Pinnacle Systems Xpress DV - 2.0 User Manual

Avid Xpress® DV

Effects Guide

Avid Xpress DV Effects Guide • Part 0130-04785-01 Rev. A • March 2001

Chapter 1 Preparing to Work with Effects

Effect Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Effects Creation Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Using the Effect Palette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Displaying the Effect Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Resizing the Effect Palette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Displaying Effect Templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Playing Effects in a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Displaying Effects On-the-Fly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Interrupting Render On-the-Fly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Using Third-Party Plug-in Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Installing AVX Plug-Ins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Locating the AVX_Plug-Ins Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Upgrading AVX Plug-ins and Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Assigning Multiple Tracks in Plug-in Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Using AVX Plug-in Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Accessing an AVX Custom Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Custom AVX Controls in the Effect Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Troubleshooting AVX Plug-Ins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Plug-in Does Not Appear in the Effect Palette. . . . . . . . . . . 32

Plug-in Does Not Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Avid Xpress DV Cannot Render the Plug-In . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Blank Effect Icons in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Missing Effect Categories in the Effect Palette . . . . . . . . . . 33

Chapter 2 Basics of Effects Editing

Deconstructing Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Applying Effects to a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Applying an Effect to a Single Transition or Segment . . . . . . . 37

Dragging an Effect from the Effect Palette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Double-Clicking an Effect Icon in the Effect Palette . . . . . 39

Applying an Effect to Multiple Transitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Applying an Effect to Multiple Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Deleting Effects in a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Deleting a Single Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Deleting Multiple Transition Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Deleting Multiple Segment Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Using the Fade Effect Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Working with Transition Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Types of Transition Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Applying a Dissolve Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Using the Effect Palette to Create a Dissolve Effect . . . . . . 48

Using the Quick Transition Butt on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Using the Quick Transition Butt on to Apply Effects to

Multiple Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Understanding the Graphical Display in the

Quick Transition Dialog Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Creating a Dissolve in Trim Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Sizing the Effect to Fit the Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Trimming a Tr ansition Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Creating Motion Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Rendering Considerations When Creating

Motion Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Understanding Motion Effect Type Changes. . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Creating a Freeze Frame. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Controlling a Freeze Frame with a Single Button or Key. . . . . 69

Creating a Rolling Clip That Freezes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Creating a Variable Speed Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Creating a Strobe Motion Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Stabilizing an Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Making Adjustments to the Region of Interest . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Chapter 3 Customizing Effects with the Effect Editor

Opening the Effect Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Customizing the Effect Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Understanding the Effect Preview Monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Effect Preview Monitor Toolbar Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Understanding the Tracking Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Displaying the Safe Title and Safe Action Guidelines. . . . . . . 86

Moving an Enlarged Image in the Effect Preview Monitor . . . 88

Changing Position in an Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Replacing an Effect in Effect Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Using the Effect Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Effect Editor Buttons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

About Effect Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Using Parameter Sliders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Using Parameter Enable Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Using Fast Menu Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Using the Other Options Button to Access Parameters. . . . . . . 97

Adjusting a Color Parameter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Using the Eyedropper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Using the Windows Color Dialog Box. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Using Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Adding a Keyframe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Selecting a Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Moving a Keyframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Changing a Keyframe’s Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Copying and Pasting Keyframe Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Deleting a Keyframe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Manipulating Effects Directly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Defining Motion Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Moving the Image Directly. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Resizing a Foreground Image by Dragging Handles. . . . . . . . 108

Using an Effect Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Saving an Effect Template. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Applying an Effect Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Playing an Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Basic Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Playing an Effect in a Continuous Loop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Playing a Preview of an Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Rendering Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Creating and Using Render Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Creating a New Render Setting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Adjusting Render Settings Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Activating a Render Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Partial Render . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Interrupting a Render . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Customizing Render Ranges Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Rendering a Single Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Rendering Effects at Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Rendering Effects Between IN and OUT Points. . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Managing Effect Media Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Understanding Effect Media Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Revealing Effect Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Deleting Effect Media Files from a Bin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Chapter 4 Creating Layered and Nested Effects

Creating Key Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Using the Chroma Key Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

About the Chroma Key Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Creating a Chroma Key Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Creating a Luma Key Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Creating a Matte Key Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Using the Color Effect to Prepare a High-Contrast Image . . . 137

Working with Imported Graphics and Animation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Editing with Imported Matte Key Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Editing with Imported Master Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Nesting Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Expanding Nested Effects in the Timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Stepping Into and Out of Nested Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Creating a Simple Nested Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Nesting a Matte Key Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Submaster Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Applying the Submaster Effect to a Multilayered Sequence. 148

Using the Submaster Effect with a Series of Short Clips . . . . 150

Collapsing Layers into One Submaster Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Performing a Video Mixdown. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Chapter 5 Creating Titles and Graphic Objects

Workflow for Creating Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Opening the Title Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Understanding the Title Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Understanding the Toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Using the Selection T ool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Setting Up the Drawing Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Installing Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Previewing Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Using Title and Action Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Using Safe Colors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Selecting a Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Using a Video Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Updating the Video Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Creating a Color Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Using the Alignment Grid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Displaying a Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Snapping to a Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Bringing the Title Tool to the Foreground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Working with Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Creating Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Copying and Pasting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Resizing Text Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Repositioning Text Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Editing a Text String . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Formatting the Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Selecting Text for Formatting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Setting the Default Text Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Selecting a Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Changing the Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Changing the Point Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Making Text Bold or Italic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Justifying the Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Kerning the Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Adjusting Leading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Creating Graphic Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Drawing a Square or Rectangle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Drawing a Circle or Oval. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Drawing a Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Selecting Line Attributes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Rounding Corners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Selecting a Line or Border Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Adding Arrowheads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Changing Arrowhead Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Selecting Colors and Setting Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

Adjusting the Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Blending Two Colors in an Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Using the Title Tool Color Picker. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Adjusting the Transpare ncy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Blending Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Working with Shadows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

Applying Shadows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Adjusting Shadow Color and Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Adjusting Shadow Softness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Setting Shadow Softness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Adjusting Shadow Softness On-the-Fly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Viewing Shadow Softness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Creating a Glow Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Manipulating Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Basic Manipulation Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Layering Text and Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Grouping and Ungrouping Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Locking and Unlocking Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Aligning Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Distributing Objects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Saving Titles and Title Styles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Saving a Title and Exiting the Title Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Saving Multiple Titles in a Session. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Using the Fast Save Option. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Saving a Title with Fast Save. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Viewing Fast-Saved Titles in a Bin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Rendering Fast-Saved Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Revising a Title in a Bin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Using a Keyboard Shortcut to Save a Title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208

Saving and Recalling Title Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Saving a Title Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210

Recalling a Title Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211

Confirming Function Key Mapping of Title Styles . . . . . 212

Applying Title Styles to Text Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Managing Title Styles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Creating and Using Title Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Creating Title Templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Using Title Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Exporting a Title as a Graphics File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

Chapter 6 Editing with Titles

Workflow for Editing with Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

Restrictions on Title Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218

About Title Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219

Displaying Title Frames in the Bin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Editing a Title into a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Splicing or Overwriting a Title into a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . 222

Dragging a Marked Title into a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

Dragging an Unmarked Title into a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Removing Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226

Replacing Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

Fading a Title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Adjusting Title Effect Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

Revising a Title in a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Replacing Fill Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232

Rendering Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Re-creating Title Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

Chapter 7 2D Effects Reference

2D Effects Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Global and Keyframeable Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Acceleration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240

Color Effect Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Luma Adjust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Luma Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Luma Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245

Chroma Adjust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246

Color Style. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247

Color Gain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

Crop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

Foreground. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

Key Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252

Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Secondary Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254

Spill Suppression. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Matrix Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

Motion Effect Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Freeze Frame Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257

Variable Speed and Strobe Motion Parameters. . . . . . . . . 259

Plug-in Effect Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262

Region Stabilize Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Region of Interest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264

Auto Zoom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Scaling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266

Transition Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267

2D Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

Blend Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

Dip to Color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270

Dissolve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

Fade from Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272

Fade to Color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Picture-in-Picture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

Superimpose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

Box Wipes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Bottom Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Bottom Left to Top Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Bottom Right to Top Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Left Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

Right Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Top Bo x . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Top Left to Bottom Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Top Right to Bottom Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Conceal Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Bottom Left to Top Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

Bottom Right to Top Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287

Bottom to Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Left to Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Right to Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Top Left to Bottom Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Top Right to Bottom Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

Top to Bottom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Edge Wipes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Horizontal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295

Horizontal Open . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296

Lower Left Diagonal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

Lower Right Diagonal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298

Upper Left Diagonal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299

Upper Right Diagonal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300

Vertical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Vertical Open . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

Film Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303

1.66 Mask. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

1.85 Mask. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305

Anamorphic Mask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

16:9 Mask. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Blowup. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Film Dissolve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Film Fade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Mask. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

Image Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Color Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Flip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Flip-Flop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315

Flop. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Mask. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Resize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318

Submaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

Key Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320

Chroma Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321

Luma Key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Matte Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

L-Conceal Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324

Bottom Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

Bottom Right. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

Top Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Top Ri ght . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328

Matrix Wipes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329

Grid. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

One-Way Row. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Speckle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332

Spiral . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Zig-Zag. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334

Motion Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Freeze Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Variable Speed and Strobe Motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Peel Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336

Bottom Left Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337

Bottom Right Corner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

Bottom to Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Left to Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

Right to Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Top Left Corner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342

Top Right Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

Top to Bottom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344

Push Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Bottom Left to Top Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346

Bottom Right to Top Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

Bottom to Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

Left to Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

Right to Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350

Top Left to Bottom Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Top Right to Bottom Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Top to Bottom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Sawtooth Wipes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Horizontal Open Sawtooth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Horizontal Sawtooth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Vertical Open Sawtooth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356

Vertical Sawtooth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Shape Wipes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358

4 Corners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359

Center Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360

Circle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

Clock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Diamond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Ellipse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

Horizontal Bands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365

Horizontal Blinds. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

Vertical Blinds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Spin Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

X Spin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

Y Spin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Squeeze Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370

Bottom Centered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

Bottom Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372

Bottom Right. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Bottom to Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374

Centered Zoom. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375

Horizontal Centered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376

Left Centered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377

Left to Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Right Centered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

Right to Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380

Top Centered. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Top Left . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

Top Ri ght . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Top to Bottom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Vertical Centered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Stabilize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Region Stabilize. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Title Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

Comparison of Similar Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Index

CHAPTER 1

Preparing to Work with Effects

Avid Xpress DV 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

• Using the Effect Palette

• Playing Effects in a Sequence

• 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 with the Effect Editor.”

• 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 with

the Effect Editor.”

-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 4, “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 5, “Creating Titles

and GraphicObjects” and Chapter 6, “Editing with Titles.”

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

created by manipulating the playback characteristics of a clip of footage. For more information on techniques for creating motion effects, see Chapter 2, “Basics of Effects Editing.”

Effects 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 tracks.

Effects editing in default editing mode:

Effects adjustment in Effect mode:

Motion Effect dialog box

Edit effect clips into the Timeline.

Title tool

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

Effect Editor: Allows you to adjust effect parameters.

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

Using the Effect Palette

The Effect Palette is a window that lists all the effects available on your Avid Xpress DV system. Other effects that are available on your system depend on what third-party plug-ins you might have installed. You select transition and segment effects from 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.

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

•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 that are available for the currently selected effect category. Each effect has its own effect icon.

Displaying the Effect Palette

Y ou can also display th e Effect Palette by pressing Ctrl+8 on your keyboard.

To display the Effect Palette:

1. Choose Effect Palette from the Tools menu. The Effect Palette opens.

Scrollable list of effect categories

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

Resizing the Effect Palette

Blend effect choices

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 palette, drag the palette to the

size you want, and then release the mouse button.

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 109.

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 the effect template:

1. Open the bin containing the effect templates.

2. Choose Effect Palette from the Tools menu. 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 templates

Effect templates

For example, in the preceding illustration, the bin named Effects contains a series of effect templates using the Picture-in-Picture, Mask, and Superimpose 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 DV 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.

Playing Effects in a Sequence

Effects in Avid Xpress DV are non-real-time, which means you must render them before you play them. You can do this by either using Render On-the-Fly, as described in “Displaying Effects On-the-Fly”

on page 23, or rendering effects explicitly. For more information, see “Rendering Effects” on page 114.

Unrendered effects appear in the Timeline with a blue dot. Rendered effects have no dot.

You can preview effects before rendering by using their outline form.

An effect’s outline is a wire-frame representation of the effect’s position, scale, and path of motion. See “Playing a Preview of an

Effect” on page 113.

Displaying Effects On-the-Fly

The Render On-the-Fly option allows you to play effects frame by frame, immediately after applying them.

To display effects immediately during effects editing:

t Choose Render On-the-Fly from the Clip menu.

Interrupting Render On-the-Fly

Using Render On-the-Fly can slow down your editing of a sequence. If you are compositing and then change the frame you are monitoring, you must wait for Avid Xpress DV to render the single frame.

Instead of waiting for Avid Xpress DV to finish rendering, you can interrupt Render On-the-Fly.

To interrupt Render On-the-Fly, do one of the following:

t Drag the position indicator in the Ti meline.

While you are dragging, the sequence appears in the Composer monitor as it would if Render On-the-Fly were not selected from the Clip menu.

t If you click in the Timeline and Avid Xpress DV begins to render,

quickly move to another location in the Timeline. This interrupts the rendering process until you release the mouse button.

Using Third-Party Plug-in Effects

You can use third-party plug-in effects to add new effects to your Avid Xpress DV system or to update existing effects. Third-party plug-in effects are compatible with the Avid Visual Extensions (AVX standard. AVX is a cross-platform software architecture designed to allow software effect modules to be dynamically linked with a host application such as an Avid editing system.

™

)

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 or www.artelsoft.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.

)

Your Avid Xpress DV 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.

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 DV 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 DV application.

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

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

The default location for the AVX_Plug-Ins folder is: C:\Program Files\Avid\AVX_Plug-Ins However , the AVX_Plug-Ins folder might be in a different location

on your system.

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” on page 26.

3. Restart the Avid Xpress DV 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 DV system. If they are, Avid Xpress DV 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 31.

Locating the AVX_Plug-Ins Folder

When the Avid Xpress DV 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.

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

lug-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 the Windows Explorer, you will find the AVX_Plug-Ins folder in that location.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ Avid Technology\AVX Plug-Ins

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

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

Once you have installed a new version of an A VX plug-in, Avid Xpress DV 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 DV sets these controls to their default settings when upgrading existing effects. Controls that ar e unchanged from the older version of the plug-in retain the values previously set by the user when Avid Xpress DV upgrades existing effects.

After you upgrade a plug-in effect or transition, you should not reinstall the older version of the plug-in. A vid Xpress DV 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. Y our system allo ws 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 141.

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.

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