Pinnacle Systems Xpress - 5.0 User Manual

Avid Xpress

Effects Guide

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Trademarks

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Footage

Arri — Courtesy of Arri™/Fauer — John Fauer, Inc. Bell South “Anticipation” — Courtesy of Two Headed Monster — Tucker/Wayne Atlanta/GMS. Canyonlands — Courtesy of the National Park Service/Department of the Interior. Eco Challenge British Columbia — Courtesy of Eco Challenge Lifestyles, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Eco Challenge Morocco — Courtesy of Discovery Communications, Inc. It’s Shuttletime — Courtesy of BCP & Canadian Airlines. Nestlé Coffee Crisp — Courtesy of MacLaren McCann Canada. Saturn “Calvin Egg” — Courtesy of Cossette Communications. “Tigers: Tracking a Legend” — Courtesy of www.wildlifeworlds.com. Windhorse — Courtesy of Paul Wagner Productions.

Avid Xpress Effects Guide • Part 0130-05015-01 Rev. A • April 2002

Using This Guide

Who Should Use This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

About This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Symbols and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

If You Need Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Related Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

If You Have Documentation Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

How to Order Documentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Chapter 1 Preparing to Work with Effects

Effect Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Effects Creation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Understanding Effect Playback Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Using the Effect Palette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Understanding the Effect Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Displaying the Effect Palette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Resizing the Effect Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Understanding the Color Coding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Displaying Effect Templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Using Third-Party Plug-in Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Understanding AVX Plug-Ins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

IllusionFX Pack Plug-Ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Installing AVX Plug-Ins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Locating the AVX Plug-Ins Folder (Windows Only) . . . . . . . . . . 47

Upgrading AVX Plug-ins and Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Assigning Multiple Tracks in Plug-in Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Using AVX Plug-in Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Accessing an AVX Custom Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Custom AVX Controls in the Effect Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Troubleshooting AVX Plug-Ins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Plug-in Does Not Appear in the Effect Palette. . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Plug-in Does Not Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Avid Xpress Cannot Render the Plug-In. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Blank Effect Icons in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Missing Effect Categories in the Effect Palette. . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Chapter 2 Basics of Effects Editing

Deconstructing Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Applying Effects to a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Applying an Effect to a Single Transition or Segment. . . . . . . . . 57

Dragging an Effect from the Effect Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Double-Clicking an Effect Icon in the Effect Palette . . . . . . . 59

Applying an Effect to Multiple Transitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Applying an Effect to Multiple Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Deleting Effects in a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Deleting a Single Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Deleting Multiple Transition Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Deleting Multiple Segment Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Using the Fade Effect Button. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Working with Transition Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Applying a Dissolve Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Using the Effect Palette to Create a Dissolve Effect. . . . . . . . 68

Creating a Dissolve in Trim Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Adding Dissolves with the Head Fade and

Tail Fade Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Using the Quick Transition Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Creating an Effect by Using the

Quick Transition Button. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Applying Effects to Multiple Transitions Using the

Quick Transition Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Understanding the Graphical Display in the

Quick Transition Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Sizing the Effect to Fit the Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Trimming a Transition Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Chapter 3 Customizing Effects

Opening the Effect Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Customizing the Effect Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Understanding the Effect Preview Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Effect Preview Monitor Toolbar Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Understanding the Tracking Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Displaying the Safe Title and Safe Action Guidelines . . . . . . . . . 89

Moving an Enlarged Image in the Effect Preview Monitor . . . . . 91

Changing Position in an Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Replacing an Effect in Effect Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Using the Effect Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Effect Editor Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Displaying an Effect’s Parameters in the Effect Editor. . . . . . . . . 97

Understanding Effect Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Using Parameter Sliders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Using Parameter Enable Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Using Fast Menu Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Using the Other Options Button to Access Parameters . . . . . . . 102

Adjusting a Color Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Using the Eyedropper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Using the Windows Color Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Using the Macintosh Color Picker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Working with Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Adding a Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Selecting a Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Moving a Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Changing a Keyframe’s Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Copying and Pasting Keyframe Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Deleting a Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Manipulating Effects Directly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Defining Motion Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Moving the Image Directly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Resizing a Foreground Image by Dragging Handles. . . . . . . . . 115

Working with Advanced Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Promoting Effects to Advanced Keyframes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Opening Keyframe Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Effect Editor Controls for Advanced Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Adding and Deleting Keyframes for

Advanced Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Using the Add Keyframe Mode Menu and the

Delete Keyframe Mode Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Moving Keyframes in Keyframe Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Elastic Keyframes and Fixed Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Parameter Changes at Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Options for Controlling Parameter Changes

at Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Adjusting Parameter Values with the

Bézier Interpolation Option. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Align Keyframe and Slip Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Aligning Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Slipping Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Extrapolate and Hold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Adjusting the View in Keyframe Graphs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Zooming and Scrolling Keyframe Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Resizing Keyframe Graphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Moving Keyframe Graph Views Up or Down. . . . . . . . . . . 147

Resetting Keyframe Graph Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Options for Using Advanced Keyframes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Using an Effect Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Saving an Effect Template. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Applying an Effect Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Chapter 4 Playing, Previewing, and Rendering Effects

Playing an Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Basic Playback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Playing an Effect in a Continuous Loop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Playing a Preview of an Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Playing Real-Time Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Playback Capabilities for Two-Stream Video . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Playback Capabilities for Single-Stream

Uncompressed Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Playing Complex Effect Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Combined Rendering of Real-Time and

Non-Real-Time Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Previewing Effect Frames with Render On-the-Fly . . . . . . . . . . 161

Interrupting Render On-the-Fly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Rendering Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Creating and Using Render Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Creating a New Render Setting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Adjusting Render Settings Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Activating a Render Setting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Partial Render . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Interrupting a Render. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Customizing Render Ranges Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Rendering a Single Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Rendering Effects at Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Rendering Effects Between IN and OUT Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

ExpertRender. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Understanding ExpertRender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Using ExpertRender to Render Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Modifying ExpertRender Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Considerations When Using ExpertRender . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Examples of ExpertRender Behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Rendering Process for a Media Station XL Workflow . . . . . . . . 185

Modifying the Render to Media Station XL Results. . . . . . . . . . 187

Managing Effect Media Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Revealing Effect Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Deleting Effect Media Files from a Bin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Chapter 5 Creating Motion Effects

Understanding Motion Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Creating Motion Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Playing and Rendering Motion Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Rendering Considerations When Creating

Motion Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Rendering and Rerendering Existing Motion Effects . . . . . 200

Displaying Information About Motion Effect

Type Changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Freeze Frame Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Creating a Freeze Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Controlling a Freeze Frame with a

Single Button or Key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Creating a Rolling Clip That Freezes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Creating a Variable Speed Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Using the Fit to Fill Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Creating a Strobe Motion Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Stabilizing an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Making Adjustments to the Region of Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Chapter 6 Creating Layered and Nested Effects

Creating Key Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Creating a Chroma Key Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Creating a Luma Key Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Creating a Matte Key Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Using the Color Effect to Prepare a High-Contrast Image . . . . . 227

Working with Imported Graphics and Animation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Editing with Imported Matte Key Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Editing with Imported Master Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Nesting Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231

Expanding Nested Effects in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Stepping Into and Out of Nested Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Creating a Simple Nested Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Changing the Order of Nested Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

Nesting a Matte Key Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Submaster Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Applying the Submaster Effect to a Multilayered Sequence . . . 240

Using the Submaster Effect with a Series of Short Clips . . . . . . 241

Collapsing Layers into One Submaster Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

Performing a Video Mixdown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Chapter 7 Working with 3D Effects

Understanding the 3D Effects Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Turning the 3D Effects Option On and Off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248

Accessing 3D Effects in the Effects Palette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Promoting 2D Effects to 3D Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Creating a Matte Key for Use with 3D Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Understanding the 3D Effects Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Moving in 3D Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

The 3D Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Rotation Axes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Working with 3D Effects Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Accessing 3D Effects Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Manipulating 3D Effects Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Using the Default Keyframe Parameter Values . . . . . . . . . . 258

Resetting Default Parameter Values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Using Effect Templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Zooming In or Out on the Effect Preview Monitor . . . . . . . . . . 260

Manipulating 3D Effects Directly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

Manipulating 3D Effect Handles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261

Using the Motion Path Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Applying 3D Effects: Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Creating a Page Curl Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Creating a Cropped Foreground Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Avid Xpress Effects and Effects in Other Avid Systems. . . . . . . . . . 267

Chapter 8 Creating Titles and Graphic Objects

Workflow for Creating Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Opening the Title Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Understanding the Title Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Understanding the Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Using the Selection Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Setting Up the Drawing Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Installing Fonts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Previewing Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Displaying Safe Title or Safe Action Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Using Safe Colors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Selecting a Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Switching Between Video and Color Backgrounds. . . . . . . 279

Updating the Video Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Creating a Color Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Using the Alignment and Snap Grids. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Bringing the Title Tool to the Foreground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Working with Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Creating Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Copying and Pasting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Resizing Text Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Repositioning Text Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Editing a Text String . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Formatting the Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Selecting Text for Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Setting the Default Text Attributes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Changing the Font. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Changing the Point Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Making Text Bold or Italic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Justifying the Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Adjusting Text Kerning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Adjusting Leading. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Creating Graphic Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Drawing a Square or Rectangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Drawing a Circle or Oval. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Drawing a Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Selecting Line Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Rounding Corners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Selecting a Line or Border Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Adding Arrowheads. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Changing Arrowhead Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Creating Rolling and Crawling Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Page Count Limits in Rolling and Crawling Titles . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Using Auto Size Mode for Rolling and Crawling Titles. . . . . . . 302

Setting Up Text Formatting for Rolling and

Crawling Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Workflow Options for Creating Crawling Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

Typing the Rolling and Crawling Title Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Resizing the Width of Rolling and Crawling Titles. . . . . . . . . . . 305

Scrolling Through a Rolling or Crawling Title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Going to a Page in a Rolling or Crawling Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Adding Pages in a Rolling or Crawling Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Copying or Moving Objects to Pages in a

Rolling or Crawling Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Inserting Blank Pages in a Rolling or Crawling Title . . . . . . . . . 308

Deleting Pages in a Rolling or Crawling Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Formatting Rolling and Crawling Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Selecting Colors and Setting Transparency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Adjusting the Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Blending Two Colors in an Object. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Using the Title Tool Color Picker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Adjusting the Transparency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Blending Transparency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Working with Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Applying Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Adjusting Shadow Color and Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Setting Shadow Softness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Adjusting Shadow Softness On-the-Fly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Viewing Shadow Softness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Creating a Glow Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Manipulating Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Basic Manipulation Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Layering Text and Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Grouping and Ungrouping Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Locking and Unlocking Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Aligning Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Distributing Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Saving Titles, Title Styles, and Title Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Matching Resolutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Saving a Title and Exiting the Title Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Saving Multiple Titles in a Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Using the Fast Save Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Saving a Title with Fast Save . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Viewing Fast-Saved Titles in a Bin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Rendering Fast-Saved Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Revising a Title in a Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Using a Keyboard Shortcut to Save a Title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Saving and Recalling Title Styles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Saving a Title Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Recalling a Title Style. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Confirming Function Key Mapping of Title Styles . . . . . . . 338

Applying Title Styles to Text Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Managing Title Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Creating and Using Title Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Creating Title Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Using Title Templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Exporting a Title as a Graphics File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Chapter 9 Editing with Titles

Workflow for Editing with Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

Guidelines for Working with Titles and Title Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

Downstream Keying of Titles and Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

Restrictions of Downstream Key Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Converting a Downstream Key Title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

Restrictions of Non-Downstream Key Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

Playback Capabilities of Title Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Playback Capabilities for Titles with

Two Video Streams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Playback Capabilities for Titles with

One Video Stream . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Understanding Title Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Displaying Title Frames in the Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Editing a Title into a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Setting Marks in Rolling and Crawling Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Splicing or Overwriting a Title into a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Dragging a Marked Title into a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Dragging an Unmarked Title into a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Trimming the Duration of Rolling and Crawling Titles. . . . . . . 361

Removing Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Replacing Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Fading a Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Adjusting Title Effect Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Revising a Title in a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Replacing Fill Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Rendering Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Re-creating Title Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

Promoting a 2D Title to 3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Troubleshooting Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Title Does Not Display Over Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

Downstream Key Error Messages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

Wrong Title Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Chapter 10 2D Effects Reference

2D Effects Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Global and Keyframeable Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Acceleration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

Border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Color Effect Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Luma Adjust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Luma Range. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Luma Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Chroma Adjust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Color Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Color Gain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Crop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Downstream Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

Foreground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

Key Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

Secondary Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

Spill Suppression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Matrix Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398

Motion Effect Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

Freeze Frame Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399

Variable Speed and Strobe Motion Parameters . . . . . . . . . . 401

Plug-in Effect Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

Position. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404

Scroll Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405

Region Stabilize Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406

Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 406

Region of Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407

Auto Zoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407

Progressive Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

Scaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408

Transition Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

2D Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410

Blend Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411

Dip to Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412

Dissolve. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Fade from Color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414

Fade to Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Picture-in-Picture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416

Superimpose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417

Box Wipe Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418

Bottom Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

Bottom Left to Top Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420

Bottom Right to Top Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421

Left Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422

Right Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423

Top Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424

Top Left to Bottom Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425

Top Right to Bottom Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 426

Conceal Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427

Bottom Left to Top Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 428

Bottom Right to Top Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 429

Bottom to Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430

Left to Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 431

Right to Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 432

Top Left to Bottom Right. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433

Top Right to Bottom Left. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434

Top to Bottom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435

Edge Wipe Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 436

Horizontal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437

Horizontal Open. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 438

Lower Left Diagonal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

Lower Right Diagonal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440

Upper Left Diagonal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

Upper Right Diagonal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442

Vertical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

Vertical Open . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Film Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

1.66 Mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446

1.85 Mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447

16:9 Mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447

Anamorphic Mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448

Blowup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449

Film Dissolve. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450

Film Fade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451

Mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451

Image Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452

Color Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

Flip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 454

Flip-Flop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455

Flop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456

Mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457

Region Stabilize. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457

Resize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458

Submaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

Key Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

Chroma Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460

Luma Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461

Matte Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

L-Conceal Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463

Bottom Left. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463

Bottom Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464

Top Left. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465

Top Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 466

Matrix Wipe Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467

Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468

One-Way Row . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469

Speckle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470

Spiral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

Zig-Zag . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472

Motion Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473

Freeze Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473

Variable Speed and Strobe Motion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473

Peel Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474

Bottom Left Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

Bottom Right Corner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476

Bottom to Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477

Left to Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478

Right to Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479

Top Left Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480

Top Right Corner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481

Top to Bottom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482

Push Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483

Bottom Left to Top Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484

Bottom Right to Top Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485

Bottom to Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486

Left to Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487

Right to Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 488

Top Left to Bottom Right. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489

Top Right to Bottom Left. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 490

Top to Bottom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491

Sawtooth Wipe Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492

Horizontal Sawtooth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492

Horizontal Open Sawtooth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493

Vertical Open Sawtooth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494

Vertical Sawtooth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495

Shape Wipe Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496

4 Corners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 497

Center Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

Circle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499

Clock. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500

Diamond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501

Ellipse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502

Horizontal Bands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 503

Horizontal Blinds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 504

Vertical Blinds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505

Spin Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505

X Spin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506

Y Spin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 507

Z Spin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508

Squeeze Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 509

Bottom Centered. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510

Bottom Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511

Bottom Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512

Bottom to Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513

Centered Zoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514

Horizontal Centered. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515

Left Centered. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 516

Left to Right. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517

Right Centered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 518

Right to Left. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519

Top Centered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 520

Top Left. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521

Top Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 522

Top to Bottom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523

Vertical Centered. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

Title Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525

Comparison of Similar Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

Chapter 11 3D Effects Reference

3D Effects Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530

Global Versus Keyframeable Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

The Hierarchy of Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531

Direct Manipulation of 3D Effect Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532

Acceleration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

Axis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

Border. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536

Crop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538

Foreground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 539

Position. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 540

Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

Scaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 542

Shadow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

Shape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

Spline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

Target . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546

Trail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 547

3D Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 548

Page Turns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

Tips for Page Curl Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

Page Curl Angle Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

Radial Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

3D Multi Wave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552

3D Ball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553

Limitations to Radial Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 554

Offset Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555

3D Slats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557

3D Arrow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 557

3D Center Burst. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558

3D Sine Wave . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558

3D Bumps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559

Index

Tables

Table 3-1 Effect Preview Monitor Toolbar Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Table 3-2 Effect Editor Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Table 3-3 Effect Editor Toolbar for Advanced Keyframes. . . . . 119

Table 3-4 Effect Editor Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Table 4-1 Render Settings Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Table 5-1 Playback Capabilities of Motion Effects . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Table 8-1 Toolbar Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Table 9-1 DSK and Non-DSK Title Playback Capabilities. . . . . 351

Table 9-2 Title Effect Playback Capabilities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Using This Guide

This guide is your introduction to the wealth of effects and design options available for use in your projects. Along with the standard editing features included with this latest release of the Avid Xpress system, you have at your fingertips all the sophisticated effects capabilities of a high-end postproduction suite, combined with the versatility of a digital nonlinear system.

You can use the tools and techniques described in this guide to create and incorporate into your sequence titles and effects with a wide variety of attributes. This guide also describes how to apply third-party plug-in effect filters for stunning effects formerly available only on high-end graphics workstations.

The documentation describes the features and hardware of all models. Therefore, your system might not contain certain features and hardware that are covered in the documentation.

Who Should Use This Guide

This guide is intended for all Avid Xpress users, from beginning to advanced. The term “user’s guide” refers to the Avid Xpress

User’s Guide. The term “getting started guide” refers to the Avid Xpress Getting Started Guide.

About This Guide

This guide is designed to keep pace with current advances in the Avid Xpress effects capabilities by consolidating in one comprehensive resource all the information you will need to take advantage of the many options available to you. This guide leads you through even the most complex procedures with task-oriented instructions. The information provided here builds on editing procedures described in the getting started guide and the user’s guide for Avid Xpress, while adding a complete explanation of all the tools and techniques required to create, apply, and adjust various effects and graphics, including useful tips, shortcuts, and custom options.

Consider keeping the Avid Xpress User’s Guide and the Avid Xpress Quick Reference available during each session.

The Contents lists all topics included in the book. They cover the following general areas:

• Effects editing: Chapters 1 through 6 of this book describe various beginning and advanced techniques for incorporating literally hundreds of digital video effects (DVEs), third-party effect filters, complex motion effects, keys, and layering options.

• Working with 3D effects: Chapter 7 describes techniques for working with 3D effects and provides examples of effects you can re-create to become familiar with the 3D parameters and shapes.

• Creating and editing titles and graphic objects: Chapter 8 and

Chapter 9 cover real-time titling and use of the tools to create and

control the attributes of on-screen text, backgrounds, lines, boxes, ovals, and other graphics objects. You can create multiple titles without exiting the Title tool, and apply shadows, color, transparency, layers, and alignment to both objects and text.

• 2D effects reference: Chapter 10 provides quick access to specific information about the 2D effects and parameters available with Avid Xpres s.

Using This Guide

• 3D effects reference: Chapter 11 provides quick access to specific

information about the 3D effects and parameters available on systems equipped with the 3D Effects option.

• The Index helps you locate specific topics.

Symbols and Conv e nti on s

Unless noted otherwise, the material in this document applies to the Windows applies to a specific operating system, it is marked as follows:

• (Windows) or (Windows only) means the information applies to

• (Macintosh) or (Macintosh only) means the information applies to

The majority of screen shots in this document were captured on a Windows 2000 system, but the information applies to both Windows 2000 and Macintosh systems. Where differences exist, both Windows 2000 and Macintosh screen shots are shown.

The Avid Xpress documentation uses the following special symbols and conventions:

1. Numbered lists, when the order of the items is important.

• Bulleted lists, when the order of the items is unimportant.

2000 and Macintosh® operating systems. When the text

the Windows 2000 operating system.

the Macintosh operating system.

a. Alphabetical lists, when the order of secondary items is

important.

- Indented dashed lists, when the order of secondary items is unimportant.

t One arrow indicates a single-step procedure. Multiple arrows in a

list indicate that you perform one of the actions listed.

Symbols and Conventions

The k symbol refers to the Apple® or Command key. Press and hold the Command key and another key to perform a keyboard shortcut.

In this document, Avid drive refers to the Macintosh system’s internal hard drive. Apple Computer, Inc. names the internal hard drive Macintosh HD. Depending on your system’s setup, the internal hard drive might have a different name.

Courier Bold font identifies text that you type.

Look here in the margin for tips.

In the margin, you will find tips that help you perform tasks more easily and efficiently.

A note provides important related information, reminders, recommendations, and strong suggestions.

A caution means that a specific action you take could cause harm to your computer or cause you to lose data.

If You Need Help

If you’re having trouble using Avid Xpress, you should:

1. Retry the action, carefully following the instructions given for that task in this guide.

2. Check the documentation that came with your hardware for maintenance or hardware-related issues.

Using This Guide

3. Check the release notes supplied with Avid Xpress for information on accessing the Avid Web site and the Avid Knowledge Center.

4. For support services, call Avid Customer Support:

- Broadcast products — call 800-NEWS-DNG (639-7364).

- Postproduction products — call 800-800-AVID (2843).

Related Informati on

The following documents provide more information about the Avid Xpres s product :

• Avid Xpress Release 5.0 Release Notes for the Windows 2000 Operating System

• Avid Xpress Release 5.0 Release Notes for the Macintosh Operating System

• Avid Symphony and Composer Products Site Preparation Guide for the Windows 2000 Professional Operating System

• Avid Composer Products Site Preparation Guide for the Macintosh Operating System

• Avid Symphony and Composer Products Setup Guide for the Windows 2000 Professional Operating System

• Avid Composer Products Setup Guide for the Macintosh Operating System

• Avid Xpress Getting Started Guide

• Avid Xpress Quick Reference for the Windows 2000 Operating System

• Avid Xpress Quick Reference for the Macintosh Operating System

• Avid Xpress User’s Guide

Related Information

• Avid Products Collaboration Guide

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for transferring project files, audio files, and graphics and effects files between various Avid products.

The most recent update of the Avid Products Collaboration Guide is provided online. Check the release notes supplied with your Avid application for information on accessing online documentation.

• Avid Xpress Online Publications

This online collection provides electronic versions of most documents listed in this section, as well as documents for related Avid applications. You can view these documents with Adobe Acrobat® Reader, which you can install from the CD-ROM.

•Avid Xpress Help

The Help system provides all the information included in the Avid Xpress User’s Guide and the Avid Xpress Effects Guide supplied with your system. It also includes supplemental information not in the manuals. The Help operates in a Web browser. To open the Help, choose Avid Xpress Help from the Help menu in the Avid Xpress application. For information on using Help, click the Using Help button in the Help system.

If You Have Documentation Comments

Avid Technology continuously seeks to improve its documentation. We value your comments about this guide, the Help, the Online Publications CD-ROM, and other Avid-supplied documentation.

Simply e-mail your documentation comments to Avid Technology at

TechPubs@avid.com

Please include the title of the document, its part number, revision, and the specific section you’re commenting on in all correspondence.

Using This Guide

How to Order Documentation

To order additional copies of this documentation from within the United States, call Avid Telesales at 800-949-AVID (2843). If you are placing an order from outside the United States, contact your local Avid representative.

How to Order Documentation

Using This Guide

CHAPTER 1

Preparing to Work with Effects

Avid Xpress offers many effects that you can apply to your sequences. This chapter describes concepts you should understand before you begin creating and editing effects into sequences.

• Effect Types

• Effects Creation Tools

• Understanding Effect Playback Capabilities

• Using the Effect Palette

• Using Third-Party Plug-in Effects

Effect Types

Much overlapping occurs between the various types of effects you can create, as well as the methods used to create them. Your system offers four basic effect types.

• Transition effects (dissolves, wipes, and so forth) are applied at the cut point between two video clips that are on the same video track (that is, the same video layer). For more information on

creating transition effects, see Chapter 2, ”Basics of Effects

Editing” and Chapter 3, “Customizing Effects.”

• Segment effects are applied to an entire clip or group of clips. There are two types of segment effects:

-A single-layer segment effect, such as the Mask effect, is

applied to a segment on one video track. Single-layer segment effects use one stream of video. For more information on creating single-layer segment effects, see Chapter 2, ”Basics of

Effects Editing” and Chapter 3, “Customizing Effects.”

-A multilayer segment effect, such as the Picture-in-Picture

effect, is applied to the top layer or a middle layer of segments that contain two or more video tracks that will be played simultaneously. For more information on techniques for creating multilayer effects, see Chapter 6, “Creating Layered

and Nested Effects.”

• Title effects are created with the Title tool and edited onto their own layers in a sequence. For more information on techniques for creating and editing title effects, see Chapter 8, “Creating Titles

and Graphic Objects” and Chapter 9, “Editing with Titles.”

• Motion effects (freeze frame, variable speed, and strobe) are

A number of effects across these categories have both 2D (two-dimensional) and 3D (three-dimensional) versions on systems equipped with the 3D Effects option. For more information on techniques for creating 3D effects, see Chapter 7, “Working with 3D

Effects.”

Preparing to Work with Effects

created by manipulating the playback characteristics of a clip of footage. For more information on techniques for creating motion effects, see Chapter 5, “Creating Motion Effects.”

Effect s Creation Tools

The following chart presents the basic tools used to create effects.

Sources of effects:

Effect Palette

Apply transition and segment effects directly to tra cks.

Effects editing in default editing mode:

Motion Effect dialog box

Edit effect clips int o the Timeline.

Title tool

Title and motion effects appear first as clips in the bin.

Effects adjustment in Effect mode:

Effect Preview monitor: Allows you to pre view an effect, manipulate keyframes, and manipulate wire-frame representations of the effect.

Effect Editor: Allows you to adjust effect parameters.

Effects Creation Tools

Understanding Effect Playback Capabilities

When you apply an effect to a clip in Avid Xpress, you change the characteristics of that clip, for example, by altering its color values or by blending some of its frames with frames from another clip.

Often, your system is able to calculate these changes and display them in real time. For some effects and situations, your system is unable to do this, so you must render effects before you can play them at full speed. When you render an effect, the system calculates the changes made to each frame of the effect and stores the results in a file, known as a precomputed master clip (or simply a precompute), which it can then use to play back the effect.

Understanding when your system is capable of playing effects in real time and when you must render effects is important. Taking advantage of real-time effects playback whenever possible speeds your workflow and increases your editing flexibility. The following paragraphs provide a brief introduction to effect playback and rendering. For complete information on effect playback and rendering, see Chapter 4.

Many effects are real-time effects, which means that your system can play them in real time in most circumstances. Other effects are non-real-time effects, which means that they must always be rendered before they will play at full speed. Sometimes, you use an effect that is normally real time in circumstances that require it to be rendered. Your system uses color-coded dots to indicate the real-time status of effects. For more information, see “Understanding the Color Coding” on

page 40.

Your system’s ability to play back effects in real time is also dependent on factors such as the number of video streams available on your model and the complexity of your sequence (especially when your sequence contains many overlapping effects). For more information on your system’s playback capabilities, see “Playing Real-Time Effects”

on page 157.

Preparing to Work with Effects

If you want to preview effects that your system cannot play in real time without rendering them, you can use the Render On-the-Fly option to preview them frame by frame. For more information, see

“Previewing Effect Frames with Render On-the-Fly” on page 161.

Titles and graphic elements imported with an alpha channel display as downstream key (DSK) effects. DSK effects play in real time. Downstream keying allows you to add uncompressed titles or graphics over multiple streams of compressed media and continue to play the sequence in real time. You see the real benefits of downstream keying during editing of Title Effect clips into sequences. For more information on your system’s downstream keying capabilities, see

“Downstream Keying of Titles and Graphics” on page 346. For

information about editing with DSK titles, including descriptions of various restrictions and playback capabilities, see Chapter 9.

Using the Effect Palette

The Effect Palette is a window that lists all the effects available on your Avid Xpress system. The effects that are available on your system depend on the model and options that you purchased and on what third-party plug-ins you might have installed. For the list of effects available for your model, see the Avid Xpress Release Notes. You sel ect transition and segment effects from the Effect Palette.

Understanding the Effect Palette

The left side of the Effect Palette displays a scrollable list of effect categories that includes the following standard categories as well as categories for any third-party plug-ins you have installed.

Using the Effect Palette

The effect categories list also includes open bins when those bins contain effect templates or other kinds of effect files.

•3D Effect

•Blend

•Box Wipe

•Conceal

• Edge Wipe

•Film

•Image

•Key

•L-Conceal

•Matrix Wipe

• Peel

•Push

•Sawtooth Wipe

• Shape Wipe

•Spin

•Squeeze

• Stabilize

The right side of the Effect Palette shows a list of the individual effects available for the currently selected effect category. Each effect has its own effect icon. Effects that are or might be playable in real time appear with a color-coded dot. For more information, see

“Understanding the Color Coding” on page 40.

Preparing to Work with Effects

Displaying the Effect Palette

You can display the Effect Palette within the Project window or as a standalone window.

To display the Effect Palette within the Project window:

1. In the Project window, click the Effects tab, which displays the Effect icon.

Effects tab

2. Click an effect category in the left side of the Effect Palette to select it and display effects in that category in the right side.

To display the Effect Palette as a standalone window:

1. Do one of the following:

t Choose Effect Palette from the Tools menu.

t Press Ctrl+8 (Windows) or k+8 (Macintosh).

The Effect Palette opens.

Using the Effect Palette

Scrollable list of effect categories

Blend effect choices

2. Click an effect category in the left side of the Effect Palette to select it and display effects in that category in the right side.

The 3D Effect category is available only on systems with the 3D Effects option. For information on 3D effects, see Chapter 7.

Resizing the Effect Palette

You can resize the Effect Palette to display more effects when a particular category includes a long list of icons.

To resize the Effect Palette:

t Click the lower right corner of the standalone palette or of the

Project window, drag the palette to the size you want, and then release the mouse button.

Understanding the Color Coding

Effect icons in the Effect Palette and in the Timeline display color-coded dots to help you determine whether an effect is real-time or non-real-time. After opening the Effect Palette, you will notice that:

• Real-time effects are preceded by an orange dot. These effects take advantage of fast rendering.

Preparing to Work with Effects

• Real-time effects that might not be playable in real time due to their

position in a sequence or the options available on your system are preceded by a green dot. These effects take advantage of fast rendering.

The Submaster effect has a green dot in the Effect Palette. Other effects might show a green dot in the Timeline, based on the complexity of the sequence.

• Non-real-time effects have no dot in the Effect Palette. In the

Timeline, the effect icon contains a blue dot until you render the effect.

When you edit a non-real-time effect into a sequence, the effect icon appears with a blue dot in the Timeline, which indicates that you must render the effect to play it in real time. After you render the effect, the effect icon appears in the Timeline without a dot.

All color-coded dots disappear in the Timeline when you render effects.

Orange dots indicate real-time effects.

Green dot indicates a real-time effect that might not be playable in real time.

No dot indicates a non-real-time effect; in the Timeline, a non-real-time effect icon contains a blue dot until the effect is rendered.

A real-time effect might not be playable in real time for a variety of reasons involving the complexity of the sequence and the real-time effects capabilities of your system. For more information, see

“Understanding Effect Playback Capabilities” on page 36.

Using the Effect Palette

Displaying Effect Templates

Effect templates allow you to save the parameters of an effect to a bin and use them again to create or modify other effects. To learn more about applying templates, see “Using an Effect Template” on page 151.

In addition to displaying all the standard effects, the Effect Palette allows you to view and access effect templates stored in open bins. The names of open bins containing effects appear in a list below the effect categories.

To view effect templates:

1. Open the bin containing the effect templates.

Preparing to Work with Effects

2. Open the Effect Palette by doing one of the following:

t In the Project window, click the Effects tab.

t From the Tools menu, choose Effect Palette.

The Effect Palette opens.

3. Click the bin name below the effect category list to view the effect templates in the bin.

Effect category list

Bin name containing effect templa te s

Effect templa te s

For example, in the preceding illustration, the bin named Effects and Titles contains effect templates using the Zig-Zag Matrix and Matte Key effects.

The Effect Palette also displays other effect files, such as matte key clips.

Whenever you open or close a bin or whenever you drop an effect into a bin, Avid Xpress automatically updates both lists. Once a template appears in the right side of the Effect Palette, you can apply it as you would any other effect.

Using Third-Party Pl ug-in Effects

You can use third-party plug-in effects to add new effects to your Avid Xpress system or to update existing effects.

Understanding AVX Plug-Ins

Third-party plug-in effects are compatible with the Avid Visual Extensions (AVX architecture designed to allow software effect modules to be dynamically linked with a host application such as an Avid editing system.

™

) standard. AVX is a cross-platform software

Using Third-Party Plug-in Effects

If you are transferring from another system a project that includes sequences with AVX plug-in effects, you must install matching AVX plug-ins to see the effects.

You can purchase these plug-ins directly from a third-party vendor. Two of the current AVX plug-in vendors are:

• Ultimatte Corporation (Ultimatte

www.ultimatte.com

• Artel Software (Boris FX

www.borisfx.com

For a complete, up-to-date list of AVX plug-in vendors and other information on AVX, visit the AVX Web site:

www.avid.com/avx

After you install third-party plug-ins, the effects appear in the Effect Palette in their own category (usually the name of the plug-in vendor). Individual effects all have a plug effect icon. The plug icon also appears in the Timeline when you apply a third-party plug-in effect. After you create an effect, you can save it as an effect template and reapply the template to other transitions or segments in your sequence. Effect templates also appear in a special section at the bottom of the Effect Palette.

™

)

Preparing to Work with Effects

Your Avid Xpress system also supports Digidesign® AudioSuite™ plug-ins. These plug-ins apply only to audio clips and do not appear in the Effect Palette. For more information, see the chapter “Working with Audio” in the user’s guide.

IllusionFX Pack Plug-Ins

The IllusionFX™ category in the Effect Palette contains a number of AVX plug-ins that are standard on your Avid system. For information on these effects, see the documentation in the following folder on the application CD-ROM:

Goodies\IllusionFXPack

Installing AVX Plug-Ins

AVX plug-ins usually come complete with any necessary documentation. This section describes how to install the plug-ins and how to access them from your Avid Xpress system.

Most AVX plug-ins have their own installation program. This program locates the AVX_Plug-Ins folder and installs the plug-ins automatically when you follow the installation instructions.

If an AVX plug-in has an installation program, you should always use the program to install the plug-ins. For more information, see the documentation for the plug-in.

Some AVX plug-ins do not have an installation program and must be installed manually.

To install AVX plug-ins manually:

1. Quit the Avid Xpress application.

Do not add or remove plug-ins while Avid Xpress is running.

Using Third-Party Plug-in Effects

2. Copy the plug-in files from the software vendor’s folder to the AVX_Plug-Ins folder located on your Avid Xpress system.

The default location for the AVX_Plug-Ins folder is:

C:\Program Files\Avid\AVX_Plug-Ins (Windows)

Avid:Avid Xpress:SupportingFiles:AVX_Plug-Ins (Macintosh)

However, the AVX_Plug-Ins folder might be in a different location on your system.

(Windows only) If the AVX_Plug-Ins folder does not appear in the default location and you don’t know its location, you can locate the folder by using the Regedit application. For more information, see “Locating the AVX

Plug-Ins Folder (Windows Only)” on page 47.

The following illustration shows the location of the AVX_Plug-Ins folder within the Avid file structure on a Macintosh system.

Preparing to Work with Effects

3. Restart the Avid Xpress application, and open the Effect Palette. The AVX plug-in effects appear in the Effect Palette, usually in their own category under the name of the vendor.

You must place the plug-ins directly in the AVX_Plug-Ins folder. They cannot be inside another folder within this folder or elsewhere on your Avid Xpress system. If they are, Avid Xpress will not recognize them.

If the plug-in effects do not appear in the Effect Palette after installation, see

“Troubleshooting AVX Plug-Ins” on page 52.

Locating the AVX Plug-Ins Folder (Windows Only)

When the Avid Xpress application is first installed, the installation program asks the administrator to choose a location for the AVX_Plug-Ins folder. The default path is:

C:\Program Files\Avid\AVX_Plug-Ins

If the administrator accepts the default location for the AVX_Plug-Ins folder, you can install AVX plug-ins here.

If the AVX_Plug-Ins folder is not in the default location, or if the effects are not appearing in the Effect Palette after you install them, you can use the Regedit application that comes with your Windows system to identify the location of the AVX_Plug-Ins folder.

Using Third-Party Plug-in Effects

Use the following procedure only to obtain information on the location of the AVX_Plug-Ins folder. Do not change any of the information in the Windows Registry. Changing values in the Windows Registry might affect the performance of your system.

To locate the AVX_Plug-Ins folder by using Regedit:

1. Click the Start button, and then click Run.

2. Type regedit in the command line, and click OK.

The Registry Editor window opens.

3. In the left pane of the window, navigate to the following path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Avid Technology\AVX Plug-Ins

4. Click the AVX Plug-Ins folder in the left pane, and then check the entry for “Directory” in the right pane.

The value of this entry is the path that contains the AVX_Plug-Ins folder. For example, if the AVX_Plug-Ins folder is in its default location, the Directory entry will be “C:\Program Files\Avid.” If you navigate to C:\Program Files\Avid by using My Computer or Windows Explorer, you will find the AVX_Plug-Ins folder in that location.

Preparing to Work with Effects

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Avid Technology\AVX Plug-Ins

Remember that AVX plug-ins must be installed in the AVX_Plug-Ins folder itself, not elsewhere in the path that contains that folder.

Directory entry. The path listed here is the path that contains the AVX Plug-Ins folder.

Upgrading AVX Plug-ins and Effects

You can upgrade an AVX plug-in simply by uninstalling the old version of the plug-in and installing the new version in your AVX_Plug- Ins fo lder.

Once you have installed a new version of an AVX plug-in, Avid Xpress upgrades older effects in sequences to be compatible with the new version. The parameter values previously set by the user for an effect appear in the Effect Editor or in the plug-in’s own user interface.

If the new version of the plug-in has new or redesigned parameter controls, Avid Xpress sets these controls to their default settings when upgrading existing effects. Controls that are unchanged from the older

Using Third-Party Plug-in Effects

version of the plug-in retain the values previously set by the user when Avid Xpress upgrades existing effects.

After you upgrade a plug-in effect or transition, you should not reinstall the older version of the plug-in. Avid Xpress cannot use an older version of a plug-in to process effects that have been created with a newer version. Similarly, if you transfer projects between systems, an effect created with a newer version of a plug-in will not work on a system that has an older version installed.

Assigning Multiple Tracks in Plug-in Effects

Some plug-in effects can take an arbitrary number of tracks as input. Your system allows you to choose the number of video inputs from the AVX Optional Inputs dialog box.

For more information on the multiple-track capabilities of a plug-in, see the documentation for that plug-in.

To assign multiple tracks to a plug-in effect by using the AVX Optional Inputs dialog box:

1. Drag the plug-in icon to the Timeline.

2. When the AVX Optional Inputs dialog box appears, select the number of video inputs you want from the Number of Tracks pop-up menu, and then click OK.

For more information on nested effects, see “Nesting Effects” on

page 231.

Preparing to Work with Effects

Using AVX Plug-in Controls

AVX plug-ins use a variety of different interfaces that give you control over the effects. Some plug-ins use custom interfaces that appear in their own dialog boxes. Others use some combination of controls that appear within the Effect Editor. These controls might include standard Avid controls familiar from Avid effects, custom controls designed by Avid for use by plug-in vendors, and custom controls designed by the plug-in vendors themselves.

Accessing an AVX Custom Interface

If an AVX plug-in has a custom interface, you access that interface from the Effect Editor.

To access an AVX plug-in’s custom interface:

t Click the Other Options button in the Effect Editor.

The AVX plug-in’s custom interface appears.

Dialog boxes that appear as part of an AVX plug-in’s custom interface are modal dialog boxes. If you move one of these dialog boxes, the screen behind the dialog box will not redraw. To restore your screen, close the dialog box.

Custom AVX Controls in the Effect Editor

This section introduces some of the custom controls that might appear in the Effect Editor for an AVX plug-in effect. For more information on using these controls, and other controls specific to individual effects, see the documentation for the plug-in.

Some plug-in effects allow you to adjust an image by using controls that appear as overlays, such as handles and wire frames, in the Effect Preview monitor. You access these overlays by clicking the Outline/Path button at the bottom of the Effect Editor. In some cases, you can then access additional controls by clicking buttons on the right

Using Third-Party Plug-in Effects

side of the Effect Editor that are similar to the buttons available in the Effect Editor for standard Avid 3D effects.

The following Effect Editor parameters, which are not available in standard Avid effects, are available to some AVX plug-in effects:

• The Treadmill is a slider that provides a window on a wide range of values and allows precise control over increments.

• The Angle parameter category allows you to manipulate an effect’s angle or direction by dragging within a graphic representation of a circle to alter the angle or direction value. Values can be positive or negative and are not limited to a single

rotation.

360

Troubleshooting AVX Plug-Ins

This section describes problems that you might encounter with AVX plug-ins and makes suggestions for possible solutions or sources for more information.

If a plug-in does not work as expected and the following suggestions do not solve the problem, contact the plug-in vendor.

Preparing to Work with Effects

Plug-in Does Not Appear in the Effect Palette

AVX plug-ins have a plug icon in the Effect Palette and in the Timeline. If the plug icon does not appear in the Effect Palette after installation, the plug-in might be in the wrong folder. For information on locating the AVX_Plug-Ins folder on a Windows system, see “Locating the AVX

Plug-Ins Folder (Windows Only)” on page 47.

Plug-in Does Not Load

AVX plug-ins might not load correctly for a variety of reasons. In particular, even though it is installed correctly in the AVX_Plug-Ins folder, a plug-in might require supporting files (for example, .dll files) that are missing from your system or are installed in the wrong location.

If a correctly located plug-in does not load, check the plug-in documentation for information on required supporting files.

Avid Xpress Cannot Render the Plug-In

If Avid Xpress cannot render the plug-in, possible causes include the following:

• The plug-in has expired.

• The plug-in’s application key is missing or damaged.

Some plug-ins write more information about the failure to the Console window. Also, some plug-ins might report the problem in a message box.

Using Third-Party Plug-in Effects

Blank Effect Icons in the Timeline

AVX plug-ins have a plug icon in the Effect Palette and in the Timeline. If the effect icon in the Timeline is blank, Avid Xpress could not find the plug-in.

To identify a plug-in that is missing or misplaced:

t Open the Console window (choose Console from the Tools menu),

and look for the message “Can’t find effect.”

The message identifies the plug-in that Avid Xpress cannot locate. You can then reinstall the plug-in in your AVX_Plug-Ins folder and restart Avid Xpress.

Missing Effect Categories in the Effect Palette

If you cannot see the plug-in categories in the Effect Palette, you might have an incorrect version of the AVXLibrary or the plug-ins might not have been installed correctly. In this case, check the Console window for a message that states that AVX is disabled. If it is not disabled, quit the Avid Xpress application, reinstall the plug-ins, and restart the application.

If the message in the Console window states that AVX is disabled, call Avid Customer Support to determine whether you need a new version of the AVXLibrary.

Preparing to Work with Effects

CHAPTER 2

Basics of Effects Editing

This chapter explains how to create basic transition and single-layer segment effects.

• Deconstructing Effects

• Applying Effects to a Sequence

• Deleting Effects in a Sequence

• Using the Fade Effect Button

• Working with Transition Effects

Deconstructing Effects

Breaking down existing effects into their basic elements provides one good way to understand how Avid Xpress builds effects. By learning how the various pieces fit together, and how Avid Xpress allows you to manipulate them, you can begin to construct new effects from these building blocks.

The sequence depicted in the following Timeline contains a series of effects that cover all the basic techniques — from simple dissolves to 3D nested layers.

N a t t

The sequence includes both transition and segment effects applied horizontally, vertically, and nested within video tracks. The callouts summarize deconstructed elements and list the sections of this guide that describe them in more detail.

Deconstructing an Effects Sequence

Imported graphic promoted to a 3D Slat wipe:

See “Creating a Matte Key for Use with 3D Effects”

on page 252.

Effect template applied repeatedly to crop and position for eground im ages on V2: See

“Creating a Cropped Foreground Effect” on page 265.

ested segments

dd more layers to

he foreground rack: See “Nesting

Effects” on page 231.

Submaster segment, created from collapsed layers, forms the background on V1: See

“Submaster Editing” on page 239 .

Various effect parameters are adjusted throughout to sof ten, dist ort, or posit ion images:

See “Using the Effect Editor” on page 94.

Dissolve sequence form s the foreground on V2:

See “Applying an Effect to Multiple Transitions” on page 60 and “Working with Transition Effects” on page 67.

Title graphics imported as Matte Key effects: See

“Working with Imported Graphics and Animation” on page 228.

Keyed titles are faded in and out: See

“Using the Fade Effect Button” on page 66.

Basics of Effects Editing

Applying Effects to a Sequence

This section explains how to apply an effect to a sequence in the Timeline. You can apply an effect to:

• One transition or segment on a single video layer

• Multiple transitions or segments

The effect type (transition or segment) determines where you can place the effect in the sequence. For an explanation of the effect types, see “Effect Types” on page 33. For information on individual effects, see “2D Effects” on page 410.

After you apply an effect, the next step is to adjust the effect’s parameters. To understand how to adjust the effect parameters, see

“Understanding Effect Parameters” on page 99.

Applying an Effect to a Single Transition or Segment

This section describes how to add a single transition or segment effect to a single video layer by dragging an effect from the Effect Palette or by double-clicking a segment or transition.

You can also apply several of the most common transition effects, such as the Dissolve effect, by clicking the Quick Transition button. For more information, see “Using the Quick Transition Button” on

page 71.

Applying Effects to a Sequence

Dragging an Effect from the Effect Palette

To apply an effect to a single transition or segment:

1. Create a sequence in the Composer monitor, using standard Avid editing procedures.

For information about editing a sequence, see the chapter “First Edits” in your user’s guide.

2. Open the Effect Palette by doing one of the following:

t In the Project window, click the Effects tab.

t From the Tools menu, choose Effect Palette.

For an explanation of the Effect Palette, see “Using the Effect

Palette” on page 37.

3. Click the effect icon in the Effect Palette, drag it to the segment or transition in the Timeline, and release the mouse button.

The effect icon appears in the Timeline as shown in the following example.

Effect i con

Basics of Effects Editing

Drag the effect icon from the Effect Palette to the sequence.

Double-Clicking an Effect Icon in the Effect Palette

If the effect is a transition effect and the sequence does not have enough incoming or outgoing media to apply that effect, a dialog box appears. For more information, see “Sizing the Effect to Fit the Media” on page 83.

If the effect is a segment effect, one segment at a time is highlighted as you drag the effect within the Timeline. If the effect is a transition effect, one transition at a time is highlighted as you drag the effect within the Timeline. Some effects are both transition and segment effects; when you drag such an effect within the Timeline, both transitions and segments are highlighted.

To apply an effect to a single segment:

1. Create a sequence in the Composer monitor, using standard Avid editing procedures.

For information about editing a sequence, see the chapter “First Edits” in your user’s guide.

2. Open the Effect Palette by doing one of the following:

t In the Project window, click the Effects tab.

t From the Tools menu, choose Effect Palette.

3. Click either of the Segment Mode buttons (Extract/Splice-in or Lift/Overwrite) below the Timeline.

4. Click the segment to which you want to add the effect.

5. Double-click the effect icon in the Effect Palette.

The effect icon appears in the Timeline.

Applying Effects to a Sequence

To apply an effect to a single transition in Trim mode:

1. Create a sequence in the Composer monitor, using standard Avid editing procedures.

2. Open the Effect Palette by doing one of the following:

t In the Project window, click the Effects tab.

t From the Tools menu, choose Effect Palette.

3. Click the transition where you want to add the effect.

4. Double-click the effect icon in the Effect Palette.

The effect icon appears in the Timeline.

This procedure for adding a transition effect works only in Trim mode. See

“Creating a Dissolve in Trim Mode” on page 69.

Applying an Effect to Multiple Transitions

To apply an effect to multiple transitions:

1. If there is not already an effect on one of the transitions, add a transition effect. Avid Xpress allows you to perform this procedure only if one of the transitions already has an effect on it.

2. Choose Effect Editor from the Tools menu to open the Effect Editor.

3. Click the transition effect described in step 1.

4. If the Effect Editor is blank, click the Effect Editor to display the information for the transition effect.

5. Click above the Timeline, and begin dragging to activate a selection box. Continue to drag down and either to the left or right to include additional transitions in the selection.

Basics of Effects Editing

Cursor selection box

6. Release the mouse button when you have lassoed all the transitions you want.

The transitions that you selected are highlighted, and the position indicator moves to the first transition.

7. If the transitions where you want to apply the effect are not contiguous, Shift+click any transition to deselect it.

8. Open the Effect Palette by doing one of the following:

t In the Project window, click the Effects tab.

t From the Tools menu, choose Effect Palette.

9. Double-click the icon for the effect that you want to apply to the transitions.

The effect appears on the highlighted transitions in the Timeline.

If the sequence does not have enough incoming or outgoing media to apply the transition effect, a dialog box appears. For more information, see “Sizing the

Effect to Fit the Media” on page 83.

Applying Effects to a Sequence

Applying an Effect to Multiple Segments

You can apply an effect to multiple segments on the same video layer or on multiple video layers in a single step. The following procedure describes selecting multiple segments in the same video layer. You can also use this procedure to select segments on multiple layers.

Cursor selection box

You cannot apply effects to multiple segments while in Trim mode.

To apply an effect to multiple segments on the same video layer:

1. Click above the Timeline and to the left of the leftmost segment that you want to select, and begin dragging to the right and down to activate a selection box.

2. Continue to drag the selection box to the right until you lasso the rightmost segment that you want to select.

3. Release the mouse button.

Avid Xpress highlights the segments you selected.

Basics of Effects Editing

4. If the segments where you want to apply the effect are not contiguous, Shift+click a segment to deselect it. You can also Shift+click to add one or more segments.

5. Open the Effect Palette by doing one of the following:

t In the Project window, click the Effects tab.

t From the Tools menu, choose Effect Palette.

6. Double-click the effect’s icon that you want to apply to the segments.

Avid Xpress applies the effect to the highlighted segments in the Timeline.

Deleting Effects in a Sequence

You can delete transition effects from a sequence in the Timeline at any time. You can delete segment effects from a sequence in the Timeline at any time except when you are in Trim mode. Use the following procedures to either delete a single effect from a sequence or delete effects in multiple segments.

Deleting Effects in a Sequence

Deleting a Single Effect

To delete a single effect:

1. Move the position indicator to the Timeline segment containing the effect’s icon.

The track containing the effect is selected.

2. If multiple tracks contain effects at the same position in the Timeline, select only the track where the effect to be deleted resides.

Basics of Effects Editing

In this example, only track V3 is selected.

If you delete a segment effect and the segment contains a transition effect, the transition effect will be deleted as well, because the transition effect resides “on top of” the segment effect. If necessary, you will have to reapply the transition effect.

3. Delete the effect by doing one of the following:

t If the Effect Editor is not active, click the Remove Effect button

in the Tool palette.

For information on opening the Tool palette, see ”Using the Tool Palette” in the chapter “Viewing and Marking Footage” in the user’s guide.

t When the Effect Editor is active, select the effect and press the

Delete key.

To open the Effect Editor, choose Effect Editor from the Tools menu.

t In Trim mode (for transition effects only), either press the

Delete key or click the Remove Effect button.

For information on entering Trim mode, see ”Entering Trim Mode” in the chapter “Working in Trim Mode” in the user’s guide.

The effect is removed.

When you delete an effect from a sequence, Avid Xpress does not delete the associated media file. To delete the effect’s media file, you must manually remove it from the drive. Avid Xpress operates this way so that you will be able to undo the deletion of an effect or undo the change you made to an effect. To delete an effect’s media file, see “Managing Effect Media Files” on

page 189.

Deleting Multiple Transition Effects

To delete multiple transition effects:

1. Shift+click each transition effect you want to delete.

2. Click the Remove Effect button, or press the Delete key.

Deleting Effects in a Sequence

Deleting Multiple Segment Effects

To delete multiple segment effects:

1. Click either of the Segment Mode buttons (Extract/Splice-in or Lift/Overwrite) below the Timeline.

2. Shift+click each segment that contains a segment effect you want to delete.

3. Click the Remove Effect button, or press the Delete key.

Using the Fade Effect Button

You can use the Fade Effect button to fade segment effects quickly and easily. A dialog box appears that allows you to enter the number of frames to fade up and fade down.

Basics of Effects Editing

The Fade Effect feature automatically creates keyframes for the effect. You can access the keyframes in the Effect Editor.

To fade one or more segment effects in a sequence:

1. Make a selection in the Timeline by doing one of the following:

t To fade a single segment effect, move the position indicator to

the segment.

t To fade multiple segment effects, click either of the Segment

Mode buttons (Extract/Splice-in or Lift/Overwrite) below the Timeline; then Shift+click the segments.

2. Click the Fade Effect button in the Tool palette.

For information on opening the Tool palette, see ”Using the Tool Palette” in the chapter “Viewing and Marking Footage” in the user’s guide.

The Fade Effect dialog box appears.

3. In the Fade Effect dialog box, type the number of frames to fade up and fade down, and click OK.

You can immediately view the Fade effect by playing the segment or segments.

Working with Transition Effects

You apply a transition effect to the cut point between two clips on the same video track. You can adjust the alignment and duration of a transition effect. Depending on the specific effect, other effect parameters might also be available.

Transition effects are included in all effect categories in the Effect Palette, except the Image effect category. For an explanation of the transition effects in each effect category, see Chapter 10 and

Chapter 11.

Applying a Dissolve Effect

One of the most common transition effects is a dissolve. Avid Xpress has four methods you can use to apply the Dissolve effect:

• Select the Dissolve effect from the Effect Palette.

For more information, see “Using the Effect Palette to Create a

Dissolve Effect” on page 68.

Working with Transition Effects

• In Trim mode, use the Transition parameters to create a dissolve.

For more information, see “Creating a Dissolve in Trim Mode” on

page 69.

• Use the Head Fade or Tail Fade button.

For more information, see “Adding Dissolves with the Head Fade

and Tail Fade Buttons” on page 69.

• Click the Quick Transition button in the Tool palette.

You can also use the Quick Transition button as a fast method for creating and adjusting several other common transition effects. For more information, see “Using the Quick Transition Button” on

page 71.

Using the Effect Palette to Create a Dissolve Effect

To apply a Dissolve effect by using the Effect Palette:

1. Create a sequence in the Composer monitor by using standard editing procedures. For information about editing a sequence, see the chapter “First Edits” in the user’s guide.

Basics of Effects Editing

2. Open the Effect Palette by doing one of the following:

t In the Project window, click the Effects tab.

t From the Tools menu, choose Effect Palette.

3. Click the Blend category.

4. Drag the Dissolve Effect icon to the transition in the Timeline, and release the mouse button.

The Dissolve Effect icon appears in the Timeline.

If the sequence does not have enough incoming or outgoing media to apply a transition effect, a dialog box appears. See “Sizing the Effect to Fit the Media”

on page 83.

Creating a Dissolve in Trim Mode

You can create a Dissolve effect in Trim mode by using the Transition parameters displayed in the Effect Editor and in the Composer monitor.

To create a Dissolve effect by using the Transition parameters:

1. Click a transition in the Timeline while in Trim mode.

2. In the Transition Effect Duration box in the Effect Editor or in the Composer monitor, type the dissolve’s duration.

T ransition Eff ect Alignment button

T ransition Effect Alignment pop-up menu

This adds the Dissolve effect at the transition and a Dissolve effect in the Timeline.

The Duration setting determines the duration format above the Composer monitor, for example, seconds:frames. For more information, see the chapter “Working in Trim Mode” in the user’s guide.

3. Click the Transition Effect Alignment button, and select the effect’s position relative to the cut point from the pop-up menu.

For an explanation of the Transition Effect Alignment pop-up menu selections, see “Transition Parameters” on page 409.

Transition Effect Duration box

Adding Dissolves with the Head Fade and Tail Fade Buttons

You can use the Head Fade and Tail Fade buttons to add dissolves on one or more video tracks (or fades on one or more audio tracks).

Working with Transition Effects

You can map the Head Fade and Tail Fade buttons from the Command palette to a key on your keyboard or to an existing button location such as the Tool palette. For more information, see “Mapping User-Selectable Buttons” in the chapter “Using Basic Tools” in the user’s guide.

To add dissolves using the Head Fade and Tail Fade buttons:

1. Move the position indicator to a clip where you want the dissolve to end or begin.

For example, if you move the position indicator ten frames after the beginning of the clip and then use the Head Fade button, the system creates a ten-frame dissolve that lasts from the beginning of the clip to the location of the position indicator.

2. Select the tracks on which you want to create dissolves.

If you choose more than one track, the system creates dissolves of appropriate lengths for each track, as shown in the following illustration.

Basics of Effects Editing

Before After — Two dissolves of different

lengths are created on the two tracks.

3. Choose Command Palette from the Tools menu.

4. Click the FX tab, and then click Active Palette.

5. Click the Head Fade or the Tail Fade button.

The dissolves appear in the Timeline. If a dissolve begins or ends at the edit point between two clips, the dissolve crosses between the two clips. Otherwise the dissolve is a fade from or to black.

6. (Option) If, for any selected track, there is insufficient source media to create a dissolve of the length you specified with the position indicator, a message box appears.

Do one of the following:

t Click Size to Fit.

The system creates the longest dissolve possible. For more information on sizing effects to fit available media, see “Sizing

the Effect to Fit the Media” on page 83.

t Click Skip Track.

The system does not create a dissolve on the track with insufficient source material but does create dissolves on any other selected tracks with sufficient source material.

t Click Cancel.

The system does not create any dissolves.

Using the Quick Transition Button

You can create common transition effects by clicking the Quick Transition button.

This button allows you to apply any of the following transition effects without using the Effect Palette:

• Dissolve

• Film Dissolve (optional on some models)

Working with Transition Effects

• Film Fade (optional on some models)

•Fade to Color

•Fade from Color

•Dip to Color

You can choose to add the same transition effect to multiple transitions at the same time by marking IN and OUT points in your sequence that select all the transitions to which you want to apply the effect. When you click the Quick Transition button, the Quick Transition dialog box will contain a check box for Apply to All Transitions (IN -> OUT). For more information, see “Applying Effects to Multiple Transitions Using

the Quick Transition Button” on page 76.

Creating an Effect by Using the Quick Transition Button

To create an effect by using the Quick Transition button:

1. Move the position indicator to the transition in the Timeline.

Basics of Effects Editing

2. Click the Quick Transition button in the Tool palette.

For information on opening the Tool palette, see ”Using the Tool Palette” in the chapter “Viewing and Marking Footage” in the user’s guide.

The Quick Transition dialog box appears.

Graphical display of media and effect

The dialog box includes a graphical display of the outgoing media and incoming media, with the effect icon applied to the transition. For more information, see “Understanding the Graphical Display

in the Quick Transition Dialog Box” on page 80.

3. Choose a transition effect from the Add pop-up menu.

For an explanation of individual effects shown in the menu, see

“Blend Effects” on page 411.

Working with Transition Effects

When you save a Dissolve effect template into a bin named Quick Transitions, the effect template appears in the Add pop-up menu. See “Using an Effect

Template” on page 151.

When you choose a color transition with Quick Transition, the default color is black. You must enter Effect mode to choose another color. For more information, see “Using the Effect Editor” on page 94.

4. Select the transition duration by doing one of the following:

t Type the duration in frames in the Duration text box.

t Click either the left or right edge of the Dissolve Effect icon,

and drag it to change the duration. For more information, see

“Understanding the Graphical Display in the Quick Transition Dialog Box” on page 80.

The graphical display changes — the size of the effect icon gets smaller or larger, and the numbers in the Duration and Start text boxes change — to reflect the new duration.

5. Adjust the effect’s alignment relative to the cut point in one of the following ways:

t Choose an alignment from the Position pop-up menu to have

the effect end at the cut point, center on the cut point, or start at the cut point.

Basics of Effects Editing

t Choose Custom from the Position pop-up menu, and then

type a number in the Start text box to specify how many frames before the cut point you want the effect to begin.

Avid Xpress automatically selects the Custom option in the Position pop-up menu when you click in the graphical display.

t Click inside the effect in the graphical display, and drag it to

position the effect with respect to the cut point.

t Click one of the alignment buttons below the graphical

display.

For more information on the graphical display options, see

“Understanding the Graphical Display in the Quick Transition Dialog Box” on page 80.

Avid Xpress positions the effect, updates the graphical display to show the new position of the effect, and updates the value in the Start text box.

If you select an alignment for which there is not enough media, Avid Xpress comes as close as it can to the alignment you requested.

6. Click Target Drive, and from the pop-up menu choose a drive on which to store the effect if you choose to render it.

The Effect Source Drive is the drive where the media on the outgoing shot of a transition resides.

7. (Option) If you have IN and OUT points marked in your sequence, the Quick Transition dialog box contains a check box for Apply to All Transitions (IN -> OUT). Select this option to apply the same effect to all transitions between the IN and OUT points. Deselect this option to apply the effect only to the transition to which you have moved the position indicator.

Working with Transition Effects

8. If the effect you selected is real-time, select Skip Real-Time Effects to prevent real-time effects from being rendered.

9. Do one of the following:

t To add the effect without rendering it, click Add.

t To add the effect and render it, click Add and Render.

Avid Xpress adds the effect to the selected transition in the sequence, or, if you selected Apply to All Transitions (IN -> OUT), Avid Xpress adds the effect to all transitions between the IN and OUT points.

Applying Effects to Multiple Transitions Using the Quick Transition Button

You can select multiple transitions by marking IN and OUT points and then apply an effect from the Quick Transition dialog box to all the selected transitions at once.

To apply an effect to multiple transitions by using the Quick Transition button:

Basics of Effects Editing

1. Mark IN and OUT points around the transitions to which you want to add the effect.

2. Make sure that the Record Track buttons in the Track Selector panel are selected for the tracks to which you want to add the effect.

3. (Option) If you want to see a particular transition in the graphical display of the Quick Transition dialog box, move the position indicator to that transition.

The graphical display in the Quick Transition dialog box always shows the transition closest to the position indicator. When you define an effect to apply to multiple transitions, the positioning details of any one transition might not be useful since you need to create an effect that will fit all the transitions. However, you might want to choose one transition as a model. For example, you might use the transition with the least amount of handle as a model. If your effect fits that transition, it should fit all the others you have selected.

Apply to All T ransitions check box

4. Click the Quick Transition button.

The Quick Transition dialog box appears.

5. Choose a transition effect from the Add pop-up menu.

For an explanation of individual effects shown in the menu, see

“Blend Effects” on page 411.

Working with Transition Effects

When you save a Dissolve effect template into a bin named Quick Transitions, the effect template appears in the Add pop-up menu. See “Using an Effect

Template” on page 151.

6. Select the transition duration by doing one of the following:

t Type the duration in frames in the Duration text box.

t Click either the left or right edge of the Dissolve Effect icon

and drag it to change the duration. For more information, see

“Understanding the Graphical Display in the Quick Transition Dialog Box” on page 80.

The graphical display changes — the size of the effect icon gets smaller or larger, and the numbers in the Duration and Start text boxes change — to reflect the new duration.

7. Adjust the effect’s position relative to the cut point in one of the following ways:

t Choose an option from the Position pop-up menu to have the

effect end at the cut point, center on the cut point, or start at the cut point.

Basics of Effects Editing

t Choose Custom from the Position pop-up menu, and then

type a number in the Start text box to specify how many frames before the cut point you want the effect to begin.

Avid Xpress automatically selects the Custom option in the Position pop-up menu when you click in the graphical display.

t Click inside the effect in the graphical display, and drag it to

position the effect with respect to the cut point.

t Click one of the alignment buttons below the graphical

display.

For more information on the graphical display options, see

“Understanding the Graphical Display in the Quick Transition Dialog Box” on page 80.

Avid Xpress positions the effect, updates the graphical display to show the new position of the effect, and updates the value in the Start text box.

8. Click Target Drive, and from the pop-menu choose a drive on which to store the effect if you choose to render it.

The Effect Source Drive is the drive where the media on the outgoing shot of a transition resides.

9. If the effect you selected is real time, select Skip Real-Time Effects to prevent real-time effects from being rendered.

10. Select Apply to All Transitions (IN -> OUT).

11. Do one of the following:

t To add the effect without rendering it, click Add.

t To add the effect and render it, click Add and Render.

Avid Xpress adds the selected effect to all the transitions between the marked IN and OUT points on the selected tracks in the sequence.

If there is not enough incoming or outgoing media material to apply the effect to a transition, a dialog box appears. For more information, see “Sizing the

Effect to Fit the Media” on page 83.

Working with Transition Effects

Understanding the Graphical Display in the Quick Transition Dialog Box

The graphical display of the transition effect that appears in the Quick Transition dialog box allows you to control the length and position of the effect with frame accuracy simply by dragging. You can also quickly reset the position of the effect by using the three alignment buttons.

Features of the Graphical Display

The following illustration shows the graphical display in the Quick Transition dialog box.

Frames of incoming media available for the effect

Outgoing media

Transition effect

Alignment buttonsHandle on incoming media

Handle on outgoing media

Frames of outgoing media available for the effect

Incoming media

The graphical display shows the following:

• The outgoing (A) and incoming (B) media for the transition to which you are applying the effect. The amount of handle that is available for each piece of media is clearly indicated both as a darker area on the graphic itself and as a number of frames.

• The transition effect that you are applying. The display shows the effect icon and indicates the length and position of the effect in relation to the media.

• Three alignment buttons. These buttons appear when you choose Custom from the Position pop-up menu or click in the graphical display. They allow you to quickly reposition the effect so that it either ends at the cut point, is centered on the cut point, or starts at the cut point.

Basics of Effects Editing

Avid Xpress draws and scales the graphical display so that it represents the relative size and position of the transition effect in relation to the media. For example, in the illustration above, the effect is 30 frames long while the incoming handle is 33 frames long. The effect is therefore shown slightly shorter than the incoming handle.

Adjusting the Effect by Dragging

You can control the length or position of the transition effect by dragging in the graphical display.

To adjust the length of the effect:

1. Do one of the following:

t To adjust the length of the effect without changing its start

point, move the pointer over the right edge of the effect.

t To adjust the length of the effect without changing its end

point, move the pointer over the left edge of the effect.

The pointer changes to a resizing arrow.

Resizing arrow

2. Do one of the following:

t Drag away from the effect icon in the center to lengthen the

effect.

t Drag toward the effect icon in the center to shorten the effect.

The graphical display and the Duration text box update to reflect your adjustment. If you are dragging the left edge of the effect, the Start text box also updates to reflect the changed start point.

Working with Transition Effects

To adjust the position of the effect:

1. Move the pointer inside the effect.

The pointer changes to a hand.

2. Drag the effect to adjust its position with respect to the cut point.

The graphical display updates to show the new effect position, and the Start text box updates to show the new number of frames before the cut point.

You cannot drag an effect beyond the ends of the handles on the media because Avid Xpress cannot create a transition unless both incoming and outgoing media are available for every frame of the transition. You also cannot drag an effect beyond the cut point.

Repositioning the Effect with the Alignment Buttons

You can use the alignment buttons to quickly reposition the effect so that it either ends at the cut, is centered on the cut, or starts at the cut. The buttons have the same effect as the Ending at Cut, Centered on Cut, and Starting at Cut commands in the Position pop-up menu.

Centered on Cut Starting at CutEnding at Cut

Basics of Effects Editing

To reposition the effect with an alignment button:

t Click one of the following buttons:

• Ending at Cut, to have the effect end at the cut point

• Centered on Cut, to center the effect on the cut point

• Starting at Cut, to have the effect begin at the cut point

Sizing the Effect to Fit the Media

When you select a transition effect from the Effect Palette and not enough source media exists to apply the effect, the Insufficient Source dialog box appears.

The dialog box shows a graphical display that indicates whether the source that has insufficient material is Media A (outgoing footage), Media B (incoming footage), or both.

To automatically size the effect to fit the media:

t Click Size to Fit.

Avid Xpress sets the duration of the effect to fit the available media. If you have selected an alignment, Avid Xpress attempts to preserve it.

To change the alignment or duration of the transition effect, see

“Creating a Dissolve in Trim Mode” on page 69.

Working with Transition Effects

Although the graphical display in the Insufficient Source dialog box is similar to the graphical display in the Quick Transition dialog box, you cannot adjust an effect by dragging in the Insufficient Source dialog box.

Trimming a T ransition Effect

Avid Xpress lets you do the following:

• Trim a transition effect, using the standard transition trim procedures. For more information, see the chapter “Working in Trim Mode” in the user’s guide.

• Customize a transition effect, such as changing the fade color. For a description of how to change effect parameters, see Chapter 3.

Basics of Effects Editing

CHAPTER 3

Customizing Effects

After you have created an effect and have applied it to a transition or segment in your sequence, you can adjust its appearance and operation in a variety of ways. This chapter explains how to customize effects by using the Effect Editor and the Effect Preview monitor.

• Opening the Effect Editor

• Customizing the Effect Display

• Changing Position in an Effect

• Replacing an Effect in Effect Mode

• Using the Effect Editor

• Working with Keyframes

• Manipulating Effects Directly

• Working with Advanced Keyframes

• Using an Effect Template

Opening the Effect Editor

After you add an effect to a sequence, you must open the Effect Editor to change the parameters of the effect. When you open the Effect Editor, the Composer monitor becomes the Effect Preview monitor.

To open the Effect Editor:

1. Move the position indicator to the effect’s icon in the Timeline.

2. Choose Effect Editor from the Tools menu.

The Effect Editor opens and displays the values for the current effect in the window. At the same time, the Composer monitor becomes the Effect Preview monitor.

Both the Effect Editor and the Effect Preview Monitor toolbar display buttons for controlling and adjusting the effect. For more information, see “Effect Editor Controls” on page 94.

Effect Editor

Timeline

Effect Previe w monitor

If the Effect Editor is blank, click an effect icon in the Timeline and then click in the Effect Editor.

Customizing Effects

Customizing the Effect Display

You can adjust the appearance and function of various aspects of the Effect display by resizing windows and images, by displaying tracking information, or by displaying guidelines for the placement of effects and titles, as described in this section.

Understanding the Effect Preview Monitor

The Effect Preview monitor displays the selected effect in the sequence where the position indicator is located in the Timeline. The effect’s position bar, located directly below the Effect Preview monitor, represents only the selected effect, not the entire sequence.

Effect Preview monitor

Pop-up scale bar for expanding the position bar

Effect Preview Monitor toolbar

Tracking information

Length of effect

Effect’s position indicator (blue line)

Current position in effect

Effect’s position bar

Keyframe

Customizing the Effect Display

If the effect you expect does not appear in the Effect Preview monitor, make sure that you have selected the Record Track Monitor button in the Track Selector panel. If a black frame appears in the Effect Preview monitor, the position indicator might be at a location in the Timeline where an effect has not been applied to the sequence.

Effect Preview Monitor Toolbar Buttons

The Effect Preview Monitor toolbar has buttons for controlling effect position and adjustment. Ta bl e 3 -1 describes the buttons in the toolbar that you use to play and adjust the effect.

Table 3-1 Effect Preview Monitor Toolbar Buttons

Button Description

Rewind Places the position indicator at the first frame of the effect.

Fast Forward Places the position indicator at the last frame of the effect.

Add Keyframe Creates a keyframe at the current position of the position

indicator in the effect’s position bar. Alt+click (Windows) or Option+click (Macintosh) to delete the

selected keyframe.

Play Plays the effect from the current position in the effect’s position

bar. Click again or press the space bar to stop play.

Play Preview Plays back a wire-frame preview of an unrendered effect.

Play Loop Plays back the current effect repeatedly in a loop. Click again or

press the space bar to stop play.

Customizing Effects

Table 3-1 Effect Preview Monitor Toolbar Buttons (Continued)

Button Description

Reduce Reduces the size of the image in the Effect Preview monitor.

Enlarge Enlarges the size of the image in the Effect Preview monitor.

Understanding the Tracking Information

The two boxes above the Effect Preview monitor display the length of the effect in seconds and frames and the current position in the effect’s position bar. If you are working with two-field media, the current position display indicates the field that appears in the monitor. The current position display ends with .1 for the first field of a frame and with .2 for the second field. These boxes replace the name of the sequence that appears in this position in the Composer monitor.

Displaying the Safe Title and Safe Action Guidelines

Many effects can utilize the outer edges of the viewing screen area. If you are editing material that will be viewed on screens with more limited viewing areas, such as standard televisions, you can use the Safe Title and Safe Action options to provide visual guidelines in the Effect Preview monitor that replicate the actual viewable area on a standard television screen.

For example, you can use the Safe Title option as a template for the area in which you want the effect to operate. In this way, you can avoid the appearance of the effect floating off into a nonviewable area of a standard television screen.

Customizing the Effect Display

To display the Safe Title/Action guidelines in the Effect Preview monitor, do one of the following:

t Click the Grid button in the Tool palette.

For information on opening the Tool palette, see ”Using the Tool Palette” in the chapter “Viewing and Marking Footage” in the user’s guide.

t Click the Grid button in the Effect Editor.

To open the Effect Editor, choose Effect Editor from the Tools menu.

Two outlined boxes appear in the Effect Preview monitor. The inner box is the safe title area. All text and objects should remain within the inner box. The outer box is the safe action area for video display.

Safe title area

Safe action area

Customizing Effects

To display the safe title and safe action areas in the Source pop-up monitor:

t Click the Grid button in the Tool palette of the Source pop-up

monitor.

You can also display Safe Title/Action guidelines in the Title tool. For more information, see “Displaying Safe Title or Safe Action Guidelines” on

page 278.

Moving an Enlarged Image in the Effect Preview Monitor

You can use the Enlarge and Reduce buttons in the Effect Editor to zoom in or out on an image in the Effect Preview monitor.

This allows you to view parts of an image in detail or to view parts of effects and effect controls that extend beyond the limits of the standard-size image. For more information, see “Effect Editor

Controls” on page 94.

When you use the Enlarge button to increase the size of the image in the Effect Preview monitor, you cannot view the entire frame all at once. When you are creating an effect that requires great detail, you can reposition the enlarged frame in the monitor to view the sections that need your attention.

This feature applies only to an enlarged image in the Effect Preview monitor, not to a standard-size or reduced image.

To move an enlarged image within the Effect Preview monitor:

1. Click within the boundaries of the Effect Preview monitor.

2. Press and hold Ctrl+Alt (Windows) or k+Option (Macintosh).

The pointer changes to a hand.

Customizing the Effect Display

Pointer Zoom ratio

3. Drag the hand in any direction to reposition the image within the Effect Preview monitor.

Changing Position in an Effect

To change your position in an effect, do one of the following:

t Drag the position indicator in the effect’s position bar.

t Type the timecode in the same way you do when you are editing a

sequence. For more information, see the chapter “Viewing and Marking Footage” in the user’s guide.

The type of timecode you enter (master timecode or absolute timecode) depends on the tracking information you are displaying. The position information boxes above the Effect Preview monitor update as you change position.

Customizing Effects

Replacing an Effect in Effect Mode

While in Effect mode, you can replace an existing effect.

To replace an effect:

1. Open the Effect Palette by doing one of the following:

t In the Project window, click the Effects tab.

t From the Tools menu, choose Effect Palette.

The Effect Palette opens.

2. Click an effect category in the left side of the Effect Palette.

3. Do one of the following:

t Click the icon for the new effect in the right side of the Effect

Palette, and drag the icon to the Timeline. To replace an existing effect, move the new effect’s icon on top of the existing effect’s icon.

t Click the icon for the new effect in the right side of the Effect

Palette, and drag the icon to the Effect Preview monitor.

t Select the effect in the Timeline, and double-click the new

effect’s icon in the Effect Palette.

4. Set the applicable effect parameters in the Effect Editor.

Some effects cannot replace other effects. For example, some segment effects, such as the Mask effect, cannot replace transition effects. In addition, two-layer effects, such as wipes, cannot replace three-layer effects, such as matte keys.

Replacing an Effect in Effect Mode

Using the Effect Editor

The Effect Editor contains buttons that provide controls for effect adjustment and parameter controls that allow you to set values to define the appearance of an effect. The following sections explain how to use Effect Editor buttons and parameter controls.

The Effect Preview Monitor toolbar also contains buttons that you use to adjust and preview effects. For more information, see “Effect

Preview Monitor Toolbar Buttons” on page 88.

When you are working with the Picture-in-Picture effect or 3D PIP effect, you can expand the Effect Editor to display keyframe graphs. You can then create and adjust independent keyframes for each keyframeable effect parameter. For more information, see “Working

with Advanced Keyframes” on page 116.

Effect Editor Controls

Customizing Effects

This section describes the controls in the Effect Editor. Not all controls apply to each effect. If a control is not applicable, it does not appear in the Effect Editor for that effect.

The following illustration shows the location of controls within the Effect Editor. Ta bl e 3 - 2 describes each button in detail.

Triangular opener

Parameter category

Sliders used to adjust parameters

Parameter name

Effect name

Other Options butto n

Effect i con

Reduce button Enlarge button

Play Loop button Play button

Render Effect button Outline/Path button

Grid button

3D Promote button

Transition Effect Alignment button

Transition Effect Duration box

Promote to Advanced Keyframes button

Additional buttons appear in the Effect Editor, depending on which effect you are using. For example, if you are working with a 3D effect, a set of 3D-specific buttons appears along the right side of the Effect Editor. For more information on 3D-specific Effect Editor buttons, see

“Understanding the 3D Effects Interface” on page 253.

Using the Effect Editor

Additional buttons appear in the bottom toolbar of the Effect Editor when you are working with keyframe graphs. For more information, see “Effect Editor Controls for Advanced Keyframes” on page 118.

Table 3-2 Effect Editor Controls

Button Location Description

Triangular opener Left side of

Effect Editor

Other Options Inside some

parameter categories

Render Effect Bottom of

Effect Editor

Outline/Path Bottom of

Effect Editor

Transi tion Eff ec t Alignment

Transi tion Eff ec t Duration box

Bottom of Effect Editor

Click to display or hide the parameter category. A downward-pointing triangle displays the parameter category; a right-pointing triangle displays only the parameter name.

Click to access additional parameters for some effects, including access to the Macintosh Color Picker or the Windows Color dialog box for color selection. For more information, see “Using the

Other Options Button to Access Parameters” on page 102.

Click to render the current effect.

Click to display a wire-frame path to illustrate the movement of an effect from the first keyframe through the last keyframe.

Click to open a pop-up menu with options for selecting the alignment of a transition effect relative to the cut point.

Click in this box to type a duration for the transition effect other than the duration displayed.

Promote to Advanced Keyframes button

Reduce Right side of

Customizing Effects

Bottom of Effect Editor

Effect Editor

Promotes a Picture-in-Picture or 3D PIP effect to keyframe graphs. Not available for other effects. For more information, see “Promoting Effects to

Advanced Keyframes” on page 117.

Reduces the size of the image in the Effect Preview monitor.

Table 3-2 Effect Editor Controls (Continued)

Button Location Description

Enlarge Right side of

Effect Editor

Play Loop Right side of

Effect Editor

Play Right side of

Effect Editor

Grid Right side of

Effect Editor

3D Promote Bottom right

corner of Effect Editor

The Effect Preview Monitor toolbar also contains buttons that you use to adjust and preview effects. For more information, see

“Understanding the Effect Preview Monitor” on page 87.

Enlarges the size of the image in the Effect Preview monitor.

Plays back the current effect repeatedly in a loop. Click again or press the space bar to stop play.

Plays the effect from the current position in the effect’s position bar. Click again or press the space bar to stop play.

Click to display the Safe Title and Safe Action guidelines.

Available for title effects, Picture-in-Picture effects, and imported matte keys on systems with 3D effects capabilities. Click to promote the effect to a 3D effect. See “Promoting 2D Effects to 3D Effects”

on page 251.

Displaying an Effect’s Parameters in the Effect Editor

To display an effect’s parameters in the Effect Editor:

1. Move the position indicator to the effect’s icon in the Timeline.

2. Make sure that the Record Track button for the track that contains the effect is selected in the Track Selector panel.

Using the Effect Editor

Effect name

Other Options button

Parameter category

3. (Option) If you are not already in Effect mode, choose Effect Editor from the Tools menu.

The Effect Editor opens.

The name of the effect and its icon appear at the top of the Effect Editor and the parameters that pertain to the effect appear in the Effect Editor.

Effect i con

Slider used to adjust parameter

Triangular opener

Customizing Effects

Transition parameters

This example shows the Grid effect parameters.

Understanding Effect Parameters

Effect parameters are values that define the appearance of an effect. For example, you can set parameters that control the size and position of a Picture-in-Picture effect.

Not all effect parameters apply to all effects. Parameters that do not apply to an effect do not appear in the Effect Editor for that effect. To determine which parameters pertain to an effect, refer to the effect’s description in “2D Effects” on page 410 and “3D Effects” on page 548.

If the position indicator is not on an effect’s icon in the Timeline, or if the track that contains the effect is not selected, then the Effect Editor is blank.

Effect parameters are either global or keyframeable. You adjust a global parameter once for the entire effect; its values cannot change over time. You can adjust keyframeable parameters once for the entire effect, or you can use the Effect Editor along with keyframes to adjust the parameter multiple times and change its value over time. For more information, see “Global and Keyframeable Parameters” on page 378.

For most effects, a keyframe applies to every keyframeable effect parameter in the effect. If you are working with the Picture-in-Picture effect or 3D PIP effect, however, you can use keyframe graphs to create independent keyframes for each keyframeable effect parameter. This greatly increases your control of how the effect changes over time. For more information, see “Working with Advanced Keyframes” on

page 116.

Parameter controls are grouped in parameter categories within the Effect Editor. For example, the Border parameter category includes all the controls that you can use to define the color and appearance of an effect border.

Using the Effect Editor

100

Several types of parameter controls might appear for a particular effect:

• Parameter sliders

• Parameter Enable buttons

• Parameter options that you select from Fast menus

• Additional parameters that you access with the Other Options button

• Color parameters that you can select using the eyedropper, the Windows Color dialog box, or the Macintosh Color Picker as well as by using sliders

For reference information on all effect parameters, see “2D Effects

Parameters” on page 377 and “3D Effects Parameters” on page 530.

Using Parameter Sliders

Parameter sliders allow you to adjust effect parameters that have a range of possible values. For example, use the Level slider in the Foreground parameter category to adjust the degree of opacity of the foreground material on a scale from 0 to 100.

The thumbwheel is a specialized slider that provides a window on a wide range of values and allows precise control over increments.

The parameter’s numeric value changes as you move the slider.

Slider Thumbwheel

Parameter’s slider Parameter’s numeric valueActivated thumbwheel

Parameter’s numeric value

Customizing Effects

Pinnacle Systems Xpress - 5.0 User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

Using This Guide

Who Should Use This Guide

About This Guide

Symbols and Conv e nti on s

If You Need Help

Related Informati on

If You Have Documentation Comments

How to Order Documentation

Preparing to Work with Effects

Effect Types

Effect s Creation Tools

Understanding Effect Playback Capabilities

Using the Effect Palette

Understanding the Effect Palette

Displaying the Effect Palette

Resizing the Effect Palette

Understanding the Color Coding

Displaying Effect Templates

Using Third-Party Pl ug-in Effects

Understanding AVX Plug-Ins

IllusionFX Pack Plug-Ins

Installing AVX Plug-Ins

Locating the AVX Plug-Ins Folder (Windows Only)

Upgrading AVX Plug-ins and Effects

Assigning Multiple Tracks in Plug-in Effects

Using AVX Plug-in Controls

Accessing an AVX Custom Interface

Custom AVX Controls in the Effect Editor

Troubleshooting AVX Plug-Ins

Plug-in Does Not Appear in the Effect Palette

Plug-in Does Not Load

Avid Xpress Cannot Render the Plug-In

Blank Effect Icons in the Timeline

Missing Effect Categories in the Effect Palette

Basics of Effects Editing

Deconstructing Effects

Applying Effects to a Sequence

Applying an Effect to a Single Transition or Segment

Dragging an Effect from the Effect Palette

Double-Clicking an Effect Icon in the Effect Palette

Applying an Effect to Multiple Transitions

Applying an Effect to Multiple Segments

Deleting Effects in a Sequence

Deleting a Single Effect

Deleting Multiple Transition Effects

Deleting Multiple Segment Effects

Using the Fade Effect Button

Working with Transition Effects

Applying a Dissolve Effect

Using the Effect Palette to Create a Dissolve Effect

Creating a Dissolve in Trim Mode

Adding Dissolves with the Head Fade and Tail Fade Buttons

Using the Quick Transition Button

Creating an Effect by Using the Quick Transition Button

Applying Effects to Multiple Transitions Using the Quick Transition Button

Understanding the Graphical Display in the Quick Transition Dialog Box

Sizing the Effect to Fit the Media

Trimming a T ransition Effect

Customizing Effects

Opening the Effect Editor

Customizing the Effect Display

Understanding the Effect Preview Monitor

Effect Preview Monitor Toolbar Buttons

Understanding the Tracking Information

Displaying the Safe Title and Safe Action Guidelines

Moving an Enlarged Image in the Effect Preview Monitor

Changing Position in an Effect

Replacing an Effect in Effect Mode

Using the Effect Editor

Effect Editor Controls

Displaying an Effect’s Parameters in the Effect Editor

Understanding Effect Parameters

Using Parameter Sliders