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Pinnacle Studio Video Editing software
(with some Avid Liquid snippets)
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The Timelines...
The timelines in Liquid Edition (LE) can, on occasion, appear to have a mind of their
own, behaving in
a quite unexpected manner - especially for Studio users. Usually this is because
the mode of use selected
is inappropriate for the action being taken. In this article, I shall attempt to
give an overview of the way the
timelines work so that how to use them may be better understood. I haven't yet explored
all of the possibilities
and options available so some features may not be covered all that well. Sorry!!
One more thing ... this is not intended to be a tutorial (there are plenty of excellent
tutorials available on the 'net
for anyone who wishes to search), but rather an insight into the features of Liquid
Edition's timelines and some
of the ways they can be used.
Should any reader spot glaring errors or omissions, I would, naturally, welcome the
feedback!
Here are the subjects covered, with links...
The Studio way...
Studio's timelines are pretty straightforward and reasonably intuitive to use, so
I don't need to dwell too much on them. Briefly, you can drop new clips anywhere
on the video track, and the other clips to the right of it will move back accordingly,
butting up so there are no gaps unless an audio track is locked. Similarly, you can
delete a clip and unless tracks have been locked, those to the right will close up.
Locking tracks is simply a matter of clicking on the track icon (on the left in Studio
8, as shown here, and on the right in Studio 9). Locking tracks enables, for example,
insert edits to be made. In general, everything behaves more or less as expected.
The tracks are limited to:
one video track with its own audio track;
one overlay track for titles and DVD menus;
two audio tracks - ostensibly one for sound effects, CD music or voice overs, and
the other for SmartSound music. However, in practice these two audio tracks are
interchangeable and can be used for any added sounds.
Edition is very different...very, very different.
The Edition Way
Where does one start?! With Studio, there is really only one way to place a clip
on the timeline and to move clips around - drag and drop. With LE, there are numerous
ways - and even amongst those different ways, there are options - for example do
you want the sound embedded in the video track, or automatically 'broken out' onto
one or two tracks (or even 4 tracks if you capture all of the possible audio tracks
available). Before discussing these possibilities, perhaps the first thing to do
is to have a look at the basic 'structure' of the timelines.
NOTE: Edition is extraordinarily rich with keyboard controls for virtually every
function: indeed, the keyboard is the method used and preferred by most professionals,
most of the time. Virtually every aspect of the interface has it's own set of keyboard
controls that come into use, automatically, when that aspect is selected. Some actions
- toggling on/off the audio scrub facility for example - are accessible only from
the keyboard. In this overview, the keyboard controls are for the most part ignored.
For details of the keys and their functions, click on the keyboard icon at the base
of the Liquid edition interface. Use the key functions you feel most comfortable
with, and introduce use of the other keys, if you wish, as you become more familiar
with the program and its interface. You will notice that, like everything else about
Liquid Edition, the key bindings can be changed to suit your own preferences.
You can have as many timelines as you want, they can be video, video plus sound,
stereo sound or individual sound tracks.
Header and track information ... at the start of each track headers carry information
regarding what the track will be used for, how the track will be used, and so on.
Right clicking in any of the Header sections brings up a menu of options enabling
the timeline tracks to be tailored to requirements. Generally speaking, right clicking
the header column shows the same menu of options as right clicking on a timeline
header - but covering all tracks instead of just the selected track. There are one
or two differences - for example, the NAME column header also allows a DVD Menu track
to be added. From left to right, the headers are ...
Source track mapping column
This column determines how the information will be sent. The first option INSERT
GROUPED, when selected, means that the Video and Audio will be together on the same
track, otherwise, the Video and Audio is separated out to different tracks. The second
option, MAPPINGS ENABLED, if deselected means that a gap is placed on the timeline,
representing the length of the clip instead of the clip itself (someone will tell
me why this is useful!!!). I do believe that for most of the time - certainly whilst
learning, this option will need to be selected. The third option STEREO MAPPINGS
SEPARATE will insert stereo audio clips on the timeline as separate objects. Corresponding
symbols appear on the selected tracks depending on the selections made - thus V if
only the Video is placed on a track, and VA if both video and audio are placed on
a track. The track(s) that will accept video and or audio are selected by clicking
in the appropriate column of the track's header.
NOTE: These mappings apply only for video sent to the selected timeline tracks from
the Source Viewer. If you drag clips to a timeline track from a Rack, then the clips
are always inserted 'grouped' - video and audio - wherever you drag and drop it.
(How other clips 'behave' on an insertion depends on the current edit mode - see
later). Clips sent to the timeline from the Source Viewer go to the selected track
at the scrubber position. For those who have come to LE from Studio, drag and drop
is probably the best way to work until familiar with the alternative methods, but
even drag and drop doesn't work quite the same as in Studio. More of this later
Sync Lock column
The column with just a solid circle in it is for synchronising tracks. Clicking on
the column header, you can synchronize all tracks. Or you can synchronise individual
tracks by clicking in this column of the track's headers. When tracks are synchronised,
they cannot be moved relative to each other: moving one keeps the rest - whether
audio, video, or both - in synch. This is useful only when in Film Style mode. Strange
things can happen to the unwary if synch lock is on, particularly when the edit mode
is OVERWRITE. Use with care!!
The NAME column
Each column has an identifiable name. By default, the 'main' video timeline is 'Name5',
but of course, you can change which one is the 'main' track - and the names of any
of the tracks to something more meaningful. The names are also used in other areas
of LE - for example, for the controls of the Sound Editor. You can save your own
defined names as a 'template' (check out the save options), for use in all your movie
sequences. The 'main' track is the one to which video clips are sent from the Source
Viewer. All tracks above the 'main' track are overlays - that is to say, whatever
is on them in video terms appears overlaid over the main video, with the one at the
very top getting the 'top' priority. In other words, it is the 'top layer'. Thus,
by simply (yes, I mean simply) resizing or cropping a video on an overlay track,
you have a picture in picture effect - and you can add further filters and effects
to it for some stunning results. But that's another story. Sound tracks are usually
placed below the main video track, but these don't have to be sound tracks - you
can place video on them as well or instead, if you want, so the main video could,
itself, become an overlay. And of course, you can add a sound track at the top, if
you want. Transitions are shown between clips, as in Studio - however, they work
entirely differently: read the article on Transitions for the full story on that.
Video information
The video element of a track can be switched on or off by clicking in the specific
track's video header cell, or for all tracks by clicking in the video column heading
at the top. A monitor icon appears on the tracks that have video enabled. When off,
the video for that track is obviously suppressed for playback. However the clip will
still display the selected video's properties. When both video and audio on a track
are selected for viewing, if video is present then it is the video that is displayed
plus the Volume level or Panning lines, as selected, but not the audio waveform.
To display the waveforms of such a track, it can either be disbanded (i.e., the audio
brought out to its own separate tracks), or, for a more temporary measure, the clip
can be right clicked and 'Properties' selected, then the video element switched off
in the properties box. This switches off the video from the clip itself, making it
'unavailable', irrespective of whether video is selected in the track header or not.
The clip will then display just the audio track(s) data waveforms, volume level,
panning. This is useful for matching up a sound peak or trough with video or sound
on other tracks. Once done, the video can be switched back on again in the clip's
property box.
Right clicking on the video icon in the track header brings up a menu of options
allowing the track to be duplicated, renamed, resized and so on, but also providing
display options. Shown here are the options for what is to be 'Viewed' on a clip
that is on the track on the timeline - in the screen dump here, selected is Head
and Tail - meaning that there will be a picon representing the first and last frames
at the beginning and end of the clip respectively ('Index' places a picon in the
middle of the clip). The clip can show the markers that you may add, breaks in synchronisation
between picture and sound, recurrent usage of a clip, and so on. The 'Detect Recurrent
Use' shows only the part of a clip that is duplicated elsewhere, with a dotted red
and black line over the duplicated area - very useful! Of course, if the timeline
scale is shrunk back so that there is no room on the clip to show the picons etc,
then they won't be shown.
The screen dump here shows the options for displaying text information on the clip.
Thus, you can always have at a glance precisely what you want to know about a clip
- always provided of course that the timeline is extended sufficiently. The timeline
scale - and indeed, the scale of both the Source and Preview viewers - can be adjusted
by a small scale - just shown at the bottom left of the screen dump here. This differs
from Studio, where the timeline scale itself can be dragged to display different
time scales. The interesting thing about LE is that, when expanded to show individual
frames, you'll see the scrubber is actually a double line embracing the currently
selected frame - so you know exactly which frame is being viewed. By default, the
time scale starts not at zero, but at 1 hour: the reason for this is historic (negative
values were not allowed), and it can be changed to zero and your own 'zero start'
template created, should you so desire.
The track height can be adjusted to one of a range of values by selecting the option
from the right-click menu of the Video column. Alternatively, you can use the conventional
drag method of adjustment by clicking on one of the horizontal track lines in the
header area, as shown here.
Sound information
As with the Video column, right clicking on the loudspeaker icon in the header gives
you options. You can active/de-activate the audio channel, and you can show either
the Volume or Panning line, and Waveform. (You can also toggle the sound playback
off/on by simply left clicking on the loudspeaker icon in the track header). Notice
how the selected icon 'glows' when it is highlighted. This is a feature of LE for
all icons. When switched off, the loudspeaker icon vanishes, and that track doesn't
play at all - if you make a movie with it off, that track won't be recorded. The
loudspeaker icon can be solid or 'hollow' (see the screen dump here) - but only two
tracks can be hollow at a time. You can make a loudspeaker hollow by holding down
the SHIFT key when clicking it. What's the difference between them? With hollow
loudspeaker icons, the sound track can be scrubbed for selective playback. To switch
on the Sound Scrubbing feature (normally it is off), the SCROLL LOCK key is pressed.
It is an on/off toggle. With Sound Scrubbing on, you have two options - analogue
scrubbing which plays back as scrubbing occurs, and digital scrubbing which plays
back a determined period around the scrubbed section. Naturally, you choose how long
that period is to be. Note that to adjust sound levels or panning, one has to open
the sound editor first (unlike Studio). Once opened, the sound lines can be used
in the same 'rubber-band' way as Studio, or the adjustments can be made using the
individual sound track controls. The sound editor will (may) be discussed in another
article. Incidentally, when sound scrubbing is on, the sound can also be scrubbed
in the Source and Preview windows.
Every 'event' is identified
At the top of the timeline display you'll see a series of boxes - known as 'slices'.
These represent the sections between edit points. An edit point is the start and
end of a clip or a transition and so on, irrespective of what timeline it is on.
The sequential slice number is also displayed, where there is room to do so. The
colour of the slices tells the status of the corresponding edit - grey means it doesn't
need rendering, green means it has been rendered, yellow means it needs to be rendered
- but still may be seen in many instances through the real-time (RT) feature of LE.
A slice can also show in (the dreaded) red - which means the 'asset' or media - video
for example - isn't available. In the screen dump here, you'll see a thin slither
of a slice between 27 and 29 - slice 28 represents the 'edit' between the start of
the video on the 2nd track from the bottom, and the end of the clip on the bottom
track shown. Empty background to the tracks is shown in a light blue.
Clip displays
When a clip on the timeline is 'selected' it is shown depressed, as if it were a
button. When a clip is Protected - so changes or edits will not affect it, it is
shown greyed - see the Name6 track in the screen dump alongside here. Tracks can
also be deselected by left-clicking in the track name box. This clears the blue (selected)
colour to the track header (see Name6 in the screen dump here) and means, for example,
that razor-cutting a clip on another track won't also razor cut through the deselected
track. Tracks that are deselected are not used when a movie is finally made, or if
a sequence is 'fused'. Fusing a sequence creates an AVI of all the selected tracks
in a sequence - useful for quickly exporting to another program, such as SmartSound,
for the addition of music. (There are also other ways to send - 'XSEND' - to other
specific applications). Fusing and 'Containers' are discussed elsewhere.
A purplish line across the top of a clip indicates that one or more effects have
been applied to the clip. Such clips also get a relevant icon (see the green star
like icon in the dump alongside). However, depending on the scale being used, this
may not be visible. Also shown in the screen dump here is the result of right-clicking
on the purple line, which brings up options for each of the attached filters.
If the 'sync break' indicator is on, a red line appears at the bottom of the clip
when the video and sound sync has been broken. If the option to display recurrent
(re-used) scenes is on, then a dotted red line appears at the top of all clips over
the portions that are duplicated somewhere on the timeline. This in my view, is
better than the Studio method, which just shows when an entire clip has been used
by a 'tick' in the album picon. That method would not be practical in Liquid Edition
because a capture could be just one long 'clip, from which separate scenes are created
and selected for adding to the timelines by choosing in and out points using, say,
the source viewer.
Let's look now at how clips can be added to the timeline. Remember, Studio offers
just one way, drag and drop ...
Placing clips on the timeline
There are three basic ways to get clips onto the timeline: a) from the Source Viewer
(left of the two viewers), b) by dragging direct from the 'racks', or c) by highlighting
required clips in the LE's 'Desktop' view and right clicking to select 'Send to Timeline'.
Clips can also be sent direct to the timeline as they are captured. And I wouldn't
mind betting, there may be other ways, too!
(To place a clip in the source viewer - for previewing and/or selecting the required
part before sending it to the time line (by setting mark in and mark out point),
you simply double-click a clip in the rack (unless you have chosen something else
for a double click on a rack clip to do ... see what I mean about the options available
- they're almost endless). Alternatively, right clicking on a clip in the rack enables
you to send it to the Source viewer or to the timeline).
To send the video between in and out markers of the Source viewer - or, if no markers
have been set, to send the entire clip - the arrow between the Source and Preview
viewers is clicked, shown highlighted in the two screen dumps here. However, there
are two modes of operation for the timelines, as determined by icon below the arrow.
These modes are referred to as 'Film Mode' (yellow) and 'Overwrite Mode' (red).
In Film Mode, the timelines behave in a manner not unlike Studio timelines, in that
clips move aside to accommodate an inserted clip, or close up when a clip is removed.
However, there is (at least) one major difference that can confuse Studio users -
when you send a clip to the time line, it goes to the 'Main' track (see above) and
is inserted where the scrubber is, splitting any clip that may be at that point.
The sound will be disbanded onto its own tracks, unless you have changed the default
situation.
You can drag a clip from a rack to any timeline, but here again, in Film Mode, it
goes exactly where you drop it - splitting any clip already at that position. In
Studio, remember when you drag and drop a clip onto the timeline it will go to whichever
is nearest from the start or end of a clip at the 'drop' position. It is therefore
very important when inserting clips to make absolutely sure either the scrubber is
where you want, or the drop is made at exactly the right position. Many is the time
I've managed to split the last frame away from a clip by careless dropping!
In Overwrite Mode Any insert replaces any video that is already on the track at the
scrubber position, or where the insert clip is drag and dropped. If the scrubber
is in a 'blank area of the edit, then that is where the Source clip is sent. If you
drag a clip from the rack and drop it, that's where goes - overwriting anything on
the same timeline - and other clips do not move out of the way or butt up to it.
In this mode, you can slide clips backwards and forwards far more easily than in
the Film Mode ... however, there is a 'SLIDE' control icon available from the icon
bank which allows clips to be slid easily along a track in Film Mode. There's always
a way, with LE!
The behaviour of the timelines is different in a number of ways depending on which
Mode is selected. The trick is to play with a sample movie, with each mode selected
in turn, so that you become familiar with the differences in behaviours for yourself,
and don't get caught out by unexpected behaviours.
There are very useful control icons available (check out the customisations) which
enable you instantly to jump to and position the scrubber at the next/previous edit
point, the next/previous timeline gap, the next/previous error and so on. By using
these to position the scrubber precisely, you should never go wrong accidentally!
LE also enables you to set markers on any clip (in addition to the Mark in/out pointers),
which also have appropriate 'goto' icons, so locating specific points in an edit
is very easy, very quick and frame accurate.
Different mouse controls
As if things aren't getting complicated enough ... the way the mouse behaves as far
as 'clicking and dragging' in the timeline area goes depends on which 'mouse pointer'
mode is selected. This is irrespective of whether Film or Overwrite mode is selected.
There is a pointer icon which can be selected (yellow on mouse-over) or de-selected
(white on mouse-over).
When deselected, clicking and dragging along the timelines operates the scrubber
- so you can scrub through the clips. You get a mouse pointer something like this,
depending on whereabouts on the timelines it is positioned.
Does this mean that you have to switch mouse-modes in order to scrub in between edits?
Not a bit! If the mouse is in the selected mode, than pointing at the timeline scale
at the bottom and clicking sets the scrubber to that point, and clicking and dragging
scrubs the timeline.
Thus, you can set the options to work the way you want, possibly to reflect to some
degree the way you have been used to with a previous editor, and switch when you
need to, or to simply explore further possibilities and ways of working.
SEQUENCES, FUSING AND CONTAINERS
It is worth mentioning here how a movie is built up on the timelines in Liquid Edition.
In Studio, you go on adding clips willy nilly until the end, or you can break up
the movie into segments that are easier to handle, then make an AVI of that segment,
and, at the end, bring in all the individual AVI segments to complete the movie.
It is a wise way to work as it keeps the timeline short and manageable.
In Edition, you can do exactly the same - but the program effectively encourages
you to build the movie in succinct segments, known as Sequences. You can start a
new sequence at any time, and call up an existing sequence at any time. You don't
have to go through the 'make an AVI' routine. LE manages the sequences for you, and
keeps them intact, as you have created them, for further work at any time. You can't
do that with an AVI made of the segment so easily. If for any reason LE 'crashes'
- a power failure, maybe - when you restart, you will have a completely new and empty
sequence on the timelines. The sequence(s) you were working on prior to the 'crash'
will be available, complete right up to your very last edit, in the Racks and from
the selector at the top right of the screen. This is one of the powerful features
of LE ... every move you make is recorded and saved. You never have to save.
You can do more with Sequences though than just start another one at an appropriate
point. You can 'Fuse' it - that means, quickly assemble all the selected components
- clips, titles, sound tracks etc - as an AVI for loading into another program, such
as SonicFire for SmartSound, or Studio for ... whatever.
You can also 'Containerize' it. That means wrap everything on the timelines up in
a box so that it appears as a single 'clip' (and coloured differently for easy identification).
That isn't the same as making an AVI of it, since you still have access to all the
bits that make up the sequence. As a Container, you can now use it exactly as you
would a single clip - for example, to apply an overall effect to the whole thing.
Of course, rendering will then depend on how much is involved and the complexity
of the component parts. And obviously, you can 'open' a container at any time to
access the individual parts.
SUMMING UP
You will now appreciate, I hope, just how powerful the LE editing system is, and
probably why there are so many different 'working' formats. For example, you could
fill the screen with timelines alone, if you need to. And, with two monitors, you
can have a set-up where timelines and viewers are on one monitor, with the assets
and rack information on the other monitor. Complex though the timeline structure
may appear to be, once it has been mastered it can make editing far quicker and simpler
than the Editors that are simpler and more intuitive to use, and certainly puts more
tools, functions and capabilities at one's fingertips. It's a bit like carpentry
sets - youo can have the basic hammer, saw, drill and chisel, and tackle most jobs,
somehow, or you can have a full complement of tools - with routers, planes, spoke-shavers
and so on - and tackle any job that comes along with ease. Once you've learned how
to use them .... and that is the secret.
When selected, when the mouse pointer indicates that edits, rather than scrubbing,
can be undertaken. For example, over the middle of a clip, it looks like a small
frame of film, indicating that the clip can be moved elsewhere, and when near the
very start or end of a clip, the mouse pointer indicates that trimming can be achieved
(it shows the in and out markers -