Pinnacle Systems Xpress DV - 2.0 User Manual

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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.

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 side of the Effect Editor.

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.

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” on page 26.

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 DV Cannot Render the Plug-In

If Avid Xpress DV 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.

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 DV 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 T ools menu),

and look for the message “Can’t find effect.” The message identifies the plug-in that Avid Xpress DV cannot

locate. You can then reinstall the plug-in in your AVX_Plug-Ins folder and restart Avid Xpress DV.

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 DV application, reinstall the plug-ins, and restart the application.

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

CHAPTER 2

Basics of Effects Editing

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

• Deconstructing Effects

• Applying Effects to a Sequence

• Deleting Effects in a Sequence

• Using the Fade Effect Button

• Working with Transition Effects

• Creating Motion Effects

• Stabilizing an Image

Deconstructing Effects

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

The sequence depicted in the following screen image contains a series

of effects that cover all the basic techniques — from simple dissolves to nested layers — described throughout Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of this guide.

Layered background elements

Layered foreground elements

Imported title elements set in motion with a wipe effect

In the PDF version of this guide, available on the Avid Xpress DV Online Publications CD-ROM, you can double-click the following image to view

the entire sequence.

The following Timeline for this 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 used as a wipe:

See “Working with Imported Graphics

and Animation” on page 138.

Effect template applied repeatedly to crop and position foreground images on V2: See “Applying an Effect

Template” on page 110.

Nested segments add more layers to the foreground track:

See “Nesting

Effects” on page 141.

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

See “Submaster Editing” on page 147.

Title graphics imported as Matte Key effects:

See “Working with Imported Graphics and

Animation” on page 138.

Keyed titles are faded in and out: See “Using

the Fade Effect Button” on page 46.

Dissolve sequence forms the foreground on V2:

See “Applying an Effect to Multiple Transitions”

on page 40 and “Working with Transition Effects” on page 47.

Various effect parameters adjusted throughout to soften, distort, or position images: See “Using the

Effect Editor” on page 91.

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 on a single video layer

• Multiple transitions or segments on multiple video layers

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 17. For information on individual effects,

see “2D Effects” on page 268.

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

“About Effect Parameters” on page 94.

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.

Y ou 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 49.

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. Choose Effect Palette from the Tools menu. For an explanation of the Effect Palette, see “Using the Effect

Palette” on page 19.

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.

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

Effect icon

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 61.

Double-Clicking an Effect Icon in the Effect Palette

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. Choose Effect Palette from the Tools menu.

3. Click either the Extract/Splice-in button or the Lift/Overwrite button 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.

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. Choose Effect Palette from the Tools menu.

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 60.

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 DV allows you to perform this procedure only if one of the transitions already has an effect on it.

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

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, and 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 61.

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.

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

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

1. In normal editing mode or in Effect mode, 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.

Selection box

3. Release the mouse button. Avid Xpress DV highlights the segments you selected.

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, and double-click the effect’s icon that you

want to apply to the segments. Avid Xpress DV applies the effect to the highlighted segments in

the Timeline.

Deleting Effects in a Sequence

Y ou can delete transition ef fects from a sequence in the Timeline at any time. Y ou can delete segment effects fr om a sequence in the T imeline 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 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.

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 doin g one of th e following: t If the Effect Editor is not active, click the Remove Effect button

in the Tool palette.

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

Delete key.

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

Delete key or click the Remove Effect button.

The effect is removed.

When you delete an effect from a sequence, Avid Xpress DV does not delete

the associated media file. To delete the effect’s media file, you must manually remove it from the drive. Avid Xpress DV 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 125.

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 Multiple Segment Effects

To delete multiple segment effects:

1. Click either the Extract/Splice-in button or the Lift/Overwrite button 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.

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 the

Extract/Splice-in button or the Lift/Overwrite button below the Timeline; then Shift+click the segments.

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

Types of Transition Effects

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 7.

Applying a Dissolve Effect

One of the most common transition effects is a dissolve. Avid Xpress DV has three 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 48.

• Click the Quick Transition button in the Tool palette.

For more information, see “Using the Quick Transition Button”

on page 49.

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

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

on page 60.

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 your user’s guide.

2. Choose Effect Palette from the Tools menu.

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 61.

Using the Quick Transition Button

You can create a transition effect by clicking the Quick Transition button. This button allows you to apply the following transition effects without using the Effect Palette:

• Dissolve

• Fade to Color

• Fade from Color

• Dip to Color

Y ou 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 “Using the Quick Transition Button to Apply

Effects to Multiple Transitions” on page 53.

To create an effect by using the Quick Transition button:

1. Move the position indicator to the transition in the Timeline.

2. Click the Quick Transition button in the Tool palette. 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 57.

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 269.

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 109.

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 91.

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 57.

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.

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 DV 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 57.

A vid Xpr ess DV 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 DV 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 T ransition 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.

8. 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 DV adds the effect to the selected transition in the sequence, or, if you selected Apply to All Transitions (IN -> OUT), Avid Xpress DV adds the effect to all transitions between the IN and OUT points.

Using the Quick Transition Button to Apply Effects to Multiple Transitions

You can select multiple transitions by marking IN and OUT points. 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 Qu ick Transition button:

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 269.

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 109.

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 57.

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.

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 DV 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 57.

A vid Xpr ess DV 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. Select Apply to All Trans iti ons (I N -> OUT) .

10. 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 DV 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 61.

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

incoming media

Transition effect

Alignment buttonsHandle on

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.

Avid Xpress DV 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 46 frames long. The effect is therefore shown about two-thirds the size of 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.

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 DV 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

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

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.

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.

Transition Effect Alignment button

Transition Effect Alignment pop-up menu

This adds the Dissolve effect at the transition and a Dissolve effect in the Timeline.

3. Click the Transition Effect Alignment button, and select the ef fect’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 267.

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.

Transition Effect Duration box

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 DV sets the duration of the effect to fit the available media. If you have selected an alignment, Avid Xpress DV attempts to preserve it.

To change the alignment or duration of the transition effect, see

“Creating a Dissolve in Trim Mode” on page 60.

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 Transition Effect

Avid Xpress DV 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.

Creating Motion Effects

A motion effect, applied to a clip in the Source pop-up monitor, allows you to alter the playback characteristics of the clip. Motion effects include Freeze Frame, Variable Speed (such as slow motion or fast motion), and Strobe Motion effects. You can also combine Variable Speed and Strobe Motion effects in a single clip.

Avid Xpress DV creates a motion effect by creating a new clip in a bin. You then edit the clip into your sequence by using standard editing techniques.

Rendering Considerations When Creating Motion Effects

A v id Xpress DV cr eates motion ef fects using one of four dif fer ent types

— Duplicated Field, Both Fields, Interpolated Field, and VTR-Style. You choose motion effect types based on the quality you need for the final motion effect, the rendering time that each type requires, and the media with which you are working (some types are useful only when you are working with two-field media).

Motion effect clips must be rendered before they can be played.

Information about the type and render status of motion effects appe ars in the Timeline in the same form as that used for other effects. Each motion effect type has a distinct effect icon, as shown in the following illustration.

Duplicated Field Motion Effect icon

Both Fields Motion Effect icon

Interpolated Field Motion Effect icon

VTR-Style Motion Effect icon

The following illustration shows three typical examples of Motion Effect icons in the Timeline.

Rendered VTR-Style motion effect (no dot)

In the Timeline, Motion Effect icons have a blue dot before rendering. Rendering removes the dot.

When you render motion effects, Avid Xpress DV checks the Motion Effects Render Using option in the active Render setting. If the Motion Effects Render Using option is set to Original Preference (the default setting), Avid Xpress DV makes no change to the type of motion effects when it renders them. If the Motion Effects Render Using option is set to a specific motion effect type, Avid Xpress DV changes all motion effects to that type when it renders them. This option is particularly important for controlling the look of motion effects when you are working with two-field media.

Whenever Avid Xpress DV changes the motion effect type during a rendering operation, a message appears in the Console, providing information about the change. For more information, see “Creating

and Using Render Settings” on page 115 and “Understanding Motion Effect Type Changes” on page 65.

Unrendered Both Fields motion effect (blue dot)

Unrendered Interpolated Field

motion effect (blue dot — plays as a Duplicated Field motion effect until rendered)

You need to render any motion effect if you did not render that effect at the time you created it.

Understanding Motion Effect Type Changes

Whenever motion effects in the Timeline are rendered or rerendered, Avid Xpress DV uses the Motion Effects Render Using option in the active Render setting to define the motion effect type for the new versions of the motion effects. For example, you might start a project using single-field media and the Duplicated Field type for motion effects. Later, you might redigitize the media at a two-field resolution, set the Motion Effects Render Using option in the active Render setting to VTR-Style, and submit the whole sequence for rendering. By doing this, you create new motion effects that are higher quality and that can play with the two-field media.

Changes to motion effect types are permanent changes to both the Motion Effect clip and its associated media. You can return to the old motion effect type only by rerendering. To avoid unnecessary rerendering, make sure that the Motion Effects Render Using option in the active Render setting is set to the motion effect type you need.

Avid Xpress DV writes a message in the Console whenever it changes the type of motion effect during rendering. You can check these messages to verify the changes that Avid Xpress DV has made to your motion effects. Motion Effect icons in the Timeline also change to reflect the new motion effect type.

To display information about motion effect type changes in the Console:

1. Choose Console from the Tools menu. The Console window opens.

2. Render one or more motion effects by using one of the procedures described in “Rendering Effects” on page 114.

For each motion effect whose type is changed by rendering, a message appears in the Console.

The following illustration shows a typical message. In this example, the Motion Effects Render Using option in the active Render settings is set to Interpolated Field.

3. (Option) If the new motion effect type is not the one you want, change the Motion Effects Render Using option in the active Render settings, and then rerender the motion effects.

Creating a Freeze Frame

A Freeze Frame effect is a still image, based on a chosen frame from a clip, that continues to display for the duration that you choose. When

combined with the original clip, the footage plays and then “freezes” and holds on the frame that you specified.

To create a Freeze Frame effect:

1. Open a clip in the Source pop-up monitor.

2. Cue the clip to the frame that you want to freeze.

3. Choose Freeze Frame from the Clip menu. A pop-up menu appears.

4. Choose Two Field Freeze Frames, and then choose one of the following:

• Using Duplicated Field — Avid Xpress DV creates the effect

using a single field. While this reduces the vertical resolution of the image by one-half, it is often the best option if the source footage contains rapid motion.

• Using Both Fields — Avid Xpress DV uses both fields to create

the effect. This option is especially useful when there is little or no motion in the footage since it preserves all vertical resolution.

• Using Interpolated Field — Avid Xpress DV creates a second

field for the effect by combining scan line pairs from the first field in the original media. This might result in a slightly softer look to the freeze frame.

For more information on these options, see “Motion Effect Parameters” on

page 257.

The chosen option becomes the default until you choose another option.

5. Choose Freeze Frame from the Clip menu, and then do one of the following:

t Choose a preconfigured duration. t Choose Other and type a custom duration in the dialog box;

then click OK to enter the new duration.

A dialog box appears, prompting you to choose a target drive for the freeze frame media.

6. Choose a drive from the pop-up menu, and click OK. A new clip appears in the Source pop-up monitor and in the

current bin preceded by a Mo tion Ef fect icon. The ne w clip has the original clip name followed by the letters FF.

Controlling a Freeze Frame with a Single Button or Key

You can map the Freeze Frame command to a button or key. Avid Xpress DV remembers the duration of the freeze frame and the option for two-field media if appropriate. After you have mapped the command, you can create a freeze frame of the same type and duration simply by clicking the button or pressing the key.

To map the Freeze Frame command to a button or key:

1. Choose Freeze Frame from the Clip menu, choose Two Field Freeze Frames, and then choose one of the following:

• Using Duplicated Field — Avid Xpress DV creates the effect

using a single field. While this reduces the vertical resolution of the image by one-half, it is often the best option if the source footage contains rapid motion.

• Using Both Fields — Avid Xpress DV uses both fields to create

the effect. This option is especially useful when there is little or no motion in the footage since it preserves all vertical resolution.

• Using Interpolated Field — Avid Xpress DV creates a second

field for the effect by combining scan line pairs from the first field in the original media. This might result in a slightly softer look to the freeze frame.

For more information on these options, see “Motion Effect Parameters” on

page 257.

2. Do one of the following:

t To map to a button, open the Tool palette. t T o map to a key, open the Keyboard palette by double-clicking

Keyboard in the Settings scroll list of the Project window.

3. Choose Command Palette from the Tools menu. The Command palette opens.

4. Select Menu to Button Reassignment.

5. Do one of the following:

t To map to a button, click a blank button in the Tool palette. t To map to a key, click a blank key in the Keyboard palette.

6. Choose Freeze Frame from the Clip menu.

7. Do one of the following:

t Choose a preconfigured duration. t If you want to type a custom duration when you create a

freeze frame using the button or key, choose Other.

Avid Xpress DV maps the Freeze Frame menu command to the button or key.

8. Close the Command palette.

Creating a Rolling Clip That Freezes

One common use for freeze frames is to create a segment that plays normally and then freezes, either to superimpose text information or to add emphasis to the end of a sequence before fading.

To create a rolling clip that freezes:

1. Edit the clip into the sequence.

2. Mark an IN point in the sequence at the frame where you want the freeze frame to occur.

3. Create the Freeze Frame effect from the source footage as described in “Creating a Freeze Frame” on page 66.

4. Click either the Extract/Splice-in button or the Lift/Overwrite button below the Timeline to edit the freeze frame into the sequence at the previously marked IN point.

When you play the sequence, the footage plays full-motion and then freezes at the chosen frame.

Creating a Variable Speed Effect

V ariable Speed ef fects involve changing the rate of playback to achieve fast-motion or slow-motion effects. Avid Xpress DV creates slow-motion effects by duplicating frames in the original media. It creates fast-motion effects by eliminating frames from the original media.

To create a Variable Speed effect:

1. (Option) If you require a fixed duration for the clip based on a segment in the sequence, mark the segment in the Timeline with IN and OUT points.

2. (Option) If you want to use only part of the source clip for the motion effect, mark IN and OUT points in the Source pop-up monitor.

3. Click the Motion Effect button in the Source pop-up monitor. The Motion Effect dialog box appears.

Variable Speed option

4. Select the Variable Speed option.

5. Specify the play speed for the Variable Speed motion effect in one of the following ways:

t Type a number of frames in the Frames text box. t Type a frame rate in the FPS text box. To indicate reverse

motion, enter a negative number for the play rate.

t Type a percentage of the current play rate in the % Speed text

box. To indicate reverse motion, enter a negative number for the percentage.

t Select the Fit To Fill option to automatically set the Variable

Speed parameters so that the duration of the motion effect will match the IN to OUT duration marked in the Composer monitor.

When you set one of these, all values change to reflect the specified play rate.

6. (Option) If Original Preference is set as the Motion Effects Render Using option in the active Render setting, select one of the following four available options:

• Duplicated Field — Avid Xpress DV creates the effect using

one field.

• Both Fields — Avid Xpress DV creates the effect using both

fields.

• Interpolated Field — A vid Xpr ess DV creates a second field for

the effect by combining scan line pairs from the first field in the original media.

• VTR-Style — Avid Xpress DV creates a second field for the

effect by shifting selected video fields of the original media by a full scan line. This technique is similar to that used by high-quality professional video decks when playing footage at less than normal speed.

For more information on these options, see “Motion Effect Parameters” on

page 257.

7. (Option) If a specific motion effect type is set as the Motion Effects Render Using option in the active Render setting, Avid Xpress DV automatically selects that type in the Motion Effect dialog box, makes all other types unavailable, and displays the Ignore Render Setting check box. If you want to override the Render setting, click the Ignore Render Setting check box, and then select one of the four options described in step 6.

8. Complete the effect by doing one of the following: t Click Create to create the new clip and close the dialog box.

Another dialog box asks you to choose the target bin for the effect.

t Click Create and Render to render the clip — creating new

media files — and close the dialog box. Another dialog box asks you to choose the bin for the effect.

A new clip appears in the Source pop-up monitor and in the current bin. The clip has the original clip name followed by the frame rate in parentheses. You can then edit this clip into your sequence as you would any other clip.

Creating a Strobe Motion Effect

Strobe motion results in a stuttering effect during playback of a clip.

You determine the degree of the “stutter” when you create the effect.

Strobe Motion option

You can also combine the Strobe Motion effect with the Variable Speed effect. For more information on the Variable Speed effect, see “Creating a Variable

Speed Effect” on page 71.

To create a Strobe Motion effect:

1. (Option) If you want to use only part of the source clip for the effect, mark IN and OUT points in the Source pop-up monitor.

2. Click the Motion Effect button in the Source pop-up monitor. The Motion Effect dialog box appears.

3. Select the Strobe Motion option.

4. Specify the update rate in frames for the Strobe Motion effect. For example, a rate of 5 causes every fifth frame to be held for five frames before updating in the Strobe Motion effect.

5. (Option) If Original Preference is set as the Motion Effects Render Using option in the active Render setting, select one of the following four available options:

• Duplicated Field — Avid Xpress DV creates the effect using

one field.

• Both Fields — Avid Xpress DV creates the effect using both

fields.

• Interpolated Field — A vid Xpr ess DV creates a second field for

the effect by combining scan line pairs from the first field in the original media.

• VTR-Style — Avid Xpress DV creates a second field for the

For more information on these options, see “Motion Effect Parameters” on

page 257.

6. (Option) If a specific motion effect type is set as the Motion Effects Render Using option in the active Render setting, Avid Xpress DV automatically selects that type in the Motion Effect dialog box, makes all other types unavailable, and displays the Ignore Render Setting check box. If you want to override the Render setting, click the Ignore Render Setting check box, and then select one of the four options described in step 5.

7. Complete the effect by doing one of the following: t Click Create to create the new clip and close the dialog box.

Another dialog box asks you to choose the target bin for the effect.

t Click Create and Render to render the clip — creating new

media files — and close the dialog box. Another dialog box asks you to choose the bin for the effect.

If you do not render a Strobe Motion effect when you first create it, the effect will play back as filler until you render it.

A new clip appears in the Source pop-up monitor and in the current bin preceded by a Mo tion Ef fect icon. The ne w clip has the original clip name followed by the word Strobe and the number of update frames in parentheses.

Stabilizing an Image

The Region Stabilize effect eliminates unwanted motion in a video clip, such as motion from an unstable camera. Region Stabilize allows you to select an area of the image that you want to remain stationary and then uses the information to reposition each frame in the clip to keep the region steady.

Stabilization exposes black around the edges of the repositioned frames. You can resize (and, if necessary, reposition) the rendered clip to remove the exposed edges. Auto Zoom, in the Options parameter category, does this automatically.

The following illustration shows the Region Stabilize parameters.

To stabilize a segment:

1. Choose Effect Palette from the Tools menu.

2. Click the Stabilize category.

3. Drag the Region Stabilize Effect icon to the segment you want to stabilize.

4. Click the Effect Mode button in the Tool palette. A wire frame appears in the Effect Preview monitor to indicate the

region of interest. This is the area you want to use in stabilizing the image.

5. Reposition and resize the wire frame by doing one of the following:

t Use the sliders in the Region of Interest parameter category. t Click and drag the wire frame in the Effect Preview monitor.

Select a region that contains one or more features that do not change much from frame to frame, for example, objects such as buildings or rocks. Another approach is to shoot the scene with stabilization in mind: include an object, such as a reflective sticker, that you intend to use as your region of interest.

6. Select the type of stabilization from the Model pop-up menu:

• Translational keeps the region of interest steady along both

the horizontal and the vertical axis.

• Horizontal constrains horizontal motion in the region of

interest. Features in the region of interest can move vertically but not horizontally.

• Vertical constrains vertical motion in the region of interest.

Features in the region of interest can move horizontally but not vertically.

7. (Option) To turn on Auto Zoom, open the Options parameter category and click the Enable button.

Stabilization exposes black around the edges of the repositioned frames. Auto Zoom compensates by resizing and, if necessary, repositioning the clip to remove the exposed edges.

8. Render and review the effect. If the rendered clip does not perform as expected, see “Making

Adjustments to the Region of Interest” on page 80

9. (Option) Add keyframes to further refine the motion of the stabilized clip.

10. Continue to review and refine the effect until you achieve the results you want.

11. (Option) Resize and, if necessary, reposition the clip to eliminate black edges.

Making Adjustments to the Region of Interest

If the Region Stabilize effect does not perform as expected, it might be due to one of the following:

• Large motion. If an object in your region of interest moves too far

away from the region fr om one frame to the next, the r endered clip might display unexpected results.

• Extraneous motion. Something in your region of interest might

move over the course of the clip in a way that unpredictably affects the stabilization.

• Insufficient texture. The region of inter est might not have enough

features to allow Region Stabilize to track it effectively.

When you encounter unexpected results in the rendered clip, experiment with the following adjustments:

• Increase the size of the region of interest, or reposition it, to encompass large motion.

• Decrease the size of the region of interest to eliminate extraneous motion that is affecting the stabilization.

• Choose a new region of interest.

• Add keyframes to reestablish or refine the region of interest over the course of the clip.

CHAPTER 3

Customizing Effects with the Effect Editor

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 by changing its effect parameters in the Effect Editor. This chapter explains how to use the Effect Editor to adjust effect parameters.

• Opening the Effect Editor

• Customizing the Effect Display

• Changing Position in an Effect

• Replacing an Effect in Effect Mode

• Using the Effect Editor

• Using Keyframes

• Manipulating Effects Directly

• Using an Effect Template

• Playing an Effect

• Rendering Effects

• Managing Effect Media Files

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. Click the Effect Mode button in the Tool palette. Avid Xpress DV opens the Effect Editor and displays the values

for the current effect in the window. At the same time, Avid Xpress DV changes the Composer monitor into 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 Buttons” on page 91 and

“Understanding the Effect Preview Monitor” on page 84.

monitor

Effect EditorEffect Preview

Timeline

in the Effect Editor.

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 ef fect 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.

If the Effect Editor is blank, click an effect icon in the Timeline and then click

Tracking information

Effect Preview monitor

Effect’s position indicator (blue line)

Pop-up scale bar for expanding the position bar

Current position in effect

Length of effect

Effect’s position bar

Keyframe

Effect Preview Monitor toolbar

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. Table 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

Render Effect Renders the effect.

Rewind Places the position indicator at the first frame of the sequence.

Fast Forward Places the position indicator at the last frame of the sequence.

Play Loop Plays back the current effect r epeatedly in a loop. Click again or

press the space bar to stop play. Rendered effects play at full speed; unrendered effects play at single-frame rate.

Play Plays the effect from the current position in the effect’s position

bar . Click again or press the space bar to stop play. Rendered effects play at full speed; unrendered effects play at single-frame rate.

Play Preview Plays back a wire-frame preview of an unrendered effect.

Table 3-1 Effect Preview Monitor Toolbar Buttons (Continued)

Button Description

Add Keyframe Creates a keyframe at the current position of the position

indicator in the effect’s position bar. Alt+click to delete the selected keyframe.

Reduce Reduces the size of the image in the Effect Preview monitor.

Enlarge Enlarges the size of the image in the Effect Preview monitor.

Effect Mode Click to leave Effect mode.

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.

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. t Click the Grid button in the Effect Editor. t Choose Safe Title Area/Global Grid from the Object menu when

using the Title tool.

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

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.

Moving an Enlarged Image in the Effect Preview Monitor

You can use the Enlarge and Reduce buttons in the Effect Preview Monitor toolbar to zoom in or out on an image in the Effect Preview monitor . This allow s 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 “Understanding the

Effect Preview Monitor” on page 84.

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. The pointer changes to a hand.

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.

Replacing an Effect in Effect Mode

While in Effect mode, you can replace an existing effect.

To replace an effect:

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

2. Click an effect category on 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.

Using the Effect Editor

The Effect Editor contains the buttons and parameter controls that you use to adjust effects.

Effect Editor buttons provide controls for ef fect adjustment. Parameter controls allow you to set values that define the appearance of an ef fect. 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 85.

Effect Editor Buttons

This section describes the buttons in the Effect Editor. Not all buttons apply to each effect. If a button is not applicable, it does not appear in the Effect Editor for that effect.

Figure 3-1 shows the location of buttons within the Effect Editor. Table 3-2 describes each button in detail.

Other Options buttons

Triangular opener

Parameter category

Parameter name

Render Effect button

Outline/Path button

Effect name

Grid button

Effect icon

Slider used to adjust parameter

Transition Effect Duration box

Transition Effect Alignment button

Figure 3-1 Sample Effect Editor Buttons and Parameters

Table 3-2 Effect Editor Buttons

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

Grid Bottom of

Effect Editor

Transition Effect Alignment

Transition Effect 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 Windows Color dialog box for color selection. For more information, see “Using the Other Options

Button to Access Parameters” on page 97.

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 display the Safe Title and Safe Action guidelines.

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.

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.

3.(Option) If you are not already in Effect mode, click the Effect Mode button in the Tool palette.

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.

The Effect Editor opens.

For an example, see Figure3-1 on page 92.

About 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 page268.

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.

A number of parameters apply to many effects, such as parameters affecting size, position, or foreground level (transparency). You can adjust these parameters once for the entire effect, or you can use the Effect Editor along with keyframes to change the effect parameter over time. Other parameters can be adjusted only once for the entire effect, regardless of keyframe selection. For more information, see “Global

and Keyframeable Parameters” on page238.

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.

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 or the Windows Color dialog box, as well as by using sliders

For reference information on all effect parameters, see “2D Effects

Parameters” on page 237.

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.

To activate a parameter that has a slider:

t Click the slider.

When you activate a slider, it changes to pink.

Parameter’s slider

Parameter’s numeric value

To move from one slider to the next slider:

t Press the Tab key.

To change the value of a parameter that has a slider, do one or more of the following:

t Move the slider with the mouse. t Type a new value using the numeric keypad, and, if you entered

fewer than three digits, press Enter.

t Use the Left Arrow or Right Arrow key to change the value by –1

or +1.

t Press the Shift key and use the Left Arrow or Right Arrow key to

change the value by –10 or +10.

Using Parameter Enable Buttons

Some parameter categories contain parameter Enable buttons. These buttons control parameters that can either be on or off but cannot be adjusted over a range of values. For example, the Fixed Aspect parameter Enable button controls whether the aspect ratio of an image is maintained when you adjust one of its dimensions.

To turn a parameter on or off by using a parameter Enable button:

t Click the Enable button.

Parameter Enable buttons are pink when the parameter is active and gray when the parameter is inactive.

Using Fast Menu Parameters

Some effects have additional parameters that you select from the

current parameter’s Fast menu.

To select an additional parameter:

t Click the Fast Menu button in the parameter, and then choose an

option from the menu.

Using the Other Options Button to Access Parameters

Some effects have additional parameters that control their operation. For example, the Grid effect has additional parameters in which you set the number of columns and rows in the wipe. When an effect has additional parameters, the Other Options button appears next to the effect name or in a parameter category.

To use an effect’s additional parameters:

t Click the Other Options button next to the effect name or in a

parameter category.

A dialog box appears in which you set the additional parameters.

You also use the Other Options button to use the parameters for third-party plug-in effects, for the Windows Color dialog box in the Title tool, and for other effects that allow you to change color parameters.

Adjusting a Color Parameter

You can change a color parameter or select a key color by using the eyedropper or the Windows Color dialog box instead of the Hue, Sat (saturation), and Lum (luminance) sliders.

Other Options button

Using the Eyedropper

To select a color by using the eyedropper:

1. Position the pointer over the Color Preview window to activate the eyedropper.

2. Click the eyedropper, drag it into the Effect Preview monitor, and release the mouse button on the color you want to select from the video image.

Eyedropper Color Preview window

Avid Xpress DV updates the parameter’s numeric values, and the selected color appears in the Color Preview window.

Using the Windows Color Dialog Box

The Windows Color dialog box is a standard application that ships with the Windows operating system.

To open the Windows Color dialog box:

t Click the Other Options button in a color parameter pane.

The Windows Color dialog box appears.

Default choices

Custom colors palette

Color|Solid box

Currently chosen color

Color matrix

Color slider

Color selection text boxes

To use the Windows Color dialog box:

1. To choose a color from the Basic colors palette, click the color you want.

2. To specify a custom color, do one of the following: t Click in the color matrix to choose a color, and then drag the

color slider to adjust the amount of white and black in the color.

t Type numerical values for each color component in the color

selection text boxes.

The new color is displayed on the left side of the Color|Solid box. The right side of this box displays the solid color closest to the color you have specified. You can choose the displayed solid color by double-clicking the right side of the box.

3. When you are satisfied with the color, click Add to Custom Colors to add it to the Custom colors palette.

4. To choose a custom color from the Windows Color dialog box, click the color you want.

5. Click OK. The Windows Color dialog box closes, and the color is applied to

the parameter in the Effect Editor.

Using Keyframes

A keyframe is a point in the effect at which you can set parameters.

Modifying an effect’s parameters at various points causes the effect’s appearance to vary as it plays. For example, you can add keyframes to a Picture-in-Picture ef fect and change the position par ameters for eac h keyframe to add movement to the effect.

Keyframe indicators appear as triangles in the position bar of the Effect Preview monitor when you select an effect and the Ef fect Editor is active. You adjust keyframe parameters by using the Effect Editor.

Add Keyframe button

Starting keyframe

Selected keyframe (pink)

100

Ending keyframe

Pinnacle Systems Xpress DV - 2.0 User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

Preparing to Work with Effects

Effect Types

Effects Creation Tools

Using the Effect Palette

Displaying the Effect Palette

Resizing the Effect Palette

Displaying Effect Templates

Playing Effects in a Sequence

Displaying Effects On-the-Fly

Interrupting Render On-the-Fly

Using Third-Party Plug-in Effects

Installing AVX Plug-Ins

Locating the AVX_Plug-Ins Folder

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 DV 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

Types of Transition Effects

Applying a Dissolve Effect

Using the Effect Palette to Create a Dissolve Effect

Using the Quick Transition Button

Using the Quick Transition Button to Apply Effects to Multiple Transitions

Understanding the Graphical Display in the Quick Transition Dialog Box

Creating a Dissolve in Trim Mode

Sizing the Effect to Fit the Media

Trimming a Transition Effect

Creating Motion Effects

Rendering Considerations When Creating Motion Effects

Understanding Motion Effect Type Changes

Creating a Freeze Frame

Controlling a Freeze Frame with a Single Button or Key

Creating a Rolling Clip That Freezes

Creating a Variable Speed Effect

Creating a Strobe Motion Effect

Stabilizing an Image

Making Adjustments to the Region of Interest

Customizing Effects with the Effect Editor

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 Buttons

About Effect Parameters

Using Parameter Sliders

Using Parameter Enable Buttons

Using Fast Menu Parameters

Using the Other Options Button to Access Parameters

Adjusting a Color Parameter