Pinnacle Studio 9 Ignite! [1 ed.] 159200475X, 9781592004751, 9781417520190

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© 2004 by Thomson Course Technology PTR. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without written permission from Thomson Course Technology PTR, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review. The Muska & Lipman and Thomson Course Technology PTR logos and related trade dress are trademarks of Thomson Course Technology PTR and may not be used without written permission. SVP, Thomson Course Technology PTR: Andy Shafran Publisher: Stacy L. Hiquet Senior Marketing Manager: Sarah O’Donnell Marketing Manager: Heather Hurley Manager of Editorial Services: Heather Talbot Associate Acquisitions Editor: Megan Belanger Senior Editor: Mark Garvey Associate Marketing Managers: Kristin Eisenzopf and Sarah Dubois Project/Copy Editor: Tonya Cupp Technical Reviewer: Brian Proffitt Thomson Course Technology PTR Market Coordinator: Amanda Weaver Interior Layout Tech: William Hartman Cover Designer: Nancy Goulet Indexer: Sharon Shock Proofreader: Gene Redding Pinnacle Studio 9 is a trademark of Pinnacle Systems, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Important: Thomson Course Technology PTR cannot provide software support. Please contact the appropriate software manufacturer’s technical support line or Web site for assistance. Thomson Course Technology PTR and the author have attempted throughout this book to distinguish proprietary trademarks from descriptive terms by following the capitalization style used by the manufacturer. Information contained in this book has been obtained by Thomson Course Technology PTR from sources believed to be reliable. However, because of the possibility of human or mechanical error by our sources, Thomson Course Technology PTR, or others, the Publisher does not guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, or completeness of any information and is not responsible for any errors or omissions or the results obtained from use of such information. Readers should be particularly aware of the fact that the Internet is an ever-changing entity. Some facts may have changed since this book went to press. Educational facilities, companies, and organizations interested in multiple copies or licensing of this book should contact the publisher for quantity discount information. Training manuals, CD-ROMs, and portions of this book are also available individually or can be tailored for specific needs. ISBN: 1-59200-475-X Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2004103484 Printed in the United States of America 04 05 06 07 08 BH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Thomson Course Technology PTR, a division of Thomson Course Technology 25 Thomson Place ■ Boston, MA 02210 ■ http://www.courseptr.com

This book is dedicated to my family. Without their love, support, and encouragement, this book would not have been completed.

Acknowledgments I would like to thank the following people: • My Grandmother, who took care of me before I started school. • My Mum for taking care of me even though I’m all grown up now. • My Dad for forcing me to attend a computer course 14 years ago. That is where my career began. • Megan Belanger (acquisitions editor) for giving me the opportunity to write this book. Her enthusiasm and support throughout the whole project have really been appreciated. • Tonya Cupp (project & copy editor) for her patience, understanding, and close attention to detail. Tonya is an excellent editor! I thank her for taking time to understand the content and provide insightful feedback. Tonya really made this book happen! • Brian Proffitt (technical editor) for providing valuable suggestions and comments and having a sense of humor. • Stacy Hiquet for her continued support and encouragement. • The entire Thomson Course Technology team for a job well done. Bill Hartman (layout technician), Sharon Shock (indexer), and Gene Redding (proofreader). • My family (Kulsum, Hajira, Shaida, Julie, Celine, Tess, Zaeem, Ebrahem, Rashid, Cassim). • Madonna for providing the soundtrack to my life. • Finally, I would like to thank you, the reader, for buying this book. Grab a chair, a computer, a digital video camera, a copy of Pinnacle Studio 9, and make the next blockbuster!

About the Author Aneesha Bakharia is a Web developer, an author, and a video enthusiast. She is fluent in C#, Java, JavaScript, ASP, JSP, HTML, XML, and VB.NET. Aneesha specializes in creating dynamic database-driven Web sites. She has a Bachelor of Engineering degree in microelectronic engineering and various postgraduate qualifications in multimedia, online course development, and Web design. In her spare time, she is a keen Madonna fan. She can be reached via email at [email protected].

Contents at a Glance Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Chapter 1

Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 2

Filming Great Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Chapter 3

Transferring Digital Video to Your PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Chapter 4

Basic Video Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Chapter 5

Using Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Chapter 6

Working with Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Chapter 7

Titles, Captions, and Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Chapter 8

Special Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Chapter 9

Creating a Slideshow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Chapter 10

DVD Authoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Chapter 11

Sharing Digital Video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

Appendix A

Keyboard Shortcuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Contents Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Who Should Read This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii How This Book Is Organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv Conventions Used in This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv

Chapter 1

Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Gathering Everything You Need: Computer, Camera, and Accessories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Selecting Your DV Editing Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Knowing the Studio 9 User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Creating with DV Possibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Chapter 2

Filming Great Video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Getting Ready . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Recording with Your DV Camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Filming Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Replacing the Microphone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Limiting Zoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Limiting Pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Keeping the Camera Steady . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Being Aware of Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Chapter 3

Transferring Digital Video to Your PC . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 The Capture Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Setting Scene Detection Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Connecting Your DV Camera and Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

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CONTENTS

Capturing DV to MPEG Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Adding Scene Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Viewing Captured Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Chapter 4

Basic Video Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Exploring Views in the Movie Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Working in Storyboard View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Arranging Video Clips in Storyboard View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Previewing a Video in the Storyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Deleting Clips from the Storyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Trimming Video Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Working in Timeline View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Arranging Video Clips in Timeline View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Previewing a Video on the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Deleting Clips from the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Trimming Video Clips in Timeline View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Chapter 5

Using Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Types of Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Inserting a Transition Between Two Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Fading Into and Out of a Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Setting the Default Transition Duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Replacing and Deleting Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Editing Transition Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Chapter 6

Working with Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Viewing Audio Tracks in Timeline View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 The Audio Toolbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Recording a Voiceover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Setting Voiceover Recording Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Using a Microphone to Record Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 Recording Audio from a CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Setting Recording Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Using a Song from Your Favorite Audio CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Adding Sound Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Creating Background Music with SmartSound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Trimming Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

CONTENTS

Using the Volume Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Fade-in Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108 Fade-out Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Real-time Mixing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Removing Noise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Exploring Audio Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Chapter 7

Titles, Captions, and Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Opening the Title Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Adding and Editing Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Formatting Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 Kerning and Leading Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Rotating Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 Changing the Background of a Full-Screen Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Changing the Background Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Creating a Gradient Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Creating a Transparent Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Using an Image as a Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 Adding Images to a Title Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140 Creating Rolls and Crawls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141 Using Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Chapter 8

Special Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Using the Video Effects Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Adding and Deleting Video Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149 Changing Effect Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 Fading Effects In and Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Previewing an Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Video Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156 Cleaning Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 Time Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Color Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Fun Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Style Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Chapter 9

Creating a Slideshow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Capturing Still Images from a Digital Video Camera . . . . . . . . . . 170 Capturing Still Images from a Captured Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

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CONTENTS

Working with Images in the Album . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178 Adding Images, Transitions, and Titles to the Storyboard . . . . . 180 Ripple Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Burning a Slideshow to Video CD (VCD) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184 Burning a Slideshow to DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Chapter 10 DVD Authoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Using a Menu Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Editing a Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Changing a Button Caption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Changing a Button Thumbnail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Creating a Video Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Changing a Menu Duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Creating and Deleting Chapter Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Building a Chapter Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Removing a Chapter Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Creating a Return to Menu Link . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Previewing a DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Creating Audio Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209 Creating Video Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Burning a DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 Supporting Home Cinema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Filming and Capturing Widescreen Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Creating Surround-Sound Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Chapter 11 Sharing Digital Video. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223 Exporting to Tape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 Saving Your Video as an AVI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 Saving Your Movie as an MPEG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234 Creating Streaming Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 Windows Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239 RealVideo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244

Appendix A Keyboard Shortcuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Introduction It is not often that you encounter a software product that empowers the creativity

of a generation. Pinnacle Studio 9 takes you from the lounge watching television and puts you in the director’s seat behind a camera. Video is no longer something you just watch! You can take command of a visual medium and bring your stories to life. Video editing is all about putting together a story—a story that captivates an audience. The release of Pinnacle Studio 9 makes it easy to film and assemble video into an interactive multimedia experience, view the masterpiece in your living room, and share the DVD.

Who Should Read This Book Studio 9 has an amazing array of features and is a best-selling software application. Pinnacle Studio 9 Ignite! is therefore aimed at the beginning-to-intermediate video enthusiast who wants to learn how to film, edit, and distribute video. You don’t need any prior knowledge of video production. This book will be useful to you if you’re considering purchasing or already own a digital video camera and relatively fast computer. Pinnacle Studio 9 Ignite! was also written for • The first-time digital video camera owner. • Experienced digital video camera users with no computing experience who are looking for a feature-rich, affordable video tool. • Pinnacle Studio 8 users upgrading to version 9. • Current Pinnacle Studio users who want to learn basic filming and editing techniques.

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INTRODUCTION

How This Book Is Organized This book has 11 chapters. Feel free to read them all in order or simply jump to the chapters that interest you. • Chapter 1, “Getting Started.” Chapter 1 provides an understanding of digital video and the hardware and software required to get started. The chapter concludes with a whirlwind tour of the Pinnacle Studio 9 interface. • Chapter 2, “Filming Great Video.” This chapter teaches you how to use a standard digital video camera. Various filming techniques help you produce professional-quality video. • Chapter 3, “Transferring Digital Video to Your PC.” Chapter 3 covers the use of FireWire to transfer video from a cassette to an editable digital video file. Core Pinnacle Studio 9 concepts such as scenes, clips, and albums are covered. • Chapter 4, “Basic Video Editing.” Video editing within the Studio 9 interface is covered here in detail. You are introduced to the Timeline and Storyboard interfaces, and techniques such as trimming are outlined. • Chapter 5, “Using Transitions.” You are taught about transitions, why they should be used sparingly, and how you can customize them. • Chapter 6, “Working with Audio.” Audio is an important partner to video. Chapter 6 takes you through recording various forms of audio such as voiceover, music, and sound effects. • Chapter 7, “Titles, Captions, and Credits.” Chapter 7 focuses on using the Title Editor to add text. Text-animation techniques such as scrolling credits are also covered. • Chapter 8, “Special Effects.” Studio 9 includes numerous video-enhancing effects. This chapter covers important effects that improve video quality. Various artistic effects such as Slow Motion, Lens Flare, and Ripple are described. • Chapter 9, “Creating a Slideshow.” Chapter 9 illustrates how you can use still images and transitions to create a visually appealing slideshow. A slideshow can be burnt to DVD or video CD. • Chapter 10, “DVD Authoring.” Basic DVD authoring concepts such as menus and chapters are introduced. After reading this chapter you will be able to create a DVD that supports surround sound and motion menus.

INTRODUCTION

• Chapter 11, “Sharing Digital Video.” Chapter 11 illustrates the many ways in which a movie can be shared. An edited movie with titling, effects, and transitions is exported to a broad array of media (tape and CD) and video file formats (AVI, MPEG, Windows Media, and RealMedia).

Conventions Used in This Book The basic thrust of each step is presented in boldface for your easy reference. The following elements also make using this book easier.

TIP Tips tell you about new and faster ways to accomplish a goal.

NOTE Notes delve into background information.

CAUTION Cautions warn about pitfalls and glitches.

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1

Getting Started

A handheld video camera, a computer, Pinnacle Studio 9, and a FireWire cable are all it takes for you to become a movie producer and director. It has never been easier to film some video, assemble it into an interactive multimedia experience, view the masterpiece in your living room, and share it with friends and family. Studio 9 is a well-designed and feature-rich video capture, editing, and DVD-authoring software package that over 3.5 million people currently use. The enhancements introduced in version 9 rival professional video-editing software suites such as Adobe Premier and Final Cut Pro. In this chapter you learn how to do the following: Purchase a camera and computer Explore the Studio 9 user interface Understand digital video (DV) and its creative possibilities

2

CHAPTER 1: GETTING STARTED

Gathering Everything You Need: Computer, Camera, and Accessories I won’t go as far as saying that a computer, DVD burner, and digital video camera are easily affordable. Getting into digital video is still expensive, but it is much cheaper than it used to be. It’s probably going to cost a few thousand dollars (which is better than the tens of thousands it would have cost a decade ago). Prices are always dropping and it pays to shop around. A digital video (DV) camera is what you need to shoot your own footage. This remarkably portable device lets you film a blockbuster movie from almost anywhere. Make sure your camera has a FireWire port. The FireWire port on Sony cameras is called an iLink. FireWire is also known as IEEE-1394. What do you need from a computer? You need speed and space. The minimum recommended system requirements are a 500MHz Intel Pentium with 256Mb of RAM. You need at least 300Mb of hard drive space just to install Pinnacle Studio 9. Twenty minutes of high-quality video takes up approximately 4.5Gb of disk space, so I recommend a large hard drive with at least 100Gb of disk space and a sustained throughput of 4Mb per second. Your computer needs a FireWire port. Most new computers come with one, but you can also purchase a FireWire card for under $50. FireWire allows you to transfer video from your camera to your computer at a very fast pace.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED: COMPUTER, CAMERA, AND ACCESSORIES

3

The FireWire cable connects your computer and camera. Video data is transferred from the camera to your computer in real time. This means that an hour’s worth of footage takes an hour to transfer. You need a DVD burner if you intend to share your movies on DVD. Make sure the burner you purchase supports the DVD-R and DVD+R formats.

NOTE A DV camera records on a mini-DV tape or cassette. You need lots of these to store raw (the format), unedited (the content) video footage. A mini-DV tape stores 80 minutes of video.

4

CHAPTER 1: GETTING STARTED

Selecting Your DV Editing Software There is one choice when selecting software that lets you capture, edit, and share your movie: Pinnacle Studio 9. Studio is a mature video-editing and DVD-authoring solution. With it you can capture video from a camera tape, edit and rearrange your footage, add titles, special effects, and music, and share your movie in a variety of formats. Pinnacle Studio 9 is also easy to use and affordable.

Knowing the Studio 9 User Interface The first thing you notice about Studio 9 is that it does not have a run-of-the mill Windows interface, which is a really good thing. The Studio 9 interface is cleverly based on workflow, which makes it almost impossible to get lost and confused. The interface consists of three tabs: Capture, Edit, and Make Movie. Each tab describes the types of things for which you’ll use Studio 9: capturing footage, editing footage, and making a movie. Take a look at each of the tabs.

Capture Mode In Capture mode you transfer the video footage from a miniDV tape to the hard drive on your PC. Use a FireWire cable to connect the camera to the FireWire port on your computer. Once the video is on your hard drive, the creative possibilities are endless. You’ll be able to edit, add titling, special effects, and transitions, and even output your movie to DVD.

SELECTING YOUR DV EDITING SOFTWARE

5

The Album displays the video scenes. The Player previews the video that is playing or being captured to hard drive. The Camera Controller provides controls for you to play, pause, fast forward, and rewind the video recorded on a mini-DV tape. The FireWire cable allows you to control a camera from within Studio 9. The Diskometer displays the amount of used and available hard-drive space. DV takes up a lot of space, so this display is helpful. Click the Capture button to start transferring the video.

Edit Mode Within Edit mode you get to express your creativity. This is where Studio 9 really excels and delivers unmatched functionality: arranging and trimming the scenes as well as adding transitions, special effects, audio, titles, and DVD-style menus. Unlike other video-editing software products, Studio 9 incorporates professional audio-editing and recording features. A tool even generates custom music to match your movie.

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CHAPTER 1: GETTING STARTED

The Album stores assets (video clips, still images, music, and titles) that you can use in a movie. It displays video scenes that were captured from a mini-DV tape. (This is consistent with the Capture mode interface.) Also notice that the Album has tabs in Edit mode. These tabs allow you to add the aforementioned goodies. The Player lets you preview the movie as arranged on the Timeline. You’ll see your movie with titles, special effects, and transitions. The Timeline displays the arrangement of assets within your movie. The Timeline is split into tracks. You drag assets, including video clips, from the Album onto a track—choose among video track, title overlay track, sound effects track, and background music track—onto the Timeline. Multiple audio tracks are provided so you can mix the audio effects, narration, and background music together. You can place transitions between video scenes on the video track. The title overlay track lets you display text on screen while a video clip is playing.

Make Movie Mode You get to share your movie in Make Movie mode. Studio customizes the Make Movie interface based on output type (MPEG, AVI, DVD), making output a one-step process. Select Stream and you get to save the file to either Microsoft

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Windows Media or RealVideo streaming media formats. This gives you the flexibility to stream your movie to a large audience over the Internet. Record the final movie back to a mini-DV tape, save it as a video file (AVI or MPEG), create a streaming media file, and burn your movie to DVD or CD. The Diskometer displays the amount of space the output file takes up on either your hard disk or DVD. The Player lets you preview the movie as it is being rendered (generated).

NOTE What is the difference between a movie and a video? You’ll see these two terms used throughout the Studio interface. A video is raw, unedited footage. Your camera captures video and you edit it in the Video toolbox. In Studio 9 the term movie refers to video that has been edited and arranged to convey your story. A movie combines video clips, titles, effects, and transitions.

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CHAPTER 1: GETTING STARTED

NOTE After you install Studio 9, check for product updates while you’re connected to the Internet. Click Help and then click Software Updates. Pinnacle periodically issues updates to correct bugs and sometimes includes additional functionality.

Creating with DV Possibilities When it comes to DV, only your imagination limits you. Here are a few project ideas: Home. Film vacations, birthday parties, graduations, school plays, and sporting activities. You can also archive old VHS cassettes. Record your assets for insurance purposes. Corporate. Film training sessions, mock interviews, meetings, and product launches. You can also Webcast keynote speeches. Education. Record lectures, field trips, and case studies. Why not record video segments for the next oral presentation you have to deliver?

2

Filming Great Video

Many movie productions look homemade. It is very easy to distinguish between a professional and amateur movie—but this doesn’t have to be the case. Follow the simple filming techniques presented in this chapter and you’ll have your audience guessing. In this chapter you learn how to do the following: Prepare for a shoot Use a standard digital video (DV) camera Employ simple professional filming techniques

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Getting Ready Be prepared! Know what you are filming, take all of your equipment, and be there ahead of time. Follow these rules and you’ll get the shot each time.

1. Spend some time planning the shoot. Decide what you’d like in each scene, where the camera should be positioned, and where the subjects will be placed. It helps to imagine what you’d like the final movie to look like. This takes some practice, but becomes second nature with a little bit of experience. 2. Make sure that your battery is fully charged. The battery charges each time you plug the power cord into a socket.

3. Pack a spare battery. There is nothing more frustrating than only being able to film half an event because you don’t have power. The viewfinder usually displays a power indicator (battery icon). The amount of time you can film, in minutes, with the current battery is also displayed on the viewfinder. Standard batteries store enough power to shoot one hour’s worth of footage. You can purchase batteries that last longer.

TIP You don’t always need to rely on your battery. Use the power cord where practical.

TIP Rechargeable Lithium-ion batteries are great but they don’t last forever. Replace the battery as soon as you notice a decrease in power capacity.

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4. Pack a spare mini-DV tape. A mini-DV tape records 60 minutes of video. You need extra tapes because the shoot might run overtime or you may need to shoot multiple takes.

5. Remove the lens cap. You don’t want to record the audio accompanied by a black screen.

6. Ensure the camera is recording—always. There is usually a red dot next to a word like Rec or Record. It is easy to forget that the camera is in Standby mode. The record button toggles between Record and Standby.

Recording with Your DV Camera A DV camera serves two purposes. It lets you • Record video to a mini-DV tape • Play back recorded video just like a VCR All DV cameras operate in two modes: Camera and VCR/ Video Tape Recorder (VTR). In VCR/VTR mode you can view what you have recorded on the viewfinder LCD screen. You also can rewind and fast forward a video. To record, however, you need to be in Camera mode.

1. Set the camera up on a tripod. Remember that a tripod is preferred over handheld recording. 2. Turn the main switch or knob to Camera (or Record) mode. The camera is in Standby mode.

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3. Take off the lens cap. You record only audio if the lens cap is not removed.

4. While adjusting the tripod, look at the LCD viewfinder to frame the scene. You might need to use the zoom controls.

TIP When you use the LCD viewfinder, the battery life decreases significantly.

5. Press the record button. The red record indicator turns on. 6. Film the scene. 7. Press the record button again. Recording stops and the camera goes into Standby mode.

8. Turn off the camera between takes. You don’t want to waste your battery.

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Filming Techniques Creating a professional-quality homemade movie starts with filming. Get the shot right the first time and you won’t have to worry about using corrective special effects later. This simplifies the editing process and saves you heaps of time.

Replacing the Microphone Audio is very important. Bad audio is the first and most obvious sign that a movie was not professionally filmed and edited. The DV camera’s built-in microphone is probably to blame. It picks up audible noise from the camera that it is mounted on. Clip-on microphones are one solution to better audio. These microphones only cost about $30. They come with a 20-foot cord, so you’ll probably need to buy a microphone extension lead as well.

TIP Wireless microphones are another option if using a cable is impractical. Wireless microphones are quite expensive, so you might consider hiring them on a perproject basis. The wireless receiver clips onto the camera and plugs into the microphone jack.

NOTE When using external microphones (wireless or clip-on), always use earphones to monitor the audio. Wireless microphones can pick up noise and interference as well.

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Limiting Zoom I’ve watched countless homemade movies with overused zoom features. It can be very distracting and should generally be avoided. It is rare to find a professionally made movie that uses the built-in camera zoom.

1. If you insist on recording while you zoom in or out of a shot, please practice. Perfect the recording of slow, smooth zooms.

2. Only zoom to adjust magnification between takes. Don’t use multiple zooms in a single scene or take. TIP As an alternative, take a series of successive shots at increased magnification and use a dissolve transition during editing. The end result looks much more polished and natural.

Limiting Pan Panning refers to rotating the camera either vertically or horizontally while filming. This is a handy technique when you’re filming wide or tall scenes. Use with care.

1. Use panning to track a moving object such as a car or person passing by.

2. Keep the camera still before and after a pan. 3. Practice panning regularly so that what you record is smooth and slow, not jerky.

TIP Don’t pan more than once in a scene.

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Keeping the Camera Steady Don’t film a scene with a handheld camera unless you are after a jerky, out-of-focus movie. Always use a tripod. Turning on the image stabilization feature removes some of the jerkiness associated with handheld filming. Pinnacle Studio also has an image stabilization effect, which you learn about in Chapter 8.

Being Aware of Lighting I’m not going to bore you by talking about exposure, contrast, hard and soft light, or color temperature. Instead I’m presenting a short list that you can follow straight away.

1. Ensure the subject you are filming is brighter than the background.

2. If the background is brighter than the subject, use additional lights or your camera’s backlight feature.

3. Make sure the sun is behind you. WARNING Never film with the sun behind or over a subject. If you do, the resulting footage will have heavy shadows.

4. Move shiny objects so they don’t reflect into the camera lens.

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3

Transferring Digital Video to Your PC

This chapter covers everything you need to know about transferring digital video (DV) footage to a computer. Save raw video footage to your hard drive to take full advantage of the cutting-edge video editing and DVD creation features that Pinnacle Studio 9 provides. In this chapter you learn how to do the following: Use the Capture mode interface Connect your DV camera to your computer with a FireWire cable Capture to DV format Capture to MPEG Add scene comments Review captured video

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The Capture Interface All video capture occurs within the Capture mode interface. The Capture mode interface stores captured video in an album, includes buttons with which to control the DV camera, displays a preview of the video being captured, and informs you of storage requirements.

1. Click Capture if it is not already selected. The Capture mode interface is displayed.

The Capture interface is made up of the following four components: • Album. The Album contains the captured video. A thumbnail image is displayed within the Album to represent each video. A video within the Album is known as a clip. A video is usually split into scenes and each scene is inserted as a separate clip in the Album. • Player. You can preview the video that you are recording from your DV camera. You can’t play video in Capture mode after it has been captured.

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• Camera Controller. These buttons control the video playback from your DV camera. Use the play, fast-forward, and rewind buttons to locate the video footage you want captured. • Diskometer. The Diskometer illustrates the amount of available space on your hard drive. One hour of video captured to the DV format takes up 13Gb of hard drive space. Within the Diskometer you can change the format in which Pinnacle Studio 9 stores video. You can save space by selecting MPEG or preview-quality video.

Setting Scene Detection Options Pinnacle Studio 9 detects different scenes in your video as it is being captured. Each scene is placed within the Album. A scene represents a portion of the captured video. Scenes help you easily identify segments that need to be included in your final movie. Editing would be tedious if only one clip represented lengthy video footage.

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1. Click Setup. The menu is displayed. 2. Click Capture Source. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box is displayed.

3. Choose from the following scene detection options: • Automatic based on shooting time and date. This option is selected by default. It creates scenes based upon the time that the video was recorded. • Automatic based on video content. Here Pinnacle Studio 9 analyzes the frames in your video and makes a new scene when a frame is radically different from the previous frame. • Create new scene every X seconds. Here you can enter a value in seconds for when a new scene should be created.

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• No auto scene detection— press space bar to create scene. No automatic scene detection occurs but you can create a scene by pressing the space bar. This option is only useful if you want to watch your video as it is being captured.

4. Click OK. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box closes.

Connecting Your DV Camera and Computer A FireWire cable, which enables high-speed transfer, is required to connect your DV camera and computer. FireWire makes it possible for your computer to record video from a camera in real time. Once a video is stored on your computer, the creative possibilities are endless. You can arrange, edit, title, and add effects and transitions to your movie.

1. Plug your DV camera into a power outlet. Don’t waste your battery. I’m sure a spare power outlet is very close to your computer.

2. Put your DV camera in VCR, VTR, or Play mode. 3. Connect your FireWire cable to the DV camera’s FireWire port. On Sony DV cameras this is known as an iLink port.

4. Connect the FireWire cable to your computer. The larger connector is usually attached to your computer.

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5. If Studio does not find your DV camera, it displays an error message.

6. Follow these instructions to resolve the issue: • Turn your DV camera off and then on again. • Disconnect and reconnect your FireWire cable. • Restart Windows and Pinnacle Studio 9 again.

7. Click play. The video footage plays.

NOTE Don’t be alarmed if you can’t hear any audio while you are capturing. Studio 9 does not play audio when video is being captured.

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8. Click Start Capture. The Capture Video dialog box is displayed.

WARNING Capturing to DV format takes up an enormous amount of space. Always monitor the Diskometer. Approximately 1 hour of video takes 13Gb of hard drive space.

9. Enter the name of the video.

10. Enter the number of minutes and seconds you need captured. 11. Click Start Capture. Studio begins capturing the video.

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12. Click Stop Capture. The captured video is added to the Album.

NOTE The video has been split into scenes.

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Capturing DV to MPEG Format Although storing to the DV format requires lots of hard-drive space, video quality is preserved. Capturing to DV is preferred because the final movie output is of higher quality.

TIP Studio provides the following additional MPEG capture options: • Preview-quality capture. This feature used to be called SmartCapture. A reduced-quality video is stored on your local hard drive to save disk space. Studio 9, however, recaptures the video before it renders the movie to another format. Only use this feature if you have limited hard-drive space. • MPEG full-quality capture. Pinnacle Studio 9 allows you to capture straight to MPEG. Capturing and converting to MPEG is very resource intensive. The algorithm used to convert the video to MPEG is optimized for speed, not quality. Only choose this option if you are running short of disk space. This option increases the rendering time of your final movie if it includes lots of transitions and effects.

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1. Click Settings. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box opens.

2. Click the down arrow next to the Presets drop-down list. The list of available presets is displayed.

3. Select MPEG. The option is selected.

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4. Select one of the following: • High quality (DVD). This option produces an MPEG suitable for a DVD project. • Medium quality (SVCD). This option produces an MPEG suitable for a Super Video CD (SVCD) project. • Low quality (Video CD). This option produces an MPEG suitable for a Video CD (VCD) project. • Custom. Enter your own encoding settings (such as data rate and video size and Video CD, SVCD, or DVD) if you will use the MPEG file for CD or DVD.

5. Click OK. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box closes.

Adding Scene Comments You can add comments to help describe and document a scene. This feature is particularly handy if your video footage is lengthy. Descriptive comments help when you arrange clips and edit your movie.

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1. Mouse over a scene in the Album. The scene title and duration are displayed as a tooltip.

2. Click View. The menu is displayed.

3. Click Comment View. A single thumbnail per line is displayed in the Album.

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NOTE The scene title and duration are displayed next to the thumbnail.

4. Double-click the text next to a video thumbnail. The text becomes editable.

5. Enter a new comment. The comment must concisely label and describe the scene.

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6. Press the Enter key. The comment is saved.

Viewing Captured Video You can only view captured video clips in Edit mode. The Player in Edit mode allows you to play, pause, stop, fast forward, and rewind video clips.

1. Click Edit. The Edit mode interface is displayed.

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2. Double-click the video you would like to watch. You can see the video in the Player.

NOTE When a video is playing, the play button changes to a pause button.

3. Use the Player controls to pause, stop, fast forward, and rewind the video as it plays. NOTE The Album separates the video into scenes, but all the scenes are played.

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4

Basic Video Editing

Now that you’ve captured video, the next step in your exciting journey is editing. Editing is all about the story that your movie has to tell. You can only achieve this by removing unimportant events and rearranging what’s left to creatively communicate the story to your audience. In this chapter you learn how to do the following: Explore the Edit mode interface and Movie window Add, rearrange, delete, and trim clips in Storyboard view Add, rearrange, delete, and trim clips in Timeline view

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Exploring Views in the Movie Window Pinnacle Studio 9 provides three interfaces for arranging and editing video within the Movie window. Take a look at a sample project in the Storyboard, Timeline, and Text Edit views.

1. Click Edit. The Edit mode interface is displayed. NOTE The Storyboard, displayed by default, contains rectangular placeholders where you can drag assets (video clips, photographs, audio effects, and music) from the Album. These placeholders display a clip thumbnail. You can easily rearrange clips within the Storyboard. Switch to Timeline view to work with audio.

2. Click the Timeline view icon. Timeline view is displayed.

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NOTE The Timeline view displays the project in terms of tracks. Within Timeline view you can synchronize all elements included in your movie. You find the following tracks: • Video track • Original video audio track • Title overlay track • Sound effects and voiceover track • Background music track

3. Click the Text view icon. Text view is displayed.

NOTE Text view displays a description of each clip as well as the start and end times. Text view is rarely used and is not covered in this book.

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Working in Storyboard View The Storyboard view displays the sequence in which video clips are arranged. You can add and arrange video clips on the Storyboard using drag and drop techniques.

1. Click the Storyboard view icon. Storyboard view is displayed.

2. Click the Video Scenes tab. The tab is displayed in the Album.

3. Drag a video clip onto the first rectangular place holder on the Storyboard.

NOTE A green outline is placed around the placeholder. A small plus sign is displayed below the mouse pointer.

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4. Release the mouse. The clip is added to the Storyboard and is highlighted.

NOTE A tick is added to a scene on the Album after you’ve dragged the scene to the Storyboard.

5. Select multiple clips on the Video Scenes tab.

NOTE Selecting the first and last clip while pressing the Shift key selects all the clips located between the first and last selection. You can press the Ctrl key while choosing multiple, nonsequential clips within the Storyboard. Clips selected while holding down the Ctrl key do not have to be sequential.

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6. Drag the selection to the Storyboard.

7. Release the mouse over an empty rectangular placeholder. The clips are added sequentially to the Storyboard.

NOTE Video clips are put in the first available placeholder.

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8. Select a clip from the Video Scenes tab. The clip is highlighted.

9. Drag the clip to the desired location between two other clips.

NOTE A green line is displayed between the two existing clips on the Storyboard. A small plus sign is also displayed below the mouse pointer.

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10. Release the mouse. The new scene is placed between the two existing scenes.

NOTE All clips are pushed back if a new clip is inserted.

Arranging Video Clips in Storyboard View You can sequence clips within the Storyboard view as much as you like. All you have to do is drag a clip to a new location.

1. Click the video thumbnail in the Storyboard. The clip is highlighted in blue.

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2. Drag the clip to a new location between two existing clips on the Storyboard. NOTE A green line is displayed between the two existing clips. A small box is also displayed below the mouse pointer.

3. Release the mouse. The scene is relocated.

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Previewing a Video in the Storyboard Sequentially preview the clips you’ve added to the Storyboard to make sure the movie matches your initial ideas in terms of pace and mood. Viewing them sequentially helps you visualize how each clip flows into the next and identify clips that need to be moved, trimmed, or deleted.

1. Click the video thumbnail in the Storyboard. The clip is highlighted in blue.

2. Click play in the Player. The play button changes to a pause button.

NOTE Subsequent scenes on the Storyboard are also played after the currently selected clip plays.

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3. Click pause. Playback stops.

4. Press the spacebar key. Playback begins again.

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5. Press the spacebar key again. Playback pauses.

TIP The progress bar represents the playback position of the clip currently playing.

TIP The Player scrubber represents the position within the whole movie (the combined duration of all clips on the Storyboard, for example).

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Deleting Clips from the Storyboard Press the Delete key to get rid of any clip from Storyboard view. Deleted clips remain intact in the Album.

1. Click the video thumbnail in the Storyboard. The clip is highlighted in blue.

2. Press the Delete key. The clip is removed from the Storyboard.

NOTE All scenes after the deleted clip are moved over to fill the gap.

TIP You can also use keyboard commands to copy (Ctrl+C) and paste (Ctrl+V) clips on the Storyboard.

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Trimming Video Clips Adjust the start and end position of each video clip to remove unwanted frames. This helps improve the flow and transition between clips on the Storyboard.

1. Select a video clip. The clip is highlighted in blue.

2. Mouse over the toolbox icon. Video and audio icons are displayed.

3. Click the video icon. The Video toolbox is displayed.

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4. Click the Clip Properties tool icon. The Clip Properties tab is displayed.

5. Click play. The clip begins. 6. Click the set start frame icon at the desired start time.

7. Click the set end frame icon at the desired end time.

TIP Instead of clicking, you can drag the trim scrubbers to the desired start and end locations.

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8. Click the X. The Audio toolbox closes.

Working in Timeline View In Timeline view you can synchronize music, add special effects, and insert title screens. Arrange your clips in Storyboard view and then move to Timeline view to do this advanced editing and tweaking. The duration of each clip is clearly visible in Timeline view.

1. Click the Timeline view icon. Timeline view is displayed.

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2. Click the Video Scenes tab. The tab is displayed in the Album.

3. Drag a video clip onto the video track.

NOTE A green outline, which represents the duration of the clip, is placed on the Timeline. A small plus sign displays below the mouse pointer.

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4. Release the mouse. The highlighted clip is added to the Timeline. NOTE A video clip occupies both the video and original video audio tracks.

5. Select multiple clips on the Video Scenes tab.

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6. Drag the selection to the video track. NOTE Video clips are placed in the first available timeslot.

7. Drag the clip to the desired location between two other clips.

NOTE Two vertical green lines appear between the two existing clips on the Storyboard. A small plus sign displays below the mouse pointer.

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8. Release the mouse. The new scene is placed between the two existing scenes.

NOTE All clips on the Timeline are pushed back by the new clip.

NOTE A scrollbar appears if the combined duration of clips is greater than can be displayed at any one time. Drag the scrollbar to navigate in Timeline view.

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Arranging Video Clips in Timeline View The Timeline view also supports drag-and-drop editing techniques. Simply drag a clip to rearrange items in Timeline view.

1. Click a clip on the Timeline. The clip is highlighted in blue.

2. Drag the clip to a new location between two existing clips on the Video track.

NOTE A green line appears between the two existing clips. A small box is displayed below the mouse pointer.

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3. Release the mouse. The scene is relocated on the Timeline.

Previewing a Video on the Timeline When a movie is played in Timeline view, the Timeline scrubber indicates the current playback position. You can drag the Timeline scrubber to any playback position, even if the position is not at the start of a video clip.

1a. Click a clip in the video track. The clip is highlighted in blue. Or

1b. Drag the Timeline scrubber to the desired playback position.

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NOTE The Timeline scrubber is positioned at the start of the clip.

2. Click play in the Player. The play button changes to a pause button.

NOTE Subsequent scenes on the Timeline are also played.

3. Click pause. Playback stops.

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4. Press the spacebar key. Playback begins again.

5. Press the spacebar key again. Playback pauses.

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Deleting Clips from the Timeline You can remove a clip from the video track by selecting a clip and pressing Delete. The Delete key also removes clips in Storyboard view.

1. Click a clip in Timeline view. The clip is highlighted in blue.

2. Press the Delete key. The clip is removed from the Timeline.

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Trimming Video Clips in Timeline View You can still use the Clip Properties tool to remove unwanted frames from the beginning and end of a clip. Open the Clip Properties tool by double-clicking a clip in Timeline view. This section presents an alternative trimming technique available only in Timeline view.

1. Mouse over the right edge of the clip you wish to trim on the Timeline.

NOTE The mouse pointer changes to a single arrow pointing to the left.

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2. Drag the mouse pointer to the left. the Player displays the video frames. 3. Release the mouse when the end frame is displayed.

NOTE If you mouse over the edge again, the doubleheaded arrow indicates that the end frame can be adjusted.

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5

Using Transitions

What happens when one clip ends and another begins? A simple cut will do 99 percent of the time, but transitions can help if something a little more artistic is required. Transitions are special effects that help to ease in and out of a scene. Dissolve, an example of a commonly used transition, adds a feeling of softness and grace to a video. In this chapter you learn how to do the following: Use transitions artistically Insert a transition between two clips Fade into and out of a clip Set the default transition duration Edit transition settings Delete and replace transitions

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Types of Transitions Click the lighting bolt icon to open the Transitions tab on the Album. Pinnacle Studio has three distinct types of transitions. The standard, Alpha Magic, and Hollywood FX transitions are explored in this section.

1. Click Edit. The Edit mode interface is displayed.

2. Click the Transitions tab on the Album. An album of available transitions is displayed.

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3. Click the Transitions dropdown arrow. The list shows transition types. Standard, Alpha Magic, and Hollywood FX are the three main types.

4. Click Standard Transitions. Standard transitions are displayed within the Album. Standard transitions include wipes, slides, and pushes.

5. Mouse over a transition. The transition’s title is displayed as a tooltip.

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6. Click a transition. A preview is repeatedly displayed in the Player.

NOTE The first clip within the preview is called Video A; the second is called Video B.

7. Click the white arrows on the top of each page to navigate through the list of standard transitions.

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8. Click the drop-down arrow. A list of transition types is displayed in the drop-down list.

9. Click Alpha Magic. The Alpha Magic transitions are displayed within the Album. Alpha Magic transitions use masks to create artistic wipes and dissolves.

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10. Preview the puzzle Alpha Magic transition.

11. Click the drop-down arrow. A list of transition types is displayed.

12. Click Hollywood FX for Studio. The Hollywood FX transitions are displayed within the Album. Hollywood FX transitions render video clips as backgrounds on 3D objects.

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13. Preview the BAS-Airplane 1 Hollywood FX transition.

14. Click the drop-down arrow. A list of transition types is displayed in the drop-down box.

15. Click any of the Hollywood FX (HFX) transition types. The transitions are displayed within the Album. NOTE You must purchase the Hollywood FX transitions. All the Hollywood FX transitions are watermarked.

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16. Preview the ProZ Stretch Hollywood FX transition.

Inserting a Transition Between Two Clips Transitions can just be dragged from the Album and dropped onto the Storyboard or Timeline. Applying and previewing transitions has never been easier. Transitions, by default, have a two-second duration.

1. Click Edit. The Edit mode interface is displayed.

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2. Drag two clips from the Album onto the Storyboard. The Storyboard displays a thumbnail of each clip.

3. Click the Transitions tab on the Album. An album of available transitions is displayed.

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4. Click and drag a transition in between the two clips. A transparent box with a green outline and a plus sign is displayed if a transition can be applied to the selected clips.

NOTE When a transition is dragged to the Timeline, two vertical lines and a plus sign are displayed to indicate that a transition can be added.

5. Release the mouse. A thumbnail of the transition is inserted between the two clips.

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6. Click the transition. The transition is selected and has a blue outline.

7. Click the play button in the Player. A preview of the transition is displayed.

NOTE All standard transitions display in real time. Hollywood FX transitions may require additional rendering time.

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Fading Into and Out of a Clip The fade transition is used at the start and end of a movie. At the beginning of a movie, a fade in can be used to bring in the starting clip from a black background. At the end of a movie, the fade out transition can be used to fade a clip to black.

1. Drag a few clips onto the Storyboard. A thumbnail of each clip is displayed on the Storyboard.

2. Click the Transitions tab on the Album. An album of available transitions is displayed.

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3. Drag the fade transition in front of the first clip. A transparent box with a green outline and a plus sign are displayed.

4. Release the mouse. A thumbnail of the transition is inserted in front of the first clip.

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5. Click and drag the fade transition behind the last clip. A transparent box with a green outline and a plus sign are displayed.

6. Release the mouse. A thumbnail of the fade out transition is inserted behind the last clip.

7. Click the first transition. The transition is selected.

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8. Click the play button in the Player. The first clip fades in while the last clip fades to black.

NOTE The fade transition also fades audio. At the beginning of the movie the audio increases as the movie fades in. At the end of the movie the audio volume of the audio decreases as the movie fades out. This can clearly be seen on the Timeline.

Setting the Default Transition Duration All transitions have a default 2-second duration. You can easily customize within the Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box.

1. Click Setup. The Setup menu is displayed. 2. Click Edit. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box is displayed with the Edit tab selected.

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3a. Enter a new default transition duration. Or

3b. Click the up arrow to increase the transition duration. Or

3c. Click the down arrow to decrease the transition duration.

4. Click OK. All new transitions added to the Storyboard now use the new default transition duration.

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Replacing and Deleting Transitions A transition can easily be replaced by dragging a new transition from the Album onto a transition on the video track. Once a transition is selected on the Storyboard, it can either be dragged to the trash or removed using the Delete key. The Studio 9 interface makes it easy to experiment with transitions until you find the desired style for your final movie.

1. Drag a few clips onto the Storyboard. The Storyboard displays a thumbnail of each clip.

2. Click the Transitions tab on the Album. An album of available transitions is displayed. 3. Drag a transition between the first two clips. A transparent box with a green outline and a plus sign is displayed.

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4. Release the mouse. A thumbnail of the transition is inserted between the first two clips.

5. Drag another transition onto an existing transition. The transition is replaced.

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6. Click the transition. The transition is selected.

7. Press the Delete key. The transition is deleted.

TIP You can also delete a transition by dragging it to the trash can.

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Editing Transition Settings The Clip Properties tool provides another way to set the duration and modify start and end points of a transition. Transitions can also be reversed. Reversing a transition simply swaps the transition with its opposite.

1. Drag two clips onto the Storyboard. The Storyboard displays a thumbnail of each clip.

2. Click the Transitions tab on the Album. An album of available transitions is displayed.

3. Drag the center out wipe transition in between the two clips. A transparent box with a green outline and a plus sign is displayed if a transition can be applied to the selected clips on the Storyboard.

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4. Release the mouse. A thumbnail of the transition is inserted in between the two clips.

5. Double-click the transition. The Clip Properties dialog box is displayed.

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6a. Enter a new default transition duration. Or

6b. Click the up arrow to increase the transition duration. Or

6c. Click the down arrow to decrease the transition duration. 7. Click the Reverse checkbox. The checkbox is selected. The transition is changed to the outside-to-center transition, which is the opposite transition.

NOTE The Reverse checkbox is disabled if the transition does not have an opposite.

8. Click the X. The Clip Properties dialog box closes.

6

Working with Audio

Can you imagine a movie without sound? There would be no speech, sound effects, or music to give the movie depth and emotional impact. A movie with bad audio even seems mediocre. Pinnacle understands the importance of audio and has delivered professional audio capabilities with Studio 9. In this chapter you learn how to do the following: Record narration Import music from a CD Create background music with SmartTracks Insert sound effects Trim and adjust volume Mix in real time Remove noise Use audio effects

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Viewing Audio Tracks in Timeline View Switch to Timeline view to take advantage of the amazing array of Studio 9 audio features. Music, sound effects, and voiceover tracks are displayed only in Timeline view.

1. Click Edit. The Edit mode interface is displayed.

2. Drag some clips to the Storyboard. A thumbnail for each clip is displayed within the Storyboard.

3. Click the Timeline view icon. Timeline view is displayed.

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The following audio tracks are available in Timeline view: • Original audio track. This track contains the audio that was recorded with the video. • Sound effects and voiceover track. This track is reserved for narrations recorded with the Voiceover tool. Sound effects can also be placed on this track. • Background music track. Music recorded from a CD or created using the SmartSound tool must be placed on this track.

NOTE Studio 9 is very flexible in the way it handles audio. You can drag audio clips from the Album to any track as you edit. Studio 9 also imports popular audio file formats such as WAV and MP3.

The Audio Toolbox As its name suggests, the Audio toolbox includes a set of tools to help you edit, record, import, and mix audio. You can even record a voiceover and generate a custom soundtrack for your movie.

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1. Mouse over the toolbox icon. The Audio toolbox icon is displayed.

2. Click the Audio toolbox icon. The Audio toolbox is displayed.

The Audio toolbox’s tools help create, edit, and mix audio: • Audio Clip Properties tool. Useful for accurately trimming audio clips. • Volume tool. This is my favorite tool. It allows various audio tracks to be mixed together in real time. Great for finding the perfect balance between music, voiceover, and special effects. • Voiceover tool. A simple yet powerful tool that records from a microphone.

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• CD Audio tool. Records music or audio from a CD and places the resulting digital file on the background audio track. • SmartSound tool. It is pretty hard to find and mix a music track to precisely match your video! This tool provides a unique solution by automatically generating music, based upon the styles you select, to match the duration of your movie exactly. The songs sound great too.

Recording a Voiceover A voiceover or narration adds context, provides background information, or describes a scene. Audio such as speech is recorded within the Voiceover tool. You need a microphone to use this tool.

Setting Voiceover Recording Settings Before you begin recording your voiceover, optimize the microphone recording settings for speech. You can do this in the Setup Options dialog box.

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1. Click Setup. The Setup menu is displayed. 2. Click CD and Voice-over. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box opens. The CD and Voice-over tab is selected by default.

3. Select the appropriate microphone input source. This will most likely be the microphone connected to your sound card’s microphone input.

4. Select 16-bit mono from the Channels drop-down list.

5. Select 22.05 kHz from the Sample rate drop-down list. 6. Click OK. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box closes.

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Using a Microphone to Record Audio The Voiceover tool is very easy to use and even lets you see the volume levels of the recorded audio. Your voice is recorded and inserted as an audio clip within the voiceover and sound effects track.

1. Connect the microphone to the microphone input on your sound card.

WARNING Don’t use Line-in to record from a microphone. Betterquality speech is recorded using the Microphone input. The Microphone input is usually red and should match the input connector on your microphone.

2. In Timeline view, drag the scrubber to where narration should be inserted. 3. Mouse over the toolbox icon. The Audio toolbox icon is displayed.

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4. Click the Audio toolbox icon. The Audio toolbox is displayed.

5. Click the voiceover icon. The Voiceover Narration tool is displayed.

6. Speak into your microphone and adjust the audio level. NOTE Ensure that the audio level remains within the blue or yellow areas and never goes into the red area. Clipping occurs if the audio level is too high (in the red area). Audio that has been clipped contains popping sounds and missing bits of audio.

7. Click Record. The Standby sign is displayed and followed by a count from 3 to 1.

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8. Start talking when the Recording light turns red. The movie plays in the Player as you’re speaking.

9. Click Stop when you are done. Recording stops.

NOTE The recorded audio is inserted within the sound effects and voiceover track.

NOTE Don’t worry if you can’t record your voiceover in a single take. Even professionals do multiple takes.

10. Click play. The recorded narration plays.

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Recording Audio from a CD Ever heard someone say they’re going to “rip a CD?” Ripping refers to the direct file transfer from a CD to your hard drive. Studio 9 uses ripping to quickly record high-quality audio from a CD.

Setting Recording Options Specify the CD drive that will play and record from a music/audio-content CD.

1. Click Setup. The Setup menu is displayed.

2. Click CD and Voice-over. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box opens. The CD and Voice-over tab is selected by default.

3. Select the drive letter of the CD drive that contains your audio CD. 4. Select Digital (rip) from the Input source drop-down list.

5. Click OK. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box closes.

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TIP Is the Digital (rip) option unavailable? Try the following: • Place your CD in another drive if you have multiple CD/DVD drives. • If none of your CD drives support this feature, the cable that connects your CD drive and motherboard/sound card is missing or disconnected. Refer to the manuals that came with your computer. • If you can’t enable the Digital (rip) option, select an alternate recording source, such as a sound card. For best sound quality from an alternate source, select 16-bit stereo sound sampled at 44.1kHz.

NOTE You digitize music at a higher rate than speech. This is mainly because music is more complex than speech and requires the higher settings to not sound distorted when recorded to a digital file format.

Using a Song from Your Favorite Audio CD The CD Audio tool lets you easily record a music track from your favorite CD and places the resulting clip on the background music track. Remember that copyright laws prevent you from digitizing your favorite music CD, adding the music to your movie, and then distributing the movie without paying copyright royalties.

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1. In Timeline view, drag the scrubber to where narration should be inserted.

2. Mouse over the toolbox icon. The Audio toolbox icon appears.

3. Click the Audio toolbox icon. The Audio toolbox is displayed.

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4. Click the CD icon. The CD Audio tool is displayed. 5. Place a music CD in your CD drive. The Enter title for CD dialog box opens.

6. Enter a CD title. 7. Click OK. The Enter title for CD dialog box closes.

8. Select the track number from the Track drop-down list.

NOTE You can specify the start and end recording positions if you already know them. Don’t worry if you don’t: Studio 9 offers plenty of ways to edit and trim audio.

9. Click the Add to Movie button. The audio clip is added to the background music track.

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Adding Sound Effects A professional library of sound effects is at your disposal within Pinnacle Studio 9. Categorized sound effects help you easily locate and incorporate the desired effects.

1. Click the show audio files icon. An album of sound effects is displayed.

2. Select a sound effects category from the drop-down list. Sounds effects within the category are displayed.

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3. Drag a sound effect to the sound effects and voiceover track. The sound effect is added to the track.

TIP You can also use the Voiceover tool to record your own sound effects (such as the sound of typing on a keyboard).

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Creating Background Music with SmartSound It is time consuming to find a soundtrack that perfectly matches a scene’s duration. At some point you’ll probably have to loop (play repeatedly) a music file or use multiple tracks. SmartSound provides an alternative solution: All you need to do is select a song style. SmartSound composes a breathtaking score to match the desired timeframe.

1. Click Edit. The Edit menu is displayed. 2. Click Select All. All clips on the Timeline are selected.

3. Mouse over the toolbox icon. The Audio toolbox icon is displayed.

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4. Click the Audio toolbox icon. The Audio toolbox is displayed.

5. Click the SmartSound icon. The SmartSound tool is displayed.

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6. Select a style from the Style list. A list of songs is displayed.

7. Select a song from the Song list. Song versions are displayed.

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8. Select a version from the Version list. The option is chosen.

9. Click the Preview button. The song plays.

10. Click Add to Movie. The song is generated and placed on the background audio track. The duration matches that of the movie.

11. Click X. The Audio toolbox closes.

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12. Double-click the SmartSound track. The SmartSound tool reopens.

13. Change the Style, Song, and Version.

14. Click the Preview button. The song plays.

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15. Click Accept Changes. The new song is generated and placed on the background audio track. NOTE A SmartSound track is very smart! If the duration of a movie changes, its track duration changes as well.

TIP You can purchase additional SmartSound tracks from http://www.smartsound.com.

Trimming Audio Trimming audio is just like trimming video in Pinnacle Studio 9. Audio start and end points are adjusted within the Audio Clip Properties tool.

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1. Double-click an audio track. The Audio Clip Properties tool is displayed. 2. Move the start and end scrubbers to trim the music. 3. Click the go to trimmed start of clip button. The playback head is moved to the new starting point.

4. Click the play button. The trimmed audio file plays.

5. Click the X. The Audio Clip Properties tool closes.

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Using the Volume Tool The Volume tool includes a variety of sliders, dials, and buttons to control each audio track’s volume. You can adjust the volume so each track is emphasized at the correct time in the movie. For instance, the music may be loud at the start of the movie, but would gradually decrease to soft background music when the narrator begins speaking.

1. Mouse over the toolbox icon. The Audio toolbox icon displays.

2. Click the Audio toolbox icon. The Audio toolbox is displayed.

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3. Click the speaker icon. The Volume tool is displayed. NOTE Each audio track has its own controls. • Mute button mutes the track. • Master volume dial adjusts the volume of the entire track. • Volume slider adjusts the volume at the current playback position. The tool should be used in real time. • Volume meter shows the audio level. • Fade-in and fade-out buttons fade in and fade out tracks, respectively.

4. Click the mute button. The track is muted and a red line is placed over the mute button.

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5. Adjust the volume of an entire track. A blue line is placed at the adjusted level.

6. Drag the Timeline scrubber to where you would like the volume of a specific audio track reduced.

7. Drag the volume slider up or down. An adjustment handle is inserted on the volume line.

NOTE An adjustment handle is inserted when you increase or decrease volume. You can use the mouse to drag an adjustment handle, thereby either increasing or decreasing the loudness of an audio file. You can delete an adjustment point by dragging it off the track.

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TIP Right-click an audio track and select Remove Volume Changes to delete all adjustment handles (audio changes).

Fade-in Audio Fading in an audio track increases the volume from 0 to its current set volume. The fade-in effect is usually applied at the beginning of an audio clip.

1. Move the Timeline scrubber to the start of the audio clip.

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2. Click the fade-in button for the track. The fade-in handler is created. NOTE The volume line increases from 0 to the desired volume when you press the fade-in button.

Fade-out Audio Clicking the fade-out button gradually reduces the volume of a clip to 0 over a specified duration. A fade out is usually applied to a music track a few seconds before the movie ends.

1. Move the Timeline scrubber to the end of the audio clip.

2. Click the fade-out button for the track. The fade-out handler is created.

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NOTE Pressing the fade-out button decreases the volume line from the desired volume to 0.

Real-time Mixing Studio 9 excels at real-time audio mixing. No other video editing software can deliver advanced real-time mixing in such a simple and intuitive manner. Simply drag a track’s volume slider while a movie is playing and Studio automatically records and synchronizes your audio adjustments.

1. Move the Timeline scrubber to where you’d like to start realtime mixing.

2. Click play. The audio plays.

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3. As you listen to the audio, adjust the volume of each track using the volume adjustment slider.

NOTE Studio 9 automatically inserts adjustment handles on the volume line to reflect your realtime mixing changes.

Removing Noise The Noise Reduction effect removes unwanted noise from an audio clip, drastically improving audio quality and clarity.

1. Click the plug-in icon. The Audio Effects tool is displayed.

2. Click Noise Reduction in the Effect list. The item is selected. 3. Click OK. The effect is added.

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The parameters panel is on the right side of the Audio Effects tool. This panel displays sliders, buttons, and drop-down lists that help you customize the Noise Reduction effect. • Noise Reduction. Use this slider to estimate the amount of noise an audio clip contains. Drag the slider to the left to decrease, to the right to increase the amount of noise you think is in the clip. • Auto adapt. If this checkbox is chosen, the algorithm is adapted depending on the amount of noise. • Fine tuning. This slider specifies the amount of cleaning (noise filtering) the audio clip requires. • Remove wind. If you select this checkbox, the noise associated with wind (or a heavy breeze) is removed. Great for video shots outdoors on a windy day.

4. Click the down arrow next to the Presets drop-down list. A list of available presets is displayed.

5. Click a preset. The option is selected.

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Exploring Audio Effects Studio 9 has five audio effects. Explore what you can achieve with these effects.

1. Click VST in the Category list. The item is selected and the effects within it are displayed.

Equalizer. This effects works just like your stereo’s graphic equalizer. The audio frequency spectrum is divided into 10 bands. Each slider lets you adjust the volume within its frequency band.

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Grungelizer. Use this effect to add noise, crackles, hum, and distortion to your audio.

NOTE The Grungelizer effect has a custom interface.

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Karaoke. This effect reduces the volume of vocals in an audio clip that contains music.

Leveler. Use this effect if your audio clip contains both loud and soft sounds. The Leveler effect reduces the volume of loud sounds and amplifies soft sounds.

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Reverb. This effect adds an echo to an audio recording.

7

Titles, Captions, and Credits

It is rare to find a movie, television show, or advertisement that does not contain text. Text is used in the design of titles, captions, subtitles, copyright notices, and credits. As you soon discover, Studio 9 includes a feature-rich text entry, formatting, and editing tool. In this chapter you learn how to do the following: Use the Title Editor Format and edit text Create a full-screen title Create scrolling credits Use a text style

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Opening the Title Editor The Title Editor contains numerous text-insertion, formatting, and editing tools. The Title Editor is an intuitive tool that produces professional results. It even lets you animate, kern (change the spacing between letters), and skew (tilt) text. This section explores the Title Editor’s interface.

1. Click Edit. The Edit mode interface is displayed.

2. Click the show titles icon. The Show Titles tab is displayed. A series of title screens are displayed as thumbnails within the Show Titles tab.

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3. Drag a title’s thumbnail to the video track. The title is added to the video track. NOTE Adding a title to the video track creates a fullscreen title that is placed in front of the video clip. A full-screen title does not overlay video.

4. Double-click the title. The Title Editor opens and displays the selected title.

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Explore the Title Editor: • Edit window. Has a black background when you are editing full-screen videos. The creation and formatting of text occurs within the Design window. • Title-type buttons. These buttons help you specify the type of title you are creating. These include stationary text (also commonly known as static text) and scrolling text. You can also create a DVD menu from within the Title Editor. • Text-formatting controls. These buttons and dropdown boxes should look familiar if you have used a word processor like Microsoft Word. These controls allow you to adjust the text font and size and view the outcomes immediately within the Design window. • Title duration. You can specify the amount of time a title screen will be displayed. • Title-safe zones. Text and logos placed outside the titlesafe lines are cut off when your movie is played on a TV or DVD player.

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• Title Editor album. You can navigate the backgrounds, pictures, and menu elements that are included as libraries in Studio 9. • Object toolbox. Holds tools that select objects and inserts text and shapes. • Object layout buttons. These buttons allow you to group, align, and resize objects placed within the Design window.

Adding and Editing Text With the Text tool selected, click anywhere within the Edit window: An editable block of text is inserted. You can reposition a text block by dragging it to a new location.

1. Click T in the Object toolbox. This activates the Text tool.

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2. Click within the Design window at the position you would like to insert text. A white bounding box is displayed.

3. Enter some text. The text is displayed within the bounding box.

4. Click anywhere outside the bounding box. The text is inserted.

5. Click the text. The text appears inside a bounding box and the I-beam cursor is displayed.

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6. Use either the mouse or arrow keys to position the I-beam cursor at the desired text entry position.

TIP Text is selected by dragging the mouse over the text within the bounding box. Once you select text, you can easily delete it by pressing the Delete key.

7. Enter some text. The text appears within the bounding box.

8. Click anywhere outside the bounding box. The text is updated to reflect your additions.

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9. Click the text. A bounding box appears around the text object. The move cursor is displayed.

10. Drag the text to a new location within the Design window.

TIP Once an object is selected, use the arrow keys to move it in different directions.

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Formatting Text The Title Editor includes all of the formatting options— including bold, italics, font, and point size—available in popular word processors. Formatting changes are applied immediately.

1. Select the text. The text is highlighted. The text-formatting controls are enabled. 2. Click the bold icon. The selected text is displayed in bold.

3. Click the italics icon. The selected text is displayed in italics.

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4. Click the underline icon. The selected text is underlined.

5. Click the text justify icon. Left, center, and right justification icons are displayed.

6. Click the center justify icon. The selected text is centered.

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7. Select a font from the font drop-down list. The selected text is displayed in the font you selected.

8. Select a point size from the point size drop-down list. The selected text is displayed in the size you selected.

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Kerning and Leading Text The Kern tool allows you to precisely adjust the space between letters in a word. Leading allows you to change the distance between words in a text block.

1. Click the text. A bounding box appears around the text object.

2. Click the bounding box. The control points are displayed.

3. Click the kern and skew icon. The Kern and Skew tool is selected.

4. Mouse over the control points on either the left or right side of the bounding box. The kern mouse pointer is displayed. 5. Drag the mouse. The distance between each letter is modified.

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NOTE The distance between each letter in a word is increased.

6. Mouse over the control points on either the top or bottom side of the bounding box. The kern mouse pointer is displayed.

7. Drag the mouse. The distance between each word changes.

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NOTE The space between each word has been increased.

Rotating Text Rotate text to create interesting effects. You’ll never know what you can achieve if you don’t try the Rotate and Skew tool.

1. Click the text. A bounding box appears around the text object.

2. Click the bounding box. The control points are displayed.

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3. Click the move, scale, and rotate icon. The Move, Scale, and Rotate tool is selected.

4. Mouse over the green control point. The rotate cursor is displayed.

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5. Drag the mouse. The text follows the mouse as it moves around the green rotation point.

6. Release the mouse when the text is where you want it.

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Changing the Background of a Full-Screen Title The Title Editor provides a variety of ways to customize a title screen’s background. In the sections that follow you learn to change the background color, create a transparent background, and overlay text on an image.

Changing the Background Color The background of a screen with text does not have to be black. You can choose from a palette of colors. You’ll easily find a color to match the mood of your movie.

1. Click the backgrounds icon. The backgrounds album is displayed.

2. Select the single-color option. The option is selected.

3. Click the color next to the single-color option. The Color dialog box is displayed.

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4. Click a color. The color is selected. 5. Click OK. The Color dialog box closes.

NOTE The title screen’s background color is replaced.

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Creating a Gradient Background Tired of using a single, solid background color? Why not use a gradient, which consists of up to four colors gradually blending into each other?

1. Click the backgrounds icon. The backgrounds album is displayed.

2. Select the gradient background option. The option is selected.

3. Click the color next to the gradient background option. The gradient selection dialog box opens.

NOTE Each of the four boxes create the gradient that is displayed in the center of the gradient selection dialog box.

4. Click any of the four-color boxes. The Color dialog box is displayed.

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5. Click a color. The color is selected. 6. Click OK. The Color dialog box closes.

7. Click the X. The gradient selection dialog box closes.

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NOTE A gradient replaces the title screen’s background color.

Creating a Transparent Background A transparent background is required if you want to overlay text on a video.

1. Click the backgrounds icon. The backgrounds album is displayed.

2. Select the transparent background option. The option is chosen.

NOTE A transparent background appears as black behind the text elements.

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Using an Image as a Background A previous section within this chapter shows you how to change a title screen’s background color. This section introduces you to a slightly more powerful technique, which allows an image to be inserted as a background.

1. Click the backgrounds icon. The backgrounds album is displayed.

2. Select the image background option. The option is selected. Thumbnails of available backgrounds are displayed.

3. Click a thumbnail. The image is inserted behind the title text.

4. Click the folder icon. The Open dialog box is displayed.

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5. Navigate to the folder that contains the image you would like to use as a background.

6. Click the image to select it. 7. Click Open. The image is inserted behind the title text.

TIP All the images within the selected folder are displayed in the image browser. This allows you to quickly add any image to your title screen.

NOTE Images are stretched to fit the screen proportionately. To prevent distortion, create background images using 640×480 pixels. Pixels are the size of images that need to be displayed on a computer screen. Each dot on your monitor is a pixel.

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Adding Images to a Title Screen All sorts of graphics can be used to enhance a title screen, including photographs, icons, clip art, and cartoons. Just browse and select a file to be inserted.

1. Click the pictures icon. The pictures album is displayed. 2. Click the folder icon. The Open dialog box is displayed.

3. Navigate to the folder that contains the image you would like to insert.

4. Click the image to select it. 5. Click Open. The image is added to the Image browser.

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6. Drag the image thumbnail to the Design window. 7. Move and resize the image. NOTE You can’t skew and rotate images.

Creating Rolls and Crawls I said this earlier and I’ll say it again: You can animate text within the Title Editor. The roll effect creates impressive scrolling credits at the end of your movie. The crawl effect moves text horizontally across the screen.

1. Move the title to its desired stopping point.

2. Click the roll icon.

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3. Preview the effect in the movie window.

4. Move the title to its desired stopping point.

5. Click the crawl icon.

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6. Preview the effect in the movie window.

NOTE To remove a roll or crawl, simply click the static icon.

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Using Styles A style is a set of formatting options that you can apply to any text block. Pinnacle has included styles to suit many film genres.

1. Select the text. The text is highlighted.

2. Click the styles icon. Thumbnail previews of the available styles are displayed.

3. Click a style. The style is applied to the selected text.

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NOTE A style can emboss and apply a drop shadow, which makes text easier to read on a moving background.

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8

Special Effects

Effects change the appearance of pixels in a video. An effect such as Lens Flare is applied during the editing process. Effects add an element of creativity and help maintain a viewer’s interest. Always use effects sparingly as they can also distract the viewer. In this chapter you learn how to do the following: Use the Video Effects tool Preview an effect Apply cleaning effects Apply color and style effects

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Using the Video Effects Tool The Video Effects tool is a new addition to Pinnacle Studio 9. Within the Video Effects tool you can apply multiple effects to a video clip.

1. Click Edit. The Edit mode interface is displayed.

2. Click a clip. The clip is highlighted.

3. Mouse over the toolbox icon. The camera icon is displayed.

4. Click the camera icon. The Video toolbox is displayed.

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5. Click the plug-in icon. The Video Effects tool is displayed.

Adding and Deleting Video Effects The Video Effects tool organizes effects according to the Cleaning, Color, Fun, and Style categories. Multiple effects can be added, removed, and even reordered. The order in which effects are applied impacts the final movie because the output of one effect serves as the input to the next effect. You need to preview and reorder effects to achieve a desired outcome.

1. Click a video effect category in the Category list. The item is selected and the effects within the selected category are displayed.

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2. Click an effect in the Effect list. The item is selected.

3. Click OK. The effect is added.

4. Click the Add New Effect button and repeat Steps 1 through 3 to add more effects.

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5. Click an effect. The item is highlighted.

6. Click the delete effect icon. The effect is removed.

7. Click the up and down arrows to change the order in which the effects are applied.

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Changing Effect Parameters Some effects can be customized. Customization controls are displayed on the right side of the Video Effects tool when you select an effect. Studio 9 includes presets that load common effect settings. Use presets when they are available and make minor adjustments to tweak the settings for your purpose. This saves heaps of time.

1. Click an effect. The effect is highlighted.

NOTE The parameters panel is displayed on the right side of the Video Effects tool. This panel displays sliders, buttons, and drop-down lists to help you customize the selected effect.

2. Click the down arrow next to the Presets drop-down list. A list of available presets is displayed.

3. Click a preset. The option is selected.

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NOTE Loading a preset automatically adjusts each parameter control (text entry fields and sliders).

TIP Click the Reset button to restore the default Studio parameter settings.

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Fading Effects In and Out An effect can be faded in and out over a specified timeframe. The subtle application might be required to suit the mood and pace of your movie. You can set the duration of the fade in and out.

1. Press the up and down arrows to adjust the duration of the fade in.

2. Press the up and down arrows to adjust the fade out duration.

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Previewing an Effect Always preview a movie after applying an effect. You need to ensure that the effects help communicate the story to the audience. Effects should be used thoughtfully and not draw unwanted attention. This is particularly important if you are applying multiple effects. Pinnacle Studio 9 has four types.

1. Click play. The effect is applied to the video clip as it plays.

2. Click pause to pause the effect at a specific frame. The Player displays the frame.

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3. Adjust the control parameters to obtain the desired effect.

Video Effects There are five types of effects in Pinnacle Studio 9. Explore the effects within each category. Cleaning. These effects help you correct color, remove noise, and stabilize a video shot by hand.

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Time. These effects change a video’s speed. You can either increase or decrease the playback speed.

Color. Use these effects to make a movie black and white or apply a nostalgic sepia effect.

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Fun. Apply the Water Drop and Lens Flare effects from this category.

Style. Effects such an Emboss, Mosaic, and Old Film are included in this list.

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Cleaning Effects The effects included within the Cleaning category help you remove defects in raw video footage. You can correct the color, remove unwanted snow and fuzziness, as well as steady any shaky camera work. Auto Color Correct. Sometimes you will shoot video with insufficient light. Adjust the brightness slider to fix color problems.

NOTE Color correction may introduce some fuzziness known as noise. Use the Noise Reduction effect, covered next, to fix this.

The Noise Reduction effect removes snow and fuzziness from a video to a limited degree. Drag the slider to the right to increase the amount of motion the effect will tolerate.

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This Stabilize effect helps create a steady image.

Time Effects Speed makes a video clip faster or slower. Increasing the speed decreases a movie’s duration. Decreasing a movie’s speed increases its duration.

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The Strobe effect works like a camera taking selected photos from a video every few seconds. It produces a stop-action sequence.

Color Effects The Black and White effect allows you to remove the color from a clip. The video is played using a greyscale palette.

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Brightness. Drag the slider to alter the intensity of light. Contrast alters the range between light and dark in your movie. Dragging the slider to the right increases contrast: Dark areas become darker while light areas become lighter. Hue biases the color used in a video. Drag the slider to the left to bias the clip toward red; drag to the right to bias toward green. Saturation. Drag the slider to the left to give your video a washed-out look. Drag the slider to the right to make the colors in your movie more vibrant.

Posterize progressively reduces the number of colors used in a video frame.

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Sepia is similar to the Black and White effect except that color is removed and replaced with a brown and black palette (instead of greyscale). This effectively conveys nostalgia.

Fun Effects Lens Flare adds a bright spot, or a trail of bright spots is inserted in the video.

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Noise adds snow to the video.

Water Drop simulates a drop of water falling onto a surface.

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Style Effects Selecting Blur makes the video appear out of focus (or blurred, as its name implies).

Emboss turns the video grey and makes the video elements look raised.

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Mosaic displays frames as large colored squares.

Old Film makes video look old and scratchy (and a bit sepiatoned). This works well when used in conjunction with the Black and White effect.

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Stained Glass displays the video as if you’re viewing it through a stained glass window.

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9

Creating a Slideshow

On my last vacation, I took a series of scenic photographs with my digital camera. Instead my just sharing the photographs, I created an artistic slideshow on a DVD. This chapter illustrates how photographs, captions, transitions, and music can creatively be combined to create a visually appealing slideshow. A slideshow can be burnt to DVD or video CD (VCD). In this chapter you learn how to do the following: Capture and manage still images Add images to the Storyboard Add transitions and titles Set the default slide duration Burn a slideshow to VCD Burn a slideshow to DVD

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Capturing Still Images from a Digital Video Camera You can capture a still image directly from your digital video (DV) camera as you preview a tape. The captured image can be saved to a variety of common image-file formats such as Bitmap (.bmp), JPEG (.jpg), and TIFF (.tif).

1. Click the Edit tab. The Edit mode interface is displayed.

2. Click the camera icon. The Video toolbox opens.

3. Click the frame grab icon. The frame grab tab is displayed.

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4. Select the Camcorder radio button to capture still images from a DV camera. The option is selected.

5. Press play. You can watch the video in the Player.

6. Press pause when the Player displays a video frame you would like to capture. The video playback pauses on the frame.

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7. Click Grab. The current frame is captured and displayed in the frame grab window.

8a. Click Add to Movie. The image is added to the first blank location on the Storyboard. Or

8b. Click Save to Disk. This option allows you to save the image as a file on your hard drive. The Save As dialog box opens.

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9. Select a folder from the Save in drop-down list. The file is saved within the specified folder.

10. Enter a filename. 11. Select Bitmap Files (*.bmp) from the Save as type drop-down list.

12. Select Original Size from the Save grabbed frame in this size drop-down list.

13. Click Save. The Save As dialog box closes. The file is saved.

14. Click the X to close the Video toolbox.

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Capturing Still Images from a Captured Video You can also capture an image from a digitized video using the Frame Grab tool.

1. Click Edit. The Edit mode interface is displayed.

2. Drag the video that contains the frames you want captured to the Storyboard.

3. Click the camera icon. The Video toolbox opens.

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4. Click the frame grab icon. The frame grab tab is displayed.

5. Select the Movie radio button to capture still images from a movie. The option is selected.

6. Press play. You can watch the video in the Player.

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7. Press pause when the Player displays a video frame you would like to capture. The video playback pauses on the frame.

8. Click Grab. The current frame is captured and displayed in the frame grab window.

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9a. Click Add to Movie. The image is added to the first blank location on the Storyboard. Or

9b. Click Save to Disk. This option allows you to save the image as a file on your hard drive. The Save As dialog box opens.

10. Enter a filename and select a folder from the Save in drop-down list. The file is saved within the specified folder.

11. Select Bitmap Files (*.bmp) from the Save as type drop-down list. 12. Select Original Size from the Save grabbed frame in this size drop-down list.

13. Click Save. The Save As dialog box closes. The file is saved.

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Working with Images in the Album Still images are displayed within the Album. Each image is displayed as a thumbnail for quick identification. A variety of image file formats are supported.

1. Click Edit. The Edit mode interface is displayed.

2. Click the camera icon. The Still Images tab is displayed. Thumbnails of images within the currently selected folder are displayed.

3. Mouse over an image. The filename is displayed as a tooltip. The mouse pointer changes to a hand to indicate that the image can be dragged to either the Timeline or the Storyboard.

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4. Click the folder icon. The Open dialog box opens.

5. Navigate to the folder that contains the files you need imported.

NOTE You can select an image or a folder containing many images.

6. Click Open. The images are loaded and displayed as thumbnails within the Still Images tab.

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NOTE You can import the following file formats: • Bitmap (.bmp) • JPEG (.jpg) • TIFF (.tif) • Windows metafiles (WMF) You must convert PhotoShop and GIF files to a supported format.

Adding Images, Transitions, and Titles to the Storyboard You can add images, transitions, sound effects, and music to a slideshow. Transitions help blend images together and provide a sense of movement. Use titles to add context to a slideshow’s images. Use tiles to describe the image, including where it was taken.

1. Drag a few images onto the Storyboard. A thumbnail of each image is displayed on the Storyboard.

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2. Click the Transitions tab on the Album. An album of available transitions is displayed. 3. Drag a transition between the first two clips. A thumbnail of the transition is inserted between the first two clips.

4. Repeat Steps 2 through 4 for each transition that needs to be added.

5. Double-click an image. The Title Editor is displayed.

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6. Enter the text that must be overlaid on the image.

7. Change the image duration if required. The default duration is 4 seconds.

8. Repeat Steps 6 through 8 for each image that requires a title.

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Ripple Transitions The ripple transition feature inserts the currently selected transition between all remaining images on the Storyboard. Applying a customized transition across multiple images is simple this way.

1. Click Edit, Select All. All the clips on the Storyboard are selected.

TIP You can also use the Ctrl+A shortcut to quickly select all clips currently displayed within the Storyboard.

2. Right-click the first image. A submenu is displayed.

3. Click Ripple Transition. The option is selected.

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NOTE The selected transition is added between all clips currently on the Storyboard.

Burning a Slideshow to Video CD (VCD) A video CD is a CD that contains a highly compressed MPEG movie. A VCD can be played on either a CD or DVD drive. The DVD player in your lounge room is capable of playing VCDs. Share your slideshows on VCD if the resulting movie is less than 640Mb.

1. Insert a blank CD-R/RW disc into your CD burner. 2. Click Make Movie. Make Movie mode is displayed.

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3. Click the Disc tab. The Disc tab is displayed. The Disc tab displays the following interface elements: • Status window, where instructions and warnings are displayed • Diskometer, which illustrates free and used disk space as well as the size of the encoded file • The currently selected video and audio encoder settings

4. Click Settings. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box opens. The Make Disc tab is displayed by default.

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5. Select the VideoCD radio button. The option is highlighted.

6. Select the Burn directly to disc radio button. The option is selected.

7. Select either of the following options if required: • Filter video. Use this option to apply a smoothing filter to your video. This option blurs your video and should only be used if the raw video is poor quality. • Draft mode. This option encodes a video faster, but the output is of lower quality. Use this option to save space.

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8. Select the CD-R/RW 650MB option from the Media dropdown list.

9. Your CD burner is automatically selected. If you have multiple CD burners installed, select the appropriate CD burner from the Disc writer device drop-down list.

10. Click OK. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box closes.

11. Click Create disc. The slideshow is burnt to CD.

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Burning a Slideshow to DVD You can burn to a DVD any slideshow that takes up more than 640Mb. Use DVD-R to view your DVD on a wide variety of DVD players.

1. Insert a blank DVD-R disc in your DVD burner.

2. Click Make Movie. Make Movie mode is displayed. 3. Click the Disc tab. The Disc tab appears.

The Disc tab displays the following interface elements: • Status window, where instructions and warnings are displayed • Diskometer, which illustrates free and used disk space as well as the size of the encoded file • The currently selected video and audio encoder settings

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4. Click Settings. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box opens. The Make Disc tab is displayed by default.

5. Select the DVD radio button. The option is highlighted.

6. From the Burn options section, choose one of the following settings: • Burn directly to disc. The current project is rendered and burnt directly to DVD. • Create disc content but don’t burn. The current project is rendered to a DVDcompatible format and saved to the hard drive. This file can be burnt to DVD at a later time. • Burn from previously created disc content. DVD content that was saved to your hard drive can be burnt to DVD.

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7. Select the Automatic radio button from the Video quality/disc usage area.

8. Select any of the following options if required: • Filter video to apply a smoothing filter to your video. Only use this option if the raw video is poor quality. • Draft mode encodes a video faster but is lower-quality output. Use this option to save space. • MPEG audio uses the MPEG codecs to encode audio. This saves space, but PCM quality is preferred.

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9. Select the DVD-R/RW or DVD+R/RW option from the Media drop-down list. 10. Your DVD burner is automatically selected. If you have multiple CD burners installed, select the appropriate DVD burner from the Disc writer device drop-down list. 11. Click OK. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box closes.

12. Click Create disc. The slideshow is burnt to DVD.

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10

DVD Authoring

Digital video discs (DVDs) have revolutionized movie delivery. A DVD, the same physical size as a CD, is able to deliver 90 minutes of high-quality audio, video, and special features. It is time for you to share your latest blockbuster in style. It is amazingly simple to author a DVD in Pinnacle Studio 9. In this chapter you learn how to do the following: Use a menu template Edit a menu Create and delete a chapter link Create a return to menu link Preview a DVD Add audio to a menu Create a motion menu

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Using a Menu Template A DVD usually has a menu, which is a title screen with selections. The menu screen allows you to select what you would like to watch. The DVD experience is very interactive, because you can return to the menu to make a new selection at any time. Studio 9 simplifies the creation of a DVD menu by including a set of menu templates. The templates include a background image, formatted title, and customized buttons (or chapter links).

1. Click Edit. The Edit mode interface is displayed.

2. Drag all of your video clips onto the Timeline.

3. Click the show disc menus icon. The Disc Menus tab is displayed.

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4. Drag a menu to the beginning of the video track. The Adding Menu to Movie dialog box appears.

5. Click Yes. The menu automatically contains buttons that link to each scene on the Timeline.

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NOTE Studio also inserts next and previous buttons where necessary and thumbnail buttons with videos from the Timeline.

NOTE Chapter flags are inserted at the beginning of each scene. They bookmark the position in a scene to which a menu links.

NOTE The first video frame is used as a menu thumbnail.

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Editing a Menu You can use the Title Editor to customize existing menus as well as create some from scratch.

1. Double-click the menu you want to edit. The Menu Clip Properties tool is displayed.

2. Click Edit Menu. The Title Editor is displayed.

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3. Use tools to edit (change text, colors, background image, etc.) the menu screen. Chapter 7, “Titles, Captions, and Credits,” covers the Title Editor and its tools.

4. Click File. The File menu displays.

5. Click Save Menu As. The Save As Menu dialog box is displayed.

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6. Enter a new filename. 7. Click Save. The menu is saved and added as a thumbnail to the Disc Menus tab.

Changing a Button Caption A caption is the text displayed below a button. It describes the scene so your user can make an informed scene selection.

1. Click a button. The button is highlighted.

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2. Click the caption. The field becomes editable.

3. Enter new text. 4. Press Enter. The text is saved.

5. Click the X. The Title Editor closes.

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Changing a Button Thumbnail A button displays a thumbnail of the first frame in a scene. You can change the thumbnail to display any frame from the selected scene.

1. Double-click the menu. The Menu Clip Properties tool is displayed.

2. Click a button. The button is highlighted.

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3. Move the Timeline scrubber or Player controls to navigate to the frame you want as a thumbnail.

4. Click the Set thumbnail icon. The new thumbnail is displayed.

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Creating a Video Button A button does not have to display a static image—it can display a video clip. Use this feature with care because multiple videos playing at the same time can be very annoying and distracting.

1. Click a button. The button is highlighted.

2. Select Motion thumbnails. The video lasts the duration of the menu and then restarts.

Changing a Menu Duration The first scene in a movie gets played after the menu has been displayed for its full duration. You can either increase or decrease the default menu duration.

1. Drag the menu’s right edge on the video track to the desired length. Or

2. Enter a new amount of time in the Duration box.

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Creating and Deleting Chapter Links Inserting your own chapter links is very easy. All you need to do is right-click the menu track and select the Set Disc Chapter option. You also can drag a chapter flag to any location on the Timeline.

Building a Chapter Link 1a. Move the Timeline scrubber to the start of a new chapter. Or

1b. Use the Player controls to navigate to where a new chapter should be inserted.

2. Right-click the menu track. A submenu is displayed.

3. Click Set Disc Chapter. A new chapter link is displayed.

NOTE All chapter link flags are preceded with a capital C.

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Removing a Chapter Link 1. Click the chapter flag. The flag is selected.

2. Press the Delete key. The chapter flag is removed.

NOTE After deleting a flag, use the Sort Chapters feature from the Menu Clip Properties tool. This tool renumbers the chapter flags.

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Creating a Return to Menu Link When a scene has completely played, the next scene begins unless you insert a Return to Menu link. When a DVD player encounters a Return to Menu link, it displays the menu selection screen.

1. Click the video that after playback should return the viewer to the menu.

2. Click the Set return icon.

NOTE A return-to-menu link is always inserted at the end of your movie.

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Previewing a DVD Always preview and test the chapter links before burning your movie to DVD. The Studio 9 Player can operate as a DVD player and simulate a remote control.

1. Click the start DVD preview icon. The DVD Preview mode is enabled and DVD-specific controls are displayed.

2. Click a button on the main menu. The linked scene is played.

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NOTE If you’ve placed a returnto-menu flag, the main menu appears after the scene plays.

3. Test all button links on the main menu by clicking each one.

4. Click the stop DVD icon. The DVD remote control is no longer displayed.

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Creating Audio Menus A background soundtrack usually accompanies a menu. In this section you use the skills acquired in Chapter 6, “Working with Audio,” to add music to a menu.

1a. Enter a new time in Duration. Or

1b. Drag the right edge of the menu on the video track to the desired length. 2. Click the X. The Clip Properties tool closes.

3. Mouse over the toolbox icon. The audio icon is displayed.

4. Click the audio icon. The Audio toolbox is displayed.

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5. Click the show CD icon. The CD tab is displayed.

6. Select an audio track. The track is chosen.

7. Click the Add to Movie button. The music is added to the background music track.

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NOTE You have to trim the audio track to the desired length. (Chapter 6 covers that trick.) If you don’t trim the audio to match the menu duration, the audio plays over the scenes that are placed after the menu on the Timeline.

Creating Video Menus A video menu is also commonly known as a motion menu. The concept involves replacing the static background of a menu with a video. The menu buttons are then presented to the viewer as the background video plays.

1. Drag the video that will be played in the background. The video is added to the video track on the Timeline. 2. Drag a menu to the title overlay track. The menu location must correspond with the beginning of the video background. The Adding Menu to Movie dialog box displays.

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3. Click Yes. The menu automatically contains links to each scene on the Timeline.

NOTE The menu is transparent because it is placed on the title overlay track.

Burning a DVD The final step in DVD authoring involves burning your movie to DVD. Studio 9 first encodes the movie to the MPEG 2 format. A DVD can store up to 90 minutes of video, which equates to approximately 4.3GB.

NOTE DVD-RAM, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, DVD-R, DVD+R/RW, DVD+R/RW/-R, etc.... To say there are many disc formats is an understatement. The DVD-R and DVD+R formats are the most widely supported formats and are compatible with DVD players. I recommend using DVDR discs.

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1. Insert a blank DVD-R disc in your DVD burner. 2. Click Make Movie. Make Movie mode is displayed.

3. Click the Disc tab. The Disc tab is displayed.

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The Disc tab displays the following interface elements: • Status window, where instructions and warnings are displayed. • Diskometer, which illustrates free and used disk size as well as the encoded file size. • The currently selected video and audio encoder settings.

4. Click Settings. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box opens. The Make disc tab is displayed by default.

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5. Select the DVD option. 6. From the Burn options section, choose one of the following settings: • Burn directly to disc. The current project is rendered and burnt directly to DVD. • Create disc content but don’t burn. The current project is rendered to a DVDcompatible format and saved to the hard drive. This file can be burnt to DVD at a later time. • Burn from previously created disc content. DVD content that was saved to hard drive can be burnt to DVD.

7. Select the Automatic option from the Video quality/disc usage options.

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8. Select any of the following options if required: • Filter video. Use this option to apply a smoothing filter to your video. This option blurs your video and should only be used if the raw video is poor quality. • Draft mode. This option encodes a video faster, but the output is of a lower quality. Use this option to save space. • MPEG audio. This option uses the MPEG codecs to encode audio. This saves space, but PCM quality is preferred.

9. Select the DVD-R/RW or DVD+R/RW option from the Media drop-down list.

10. Select your DVD burner from the Disc write device dropdown list. 11. Click OK. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box closes.

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12. Click Create disc. The menu and movies are burnt to DVD.

Supporting Home Cinema One of the impressive new Studio 9 features is its support for capturing and editing widescreen video. This means you can view your movies within the comfort of your home on a widescreen LCD, plasma, or rear-projection TV with full support for your surround-sound system.

Filming and Capturing Widescreen Video Widescreen video has to be shot with a 16:9 aspect ratio. Enable the widescreen filming feature on your DV camera. Studio 9 automatically determines the aspect ratio when capturing and playing video. You don’t need to modify any settings to capture widescreen video.

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1. Enable the widescreen filming feature on your DV camera. All DV cameras are different, so please refer to your manual. NOTE Sony DV cameras call the widescreen feature wide mode and you turn it on from the onscreen menu. When filming, black bands appear at the top and bottom of the viewfinder screen.

2. Watch the Player within Capture mode. It displays captured video with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

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3. The thumbnails that represent scenes are displayed with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

4. Within Edit mode, watch the Player display captured video with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

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Creating Surround-Sound Audio You can take advantage of the 7:1 or 5:1 surround-sound system you have attached to your DVD player. Studio 9 includes a unique, simple, and powerful stereo and surroundsound control.

1. See the Volume tool, which includes an interactive balance and surround-sound control.

2. Drag the camera icon horizontally within the onedimensional stereo space. This adjusts the balance. Balance is the position of the sound between left and right speakers.

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3. Select Surround from the drop-down list.

4. Drag the camera icon vertically and horizontally within the two-dimensional surround-sound space. This adjusts the placement of the audio track between each speaker in your system.

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11

Sharing Digital Video

Burning a DVD is not the only way to share your movie masterpieces with friends and family. Pinnacle Studio allows you to put your video on a variety of file formats easily burned to CD, uploaded to a Web site, or sent as an email attachment. You can even record your edited movie to a mini-DV tape. In this chapter you learn how to do the following: Export to tape Save your video as an AVI file Save your movie as an MPEG file Create streaming media file formats (Windows Media and RealPlayer)

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Exporting to Tape An edited movie with transitions, special effects, and titling can be rendered to a file and recorded back to a DV tape. The DV tape can then be recorded to a VHS cassette that you can play on any VCR. This is an excellent way to deliver highquality video to friends and family who don’t currently own a DVD player.

1. Connect the digital video camera to the computer using a FireWire cable.

2. Set the camera to VTR, VCR, or play back mode. TIP Make sure the DV tape has sufficient space and is not copy protected. All DV tapes have a copy-protection tab on the back panel. You can’t copy anything to the tape if copy protection is on.

3. Click Make Movie. The Make Movie mode appears and the Tape tab is selected by default.

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Make Movie mode displays the following interface elements: • Status window, where instructions and warnings are displayed. • Diskometer, which illustrates disk size and movie-rendering requirements. • Player, which is used to control your DV camera.

4. Click Create. Pinnacle Studio starts rendering the video. The Rendering Please wait message is displayed within the status window.

NOTE The status bar below the Player indicates the amount of rendering that has been completed.

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NOTE The DV deck could not be initialized: You receive this error message if a connection can’t be made between your computer and DV camera.

5. The Your project is now ready for output message is displayed in the status window.

6. Press the Record button on your DV camera while it is in VTR or VCR mode.

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7. Click Play. The video is sent to your DV camera via the FireWire cable. The LCD screen on your DV camera should display the incoming video that is being recorded.

NOTE The scrubber on the Player indicates the playback position of the video. Your DV camera is recording the video.

TIP Write a one- or twominute video to tape before trying a larger video segment. This lets you test your setup and make sure everything is working. Writing to tape occurs in real time.

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Saving Your Video as an AVI The AVI format is a very popular video file format on the Windows platform. AVI files were present at the beginning of the multimedia revolution way back in the early 1990s. The AVI format provides a great way to distribute files that need to play back on slower computers that are a few years old.

1. Click Make Movie. The Make Movie mode appears and the Tape tab is selected by default.

2. Click the AVI tab. The AVI controls are displayed.

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The AVI tab displays the following interface elements: • Status window, where instructions and warnings are displayed. • Diskometer, which illustrates free and used disk space as well as the size of the encoded file. • The currently selected video and audio encoder settings.

3. Click Settings. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box opens. The Make AVI File tab is selected by default. 4. In the Compression list, select either Cinepak Codec by Radius or Intel Indeo® Video R3.2. Both of these codecs play back on a wide variety of computers.

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5. Click Options. The Cinepak for Windows 32 opens.

6. Select the Compress to Color radio button. The option is selected.

7. Click OK. The dialog box closes.

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8. Change the Width to 320. 9. Change the Height to 240. 10. Change the Frames/second rate to 15.

11. Select PCM from the Type drop-down list.

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12. Select 8-bit mono from the Channels drop-down list.

13. Select 22.05 kHz from the Sample rate drop-down list.

14. Click OK. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box closes.

15. Click Create AVI file. The Create AVI file dialog box opens.

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16. Select the folder that stores the file (if required) and enter a filename.

17. Click OK. The dialog box closes and Studio encodes the file.

NOTE The status bar below the Player indicates the amount of rendering that has been completed.

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18. Click the Windows Media Player icon, which begins the AVI file.

Saving Your Movie as an MPEG MPEG files are highly compressed files that deliver highquality, relatively reduced file size. Pinnacle Studio 9 has preset MPEG compression settings that are suitable for your entire project needs. MPEG files can be burnt to DVD, VCD, or CD, sent via email, and even uploaded to a Web site.

1. Click Make Movie. The Make Movie mode appears and the Tape tab is selected by default.

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2. Click the MPEG tab. The MPEG controls are displayed.

The MPEG tab displays the following interface elements: • Status window, where instructions and warnings are displayed. • Diskometer, which illustrates free and used disk size as well as the size of the encoded file. • The currently selected video and audio encoder settings.

3. Click Settings. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box opens. The Make MPEG File tab is displayed by default.

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4. Click the down arrow next to the Presets drop-down list. The list of available presets is displayed.

5. Select one of the following, depending on how you will use the MPEG file: • Used for CD- and DVD-based projects: Select VideoCD, SVCD Compatible, or DVD Compatible. • Played back on a VCR (video cassette recorder): Select VHS. • Played back via a MicroMV-compatible device: Select MicroMV Compatible. • Played back on a computer: Select Multimedia. • Played back via broadband connection: Select Internet High Bandwidth. • Another way, in which you need to enter your own settings (such as disable filtering or change the data rate): Select Custom.

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6. Click OK. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box closes.

7. Click Create MPEG file. The Create MPEG file dialog box opens.

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8. Select the folder that stores the file (if required) and enter a filename.

9. Click OK. The dialog box closes and Studio encodes the file.

NOTE The status bar below the Player indicates the amount of rendering that has been completed.

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10. Click the Windows Media Player icon, which begins the MPEG file.

Creating Streaming Media Streaming media files allow large media files to be played back from a special server known as a streaming media server. When you view a video that is being streamed, you don’t have to wait for the whole video to download; the video starts to play as soon as a predetermined amount of data has been transferred. Windows Media and RealVideo are two popular streaming media file formats. Pinnacle Studio is able to output to both of these file formats.

Windows Media Windows Media is the most popular streaming media file format. It is developed by Microsoft and can be played back in Windows Media Player. Windows Media Player comes with Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

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1. Click Make Movie. The Make Movie mode appears and the Tape tab is selected by default.

2. Click the Stream tab. The Stream controls are displayed.

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The Stream tab displays the following interface elements: • Status window, where instructions and warnings are displayed. • Diskometer, which illustrates free and used disk size as well as the size of the encoded file. • The currently selected streaming file format— RealVideo or Windows Media.

3. Click the Windows Media button. The option is selected.

4. Click Settings. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box opens. The Make Windows Media tab is displayed by default. 5. Enter the Title, Author, and Copyright details. These fields describe the video. 6. Enter information into the Description text box. Multiple lines of text can be used to describe a video. NOTE The title, author, keywords, and copyright information is displayed when you play the file.

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7. Click the down arrow next to the Playback Quality dropdown list. The list of available presets is displayed.

8. Select one of the following: • Low for viewers with a dial-up modem or ISDN connection. • Medium for files sent via email or a dual channel ISDN connection. • High for viewers on a broadband connection. • Custom to select your own settings.

9. Click OK. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box closes.

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10. Click Create Web file. The Create Web file dialog box opens.

11. Select the folder that stores the file (if required) and enter a filename.

12. Click OK. The dialog box closes and Studio encodes the file.

NOTE The status bar below the Player indicates the amount of rendering that has been completed.

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13. Click the Media Player icon. Windows Media Player opens and begins the file.

RealVideo Real is another popular streaming media file format. You need to purchase and download the RealVideo player from http://www.realnetworks.com. Real also offers a free player with limited functionality.

1. Click Make Movie. The Make Movie mode appears and the Tape tab is selected by default.

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2. Click the Stream tab. The stream controls are displayed. The Stream tab displays the following interface elements: • Status window, where instructions and warnings are displayed. • Diskometer, which illustrates free and used disk size as well as the size of the encoded file. • The currently selected streaming file format: RealVideo or Windows Media.

3. Click the RealVideo button. The option is selected.

4. Click Settings. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box opens. The Make RealVideo tab is displayed by default.

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5. Enter the Title, Author, and Copyright details. These fields describe the video. 6. Enter the descriptive keywords in the Keywords text box. Separate the words with a comma. NOTE The title, author, keywords, and copyright information is displayed when you play the file.

7. Click the down arrow next to the Video Quality drop-down list. The list of available presets is displayed.

8. Select one of the following: • No Video for audio-only files. • Normal Motion Video for movies with normal motion. This setting balances frame rate and image clarity. • Smoothest Motion Video for movies with limited motion, such as talking heads.

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• Sharpest Image Video for movies with lots of motion, such as an action sequence. • Slide Show to convert a movie to a series of high-quality still photos.

9. Click the down arrow next to the Audio Quality dropdown list. The list of available presets is displayed.

10. Select one of the following: • No Audio if your movie does not have any audio. • Voice Only if your video contains only voiceover or dialog. • Voice with Background Music if your movie has both voiceover and background music. • Music if your movie has background music. • Stereo Music if your movie contains stereo music.

NOTE The appropriate audio codec is selected for the audio content you’ve chosen.

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11. Select one of the following options in the Video size section: • 160×120 for video that need to be streamed to dial-up modems. • 240×180 for video that will be streamed to computers connected via ISDN. • 320×240 for video streamed to computers on a broadband connection.

12. Select one of the following options in the Web server section: • RealServer if your file will be streamed from a server running RealServer. Ask your Internet service provider to find out if RealServer is installed. • HTTP if you want to allow users to download the file from a Web site or send the file via email.

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13. In the Target audience section choose the connection speed. NOTE If you select RealServer in the Web server section, you can choose multiple connection speeds. If HTTP is selected, you can select only a single connection speed.

14. Click OK. The Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box closes.

15. Click Create Web file. The Create Web file dialog box opens.

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16. Select the folder that stores the file (if required) and enter a filename.

17. Click OK. The dialog box closes and Studio encodes the file.

NOTE The status bar below the Player indicates the amount of rendering that has been completed.

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18. Click the RealPlayer icon. The RealOne Player opens and plays the file.

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A

Keyboard Shortcuts

Take control of the Pinnacle Studio 9 interface with these simple keyboard commands. All features are easily accessible with the mouse. Using the keyboard to complete common tasks is faster and more efficient.

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APPENDIX A: KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

Table A.1 Useful Keyboard Shortcuts To Execute This Command

Press This

Play the movie; stop the movie if it is already playing

spacebar

Stop

K

Mark in*

A or I

Mark out*

S or O

Move the trim-in point* by 1 frame to the left

Ctrl+Left

Move the trim-in point by 1 frame to the right

Ctrl+Right

Move the trim-out point* by 1 frame to the left

Alt+Left

Move the trim-out point by 1 frame to the right

Alt+Right

Remove mark-in and mark-out points

G

Move to the mark-in point in the Clip Properties tool

D

Move to the mark-out point in the Clip Properties tool

F

Go to the start of the Timeline or Storyboard

Home

Go to the end of the Timeline or Storyboard

End

Select the previous clip on the Timeline or Storyboard

Left

Select the next clip on the Timeline or Storyboard

Right

Delete selected clips

Delete

Display the next page of the Storyboard or Timeline

Page Up

Display the previous page of the Storyboard or Timeline

Page Down

Zoom into the Timeline

+

Zoom out of the Timeline

-

*When a video clip is trimmed in the Clip Properties tool, the starting trim position is the mark-in point. The end trim position is the mark-out point.

Index A Adding Menu to Movie dialog box, 195 adjustment handles, volume control, 107–108 album components (video capture), 18 album images, slideshow presentations, 177–178 aligning text, 126 Alpha Magic transitions, 65–66 audio audio menus, creating, 209–211 Audio toolbox components, 85–87 equalizer effects, 113 grungelizer effects, 114 karaoke effects, 115 leveler effects, 115–116 recording from CDs, 92–95 sound effects, 96–97 voiceover (narration), 87–91 reverb effects, 116 SmartSound tool, 98–102 surround-sound, 220–221 tracks, viewing in Timeline, 84–85 trimming, 103–104 volume control adjustment handles, 107–108 discussed, 105 fade-in options, 108–109

fade-out options, 109–110 mute, 106 noise reduction, 111–112 real-time mixing, 110–111 auto color correction, 159 AVI format, saving video as, 228–234

B background scenes color of gradient backgrounds, 135–136 selecting and changing, 133–134 transparent, 137 image-background options, 138–140 batteries, digital cameras, 10 black and white effects, 161 Blur effects, 165 bold text, 125 brightness, light intensity, 162 burning movies to DVD, 212–217 slideshows to DVD, 188–191 to VCD, 184–187 buttons caption, 199–200 thumbnail, 201–202 video, 203

256

INDEX

C cable, FireWire, 3 cameras, digital video accessories, 2–3 batteries, 10 capturing still images from, 170–173 connecting to computer, 21–24 recording, 11–12 caption buttons, 199–200 Capture tab (Studio 9), 4–5, 18–19 Capture Video dialog box, 23 capturing still images from captured video, 174–177 from DV camera, 170–173 widescreen video, 217–219 cassettes, DV, 3 CD and Voice-over command (Setup menu), 88, 92 CDs, recording audio from, 92–95 center alignment, text, 126 chapter flags, 196 chapter links, 204–205 cleaning effects, 159–160 Clip Properties tab, 47 clips. See also digital video; video adding to Storyboard view, 36–39 to Timeline view, 49–52 arranging in Storyboard view, 40–41 in Timeline view, 53–54 deleting from Storyboard view, 45 from Timeline view, 54–56 fading into and out of, 72–74 previewing in Storyboard view, 42–44 transitions between, inserting, 68–71 trimming in Storyboard view, 46–48 in Timeline view, 46–48

color auto color correction, 159 of background scenes gradient backgrounds, 135–136 selecting and changing, 133–134 transparent backgrounds, 137 special effects, 161–163 comments, adding to scenes, 27–30 computers, connecting camera to, 21–24 connecting camera to computer, 21–24 contrast, color effects, 162 controller buttons (video capture), 19 corporate video, 8 crawl effects, 141–143 Create AVI file dialog box, 232 Create MPEG file dialog box, 237 Create Web file dialog box, 243 custom quality DVD, 27 customization controls, special effects, 152–153

D deleting. See also removing adjustment handles (audio changes), 108 chapter links, 205 clips from Storyboard view, 45 from Timeline view, 54–56 special effects, 151 transitions, 77–79 dialog boxes Adding Menu to, 195 Capture Video, 23 Create AVI file, 232 Create MPEG file, 237 Create Web file, 243 Gradient Selection, 135–136 Open, 138 Pinnacle Studio Setup Options, 26–27 Save As, 172 Save As Menu, 198

INDEX

digital video. See also clips; video cameras accessories, 2–3 batteries, charging, 10 connecting to computer, 21–24 lens, 11 recording with, 11–12 capturing to MPEG format, 25–27 corporate, 8 filming techniques, 13–15 minutes and seconds, entering, 23 naming, 23 scene detection options, 19–21 shot preparation, 10 titles, 119–121 viewing, in Player, 31 Disc tab (Make Movie mode), 185, 188 diskometer (Capture mode), 5, 19 displaying special effects, 148 Timeline view, 48 Title Editor, 118 distortion, preventing, 139 drop shadow effects, 145 duration of menus, changing, 203 of titles, changing, 120 of transitions, setting, 75–76 DVD burners, 3 burning slideshows to, 188–191 previewing, 207–208 DVD authoring. See also movies burning DVDs, 212–217 buttons, creating caption buttons, 199–200 thumbnail, 201–202 video button, 203 chapter links, creating and removing, 204–205

menus creating, 209–212 editing, 197–199 templates, 194–196 Return to Menu links, creating, 206

E Edit command (Setup menu), 75 Edit menu commands, Select All, 98 Edit tab (Studio 9), 5–6, 30–31 Edit window (Title Editor), 120 editing menus, 197–199 text, 121–124 transition settings, 80–82 educational video ideas, 8 effects. See special effects emboss effects, 165 equalizer audio effects, 113 exporting video to tape, 224–227

F fade-in special effects, 154 volume options, 108–109 fade-out special effects, 154 volume options, 109–110 fade transitions, 72–75 filming techniques digital video, 13–15 widescreen video, 217–219 FireWire cable and ports, 3 font selection, text, 127 formatting text, 125–127 frame grab tab, 170 fun effects, 163–164 fuzziness, noise reduction effect, 159

257

258

INDEX

G Gradient Selection dialog box, 135–136 grungelizer audio effects, 114

H high-quality DVD, 27 Hollywood FX transitions, 66–68 home cinema support surround-sound audio, 220–221 widescreen video, filming and capturing, 217–219 home movies, 8 hue, color effects, 162

I images adding to slideshows, 180–182 to title screens, 138–140 in albums, slideshow presentations, 177–178 distortion, preventing, 139 moving, 141 resizing, 141 italicized text, 125

K karaoke audio effects, 115 kerning text, 128–129 keyboard shortcuts, 254

L leading text, 128–129 left alignment, text, 126 lens, digital cameras, 11 Lens Flare effects, 163 leveler audio effects, 115–116 lighting considerations brightness, 162 filming techniques, 15

lithium-ion batteries, 10 low-quality DVD, 27

M Make Movie tab (Studio 9), 6–7 media RealVideo, 244–251 Windows Media, streaming media, 239–244 medium-quality DVD, 27 menu templates, DVD authoring, 194–196 menus audio menus, creating, 209–211 duration, changing, 203 editing, 197–199 Return to Menu links, creating, 206 video menus, creating, 211–212 microphones filming techniques, 13 recording audio using, 89–91 mosiac effects, 166 movies. See DVD authoring burning, to DVD, 212–217 filming techniques, 13–15 home, 8 home cinema support surround-sound audio, 220–221 widescreen video, filming and capturing, 217–219 video versus, 7 moving images, 141 text, 124, 132 MPEG files full-quality video capture, 25 saving video as, 234–239 mute volume control, audio, 106

INDEX

N naming video, 23 narration (voiceover) recording, using microphone, 89–91 recording settings, 87–88 noise reduction cleaning effects, 159 volume control, 111–112

O old film effects, 166 Open dialog box, 138

P panning, filming techniques, 14 pictures. See images Pinnacle Studio Setup Options dialog box, 26–27 player component (video capture) overview, 18 viewing video in, 31 point size options, text, 127 ports, Firewire, 2 posterize option, color effects, 162 presets, special effects, 152–153 previewing clips, in Storyboard view, 42–44 DVDs, 207–208 quality video capture, 25 special effects, 155 ProZ Stretch transitions, 68

R raised text effects, 165 real-time mixing, volume control, 110–111 RealVideo, streaming media, 244–251

259

recording audio from CDs, 92–95 sound effects, 96–97 voiceover (narration), 87–91 recording techniques, digital video, 11–12 removing. See also deleting crawl effects, 143 roll effects, 143 replacing transitions, 77–79 resizing images, 141 Return to Menu links, 206 reverb audio effects, 116 reversing transitions, 80–82 right alignment, text, 126 ripple transitions, 183–184 roll effects, 141–143 rotating text, 130–132

S saturation, color effects, 162 Save As dialog box, 172 Save As Menu dialog box, 198 Save Menu As command (File menu), 198 saving video as AVI format, 228–234 as MPEG file, 234–239 scaling text, 132 scene detection options automatic based on shooting time and date, 20 automatic based on video content, 20 comments, adding, 27–30 create new scene every X seconds, 20 discussed, 19 no automatic scene detection, 21 Select All command (Edit menu), 98 selecting colors of backgrounds, 133–134 text, 123

260

INDEX

sepia, color effects, 163 Setup menu commands CD and Voice-over, 88, 92 Edit, 75 shadow effects, 145 shortcut keys, 254 shots (digital video), planning, 10 Show Titles tab, 118 sizing images, 141 slideshows burning to DVD, 188–191 to VCD, 184–187 images, adding, 180–182 ripple transitions, 183–184 still images within albums, 177–178 capturing from captured video, 174–177 capturing from DV camera, 170–173 SmartSound tool, 98–102 snowy images, cleaning effects, 159 Sort Chapters feature, 205 sound effects. See audio special effects adding, 149–150 Black and White, 161 Blur, 165 cleaning, 159–160 color options, 161–163 crawls and rolls, 141–143 customization controls, 152–153 deleting, 151 displaying, 148 Emboss, 165 fading in/out, 154 Fun, 163–164 Lens Flare, 163 Mosaic, 166

noise reduction, 159 Old Film, 166 previewing, 155 raised text, 165 shadow effects, 145 stabilize, 160 Stained Glass, 167 Strobe, 161 style, 165–167 time, 160–161 types of, 156–158 Water Drop, 164 stabilize effect option, 160 Stained Glass effects, 167 Standard transitions, 63 still images, capturing from captured video, 174–177 from DV camera, 170–173 Storyboard view adding clips to, 36–39 arranging clips in, 40–41 deleting clips from, 45 previewing clips in, 42–44 trimming clips in, 46–48 streaming media RealVideo, 244–251 Windows Media, 239–244 Strobe effects, 161 Studio 9 Capture tab, 4–5, 18–19 Edit tab, 5–6, 30–31 Make Movie tab, 6–7 style effects, 165–167 styles, text styles, 144–145 surround-sound audio, 220–221

INDEX

T tabs Capture (Studio 9), 4–5, 18–19 Clip Properties, 47 Disc (Make Movie mode), 185, 188 Edit (Studio 9), 5–6, 30–31 frame grab, 170 Make Movie (Studio 9), 6–7 Show Titles, 118 Transitions, 62, 72 Video Scenes, 36, 49 tapes DV, 3 exporting video to, 224–227 text adding and editing, 121–124 alignment, 126 bold, 125 font selection, 127 formatting, 125–127 italicized, 125 kerning, 128–129 leading, 128–129 moving, 124, 132 point size, 127 raised text effects, 165 rotating, 130–132 scaling, 132 selecting, 123 styles, 144–145 underlining, 126 text-formatting controls (Title Editor), 120 thumbnail views, 28–29, 201–202 time effects, 160–161 Timeline view adding clips to, 49–52 arranging clips in, 53–54 deleting clips from, 57 displaying, 48

261

previewing clips in, 54–56 trimming clips in, 58–59 viewing audio tracks in, 84–85 Title Editor displaying, 118 Edit window, 120 text-formatting controls, 120 titles adding to video tracks, 119 backgrounds color of, selecting and changing, 133–134 gradient, 135–136 image-background option, 138–140 transparent, 137 duration, changing, 120 title-safe zones, 120 toolbox, Audio, 85–87 transitions Alpha Magic, 65–66 deleting, 77–79 duration of, setting, 75–76 fade, 72–75 Hollywood FX, 66–68 inserting between clips, 68–71 navigating through, 64–65 replacing, 77–79 reversing, 80–82 ripple, 183–184 settings, editing, 80–82 Standard, 63 types of, 62–63 transparent backgrounds, 137 trimming audio, 103–104 video clips in Storyboard view, 46–48 in Timeline view, 46–48 tripods, filming techniques, 15

262

INDEX

U underlining text, 126

V VCD, burning slideshows to, 184–187 video. See also clips; digital video corporate, 8 educational, 8 exporting to tape, 224–227 movies versus, 7 saving as AVI format, 228–234 as MPEG file, 234–239 video menus, creating, 211–212 widescreen, filming and capturing, 217–219 Video Scenes tab, 36, 49 voiceover (narration) recording, using microphone, 89–91 recording settings, 87–88

volume control, audio adjustment handles, 107–108 discussed, 105 fade-in options, 108–109 fade-out options, 109–110 mute, 106 noise reduction, 111–112 real-time mixing, 110–111 surround-sound audio, 220–221

W Water Drop effects, 164 widescreen video, 217–219 Windows Media, streaming media, 239–244

Z zoom features, filming techniques, 14

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