Pinnacle Systems Studio - 18.0 User Guide

Download

Pinnacle Studio™ 18 User Guide

Including Pinnacle Studio™ Plus and

Pinnacle Studio™ Ultimate

Before you start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Abbreviations and conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Buttons, menus, dialog boxes and windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Help and Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Finding your version information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Upgrading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Chapter 1: Using Pinnacle Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

The Importer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

The Exporter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

The central tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

The Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

The next step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

The Movie Editor and the Disc Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

The media editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

The Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Pinnacle Studio Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Chapter 2: The Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Adding assets to a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Correcting media files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Instant gratification: SmartMovie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Understanding the Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

The Navigator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Collections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Managing Library assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

The Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Contents i

Thumbnails and details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Optional indicators and controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

The Library preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Choosing what to display in the Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Correcting media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Video scene detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

SmartMovie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

SmartMovie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

The compact Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Previewing in the project editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

The Project Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

The timeline toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

The timeline track header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Editing Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Title Editor, ScoreFitter, voice-over. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Deleting clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Clip operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Using the Clipboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Movies within movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Clip effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Clip context menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Chapter 4: Corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Media editing overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Photo editing tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Correcting photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Red-eye. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

ii Pinnacle Studio

Correcting video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Video tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Video corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Stabilize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Correcting audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Chapter 5: Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Effects in the media editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Effects on the timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

The Settings panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Working with keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Video and photo effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Working with transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Pan-and-zoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Chapter 6: Montage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

The Montage section of the Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Using montage templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Montage clips on the timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Anatomy of a template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Montage editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Using the Montage Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Chapter 7: The Title Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Launching (and leaving) the Title Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

The Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

The Presets Selector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Preset Looks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Preset Motions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Creating and editing titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Background settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Look settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Contents iii

The Edit window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Text and text settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Titles and stereoscopic 3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

The Layer List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Working with the Layer List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Working with layer groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Chapter 8: Sound and music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

The Audio Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Audio corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Audio effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Audio on the timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Timeline audio functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Audio creation tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

ScoreFitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

The Voice-over tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Chapter 9: Disc projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

Disc menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Adding disc menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Previewing disc menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Menu editing on the timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Timeline menu markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Authoring tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

The Chapter Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

The Menu Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Menu buttons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

The Disc Simulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Chapter 10: The Importer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Using the Importer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

Importer panels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

iv Pinnacle Studio

The Import To panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

The Mode panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

The Compression Options window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

The Scene Detection Options window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

The Metadata panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

The Filename panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Selecting assets for import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Selecting files for Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Customizing the browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Adjusting the import file date and time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Scan for assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Import from DV or HDV camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Import from analog sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Import from DVD or Blu-ray Disc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Import from digital cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Stop motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Chapter 11: The Exporter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Output to disc or memory card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Output to file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Output to cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Output to a device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Chapter 12: Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Watchfolders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Audio device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Event logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Export and Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

Project settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

Contents v

Storage locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Chapter 13: Screen capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Starting a screen capture project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Recording your screen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Appendix A: Troublehooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Contacting support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Forums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Top support issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Capture hardware compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Serial number information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Error or crash while installing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Hangs or crashes while launching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Troubleshooting software crashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

Case 1: Studio crashes randomly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Case 2: Studio crashes after a user action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Case 3: Studio crashes repeatably . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Export problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

Disc playback problems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

Appendix B: Videography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Creating a shooting plan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

Rules of thumb for video editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406

Soundtrack production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

Appendix C: Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

Appendix D: Keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

General shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

vi Pinnacle Studio

Playing and transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Importer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

Movie interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

Media editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432

Title Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432

Appendix E: The installation manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

Before you begin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

Upgrade Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434

Launching the Installation Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434

Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434

Supporting installations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

The Welcome Screen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

Common controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436

Installing plugs-ins and bonus content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

System requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

Contents vii

viii Pinnacle Studio

Before you start

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

If you have not used Pinnacle Studio before, we recommend that you keep the user guide handy for reference even if you don’t actually read it all the way through.

In order to ensure that your movie-making experience gets off on the right foot, please review the topics.

Note: Not all features described in the user guide are included in all versions of Pinnacle visit www.pinnaclesys.com and click Compare.

Abbreviations and conventions

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

Common terms

AVCHD: A video data format used by some high-definition

camcorders, and for creating DVD discs that can be read on Blu-ray players. Successful editing of AVCHD files requires more computing power than other formats supported by Pinnacle Studio.

Studio. For more information, please

DV: This term refers to DV and Digital8 camcorders, VCRs and tapes.

Before you start 1

HDV: A ‘high-definition video’ format that allows video in frame sizes

of 1280x720 or 1440x1080 to be recorded in MPEG-2 format on DV media.

1394: The term ‘1394’ applies to OHCI-compliant IEEE-1394,

FireWire, DV or i.LINK interfaces, ports and cables.

Analog: The term ‘analog’ app lies to 8mm, Hi8, VHS, SVHS, VHS-C or

SVHS-C camcorders, VCRs and tapes, and to Composite/RCA and SVideo cables and connectors.

Buttons, menus, dialog boxes and windows

Names of buttons, menus and related user interface items are written in

bold to distinguish them from the surrounding text.

Choosing menu commands

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

• Select File > Burn Disc Image.

Context menus

A ‘context menu’ is a pop-up list of commands that appears when you click with the right mouse-button on certain areas of the application interface. Depending where you click, a context menu may pertain either to an editable object (like a clip on an editing timeline), to a window, or to a zone such as a control panel. Once open, context menus behave just like the ones on the main menu bar.

Context menus are available in most parts of the Pinnacle Studio interface. Our documentation generally takes for granted that you know how to open and use them.

2 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Mouse clicks

When a mouse click is required, the default is always a left-click unless otherwise specified, or unless the click is to open a context menu:

Right-click and select from the context menu.”)

Title Editor

. (Or, one might say, “Select

Title Editor

Key names

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.

Please refer to table of available shortcuts.

Appendix D: Keyboard shortcuts

for a comprehensive

Help and Tooltips

Immediate help is available while you are working in Pinnacle Studio via the Help menu.

Help

The Help menu lets you access a variety of learning resources. Click the Help button > User Manual to access the Learning Center page with links to video tutorials, the other community and support links.

Pinnacle Studio 18 User Guide PDF, and

Video tutorials

You can access video tutorials from the Learning Center page (Help > User Manual) or by visiting the following sites directly:

Before you start 3

• YouTube — http://www.youtube.com/user/pinnaclestudiolife

• StudioBacklot.tv — http://www.studiobacklot.tv/studio18

Get a 6-week, all-access pass to StudioBacklot.tv, featuring brandnew Pinnacle Studio 18 content, loads of other training and a royalty-free stock library. (Training is in English only.)

Tool tips

To find out what a button or other Studio control does, pause your mouse pointer over it. A ‘tool tip’ pops up to explain the control’s function.

Finding your version information

Whether you are considering upgrading your software or looking for support, it’s good to know your version information. To check the version of Pinnacle Studio that you have, click the About.

Help button >

Upgrading

There are different versions of Pinnacle Studio and features vary depending on the version you have. For more information, please visit www.pinnaclesys.com and click Compare.

For information about upgrading your software, click the Help

> Online Offers & News > Software Offers.

button

4 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Chapter 1: Using Pinnacle Studio

For a simple outline of the digital movie-making process, you don’t have to look any further than the central tab group of Pinnacle main window. The same steps apply to any type of production, from an unpretentious slideshow with dissolves between each frame to a 3D extravaganza containing hundreds of carefully-arranged clips and effects.

Pinnacle Studio’s main control bar summarizes the moviemaking process.

The Importer

Import on the right, is a preparatory step. It involves procedures like ‘capturing’ video from your analog or DV camcorder, bringing in photos from a digital camera, and copying media files to your local hard drive from a network location.

The Pinnacle Studio Importer provides tools for these tasks, along with a Snapshot feature for grabbing frames from video files, and a Stop motion tool for building up video frame-by-frame. See “Chapter 10: The Importer” on page 291 for details.

Studio’s

File menu import commands: Choosing Import from the file menu has the same effect as clicking the Import tab: it opens the menu provides three other import-related choices as well. Each of

Chapter 1: Using Pinnacle Studio 5

Importer. The

these opens a Windows file dialog to permit import of files from a hard drive or other local storage.

• Import previous Pinnacle Studio Projects lets you load movie projects created with earlier versions of Studio.

• Import Studio for iPad App Projects lets you b ring in projects exported from Studio’s companion app for the iPad.

• Quick Import lets you directly select ordinary media files—photo, video, audio and project—for import.

Principal controls in the Importer’s Snapshot tool.

The Exporter

At the other end of the movie-making process is Export. By the time you get to this stage, the hard part of the task is behind you. The creative energy that went into making your movie has paid off in a production that now lacks only one ingredient—an audience.

6 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Preparing to create a video file in the Exporter.

The Pinnacle Studio Exporter helps you over that last hurdle with tools for taking your movie to its viewers, whoever and wherever they might be. Create a digital movie file in the format of your choice, burn a DVD, or upload directly to destinations in the Cloud like YouTube and Vimeo, or to your personal Cloud-based storage area in Box.

Like the Importer, the Exporter opens in a separate window, and returns to the main window after its work is done. See

“Chapter 11:

The Exporter” on page 337 to learn more.

The central tabs

The three central tabs, Library, Movie and Disc, are where most of your work in Pinnacle Studio takes place. The first of these opens the main view of the Library, where you can ‘curate’ your media collections.

Chapter 1: Using Pinnacle Studio 7

The other tabs open the two project editors, one for digital movies, and the other for disc projects, which are digital movies enhanced with interactivity in the form of DVD menus.

The Library

The Library is a cataloging and management tool for all the file-based

assets

resources – or all of the materials of your movie – video footage, music and audio files, and many specialized resources such as transitions and effects – originate as assets in the Library. Many Library assets are supplied with Pinnacle professionally-designed titles, DVD menus, sound effects and more.

The Library uses watchfolders for keeping up automatically with the changing population of media files on your system. On the watchfolders page of the Pinnacle Studio Setup control panel, enter the names of your media directories, especially those that you update frequently. Thereafter the Library will scan those directories regularly for changes, and update accordingly. For more information, see “Watchfolders” on page 366.

Studio, and are available for royalty-free use. These include

– that you can draw on when authoring. Almost

Main view

When you click the Library tab, the Library takes over the main window. This ‘main view’ gives you spacious access to a number of cataloging and search tools, including those for categorizing assets by means of ratings and tags, and those for creating user-defined asset collections.

Compact view

The ‘compact view’ of the Library squeezes virtually the whole functionality of the main view into a panel embedded within certain other windows, such as the Movie Editor and the Disc Editor. The

8 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

primary purpose of the compact view is to allow assets to be brought into a movie or disc project from the

The main view of the Library consists of navigation controls for exploring the catalog structure (left) and a browser for examining and selecting assets (right).

Library by drag-and-drop.

Player

The tools available from within the Library include the Player, a viewer that works for all media types handled by the application. When used from the main view of the Library, the Player opens in a separate window. When the compact Library is used, an embedded version of the Player appears in the same window. For more information, see “The Player” on page 14.

Chapter 1: Using Pinnacle Studio 9

Previewing a Library video asset in the resizable Player window, with full transport controls including a shuttle wheel. You can keep working in the main window while the pop-up Player is open.

For comprehensive coverage of the Library and its uses, please see “Chapter 2: The Library” on page 17.

The next step

The next step, once you know your way around the Library and have made any changes needed to the default set-up, is to start creating a movie. There are two ways to go about this.

The usual way

If you want to exert detailed control over the way media assets are used in your production, you will usually start building your movie or disc project from scratch in one of the two project editors.

These are described below.

10 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

The easiest way

For ultra-quick results, the Library offers another way. Clicking SmartMovie at the bottom of the Library main view opens an extra tray of controls. With either of these you select some visual media assets to serve as the basis of the project, choose music for a soundtrack, and make a handful of other customizations. Then the software takes over, automatically generating a full-scale Pinnacle containing the media and options requested. You can export the project immediately, or edit it further by hand as you choose. For more information, see

“Instant gratification: SmartMovie” on page 20.

Studio project

The Movie Editor and the Disc Editor

Once you have gathered your materials together and organized them to your satisfaction in the Library, it’s time to get to work on a video or a slideshow. If you are working on a disc production specifically, you can immediately start work in the Movie Editor but has extra tools for creating and setting up DVD menus. For more information, see page 267.

If you aren’t planning on creating a disc, or aren’t sure, or if disc is only one of the output media you are targeting, the Movie Editor is the right place to start. Once your movie is completed, you can export it to the Disc Editor and add in the menus.

Disc Editor, which is just like the

“Chapter 9: Disc projects” on

The Movie Editor and the Disc Editor exist side-by-side, but apart from the export feature just mentioned, they do not interact. If you want, you can have a regular movie project and a disc project loaded simultaneously, and switch from one to another at will.

Chapter 1: Using Pinnacle Studio 11

In both the Movie Editor and the Disc Editor, a multitrack timeline occupies the lower part of the display. Most of the ‘clips’ on the timeline come from the Library; a few types, like automatic background music, are generated with special tools.

Both project editors include embedded versions of the Library and the Player in addition to the timeline display. To build a project, drag assets from the compact Library onto the timeline tracks, where they are known as ‘clips’. Both the Movie Editor and the Disc Editor can be used with Stereoscopic 3D as well as 2D material.

The preview type control above the Player lets you switch between viewing the current Library asset (‘source’) and the current timeline clip. In the Disc Editor, an additional preview type (‘menu’) lets you use the Player as an editor for linking disc menus to points on the project timeline.

Timeline editing, a central activity in project authoring. “Chapter 3: The Movie Editor” on page 65.

The media editors

Additional windows are often needed for working with particular types of media. In general, you can open an editor window appropriate to any asset or clip by double-clicking the item.

12 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Corrections from the Library

The editors for the standard media types of video, photo and audio are particularly important. When invoked from the Library (by doubleclicking an asset), each of these editors provides a suite of correction tools appropriate to its media type. These tools can be applied directly to Library assets in order to remove camera shake from video, trim unwanted material from a photo, or suppress audio hiss, to give just a few examples.

When a correction is applied to a Library asset, the media file is not modified. Instead the correction parameters are saved in the Library database. They can be altered at any time, or removed, as your needs dictate. The corrections you make in the Library are brought with the asset when you add it to your project timeline as a clip.

Corrections from the timeline

When you open one of the standard media editors by double-clicking a timeline clip, the correction tools are again available, although in this case they apply only to the clip in the project, not to the underlying Library asset.

Transitions and Effects

When they are invoked from the project timeline, the media editors also offer effects, which cover a wide-range of enhancements in all three media types in the transition in, transition out, and effects groups.

Transitions let you punctuate the passage of one clip to the next with anything from a barely perceptible dissolve to an audience-awakening flare.

Chapter 1: Using Pinnacle Studio 13

Effects range from the practical (Brightness and contrast) to the theatrical ( parameter changes to any degree of complexity. They provide innumerable ways to add creative interest to your productions. Some effects are particularly designed for 3D material.

Fractal fire). Effects can be animated with keyframed

Pan-and-zoom

The Photo Editor provides one more tool, pan-and-zoom, of its own. Like the effects just discussed, pan-and-zoom can be animated with keyframes to create any desired combination of simulated pan and zoom camera moves within the boundaries of a single photo.

For more information about Correction tools and the media editors,

“Chapter 4: Corrections” on page 127 and “Chapter 5: Effects” on

see page 153.

The Player

The Player is a preview screen in which you can examine Library media, play back your movie project, work on disc menus, and much more. In each window or context in which it is used, the Player exhibits somewhat different controls. For an introduction to the Player and its basic controls, please see “The Library preview” on page 41. For the use of the Player in trim mode on the timeline, see “Clip operations” on page 97. For information on using the Player with Montage, see “Using the Montage Editor” on page 191. For the use of the Player in editing disc menus, see “Previewing disc menus” on page 275.

Pinnacle Studio Projects

The movies and discs that you create in Pinnacle Studio are distilled from the projects that you build on the timeline of the Movie Editor or the Disc Editor.

14 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

To manage projects, Studio must keep track of everything that goes onto your timeline, and all the editing decisions you make with regard to trimming, adding effects, and much more. Much of this information is stored in the project file, which is in

axp (Studio Movie) format.

In order to conserve hard drive space when dealing with files that can be very large, the project file does not include the media items in your movie. For these, only their location in the Library is stored.

The axp project file is the default file format for the File > Open, File > Save and File > Save As menu commands. It may be the only one you need.

Sometimes, however, it is convenient to have all the resources recruited for a project gathered into a single, manageable unit for hassle-free archiving, file transfer or upload. This is the purpose of an alternative file format, the

axx (Studio Project Package), which contains in a single file all the materials your project uses, including media items. Of necessity, files in this format are considerably larger than standard project files.

Although it is not possible to directly edit a project in the package format, Pinnacle Studio lets you open a project package with File ? Open by selecting axx in the file extension box. Studio seamlessly unpacks the project, creates a new Library entry for the unpacked version, and opens it for editing.

Chapter 1: Using Pinnacle Studio 15

16 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Chapter 2: The Library

The Pinnacle Studio Library, displayed when you click the Organize tab, is a cataloguing and management tool for all the file-based resources you can draw on when authoring. Its purpose is to let you choose and use the video segments, photos, sound bites, transition effects, titles and other ‘assets’ (as they are often called) for your movies as easily, rapidly and intuitively as possible.

The Pinnacle Studio Media Library

The Library’s classification scheme resembles what you might see in a file-system viewer. While the viewer groups files under their physical storage locations such as hard drives, the Library groups assets under their type – video, photo, and so on. In other respects, the tree view

Chapter 2: The Library 17

concept for accessing subgroups of assets is virtually identical and should feel immediately familiar.

In addition to audio, photo and video files in standard formats, the Library includes specialized auxiliary media like titles and disc menus. They are found, along with transitions, filters and other effects, in the main category called Creative Elements.

The Library can easily manage large media holdings such as are often found nowadays even on a home system. All of the dozens of media file types usable in Pinnacle Studio can be browsed, organized and previewed within its integrated interface.

Assets are displayed either as icons or text records within collapsible folders that stack up in the Library Browser. The folders may correspond either to real directories in your computer’s file system, or to virtual groupings based on ratings, file type, creation date, or membership in a user-defined Collection.

Adding assets to a project

Two views of the Library are found in Pinnacle Studio. The Main view takes over the application window when you click the Organize tab. It uses the full available space to provide as much information as possible.

18 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

To open the Main Library view, click the Organize tab at the top of the Pinnacle Studio application window.

The Compact view of the Library is a panel, either docked (as in the Movie and Disc project editors) or floating (as in the Title Editor). The Compact view retains the full functionality of the Library. Its primary purpose is to allow you to bring Library assets into a movie or disc project with drag and drop.

The current set of Library tabs, and the contents of the Browser, are common to all views of the Library. For instance, if you are browsing in a particular folder of disc menus in the Main view, that same folder will be open in the Compact view if you now switch to the Movie Editor.

Correcting media files

With regard to technical quality, media files are not all created equal. Occasionally, you do come across the perfect photo, clip, or sound effect. More often, though, the photo needs cropping, the video is shaky, or the sound starts with an annoying hiss. Pinnacle Studio’s media correction tools let you fix these and similar issues by applying correction filters to a problem clip after you have placed it on the timeline of your project.

Often, however, an even better solution is to apply the correction to the Library asset itself, before adding it to a project. That way, any

Chapter 2: The Library 19

production using the asset will start with the corrected version, not the unsatisfactory original. Such corrections can quickly be made by opening media editors from the Library. The file underlying the corrected asset is not modified: instead, the correction parameters are stored in the Library database and reapplied whenever the item is displayed or used.

Instant gratification: SmartMovie

In addition to the core functions mentioned so far, the Library offers a matching pair of tools for automatically constructing a complete project using media resources you specify. Just select some photos or video sequences, enter a few settings, and start. You can output the project Studio generates without further modification, or refine it with manual editing as you prefer. For more information, see on page 57.

“SmartMovie”

Understanding the Library

The Studio Library lets you manage and efficiently use the entire pool of media and other assets available for use in your productions.

What exactly does the Library contain?

The full range of assets that you can draw on for your projects is summarized by the four main branches of the Asset Tree. Each branch is further divided into more specialized subsections.

The All Media branch contains the standard media files on your system in subsections named types are supported. The purpose of the fourth subsection,

, is described below.

media

20 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Photos, Video, and Audio. Many standard file

Missing

The Projects branch of the Asset Tree contains your own Pinnacle Studio movie and disc projects. You can open a project right from the Library and begin editing it, or you can add it to the timeline of another project to serve as an ordinary clip.

Collections are custom groupings of Library media. The more time you spend on media management, the more you will probably use Collections. They can serve as temporary holding places while you work, or for classifying and setting aside media for later use. Collections may be automatically generated, but most are user defined. Hierarchically-organized Collections are also supported. The top-level Collections in the hierarchy are used as subsections of the Collections branch.

The Creative Elements branch is either a type of special effect (Effects and Transitions), or a special media type. Ready-to-use, royalty-free collections of all seven types are included with Pinnacle Studio.

Storage of Library assets

Every asset in the Library – every clip, sound, transition, and so on – corresponds to a file somewhere in the local storage of your computer system. The Library doesn’t ‘own’ these files, and never modifies them

Chapter 2: The Library 21

unless specifically requested to do so. Rather, it keeps track of their names, locations and properties in an internal database. The information stored also includes any tags and ratings with which you have annotated particular items, and the parameters of any correction filters you have applied.

The database

The files that make up the Library database are stored in a folder with single-user rather than shared access rights under Microsoft Windows. If Pinnacle Studio is used on your computer by multiple users with individual log-ins, a separate Library will be created for each.

Missing media

Operations like adding, removing and renaming a Library asset are database operations that have no effect on the media file itself. When you remove an asset from the Library, an option on the confirmation dialog box does let you go one step further and delete the actual file as well, but the option is off by default – you have to specifically request the action.

By the same token, when you delete or move an asset file in Windows Explorer or another application outside of Pinnacle Studio, the database record of the file continues to exist. Since the Library can’t actually access the file, however, an error graphic is added to the file’s listing. If the file still exists, but has simply been moved to another folder or device, relinking it to the Library is easy. Double-click the item to pop up a standard way to the file’s new location.

File Open dialog with which you can point the

22 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Incidentally, to check if there are missing media anywhere in the Library, look in the special subsection

All media >Missing media of the

Asset Tree.

Location tabs

Editing a video project involves coordinating the various media and other assets at your disposal. As you proceed, it’s likely that you’ll find yourself browsing repeatedly in various parts of the Library that are relevant to the project. No doubt you will also change your viewing and filtering options from time to time, depending on the material you’re reviewing.

Like a web browser that uses a row of tabs to allow flipping effortlessly amongst multiple open web sites, the Library lets you create and configure location tabs as you work. The tabs provide direct access to each of the various locations in which you are currently working.

Chapter 2: The Library 23

Here three tabs give access to media required by different parts of a disc project. The mouse pointer is poised to create a new tab. To close a tab, click the x icon to the right of the tab caption.

To set the location of the current tab, click a name in the Asset Tree. Changes you make to viewing and filtering options while the tab is active are retained between accesses.

The Navigator

The entire gamut of Library assets is organized into a folder tree whose structure and general usage should be familiar from file-system tools like Windows Explorer. When you select a location in the Navigator, the folder name appears on the caption of the active location tab, and its contents are displayed in the neighboring Browser.

24 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

In the Main Library, shown here, the Navigator occupies the left- hand pane of the workspace. In the compact view of the Library used by Studio’s project and media editing tools, the Navigator is presented instead as a dropdown list on the active tab.

The Group By menu

The header line of the All media branch offers a small dropdown menu of options to control how the groupings within each subsection of the branch are created.

The Photos subsection of the All Media branch is shown grouped by file type. The virtual folders have names like .bmp,

Chapter 2: The Library 25

.gif and .jpg – one virtual folder for each recognized file extension in the subsection’s media files.

When you group by folder (the default), the folder structure corresponds to actual directories on your hard drive, flash drive, or other file-system device. Some standard folders are included by default; you can add others at will using the watchfolder system. Grouping by folder is shown in the Main Library illustration above.

When you use another grouping, by rating, by date or by file type, exactly the same asset files are listed within each subsection as with the by folder grouping. However, instead of classifying them by the file system folders in which they are stored, the Asset Tree groups them into ‘virtual folders’ according to the chosen property.

Grouping by rating, for example, divides each subsection into six virtual folders. Five of them display media files to which you have given star ratings; the sixth is for those you haven’t rated yet. See

“The Browser”

on page 32 for more information about file ratings and their uses.

Under group by date, the folders represent the year of the file’s creation; within these, the files are further grouped by month.

26 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

The Main Library with grouping By Date selected in the All Media branch of the Navigator. The bottom-level folders in the Navigator are displayed in the Browser (right). These ‘virtual’ folders each represent all the photos whose file date falls within a particular month.

Grouping in other subsections

The Projects and Creative Elements branches of the Navigator also provide a group by menu, so it is possible for branches to be in different grouping modes. The menu commands are the same as described above for the All Media branch, except that the by file type option is not needed and doesn’t appear.

The add collection button

The Collections branch does not exhibit a group by menu. This button on the branch header lets you create a new Collection.

Chapter 2: The Library 27

Collections

From the Library’s point of view, a Collection is just an arbitrary grouping of assets – a set of Library items with no organizing principle. You may well have a good reason for gathering certain files into a particular collection, but the Library doesn’t have to know what it is. Inside a Collection, any asset can rub shoulders with any other.

One special Collection, with the name Latest import, is automatically updated after each import operation to display the media added. Immediately after importing, you can turn to this Collection and start working with the new material.

Another automatically-generated Collection is Latest Smart Creation, which stores the media you selected for your most recent production.

To create a new collection

1 Click the icon in the header line of the Collections branch and

enter a name in the provided text field.

2 Complete the process by pressing Enter.

Tip: Alternatively, choose Add to collection > Create new collection from any asset’s context menu.

SmartMovie

To manage collections

1 Right-click a collection and choose a command for renaming or

deleting the collection, or for creating a subcollection that has the current Collection as its parent ‘folder’.

To organize a collection

• Drag and drop a collection in the Navigator with the mouse. A dragged Collection becomes a subcollection when dropped upon another.

28 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Displaying collected assets

Clicking the name of a Collection causes it to be displayed in the Browser.

There is one important difference between the Browser view of Collections and those of all other categories: the media assets in any subcollections are visually merged with those of the selected Collection, but not subgrouped.

However, a special feature of the Browser makes it easier to keep track of the assets when viewing Collections, even if you’re not a robotically systematic sort of person: As your mouse pointer passes over any listed asset, the Collections to which the asset belongs ‘light up’ in the Navigator.

Operations on collected assets

These operations can be performed from the context menu of any Collection item. To act on a group of items, first select them with the mouse (using Ctrl-click and Shift-click for multiple selections as needed) or by dragging out a frame around the items. Then right- click within the selection to access the context menu.

To add to a collection

• Choose a target Collection on the Add to collection submenu to add the selected item or items.

Tip: Alternatively, drag the selection onto the target Collection.

To remove items from a collection

• Click the Remove command to remove the item (or items) from the Collection. As usual with the Library, the underlying media items involved are not affected, so removing a video or other item from a Collection in the Library does not delete it from other

Chapter 2: The Library 29

Library locations.

Managing Library assets

Media and other assets find their way into the Library in several ways. For instance, the original contents of the Creative Elements branch of the Library are installed with Pinnacle Studio.

The Library automatically discovers some assets on your system by regularly scanning Windows-standard media locations. These are set up on Pinnacle Studio installation as watchfolders. Media files in these locations will automatically be brought into the Library. You can add your own watchfolders (see below), and they will be automatically updated, too.

Finally, you can import media manually by any of several methods.

Watchfolders

Watchfolders are directories on your computer that Pinnacle Studio monitors. If you add media files such as video clips to a watchfolder, or one of its subfolders, they automatically become part of the Library. Updating occurs each time the application is launched and while the application is running.

Watchfolders are set up on the Watchfolders page of the Setup control panel. For each folder that you add, you can specify that either one particular supported media type will be ‘watched for’, or all of them. Please see

“Chapter 12: Setup” on page 365 for more information.

Importing

If you need to import a large amount or variety of media, or to import from analog media such as VHS tape, click the Import button near the

30 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

top of the application window to open the Importer. See “Chapter 10: The Importer” on page 291 for full information.

Quick import: The Quick Import button at the top left of the Library opens a Windows file dialog for fast import of files from a hard drive or other local storage. New folders in the corresponding media categories (photos, video, audio and projects) are created for the files specified. In addition, the imported items are included in the Last Import Collection.

Direct import via drag and drop: To select and import items in one step, use drag-and-drop from Windows Explorer or the desktop into the Browser. The new items are immediately displayed in the Collection ‘Latest Import’, which is created for the occasion if necessary.

Exporting directly from the Library

Any photo, video, audio file or project in the Main Library can be directly exported “as is”, using the context menu commands described below, to either a Cloud-based storage service or a disc. For other exporting options, use the Exporter instead, by selecting the asset and clicking the Export tab at the top of the window. See Exporter” on page 337 for full information.

“Chapter 11: The

To store a Library asset on a disc, select Burn Disc on the context menu. You can burn just the file, or a disc image if you have made one. If you select multiple assets, and then select Burn Disc, all of the assets will appear on the Burn files to disc dialog. More assets can be added by

Chapter 2: The Library 31

clicking the File icon and browsing. You can also delete files from the list before burning.

Removing items from the Library

To remove an item from the Library, or a selection containing multiple items, choose Delete key. A confirmation dialog lets you approve the list of media files to be removed from the Library database. By default, the files themselves will not be affected, but the Remove from library and delete option lets you delete the files too, if desired. Be careful, as this command works on all kinds of Library assets, including your Pinnacle Studio projects if any of those are selected.

When all the files in a folder are removed, the Library hides the folder as well.

You may also remove a folder and all the assets it contains from the Library when removing the folder from the watchfolders list. However, this is not automatic and you will be asked if you want to keep your current assets listed in the Library, but still stop monitoring the location.

Delete selected from the context menu or press the

The Browser

This is the area in which the Library displays its media assets – the videos, photos, audio, projects, collections and ‘creative elements’ that are available for you to use in your movie and disc projects. The items are displayed either as a list of text records or as a grid of icons. Visual asset types use thumbnail images for their icons; other types use graphic symbols.

The Library would not be much help if the Browser displayed all its assets at once. It therefore has several controls that help you screen out

32 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

items that aren’t relevant to your purpose. See “Choosing what to display” below for details.

Controlling the Browser display

A group of controls in the Library’s footer bar provides general functions for managing the way assets are presented in the Browser.

The info button, available in the main Library only, toggles the display of a panel across the bottom of the Browser pane

re details about the current asset are displayed, such as

whe its caption, file name, rating, and any tags or comments associated with it. The information may be edited, and for some assets, you can also open the corrections tools by clicking the gear icon on the top left corner of the pane.

The scenes view button applies to video assets only. While

this button is active, items in

individual scenes in a particular video, not the entire asset as usual. See “The Library preview” on page 41 for more information.

In the main Library, this and the next two buttons are grouped at right b

etween the info button and the zoom slider. In the compact Library,

the three buttons are placed at left.

The thumbnails view button switches to viewing assets as

thumbnails rather than as text lines. A pop-up checklist

ssociated with the button lets you select the readouts and

a controls that will appear beside thumbnails in the Browser.

the Browser represent the

The details view button switches to the alternative viewing

mode, in which each asset appear

s as a text listing. The pop-

up checklist with this button selects the text fields to be displayed.

Chapter 2: The Library 33

The zoom slider lets you magnify the

thumbnails to get a closer look, or pull back for a wider view of the footer bar.

. This slider is always found at the right-hand end

Thumbnails and details

Each asset is displayed in the Library Browser in one of two formats, depending on the view selected.

Because the icons of thumbnails view an view represent the same assets, they have certain features in common. For instance, the context menu for assets is the same regardless of which representation is used.

Similarly, standard media assets (vid Sound effects in the Creative Elements branch, open an appropriate media editor for corrections when double-clicked in either view. The corrections tools are also available when a media editor is invoked from the timeline, but when applied to a Library asset the corrections are carried forward into any future project that includes it. See “Correcting media files” on page 19 for more information.

d the text records of details

eo, photo and audio), along with

Details

In details view, each asset is presented as one line in a list of text records. In thumbnails view, it appears as a thumbnail image (for visual m

edia types) or graphic icon.

To switch the Browser to details view button pops up a panel listing the optional columns in the text records (one column, Caption, is always present). Check the

at the bottom of the Library. The arrow beside the button

, click the icon on the details view

available to be included

34 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

boxes beside any of these – File size, File type, Date, Tags, Rating and Duration – you wish to be shown.

In Details view, each asset is displayed as a one-line text record. A pop-up checklist beside the Details view button lets you select which columns to show. In the illustration, ‘animals’ and ‘scenery’ are the names of folders in the All Media branch of the Library.

Thumbnails

The thumbnails view button to the left of the details view button selects thumbnails view, in which assets are represented in the Browser

y icons rather than text. The arrow alongside the button opens a pop-

b up checklist on which you can choose additional data to be shown with each icon. The options are Rating, Stereoscopic, Information, Correction, Collection, Tag , Used Media, Caption and Shortcut.

At the bottom center of most asset icons a preview button, a standard triangular play icon en

closed in a square, is displayed when the mouse pointer is over the asset. In the compact version of the Library (as seen in the project editors and some media editors), the preview is

shown on the Source tab of the embedded Player. In the Main Library,

Chapter 2: The Library 35

the Player occupies a floating, resizable window. See “The Library preview” on page 41 for more information.

In either version of the Library, Alt-clicking the preview button will give you a mini-prev

iew on the asset icon itself. With video and audio media, you can control the mini-preview manually by means of a scrubber that appears below the thumbnail whenever the mouse is over the icon.

If the asset is a photo, a pop-up preview button replaces the standard play symbol. Clicking it will displa

y the photo in the pop-up Player.

When the Browser is in thumbnails view

, a slider is available to control the size of the icons. You will find the slider in the bottom right corner of the Library. The icons can also be resized with the scroll wheel when Ctrl is pressed and the mouse pointer is positioned over the Browser pane.

Locked content indicator: Some of the Disc Menus, Titles, Montages,

nd other creative elements in the Library are locked to indicate that

a you do not own a license to distribute them freely. This status is indicated by the lock indicator.

Even though locked, the content can still be handled as usual. You can edit it in the Library, and add it to a timeline. A project containing locked content can be saved, put on a disc and exported.

36 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

However, a translucent ‘watermark’ logo will appear on the locked content.

The locked content watermark.

To purchase and unlock the content, use one of the following options:

• In the Library, click the lock symbol on the icon.

• During export of a project with locked content, a dialog will appear prompting you to click the lock symbol.

• When editing effects in one of the media editors, click the lock symbol on the Settings panel. For more information, see

“The

Settings panel” on page 178.

Chapter 2: The Library 37

Optional indicators and controls

The optional indicators and buttons on an asset icon in the Library Browser let you access and in some cases modify information about the asset without having to burrow deeper. Use the pop-up checklist on the thumbnails view button to determine which indicators and buttons are displayed.

Caption: The caption below the icon is the Library alias for the asset, which you can set with the Edit caption context menu command for any asset. It is not necessarily the name of the underlying asset file (which is shown in the tooltip).

Shortcut: The presence of this indicator in the extreme upper left of a thumbnail shows that the asset is a shortcut rather than an independent media file. Shortcuts, which consist of a reference to an existing media item along with a package of Corrections settings, can be created from the File menu of the media editor for any Library asset. Thereafter, they behave like ordinary assets, and are available for use in your productions.

Tag in di ca to r: The bottommost of the three symbols at the right of the thumbnail is shown if the asset has any tags assigned to it. Hover the mouse pointer over the indicator to bring up a menu on which the existing tags for the asset are shown. As you pass the pointer over a tag name on this menu, a remove button appears. Click it to unset the tag. Click remove all at the bottom of the menu to clear all tags from

38 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

the asset. The creation and application of tags is discussed in “Tags” on page 50.

Collection indicator: Just above the tag indicator, the presence of this symbol indicates that you have included the asset in one or more Collections. To see which ones, hover the mouse over the symbol. As with the tag indicator menu, a remove button is shown as you position the mouse on each Collection name; click it to remove the asset from the Collection. The remove all command removes the asset from all Collections of which it is a member.

Corrections indicator: The Library allows you to apply image and audio correction filters ‘non-destructively’ on Library media assets, meaning that the original file remains intact. The types of corrections that have been applied to an asset, and the parameters that were used to control them, are stored in the Library database. If corrections have been applied to an asset, the corrections indicator appears just above the collection indicator. Click the indicator to open the applicable media editor and update corrections settings. See

“Correcting media files” on

page 19 for information about applying corrections to Library assets.

Chapter 2: The Library 39

Ratings: The row of stars above the top left of the icon lets you set the asset rating. If no stars are lit, the asset is said to be unrated. To set the rating of one asset or a selection of assets, either click the corresponding star on the indicator (click the first star twice to make the asset unrated again) or choose the setting on the Apply rating context submenu.

The Ratings control appears at the left above the asset thumbnail. At top right is the Info button. The Corrections indicator is also at upper right, just above the Collection indicator.

3D indicator: Assets whose content is designed for stereoscopic 3D viewing carry a 3D indicator. The indicator appears when video and photo assets are automatically detected as stereoscopic while importing them the Library, and when an asset has been manually set as stereoscopic in corrections.

Used media indicator: A checkmark is displayed to the right of the ratings indicator if the asset represented by the thumbnail is currently to be found in an open timeline within your project. The checkmark is rendered in green if the asset is used in the currently visible project; otherwise it is gray. The used media indicator applies only to photo, video and audio assets, not to items like transitions and titles that come from the Creative Elements branch.

40 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Information indicator: Clicking the information indicator opens the information panel in the pop- up Player, where you can edit the asset’s rating, title, and tags as well as view all its properties. Like most of the other indicators, the information indicator can be turned on and off using the thumbnails view pop-up.

The Library preview

Most types of Library asset support previewing in the Browser. The capability is indicated by a preview button on the asset icon, and the presence of a Show preview command on its context menu. Remember too that most asset types can be previewed on the icon itself with an Alt-click on the play button.

The Library Player

Clicking the preview button in the center of the asset icon loads the item into the Library Player for viewing.

Chapter 2: The Library 41

Previewing a video clip in the Library Player window. The transport controls are at the bottom, starting with a Loop button at the far left and a shuttle wheel. The third in the group of five arrow buttons starts playback. The two buttons on each side of it are for navigating from asset to asset in the Library folder.

Along the top of the Player, the current viewing position is displayed. At the bottom is a toolbar of transport controls and function buttons.

Transport controls

First among the transport controls is the loop button, which causes playback in a continuous loop from the start of the media. Next is a shuttle wheel with which you can sensitively control the speed of playback by dragging backwards and forwards on the control.

The center play button in the cluster of five arrow controls begins preview of the video or audio asset. The two buttons on either side of it are for navigating from the viewed asset to others in its folder. When previewing a photo the play button does not appear; only the navigation buttons remain.

42 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Click the mute button to the right of the transport controls to toggle the audio associated with the clip. A volume slider appears next to the mute button when the mouse is over it.

Function buttons

Some buttons in the final group at the bottom of the Player appear only with particular asset types. A video file uses all four types, in the order shown and described here.

Scenes view: This button activates a mode in which the Browser displays a separate icon or text record for each scene in the video file. (As explained under Video scene detection, a scene in the most general sense is just any portion of a video file.)

When Scenes view is active, the neighboring Open in corrections editor button is removed, and a Split scene button takes its place. This allows you to define your own scenes instead of, or as well as, relying on the automatic scene detection feature.

For more information about video scenes in the Library see “Video scene detection” on page 54.

Open in media editor: The media file is opened for editing in the applicable media editor so that corrections settings can be adjusted.

Full-screen: The preview is shown in a special full-screen window, with its own basic set of transport controls. To close the full-screen display, click the close button in the top right corner of the window, or press Esc.

Info: This button switches between the Player’s information and playback views. The information view can be opened directly by

Chapter 2: The Library 43

clicking the info button on a media asset icon in the Browser. Audio assets have no separate playback view; instead, full scrubbing controls are shown in the information view.

In the information view, the properties that can be edited are Rating, Title, Ta gs and Comment.

Here, data regarding a Library asset, a video, is displayed in the Information view of the Player. Click the highlighted Info button to return to the Playback view of the asset.

3D viewing mode switcher

When stereoscopic 3D content is being shown, the 3D viewing mode switcher will appear. On opening the Player, the default mode from the preview settings in the Control Panel is used for photos, videos, and

44 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

projects. The icon for the current mode is displayed beside a dropdown arrow used for switching modes. The available modes are:

Left eye, Right eye: The preview for stereoscopic content can be set to show only its left or right eye view

. This helps keep things simple at times when a stereoscopic preview is unnecessary. Editing in these views is carried out as for a 2D movie.

Side by side: This mode displays the frames for both eyes horizontally adjacent to each other, with the left eye on the lef

t and the right eye on right. When editing, no stereoscopic

equipment is needed.

Differential: Differential mode is good for detecting the ‘depth’ of an image m

ore easily, and especially for revealing

areas of ‘zero depth’. Differential mode show a 50% gray for areas where identical information is being presented to both eyes; a color difference is shown if the areas are not identical. If 2D material is added to a stereoscopic 3D timeline in differential mode, since the same content is shown to both eyes, the image will be a uniform gray.

Checkerboard: Checkerboard mode breaks the image up into

a 16 x 9 checkerboard pattern. The ‘white’ squares of the

eckerboard contain the view from one eye, the ‘black’

ch squares the other. Checkerboard mode provides a quick check on the ways the left and right frames differ across the whole image.

3D TV (Side by Side): Use this mode to preview stereoscopic

content on a 3D TV display or with a 3D projector by

nnecting it as a second monitor. This obviates the need for

co a special graphics card or additional hardware. Configure the second display to operate in its native resolution, and to extend your desktop, not just mirror it. Make sure the input format is side- by-side.

Chapter 2: The Library 45

In the Control Panel Preview settings, choose Second Monitor from the “Show external preview on” dropdown menu. Set up Studio with a 16x9 stereoscopic timeline. Finally, on the Player, click the Full Screen button. Please see “Export and Preview” on page 366, and “Timeline settings” on page 78 for help with these configurations.

Anaglyph: An Anaglyph stereoscopic preview is suitable for viewing with red-cyan stereoscopic glasses, with no

addition anaglyphic display works well even for images with a lot of red, thanks to a method very similar to the ‘optimized anaglyphs’ technique.

3D Vision: This stereoscopic mode is available with many

NVidia graphics cards after the 3D Vision feature has been

al hardware support required. Pinnacle Studio’s

enabled in your NVidia configuration utility

offered depends on the hardware available. At the basic ‘Discover’ level, the 3D Vision display is anaglyphic.

. The type of 3D display

Choosing what to display in the Library

The Library is much more than a passive storehouse of material for your Pinnacle Studio productions.

The Library Browser has several features for decluttering your view by hid

ing assets that aren’t relevant to your purpose. No matter how numerous your media files, the combined power of these techniques can greatly speed your browsing.

Location tabs

Most importantly, each location tab corresponds to a different selection on the Navigator. Like web browser tabs, location tabs are

46 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

readily defined (click the ‘+’ icon at the right end of the tab list), and come in handy for keeping track of multiple things simultaneously.

Clicking within the Navigator sets the location for the current tab; conversely, clicking another tab transfers you to its saved location on the tree. Only the assets within the chosen location are displayed in the Browser. If the location has subfolders, however, their contents will be included. To keep things simple, choose a location as near the bottom of the folder hierarchy as possible.

Other controls let you restrict the display further by filtering out some of the assets in the chosen location. Each location tab maintains its own set of filters, so any change of filtering settings affects the current tab only.

Filter by rating

The Filter by rating control at the top of the Library hides all assets that don’t have at least the specified rating from one to five stars (zero stars means ‘unrated’). To use the filter, simply click on the star that represents the minimum rating you want to bother with. The default filter setting is to show all assets regardless of rating.

See “Inadvertent filtering” on page 49 for instructions on switching off all filters at once. To deactivate just the rating filter click the last selected star or double-click any star.

Chapter 2: The Library 47

In this close-up, three stars are highlighted, meaning that only assets with ratings of three stars or better are on display. Here the mouse pointer is poised to click the fifth star, which would set the rating filter to hide all but five-star assets.

Filter by stereoscopic 3D

To display only stereoscopic 3D content, click 3D at the top of the Library. To return to viewing 2D assets as well, click 3D again.

Filter by tags

Another way to narrow the field of displayed assets is with filtering by tags. Tags are keywords that you can assign to assets as you work. Once tags have been defined, you can use them in several ways to control which assets are displayed by the Browser. See

“Tags” on

page 50 for detailed information.

Search

At the top right of the Library is a search field that gives one further way to filter the display. As you begin entering your search term, the Browser continually updates the view to include only those assets with text that matches your search term.

48 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Even when multiple terms are separated by spaces, partial-word as well as whole-word matches are allowed in each term. A dropdown list lets you choose whether the search will be satisfied if even a single search term matches the asset text, or if all terms must match for the asset to be accepted.

Inadvertent filtering

The various filtering methods can be combined at will. Should you leave any of the filtering types switched on when you don’t need it, it’s likely that some assets will be hidden that should be displayed. When an item is unexpectedly missing in the Browser, verify that filters are inactive.

The Browser guards against the possibility of inadvertent filtering by displaying a ‘filter alert’ that remains visible as long as any filter is in use.

Chapter 2: The Library 49

A filter alert like the one shown here is displayed at the top of the Browser whenever filtering is in force. Click the x icon at the right-hand end to clear all filtering at once.

Correcting media

You can apply the media correction tools in the Video, Photo and Audio editors directly to Library assets. This kind of editing does not change the underlying files. Instead, the editing parameters are stored in the Library database and are reapplied whenever the asset is recalled. See

An important purpose of the media correction tools is to allow you to make ‘adjustments’ on material that is not correctly identified automatically. With video footage, for example, the Adjustments group of tools allows you to override the Library-assigned aspect ratio, interlace mode and stereoscopic 3D format.

“Chapter 4: Corrections” on page 127 for details.

Video scene detection

Using the Library’s automatic scene detection function, video footage can be split into multiple scenes either automatically or manually. Dividing raw files into scene-length portions can make some editing tasks much less cumbersome than they would be otherwise.

The time required for scene detection varies depending on the length of the clip and the detection method selected. A progress bar keeps you informed of the status.

To initiate scene detection, select one of the methods on the Detect scenes context menu command for video assets.

By date and time: This option often results in logical scene boundaries that reflect your intention while shooting. In many digital recording

54 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

formats, such as DV and HDV, a discontinuity in the recorded timecode data occurs whenever the camera is restarted after being stopped. These shooting breaks are treated as scene breaks under the option.

By content: Under this option, the scene detection tool analyzes the image content of the material frame by frame, and establishes a new scene whenever there is an abrupt change in content. However, a quick pan or rapid movement across the frame may produce some unneeded breaks.

By time interval: In this variant you define the length of the scenes to be created. A small editing window opens for entering the desired value in hours, minutes, seconds and milliseconds. The scene duration has a one second minimum. Press Enter to confirm your input.

Show the scenes

To show the catalog of scenes for a particular video file, either select Show scenes from its context menu; or select the clip, then click the Scenes view button that appears at the bottom right of the Library.

Scene view is a temporary viewing mode. The orange bar at the top of the Browser alerts you that scene view is active. At the right hand end of the bar is an x button you can use to terminate the mode. Clicking the Scenes view button again has the same effect.

Chapter 2: The Library 55

A single video file can contain many scenes. This makes the footage easier to manipulate during editing than if it were treated as a single segment.

During editing, scene clips behave identically to other video clips.

Manually creating scenes

If you want to manually divide a video file into individual scenes, select Show scenes from the asset’s context menu, or click the Scenes view button. If you haven’t previously subdivided the file, it will now appear in the Browser as a single scene.

In the Library Player, navigate within the clip to each frame where a scene break should occur, then click the Split scene button. See “Function buttons” on page 43 for further information.

Removing scenes

To empty the entire list of scenes for a video file, select Scene detection >

Remove scenes on the asset’s context menu.

56 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

To remove individual scenes, select one or more scenes then press Delete.

SmartMovie

SmartMovie is a built-in project generator that allows you to create a slideshow or movie production automatically based on media you supply. The created production will include animated transitions, a full music soundtrack and eye-catching image effects.

At the bottom of the Library, just click SmartMovie.

To begin, select from the Library a series of photos or video files. Your music might come from digital audio assets already in the Library, or you can cook up a soundtrack on the spot with the ScoreFitter tool.

That might be all it takes, though you can work on the project further with manual editing if you wish. Once you have a final product you like, it takes only a few clicks to burn it onto a disc or save it as a file for other uses, such as upload to the web.

The SmartMovie panel that slides up into the window from below contains three subpanels. The leftmost of these presents information about SmartMovie, and advice on how many files to include. The center subpanel is a storage area with bins for photos and other images (top) and audio. The right subpanel contains controls for customizing the show.

Chapter 2: The Library 57

Adding media

To add media to the production, drag them from the Browser into the upper bin in the storage area. Drag thumbnails within the storage area to get the order you want. Continue adding further images until you are satisfied.

To add music, drag one or more sound files to the lower bin in the storage area. Alternatively you can click the clef button

in the

bottom left corner of the audio bin to create a music soundtrack in

oreFitter.

Preview, edit and export

Once your media are in place, click the Preview button on the footer bar below the tool. The project is created and presented in a preview window. If necessary, you can return to the settings to modify your media selections.

When you click the Preview button, the media you have chosen are automatically saved in a Collection named Latest Smart Creation. If you expect to make further use o Collection to prevent it being overwritten the next time you look at a SmartMovie preview.

The Edit button brings your production to the Movie Editor timeline for detailed editing. It’s a good idea to check that the timeline video settings match your requirements for the show. The video settings button on the settings panel (below) provides access to these. Also see “The Project Timeline” on page 70.

f this grouping of assets, rename the

58 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

When the presentation is the way you want it, click Export to burn a disc or create a file for upload.

The storage area

The photos in the upper bin are displayed as icons, while the music and sound files in the lower bin appear as text lines giving the file name and duration of each asset. Both bins support multiple selection, drag-anddrop reordering, and a context menu with just two commands:

Delete selected: The selected media are removed from the SmartMovie production. They remain available in the Library for other uses. (Shortcut:

Delete.)

Open editor: This command opens the Corrections tool of the Photo or Audio Editor. Any modifications you make to the media apply only within this SmartMovie production. (Shortcut: double-click.)

Settings

The settings on this subpanel customize the SmartMovie production.

Chapter 2: The Library 59

The settings entered will be used the next time the production is generated. The video settings button lets you set up the timeline options that will apply if you take the production into the Movie Editor. The clear project button removes all media from the project and returns to default settings.

Title: Enter a caption to be used as the m

Pan and zoom: Checking this option enlivens your presentation with simulated

Fit image: Check this option to enlarge images tha the selected format. For a more flexible approach, you can also consider correcting the asset with the Crop corrections tool.

camera moves.

ain title of the production.

t are too small for

SmartMovie

SmartMovie presents its controls on a panel that slides up into the Library from below. Again there are three subpanels. The leftmost presents information and advice concerning your SmartMovie. The center subpanel is a storage area with bins for video and photos (top) and audio. The right subpanel contains controls for customizing the show.

Adding media

The visual elements in your SmartMovie can include photos and other still images along with the video. Drag the assets you want to use from the Browser into the upper bin in the storage area. You can also drag thumbnails within the storage area to get the order you want. Continue adding further material until you are satisfied.

To add music, drag one or more sound files to the lower bin in the

rage area. Alternatively you can click the clef button

sto

60 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

in the

bottom left corner of the audio bin to create a music soundtrack in ScoreFitter.

As media are added, the total running time of the source material is displayed in the top-left corner of the bin. This is not necessarily the length of the resulting movie.

Preview, edit and export

Having placed your media, click Preview on the footer bar below the tool. The project is created and opened in a preview window. If necessary, you can return to SmartMovie to modify your media selections.

The analysis phase of generating a SmartMovie may take some time to complete the first time the material is analyzed. Full rendering of the project, with progress indicated by shading on the time-ruler of the Player, may introduce an additional delay before a fully-detailed preview is available.

When you click Preview, the media you have chosen are automatically saved in a Collection named make further use of this grouping of assets, rename the Collection to prevent it being overwritten the next time you generate a SmartMovie preview.

Latest Smart Creation. If you expect to

The Edit button brings your production to the Movie Editor timeline for detailed editing. As usual, it’s a good idea to check that the timeline video settings match your requirements for the show. The video settings button on the settings panel (below) provides access to these.

Chapter 2: The Library 61

When the presentation is the way you want it, click Export to burn a disc or create a file for upload.

The storage area

The visual assets in the upper bin are displayed as icons, while the music and sound files in the lower bin appear as text lines giving the file name and duration of each asset. Both bins support multiple selection, drag-and-drop reordering, and a short context menu:

Delete selected: The selected media are removed from the SmartMovie production. They remain available in the Library for other uses. (Shortcut:

Delete.)

Open editor: This command opens the Corrections tool of the Video Editor, the Photo Editor or the Audio Editor. Any modifications you make to the media apply only within this SmartMovie production. (Shortcut: double-click.)

SmartMovie settings

The settings on this subpanel customize the SmartMovie production.

Selecting the ‘medium’ Clip Length setting on the SmartMovie settings panel. At the bottom are buttons for adjusting video settings for the generated project, and for starting over.

62 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

The settings entered will be used the next time the movie is generated. The video settings button lets you set up the timeline options that will apply if you take the production into the Movie Editor. The clear project button removes all media from the project and returns to default settings.

Title: Enter a caption to be used as the main title of the movie.

Clip lengths: The visual tempo of your movie increases as the clip length is shortened. Maximum uses the original length of the asset.

Pan and zoom: Checking this option enlivens your presentation with simulated camera moves.

Fit image: Check this option to enlarge material that is too small for the frame format of your project.

Video volume: Set the volume of the original audio in the video segments. For a soundtrack of background music only, set to zero.

Media order: Set the order of slides from ‘As defined’ (you set the sequence), ‘Chronological’ (by file date), and ‘Random’.

Chapter 2: The Library 63

64 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor

The Movie Editor is Pinnacle Studio’s main editing screen for digital movie creation. The editor brings together three main components:

The Library, in its compact view, provides the assets available to your project.

The Timeline lets you organize the assets as clips within a schematic representation of your production.

The Player lets you preview Library assets before adding them to your project. It also lets you view – on a frame-by-frame basis if you like – how any part of the production will actually appear to your audience when you export it, whether you save it as a file, burn it to a disc, transfer it to a device, or upload it to the Internet.

Along with the Library, the timeline of your project, and the Player, the Movie Editor window provides a variety of tools and panels for creating and editing titles, adding effects, and other purposes.

The compact Library

The compact view of the Library, which uses the top left of the Movie Editor screen, is a core feature of the editing environment. If you switch back and forth between the Library and the Movie Editor, you will see that the same location tab is selected in both views, and that the same Library assets are on display.

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 65

To make navigation easier in the compact view of the Library, the location tabs across the top bear icons that indicate the type of content that will appear in the Browser when the tab is clicked. To display a different part of the Library, click the expand-collapse triangle beside the icon. This opens the folder tree through which you can access any Library asset.

Finding Library assets using the expandable Navigator in the compact Library.

With the compact Library and the timeline together in the same window, adding assets to your movie becomes a breeze: just drag the items you want from the Library Browser onto the timeline.

66 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Previewing in the project editors

You can operate the Player either in single or dual preview mode. Click the Preview Mode button to toggle between them.

The Player in single mode. You can choose to view either ‘Source’ (Library) or timeline material.

in the upper right corner of the Player

Single mode conserves screen space by providing only one Player preview. The Source and Timeline tabs above the Player indicate whether Library or timeline material is being viewed, and allow you to switch from one to the other.

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 67

The player in dual mode. The side-by-side previews let you browse the Library while keeping your current movie frame in view.

In dual mode, Source (Library) material is shown in the left-hand preview, and timeline material in the right-hand preview, each with

its own set of transport controls. The dual view ma kes it easier t o locate Library assets that fit well with your movie by making both the existing and the prospective material visible simultaneously.

68 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

A portion of the Movie Editor display, with the compact view of the Library at upper left, the Player at upper right (partly visible), and at bottom the timeline, with the Navigator panel open in its upper region.

Disc editing

If you plan ultimately to release your movie on DVD with interactive menus, you will at some point need the special features of the Disc Editor. It provides all the same timeline editing features as the Movie Editor, but also lets you create and work on the disc menus with which users will navigate your production.

Pinnacle Studio lets you smoothly transition a movie to a disc project at any time during development, so it’s all right to start in the Movie

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 69

Editor even if you end up targeting DVD for output instead of or as well as the other options. Please turn to Chapter 9: Disc projects for information about the special features provided for disc authoring. The other aspects of timeline editing are covered in this and subsequent chapters.

Slideshow productions

In addition to all types of video productions – ‘movies’ – the Movie Editor (and the Disc Editor) can be used for authoring complex slideshows and presentations from still images. The same editing techniques apply in both cases.

The Project Timeline

The timeline is where you create your movie, by adding video, photo and audio assets from the Library, by editing and trimming these core media, and by enlivening them with transitions, effects, and other enhancements.

Timeline fundamentals

The timeline consists of multiple tracks – as many as you require – in a vertical stack. Tracks nearer the top of the stack are positioned towards the front when viewed, their opaque parts obscuring the tracks below.

The basic action of movie authoring is to drag an asset from the Library to a timeline track, where it is called a clip. With a little practice, you can lay out a rough edit of a movie very quickly just by adding its main media assets at their approximate timeline positions.

70 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

At the left end of the timeline are track headers with several controls per track: a lock button, the track name, and monitoring buttons for the track’s video and audio. Here the current default track is ‘Main’.

The track header: To the left of each track i s a hea der area th at provide s access to functions such as disabling video or audio monitoring for the track.

The default track: One track is highlighted with lighter background color, and is also marked with an orange bar to the left of the track header. This is the default track. It has a special role in certain editing procedures; for instance, it is the target track for pastes. To make another track the default track, click in its header.

Your current position on the timeline corresponds to the video frame shown in the Player when it is in Timeline mode. The current position is indicated by a vertical red line, at the bottom of which is a draggable scrubber handle. Another vertical line marks the same position in the Navigator.

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 71

The toolbar

Above the tracks, the timeline toolbar provides several clusters of editing-related tools. (In the Disc Editor, the toolbar also includes tools specifically for disc authoring.)

The Navigator

The Navigator is an auxiliary navigation panel that can be revealed or hidden by clicking its icon on the Navigation tool selector near the left end of the timeline toolbar.

The full-width strip appears just below the toolbar. It gives a bird’s- eye view of your whole project at a reduced scale. In the Navigator, the ba rs rep resenting c lips hav e the same colors a s they d o on the ti meline, except that the bar representing the selected clip is drawn in orange. Clicking in the Navigator allows you to speedily access any timeline location.

72 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

A portion of the Navigator strip, showing the current position (vertical line, left) and the translucent draggable view window.

The gray rectangle that encloses a portion of the Navigator display – the view window – indicates the section of your movie currently visible on the timeline tracks.

To change which part of the movie is in view, click and drag horizontally within the view window. The timeline scrolls in parallel as you drag. Since your timeline position does not change, this may take the scrubber out of view.

Zoom

To change the zoom level of the timeline, either click and drag horizontally in the time-ruler along the bottom of the timeline, or drag the sides of the view window. The first method has the advantage that it alway s leave s the scre en positi on of th e playhe ad undi sturbed , which may make it easier to orient yourself after the zoom.

To change the zoom of the Navigator itself, use the plus and minus buttons immediately to its right.

Double-clicking on the view window adjusts the zoom of both the Navigator and the timeline such that your entire movie fits within the Movie Editor window.

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 73

The Storyboard

Assembling a movie can involve juggling a large number of photos and video clips, as well as deciding where to place titles, Montages and the like. In the Storyboard, the clips on one track of your movie are presented as a sequence of icons, so you can see at a glance what is included and where. To choose which track to view in the Storyboard, use the Storyboard link button in the track header.

Any of the photos, video, audio, projects, Montages and titles in the Library can be added to your movie by dragging and dropping them onto the Storyboard. Once there they can be rearranged, or removed altogether if you change your mind.

Different types of clips are represented in the Storyboard with different colors. For example, photos and videos have a blue frame, and projects have a gray frame. As in the timeline, clips that have had effects applied appear with a magenta line on the top, and clips with corrections have a green line. A colored band connects the Storyboard icon with the position of its clip on the timeline; a gap in the timeline is reflected in a gap in the Storyboard. Once you become familiar with the color coding, it will help you quickly visualize the structure of your movie.

74 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

The Storyboard displays a sequence of icons representing the contents of one track. Effects (magenta) and corrections (green) are indicated on the top edge of the icon; the length of the clip is shown on the bottom.

The space just below the toolbar where the Storyboard appears is also used by the Navigator (and in the Disc Editor by the Menu List). Which tools is visible, if any, is controlled by the Navigation tool selector near the left end of the timeline toolbar.

Navigating in the Storyboard

To scroll to a part of the Storyboard that is not in view, hover with the mouse over the Storyboard until a hand cursor appears. Now click the left button and drag the Storyboard. If you drag the mouse quickly and release the mouse button, the Storyboard will briefly continue scrolling, thus creating a ‘swiping’ behavior.

Alternatively you can hover over the Storyboard and use the mouse wheel to scroll, or use the arrows at each end of the Storyboard.

Editing with the Storyboard

Although most editing takes place on the timeline tracks, the Storyboard has some editing capability. For instance, effects can be added directly to a clip on the Storyboard by dragging and dropping

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 75

the effect onto the clip. The clip’s context menu offers the same set of commands here as on the timeline. Any editing that takes place on the Storyboard is immediately reflected in the timeline, and vice versa.

Adding clips: Any photo, video, audio clip, project, Montage or title can be added to your project by simply dragging it from the Library to the Storyboard. An insertion line appears to indicate where the new clip will be placed. You can select multiple clips to add them all at once.

Inserting or replacing clips: If you are inserting material between clips already on the Storyboard, drag the new clip so that it overlaps the right side of the clip that will precede it. When the insertion line appears and a space opens up, drop the new clip into the gap.

To replace a clip, drag the new one onto the clip to be replaced. The insertion line will appear, and the old clip will highlight to indicate proper placement. The new clip must be the same type as the old. A video clip cannot be replaced by a photo or audio clip, for example.

Selecting clips: To select a clip, click on its icon; an orange frame around the clip indicates selection. The timeline scrubber will jump to the beginning of the selected clip, and a connecting band of color will link the Storyboard clip with its timeline counterpart. If the timeline position of the selected clip is currently off-screen, it will be brought into view.

You can select multiple clips using the Shift and Ctrl keys according to the usual Windows conventions.

76 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Reordering clips: To pick up a clip and move it, click on it until it is selected, and then drag it to its new location. If necessary, the Storyboard will scroll until you reach the desired position.

Resizing

The height of the timeline, along with the relative proportions of the Library and the Player, can be adjusted with the sizing grip in the form of an inverted T in the middle of the screen.

To adjust the height of individual timeline tracks, grab and adjust the separator lines between the track headers on the left. If the vertical size of all tracks exceeds the available viewing area, a scroll bar at the right will allow you to select which tracks are in view.

Set the height of the Storyboard (when it is visible) by vertically dragging the horizontal separator along the Storyboard’s bottom edge. For more information, see “Navigation tool selector” on page 80.

The timeline toolbar

The toolbar above the Movie Editor timeline offers various settings, tools and functions that apply to the timeline and timeline editing. These are described in order from left to right.

Customizing the toolbar

The timeline toolbar can accommodate numerous buttons to help editing go more smoothly. One set of buttons is available for the Movie Editor and a somewhat larger set for the Disc Editor. The Customize toolbar button subset of the available buttons you wish to display.

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 77

at the far left of the toolbar lets you choose which

The Customize toolbar panel, with all available buttons selected for display.

Clicking the button brings up a panel upon which all the other toolbar buttons can be individually set as visible or hidden. The gray check marks beside the Timeline settings button and a few others indicate that these buttons are not optional and will be displayed as a matter of course. Check or uncheck the boxes for the optional buttons until the toolbar has been configured to your liking, or check the Select all box to display all of the buttons.

Some of the commands invoked by buttons also have keyboard

ortcuts. These work whether the button is displayed or not. (See

sh “Appendix D: Keyboard shortcuts” on page 427 for more information.)

Timeline settings

By default your timeline settings are copied from the first video clip you add to the timeline. If that will give the right result, you won’t have to alter them.

If you do need to change these basic image properties of your project, click the Gear button configure the four settings provided.

to open the timeline settings panel and

Aspect: Choose between a 4x3 a

78 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

nd a 16x9 display.

Imaging: Choose between Regular (2D) and Stereoscopic (3D).

Size: Choose amongst the HD and SD pixel resolutions available for the given aspect ratio.

Frame rate: Choose from a selection of frame rates consistent with the other settings.

These settings can be changed at any time during the development of your movie, but you should be aware that a change of the frame rate can cause a slight shifting of clips on the timeline as they adjust to new frame boundaries.

Timeline settings

Video material that is not in compliance with the chosen project settings will be converted automatically on being added to the timeline. If you are making a stereoscopic movie, 2D material may be used but it will still look two dimensional, as both the right eye and left eye views will be the same. 3D material can be used on a 2D timeline, but only the left eye channel will be shown.

If you want to choose a video standard for your projects explicitly, rather than relying on inheriting the format from the first clip added, open the Project settings page of the application settings. See

“Project

settings” on page 374.

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 79

Navigation tool selector

The space just under the toolbar can be occupied by the Navigator or the Storyboard, or by neither. (In the Disc Editor there is a third possibility – the Menu List.) The Navigation tool selector includes a dropdown that lets you select which tool you want displayed in that area.

Clicking on the selector icon toggles the visibility of the area itself.

See “Th e Navi gator ” on page 72 and “The Storyboard” on page 74 for more about these navigation tools.

Audio mixer

This button opens the enhanced audio control area with volume adjustment tools and access to the Panner, a su

rround panning control.

ScoreFitter

ScoreFitter is the integrated music generator of Pinnacle Studio, providing you with custommusic exactly adjusted to the duration required for your

movie. See “ScoreFitter” on page 261.

80 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

composed, royalty-free

Title

The Title button opens the Title Editor. If none of the many supplied titles answers your need, why not author one of

our own? See “Chapter 7: The Title Editor” on page 195.

Voice-over

The voice-over tool lets you record commentary or other audio content live while viewing your movie. See “The Voiceover tool” on page 263.

Razor blade

To split one or more clips at the playhead position, click the razor blade button. No material is deleted by this operation,

ut each affected clip becomes two clips that can be

b handled separately with respect to trimming, moving, adding effects and so on.

If there are selected clips at the playhe will be split. Both parts of those clips remain selected after the split.

If there are no selected clips at the pla by it will be split and the right-hand parts will be selected to facilitate easy removal in case that is desired.

Locked tracks are exempt from the split operation.

ad on any track, only those clips

yhead line, all clips intersected

Tra sh ca n

Click the trashcan button to delete all selected items from

the timeline. “Deleting clips” on page 96 for details on how

other timeline clips may be affected by the deletion.

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 81

Snapshot

If, while previewing video on the timeline, you see a frame that you would like to capture as a still image, click the

napshot button. This creates a photo of the image

S currently being previewed, and puts it in the Snapshot folder under Photos in the Library.

Using the Snapshot button on the timeline is a frame; for more control, use the Snapshot tool in the Video Editor. Please see “Snapshot” on page 151 for more about the Snapshot tool.

quick way to grab a

Markers

The marker functions available here are identical to those

provided in the media editors for video and audio. Please see

“Markers” on page 148.

Instead of being attached to a particular clip, markers are considered to belong to the video composite at the marked point. Only if there is a clip selection embracing all tracks at the marked point, and only if no track is locked, will the markers change positions during timeline editing.

however, timeline

Trim mod e

To open a trim point, place the timeline scrubber near the

cut to be trimmed and click the trim mode button.

again to close trim mode. Please see “Trimming” on page 99 for more details.

Click it

82 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Dynamic length transitions

Ordinarily when a transition is added to the timeline, it is given the default length you have configured in Setup. Click

this button if you When the button is highlighted, the transition durations can be set by dragging the mouse to the right or left while placing the transition onto a clip. For more about transitions, please see “Transitions” on page 116.

would like to override the default length.

Magnetic snapping

Magnet mode simplifies the insertion of clips during

dragging. While the mode is active, clips are ‘magnetically’

rawn to other items on the timeline when they approach

d within a critical distance. This makes it easy to avoid the unnecessary – though often indiscernibly small – gaps between items that are otherwise apt to arise during editing. If you want to deliberately create such a gap, however, simply turn off the mode to allow the preferred placement.

Volume keyframe editing

The volume keyframe editing button toggles keyframe-

based editing of clip audio. While the button is engaged, the

en volume contour on each timeline clip becomes

gre editable. In this mode you can add control points to the contour, drag contour sections, and other operations. While the button is off, the volume keyframes are protected against modification.

Opening the Audio Mixer automatically ac

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 83

tivates the button.

Audio scrubbing

By default, the audio portion of a project can be heard only during playback in the preview. The audio scrubbing button

the timeline toolbar provides an audio preview even

on while just ‘scrubbing’ through your movie by dragging the timeline scrubber control.

The shuttle wheel of the Player also provides audio scrubbing.

Editing mode

The editing mode selector at the right- hand end of the timeline toolbar determines the behavior of other clips when editing changes are made.Material to the left of the edit point is never affected in timeline editing, so this applies only to clips that extend rightward from the edit point.

Three choices of editing mode are

available: smart, insert and overwrite. The default is smart, in which Pinnacle Studio selects from insert, overwrite and sometimes more complex strategies in the context of each editing operation.

Smart mode is designed to maintain synchronization between timeline tracks as far as possible. In a multitrack editing situation, clips typically have vertical as well as horizontal relationships. When you have carefully placed your cuts to coincide with the beats of a music track, for example, you don’t want to disrupt everything when you make additional edits.

84 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Insert mode is always non-destructive: it moves other clips on the track out of the way before inserting new material. It will also automatically close gaps created by removing material. Only the target track is affected. Any prior synchronization with other tracks from the edit point rightwards is lost.

Insert is most useful in the early stages of a project, when you are collecting and arranging clips on the timeline. It ensures that no material will be lost, and makes it very easy to reorder clips and sequences of clips.

In the later stages, when the structure of your project is approaching its final state and you have started carefully synchronizing material on different tracks, insert mode is less helpful. The very properties that favor its use for the early stages (the ‘ripple’ behavior) count against it when finalizing. This is where overwrite comes into play.

Overwrite directly affects only the clips you select. Changing the length or position of a clip in overwrite mode will overwrite neighboring clips (if you lengthen) or leave gaps (if you shorten). It will never affect the synchronization between tracks.

Alternative mode

The smart editing mode works by predicting what you’re trying to do and determining whether insert, overwrite or even some more complex strategy would be best to apply. You’ll find it usually does what you want, but there are sure to be other times when you have something else in mind.

Many actions support both insert and overwrite, but no other possibilities. Smart mode will use sometimes one and sometimes the other, but if insert isn’t what you want, overwrite usually is, and vice

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 85

versa. All you need, therefore, is a method of overriding smart mode’s default behavior.

To change insert to overwrite behavior, or overwrite to insert, hold down the Alt key while carrying out your edit as usual. You can press (or release) Alt as you please while setting up the edit: what counts is the state of the key at the instant the operation is finally enacted, such as when you drop dragged items onto the timeline.

The trick works in all editing modes, so it’s always available when you need it. If you are not satisfied with the default behavior, just cancel or undo as needed, then try again with

In one timeline editing operation – that of replacing one clip by another while retaining its duration, effects and other properties – the Shift key takes on a similar role. See details.

Alt.

“Replacing a clip” on page 94 for

The timeline track header

In the header area of the timeline are a number of controls affecting the arrangement and organization of the timeline tracks. These are covered here, while the audio functions controlled from the timeline header, such as track volume, are described in the topic timeline” on page 251.

“Audio on the

The all tracks area above the track headers offers controls similar to those found on each track header but with global effect: they apply to all tracks simultaneously, overruling the individual settings.

Default track

The orange vertical line to the left of the track header, together with a lighter background shade, identifies the default track. It provides a

86 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

destination track for certain functions, including send to and paste. Newly-created titles and ScoreFitter songs are also added on this track. For more information see “Using the Clipboard” on page 111, “Chapter 7: The Title Editor” on page 195 and “ScoreFitter” on page 261.

To make another track the default track, simply click anywhere within the track header other than on a button or other control.

“Sending to the timeline” on page 94,

Locking

Click the padlock buttons to protect a track from unintended edits. The same button in the all tracks area confers this protection on the whole project.

Storyboard link

The Storyboard is an alternative representation of a timeline track. A small storyboard link button appears beneath the padlock button on all track headers when the Storyboard is open. Click the button to select a given track as the one linked to the Storyboard display.

Tra c k n a me

To edit the name of a track, click the name once to access the in- place editor, or select Edit track name from the track header context menu. Confirm your edit with Enter, or cancel it with Esc.

Video and audio monitoring

The video and audio buttons in the track header control whether this track contributes its video and audio to the composite output of the project. They support the many editing situations in which it is advantageous to block the output of one or more tracks in order to

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 87

simplify the preview. The same buttons in the all tracks area toggle audio and video monitoring for the entire project.

Additional track functions

The following functions are available in the track-header context menu:

New track: You can insert a new track either above or below the existing track.

Delete track: Delete a track and all clips on it.

Move track: Drag the track header up or down to a new layer position. As you drag, a bright horizontal line appears at valid placements.

Copy track: Keeping the Ctrl key pressed while moving a track will copy the track instead of move it.

Tra c k si z e: The context menu contains four fixed track sizes (Small, Medium, Large, Very large). For custom sizing, drag the separator line between the track headers to seamlessly adjust the height.

View waveforms: Toggle the waveform view for audio clips.

Please see “A u d io on th e t i meline” on page 251 for coverage of Timeline audio functions.

Editing Movies

The first step in any movie editing session is to bring your project into

Movie Editor to begin work.

the

To launch a new production: Choose File >New > Movie from the main menu. Before adding your first clip, make sure that the timeline video format will be right for the project (see below).

88 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

To edit an existing movie: Select a recent project from the File > Recent menu; click locate the movie you want to open in the

File > Open to browse for a movie project to open; or

Projects folder of the Library,

and double-click the thumbnail.

If your movie has been stored as a project package, it must be unpacked before editing. Find your project in the Studio Projects group in the Library, and use the

Unpack project package command on the

thumbnail’s context menu.

A project package thumbnail in the Library, with the context menu open. After unpacking, the movie will appear on the project’s timeline, ready for editing.

Alternatively, you can click File > Open and find the project package in Explorer by choosing

Studio Project Package (axx) in the file extension

box.

When unpacking is finished, the unpacked project is added to the Library and opened on the project editor timeline, where it can be edited as usual.

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 89

To open a Studio project: Choose File > Import previous Pinnacle Studio projects

. Ple ase n ote t hat s ome f eatu res of pr ojec ts c reate d wi th a previous version of Studio may not be supported in the current version.

To import a Studio for iPad project: Choose File > Import Studio for iPad App projects

Timeline settings

To start editing a new project, verify that the video format settings of your project – aspect ratio, 2D or 3D, frame-size and playback speed – are as you want them. You can choose in the Project settings tab of the application settings to set the values of these properties automatically by matching the first clip added to the project. You can also set them manually. See

“Project settings” on page 374 for configuring the automatic feature, and “The timeline toolbar” on page 77 for instructions on entering project settings manually.

Depending on your timeline settings, clips in some formats might not be instantly playable. Such content will automatically be rendered in an appropriate format.

Establishing tracks

With only minor exceptions, timeline tracks in Pinnacle Studio do not have specialized roles. Any clip can be placed on any track. As your projects become more complex, however, you will find it increasingly helpful to give some thought to the organization of tracks, and rename them according to their function in the movie. For information on track properties and how to edit them, please see

“The timeline track

header” on page 86.

90 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Pinnacle Systems Studio - 18.0 User Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

Before you start

Abbreviations and conventions

Buttons, menus, dialog boxes and windows

Help and Tooltips

Help

Video tutorials

Tool tips

Finding your version information

Upgrading

Chapter 1: Using Pinnacle Studio

The Importer

The Exporter

The central tabs

The Library

The next step

The Movie Editor and the Disc Editor

The media editors

The Player

Pinnacle Studio Projects

Chapter 2: The Library

Adding assets to a project

Correcting media files

Instant gratification: SmartMovie

Understanding the Library

What exactly does the Library contain?

Storage of Library assets

The database

Missing media

Location tabs

The Navigator

The Group By menu

Grouping in other subsections

The add collection button

Collections

To create a new collection

To manage collections

To organize a collection

Displaying collected assets

Operations on collected assets

To add to a collection

To remove items from a collection

Managing Library assets

The Browser

Thumbnails and details

Optional indicators and controls

The Library preview

The Library Player

Transport controls

Function buttons

3D viewing mode switcher

Choosing what to display in the Library

Location tabs

Filter by rating

Filter by stereoscopic 3D

Filter by tags

Search

Inadvertent filtering

Tags

Tag management and filtering

Creating, renaming and deleting tags

Sorting tags

Filtering with tags

Turning off tag filtering

Correcting media

Video scene detection

Show the scenes

Manually creating scenes

Removing scenes

SmartMovie

Adding media

Preview, edit and export

The storage area

Settings

SmartMovie

Adding media