Pinnacle Studio
Version 12
Including Studio, Studio Plus and Studio Ultimate
Your Life in Movies
Special thanks to Markus Duerr, Travis White, Bertrand de Vregille,
Richard Edgley, Jörg Tewes, Jan Piros, Jörg Weselmann, Mikel Zwissler
and Sulekha Somasekhar.
Documentation: Nick Sullivan
Copyright ©1996-2008 Pinnacle Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Please respect the rights of artists and creators. Content such as music,
photos, video and celebrity images are protected by the laws of many
countries. You may not use other people’s content unless you own the
rights or have the permission of the owner.
This product or portions thereof are protected under one or more of the
following United States patents: 5,495,291; 5,946,445 6,469,711;
6,532,043; 6,678,461; 6,901,211; 6,907,191 7,124,366; 7,165,219;
7,286,131; and 7,301,092. Other patents are pending.
Mpegable DS 2.2 ©2004 Dicas Digital Image Coding GmbH. Manufactured under license from Dolby Laboratories. This product contains one or
more programs protected under international and U.S. copyright laws as
unpublished works. They are confidential and proprietary to Dolby
Laboratories. Their reproduction or disclosure, in whole or in part, or the
production of derivative works therefrom without the express permission of
Dolby Laboratories is prohibited. Copyright 1993-2005 by Dolby
Laboratories. All rights reserved. MPEG Layer-3 audio coding
technology licensed from Fraunhofer IIS and Thomson Multimedia.
Portions of this product were created using LEADTOOLS ©1991-2006,
LEAD Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. Portions utilize Windows
Media Technologies ©1999-2005 Microsoft Corporation. Real Producer
SDK ©1995-2005 Real Networks Inc. This product contains portions of
imaging code owned and copyrighted by Pegasus Imaging Corporation,
Tampa, FL. All rights reserved. MPEG Layer II Audio by QDesign
Corp. This product contains a YouTube API.
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
ii Pinnacle Studio
Table of contents
BEFORE YOU START .................................................. XI
Equipment requirements ........................................................................ xii
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 ................................................................................................ 4
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 ............................................................ 30
Table of contents iii
Analog capture .......................................................................................... 30
Capture quality options .......................................................................... 31
Audio and video levels – analog ............................................................ 31
Importing video from DVD ..................................................................... 33
Importing media from external devices .................................................. 34
CHAPTER 3: THE ALBUM .......................................... 37
The Video Scenes section ......................................................................... 41
Opening a captured video file ................................................................ 44
Viewing captured video ......................................................................... 48
Selecting scenes and files ...................................................................... 49
Displaying scene and file information ................................................... 50
Comment view ....................................................................................... 51
Combining and subdividing scenes ....................................................... 52
Redetecting scenes ................................................................................. 54
The Transitions section ............................................................................ 55
The Montage® Themes section ................................................................ 57
The Titles section ...................................................................................... 58
The Still Images section ........................................................................... 59
The Disc Menus section ............................................................................ 59
The Sound Effects section ........................................................................ 61
The Music section ..................................................................................... 62
CHAPTER 4: THE MOVIE WINDOW ........................... 63
Movie Window views................................................................................ 67
Storyboard view ..................................................................................... 67
Timeline view ........................................................................................ 67
Text view ............................................................................................... 74
The toolboxes ............................................................................................ 74
The Video toolbox ................................................................................. 76
The Audio toolbox ................................................................................. 78
iv Pinnacle Studio
CHAPTER 5: VIDEO CLIPS ........................................ 81
Video clip basics ....................................................................................... 82
Adding video clips to your movie ......................................................... 82
Working with multiple capture files ...................................................... 83
The project video format ....................................................................... 84
Interface features ................................................................................... 87
Trimming video clips ................................................................................ 89
Trimming on the Timeline using handles .............................................. 89
Clip-trimming tips ................................................................................. 93
Trimming with the Clip properties tool ................................................. 94
Resetting trimmed clips ......................................................................... 96
Splitting and combining clips .................................................................. 97
Advanced Timeline editing ...................................................................... 98
Insert editing ........................................................................................ 100
Split editing ......................................................................................... 102
The SmartMovie music video tool ......................................................... 106
CHAPTER 6: MONTAGE® THEMES
AND THEME EDITING ........................................ 111
Using themes ........................................................................................... 113
The Themes section of the Album ....................................................... 114
Creating theme clips ............................................................................ 115
Working with theme clips on the Timeline ......................................... 117
Anatomy of a theme ............................................................................ 118
Opening the Theme Editor tool............................................................ 121
Using the Theme Editor tool ................................................................ 122
CHAPTER 7: VIDEO EFFECTS ................................. 125
Working with the effects list................................................................ 126
Changing effect parameters ................................................................. 128
Keyframing .......................................................................................... 130
Using keyframing ................................................................................ 133
Previewing and rendering .................................................................... 135
Table of contents v
Video effects library ............................................................................... 136
Standard effects ...................................................................................... 138
Auto color correction ........................................................................... 138
Noise reduction .................................................................................... 139
Stabilize ............................................................................................... 139
Speed ................................................................................................... 140
Plus effects ............................................................................................... 140
Blur ...................................................................................................... 141
Emboss ................................................................................................ 142
Old film ............................................................................................... 142
Soften ................................................................................................... 143
Stained glass ........................................................................................ 143
Luma key ............................................................................................. 143
2D Editor ............................................................................................. 144
Earthquake ........................................................................................... 144
Lens flare ............................................................................................. 144
Magnify ............................................................................................... 145
Motion blur .......................................................................................... 145
Rotate ................................................................................................... 145
Water drop ........................................................................................... 146
Water wave .......................................................................................... 146
Black and white ................................................................................... 146
Color correction ................................................................................... 147
Color map ............................................................................................ 147
Invert ................................................................................................... 147
Lighting ............................................................................................... 148
Posterize .............................................................................................. 148
RGB color balance............................................................................... 148
Sepia .................................................................................................... 149
White balance ...................................................................................... 149
CHAPTER 8: TWO-TRACK EDITING
WITH STUDIO PLUS .......................................... 151
Introducing the overlay track ............................................................... 151
A/B editing .......................................................................................... 153
The Picture-in-picture tool ................................................................... 154
The Chroma key tool ........................................................................... 160
Selecting colors ................................................................................... 167
vi Pinnacle Studio
CHAPTER 9: TRANSITIONS ..................................... 169
Transition types and their uses ............................................................ 171
Previewing transitions in your movie .................................................. 174
Audio transitions ................................................................................. 174
The Ripple Transition command ......................................................... 175
Trimming transitions ............................................................................. 176
Trimming with the Clip properties tool ............................................... 177
CHAPTER 10: STILL IMAGES .................................. 179
Editing still images ................................................................................. 181
Editing image clip properties ............................................................... 182
The Frame Grabber ............................................................................... 189
The Frame grabber tool ....................................................................... 189
CHAPTER 11: DISC MENUS ..................................... 193
Disc authoring in Studio ...................................................................... 195
Using menus from the Album .............................................................. 196
The DVD Player Control ..................................................................... 198
Editing menus on the Timeline ............................................................ 200
Editing with the Clip properties tool ................................................... 202
The Disc menu tool .............................................................................. 207
CHAPTER 12: THE TITLE EDITOR .......................... 209
Launching the Title Editor ................................................................... 209
The Title Editor controls ....................................................................... 211
Title-type buttons ................................................................................. 211
Object toolbox ..................................................................................... 212
Editing-mode selection buttons ........................................................... 215
Object layout buttons ........................................................................... 217
Clipboard and delete buttons ............................................................... 219
Text-styling controls ............................................................................ 219
The Title Editor Album ......................................................................... 221
The Looks Browser ............................................................................. 221
The Backgrounds section ..................................................................... 223
The Pictures section ............................................................................. 225
The Buttons section ............................................................................. 226
Table of contents vii
CHAPTER 13: SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC ........ 229
The Timeline audio tracks ................................................................... 232
The CD audio tool ............................................................................... 234
The Background music tool ................................................................. 235
The Voice-over tool ............................................................................. 237
Trimming audio clips ............................................................................. 240
Trimming with the Clip properties tool ............................................... 240
Audio volume and mixing ...................................................................... 242
Anatomy of an audio clip .................................................................... 243
Adjusting audio on the Timeline ......................................................... 245
Transitions on the audio tracks ............................................................ 247
The Volume and balance tool .............................................................. 248
CHAPTER 14: AUDIO EFFECTS .............................. 255
Noise reduction .................................................................................... 256
Plus effects ............................................................................................... 258
ChannelTool ........................................................................................ 258
Chorus ................................................................................................. 258
DeEsser ................................................................................................ 259
Equalizer .............................................................................................. 259
Grungelizer .......................................................................................... 260
Leveler ................................................................................................. 260
Reverb ................................................................................................. 261
Stereo Echo .......................................................................................... 261
Stereo Spread ....................................................................................... 262
CHAPTER 15: MAKING YOUR MOVIE ..................... 263
Output to disc media .............................................................................. 265
Output to file ........................................................................................... 270
Output to tape ......................................................................................... 277
Configuring the camera or video recorder... ........................................ 277
Output your movie to videotape .......................................................... 279
Output to the web ................................................................................... 279
viii Pinnacle Studio
APPENDIX A: SETUP OPTIONS .............................. 283
Capture source settings ........................................................................ 284
Capture format settings ........................................................................ 287
Project preferences .............................................................................. 290
Video and audio preferences ............................................................... 294
Make Disc settings .............................................................................. 299
Make File settings ................................................................................ 304
Make Real Media file settings ............................................................. 308
Make Windows Media file settings ..................................................... 311
Make tape settings ............................................................................... 313
APPENDIX B: TIPS AND TRICKS ............................ 317
Hardware ............................................................................................. 317
Graphics card settings .......................................................................... 319
Studio and computer animation ........................................................... 320
APPENDIX C: TROUBLESHOOTING ....................... 321
Technical help on-line ............................................................................ 322
Top support issues .................................................................................. 324
Errors or crashes during installation .................................................... 325
Studio crashes in Edit mode ................................................................ 326
“Video Device Not Found” error appears in Capture mode ................ 331
“Input signal not detected” error during Capture ................................. 335
Studio hangs when rendering ............................................................... 337
Studio hangs on launch or does not launch .......................................... 340
“Burning failed” error appears in Make Movie ................................... 342
DVDs created by Studio do not play back, or appear blank. ............... 344
No video or poor quality video in the Capture preview window ......... 345
APPENDIX D: VIDEOGRAPHY TIPS ........................ 349
Creating a shooting plan ...................................................................... 349
Editing ................................................................................................. 350
Rules of thumb for video editing ......................................................... 354
Soundtrack production ......................................................................... 356
Title ..................................................................................................... 357
APPENDIX E: GLOSSARY ........................................ 359
APPENDIX F: LICENSE AGREEMENT .................... 377
APPENDIX G: KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS ................ 383
INDEX ........................................................................ 387
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.
Also highly recommended to new users is the
Studio Tutorial. To launch the Tutorial, click its
link on the “splash” screen when you start Studio,
or use the Help ¾ Guided Tour menu command
within the application itself.
Before you start xi
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
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, sound
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
xii Pinnacle Studio
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.
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.
Before you start xiii
Video capture hardware
Studio can capture video from a variety of digital and
analog sources. Please 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)
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 15: 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.
xiv Pinnacle Studio
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.
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 to open Studio’s help file.
• 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.
xvi Pinnacle Studio
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 15: 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
• 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.
For simplicity, 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
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
above the Player to the left of the Undo button when
reorganizing the display is possible.
Drag the control knob rightwards to increase the Player
size, or leftwards to decrease it. The leftmost knob
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
Chapter 1: Using Studio 7
movie uses disc menu navigation, you can play it back
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 294) 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 button halts playback and
skips back to the first frame 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
8 Pinnacle Studio
scan for a particular piece of video you want to 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 64 for details.
The ability of the preview to keep up with the scrubber
depends on the speed of your computer. If you move
the Player scrubber slowly, the preview display
responds smoothly. As you increase the rate at which
Chapter 1: Using Studio 9
you move the scrubber, the preview will jump frames.
The point 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 198.
10 Pinnacle Studio
Further editing topics
Please see the following for details on specific editing
topics:
• Chapter 5: Video clips
• Chapter 6: Themes and theme editing
• Chapter 7: Video effects
• Chapter 8: Two-track editing with Studio Plus
• Chapter 9: Transitions
• Chapter 10: Still images
• Chapter 11: Disc menus
• Chapter 12: The Title Editor
• Chapter 13: Sound effects and music
• Chapter 14: Audio effects
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, themes 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.
Chapter 1: Using Studio 11
Premium content items, like the Hollywood
FX transition whose icon appears at left, are
listed in Studio with a small treasure chest
symbol in the top-left 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.
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
themes, 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.
• By clicking the activate buttons found in some parts
of Studio.
12 Pinnacle Studio
These buttons can be found whenever premium
content is on display within Studio. The one above,
when seen in the Audio effects tool and the Video
effects tool, would let you activate a pack of audio or
video filters. You may encounter similar buttons in
the Album that let you purchase all the media on a
particular Album page as a theme pack.
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.
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.
Chapter 1: Using Studio 13
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
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.
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 290.)
Importing content from past Studio versions
If you are an owner of a past version of Studio, the
chances are that you already own content items,
whether on a “Bonus Content” or “Premium Pack”
disc, or on a hard drive attached to your system. The
Studio “Transfer Content” wizard walks you through
the process of locating all such materials that are
available to you, and importing them for use in the
14 Pinnacle Studio
current version of the software. Among the item types
handled by the wizard are:
• Titles
• Disc menus
• Sound effects
• Hollywood FX 3D transitions
• RTFx video effects
To launch the wizard, look in the Studio group on your
Start ¾ All Programs menu, and select Tools ¾
Transfer Content.
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 33) 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
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
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 284) and “Capture
format settings” (page 287) 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 of the
transport controls. The counter window above the
control buttons displays the current source tape
position, and the camcorder’s transport mode.
From left to right, the transport buttons are: Stop,
Rewind / Review, Play, Fast forward / Cue and Pause.
The Frame reverse and Frame forward buttons (second
row) let you locate an exact frame. 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
to use on the Capture source options panel. See
“Capture hardware” (below) for more information.
22 Pinnacle Studio
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 284 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
Further information relating to some of the steps can be
found elsewhere in this chapter. Also see Appendix A:
Setup Options (page 283) 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 287).
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 duration for the
capture.
6. If you are capturing from an analog camcorder or
VCR, start playback now. This step 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 automatically 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
26 Pinnacle Studio
icon is created in the Video Scenes section of the
Album for each scene detected.
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
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
28 Pinnacle Studio
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
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 287 for detailed information about
MPEG quality options.
Chapter 2: Capturing video 29
Audio and video levels – digital
With digital captures, you are using audio and video
that have been encoded digitally during recording, right
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 125), and “Audio effects”
(page 255).
ANALOG CAPTURE
The topics in this section relate to capture with analog
equipment, such as:
• A ca mcorder or VCR with analog outputs connected
to a DirectShow-compatible capture board or
external device.
30 Pinnacle Studio
• 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.
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 287).
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.
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
worry about color correction later on.
Setting your audio options correctly as you capture will
help in achieving consistent volume levels and quality.
Chapter 2: Capturing video 31
Video (L) and audio (R) panels for
setting levels during analog capture.
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 five sliders allow you to 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.
32 Pinnacle Studio
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
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.
Chapter 2: Capturing video 33
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
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.
34 Pinnacle Studio
Devices that often contain importable media include:
• External optical disc drives, hard drives and flash
memory drives
• Ca mcorder or digital camera on-board drives of any
of these types
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.
Chapter 2: Capturing video 35
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.
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.
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
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
video footage. The supported video file formats
are: avi, mpg, mpeg, mod, mp2, mp4, m2ts, tod,
m1v, m2v, mpv and wmv. You can access and preview
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 41.
Chapter 3: The Album 37
Transitions: This Album section contains
fades, dissolves, slides, and other transition
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.
Themes: A Theme in Studio is a set of
matching templates. You can use the templates
to create effective sequences that combine your video
and still images with built-in animations and effects.
See “The Themes section”, page 57.
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 58.
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: gif, jpg, jpeg, pcx, psd, tga, tif,
wmf and png. See “The Photos and Frame Grabs
section”, page 59.
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
38 Pinnacle Studio
are: wav, mp3, mpa, m4a, wma, avi and ac3. 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.
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 13.
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
Chapter 3: The Album 39
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 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.
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
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.
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.
40 Pinnacle Studio
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,
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.
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.
Chapter 3: The Album 41
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.
View options
Both the Files and Scenes modes support multiple view
options that let you tailor the display to your needs by
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 context 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.
42 Pinnacle Studio
The two view options available in Scenes mode are:
n Thumbnail view and o Comment view.
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.
Chapter 3: The Album 43
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
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.
44 Pinnacle Studio
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 41) for details
about modes and view options when working with
video scenes in the Album.
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.
Chapter 3: The Album 45
Opening a file
When you open a video file, icons are displayed that
represent the scenes in the file:
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.
46 Pinnacle Studio
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 automatically. 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
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 290 for more information.
Chapter 3: The Album 47
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.
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.
48 Pinnacle Studio
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.
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.
Chapter 3: The Album 49
• Ctrl-click to add or remove i ndividual 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.
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.
50 Pinnacle Studio
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 42.
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
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 icon, an in-place text field
appears. Use it to enter 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 the Select Scenes by Name
dialog box.
Chapter 3: The Album 51
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.
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.
52 Pinnacle Studio
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.
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.
Chapter 3: The Album 53
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 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.
54 Pinnacle Studio
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.
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 transition
group you want to view. All the transitions in the group
are displayed, on as many Album pages as necessary.
To learn about transitions, and how you can use them
in your movies, see Chapter 9: Transitions.
Studio’s transitions collection includes 74 standard
transitions, more than 50 Alpha Magic transitions, and
Chapter 3: The Album 55
a starting set of unrestricted Hollywood FX 3-D
transitions.
Obtaining more transitions
Besides those installed with Studio, additional packs of
Hollywood FX transitions are available for purchase
through the Pinnacle web-site.
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.
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.
56 Pinnacle Studio
THE MONTAGE
Editing based on Montage® Themes is a
powerful feature unique to Studio. Each theme
is a set of matching templates. Use the dropdown list to
select the Theme whose templates you want to view.
The templates available for each theme provide slots
for your video, photos, captions and settings. When you
create a theme clip from the template (by dragging it to
the Movie Window), the Theme Editor opens to accept
your customizations. It can be reopened at any later
time by double-clicking the clip. Templates give you a
fast, easy way to craft visually effective sequences that
combine your own materials with built-in animations
and effects. For information on using themes in your
movies, see Chapter 6: Themes and theme editing.
®
THEMES SECTION
Obtaining more themes
Besides those installed with Studio, additional themes
are available for purchase through the Pinnacle website. For more information about purchasing premium
content for Studio, see “Expanding Studio” on page 11.
Chapter 3: The Album 57
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.
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 10: Still images.
58 Pinnacle Studio
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
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 10: 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.
Chapter 3: The Album 59
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 11: 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
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 224 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.
Obtaining additional disc menus
Besides those installed with Studio, additional disc
menus are available for purchase through the Pinnacle
web-site. For more information about purchasing
premium content for Studio, see “Expanding Studio”
on page 11.
60 Pinnacle Studio
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 13: Sound effects and music.
Obtaining more sound effects
Besides those installed with Studio, additional sound
effects are available for purchase through the Pinnacle
web-site.
For more information about purchasing premium
content for Studio, see “Expanding Studio” on page 11.
Chapter 3: The Album 61
THE MUSIC SECTION
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,
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 13: Sound effects and music.
62 Pinnacle Studio
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 switch to Edit mode if you are not
already there:
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 74.
The Add Marker button (top) creates a new clip
marker at the Timeline scrubber position. After you
add a marker to your project, controls for naming
and selecting them become visible (bottom). See
“Clip markers” on page 71 for full information.
Chapter 4: The Movie Window 63
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.
The next controls relate to clip markers, which are like
bookmarks attached to clips in your project. In a new
project, the only visible clip marker control is the Add
Marker button. When you add your first marker, more
controls appear.
Further still to the right are the Audio scrubbing, Clip
split and Clip delete buttons, then three view selection
buttons (see “Movie Window views” on page 67), and
finally a compact version of the Volume and balance
tool’s output level meter (see page 248).
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.
64 Pinnacle Studio
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 98.
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.
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 be created by the deletion is automatically
closed up, and clips on other tracks are removed or
shortened as required 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
Chapter 4: The Movie Window 65
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 clips on the main
video track (L) as for those on other tracks (R). The
menus list 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
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, allows you to adjust the
current position within the clip during trimming.
66 Pinnacle Studio
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
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 10: Still images and
Chapter 11: Disc menus for more information.
Chapter 4: The Movie Window 67
• 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 100)
and “Split editing” (page 102) 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 8: 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 10: Still images and Chapter 11: 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 13:
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 235) or
imported with the CD audio tool (page 234). Your
68 Pinnacle Studio
soundtrack can also make use of mp3 and other
music files (see page 229).
• 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 11: 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.
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 indepen-
Chapter 4: The Movie Window 69
dently 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 248 for more
information.)
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.
70 Pinnacle Studio
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 current 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 attempt to drag a sound onto the
video track, the placement guidelines turn from green
to red, the mouse pointer changes from “copy” to
“unavailable”, 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.
Clip markers
Studio’s straightforward system of clip markers can
simplify navigation within a project, especially one that
is long or complex.
Controls relating to clip markers appear in the Movie
Window title bar. In a new project, the only visible
Chapter 4: The Movie Window 71
control in the group is the add marker button. The
remaining controls appear only after the first marker
has been added.
In a new project, the only visible clip marker control
is the Add Marker button n. Clicking the button (or
pressing your ‘M’ key) creates a marker at the
position of the Timeline scrubber.
Once a marker has been added, the Add Marker
button changes to Delete Marker, and the remaining
controls appear o. Notice marker tab ‘01’ at the
scrubber position p.
As more markers are added, the Previous Marker
and Next Marker buttons are enabled as needed q.
Studio renumbers markers to keep them in
sequence r, but leaves unchanged the name you
provided, if any s.
A clip marker represents a particular frame in a
particular clip. Even if that clip is moved around within
the project, or trimmed, the anchor location remains
unchanged. However, the marker itself can be moved,
even to a different clip, by dragging it with the mouse.
72 Pinnacle Studio
The clip marker controls include:
• Add marker, Delete marker: In Timeline
view, the add marker button is enabled while
any clip is selected, provided there is not
already a marker at the scrubber position. If a marker
is present, the delete marker button appears instead.
• Previous marker, Next marker: These buttons
allow you to step through the markers in your
project. Unlike the add marker and delete
marker buttons, these buttons are enabled in all
Movie Window views, not just Timeline view.
• Clip marker title: If there is a clip marker at the
Timeline scrubber position, its number and name are
displayed in this text field (otherwise the field is
uneditable). The displayed marker number is
assigned automatically, and cannot be changed, but
the optional name can be modified at will.
• Cl ip marker title list: Click the arrow button at the
right of the clip marker title to open this list, which
shows the number and name of each marker in your
project. Selecting a marker moves the Timeline
scrubber to the corresponding position.
Note: Once you have more than a very few markers in
your project, managing them becomes simpler if you
give them meaningful names. However, names are
optional and, as noted above, Studio helps out by
automatically keeping the list in time order.
Chapter 4: The Movie Window 73
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.
74 Pinnacle Studio
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
make titles and disc menus for your Studio productions.
Access the Title Editor through the Title and Disc menu
Chapter 4: The Movie Window 75
tools, or with the Go to Title/Menu Editor command
from the right-button context menu in the Movie
Window. See Chapter 12: The Title Editor for full
information.
The Video toolbox
The seven tools in this toolbox modify or create visual
clip types, including video clips, themes, 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. See
“Trimming with the Clip properties tool” on page 94
for more information.
Themes: The Theme editor tool lets you
customize clips created from “theme templates”.
The tool includes a mini-Album from which you can
import video and photos to be used in the theme clip.
76 Pinnacle Studio
Some theme templates also provide text captions or
other parameters that allow customization. See Chapter
6: Themes and theme editing for more information.
Titles: This tool lets you edit the names and
lengths of titles. The Edit Title button provides
access to the Title Editor window, where you can
change the text and appearance of the title. See Chapter
12: The Title Editor for more information.
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. See “The Disc menu
tool” on page 207 for more information.
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. See “The Frame Grabber” on page
189 for more information.
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. See “The SmartMovie music video tool” on
page 106 for more information.
PIP and chroma key tool: The PIP and Chroma
Key controls occupy separate tabs on the same
tool window, so this can be thought of as really two
tools in one. It provides an alternative, graphical
interface to the Studio Plus Picture-in-picture and
Chapter 4: The Movie Window 77
Chroma key effects. See “The Picture-in-picture tool”
(page 154) and “The Chroma key tool” (page 160) for
more information.
Video effects: Studio provides numerous plug-in
video effects with this tool. Each video clip,
theme 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. See Chapter 7: Video effects for details about
this tool. For information about purchasing premium
content for Studio, see “Expanding Studio” on page 11.
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
78 Pinnacle Studio
Text view.) The tool’s other controls vary depending
on the type of clip. See “Trimming with the Clip
properties tool” on page 240 for more information.
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.
When the overlay track is open, the tool provides a
fourth set of controls, which affect the overlay audio
track. See “The Volume and balance tool” on page 248
for more information.
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. See “The Voice-over
tool” on page 237 for more information.
Add CD audio: Use this tool to add tracks, in
whole or in part, from an audio CD. See “The
CD audio tool” on page 234 for more information.
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. See “The
Background music tool” on page 235 for more
information.
Chapter 4: The Movie Window 79
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. See
Chapter 14: Audio effects for details about this tool.
For information about purchasing premium content for
Studio, see “Expanding Studio” on page 11.
80 Pinnacle Studio
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 89) 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 can give your movies a more professional look.
See “Advanced Timeline editing” on page 98.
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.
Chapter 5: Video clips 81
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.
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,
82 Pinnacle Studio
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.
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
Chapter 5: Video clips 83
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,
you cannot 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.
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
84 Pinnacle Studio
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