Pinnacle Systems Studio - 19.0 User Guide

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Pinnacle Studio™ 19 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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

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

The Navigator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Project Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Collections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Contents i

Favorites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Managing Library assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

The Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Thumbnails and details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Optional indicators and controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

The Library preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Choosing what to display in the Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Correcting media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Video scene detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

SmartMovie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

The compact Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Previewing in the project editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

The Project Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

The timeline toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

The timeline track header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Editing Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Title Editor, ScoreFitter, voice-over. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Deleting clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Clip operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Using the Clipboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Movies within movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Clip effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Clip context menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Chapter 4: Corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Media editing overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

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Photo editing tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Correcting photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Red-eye. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Correcting video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Video tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Video corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Stabilize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Correcting audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Chapter 5: Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Effects in the media editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Effects on the timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

The Settings panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Working with keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Video and photo effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Working with transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Pan-and-zoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Chapter 6: Montage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

The Montage section of the Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Using montage templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Montage clips on the timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Anatomy of a template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Montage editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Using the Montage Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Chapter 7: The Title Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Launching (and leaving) the Title Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

The Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

The Presets Selector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Preset Looks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Contents iii

Preset Motions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Creating and editing titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Background settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Look settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

The Edit window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Text and text settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Titles and stereoscopic 3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

The Layer List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Working with the Layer List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Working with layer groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Chapter 8: Sound and music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

The Audio Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Audio corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Audio effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Audio on the timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Timeline audio functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Audio creation tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258

ScoreFitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

The Voice-over tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Using Audio Ducking to automatically adjust volume . . . . . . . . 264

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

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

Adding disc menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Import To panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

The Mode panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

The Compression Options window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

The Scene Detection Options window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

The Metadata panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

The Filename panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Selecting assets for import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Selecting files for Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Customizing the browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Adjusting the import file date and time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Scan for assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Import from DV or HDV camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Import from analog sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

Import from DVD or Blu-ray Disc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Import from digital cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Stop motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

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

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

Output to file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Output to cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Output to a device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Output to a MyDVD file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Contents v

Chapter 12: Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Watchfolders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Audio device. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Event logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Export and Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Project settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Storage locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Restore purchase. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Chapter 13: Screen capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Starting a screen capture project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Recording your screen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

Chapter 14: Multi-Camera Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

The Multi-Camera Editor workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Basic steps in multi-camera editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

Importing video and audio clips into the Multi-Camera Editor . . 380

Synchronizing video and audio clips in multi-camera projects . . 381

Choosing an audio source for your multi-camera project . . . . . . 382

Editing multiple clips to create a multi-camera compilation . . . . 384

Adding picture-in-picture (PIP) in the Multi-Camera Editor . . . . . 387

Managing multi-camera source files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Saving and exporting your multi-camera project . . . . . . . . . . . . 389

Using Smart Proxy for a faster, smoother editing experience . . . 390

Appendix A: Troubleshooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Contacting support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Forums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

vi Pinnacle Studio

Top support issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Capture hardware compatibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

Serial number information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

Error or crash while installing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401

Hangs or crashes while launching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

Troubleshooting software crashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

Case 1: Studio crashes randomly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Case 2: Studio crashes after a user action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

Case 3: Studio crashes repeatably . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

Export problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

Disc playback problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

Appendix B: Videography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Creating a shooting plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414

Rules of thumb for video editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418

Soundtrack production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421

Appendix C: Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423

Appendix D: Keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

General shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440

Playing and transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Importer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

Movie interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

Media editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Title Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Appendix E: The installation manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

Before you begin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

Contents vii

Upgrade Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

Launching the Installation Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

Supporting installations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447

The Welcome Screen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447

Common controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447

Installing plugs-ins and bonus content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448

System requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448

viii Pinnacle Studio

Before you start

Thank you for purchasing Pinnacle Studio™19. We hope you enjoy using the software.

If you have not used Pinnacle Studio before, we recommend that you

eep the user guide handy for reference even if you don’t actually read

k it all the way through.

In order to ensure that your movie-making experience gets off on the r

ight foot, please review the topics.

Note: Not all features described in the user guide are included in all versions of Pinnacle Studio. For more information, please 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.

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’ applies to 8mm, Hi8, VHS, SVHS, VHS-C or

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

Buttons, menus, dialog boxes and windows

Names of buttons, menus and related 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 pa interface. Our documentation generally takes for granted that you know how to open and use them.

2 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

rts of the Pinnacle Studio

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

o video tutorials, the Pinnacle Studio 19 User Guide PDF, and

links t oth

er community and support links.

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/studio19

Get a 30-day, all-access pass to StudioB new Pinnacle Studio 19 content, loads of other training and a royalty-free stock library. (Training is in English only.)

acklot.tv, featuring brand-

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 Help button > About.

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 softwar button > Online Offers & News > Software Offers.

4 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

e, click the Help

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 Studio’s

window. The same steps apply to any type of production, from

main 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 motion tool for building up video frame-by-frame. See “Chapter 10: The Importer” on page 291 for details.

from video files, and a Stop

File menu import commands: Choosing Import from the file menu has t

he same effect as clicking the Import tab: it opens the Importer. The

enu provides three other import-related choices as well. Each of

Chapter 1: Using Pinnacle Studio 5

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 p

rojects created with earlier versions of Studio.

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

• Quick Import lets you directly select ordinary media files—photo,

o, audio and project—for import.

vide

Studio Importer

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

Studio 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.

Like the Importer, the Exporter o

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

rofessionally-designed titles, DVD menus, sound effects and more.

The Library uses project bins to organize assets. Project bins are virtual f

olders for your assets. They are created automatically during import and you can create them manually to organize your assets according to your needs (for example, by project).

– that you can draw on when authoring. Almost

You can also use watchfolders to a media files that are added to the folders you choose to “watch”. For information about activating watchfolders, see “Watchfolders” on page 359. When you use watchfolders, a Library Media branch is added to the Asset Tree in the Library branch if Pinnacle Studio detects a library from a previous version of Pinnacle Studio (you must enable watchfolders if you want to continue populating this branch).

utomatically monitor and import

. You will also see a Library Media

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.

8 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Compact view

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

urpose of the compact view is to allow assets to be brought

into a movie or disc project from the Library by drag-and-drop.

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

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

f controls. With either of these you select some visual media assets to

o 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 Studio project

ontaining the media and options requested. You can export the

c project immediately, or edit it further by hand as you choose. For more information, see “Instant gratification: Sm

artMovie” on page 19.

The Movie Editor and the Disc Editor

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

or more information, see “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

wing the current Library asset (‘source’) and the current timeline

vie 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 projec

t authoring. “Chapter 3: The

Movie Editor” on page 59.

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 Libr 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.

ary asset, the media file is not

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 anything from a barely perceptible dissolve to an audience-awakening flare.

of one clip to the next with

Chapter 1: Using Pinnacle Studio 13

Effects range from the practical (Brightness and contrast) to the theatrical (Fractal fire). Effects can be animated with keyframed p

arameter 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.

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 123 and “Chapter 5: Effects” on

see page 149.

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 40. For the use of the Player in trim mode on the timeline, see “Clip operations” on page 91. For information on using the P “Using the Montage Editor” on page 186. For the use of the Player in editing disc menus, see “Previewing disc menus” on page 275.

layer with Montage, see

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

e very large, the project file does not include the media items in your

b movie. For these, only their location in the Library is stored.

The axp project file is the de

fault file format for the File > Open, File > Save and File > Save As menu commands. It may be the only one you ne

ed.

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.

If you create a multi-camera project in the Multi-Camera Editor

, the project is saved as a mcam file. When you add an mcam file to the timeline, it is added as a single tra

ck by default. You can expand it by

right-clicking the file in the timeline and choosing Edit Movie.

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

Chapter 2: The Library 17

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 Content.

The Library can easily manage large media ho

ldings 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.

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

18 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

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 co

mmon 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 b the Library asset itself, before adding it to a project. That way, any production using the asset will start with the corrected version, not the 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.

etter solution is to apply the correction to

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

Chapter 2: The Library 19

project Studio generates without further modification, or refine it with manual editing as you prefer. For more information, see “SmartMovie” on page 55.

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 Project Bins branch organizes your imported media in virtual

lders. By default, the folders are labelled according to import date,

f but you can right-click a folder to rename it and you can click the Create new project bin button to add a new bin.

The Library Media branch appears only if you enable Watchfolders or

ur current version of Pinnacle Studio detects a previous library (see

if yo “Watchfolders” on page 359). In most cases, Project Bins can be used instead of the Library Media branch.

The Library Media branch contains the standard media files on your system in subsections named Photos, Video, and Audio. Many standard f subsection, Missing media, is described below.

The Projects branch of the Asset Tree contains your own Pinnacle

udio movie and disc projects. You can open a project right from the

S Library and begin editing it, or you can add it to the timeline of another project to serve as an ordinary clip.

20 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

ile types are supported. The purpose of the fourth

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 Content 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 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.

Chapter 2: The Library 21

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 yo

u 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 File Open dialog with which you can point the way to the f

ile’s new location.

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

et Tree.

Ass

22 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

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

mongst multiple open web sites, the Library lets you create and

a configure location tabs as you work. The tabs provide direct access to each of the various locations in which you are currently working.

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

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

The Navigator

The entire gamut of Library assets is organized into an asset tree whose folder-style structure and general usage should be familiar from filesystem 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.

Chapter 2: The Library 23

In the Main Library (top), the Navigator occupies the lefthand pane of the workspace. In the compact view (bottom), used by Studio’s project and media editing tools, the Navigator is presented instead as a dropdown list on the active tab.

Project Bins

Project bins are virtual folders for your assets. They are created automatically during import and you can create them manually to organize your assets according to your needs (for example, by project).

24 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

To create a project bin

1In the Project Bins branch of the Library Asset tree, click the Create

a new project bin button

2 Type a name for you bin and click OK.

The bin is added to the end of the project bin list.

To rename a project bin

1In the Project Bins branch of the Library Asset tree, right-click a

project bin, and choose Rename.

The current name appears highlighted

2 Type a new name for the bin.

To re m o ve a b i n

•In the Project Bins branch of the Library Asset tree, right-click a project bin, and choose Remove Project Bin.

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 L 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 Late which stores the media you selected for your most recent SmartMovie

oduction.

Chapter 2: The Library 25

test import, is automatically

st Smart Creation,

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.

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.

Displaying collected assets

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

26 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

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 Library locations.

Favorites

Using Favorites is a quick way to mark and find your preferred content, such as your favorite effects, transitions, and titles.

To mark content as Favorite

1 In the Navigation panel of the Library, open the Content branch,

and click a content type.

2 In the browser area of the Library, right-click a thumbnail and

choose Add to Favorites.

Content marked as Favorites appears at the top of the Library in a Favorites folder (when the content is organized by folder). Each typ

e of content has its own Favorites folder that can be accessed

rom the corresponding Content category in the Navigator panel.

Chapter 2: The Library 27

Favorites in the Library

Managing Library assets

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

The Library automatically discovers some assets on your system by re

gularly 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

28 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

your own watchfolders (see below), and they will be automatically updated, too.

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

Watchfolders

You can turn on Watchfolders to monitor directories on your computer. If you add media files such as video clips to a watchfolder, or one of its subfolders, the files automatically become part of a Media Library branch in the Asset Tree. 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

el. For each folder that you add, you can specify that either one

p particular supported media type will be ‘watched for’, or all of them. Please see “Chapter 12: Setup” on page 359 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 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 Library opens a Windows file dialog for fast import of files from a hard drive or other local storage. New folders in the corresp categories (photos, video, audio and projects) are created for the files specified. In addition, the imported items are included in the Last Import Collection.

Chapter 2: The Library 29

at the top left of the

onding media

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 “Chapter 11: The Exporter” on page 337 for full information.

To store a Library asset on a disc, select Burn Disc on the context menu.

ou can burn just the file, or a disc image if you have made one. If you

Y select multiple assets, and then select Burn Disc, all of the assets will

ppear on the Burn files to disc dialog. More assets can be added by

a 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 selected from the context menu or press the 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 f as well.

30 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

older are removed, the Library hides the folder

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.

The Browser

This is the area in which the Library displays its media assets – the videos, photos, audio, projects, collections and ‘content’ 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

sets at once. It therefore has several controls that help you screen out

a 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 wher

e details about the current asset are displayed, such as 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.

Chapter 2: The Library 31

The scenes view button applies to video assets only. While this button is active, items in th

e Browser represent the individual scenes in a particular video, not the entire asset as usual. See “The Library preview” on page 40 for more information.

In the main Library, this and the next

two butt

ons are grouped at right between 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 as

sociated with the button lets you select the readouts and

controls that will appear beside thumbnails in the Browser.

The details view button switches to the alternative viewing mode, in which each asset appears as a text listing. T

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

The zoom slider lets you magnify the thumbnails to get a closer look, or pull

back for a wider view. This slider is always

found at the right-hand end

of the footer bar.

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 and the text records o 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.

f details

32 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Similarly, standard media assets (video, photo and audio), along with Sound effects in the Content 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.

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 (f media types) or graphic icon.

or visual

To switch the Browser to details view, click th button

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

pops up a panel listing the optional columns av

e icon on the details view

ailable to be included in the text records (one column, Caption, is always present). Check the 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.

Chapter 2: The Library 33

Thumbnails

The thumbnails view button to the left of the details view button selects thumbnails view, in which a by icons rather than text. The arrow alongside the button opens a popup 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

sed in a square, is displayed when the

enclo 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, the Player occupies a floating, resizable window. See “The Library preview” on page 40 for more information.

In either version of the Library, Alt-clicking the

preview button will give you a mini-previ

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.

ssets are represented in the Browser

ew on

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

y the photo

When the Browser is in thumbnails view,

in the pop-up Player.

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.

34 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Locked content indicator: Some of the Disc Menus, Titles, Montages, and other creative elements in the Library are locked to indicate that 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.

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.

Chapter 2: The Library 35

• 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 174.

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).

36 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

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 i nd ic ato r : The bottommost of the three symb

ols 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 the asset. The creation and application of tags is discussed in “Tags” on page 48.

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.

Chapter 2: The Library 37

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.

Ratings: The row of stars above the top left of the icon lets you set the as

set 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

38 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

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 check mark 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 check mark 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 Content branch.

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.

Chapter 2: The Library 39

Multi-Camera indicator: Projects created in the Multi-Camera Editor have a four-pane square icon in the upper right corner of the thumbnail.

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.

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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.

Chapter 2: The Library 41

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 53.

Open in media editor: The media file is opened for editing in the

pplicable 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

42 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

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

Chapter 2: The Library 43

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 s

imple 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 left

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 mo

re 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

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

chec 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

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

conn 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.

44 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

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 360, and “Timeline settings” on page 72 for help with these configurations.

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

additional ha 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

rdware 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

Th e Librar y is muc h more th an a pass ive st orehous e of mat erial fo r your Pinnacle Studio productions.

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

ng assets that aren’t relevant to your purpose. No matter how

i 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

Chapter 2: The Library 45

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 th

e 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” all filters at once. To deactivate jus selected star or double-click any star.

on page 48 for instructions on switching off

t the rating filter click the last

In this close-up, three stars are highlighted, meaning that only assets with ratings of three stars or better are on display. Here

46 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

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 48 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.

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.

Chapter 2: The Library 47

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 a

lert’ that remains visible as long as any filter is in

use.

A filter alert (orange bar) 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 “Chapter 4: Corrections” on page 123 for details.

An important purpose of the media correction 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.

52 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

tools is to allow you to

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

f the clip and the detection method selected. A progress bar keeps

o you informed of the status.

To initiate scene detection, select one of the methods on the Detect s

cenes context menu command for video assets.

By date and time: This option often results in logic

al scene boundaries that reflect your intention while shooting. In many digital recording 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 im

age 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 le

ngth 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.

Chapter 2: The Library 53

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.

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

ene break should occur, then click the Split scene button. See

sc “Function buttons” on page 42 for further information.

54 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Removing scenes

To empty the entire list of scenes for a video file, select Scene detection > Remove scenes on the asset’s context menu.

To remove individual scenes, select o

ne 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 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 y 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.

ou can work on the project further

The SmartMovie panel that slides up into the window from below

ntains three subpanels. The leftmost of these presents information

co about SmartMovie, and advice on how many files to include. The center subpanel is a storage area with bins for photos and other

Chapter 2: The Library 55

images (top) and audio. The right subpanel contains controls for customizing the show.

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

age area. Alternatively you can click the clef button

stor

in the

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

Fitter.

Score

As media are added, the total running time of the source material is disp

d in the top-left corner of the bin. This is not necessarily the

laye

length of the resulting movie.

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

tomatically saved in a Collection named Latest Smart Creation. If you

au expect to make further use of

this grouping of assets, rename the Collection to prevent it being overwritten the next time you look at a SmartMovie preview.

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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.

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 provides access to these. Also see “The Project Timeline” on page 64.

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

roduction. They remain available in the Library for other uses.

p (Shortcut: Delete.)

Open editor: This command opens the Corrections tool of the Photo or

dio Editor. Any modifications you make to the media apply only

Au within this SmartMovie production. (Shortcut: double-click.)

Chapter 2: The Library 57

SmartMovie Settings

The settings on this subpanel customize the SmartMovie production.

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

ain 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

Fit image: Check this option to enlarge mate

camera moves.

rial that is too small for the

frame format of your project.

Video Track Volume: Set the volume of the original audio in the

video

segments. For a soundtrack of background music only, set to zero.

58 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

presentation of your production.

The Player lets you preview Library assets before adding them to your

t. It also lets you view – on a frame-by-frame basis if you like –

projec 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

nd 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 59

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.

60 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 61

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 makes it easier to locate Library assets that fit well with your movie by making both the existing and the prospective material visible simultaneously.

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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.

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 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

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 63

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.

64 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 le ft of e ach tr ack is a he ader are a tha t prov ide s access to functions such as disabling video or audio monitoring for the track.

The default track: One track is highlighted with lighter background

r, and is also marked with an orange bar to the left of the track

colo 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

hown in the Player when it is in Timeline mode. The current position

s 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 65

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 re prese nti ng cl ips h ave the s ame colo rs a s the y do o n the time line , except that the bar representing the selected clip is drawn in orange. Clicking in the Navigator allows you to speedily access any timeline location.

66 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 alwa ys lea ves th e sc reen pos ition of th e pla yhe ad un dis turb ed, w hich 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 Nav

igator and the timeline such that your entire movie fits within the

Movie Editor window.

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 67

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

olors. For example, photos and videos have a blue frame, and projects

c 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.

68 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 w

heel 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 69

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 on

to 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.

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.

70 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

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 timelin 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 v dragging the horizontal separator along the Storyboard’s bottom edge. For more information, see “Navigation tool selector” on page 73.

e tracks, grab

and adjust the

ertically

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.

at the far left of the toolbar lets you choose which

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 71

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

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

shor “Appendix D: Keyboard shortcuts” on page 439 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

72 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Aspect: Choose between a 4x3 and 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

er settings.

oth

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.

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,

ather than relying on inheriting the format from the first clip added,

r open the Project settings page of the application settings. See “Project settings” on page 368.

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.

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 73

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

See “Th e Na vig ato r” o n pa ge 66 and “The Storyboard” on page 68 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 surr

ound panning control.

ScoreFitter

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

movie. See “ScoreFitter” on page 259.

omposed, royalty-free

Title

The Title button opens the Title Editor. If none of the many supplied titles answers your need your own? See “Chapter 7: The Title Editor” on page 191.

, why not author one of

74 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

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 261.

Audio Ducking

Audio Ducking is used to automatically lower the volume of one track so that you can hear another track better. For more information, see “Using Audio Ducking to automatically

adjust volume” on page 264.

Multi-Camera Editor

The Multi-Camera Editor is a workspace that lets you create professional-looking video compilations from footage of

ents that have been captured on different cameras, from

ev different angles. For more information, see “Chapter 14: Multi-Camera Editing” on page 375.

Razor blade

To split one or more clips at the playhead position, click the

razor blade button. No material is deleted by this operation,

each affected clip becomes two clips that can be

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

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

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 75

on any track, only those clips

If there are no selected clips at the playhead line, all clips intersected 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.

Tras hc an

Click the trashcan button to delete all selected items from the timeline. “Deleting clips” on page 91 for details on how other timeline clips may be affected by the deletion.

Snapshot

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

apshot button. This creates a photo of the image

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

Using the Snapshot button on the timeline is a quick way to grab a frame; f Please see “Snapshot” on page 147 for more about the Snapshot tool.

or more control, use the Snapshot tool in the Video Editor.

Markers

The marker functions available here are identical to those

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

“Markers” on page 144.

Instead of being attached to a particular clip, however 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

76 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

, timeline

marked point, and only if no track is locked, will the markers change positions during timeline editing.

Trim m o de

To open a trim point, place the timeline scrubber near the cut to be trimmed and click the trim mode button. Click it

ain to close trim mode. Please see “Trimming” on page 94

for more details.

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 would 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 111.

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’

to other items on the timeline when they approach

drawn 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.

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 77

Volume keyframe editing

The volume keyframe editing button toggles keyframebased editing of clip audio. While the

green volume contour on each timeline clip becomes 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

button is engaged, the

tivate

s 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

on th

e timeline toolbar provides an audio preview even 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 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.

78 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

ailable: smart, insert and

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.

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

state and you have started carefully synchronizing material on

its final 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.

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 79

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

, but if insert isn’t what you want, overwrite usually is, and vice

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

To change insert to overwrite behavior 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, need it. If you are not satisfied with the default behavior, just cancel or undo as needed, then try again with Alt.

In one timeline editing operation – that of repla another while retaining its duration, effects and other properties – the Shift key takes on a similar role. See “Replacing a clip” on page 89 for details.

, or overwrite to insert, hold

so it’s always available when you

cing one clip by

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

80 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

header, such as track volume, are described in the topic “Audio on the timeline” on page 249.

The all tracks area above the track headers offers controls similar to th

ose 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 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 “Sending to the timeline” on page 89, “Using the Clipboard” on page 106, “Chapter 7: The Title Editor” on page 191 and “ScoreFitter” on page 259.

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

click anywhere within

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.

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 81

Trac k n ame

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 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

ting track.

exis

Delete track: Delete a track and all

Move track: Drag the track header up or down to a new layer position. As y

ou 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.

Track s i z e : The context menu contains four fixed track sizes (Small, Mediu

m, Large, Very large). For custom sizing, drag the separator line

between the track headers to seamlessly adjust the height.

82 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

clips on it.

View waveforms: Toggle the waveform view for audio clips.

Please see “Audio on the timeline” on page 249 for coverage of Timeline audio functions.

Editing Movies

The first step in any movie editing session is to bring your project into the Movie Editor to begin work.

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

To edit an existing movie: Select a recent project from the File > Recent menu; click File > Open to browse for a movie project to open; or

cate the movie you want to open in the Projects folder of the Library,

nd double-click the thumbnail.

at the timeline

If your movie has been stored as a pr

oject 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.

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 83

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

When unpacking is finished, the unpacked project is added to the

rary and opened on the project editor timeline, where it can be

Lib edited as usual.

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

tudio projects. P le ase note that som e f eatures of proje ct s c reated with

previous version of Studio may not be supported in the current

version.

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

ad App projects.

84 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

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 368 for configuring the automatic feat instructions on entering project settings manually.

Depending on your timeline settings, clips in some formats might not be instantly appropriate format.

ure, and “The timeline toolbar” on page 71 for

playable. Such content will automatically be rendered in an

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 80.

Adding clips to the timeline

Most types of Library asset can be brought onto the timeline as independent clips. The types include video and audio clips, photos, graphics, ScoreFitter songs, Montage and titles. You can even add your other movie projects as container clips that work just like video clips in your project. Disc projects, however, cannot be added as container clips to a timeline, since they require a capability – user interactivity – that timeline clips don’t have.

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 85

Drag-and-drop

Drag-and-drop is the commonest and usually the most convenient method of adding material to a project. Click any asset in the Movie Editor’s compact view of the Library and drag it wherever you like on the timeline.

When crossing into the timeline area during the drag and continuing to the target track, watch for the appearance of a vertical line under the mouse pointer. The line indicates where the first frame of the clip would be inserted if dropped immediately. The line is drawn in green if the drop would be valid, and red if it would not be possible to insert a clip where indicated (because the track is protected, for example).

It is possible to insert multiple clips Simply select the desired Library assets, then drag any one of them to the timeline. The sequence in which the clips appear on the track corresponds to their ordering in the Library (not the order in which you selected them).

Magnet mode: By default, magnet mode is switched on. This makes it

asier to insert clips so that their edges meet exactly. The new clip

e snaps to certain positions, like the ends of clips or the positions of markers, as if drawn by a magnet once the mouse pointer gets close to the potential target.

On the other hand, don’t worry about whether the first clip is right at

start of the timeline. Not every movie starts with a hard cut to the

the first scene!

into the timeline at the same time.

Live editing preview

In order to eliminate the confusion created by complex editing situations, Pinnacle Studio provides a full dynamic preview of the

86 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

results of editing operations as you drag clips around on the timeline. If things seem to jump around a bit more than you’re used to during timeline editing, this is the cause. Don’t worry: you will quickly get used to and learn to take advantage of the extra information provided. Take it slowly at first. Watch the changes on the timeline as you hover the dragged item over various possible landing places, and complete the drop when you see the result you want.

If it turns out that drag-and-drop isn’t working the way you want,

ither press Esc or move the mouse pointer out of the timeline area and

elease the button. Either of these abandons the drag-and-drop

r operation. To call back a drag-and-drop after it’s complete, press Ctrl+Z or click the undo button.

Don’t forget that you can vary many timeline editing operations with

ternative mode: just press and hold Alt while dragging or trimming.

n a one-for-one clip replacement, Shift is also significant.

Advanced drag-and-drop

After you have assembled an assortment of clips on a timeline track, it’s only matter of time before you want to start changing things around. For instance, you might want to:

• Fill a gap with clips.

• Insert some clips before a specific clip.

• Replace a clip already on the t

imeline with a different one.

The smart editing mode helps you achieve these goals with ease.

Filling a gap

Smart mode makes it simple to fill a particular timeline gap with new material, for example. Rather than having to painstakingly pre- trim the

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 87

new material to the space available, you simply drag items into the gap. Any clips that are not needed for filling the gap will be dropped, and the last clip used will automatically be trimmed to the appropriate length. No clips already on the timeline are affected, so no synchronization problems can result.

Inserting clips

Suppose that your goal is to add new material to the timeline at a point where there is an existing clip. You don’t want the clip already there to be overwritten, however; you just want it (and any clips to its right) to move rightwards far enough to make room for the new material.

Here again, smart editing provides a painless answer

. Simply drag the new material to the start of the clip that is in the way, rather than into a gap. The clip moves aside exactly as far as necessary.

Inserting with split

If you drop an item onto the middle of an existing clip, rather than at a cut, the clip will be split. The new material is inserted at the point you specified, and is followed immediately by the displaced portion of the original clip.

In smart mode, synchronization of the target track with all other tracks is maintained by inserting in each of th em a gap of length equal to the new clip. To avoid affecting the other tracks in this way, use insert instead of smart mode. Alternatively, pressing Alt as you drop the new material will cause it to overwrite a portion of the existing clip. A third approach is to lock any track that should not be modified, although this will affect the synchronization of clips on locked tracks with those on unlocked tracks.

88 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Replacing a clip

To replace a clip, drag a single Library asset onto the clip you want to replace while holding down Shift. The replacement clip will inherit any effects and transitions that were applied to the original clip. Corrections are not inherited, however, since they are usually meant to address the issues of a particular media item.

In smart mode, the replace operation clip is long enough to cover the full length of the clip being replaced. In other modes a Library clip of insufficient length will be extended using over-trimming. The direction and amount of the extension is based on your mouse position as you drag. For information on overtrimming, please see “Over-trimming” on page 93.

If the Library asset is longer than needed, it will be truncated to the

length as the clip being replaced.

same

will succeed only if the Library

Sending to the timeline

In addition to dragging a clip to the timeline, you can ‘send’ it to the default track at the position of the playhead. The operation is equivalent to drag-and-drop, so smart mode is applied accordingly when deciding how other clips will be affected. The Send to timeline

ommand is found on the context menu of an individual asset or

c multiple selection in the compact view of the Library.

Sending from the Player

There is also a second ‘send’ method that provides greater control.

If you click on a Library asset when working in the Movie Player switches to Source mode for previewing. For trimmable media

Editor, the

Chapter 3: The Movie Editor 89

(video and audio), the Player also provides trim calipers for cutting out a starting or ending portion of the asset.

Clicking the Send To Timeline button in the Player after trimming a Library video asset.

After previewing the asset and trimming it if required, use the send to timeline button at the bottom left of the Player. As usual, the asset is added to the project on the default track and at the playhead. A useful variation is to click anywhere within the Player screen and drag the asset onto any desired timeline track. The asset is added at the drop point rather than at the playhead.

Title Editor, ScoreFitter, voice-over

These three functions add new clips to the project’s timeline, clips that are not underpinned by any Library asset. Instead, they are created from settings and other actions you take during editing.

Once your editing is complete, both titles and ScoreFitter clips will be sent to the default track on the timeline using the Send to timeline function, while voice-over clips will go to the special voice-over track instead. For details please see “Chapter 7: The Title Editor” on page 191, “ScoreFitter” on page 259 and “The Voice-over tool” on page 261.

90 Pinnacle Studio User Guide

Pinnacle Systems Studio - 19.0 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

Project Bins

To create a project bin

To rename a project bin

To re m o ve a b i n

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

Favorites

To mark content as Favorite

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