toolbox and the Audio toolbox, which are discussed on page 73.

To the right of the toolbox buttons is a text area where the project file name is displayed. Status and warning messages are also displayed in this area when required. Further still to the right are the Audio scrubbing, Clip split and Clip delete buttons, while at the far right are three view selection buttons (see “Movie Window views” on page 68).

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 65

Audio scrubbing button

By default, your project’s audio is previewed

during playback only. Studio’s audio scrubbing feature, which is turned on and off by the loudspeaker button, provides audio preview when you are scrubbing through your movie as well.

Audio scrubbing makes life much easier when making editing decisions that depend on sound cues.

Split clip/scene button – the razorblade

Click this button to split the currently-selected clip in the Movie Window, or the currently-selected scene in the Album.

No information is lost. If the item is an Album scene, it is split at the indicated point into two shorter scenes. If the item is a clip in the Movie Window, it is duplicated and automatically trimmed to the split point.

The razorblade button can be used with the tracklocking buttons in the Movie Window’s Timeline view to carry out special operations such as insert editing, and edits in which the audio leads or lags behind the video. See “Advanced Timeline editing” on page 96.

Splitting a clip: The placement of the edit line in the original clip determines the split point. When you apply the razorblade tool, Studio duplicates the clip and trims away the portion after the split point in the first copy and up to the split point in the second.

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Delete Clip button – the trashcan

This button deletes the currently-selected content

in any of the Movie Window views. By default, when video clips on the main video track of your project are deleted in any view, the gap in your movie that would otherwise be created by the deletion is automatically closed up, and clips on other tracks are removed or shortened to keep everything in sync.

If you delete clips on other tracks, the default behavior is that gaps between them are not automatically removed, so the timing of other clips is not affected.

If you press the Ctrl key while clicking the delete button, or pressing the Delete key, the default behavior for the current track is reversed. That is, on the main video track, Ctrl+Delete leaves a gap when the clip is removed, while on the other tracks, the gap on the track is closed up. In neither case are other tracks affected.

You can also access the delete operations through the right-button context menu for clips on the Timeline.

The delete options on the right-button menu for Timeline clips are not the same for the main video track (L) as for the other tracks (R). The menus summarize the context-dependent keyboard shortcuts.

Positioning: edit line, scrubbers

The current position is the frame showing in the Player when you are working with a clip in the Movie Window. In the Timeline view, it is indicated by the edit line. The current position can be changed by

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 67

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moving either the Timeline scrubber (to which the edit line is attached) or the Player scrubber.

When the Clip properties tool is open, a third scrubber, the trim scrubber, adjusts the current position within the clip during trimming.

MOVIE WINDOW VIEWS

The Movie Window provides three different views of your project: Timeline, Storyboard and Text. Select the one you want to use by clicking the view selection buttons in the upper right corner of the Movie Window.

Storyboard view

Storyboard view shows the order of video scenes and transitions. It uses thumbnail icons for quickly structuring a movie. You

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can choose to work with large or small thumbnails with the Show large storyboard thumbnails checkbox on the Project preferences options panel.

Timeline view

Timeline view shows the positions and durations of clips relative to the Timescale. This view also displays up to eight tracks on which you can place various types of clip:

• Video, plus full-screen disc menus, titles

and graphics: The video track contains the primary visual material in your production. See

Chapter 5: Video clips, Chapter 8: Still images and Chapter 9: Disc menus for more information.

• Original (or “synchronous”) audio: The

original audio track contains the audio that was captured along with the video from your camera. You can manipulate the audio clips on this track to achieve various effects using insert-editing and splitediting techniques. See “Insert editing” (page 98) and “Split editing” (page 100) for more information.

• Overlay video and audio: In Studio Plus,

video and images placed on the overlay track can be used with the Picture-in-picture and Chroma key tools to give your video productions a professional appearance. These features are locked in other versions of Studio, producing “watermarked” output when used. You can upgrade to Studio Plus at any time if you need its advanced capabilities. Original audio for overlay video is stored on the linked audio track. See

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 69

Chapter 6: Two-track editing with Studio Plus for details about the overlay track.

• Title and graphic overlays: Images placed on

the title track will be rendered as overlays upon the main video, with transparent backgrounds. See Chapter 8: Still images and Chapter 9: Disc menus for more information.

• Sound effects and voice-overs: The audio

clips on this track are mixed with the original audio track and the background music track to create the final soundtrack for your movie. See Chapter 11: Sound effects and music for full information.

• Background music: The background music for

your movies can be created to any desired duration with the SmartSound tool (page 216) or imported with the CD audio tool (page 215). Your soundtrack can also make use of mp3 and other music files (see page 211).

• Disc menus, chapter marks and return-to-

menu links: This is an extra track that appears above the video track whenever the movie has at least one disc menu. See Chapter 9: Disc menus for information.

Because many editing operations can be carried out only in Timeline view, you should choose it whenever extensive, detailed or advanced editing is required.

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Track locking

The video track normally takes precedence over all other tracks for trimming or deleting. This has several consequences:

• When you trim a video clip, clips running

simultaneously on other tracks are also trimmed.

• When you delete a video clip, the time segment it

used is also removed from any parallel clips.

• Clips that fall entirely within a deleted video clip’s

span are also deleted.

These behaviors can be bypassed when necessary with a feature that allows you to “lock” any track independently of the others, thereby excluding it from editing and playback operations.

The padlock buttons along the right edge of the Movie Window, can be clicked to toggle locking for the corresponding track. Tracklocking gives Studio insert-edit and split-edit capability (see Chapter 5: Video clips).

Track muting and hiding

The audio tracks can be individually muted with the mute buttons at the right edge of the Movie Window. These buttons have the same function as the mute buttons in the Volume and balance tool. (See page 228 for more information.)

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 71

The equivalent operation for video tracks is effected with the hide buttons, which can be used to temporarily omit a track’s video from your project. This is especially handy to see what’s really going on while editing overlay video in Studio Plus.

Placement feedback

Studio gives you several types of feedback about your actions as you place clips in the Timeline view.

The status line: The status line area on the left of the Movie Window title bar displays messages as you place clips and perform other actions.

Placement symbols: While you are dragging a clip into position on the Timeline, Studio provides feedback to tell you whether the placement of the clip is valid. The mouse pointer shape and the colors of the vertical placement lines indicate what you can and cannot do.

For example, if you try to drag a sound onto the video track, the placement guidelines turn from green to red, the mouse pointer changes to “unavailable” from “copy”, and the status line tells you, “Only scenes, titles, photos, menus and transitions on video track.”

Green placement lines with the “copy” pointer mean that an action is valid; red placement lines with the “unavailable” pointer ; show that it is not.

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Text view

The Movie Window Text view is a list showing the start and end times of clips, as well as their duration. In addition, custom names for clips are visible in this view.

THE TOOLBOXES

The toolboxes provide a convenient point-and-click interface for editing operations – adding clips to your movie, modifying existing clips and applying special effects. Studio provides separate toolboxes for video and for audio operations.

The toolboxes are available only in Edit mode. They are opened and closed with the buttons at the top left of the Movie Window.

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 73

Select the toolbox you want to open by moving your cursor over the icons. The individual buttons highlight, indicating which toolbox will open when you click. The Album is then replaced by the toolbox display, which contains two main areas:

• Tool selector buttons in a panel on the left. Clicking

one of these opens the corresponding tool.

• The currently-selected tool on the right. Double-

clicking a clip in the Movie Window also displays the corresponding tool (except for title clips, which are opened directly in the Title Editor when you double-click).

All the tool-selector buttons, except the top one in each set, open specialized tools. The top button in both toolboxes is the Clip properties tool. It displays a tool appropriate for trimming and otherwise editing the type of clip currently selected in the Movie Window.

The Title Editor

One powerful tool that is not directly accessed through the toolboxes is the Title Editor, in which you can combine text, images and other graphic resources to

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make titles and disc menus for your Studio productions. Access the Title Editor through the Title and Disc menu tools, or with the Go to Title/Menu Editor command from the right-button context menu in the Movie Window. See Chapter 10: The Title Editor for full information.

The Video toolbox

The seven tools in this toolbox modify or create visual clip types, including video clips, titles, still images and disc menus.

Clip properties: The Clip properties tool adjusts the start and end times of any type of clip. This is called “trimming”. The tool also allows you to type in a descriptive name for the clip. The tool also presents additional interface components appropriate to the type of clip being edited.

Titles: This tool lets you edit the name and length of titles. The Edit Title button provides

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 75

access to the Title Editor window where you can change the text and appearance of the title.

Disc menus: The Disc menu tool has a number of controls for editing the links between the buttons on a disc menu and entry points into your movie called chapter marks, which are represented on the menu track in the Movie Window. The Edit Menu button opens the Title Editor, where you can modify the visual appearance of a menu.

Frame grabber: This tool takes a snapshot of a single frame from your movie or from your current video source. You can use it in your movie, or save it for use in other applications. As with Capture mode itself, this tool presents a different interface if your current capture source is DV than if you are using a non-DV source.

SmartMovie: This tool automatically combines your source footage with the digital song file of your choice to create a music video in any of a variety of styles.

PIP and chroma key tool: This tool provides an alternative, graphical interface to the Studio Plus Picture-in-picture and Chroma key effects.

Video effects: Studio provides numerous plug-in video effects with this tool. Each video clip or still image in your project can use effects, whether alone or in combination.

Along with its basic library of useful effects, Studio provides some “locked” premium effects that you can try out. For information about purchasing premium content for Studio, see “Expanding Studio” on page 11.

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The Audio toolbox

The six tools in this set operate on or create audio clips – “original” audio, voice-overs, sound effects and other audio files, CD tracks and SmartSound background music.

Clip properties: The Clip properties tool lets you adjust (“trim”) the start and end times of any type of clip. You can also enter a descriptive name for the clip to replace the default name if desired. (Clip names are displayed when the Movie Window is in Text view.) The tool’s other controls vary depending on the type of clip.

Volume and balance: This tool gives you master volume controls for each of the three audio tracks: original audio (audio captured with video), sound effects and voice-overs and background music. It also enables you to mute any or all of the tracks, and to add real-time volume fades. Use the balance and surround control to position each track independently of the other two in a one-dimensional stereo or two-dimensional surround-sound space.

Chapter 4: The Movie Window 77

When the overlay track is open, the tool provides a fourth set of controls, which affect the overlay audio track.

Availability: Surround sound and overlay video are supported in Studio Plus only.

Record voice-overs: To record a voice-over, simply click the Record button and begin speaking into your microphone.

Add CD audio: Use this tool to add tracks, in whole or in part, from an audio CD.

Background music: This tool lets you add background music using ScoreFitter, Studio’s powerful music generator. Choose a style, song, and version. Studio will create a musical soundtrack that matches the duration of your movie.

Audio effects: This tool lets you apply plug-in effects to any audio clip. The popular VST standard for audio plug-ins is supported, enabling you to augment your library with add-on and third party effects. A configurable noise reduction filter is supplied as a standard effect. Effects available in Studio Plus also include both graphic and parametric EQ, reverb, chorus and others.

Some “watermarked” premium effects may also be included for you to try out, with others available through the Pinnacle web-site by clicking the More effects… “category” in the audio effects browser. For information about purchasing premium content for Studio, see “Expanding Studio” on page 11.

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CHAPTER 5:

Video clips

The cornerstone of most Studio video projects is the Album section containing your captured video scenes. To create your edited movie, you drag scenes from the Album into the Movie Window, where they are treated as editable video clips.

This chapter explains how to set the “in” and “out” (start and end) points for each clip. The Movie Window’s editing interface makes this “trimming” process simple, rapid and precise.

The methods covered in this chapter for trimming video (“Trimming video clips”, page 87) can for the most part also be applied to the other types of clip (such as titles and sound effects) that are covered in later chapters.

A later section of the chapter covers more advanced editing techniques, including split edits and insert edits, that you can use to give your movies a more professional look. See “Advanced Timeline editing” on page 96.

We’ll look at using visual effects in Studio, and at some of the effects you can use in your movies – to correct a flaw, to communicate an idea, or just for fun. See “Video effects” on page 104.

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And finally we’ll explore SmartMovie, Studio’s automatic movie generator. SmartMovie intelligently combines a music soundtrack with your video footage to create a beat-synchronized music video, or with a series of still images to create a slideshow. Both modes support a variety of style options.

VIDEO CLIP BASICS

The first step in creating a movie is to introduce some video scenes from the Album into the Movie Window, where they become editable clips. At some point you will probably also add some transitions, titles, audio and other extras, but a set of video scenes is the starting point for just about any project.

This section explains how to add scenes to your movie, and how to work with scenes from multiple capture files. It also covers some interface features that provide useful feedback as you work.

Adding video clips to your movie

There are two ways to add a video clip to your movie: Drag and drop: Drag a scene from the Video Scenes

section of the Album and drop it into the Movie Window. This is normally the easiest and quickest way to put together a rough cut of your movie. You can drag multiple scenes simultaneously if you wish.

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The clipboard: The standard clipboard operations (Cut, Copy and Paste) can be used with video clips in the Movie Window. The Copy operation works on Album scenes also.

When a scene or clip is pasted into the Movie Window, it is inserted at the first clip boundary starting at the edit line position. You can use the standard keyboard shortcuts for clipboard operations (Ctrl+X for cut, Ctrl+C

for copy, Ctrl+V for paste), or select the desired

operation from the right-button menu. When the Movie Window is in Timeline view, you can

drop a video scene or clip onto any of the following:

• The main video track. If the clip has associated

audio, it is added to the original audio track. This video will serve as the background for any overlay video or titles on the lower Timeline tracks.

• The overlay track. Video on this track is

superimposed on the contents of the video track. The picture-in-picture and chroma key effects are used to make a portion of the overlay frame transparent so that some of the main video can be seen. Except in Studio Plus, any clips on the overlay track are displayed with a “watermark” graphic. If you decide to use the overlay track in your movies, you can upgrade to Studio Plus at any time.

• The title track. In Studio Plus, if the overlay track is

hidden, dropping a video clip on the title track causes the overlay track to open and the clip to be placed upon it. In other versions of Studio, or when the overlay track is already displayed, the title track does not accept video clips.

• The sound effects track or the background music

track. Attempting to drop a video clip on either of these tracks actually drops the clip’s original audio.

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Working with multiple capture files

For some projects you may want to incorporate scenes from multiple source tapes, or from different capture files made from one tape. To achieve this, load in each of the files in turn and drag whichever scenes you want from each file into your movie.

To use multiple capture files:

1. Drag scenes from the first capture file into the

Movie Window.

2. Using the dropdown list or the folder button in the

Video Scenes section of the Album, open the second capture file. Studio displays scenes from only the current file in the Album. See “Opening a captured video file” on page 44 for detailed information on this step.

3. Drag scenes from the second captured file into the

Movie Window. Continue in this manner until you have gone through all the files.

Because any given movie can be in only one of the standard (4:3) format and the widescreen (16:9) format, Studio does not let you mix frame formats in the Movie Window.

By default, the first video clip you add to a movie determines the movie’s frame format, and later clips are modified as necessary to conform to it. See “The project video format” below for further information.

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The project video format

The video scenes you add to a project need not all originate with the same device or be in the same file format. They need not even have the same frame size, aspect ratio or frame rate.

When video is played back within Studio, however, a common frame format must be used. The Project format box on the Project preferences options panel lets you specify the format for new projects either explicitly (e.g. “NTSC Widescreen”) or implicitly, from the format of the first clip you add to the project.

The current project format is displayed as a tooltip over the project title in the Move Window.

The project format applies to all video and image clips in the Movie Window, and to the preview of those clips in the Player. Visual content in the Album, such as your captured video scenes, is shown by default in its

Chapter 5: Video clips 83

original format, whether or not that matches the project format.

If you want to avoid black bars (“letterboxing”) in your project video, but still want to use scenes shot in the wrong aspect ratio, there are two other approaches you can consider:

• Use the Aspect ratio commands on the Album menu.

These let you stretch the Album scenes to conform to the proportions of the project frame, at the cost of some distortion. Please see “Video aspect ratios” on page 46 for more information.

• Use the 2D Editor effect with keyframing to create a

“pan and scan” version your video. Studios often use this technique to make their movies fit a standard television screen when they are transferred to videotape or DVD. There is no distortion with this method, but some material is lost from each frame. Careful tracking of the action with the aid of keyframing generally allows you to obtain acceptable results despite this problem.

Availability note: The 2D Editor effect and the keyframing feature are provided in Studio Plus only.

Compensating for source video in the “wrong” aspect ratio by adding black bars (L), stretching to the full frame (C), and pan-and-scan (R). Each method has its own drawbacks.

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Pinnacle Systems Studio - 11.0 Instruction Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual