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Credits

This User Guide, and the software described in it, is furnished under an end user License

Agreement, which is included with the product. The agreement specifies the permitted and

prohibited uses.

Trademarks

Serif is a registered trademark of Serif (Europe) Ltd.

MoviePlus is a registered trademark of Serif (Europe) Ltd.

All Serif product names are trademarks of Serif (Europe) Ltd.

HDV and the HDV logo are trademarks of Sony Corporation and Victor Company of Japan,

Ltd.

Microsoft, Windows, and the Windows logo are registered trademarks of Microsoft

Corporation. All other trademarks acknowledged.

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property of their respective owners.

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AVCHD and the AVCHD logo are trademarks of Panasonic Corporation and Sony

Corporation.

VST is a trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH.

Windows Vista and the Windows Vista Start button are trademarks or registered

trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

QuickTime is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other

countries.

Copyrights

Portions graphics import/export technology © LEAD Technologies, Inc.

(http://www.a1freesoundeffects.com).

trademarks of Sonic Solutions in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Manufactured under license from Dolby Laboratories. Dolby and the double-D symbol are

reproduced in any form without the express written permission of Serif (Europe) Ltd.

Companies and names used in samples are fictitious.

Contents

1. Welcome .......................................................... 1

Welcome to MoviePlus X5!.............................................................................. 3

Key features ......................................................................................................... 4

New features ..................................................................................................... 10

Licensed feature unlocking........................................................................... 14

Installation.......................................................................................................... 14

2. Getting Started ............................................... 17

Startup Wizard .................................................................................................. 19

Starting a new project .................................................................................... 20

Opening an existing project ......................................................................... 23

Adding media files to your project ............................................................. 25

Capturing video ................................................................................................ 28

Trimming ............................................................................................................ 32

Scene detection ................................................................................................ 36

Previewing your project ................................................................................. 36

3. Editing in Storyboard mode ............................ 41

Storyboard basics............................................................................................. 43

Adding media files ........................................................................................... 46

Selecting clips ................................................................................................... 48

Arranging clips .................................................................................................. 49

Resizing clips ..................................................................................................... 50

Applying transitions (storyboard) ............................................................... 52

Using pan and zoom ....................................................................................... 55

Using CG clips ................................................................................................... 57

Contents

4. Editing in Timeline mode ................................ 63

Timeline basics .................................................................................................. 65

Adding and arranging tracks ........................................................................ 71

Adding media files ........................................................................................... 72

Selecting clips (timeline only) ...................................................................... 73

Zooming, scrolling, seeking, and scrubbing (timeline only) ............... 76

Arranging clips (timeline only) ..................................................................... 78

Using groups (timeline only) ........................................................................ 85

Splitting clips on the timeline ...................................................................... 88

Cropping ............................................................................................................. 88

Using envelopes ............................................................................................... 90

Adjusting keyframes (timeline only) .......................................................... 95

Applying transitions (timeline) ................................................................. 101

Using markers ................................................................................................. 108

Slowing down and speeding up ............................................................... 112

Transparency & opacity (timeline only) .................................................. 112

Removing Backgrounds .............................................................................. 114

Masking ............................................................................................................ 114

Blue/green screening (Chroma Key) ....................................................... 118

Video overlays (timeline only) ................................................................... 121

Introducing transforms (timeline only) .................................................. 128

5. Effects .......................................................... 131

Applying video effects ................................................................................. 133

2D filter effects ............................................................................................... 139

3D filter effects ............................................................................................... 141

Colour correction .......................................................................................... 144

Applying audio effects ................................................................................. 145

Contents

6. Audio ............................................................ 149

Introducing audio .......................................................................................... 151

Adding audio ................................................................................................... 153

Using audio buses.......................................................................................... 157

Volume and pan ............................................................................................. 160

Adding narration ............................................................................................ 162

Ripping audio discs ....................................................................................... 165

7. Text, Images, and QuickShapes................... 167

Adding text ...................................................................................................... 169

Selecting and editing text ........................................................................... 174

Formatting text ............................................................................................... 175

Animating text ................................................................................................ 178

Adding Images and QuickShapes ............................................................. 180

Manipulating objects .................................................................................... 182

8. Exporting ...................................................... 185

Exporting movies ........................................................................................... 187

Exporting movies to disc ............................................................................. 188

Using Menu Designer ................................................................................... 190

Exporting as a file ........................................................................................... 198

Exporting to iTunes/PSP .............................................................................. 199

Exporting to YouTube .................................................................................. 202

9. Appendices ................................................... 205

Performance Notes ........................................................................................ 207

Keyboard Shortcuts ....................................................................................... 215

10. Index ............................................................. 219

Contents

Welcome

2 Welcome

Welcome 3

Welcome to MoviePlus X5!

Welcome to MoviePlus X5, the powerful video-editing program from Serif.

MoviePlus is the program of choice for video editors looking for easy and

intuitive ways to create and share their own movies.

MoviePlus X5 offers an exciting experience at all the key steps of movie

creation—from importing media, media management (trimming and scene

detection), and video editing, through to exporting your project to DVD and

Blu-ray disc, as well as to YouTube, movie file, Apple devices, or PSP.

Video editing can be performed in storyboard or timeline mode (for ease-of-

use vs. editing power). Whichever mode you plan to work in, you'll be the envy

of your audience at your movie's first screening!

For a more detailed summary of what MoviePlus can offer, see Key features

(p. 4).

Upgrading?

If you've upgraded from a previous version, this new edition of MoviePlus

includes a host of exciting new features (p. 10) which keeps MoviePlus ahead of

its competitors and at a fraction of the price!

Registration

Don't forget to register your new copy, using the Registration Wizard on the

Help menu. That way, we can keep you informed of new developments and

future upgrades!

4 Welcome

Key features

Gathering and managing media

• Import Media

Copy from camcorder, USB mass storage devices (hard drive,

memory stick/card, flash drives), or CD/DVD. MoviePlus transfers

media files straight from your device, ready for use in your Media

pane.

• Trimming

Trim video clips to your preferred length in a dedicated Trim dialog,

without affecting your original video clip.

• Media Pane

Your project's media (video, image, and audio files) can be gathered

together in a Media pane before commitment to your storyboard (or

timeline). You can reuse media for subsequent projects by adding to

the pane's Library tab. Fix incorrectly oriented image and video files by

one-click rotation.

• Quick Sourcing of Video, Audio, Image Content

Capture video and audio directly from sources like a DV (digital

video) camcorder and video capture card. Take images straight off

your camera.

• Automatic Scene Detection and Management

Detect and utilize scenes within movies from tape-based camcorders

(even adjust detection sensitivity). Exclude unwanted scenes, merge

scenes together, or even add manual cuts to trim and split scenes to

your liking! The original file is left intact, not split into pieces by the

process.

Welcome 5

MoviePlus basics

• Storyboard Simplicity or Timeline Editing Power!

Use the Storyboard for basic movie projects or "slideshow" image

montages. Clips are automatically arranged in sequence one-by-one

with inter-clip transitions. The Timeline lets you arrange video and

audio clips with editing freedom, working with an unlimited number

of video and audio tracks (or groups).

Timeline essentials

• Tracks and Groups

Store clips across multiple "layered" tracks for stunning blending

effects (opacity control) or split-screens, spins, rotations, and rolls

(transform control). Control opacity and transforms at group level

using video groups (containing multiple video tracks).

• Clip-based Opacity, Crop, and Transform Control

Apply opacity, cropping, and transforms to any selected clip!

• Keyframe Controls

Transitions, effects, transforms, opacity, plus audio volume and stereo

panning are all "key-framable". You can specify changes over time and

all the in-between steps are calculated for you. The changes themselves

can also adopt different speeds or accelerations by changing the

keyframe properties.

• Preset Envelopes

Using MoviePlus’s advanced keyframe technology is even more

accessible through a comprehensive range of preset envelopes—these

can be simply dragged and dropped onto video and audio tracks and

will perform previously complex video editing techniques, such as

opacity, transform and crop, with ease.

• Transparent Overlays

All of MoviePlus's video tracks support video transparency to

superimpose not just titles but any 32-bit transparent image (or video)

over your movie's action. Make portions of existing video transparent

6 Welcome

by adding a mask (as you might in a bitmap-editing program like Serif

PhotoPlus) or by picking a solid colour to become transparent. Use

popular Blend Modes to adjust how your layered videos' pixels interact

with each other.

• Multiple Picture-in-Picture

Create professional picture-in-picture effects using video clips or still

frames by easily editing the size and position of your video in the

Video Preview pane. Perfect for showing supplemental visuals without

detracting from the main movie, or tiling multiple videos together for

a dynamic scene.

Audio

• Audio Levels

Avoid audio distortion with the Levels meter—audio level meters

indicate if your current audio levels hit the Red. Use as a master

control volume to normalize project audio levels prior to movie

export. Audio waveforms for any audio clip are optionally displayed

on the timeline to help synchronize audio events.

• Narration Recording

Record voice-overs while you play back your movie—simply set up

your microphone, press record and begin talking!

• Digital CD Ripping

Rip your audio CDs—great for creating movie soundtracks from your

favourite songs.

• Dolby® Digital Stereo Support

For DVD/Blu-ray disc export, MoviePlus now uses Dolby Digital to

encode and compress audio (leaving more room for video!). Video

files with Dolby Digital streams can also import without the need for

third party codecs.

Welcome 7

Text

• In-Place Text Editing

Add titles, captions, and credits as separate text clips or as overlaid

text ("floating" over your video).

• Text Styles

For titles, captions, and credits, the new Text Styles gallery offers

hand-picked styles for that professional look. Apply a full range of

character formatting for custom text styles.

• Text Animation

Bring text to life by choosing In and/or Out animations, all from the

Galleries pane. Fly, Spin, Blinds, Explode, and Type are among an

impressive collection of preset categories.

Transitions, CG Clips, and Effects

• Cool Transitions

Automatic transitions between two clips make MoviePlus a breeze.

MoviePlus offers dozens of built-in, customizable transitions allowing

you to use standard transitions like wipes and cross-fades through to

stretches, pushes, pixellation, and 3D transitions.

• Computer Generated (CG) clips

For movie interludes or backdrops to titles or credits, add coloured

Backgrounds (solid or gradient fills) or Images and QuickShapes

such as hearts, chevrons, teardrops, and zigzags (plus many more).

QuickShapes are also great for masking effects!

• Stunning Video Effects

Enhance your movies with a wide range of customizable correction

filters—pick from brightness, contrast, gamma adjustments, sharpen,

and many more! Special effects include Old Film, Motion Blur, Mask,

Noise, and Chroma Key. 2D filter effects, as well as 3D lighting and

surface effects are supported. Apply individually or cumulatively.

Even perform reverse video playback as a special effect.

8 Welcome

• Audio Effects

Choose from a range of audio special effects—Reverb, Bass, Fill Left,

Fill Right channel-related effects. Even use third-party VST effect

plug-ins.

Performance

• Pre-Rendering for Improved Video Playback

Render transitions, video clips, or a time range in the background for

improved preview performance; lightning fast previews for complex

timelines or clips with processor-intensive effects!

Ease of Use

• Easy-to-use Panes

Enjoy larger and more intuitive panes which can float and be resized—

design your own MoviePlus workspace! Make use of full screen

previews on additional monitors.

• Editing Toolbars for More Efficiency

Context-sensitive toolbars for storyboard and timeline; toolbars only

offer the tools you need, when you need them.

• Edit Multiple Attributes

Change individual, specific, or all attributes (e.g. transitions, clip

durations) at the same time.

• Switch Editing Modes

Swap between the simplicity of the storyboard and the editing power

of the timeline. A single click gives an easy jump between either mode.

Exporting

• Easy Exporting

Export to any media, file or device using either suggested project

settings, intelligentlycalculated by MoviePlus, or by creating custom

project settings, which can be saved.

Welcome 9

• Share Worldwide with YouTube

Export your movie then automatically upload to your YouTube

account.

• PSP/iPod Export

Export mp4 movies to play on these popular devices. Upload to PSP

directly from MoviePlus; import movie into iTunes for later syncing

with iPods.

• Built-in DVD Authoring!

Bring your movies to the masses with quick and easy authoring to disc

(includes auto-erase)!

• DVD Menu Designer

For handy chapter navigation, the Menu Designer lets you create your

very own menu designs from a diverse range of pre-built templates, by

changing layout, background images/music, titling, and button styles.

The designer now offers DVD Preview (with remote control

simulator), video menu backgrounds, and manual positioning of

menu buttons. For multi-page menus, each page can adopt its own

appearance (e.g., layout, background, etc).

10 Welcome

New features

General

• Multi-trimming and splitting (p. 34)

Create separate trimmed scenes per clip, removing unwanted video or

audio content with ease—perform via Media pane, timeline or

storyboard using the Trim dialog. Optionally, just split (cut) your clip

up into multiple scenes! Preview each created scene and re-trim

within the dialog. Scene slipping lets you change underlying content,

while keeping the same trimmed clip duration.

• Guides for Fine Positioning

Use for laying out your titles, images, shapes, and transform envelopes

on your clips. Guides are for display only, helping you arrange clips

and objects, and can be positioned either by drag-and-drop or dialog.

• View in Full Screen! (p. 39)

Make use of all your monitor workspace with Full Screen display,

equipped with pop-up transport controls!

• Images and QuickShapes for Enhanced Movie Titles (p. 180)

Combine images, QuickShapes, and text together in your text clip's

layout! Optionally, set your default text style for future text clips.

Ease of use

• Easy Project Setup (p. 20)

From the Startup Wizard and Media pane, importing media options

(Import and Copy from Device) offer to set up your project according

to the chosen media clip's properties. For example, import a clip from

your HD camcorder, and your project is set up as an HD project

automatically!

Welcome 11

• Customized Keyboard Shortcuts, Menus, and Toolbars

Take advantage of customizable keyboard shortcuts—assign your own

keystrokes to toolbar and menu commands! Tailor MoviePlus to your

needs with menu, toolbar, and icon customization.

Performance

• Background Task Management (p. 207)

For uninterrupted project development, pre-rendering and proxy file

generation are now background tasks. Prioritize or delete any

background tasks in Background Task Manager. For example,

prioritize a proxy task for a specific HD video clip to complete ahead

of other tasks.

• Helper File Manager (p. 212)

Monitor, manage, and remove helper files used for pre-render

preview, proxies, indexing, scene detection, waveform generation, and

motion control. Allocate disk space thresholds for automatic helper

file deletion—avoid running out of disk space ever again!

Effects

• Video Noise Reduction (p. 136)

Use MoviePlus's Noise Reduction video effect to minimize the effects

of luminance and chroma noise in your video clips.

• Image Stabilization (p. 136)

The Stabilize effect eliminates unwanted camera shake present in your

video clip.

Timeline

• Overlay Links (p. 81)

Keep control of caption titles, credits, or video overlays by linking to

your underlying clip—your overlay will be trimmed and moved as you

trim or move your clip.

12 Welcome

• Clip Grouping (p. 81)

Select multiple clips along your track and then group together—great

for making permanent associations between clips for bulk control, e.g.

when moving multiple clips simultaneously or simply when keeping

related content together.

• Clip Overlap (p. 105)

Control the extent of overlapping between clips. Use for uniformly

overlapping multiple clips by the same amount.

• On-demand Waveform Generation (p. 154)

Create waveforms for audio clips just when you need them.

Alternatively, generate waveforms in your Media pane before

committing to your timeline—ideal if you're working with many audio

clips.

Sharing via Discs

• Create Blu-ray Discs! (p. 188)

With MoviePlus you can create and share your completed project via

Blu-ray discs.

• AVCHD on DVD (p. 188)

Export your HD project (AVCHD) to DVD, either taking advantage of

cheaper media costs (compared to Blu-ray discs) or if you've not quite

purchased a Blu-ray writer!

• Multi-level Disc Menus (p. 196)

Create tiered disc menus, typically a main Titles menu (including Play

Movie) and a subsidiary scene selection menu.

Welcome 13

Importing/exporting

• Import media via Media pane's Explorer tab (p. 25)

Access your computer's drives and folders directly from the Explorer

pane and import media straight to the storyboard or timeline.

• Export to all the latest Apple devices (p. 199)

Share your movie via your Apple iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch.

Other improvements

• Media pane improvements (p. 27)

Easily locate media files already on your storyboard/timeline

(indicated by green check mark). Filter by file type in your Media

pane—view only videos, images, or audio. Detailed view displays

frame size/rate, with the option to display pixel aspect ratio, interlace

method, bit depth, and more. Sort your media file list by column.

• Logical Clip Addition to Tracks (p. 72)

Linked video and audio clips always "snap" into adjacent video and

audio tracks when adding to the timeline.

• Alter Duration of your Transitions (p. 104)

In timeline mode, change the duration of one or more transitions on

your timeline.

• Live Timeline Rippling (p. 83)

Automatic rippling takes place as you move clips by dragging. Existing

clip overlaps are maintained when inserting clips, deleting clips, and

editing clip/transition durations.

• Pane layout control (p. 36)

Use buttons to maximize your Video Preview Pane or close the How

To tab for maximizing your workspace area.

• Background fills for text (p. 176)

Change the background to your text clips to any solid or gradient fill.

14 Welcome

Licensed feature unlocking

As part of the MoviePlus import or export process, a new feature may have to be

unlocked—this is purely for Serif licensing reasons and does not incur any

charge. If a feature needs to be unlocked, MoviePlus will connect to the internet

to automatically unlock it. If the automatic feature unlock fails (i.e., if there is no

Internet connection) you will be prompted to that effect, then you can manually

unlock the feature (see MoviePlus Help for details).

Once unlocked, the MoviePlus feature will be freely available and will not need

unlocking again on your computer.

In unlocking, Serif does not gather personal information from your

computer, or any other information that may impinge

confidentiality.

Installation

System requirements

• Windows-based PC with DVD drive and mouse.

• Microsoft Windows® XP (32 bit), Windows® Vista, or Windows® 7

operating system

• 1GB RAM

• 1.47GB free hard drive space*

• 1024 x 768 monitor resolution (1280x1024)

• An Internet account and connection (for Auto Update and export to

YouTube)

* Additional disk resources are required when exporting projects.

Welcome 15

For use with non-HD video and HD video (proxy support):

• Intel® Pentium® 4 Hyper-Threaded processor or AMD Athlon

™

processor

For use with HD video (optional proxy support):

• Intel® Pentium® 4 Hyper-Threaded processor or Dual-core processor

• Fast hard disk (≥7200rpm drive)

For use with Full HD video (native AVCHD 1080):

• Quad-core processor

• 2GB RAM

Input device support

• FireWire® (IEEE1394) support for connecting tape-based camcorders

• USB support for file-based camcorders

• Video capture card for digitizing and editing analogue video clips

Output device support (for disc creation)

• CD-R Writer (for VCD)

• DVD±R (for DVD and AVCHD)

• Blu-Ray™ Disc Writer

Optional

• Windows XP Service Pack 2 (for HDV video capture)

16 Welcome

First-time install

To install Serif MoviePlus X5, simply insert the disk into your computer's drive.

The AutoRun feature automatically starts the Setup process. Just answer the on-

screen questions to install the program.

Re-install

To re-install the software or to change the installation at a later date, select

Settings/Control Panel from the Windows Start menu and then click on the

Add/Remove Programs icon. Make sure the MoviePlus X5 disc is inserted into

your drive, click the Install… button and then simply follow the on-screen

instructions.

Getting Started

18 Getting started

Getting started 19

Startup Wizard

Once MoviePlus has been installed, you're ready to start. Setup adds a Serif

MoviePlus X5 item to the All Programs submenu of the Windows Start menu.

• Use the Windows Start button to start MoviePlus (or if MoviePlus is

already running, choose New>New from Startup Wizard... from the

File menu) to display the Startup Wizard.

The Startup Wizard offers different routes into the program for you to explore:

• Start New Project, to create a new project based on SD or HD project

settings.

• Import from Disk*, to add media files from your local disk or

network drive to a new project.

• Copy from Device*, to copy and add media files from your file-based

camcorder or removable device.

• Capture from Device, to capture video footage from your tape-based

camcorder or analog device.

20 Getting started

• Open, to quickly access previously saved or opened MoviePlus

projects.

• Learn, to access online tutorials and more resources.

* Project settings are matched to your media file's format.

The Startup Wizard is displayed by default when you launch MoviePlus. You

can switch it off via the Don't show this wizard again check box on the Startup

Wizard screen, or on again via Startup Wizard in Tools>Options... (use the

General menu option).

Click the Cancel button or press Escape on your keyboard to bypass the

Startup Wizard and launch MoviePlus with an empty project. The type of

project will match the last project you selected.

You can also access the Startup Wizard at any time from New>New

from Startup Wizard... on the File menu.

Starting a new project

By default, MoviePlus will be launched in Timeline mode (see p. 65), a time-

based multi-track workspace traditionally used by video editors.

Creating MoviePlus projects

MoviePlus bases its movie compositions around "projects". A MoviePlus project

file is a collection of project settings (the video size and shape, audio properties,

aspect ratio, etc.) plus information about how all your clips are arranged and

edited on the timeline.

The Startup Wizard lets you create projects either:

• without adding media files, as a blank project.

• based on your imported or copied media (e.g., from your camcorder),

with media present in your Media pane.

Getting started 21

To create a new project without adding media files:

• From the Startup Wizard, choose Start New Project.

On first use, your project is based on PAL DVD project settings. For

subsequent sessions, MoviePlus will remember and use the project

settings used in the previous session.

The blank project is now ready to have media files added to it (see

p. 25).

You can quickly check your project settings from the Status Bar, or,

in more detail, via File>Project Settings....

If you want to add media files immediately, you can base your project on your

media file's source format. For example, as you add HD media files, your project

will intelligently use HD project settings matching those specific media files.

Your project is then set up with media files already present.

To create a new project that matches your media files:

1. From the Startup Wizard, choose:

• Import from Disk. Locate and select your media files, then click

Open.

• Copy from Device. Using a wizard, choose your target device

(e.g., camcorder), select files, then click Finish.

2. From the dialog, click Yes to change project settings to match the

media file's source format. Click No to retain the project settings used

in the previous session (ignoring the media file's format). Check Don't

ask me again if you don't want to be prompted in future.

See Adding media files to your project (p. 25) for more information.

In timeline mode, you can base your project on a clip's source

format at any time by right-clicking a video or audio clip and

choosing Set Project Settings from Clip.

22 Getting started

As your project settings will be matched to your imported/copied

media file, your export settings will also be matched to those

modified project settings. As a result, choosing complicated project

settings when starting your project and exporting is not required.

Creating custom project settings

You can customize your current project settings at any time by modifying its

template.

To customize project settings:

1. Select Project Settings... from the File menu.

2. From the Project Settings dialog, pick a template in the Templates list

on which to base your new project settings (or select the Multimedia

preset for general use).

3. Click the Modify button to make a copy of the project, now named

(Untitled).

Getting started 23

4. Change various settings including the pixel size of your project, the

Pixel aspect ratio (many types of output use stretched pixels), the

video Frame rate (number of frames per second), Interlacing, and

Audio sampling rate.

5. When you are happy with your settings you can save your project

template for reuse—simply click the Save button, type a new preset

name and click OK.

Opening an existing project

You can open an existing MoviePlus project from the Startup Wizard, Standard

toolbar or the File menu.

To open a recently opened or saved project (via Startup Wizard):

1. From the Startup Wizard (at startup time or via File>New...), select

your project from the Open section. The most recently opened or

saved project will be shown at the top of the list.

2. Click the project name to open it.

Recently viewed projects also appear at the bottom of the File

menu. Simply select the file name to open it.

24 Getting started

To open any project:

1. From the Startup Wizard (at startup time or via File>New...), click

Browse....

-or-

Click

Open on the Standard toolbar.

-or-

Choose Open... from the File menu.

2. In the Open dialog, navigate to, then select the project name and click

the Open button.

You can also open projects by file drag-and-drop from Windows

Explorer onto the MoviePlus workspace.

Getting started 25

Adding media files to your project

The media files you use for your project could reside on a variety of devices,

typically on your camcorder's hard disk or flash card/drive, but also on your

mobile phone, digital camera, or computer drive (local, network, or removable

disc).

You can add media files from these location as you start a new project (p. 21) or

at any time by downloading, importing, capturing, or "ripping" media files into

MoviePlus's Media pane.

26 Getting started

Media files are added by choosing an option from the Import Media

button on the Tasks toolbar or from the top of the Media pane. The drop-down

list lets you:

Import

A standard dialog lets you navigate to, then select one or more

media files from your local disk or network drive for import

directly into your Media pane. Use Shift-select or Ctrl-select

for adjacent or non-adjacent multiple selection before

download.

You can also drag and drop files and whole folders

from Windows Explorer into your Media pane.

Folder names and any associated subfolders are

preserved in the pane.

Copy from

Device

Copy media from your HD/DVD camcorder, USB Hard

drive, USB memory stick, memory card reader, or

CD/DVD.

• From the Copy from Device button, select the

connected Device as a remote drive in the dialog,

then Browse... to a chosen folder, then click Next>.

• In the next screen, the device's media files can be

selected and downloaded to your computer's

Destination folder by clicking Finish.

Selected files show in the Media pane automatically.

Capture

With your tape-based camcorder connected via

USB/FireWire you can capture your movie's video footage

and/or audio to a file, with optional scene detection.

Rip CD

Rip audio tracks from your favourite audio CDs straight into

the Media pane.

Getting started 27

The Media pane

The main purpose of the Media pane is to manage your media files before

committing media to your storyboard or timeline.

You can perform several important operations from the pane.

• You can reorder files by clicking and dragging thumbnails into the

position you wish them to appear on the storyboard (or timeline).

28 Getting started

• You can fix incorrectly oriented images or movies obtained

from your digital camera by using the Rotate Left and Rotate Right

buttons.

• Trimming (p. 32) can be carried out by using Trim.

Media files can then be added to your storyboard or timeline by drag and drop

(see p. 47 and p. 72, respectively).

Remember that MoviePlus does not rotate or trim your original media, but

instead on project "copies" of the original, thus preserving your valuable original

media in their original file locations. Thumbnails in the Media pane are just

links to their original files (try right-click Properties... to view file location). As a

result, changes made to files within MoviePlus will not affect the originals.

Until now, we've just been using the Project tab. Two other tabs, Library and

Explorer, are also available in the Media pane. The former stores media files for

future use while the latter provides a "window" to your computer's folders and

files—you can use media files directly from here but you won't be able to manage

your files as you can in the Projects tab. See MoviePlus Help for more details.

Capturing video

MoviePlus makes it easy to capture your own video and audio footage to your

PC from tape-based digital camcorders (e.g., Mini DV), analogue video sources

(e.g., analogue camcorders, VHS, or TV; all via a capture card) or USB web

cams.

Remember that videos stored on modern tapeless camcorders can be

downloaded directly from the device's hard disk, flash card, or internal DVD.

See Adding media files to your project on p. 25.

Getting started 29

To set up and initiate the video capture, a Capture Video dialog is used.

This example shows in-progress capture of digital video footage with associated

audio from a tape-based camcorder. As you capture (by pressing the Record

button), the footage is written to a file(s), which shows directly within the Media

pane.

To begin capture:

1. Click the Import media button on the Tasks toolbar (or Media

pane).

2. From the drop-down list, select Capture.

To connect your camcorder or other capture device:

If your camcorder is properly connected and supported (and is set to playback

mode rather than record mode if appropriate), you should see a video preview in

the preview window of the Capture Video dialog when your camcorder is

playing.

30 Getting started

If you are using an analogue video source, ensure that it is connected to your

video capture device (or a USB socket in the case of a web cam).

To choose an appropriate capture format:

If your source footage is on a tape-based camcorder, the video and audio capture

settings are greyed out in the Source Properties button as the capture format is

fixed to the camcorder's format. However, if your source footage is being

captured via a video capture device or USB web cam, you can choose a file

format suited to your video type by choosing this button.

It is recommended that you capture at a resolution and quality as high as

possible to achieve high quality results—it is best to aim as high as the source

footage resolution and quality. Even when you ultimately aim for your resulting

video to be very compact, for instance to make it suitable for download from the

Internet, you can defer the file-size-smashing resizing and compression

operations to final export time, don't compromise your captured quality!

To set a suitable file storage location:

Captured video footage can occupy a large amount of hard drive space when it is

transferred to your PC, so it is important to choose a drive location with lots of

room.

• Choose Options>Folders from the Tools menu, then Browse... for a

different Capture folder.

During capture, you can define a different destination Folder within

the Capture Video dialog (Output section).

To preview and cue your video footage:

For tape-based camcorders, transport controls under the preview window allow

you to cue your tape to the point at which you would like capture to start; for

other sources you'll need to control the device yourself, a remote control may be

handy here.

Getting started 31

To capture with scene splitting:

For DV video, the Split files by scene check box offers the chance for all your

scenes to be saved as separate video files as part of the capture process. For

capture from tape-based camcorder, the default is for the box to be checked so

that scenes are split (by timestamp) where the recording has been stopped and

restarted. For all other captures, if the box is unchecked, no splitting occurs so

you'll capture a single video file.

For non-DV video, e.g. from analogue devices, scene splitting is not possible; the

option is unavailable (greyed out) as time stamps are not present. Instead, scene

detection can be carried out (see MoviePlus Help). Scene detection does not

create separate video files but creates "virtual" scenes from a single video file.

For HD video, scene splitting may not be possible—if so, the Split

file by scene button will be greyed out.

Record

Ensure that Video and Audio Capture check boxes in the Capture

Video dialog are checked if you want to capture both audio and

video. Check that your audio levels meter indicates that audio is

being played.

1. Play your video source from at least a couple of seconds before the

point at which you'd like capture to start (to allow the video device to

begin playing smoothly), then press the

button.

2. Click Record in this dialog to begin the capture.

3. To skip footage, press Stop to finish capture, then pause the playback

by clicking the

button, cue the tape to the point you would

like to proceed from, then play and record again to resume the

capture.

Don't use the "navigation" playback controls while recording!

It's better to capture too much footage rather than too little, it can

always be trimmed later, so don't worry too much about exactly

how much is captured if you are uncertain.

32 Getting started

4. When you are happy that all the required footage has been captured,

click the Stop button, then the Close button.

The captured video footage will show in your Media pane (see p. 27)

automatically on closing the Capture Video dialog. The files are still

physically located in your Capture Folder.

When MoviePlus captures your video or audio footage with scene detection, it

will automatically name and incrementally number your files if you do not

specify a particular filename (by default the Prefix "Capture" is used; the number

is added as a suffix). To change the prefix name, enter a new name in the dialog's

Prefix option.

Trimming

With audio or video clips, both duration and playback speed come into play.

Most often, you'll want to shorten a clip without altering its playback speed—

this is called trimming. For example, media files seldom begin or end exactly

where you'd like; there may be extra frames at the beginning or end, or you may

want to use a short section from the middle of the file. The solution is to trim the

media file—adjusting its start and end point, called "in" and "out" points, to

include just the section of video you want.

For any clip you can split your clip up into separate scenes, with each scene

capable of being edited as for any other clip.

Clips can be trimmed or split in either your Media pane, or via the Storyboard or

Timeline, by using the Trim dialog. Direct timeline trimming is also possible.

Getting started 33

(A) Frame Preview, (B) Clip timeline, (C) Discarded end frames, (D) Out point, (E)

Set In/Out Point, (F) Split, (G) Trim mode, (H) Playback controls, (I) Display

controls: Show/Hide Video, Show/Hide Audio, Undo/Redo, Delete Scene, Zoom

Out/In, (J) In point, (K) Discarded start frames.

To trim a single clip:

1. In the Media pane, select a clip and click Trim.

Select a video clip on the storyboard (or timeline) and click

Trim

on the context toolbar.

34 Getting started

2. From the Trim dialog, to trim to a specific time/frame (using the

Frame Preview):

1. Click on the ruler and drag the time indicator to the frame where

you wish to trim before (or after), or use the playback controls for

accurate frame-by-frame navigation.

2. Click the

Set In Point (or Set Out Point button (or

use the keyboard shortcuts I or O, respectively). The unwanted

portion of the clip will appear in grey shading; the portion to be

kept is highlighted in orange.

Or, for trimming visually by frame:

• Hover your mouse cursor over the furthest left (or right)

edge of the clip's timeline so that it changes to the Trim

cursor, then drag the mouse to the right (or left) to trim

away the start (or end) of your clip.

3. Click the OK button.

You can move the Slip handle to shift the in/out points of a

trimmed clip at the same time. This "sliding window" lets you

change the content of the trimmed clip without changing its

duration.

Multi-trimming and splitting

MoviePlus lets you create multiple trimmed clips, called scenes, from a single

video clip. You may want to do this to remove unwanted footage within your

clip, e.g. removal of poorly recorded frames, or simply just to create more

manageable scenes for flexible video editing.

Multi-trimming simply involves either the creation of multiple in/out points or

splitting your clip; both methods let you define a new scene equally. Splitting on

its own does not remove content (like trimming) but instead just chops the clip

up.

Getting started 35

To apply multi-trimming:

1. From the Scenes dialog, click Multi-trim.

Set the time indicator position successively for every in and

out point, clicking Set In Point then Set Out Point (or use the

keyboard shortcuts I or O, respectively) in turn as you move along the

timeline. Unwanted portions of your clip will appear in grey shading;

the portions to be kept appear as scenes in the dialog's right-hand

pane. The orange portion indicates current selection.

Newly created scenes are added to your Media pane's Project tab (under a Scenes

folder). They can then be added to your Storyboard or Timeline.

To split your clip:

1. Display the Trim dialog as described previously, then click the Multi-

trim button.

2. At the time indicator's position, click the

Split button (or use the

keyboard shortcuts S). You'll see a new scene being created in the

dialog's right-hand pane.

3. Repeat for creating multiple split clips.

36 Getting started

The thin black vertical lines indicate the split positions (there are three

splits in the above example, creating four separate scenes).

Scene detection

For captured DV video not split at capture or captured analogue footage, you

can perform scene detection via the Trim dialog—simply enable Scene

Detection to create your virtual scenes. For more information, see MoviePlus

Help.

Previewing your project

The Video Preview pane will help you check that your movie editing is going

according to plan... you can preview your project at any time; MoviePlus will

begin playing your video, will compose a realistic end result from the contents of

your all video tracks, and will incorporate all transitions, effects, and other

envelopes on the fly. Audio levels can be checked at the same time.

You can even continue editing your project while the preview is playing as your

edits will be incorporated into the preview in real-time.

Getting started 37

The lower playback controls operate much like your DVD player controls and

allow you to navigate around your project during preview.

Go to Start

Jumps to the start of your project.

Previous Frame

Jumps to the previous frame in your project.

Click the Play or Pause button to start and

pause the video preview, respectively. On play,

the preview will begin from the current

preview marker's position.

Press the Space bar to play and

pause.

Click the Stop button (or ESC key) to stop

your video preview and reset the preview back

to where it originally started.

Next Frame

Jumps to the next frame in your project.

Go to End

Jumps to the end of your project.

Shuttle

Allows you to vary the preview playback speed

and direction by dragging from the centre

point to the left (to reverse) or to the right (to

fast forward); release the mouse to snap back

to normal play speed. This is known as "trick

play".

38 Getting started

Additional buttons at the bottom of the pane offer previewing and editing

options.

Select Tool

Lets you select objects (text, images, and shapes) in the pane for

editing.

Pan Tool

Lets you drag an area of your video around the pane. When used

with the right-click Zoom in option, this allows for more detailed

analysis of your project.

Transform Tool

(only shown for a transform envelope in Timeline mode) The

Transform button switches on the transform region to let you

adjust your transform positioning.

Add Text

The Add Text button can be used to add either one or more text

objects onto the currently selected clip or a new text clip (when

clips are not selected). (See Adding text on p. 169).

Add Image

The button is used to add an image object to your text clip. This

could be a saved frame (see below).

Add QuickShape

A QuickShape object can be created on your text clip within this

pane.

Guides and Borders

From the flyout, switch on/off layout guide lines and TV-safe

border.

Save/Copy Frame

The flyout allows the currently displayed frame to either be saved

to an image file (use Save Frame...) or copied to the Clipboard

(Copy Frame); the image can then be pasted as a graphic into a

photo editing program, e.g. Serif PhotoPlus. Saving a frame adds

the created image to your Media pane (Project tab).

Getting started 39

Previewing in full screen

At some stage you may want to view your project in full screen view. As well as

being able to see how your movie looks on a larger scale you'll be able view your

project without guides and make use of dual monitors (one set at default size

and one set as full screen).

To view in full screen:

• Click Full Screen on the Tasks toolbar.

Playback controls disappear during preview but reappear with a

mouse movement.

To close full screen view:

• Click Close to exit from full screen view.

Dual-monitor use

With dual monitors you can instantly preview your changes as you perform

video editing. If you're a dual-monitor MoviePlus user, you can display your full

screen view on your secondary monitor easily.

To operate dual monitors:

1. In full screen preview, click the button.

2. From the drop-down list, enable the "Monitor x" option from the

drop-down list (where x is the secondary monitor number).

After closing full screen preview, the setting is remembered. The secondary

monitor will automatically be used again for full screen preview.

• If you're experiencing poor playback performance (e.g., stuttering) you

can:

• Reduce the Render Quality (Preview menu).

• Use pre-rendering.

40 Getting started

• (For HD video), use proxy files in conjunction with pre-

rendering when using computers that do not possess a quad-core

processor.

Consult the Performance notes (p. 207) for more information.

Editing in

Storyboard mode

42 Editing in Storyboard mode

Editing in Storyboard mode 43

Storyboard basics

If you're in Timeline mode, click Storyboard to switch to Storyboard

mode.

Storyboard mode provides the user with a simplified approach to movie

making. If you're a beginner to video editing or you've no requirement for more

complex multi-track editing techniques, the storyboard offers an easy-to-use

workspace to build up your project and visualize different scenes in your movie.

The easy-to-use storyboard is particularly suited to creating simple photo

slideshows or movies containing a mixture of image and video clips.

A major strength of the Storyboard mode is its simplicity. You'll only see

options, buttons, and dialogs that are needed for simple projects with the more

advanced multi-video-track editing controls being hidden in another mode,

called the Timeline mode (see p. 65). Think of the Storyboard and Timeline

modes as being like two sides of a coin—you can flip between modes to jump

between basic and advanced use any time you like.

44 Editing in Storyboard mode

(A) Text clip, (B) Video clip, (C) Time indicator, (D) Image clip, (E) Clip name,

(F) Duration, (G) Transition, (H) Chapter point, (I) Caption, (J) Effect(s),

(K) Pan & Zoom, (L) Audio clip, (M) Audio clip (Narration).

Editing in Storyboard mode 45

Text clip

A text clip can be added for use as a static or rolling title or as credits. The clip

has its own duration, and can be treated in a similar way to video/image clips.

Additional text, as separate text objects, can be added onto the clip as captions.

See Adding text on p. 169 for more information.

Video and image clips

Video and image clip thumbnails, representing your media elements, appear on

the storyboard when added by drag-and-drop from the Media pane.

Time indicator

In storyboard mode, the time indicator is used to carry out a preview playback of

your project from that point. The time indicator is also shown in the Video

Preview pane for the same purpose.

Clip name

The clip name is the name of your media file by default. If required, you can edit

the name in the Properties pane while the clip is selected.

Duration

The duration is the time the clip or transition will be displayed on screen. Video

clip durations cannot be edited, but for text clips, image clips and transitions,

click under their thumbnails to edit their values.

Transition

A cross-fade transition with a set duration is added between clips by default. The

default transition can be swapped for another and have its duration altered. See

Applying transitions on p. 52 for more information.

Chapter point

The

icon indicates that a marker, used exclusively when creating menus for

your disc (DVD, Blu-ray, VCD), is associated with the clip. Your disc menu will

include your chosen clip as a chapter, which can be clicked to play from that

point in your movie. See Editing chapter properties on p. 194 for more

information.

Caption

Static or animated captions can be added to any clip. They are superimposed

onto the clip and, like text clips, can adopt a preset text style or be customized.

Caption text can appear for the clip's duration or for a shorter time.

46 Editing in Storyboard mode

Effects

The

Effects icon indicates that an effect has been applied to the clip. Click

the icon to view currently applied effects in the Properties pane (Effects tab). See

Applying effects on p.136 for more information.

Pan & Zoom

The Pan & Zoom icon indicates that a Pan & Zoom effect has been applied

to the clip. Click the icon to view the current effect in the Pan and Zoom dialog.

See Using Pan and Zoom on p.55 for more information.

Audio clips and Narration clips

A narration clip is added to a narration strip under your video or image clips

after recording from a microphone. Likewise, audio clips show on their own

Music strip that lies below the narration strip. Use both in combination for

commentary over background music (e.g., soundtracks).

Adding media files

Media files show in your Media pane after capture, download or import (see

Adding media files to your project on p. 25). Once present, it's a great idea to

arrange the order of the files prior to adding them to the storyboard (see p. 47).

This avoids having to rearrange clips in bulk on your storyboard itself. Once

you're happy with the order you can add the media to the storyboard.

Editing in Storyboard mode 47

To add media to the storyboard:

1. From the Media pane, select your media, either:

• Click to select a single media file.

• For multiple media files:

Use marquee select (to lasso files under a selection region).

Use Shift key and click (to select a range of adjacent files).

Use Ctrl key and click (to select a range of non-adjacent files).

press Ctrl+A (to select all files).

2. Drag selected media onto your storyboard.

48 Editing in Storyboard mode

If the storyboard is empty, drag your clips directly into the empty workspace.

Video or image clips go to the "Drop clips here" target areas, while audio clips

snap onto horizontal narration or audio strips below the thumbnails.

If video clips are already present, insert your clip between existing clips. An

insertion point indicates where your clip is to be placed.

Multiple clips will be added one by one along your storyboard.

For most computers, MoviePlus will generate proxy files (p. 210)

from your HD media as it's added to your storyboard. You'll see a

progress bar appear on the bottom Status bar. This is expected

behaviour, and aids video playback on slower computers. Don't be

alarmed!

Selecting clips

When you are editing your movie and have already added a range of media clips

to your storyboard, all your editing operations (including moves, trims,

properties changes and other adjustments) are carried out on the selected clip.

Clip selection is straightforward but several options can be used for multiple

selection.

To select a single clip:

• Click on the clip. The clip's lower title bar turns orange.

To select multiple clips:

• Use Shift key and click (to select a range of adjacent clips).

• Use Ctrl key and click (to select a range of non-adjacent clips).

• Click Select all clips from the Edit menu (or press Ctrl+A).

Editing in Storyboard mode 49

When selected, the clip's thumbnail will

show an orange bar underneath it to show

that it is currently selected.

Arranging clips

The storyboard is a workspace that arranges clips automatically as they are

dragged to the storyboard. When you first add clips to the Storyboard from the

Media pane. the storyboard clip order is the same as the clip order in the Media

pane. It therefore makes sense to arrange your clips in the Media pane first. As

such there may not be a necessity to rearrange clips if the clip order is as

intended. Realistically, it's often the case that you may want to further modify

the clip order.

Once on the storyboard, an individual clip can be moved by drag and drop. The

vertical marker indicates the target location for the moved clip.

You can also copy and paste a clip by using options from the Edit menu. Both

methods can also be carried out on multiple clips simultaneously.

50 Editing in Storyboard mode

Deleting clips

• To remove a clip, select it and press the Delete key. By multiple

selection, you can remove more than one clip at the same time. Use

Ctrl-click to select non-adjacent clips, Shift-click for adjacent multiple

clips.

Resizing clips

If your added video or image clips are a different size and shape to your project

settings, MoviePlus will not resize your media to fit the project size, leaving

"black" bars (letterboxing) showing in the available space. Although you see

black, the letterboxing is actually transparent (you're really seeing the default

project background showing through).

The shape of the video in the Video Preview pane is determined by your project

settings; if your clip properties and your project settings are different, you can

decide what to do about the variance, i.e. you can leave the media with

letterboxing or correct it via cropping.

Cropping removes unwanted borders either automatically by fitting to the Video

Preview pane or by defining a crop area you draw yourself (anything outside the

area is discarded); the clip is resized to fit the project. While used frequently on

image clips (of unusual dimensions or if in Portrait orientation), you can also

apply cropping to video clips—although it's important to ensure items of interest

are not cropped out throughout the video clip's duration.

To resize a clip:

1. Select the clip.

2. Click

Fit from the Storyboard toolbar and pick a resizing

option from the drop-down list.

Editing in Storyboard mode 51

Letterbox - This is not

normally set manually but can

be used to override auto-

cropping if this is deemed too

excessive an action (if the clip's

edges need to be preserved

rather than removed by

cropping).

Crop - This crops the clip to

make it fit with the project size

thus removing any letterboxing.

The clip's aspect ratio is

maintained so that the taller (or

wider) areas are left outside the

visible part of the project. See

Cropping on p. 88 for more

information.

Stretch - Stretches your clip

horizontally or vertically to

match the project video size—

removing the letterboxing

effect, but changing the clip's

aspect ratio.

52 Editing in Storyboard mode

Custom - Launches the Crop

dialog that lets you remove

everything outside a defined

crop area. Size the crop area by

moving corner (maintaining

aspect ratio) or side handles

(alters aspect ratio) then

position the crop area again by

dragging; the clip will resize to

fit the crop area. Click Match

project aspect to set the crop

area to the project aspect ratio.

You can double-click on the crop area to reset its size back to the

project’s dimensions.

Applying transitions (storyboard)

MoviePlus supports many different transition types. For example, you can

dissolve (Cross-Fade) between one clip and the next, or apply a variety of

patterned wipes that use a moving edge or outline. Transitions such as Iris

Wipe, Cross-Blur and Zoom & Spin are very popular in movie editing and are,

of course, fully supported. MoviePlus can also produce some awe-inspiring 3D

transitions—choose from 3D blinds, 3D Swap, 3D Flip, 3D Tumble, 3D Page

Roll, to name but a few.

Transitions are displayed as inter-clip thumbnails in Storyboard mode, which

change according to transition applied (the thumbnail represents the transition's

function). The transition's duration is shown under its thumbnail. Some

examples include:

Cross-fade

(default)

Page Roll

Blinds

feathered

Editing in Storyboard mode 53

Each transition is applied to the start of a clip—this is called an In

transition.

You may notice a zero-length "transition" at the start and end of

your storyboard.

This is a straight cut, but you can create fade ins or fade outs

from/to black by changing the transition duration from 0.0s.

To change a transition's duration:

• Click the duration time under the transition thumbnail, enter a new

value, then press the Enter key.

Changing this value will automatically "ripple" all other subsequent clips along

the storyboard with respect to time.

To replace a transition:

1. Select one or more transitions on the storyboard. For multiple

transitions, Ctrl-click on each transition one-by-one; for all

transitions, right-click any transition, and select Select all transitions.

2. Click Transition Gallery on the context toolbar.

54 Editing in Storyboard mode

3. From the dialog, choose a category from the upper window. In the

lower window, review the presets available (their names indicate their

intended function). Select a preset, e.g. 3D Page Roll.

4. Click OK.

For a quick way to replace transitions, open the Galleries pane,

select the Transitions tab, then drag and drop a transition

thumbnail onto your transition.

Hover over any preset to see a preview of how your transition will

look!

To modify a transition:

1. Select the transition thumbnail.

2. From the transition's Properties pane, alter the transition's properties

at the bottom of the pane.

To delete a transition:

• Simply select a transition and press the Delete key.

The result is simply a cut: in less than the blink of an eye, the last frame of the

first clip is replaced by the first frame of a second clip. To reinstate the transition

at a later date, enter a transition value other than 0.0s.

Editing in Storyboard mode 55

To save a modified transition to a new name:

• Click Add to Gallery at the top of the Properties pane. Once

named, the transition appears as a new preset in the appropriate folder

in the Choose Transition dialog (or Transitions tab in the Galleries

pane).

Using pan and zoom

Pan and zoom "Ken Burns" effects can be used on any clip, but the effect really

comes into its own when used on image clips. Rather than displaying clips that

always display at the same size, you can easily apply panning and zooming

effects that create variety and interest in your project.

56 Editing in Storyboard mode

The effect is applied by using a dual-pane dialog, the left-hand Start pane

representing the start of the clip and the right-hand End pane, the end of the

clip. Simply adjusting the resizable selection area in each pane sets the zoom

level or pan position.

To pan and zoom your clip:

1. Click the clip on the storyboard (or timeline).

2. Select

Pan & Zoom on the context toolbar.

3. From the dialog's Start pane, drag a corner or edge control handle (for

maintaining aspect ratio or unconstrained sizing) on the selection

area. Use the Alt key to resize the area in relation to the centre of the

area (rather than the opposite corner or edge). Once sized, reposition

the area with the hand cursor. If needed, click the Reset button to reset

each selection area back to the default size.

4. Adjust the area on the End pane in a similar way.

5. (Optional) Click Match project aspect on either pane to make the

aspect ratio of that pane's selection area match that of your project.

Editing in Storyboard mode 57

6. (Optional) Check Ease In or Ease Out on respective panes to apply a

non-linear rate of change to your pan and zoom (Quadratic slow

interpolation).

7. Click Close to save your resized or repositioned areas.

The result is two sized areas which, on playback, MoviePlus will pan and zoom

between according to the position and size of each area, respectively.

Using CG clips

Several types of Computer Generated (CG) clips exist within MoviePlus. They

differ from video or audio clips in that they are not captured by camcorder, but

are created from within MoviePlus itself. The following types of CG clip are

available:

• Backgrounds

To apply simple solid or gradient colours as a clip. Use to introduce colour

either as part of a fade-in or fade-out or as a background to text. Other uses

include recolourizing semi-opaque video clips and masking shapes or text

over a background colour.

Solid Fill, Linear Gradient, Elliptical Fill, Conical Fill

• QuickShapes

To add modifiable ready-made drawn shapes such as stars, hearts, spirals

and many more. QuickShapes are great for techniques such as masking.

Star, Heart, Spiral

What CG clips all share is that they are managed in a very similar way within

MoviePlus, i.e. they can have colour, transparency and effects applied to them.

58 Editing in Storyboard mode

To apply a CG clip:

1. In Storyboard mode, select a clip (the clip before which the CG clip

will be added).

On the timeline, position your time indicator on the timeline.

2. Select your chosen CG clip type from the CG Clip> option on the

Insert menu. By default, a white background or a QuickShape Ellipse

is added.

It's very likely that your CG clip will need to be modified, either to change its

colour or transparency. For QuickShapes, you'll more than likely want to change

the QuickShape type (see p. 61).

You'll find some ready-to-go sample gradient backgrounds or

QuickShapes in the Media pane (Library tab), under Samples>Fills or

Samples>Quickshapes. Simply drag to your storyboard or timeline.

Adjusting a clip's colour

MoviePlus offers a number of ways to apply colour to CG clips in MoviePlus.

You can apply solid or gradient colours to any clip's fill.

A new colour is selected from a spectrum of preset colours

or from a Colour Picker (both accessible via the Fill button

on the clip's Properties pane).

For gradient fills you can adjust the gradient path of any

gradient fill and the colours used to make up the gradient

(by clicking a square node and changing the colour).

Editing in Storyboard mode 59

Adjusting a clip's transparency

Transparency is great for highlights, shading and shadows, and simulating

"rendered" realism. It can make a huge difference between your clips looking

"flat" and appearing with depth and snap. MoviePlus fully supports variable

transparency and lets you apply solid or gradient transparency to your CG clips.

Like fills, transparency can be applied from the

clip's Properties pane. Select the Transparency

button and choose a percentage solid

transparency (via slider) or pick from a

spectrum of preset gradient transparencies. If

necessary, you can edit the transparency path.

• Solid transparency distributes the

transparency evenly across the object.

• Gradient transparencies (Linear, Ellipse,

and Conical), provide a simple gradient

effect, with a range from clear to opaque.

Varying the transparency of a CG clip gives the effect of variable erasure, but it

leaves the original object intact—you can always remove or alter the

transparency later. Transparencies work rather like fills that use "disappearing

ink" instead of colour. A gradient transparency varies from more "disappearing"

to less, as in the hexagon above.

To save your CG clip:

• Change the clip's name, then click the Add to Media pane at the

top of the clip's Properties pane. The clip will appear in the Media

pane's Project tab.

60 Editing in Storyboard mode

Fading with backgrounds

At the beginning or end of your project you can introduce a fade in or fade out

by using a background clip. Such clips can be editable gradient fills (linear,

ellipse and conical) as well as solid colours. They can equally be applied between

clips to act as a coloured interlude (possibly with added captions).

• On the storyboard, using a fade in as an example, you can introduce a

background clip before the initial clip (Insert>CG Clip>Background).

• On the timeline, you can do the same but ensure the time indicator is

set to the start of your project. If the clip you want to fade in to is

already at the left edge of your timeline, leaving no room for the

background clip at the beginning of the timeline, you should move

your video/image clip(s) further down the timeline, creating some

room at the start of your project. If you've already created a complex

composition with multiple clips and tracks—so moving the first clip

would disrupt the rest of your project—MoviePlus can move all of

your later clips at the same time when a clip is dragged. This automatic

moving of clips is called Rippling (see MoviePlus Help).

Editing in Storyboard mode 61

Other timeline fading methods can be carried out using Colour-

Fade or Cross-Fade transitions.

More about QuickShapes

You're more than likely to swap the default Ellipse for a different shape. An

impressive selection of QuickShape types can be chosen from, and once you've

picked a type, you can further morph its shape—all from within the

QuickShape's Properties pane. The ability to further alter the appearance of any

QuickShape type makes them more flexible and convenient than clipart pictures

with similar designs.

To change your QuickShape type:

Once added to your timeline, the QuickShape type can be edited in its Properties

pane (or by pressing F4). The lower portion of this pane hosts several options

which will affect your QuickShape's appearance, i.e.

• Click the QuickShape type drop-down list to swap the default

QuickShape Ellipse for your preferred shape.

• The QuickShape preview window updates to show the current

QuickShape, without colour fills or effect applied. This lets you focus

on the main purpose of the window—to morph your QuickShape with

ease.

The Stretch to project size checkbox, if checked, will ensure that

the QuickShape will fully occupy the frame size.

To morph your QuickShape design:

• In the preview window, select a square control handle appearing next

to the shape. Different QuickShapes have different handles. To find

out what each handle does for a particular shape, move the control

handles while reading the Status Bar. You can alter shapes

dramatically with combinations of control handle adjustments. It's

best to experiment!

62 Editing in Storyboard mode

Editing in

Timeline mode

64 Editing in Timeline mode

Editing in Timeline mode 65

Timeline basics

Introduction

Click Timeline to switch from Storyboard to Timeline mode.

For more advanced projects (compared to simpler storyboard-driven projects),

the timeline lets you organize all your video and audio footage on multiple

tracks, sequence clips one after the other, add and edit envelopes, effects, and so

much more. The timeline offers the equivalent of all the manual editing

operations that traditional film editors need and it allows for post-production

alterations.

The timeline has two basic dimensions, height and length. Horizontal length

relates to the duration of your project: your timeline has markings along a ruler

to indicate the passing of time, starting with zero at the left of the timeline. Any

clips added to your timeline will follow a playback sequence from left to right.

You can position the start point for previews (or the point at which you'd like to

perform an edit) using a vertical marker called the Time indicator—this shows

on both the timeline and as a preview marker in the Video Preview pane. The

height of the timeline is related to the number of video or audio tracks used—

you'll need to introduce more tracks if tackling advanced editing techniques

including overlays, masking, blue/green-screening etc.

We'll describe some terminology used for various parts of the timeline and your

project so that understanding timeline operations becomes clearer.

(A) Counter, (B) Chapter Point, (C) Marker, (D) Time Indicator, (E) Timeline ruler,

(F) Strips, (G) Video Clip, (H) Audio Clip, (I) Transition, (J) Selected Keyframe,

(K) Unselected keyframe, (L) Image Clip, (M) Effect, (N) Audio Track,

(O) Keyframe View, (P) Envelopes, (Q) Video Track, (R) Attributes menu button,

(S) Video Group, (T) Overlay Track.

Editing in Timeline mode 67

Timeline elements

Headers

Headers control the strip they are attached to. In the case of tracks and groups,

adjustments to the header can affect all the clips on a track or all the tracks in a

group (or both), respectively. You can select the track/group by clicking its

name, mute (and unmute) to disable or enable its contents in the project

composition, and display envelopes for opacity and transform (for video

tracks/groups) or volume and pan (for audio tracks or audio buses); a clip's crop

envelope may also be shown along with its opacity and transform envelope.

Track-wide effects may also be displayed.

The header may also show a clip's envelope or applied effects—these attributes

are revealed by clicking its

Attributes button, and selecting an attribute.

Strips

Strips are the horizontal "stripes" running the length of the timeline (to the right

of the headers section) that can store your clips. Each strip allows you to edit and

arrange clips, as well as edit their effects, transitions, and envelopes. Each strip is

accompanied by a header to its left.

Video/Image/Audio Clip

A clip is a media element; an "object" you can place on a timeline track. Clips can

also include Computer-Generated (CG) clips (backgrounds, text, and

QuickShapes). It's important to appreciate the difference between clips, tracks

and groups because MoviePlus will allow you to add effects, for instance, to each

or all of them with differing results.

Video/Audio Track

A track is just a straightforward combination of a single strip and its header. You

can add multiple clips to a track by dropping a multiple selection from the

Media pane onto your track's strip. The clips will be added to the timeline in

succession with a default overlap. You can apply effects and envelopes (like

opacity or a transform) to tracks, which will have a resulting effect on all the

clips on that track. MoviePlus supports multiple audio and video tracks so that it

is possible to compose more complicated projects with "layers" of video using

fades to reveal underlying layers.

A Music Track is also provided for optional soundtracks.

68 Editing in Timeline mode

The Overlay Track, shown on a new project's timeline, is used to host text

captions such as movie titles as well as video overlays. Titles will be

superimposed over underlying movie content. These are dragged from the

Galleries pane (Titles tab).

Video Groups

Groups are not only a way of keeping complex compositions tidy—you can also

restrict editing to selected tracks by placing them inside a Video Group. Effect

Groups, for both Video and Audio, work in an identical way for global effect

control. The View menu also has an option to Show Master Groups, a top-level

group to allow you to mute, apply effects to, or adjust envelopes for all video or

all audio at once.

Keyframe View

When you add an envelope or effect to a clip, track, or group, or when you want

to edit an existing envelope, effect or transition, the Keyframe View is displayed

directly underneath the clip, track, or group.

Keyframes

Keyframes are points along a strip associated with a clip, track, or group's

attributes (envelope, effect, or transition). The keyframe stores your chosen

settings for use at a specific point of time along your timeline. Using more than

one keyframe along a strip, MoviePlus automatically (and gradually) changes

from one keyframe's settings to the next keyframe's settings as time passes

between them. For example, on an opacity envelope, a keyframe at time zero

with a setting of 0% opacity followed by another keyframe two seconds later with

a setting of 100% would cause a gradual "fade in" effect over a period of two

seconds. The keyframes can have their properties modified in the Properties

pane when selected, and can be moved along the timeline to different points.

Envelopes, Effects and Transitions

Any time a clip, track, or group's keyframe View is displayed via a common

Attributes menu, the strips that show belong to one or more attributes of that

object. Each attribute can be of type envelope, effect, or transition, and are

grouped together for easy management. Normally you'll see envelopes, effects or

transitions, but not all three attribute types all at once (this saves valuable

timeline space). Each clip, track, or group cannot possess more than one

envelope of the same type; only two transitions can be set on any single clip (you

can't set a transition on a track). There is no restriction on the number of effects

a clip, track, or group can have.

Editing in Timeline mode 69

Marker

Markers act as guides on your timeline to indicate key time location or events

that occur within your project. They can be labelled, positioned and navigated

equally.

Chapter point

A chapter point is a type of marker that is used exclusively for disc creation.

Each chapter point placed on your timeline defines the start of your chapters

shown in your disc menu.

Set Selection Start/End

Selection markers set a start and end range on your timeline within which any

encompassed clips will be either pre-rendered (for optimized preview

performance) and/or exported to file, PSP, or iTunes (Apple devices). The

markers apply to all clips, tracks and groups down the entire height of the

timeline. Limiting your export range is ideal for sharing only a chosen section of

the movie, rather than the whole movie.

Time indicator

The time indicator, the blue vertical line you can see spanning the height of the

timeline and its ruler, is most easily thought of as your editing marker. It allows

you to set a precise position for splits and trims, allows clips and keyframes to be

accurately positioned on your project timeline, and can be used along the

timeline ruler to play back a preview of your project from that point. You can

also position your time indicator over the start/end of a clip then single-click to

set a precise time indicator position. The time indicator is also shown in the

Video Preview pane to indicate your playback position during playback.

Timeline ruler

The ruler runs along the top of the timeline and shows you the current time

range for the visible part of your project. You can zoom in or out of the timeline

using a mouse wheel to display more or less of your project timeline on screen.

A single-click on the ruler will position the time indicator marker for editing or

video preview. You can alter your ruler units using the View menu's Ruler Units

flyout. The default setting of "Time and Frames" is in the format hh:mm:ss/ff,

representing hours, minutes, seconds and frames (of video), respectively.

Counter

The counter sits at the top-left of your timeline and shows you time at the time

indicator. It uses the format set in the View menu's Ruler Units flyout.

70 Editing in Timeline mode

Clip/track indicators and buttons

An LED in the top-left corner indicates if the clip (or track) is included in the

composition (green) or if it is temporarily disabled (red). If you mute a

track/group, the track/group header and each clip on that track/group would

show a red LED to indicate that they are disabled. Clips also have blue triangular

handles at each end that can be dragged to introduce an automatic cross fade

(the fade can be replaced with a different transition by dragging and dropping a

transition preset onto the clip's blue transition bar).

Attributes menu

On clips and track/group headers—clicking the

Attributes button displays

an Attributes menu, which is used to show envelopes, effects or transitions

applied (along with their keyframes). The button will display in different colours

according to selection and if the object's attributes have been modified, i.e.

Grey/White. Attributes unselected and unmodified.

Red/White. Attributes selected and unmodified.

Grey/Yellow. Attributes unselected and modified.

Red/Yellow. Attributes selected and modified.

Mute

Any clip, track or group can be muted at any time during video preview. You

may want to temporarily switch off an audio track while you are editing and

previewing the same track again and again. Equally, you may want to mute or

“black out” a particular clip while testing your project.

Muting is possible by clicking the respective Mute buttons on a video

or audio track's header. For a video or audio clip, you can right-click and select

the Mute option.

To keep the attribute(s) on permanent display, click the drawing pin in the

header of your clip, track or group's attributes strip. Click again to hide.

Editing in Timeline mode 71

Adding and arranging tracks

In Timeline mode, three tracks are displayed on the timeline by default, i.e. the

Overlay Track, Video Track, and Audio Track. The empty video and audio

tracks will allow a video and its linked audio clip (if present) to be dragged onto

each track from the Media pane.

The empty Overlay track can take text (as captions) or video (for

blended video overlays).

To add extra tracks:

• Choose Video Track or Audio Track from the Insert menu. The track

is inserted directly above any selected track of the same type.

Use the Shift key as you insert to add a new track below any

selected track rather than above it.

To change the track order:

• Drag the appropriate track header further up or down the stack of

headers at the left of the timeline. You'll see a grey line between tracks

and a place cursor where your track can be inserted. Release the mouse

button to place.

The above example reorders two simple video tracks (selected Video Track 3 is

dragged to be placed above Video Track 2).

72 Editing in Timeline mode

Adding media files

Media files show in your Media pane after download, import, or capture (see

Adding media files to your project on p. 25). Once present, it's a great idea to

arrange the order of the files prior to adding them to the timeline (see below).

This avoids having to rearrange clips in bulk on your timeline itself. Once you're

happy with the order you can add the media to the timeline.

To add media to the timeline:

1. From the Media pane, select your media, either:

• Click to select a single media file.

• For multiple media files:

Use marquee select (to lasso files under a selection region).

Use Shift key and click (to select a range of adjacent files).

Use Ctrl key and click (to select a range of non-adjacent files).

press Ctrl+A (to select all files).

Editing in Timeline mode 73

2. Drag selected media onto your timeline. Multiple clips will be added

one by one along your timeline. Tracks suitable to specific clip types

will be offered.

Video and image clips must be located on video tracks, and of

course audio on audio tracks.

For most computers, MoviePlus will generate proxy files (p. 210)

from your HD media as it's added to your timeline. You'll see a

progress bar appear on the bottom Status bar. This is expected

behaviour, and aids video playback on slower computers. Don't be

alarmed!

Selecting clips (timeline only)

When you are editing your movie and have already added a range of media clips

to your timeline, all your editing operations (including moves, trims, properties

changes and other adjustments) are carried out on the selected object(s). So, let's

cover how you go about selecting clips!

The good news is that you can simply click on clips to select them. Whether it's a

video, image, audio, or text clip, a click will outline it in orange to show you that

it is selected. Track or group names (in the header) also show in orange.

Clips obtained for your camcorder will have both a video and audio clip—you'll

see each displayed next to each other on the timeline. Selection of the video clip,

will always select the audio clip, and vice versa.

Selecting multiple clips

You can select multiple clips (including clips that are linked) as follows:

• To select non-adjacent clips, hold the Ctrl key down on your

keyboard and click each clip you would like to include in the selection.

Ctrl+click again to remove a clip from the current selection.

• To select adjacent clips on a single track, click a clip at one end of your

proposed selection range, hold the Shift key down and click on the

clip at the other end. All clips in between, plus the selected clips, are

selected.

74 Editing in Timeline mode

• For marquee selection, hold your primary mouse button down and

drag a rectangle on your timeline—anything touching (and also

anything inside) the rectangle will become selected.

When multiple clips are selected, you can perform stretching on all clips

simultaneously.

To make your multiple selection a permanent feature of your timeline for

continuous easy editing, you can create a Link as described in Arranging clips

(see p. 79).

How selected objects are displayed

Object Selection status

Clip has been clicked and is

selected (an orange border appears

around the object). You can now

modify its properties in the

Properties pane, and perform

other operations (trim, fit, etc).

The linked audio clip below the

video clip shows a blue border

when the video clip is selected.

When any object in a link is

selected, all other items in the link

take on this "blue" selection

highlight. Although not actually

selected, edits will affect it.

Link overlays show in light blue.

Editing in Timeline mode 75

This clip has had one of its

envelopes, effects, or transitions

modified (e.g., a keyframe below

the tracks in the Keyframe View

area) as the Attributes button has

changed from grey/white to

red/yellow.

(Grey) A keyframe on an envelope,

effect, transition, background,

QuickShape or text strip. This

keyframe is not selected.

(Red) A keyframe selected by

single-click. You can now modify

this keyframe's properties via the

attributes Properties pane.

A track is selected when its name is

highlighted. Other strip headers

(clip strip headers,

effects/envelope/transition strip

headers) have a similar

appearance.

This track has had one of its

envelopes, effects or transitions

modified.

76 Editing in Timeline mode

Zooming, scrolling, seeking, and scrubbing

(timeline only)

To see more or less of your project at one time or to navigate your project, you

can perform various operations along your timeline.

Zooming

The Timeline toolbar hosts a series of very useful tools for zooming your

timeline.

To see more of your project in the timeline area, click the Zoom

Out button or scroll your mouse wheel downwards. To see more detail on

your timeline to make it easier to perform fine edits, click the Zoom In

button or scroll your mouse wheel upwards.

You can use the zoom slider on your timeline as an

alternative to using the Zoom buttons.

To see your entire project within the available timeline area—simply

click the Zoom to All button.

If your time indicator is out of view due to a zoom operation or

playback of your project preview, select Scroll to Time Indicator from the

View menu to jump to the time indicator's current position.

Scrolling

To scroll the timeline horizontally, hold down the Shift key while using your

mouse wheel, or to scroll vertically, hold down the Ctrl key.

It's also possible to drag your time indicator to the left or right edge

of your window to scroll previously hidden parts of your timeline

into view.

Editing in Timeline mode 77

Seeking

The Video Preview pane also helps with some seek operations.

• The Go to Start and Go to End buttons let you jump to the

beginning or end of your project, respectively.

• For fine tuning the position of the time indicator (i.e.,

frame stepping or frame advance), for instance to perform a trim

operation at a specific frame of video, you can use the Previous Frame

and Next Frame buttons.

•

The Shuttle control allows you to vary the preview playback speed and

direction by dragging from the centre point to the left (to reverse) or

to the right (to fast forward).

Your preview will update any time the time indicator is moved, so you should

always use the preview in conjunction with your editing operations.

Scrubbing

Scrubbing might seem an unusual term but it is an extremely useful feature! You

may already know that clicking along the ruler above the timeline sets your time

indicator's position. However, if you click and drag along the ruler, MoviePlus

will preview your project at the speed of the drag—as your mouse passes along

the timeline in either direction, the preview will show you the current frame.

This allows you to pass your mouse over an area of the timeline to preview a

specific section without starting and stopping preview playback.

78 Editing in Timeline mode

Arranging clips (timeline only)

Arranging clips on your timeline is crucial to building interesting, more complex

projects—typically to create a rich multi-track multimedia project with the most

other video clips.

• a whole video track, to make a collection of clips more or less visible.

• a video group, so that the composite result of a collection of grouped

tracks can be made less or more visible as part of the overall

composition.

• a video effect group (i.e., allowing mix back to blend original with

affected video).

For all of the above, an opacity envelope is used to set a constant level of opacity

or to alter opacity over time for that object. See Using envelopes and Adjusting

keyframes on p. 90 and 95 for more information.

A specific region of transparency or opacity can be created for:

• Removing a solid-coloured background (also called blue- or green-

screening). This is achieved using a video effect called Chroma Key.

• Creating a cut-out region, using a mask.

• Creating a limited region for an effect to be applied over, e.g. only

applying a mosaic effect to a subject's face rather than the whole video,

also using a mask.

• Cropping using a mask.

For a preface to the concepts involved in removing a specific region of video, see

Removing backgrounds on p. 114.

114 Editing in Timeline mode

Removing Backgrounds

There are a number of reasons you might want to "remove" a region of your

video:

• To isolate a foreground subject in order to place them against a

different background, e.g. blue-screening such as used for movie

special effects and daily favourites like weather presenting.

• To cut out a hole in a video, e.g. a billboard advertising area or sports

stadium big screen, in order to place a video of your own in the cut out

region.

• To limit the extent of an effect e.g. to just mosaic someone's face to

respect their privacy but leave the remainder of the video unaffected.

• To crop your movie, e.g. leave just a rectangular or other-shaped

portion of your video and discard the remainder, perhaps leaving

room for other cropped videos on screen to sit alongside to form a

montage, popularized by comic book hero movies.

The cutting out of regular shapes and cropping of video is something you can

achieve using masks. The removal of a solid-coloured background can be

achieved using a Chroma Key effect, also called blue-screening/green-screening,

matting, colour keying and colour separation overlays.

Masking

Masks are a way of using an image to "cut out" a rectangular or other-shaped

portion from a video, leaving transparency around the subject, effectively

removing a background to give focus to a foreground element. You can also use

masks to crop video for multiple picture-in-picture effects. Masks can also

remove a foreground element to reveal another video or image clip through the

cut-out region.

Editing in Timeline mode 115

Masks as used in MoviePlus are best created as transparent images with a white

region to indicate the shape of underlying video to keep; the white region is like

the inside shape of a cookie cutter, the transparent region is discarded like the

outlying pastry around your cutter. You can also use images that contain a

mixture of different colours and transparent regions for advanced masking.

In addition, QuickShapes let you apply shaped masks directly onto the timeline

with no fuss. See Using CG clips on p. 57.

You can create your own masks with Serif PhotoPlus.

You can see the result of combining a "heart" mask with a video clip, each stored

on separate video tracks.

Original video.

QuickShape "heart"

applied

over video on an

added Video Track

renamed Mask

Track.

Resulting

composition only

has the mask-

shaped region

showing video

content.

116 Editing in Timeline mode

Try out some different QuickShapes by dragging them from the

Media pane's Library tab (Samples folder).

Masks should be added to separately created tracks.

Video tracks

Before you go ahead and add a mask to your timeline, it's useful to know in

advance how masks and the organization of your video tracks work together.

Masks need to occupy a track of their own to have an effect on underlying video

compositions... the mask's white regions determine which regions of underlying

video clips you see—the mask sits on top of other video clips to act as a virtual

cookie cutter.

Using the Mask blend mode

Masking is made possible by the correct arrangement of tracks (as described

above), but also by the setting of the Mask track's Blend Mode in its Properties

pane. When set to "Mask", the Blend Mode on the top-most track in your project

will affect transparency on tracks below it.

Restricting mask effects with video groups

To limit which tracks are affected (the depth to which the cookie cutter actually

cuts), you can store the mask track with blend mode applied (and other video

tracks you want affected) within a Video Group, leaving other video tracks you

do not want affected outside the group.

Editing in Timeline mode 117

Looking at the track names in the example below, "Holiday Track 2" is not

subject to the heart-shaped clipping that the Mask Track is performing because

it is outside the video group—the mask's effect is limited to tracks within its

video group, i.e. the Main Holiday Track only.

The Main Holiday

Track footage is

masked as it is in the

same group as Mask

Track; Holiday Track

2 is kept outside

Video Group 1.

The mask only cuts

out content from the

image of the dolphin.

The underlying video,

outside of the video

group, is unaffected

by the masking

operation!

Creating your own masks

To create a mask it is recommended you use a bitmap (photo) editing program

that fully supports transparency, such as Serif PhotoPlus. Some other programs

that can easily create shapes with or without soft edges (and can export images

with transparency, such as 32-bit PNG) are also useful for creating masks—Serif

DrawPlus is an example.

118 Editing in Timeline mode

You should aim to use white to create the region you wish to maintain in your

video, and transparency for the areas you wish to cut away. Partial transparency

is supported, so you can create regions of translucency as well as using a mask to

create solid regions of opacity and transparency in your video.

Remember to create your masks at a suitable size for your project,

taking pixel aspect ratio into account if your project's pixel aspect

ratio is not set to 1. As a quick guide, you should multiply the

project's pixel aspect ratio x frame width = width you need to create

your mask.

To add your own masks to your project, browse to their saved location using the

Media pane, and drag your mask image onto a track of its own, positioned above

the video you would like to mask.

Once in your project, you can also stretch your mask to fit using Stretch from

the Fit drop-down menu on the Timeline context toolbar. Alternatively, you can

always adjust size and position using a transform envelope (see p. 90).

Blue/green screening (Chroma Key)

This process, referred to as Chroma Key in MoviePlus, enjoys a few other names

including colour keying, matting, and colour separation overlay. It is a method

of removing a colour (or a colour range) from one video or image to reveal

another video or image behind it. The "removed" colour becomes transparent.

This process is commonly used for weather broadcasts and of course in many

movie blockbusters. To start with, the foreground subject—a weather presenter

for instance—is filmed against a solid-coloured and evenly-illuminated

backdrop. Using MoviePlus (or expensive studio wizardry in the case of live TV

weather slots), the solid coloured region of this video can be made transparent

using a Chroma Key effect, revealing an underlying video. In the case of some

weather presenting, the video "behind" the presenter can show a weather map

with animated symbols or weather systems. In movies, the process saves actors

being put in dangerous positions, such as visually-stunning explosions, or in

places that cannot be reached for practical or budgetary reasons, such as across

the other side of the globe or in space.

Editing in Timeline mode 119

It's not only a background that can be removed; you can, for instance, hold up a

solid-coloured card while being filmed and later remove that solid colour from

the video to create a card-shaped cut-out. The alternate "background" video

would then display through this "hole".

Blue screening in action

Simple blue-screen filming

of a "skiing" family against

a solid-coloured

background (e.g., a blue

studio backdrop).

Background video, placed

on the track below the

blue-screen footage on the

timeline.

The upper video clip on the

timeline, the blue-screen

footage, has had a Chroma

Key effect applied to it.

Properties sliders were

adjusted to remove all the

blue.

120 Editing in Timeline mode

Applying the Chroma Key effect

Effects in MoviePlus can be applied to individual video clips, whole tracks, or

video groups. While Chroma Key can also be applied to all three hierarchies, it is

most commonly used with individual video clips, as it is not usual for there to be

multiple clips with the same background colour to be made transparent.

The effect is applied like any other video effect, from the

Effects button on

the Timeline context toolbar (see Applying video effects on p. 133).

The Chroma Key effect will automatically remove whichever colour is associated

with the Chroma Key effect applied to your video. For example, if you use the

"Blue screen" preset then the preset's colour (RGB 0,0,255) is removed if present

in your video clip. You'll more than likely need to accurately make your effect

colour to be the same as your blue screening backdrop colour:

To change the Chroma Key colour:

1. Display the effect's Properties pane.

2. Either:

• Use the colour picker to select a new colour value from the upper

clip that you want to remove (hold down the mouse button, and

drag the picker over the colour you require, and release). This

would normally be the backdrop colour.

• Define a new colour by clicking the Colour spectrum and, from

the Adjust Colour dialog, select an RGB, HSL or HTML code.

Changing thresholds and blurring

MoviePlus lets you fine-tune the Chroma Key effect to help the colour-detection

processes determine which bits of your video to make transparent. It is very

useful to be able to set a Low and High threshold for colour detection—this

transparency is set according to brightness levels. Blur lets you blur the shape of

the transparent region generated by the Chroma Key effect.

Editing in Timeline mode 121

Changing the Chroma Key effect over time

You can adjust the Chroma Key settings so that they change over time, perhaps

to account for a change in lighting conditions that affects the colour you're

trying to remove. Your Chroma Key effect can start by removing pale blue and

slowly change to removing a stronger blue, for instance.

For more information, see Adjusting keyframes on p. 95.

Video overlays (timeline only)

You can "layer" all sorts of different kinds of clips on top of existing video or

image clips—this flexibility opens up a world of possibilities in your video

production.

Overlays, in basic terms, are two or more clips being displayed at once, one on

top of the other—these clips are layered on multiple video tracks. For the bottom

clip to still be visible despite having another clip on top of it, the top clips need

to:

• be smaller than the bottom clip.

• have transparent regions.

• have reduced opacity.

Top clip made smaller

When you add an opaque clip to the upper track, it is likely to occlude clips on

lower tracks completely, so all you can see is the content of the top-most track.

To see "around it" to underlying clips you can resize your top clip by using a

Transform envelope on the upper clip or track. You can also reshape your clip,

deform with perspective and even animate the resizing or reshaping process. See

Introducing Transforms on p. 128 to learn more.

122 Editing in Timeline mode

Timeline

Video preview—before transform Video preview—after transform

Editing in Timeline mode 123

Top clip has transparent regions

Overlaid video

In the example above, the top clip was completely opaque and therefore

obscured all video underneath it. However, when you add a video with

transparent regions to the upper track, the content of underlying tracks will be

seen through the upper clip's transparent regions. We've added a sample from

the Library tab on the Media pane to make the above example more compelling.

Timeline

Video preview

Overlaid STV video

You can make your own overlay animations and effects using Serif DrawPlus, if

you export your keyframe animations as Serif Transparent Video (STV).

Remember to choose the STV format to export with a transparent background!

When you add an STV video file to a track above existing video or images,

MoviePlus will smoothly overlay the STV on top, revealing underlying clips

through the video's transparent region(s).

124 Editing in Timeline mode

Overlaid images

If the image on the top track has built-in transparency you will automatically be

able to see through the transparent region to any underlying clips. This principle

is frequently seen when television broadcasters display a static logo watermark in

the corner of the screen. We can do the same with our example, adding an image

with areas of transparency created in Serif DrawPlus and exported as a 32-bit

PNG file.

Timeline

Video preview

If you're looking to create an effect where your video is playing inside a

picture—e.g., a billboard displaying your video—this can be achieved in two

ways by:

• placing your video above a billboard image and shaping the video to

match the billboard area using a transform envelope.

• cutting out the billboard region of the image using a photo-editing

program such as Serif PhotoPlus (exported as a 32-bit PNG to

maintain transparency) and placing it on top of your video, perhaps

shaping your underlying video to match the billboard region using a

transform envelope.

Editing in Timeline mode 125

Both methods have similar results, but the second would allow some foreground

objects in the image, such as a street sign, to sit in front of the billboard (see

below).

Image in Serif PhotoPlus Video preview

126 Editing in Timeline mode

Overlaid text

Text overlays are generally used for captions but can also include overlaid titles

and credits. By adding a text clip to the upper video track, the text will be

displayed in front of any underlying video. See Adding Text (p. 169).

Returning to our previous example, a caption could be added to describe the

footage which is playing.

Timeline

Video preview

Editing in Timeline mode 127

Top clip with reduced opacity

There are a number of ways to reduce the opacity of upper clips to partially

reveal underlying clips—the quickest is to adjust opacity using the Opacity slider

in the upper clip's Video track's Properties pane.

Timeline

Video preview—

opacity set to 50%

You can also adjust the opacity of a track (or even the clip itself) over time by

manipulating its opacity envelope and associated keyframes. See Using

envelopes and Adjusting keyframes (p. 90 and p. 95) to learn how to modify

envelopes by making keyframe adjustments.

128 Editing in Timeline mode

Introducing transforms (timeline only)

Transforms allow you to resize your clips within the overall project size (which

helps achieve picture-in-picture effects), to add perspective, and to scroll video,

image, and CG clips (Backgrounds and QuickShapes) in any direction.

The possibilities are almost endless, because not only can you transform

individual clips, you can also transform entire video tracks and even collections

of video tracks in video groups.

Several key techniques use transforms—here's a quick summary, using the above

examples for reference:

Scaling and

picture-in-

picture

Scaling has been used in the second and third examples

above; each video clip started at full screen size.

In the third example above, a picture-in-picture effect is

created where a group of four videos is made smaller than

the background video. It combines scaling and a new

position, either static or animated.

Editing in Timeline mode 129

Motion

Motion can be used, e.g. to position the text to the left in

the first sample, and is illustrated by combining rotation

and scaling in the third sample. Transform settings can

collude to create video animation.

Perspective

Perspective has been applied to the "Florida" video in the

first sample above.

Transforms all involve manipulation of the transform envelope, which you'll

find discussed in Using envelopes (see p. 90).

130 Editing in Timeline mode

Effects

132 Effects

Effects 133

Applying video effects

Effects can add variety and visual excitement to a video. Some effects, like

Brightness/Contrast or Gamma, are designed to correct the original video;

others, like Filter Effects, Mosaic or Diffuse Glow, are simply special effects.

The supported special effects are described as follows (see also effects for colour

correction on p. 144):

• Chroma Key - A method of removing a colour (or a colour range)

from one video to reveal another video or image behind it. The

"removed" colour becomes transparent.

• Colourize - Offers an easy way to apply a colour tint/wash.

• Diffuse Glow - This broadens highlights in the video by brightening

gradually outward from existing highlights.

• Emboss - The Emboss effect remaps contours to simulate a bas-relief

effect. This creates a convex rounded edge and shadow effect.

• Filter Effects - Filter Effects encompass Shadows, Glows, Bevels,

Emboss, Colour fills and 3D special effects. Apply individually or in

combination.

• Gaussian Blur - The Gaussian Blur effect smoothes the image or video

by averaging pixels. It's especially useful for removing a moiré

(interference) pattern from scanned images and can help clean up

regions of visual interference from fine patterns.

• Gradient Map - The Gradient Map adjustment is for remapping

lightness information in the video to a new colour range. It makes for

great "posterized" effects and is a quick substitute where a pop-art feel

is being sought.

• Greyscale - This effect creates shades of grey; monotones ranging

from black through to white.

134 Effects

• Invert - This effect inverts the colours, in the same way that a photo

and its negative are opposites of each other.

• Mask - The Mask effect is a useful way to convert a clip into a more

suitable mask by adjusting its lightness or other tonal values.

• Mosaic - The Mosaic effect creates blocks of uniform colour for a tiled

appearance.

• Motion Blur - Exaggerate motion in your video, by blurring object

movement.

• Noise - The Noise effect adds graininess.

• Noise Reduction - This removes unwanted graininess in your video,

caused by poor environmental conditions, age of media, or poorly

captured media.

• Old Film - Use the effect to simulate vintage film; control ageing and

film quality.

• Solarize - The solarize effect is similar to a Negative Image function,

but lets you set the threshold value above which colours can be

inverted. (Solarization is a darkroom technique in which a partially

developed image is re-exposed to light, producing dramatic changes in

mid-tone regions).

• Stabilize - Use this effect to minimize camera shake present in your

video footage.

• Threshold - The Threshold effect creates a harsh duo-tone black and

white image, with no blend through shades of grey.

• Unsharp Mask - Unlike many sharpening tools that affect the entire

video, the Unsharp Mask effect works mainly at edges. It's excellent for

improving clip quality.

Audio special effects (see p. 147) can also be applied to audio clips.

Effects 135

Individual or

cumulative effects

can be managed

from the Effects

tab on the

Properties pane.

They can be added,

replaced, deleted,

edited, and

rearranged all

from this tab.

• Applied effects are shown in an effect list; effects at the top of the list

are applied to the clip, track, or group first.

• When selected, an effects' properties can be adjusted directly in the

pane.

• Any modified effect can be saved for future use.

136 Effects

Applying effects

To apply an effect:

1. Select the clip on the storyboard (or clip, track, or group on the

timeline).

2. Click

Effects on the context toolbar.

3. From the Properties pane (Effects tab), click

Add Effect....

4. From the dialog, choose a category (see explanations above) from the

upper window. In the lower window, review the presets available

(especially their names, which indicate their intended function). Select

a preset.

5. Click OK. The effect is added to the Effects tab's effects list.

In Storyboard mode, a clip with an effect shows the symbol

under its thumbnail. Click the symbol to view applied effects.

Any effect added to your project will have its own set of properties associated

with it. The effect's properties can be altered in the Properties pane (Effects tab).

Effects 137

To modify an effect:

1. Select the clip.

2. From the Properties pane (Effects tab), choose the effect to be edited

from the effects list.

3. Alter the effect's properties (located at the bottom of the tab).

To save a modified effect to a new name:

• Click Save. Once named, the effect appears as a new preset in the

appropriate folder in the Choose Effect dialog (or Video Effects tab in

the Galleries pane).

Video effects on the timeline

The same principles as those described in Arranging tracks can be used when

adding and combining video effects on the timeline, i.e. effects can be organized

in the timeline's header region in a vertical sequence, composed from the top

downwards just like video and audio tracks.

The timeline gives more powerful control of the effect over the duration of the

clip or track, especially allowing for changes to the effect over time.

Applying effects over time

In Timeline mode, when an effect is applied to a clip, track or group, the object's

Attributes button changes to grey /yellow (

). The button, when clicked, lets

you select the effect to reveal an Effects strip (you may need to scroll the timeline

vertically) displayed directly under the object in the Keyframe View.

By clicking on a specific effect's keyframe (the

button) at the start of the

Effects strip, the keyframe properties for that effect can be adjusted so that the

138 Effects

effect is modified for the duration of the clip, track or group (you can alter each

keyframe's properties in the Properties pane under the More section).

While it's possible to apply an effect for the entire duration of a clip, track or

group as discussed previously, it may be more effective for effects to be applied

more sparingly over a specific, perhaps shorter, time duration. To do this you

can use keyframes at different points. These keyframes are added along the clip's,

track's or group's effect strip, and can each be modified in turn, to define how an

effect's properties are to be applied at that point on the timeline. During

playback, as the time indicator passes over each keyframe the clip will use the

effect properties of the last visited effect keyframe. The effect can therefore be

faded-in, faded-out, toggled on or toggled off.

Keyframe control is described in detail in Adjusting keyframes on p. 95.

While it is not necessary to use effects groups in many cases, they are necessary if

you wish to blend affected and unaffected video. This is extremely useful, as

most effects do not offer "opacity" (strength of visibility) of their own. Mix back

can be achieved by manipulation of the Video Effect Group envelope (see Using

envelopes on p. 90).

See MoviePlus Help for more information.

Effects 139

2D filter effects

MoviePlus provides a variety of filter effects that you can apply to any clip with

transparent regions (e.g., an overlay or CG QuickShape clips). The effect works

on the edges of the visible portion of your image to offer shadows (below),

glows, bevels, and emboss effects.

"3D" filter effects (see p. 141) let you create the impression of a textured surface

and are covered elsewhere.

To apply 2D filter effects:

1. Select your clip and click

Effects on the context toolbar, then

from the Properties pane (Effects tab), click the Add Effect... button.

2. From the Choose Effect dialog, select the Filter Effects category and

choose a preset from the lower window.

3. Click OK.

For a quick way to apply 2D filter effects, display the Galleries pane,

select the Video Effects tab, then drag and drop a Filter Effects

thumbnail onto your clip.

140 Effects

To edit a filter effect:

1. From the Properties pane (Effects tab), select "Filter Effects" in the

effects list and click the Edit Effects... button. The Filter Effects dialog

is displayed.

2. (Optional) Expand the preview pane by clicking the Show/Hide

Preview button. When expanded, the effects are applied only in the

preview window. While the pane is collapsed (click the button again),

filter effects are applied directly to the clip.

3. To adjust the properties of the effect, select its name and vary the

dialog controls. Adjust the sliders or enter specific values to vary the

combined effect. (You can also select a slider and use the keyboard

arrows.) Options differ from one effect to another.

4. Click OK to apply the effect or Cancel to abandon changes.

Creating outlines

MoviePlus lets you create a coloured outline around objects, especially text and

shapes (as a filter effect). For any outline, you can set the outline width, colour

fill, transparency, and blend mode. The outline can also take a gradient fill, a

unique contour fill (fill runs from the inner to outer edge of the outline width),

or pattern fill and can also sit inside, outside, or be centred on the object edge.

As with all effects you can switch the outline effect on and off. You'll be able to

apply a combination of 2D or 3D filter effects along with your outline, by

checking other options in the Filter Effects dialog.

Blur

Various blur effects can be applied to MoviePlus objects. The types of blur

include:

• Gaussian: the effect smooths by averaging pixels using a weighted

curve.

• Zoom: applies converging streaks to the image to simulate a zoom

lens.

Effects 141

• Radial: applies concentric streaks to the object to simulate a rotating

camera or subject.

• Motion: applies straight streaks to the object to simulate the effect of

camera or subject movement.

3D filter effects

3D filter effects create the impression of a textured surface on any clip. You can

apply one or more effects to the same clip—3D Bump Map, 3D Pattern Map,

and 3D Lighting are all available. Some impressive effects can be achieved on a

whole range of objects, particularly Text, Background and QuickShape clips.

Overview

To apply 3D filter effects:

1. Select a clip and click

Effects on the context toolbar, then from

the Properties pane (Effects tab), click the Add Effect... button.

2. From the Choose Effect dialog, select the Filter Effects category and

choose a 3D preset from the lower window.

3. Click OK.

142 Effects

To edit a filter effect:

1. From the Properties pane (Effects tab), select "Filter Effects" in the

effects list and click the Edit Effects... button. The Filter Effects dialog

is displayed.

2. (Optional) Expand the preview pane by clicking the Show/Hide

Preview button. When expanded, the effects are applied only in the

preview window. While the pane is collapsed (click the button again),

filter effects are applied directly to the clip.

3. Check the 3D Effects box in the list (unless you've already selected a

3D preset). The 3D Lighting box is checked by default.

• 3D Effects is a master switch for this group,

and its settings of Blur and Depth make a

great difference; you can click the

button

to unlink them for independent adjustment.

• 3D Lighting provides a "light source"

without which any depth information in the

effect wouldn't be visible. The lighting

settings let you illuminate your 3D landscape

and vary its reflective properties.

4. Once 3D Effects is enabled (see Overview), adjust the "master control"

sliders here to vary the overall properties of any individual 3D effects

you select, i.e.

• Blur specifies the amount of smoothing applied. Larger blur sizes

give the impression of broader, more gradual changes in height.

• Depth specifies how steep the changes in depth appear.

• The button is normally down, which links the two sliders so

that sharp changes in Depth are smoothed out by the Blur

parameter. To adjust the sliders independently, click the button

so it's up.

Effects 143

You can combine multiple 3D filter effects, as in the illustration above. The

effects are applied cumulatively.

The procedures for applying 3D Filter Effects are covered in the MoviePlus Help

but here's a quick review of each effect type.

3D bump map

The 3D Bump Map effect creates the impression of a textured surface by

applying a mathematical function you select to add depth information, for a

peak-and-valley effect. You can use 3D Bump Map in conjunction with one or

more additional 3D filter effects.

3D pattern map

The 3D Pattern Map effect creates the impression of a textured surface by

applying a mathematical function you select to introduce colour variations. You

can use 3D Pattern Map in conjunction with one or more other 3D filter effects.

Transparency

The uniform transparency of a clip can be controlled via the Opacity setting in

the clip's properties. However, for more sophisticated transparency control,

especially for simulating reflective lighting effects, transparency settings can

instead be set within the 3D filter effects dialog (check the Transparency

option). Transparency can be adjusted independently for both non-reflective

surfaces (typically a clip's edge shadows shown when side-lit) and top-lit

surfaces.

144 Effects

3D lighting

The 3D Lighting effect works in conjunction with other 3D effects to let you

vary the surface illumination and reflective properties.

Colour correction

MoviePlus offers a wide variety of colour adjustment presets that you can apply

to clips. These adjustments—to brightness, contrast, hue, and so on—are

normally carried out on clips, as most deficiencies will be inherited from the

recording of the clip (e.g., over-exposure, poor weather conditions, etc.).

Colour correction effects are applied and managed in the same way as for any

other effect, i.e. go to the Properties pane (Effects tab), choose Add Effect, then

choose an effect category thumbnail from the upper window of the dialog then a

preset from the lower window (these change according to your selected effect

category). Use the effect's Properties pane to alter the adjustment settings. See

Applying video effects on p. 133 for more information.

Let's take a look at the colour adjustment effect categories in turn. Only some of

the categories are related to colour correction.

Adjust HSL

Hue, Saturation, and Lightness (HSL) are components of a

standard colour model that's used to identify colours.

Generally speaking, Hue refers to the colour's tint—what

most of us think of as rainbow or spectrum colours with

name associations, like "blue" or "magenta." Saturation

describes the colour's purity—a totally unsaturated video

has only greys. Lightness is what we intuitively understand

as relative darkness or lightness—ranging from full black

at one end to full white at the other. Adjust HSL lets you

alter these components independently.

Brightness /

Contrast

Brightness refers to overall lightness or darkness, while

contrast describes the tonal range, or spread between

lightest and darkest values. This is a "quick and dirty" way

of correcting a clip, for example one that was over-exposed

or under-exposed.

Effects 145

Channel

Mixer

The Channel Mixer adjustment lets you adjust each

separate colour channel (Red, Green, or Blue) using a mix

of all the current colour channels.

Colour

Balance

The Colour Balance adjustment lets you adjust colour

balance for general colour correction in the clip.

Combinations of Cyan/Red, Magenta/Green and

Yellow/Blue can be adjusted to lower or raise each colour

mix.

Curves

The Curves adjustment lets you correct the tonal range of a

clip—the spread of lightness values through shadow,

midtone, and highlight regions—and control individual

colour components.

Gamma

The Gamma adjustment lets you adjust the amount of

mid-tone brightness in your clip. Think of midtones as the

grey shading that lie between shadows and highlights

present throughout your clip.

Levels

The Levels adjustment lets you emphasize mid-tone

lightness regions in each or all of the three primary video

colours, red, green, and blue.

Applying audio effects

In the same way that you can apply video effects to video clips, you can apply

audio effects to audio clips also. In fact the process of applying and editing

effects is identical for both—MoviePlus treats them equally.

Audio effects range from more commonly encountered effects such as Bass and

Reverb, to more technical effects such as Low Pass, High Pass, Compressor,

Expander, and many more.

Whichever effect you want to apply you'll need to have recorded, captured, or

imported your audio file in advance; the file must also be present as a clip on

your storyboard or timeline. Once present, the clip can have an effect applied.

146 Effects

Individual or cumulative

audio effects can be added

and managed from the

Effects tab on the Properties

pane. They can also be

replaced, deleted, edited, and

rearranged all from this tab.

• Applied effects are shown in an effect list; effects at the top of the list

are applied to the clip first.

• When selected, an effect’s properties can be adjusted directly under the

list.

• Any modified effect can optionally be saved for future use.

In Timeline mode, an audio effect can be equally applied to an

audio track or group, as well as an audio clip. This will influence the

audio of a clip on the same track or group.

Effects 147

Applying audio effects

To apply an effect:

1. Select the audio clip on the storyboard (or clip, track, or group on the

timeline).

2. Click

Effects on the context toolbar.

3. From the Properties pane (Effects tab), click the

Add Effect...

button.

4. From the dialog, choose a category from the upper window. In the

lower window, review any presets available (especially their names,

which indicate their intended function). Select a preset.

5. Click OK. The effect is added to the Effects tab's effects list.

Any effect added to your project will have its own set of properties associated

with it. The effect's properties can be altered in the Properties pane (Effects tab).

To modify an audio effect:

1. Select the audio clip, track or group which has the effect applied.

2. From the Properties pane (Effects tab), choose the effect to be edited

from the effects list.

3. Alter the effects' properties at the bottom of the tab.

To save a modified effect to a new name:

• Click Save in the Properties pane (Effects tab). Once named, the

transition effect appears as a new preset in the appropriate folder in

the Choose Effect dialog (or Audio Effects tab in the Galleries pane).

148 Effects

Using third-party effects

While MoviePlus is packed with a range of preset audio effects you can also

adopt third-party plug-in VST effects (up to V2.4). If you've already

downloaded such effects independently of MoviePlus you can make them appear

in your Galleries pane by copying them to the MoviePlus install sub-folder called

"VST". You'll need to do this before running MoviePlus. By default, this folder

will be C:\Program Files\Serif\MoviePlus\X5\VST\.

The installed VST effects can be applied in exactly the same way as MoviePlus's

audio effects—you can adjust their properties in the Properties pane (Effects

tab). Note that some more advanced VST effects can be modified with a VST

Properties button (in the same pane).

You can optionally store your VST effect plug-ins in a folder of your choice, but

you'll have to point to this folder via Tools>Options (Folders menu option) for

the effects to show in the Galleries pane.

Installed VST effects are shown in the Galleries tab's Audio Effects

tab in folders named with a [VST] suffix.

Applying audio effects over time

In timeline mode, you can change effects over time by adding and modifying

keyframes along the timeline. See Applying video effects on p. 133.

Audio effect groups

While it is not often necessary to use audio effect groups, they can be used to

mix multiple audio effects in and out of your project simultaneously. Groups are

extremely useful as they offer a Mix setting; most individual effects do not offer

mixing individually. This mixing can be achieved by manipulation of the Audio

Effect Group (see Using envelopes). Such a group is created on an audio clip,

track (below), or group by selecting Audio Effect Group from the Insert menu.

Effects can be dragged into the group once created.

Audio

150 Audio

Audio 151

Introducing audio

In MoviePlus, it's possible to use audio clips which have been collected by a

variety of methods.

• Capturing audio: The capture process is capable of capturing just the

audio element from a tape-based camcorder's combined video/audio

input or audio from a microphone (see Capturing video on p. 28).

• Importing: You can make use of audio files already on your computer

by simply importing them into your project.

• Recording Narration: Narrate commentary via microphone as you

playback your movie. Narration can play back over existing audio

(e.g., on a Music soundtrack).

• CD Ripping: Digital ripping of music CDs means that you can adopt

your favourite songs as supporting soundtracks in your movie.

152 Audio

Whichever method you choose, audio files will be added to your Media pane.

Narration files are also added to the storyboard or timeline automatically (at the

time indicator position at which you started recording).

In many instances, the capture or copying of a video file from your respective

tape- or file-based camcorder to your project will introduce accompanying audio

along with your video clip automatically. For instance, copying an HD video file

from your HD camcorder will add the file to your Media pane; the file normally

contains separate but linked video and audio streams. When you introduce the

file to the storyboard or timeline, the associated linked audio will follow.

Audio editing

Audio can play an essential part in any movie, and creative audio editing is an

art in itself. Standard ingredients of audio might include:

• Production sound as originally recorded (and later captured) “in sync”

along with the video, e.g. camcorder footage of your last holiday.

• Narration (or voice-over passages) which serves as a commentary or a

bridge between sections of your movie.

• Theme music or background sound from a variety of clips, often

added as one or more longer clips that run “under” audio narration.

• Sound effects or single-shot audio events, perhaps added for emphasis

(“sweetening”) or comic relief.

If you would like your movie to include more than basic production sound,

allow yourself some time to do it right! Skilful sound editing is a combination of

technique and judgment. Fortunately, MoviePlus makes the technical part

straightforward. Getting sound to coincide properly with the visual track, to

come in on cue and end (or fade out) at just the right moment, to blend well

with other audio... all are easily accomplished in the Timeline mode.

Audio 153

Adding audio

Audio files can be added to your Media pane in

various ways (see Introducing audio on p. 151) and

will always show with an audio icon as a thumbnail. If

capturing, the default prefix is "Capture".

Once in your project you'll want to add one or more audio files them to either

your storyboard or timeline. One exception is when you're recording narration

as the narration clip will be added automatically to storyboard or timeline.

Use the Trim on the media pane to trim your audio file in the

same way as a video file.

Adding audio to the storyboard

If the storyboard is empty, drag your audio clips so that

they snap onto either the horizontal Narration or Music

strips at the bottom of the storyboard.

You'll see a orange strip (indicating selection) appear

under the thumbnails which indicates the audio clip.

Click away from the clip to deselect it (it turns blue;

below). The audio clip snaps to the start of any clip.

The clip is selectable and as such has its own properties (i.e., Gain and Pan)

which can be adjusted (via the Properties pane). See Volume and pan on p. 160.

154 Audio

Adding audio to the timeline

Whenever you add a video clip with an audio component to the timeline, the

audio portion (if present) is automatically added to an available audio track

underneath the video track. These two clips maintain a linkage by default, as

shown when you select either clip—an orange border indicates the current

selection, while a light blue border indicates the linked accompanying clip.

However, when you add a standalone audio file (wav, wma, mp2, mp3) it can be

dragged onto the available Music track (or you can create your own audio track).

Audio tracks are managed in much the same way as video tracks, and by the

same token, audio clips are managed as for video clips. See Adding and

arranging tracks and Arranging clips on p. 71 and p. 78, respectively, for more

information.

In terms of playback, the audio clip is treated as for a video clip—seek controls

can be used, along with trick play and scrubbing.

Audio waveform displays (Timeline mode only)

mono

stereo

Audio Waveform Displays provide a visual

indication of the audio's dynamic range

along the clip's length—typically used to

spot cues and any unforeseen audio events.

The waveform shows over the audio clip

instead of a poster thumbnail as seen on

video clips.

Audio 155

Note that the waveform display does not reflect the audio volume, as volume

and dynamic range represent two different elements of audio. If you increase the

volume the dynamic range does not change (and vice versa).

Waveforms are not generated automatically when your audio is added to the

timeline. Instead you generate audio waveforms as you require them on the

audio track.

To generate waveforms for audio clips:

• On the audio track's header, click the Minimize/Restore button.

The audio waveforms for all clips on the track are generated.

The waveform displays can be hidden again by clicking the

Minimize/Restore button in the track header.

To switch off waveform generation:

• In Tools>Options>General, uncheck Generate audio waveforms

automatically. When you restore an audio track, waveforms are no

longer generated.

If you've already generated waveforms for clips they will still display.

As waveforms are actually stored in waveform files (per clip) you'll

need to delete these waveform files in Helper File Manager on the

File menu.

Even though you may have switched off waveform generation, you can still

generate waveforms per clip.

To generate a waveform per clip:

• Right-click an audio clip and select Generate Waveforms.

You can generate waveforms before adding clips to the timeline by

right-clicking your clip in the Media pane and selecting Generate

Waveforms. This avoids having to process all waveforms

simultaneously when adding to the timeline/storyboard.

156 Audio

Interpreting waveforms

The following example waveform shows a typical stereo waveform display. You

can interpret your waveform by analysing peaks in the dynamic range indicative

of passages of conversation and audio events (shouting, gunshots, bangs on the

microphone, etc.).

By being alerted to these, you can perform audio trimming and splitting more

effectively.

Audio fading (Timeline mode only)

In a similar way to video in/out transitions, any audio clip can have an audio

transition. By default, when overlapping audio clips have been placed on the

timeline (normally as a result of adding multiple video clips with accompanying

audio clips) an automatic transition of type "Fade" is produced between

overlapping audio clips. The transition smoothly blends the first clip's audio

with the second clip's audio while maintaining the same audio levels throughout

the transition's duration.

For non-overlapping audio clips, perhaps at the start or end of the timeline, a

manual transition can be applied—this fades-in or fades-out an audio clip at the

start or end of that clip, respectively. To apply, simply drag the blue triangular

handle to the left (shown below) or right to produce the Fade transition. The

length of the transition dictates the duration of the fade-in/out.

Audio 157

The duration of any manual Fade transition can be changed by dragging its

handles or changing the Duration value in the transition's Properties pane. An

automatic transition's duration can also be changed in the transition's Properties

pane or by moving either clip in relation to the other (the automatic overlap

defines the duration).

For automatic or manual transitions, you can adjust the Interpolation in the

same pane—this alters the rate of change for the progression of the whole

transition. The default is Linear, but other settings offer slow and/or fast

beginnings and/or ends to the change.

Using audio buses

Audio buses are commonly encountered in professional music production for

the control and management of audio tracks. By sending different audio tracks

to different buses, the sound engineer has full control over how to "shape" the

sound to his liking. In MoviePlus, the same logic can be applied to audio tracks

in your project.

It is possible to use an audio bus to adjust overall gain (volume) and/or pan in

your project. All audio tracks are directed by default to a single Master Bus,

which can be modified to influence its associated audio tracks. Additional buses

can also be created, allowing audio tracks to be directed to different custom

buses.

158 Audio

In the example above, independent Pan/Gain control of audio tracks is shown,

with overall Pan/Gain control via the Master bus. The created custom Bus 1 can

be used to apply an effect (e.g., Reverb) to audio tracks 2, 3, and 4.

Gain and pan adjustments, plus audio effects, can be applied to any bus.

Envelopes are used to change the extent of Gain, Pan or effects over time; please

see Using envelopes and Adjusting keyframes for more information.

Displaying buses

Select Show Audio Buses from the View menu.

The Master Bus is displayed at the bottom of your timeline, along with any

previously created custom audio buses.

Audio 159

Creating audio buses

Select Audio Bus from the Insert menu.

The new bus is added under the Master Bus at the bottom of your timeline, and

is named Bus 1 or Bus 2, etc.

Modifying a bus

1. Select the bus on the timeline, by clicking its name.

2. From the Properties pane, alter properties (name, Gain, and/or Pan).

By default, all audio tracks are directed to the Master Bus. If you've created a

custom bus, you'll need to direct the appropriate audio tracks to that new bus.

Assigning audio tracks to custom buses

1. Select an audio track.

2. From the Properties pane (Properties tab), select the chosen bus from

the Target drop-down list.

160 Audio

Volume and pan

Checking audio levels

The Levels meter can be used to study project-wide volume

and pan settings, and to help you to attain optimum volume

and pan—this is just as essential to a well-designed movie

project as hours devoted to video editing.

The meter is hidden by default but can be

switched on by selecting Show Levels Meter on

the Preview menu. The meter is displayed on the

Video Preview pane.

Two meters which shows the entire project's audio levels.

The left and right meters represent the left and right stereo

channels, respectively, and report the audio levels in decibels

(dB).

The meter levels will increase and decrease according to the

volume level at that point in the project's playback.

The concept of the Levels meter is straightforward—the

levels will peak and dip according to currently played audio

levels. You may have experienced this on music systems

while recording.

At some point, the meters may indicate that excessive

volume levels are being experienced, i.e. the levels go above 0

on any meter. This is known as digital clipping (also known

as square wave clipping). It is vital that such clipping does

not occur in your project, so you have to set the loudest part

of your audio clip to peak below 0 dB (or face audio

distortion).

How do you know when clipping occurs? At the top of the

example meters opposite, you'll notice two numbers at the

top of each meter. The values represent the maximum level

or "high-watermark" for each channel if clipping occurs

during the current playback.

Audio 161

Again using the example, the left and right channel have at

some point during playback peaked at +7.1 dB. You can

leave your project to play, then return to check for clipping—

if no values appear in red then no clipping has occurred. This

saves you from having to watch the entire project's playback!

These values are always reset when playback is restarted.

Assuming you've managed to prevent any clipping from occurring, you have to

then consider how the audio sounds when played on a target device (e.g. via the

web or on a created disc). You should aim to peak your audio levels at

approximately -20dB (used for professional digital audio).

The meters only gives an accurate indication of incorrectly set audio clips or

tracks—whether high or low. The prime objective is therefore to resolve

unacceptable volume levels which we'll look at next.

Adjusting volume

Volume adjustment of clips

The volume adjustment on any selected audio clip (or even video clip with audio

stream) can be made by altering Gain in the object's Properties pane (shown

under the Audio section). For example, the Gain can be reduced by dragging the

slider to the left (from its default 0.0 dB position).

Adjusting pan

Adjusting the pan follows the same principles as adjusting volume. The

adjustment can be made by altering Pan in the object's Properties pane (shown

under the Audio section). For example, the pan can be reduced by dragging the

slider to the left (from its default "Centre" position).

162 Audio

Adding narration

Narration means a passage of speech, normally an accompanying story (or a set

of instructions), used to support the visual imagery of a movie.

In MoviePlus, narration is possible in either Storyboard or Timeline mode, by

choosing the point from which to start recording your narration clip (set your

time indicator first). As you play back your movie, you record your narration in

real-time, then stop recording. The clip is automatically added to the storyboard

or timeline, and is also added to the Media pane.

On the storyboard, the narration clip (Narration004) appears on the Narration

strip under your thumbnails after you've stopped recording. See Storyboard

basics on p. 43.

On the timeline, the narration clip (e.g. Narration003) is added from the set time

indicator on a Narration track; the track is added automatically to your timeline,

and can be manipulated as for any audio track.

See Volume and pan on p. 160.

For timeline narration, you can expand the Narration track to automatically

generate audio clip waveforms (below), a visual representation of audio activity

in the clip. In doing so, you can trim and split the audio clip to just passages of

narration, making it easier to match narration to your video footage.

Audio 163

Setting up your microphone

Two microphone setups are likely: either a separate microphone and stereo

headphones, or an integrated microphone in headphones. Devices may connect

either via USB or via your computer's sound card (sometimes indirectly from

your computer's front panel). Connected devices should be plug-and-play so

don't need to be set up manually.

Most headphones are generally equipped with 3.5 mm jack plugs.

Check the symbols on the jack plug then match these up with the

same symbols on your computer's input sockets.

Consult your microphone documentation and Microsoft Windows for details on

how to set up your audio device on your computer.

Recording

The Record Narration dialog lets you alter your recording setup (e.g.,

microphone clip) and start (and stop) the recording. During recording, a Levels

meter indicates the current audio level.

To record a narration:

1. Move the time indicator in the Video Preview pane to a chosen

recording start point (or select a clip on the storyboard to record from

the beginning of that clip).

2. Click

Record Narration on the Storyboard or Timeline toolbar.

3. From the Record Narration dialog, optionally choose a different

Source (e.g., "Microphone") if you have multiple audio input devices,

an Input, or a different audio Format.

4. Speak into your microphone to check levels. If the volume is excessive,

the Levels meter will show clipping (red areas showing at the top of

each meter). To rectify, lower the Master Volume slider until

clipping no longer occurs.

164 Audio

5. Uncheck Mute audio when recording if you want existing audio to be

played through your computer speakers (and picked up via

microphone) as you record. Normally, you'll want to keep this checked

to mute your audio as you record (or use headphones), to avoid

"echoing".

Another source of echoing is when the Windows Volume Control

outputs the microphone audio through the speakers, so it gets

picked up by the microphone again (feedback). Avoid echoing in

this case by use of headphones or by muting the microphone

output.

6. To start recording, click the Record button and begin your narration.

Click Stop button when you've finished speaking. If the end of the

project is reached the recording will stop automatically. Your

narration shows on your storyboard or timeline when you stop

recording.

Click the Windows Mixer... button if you need to adjust MoviePlus

volume levels from Windows.

Audio 165

Ripping audio discs

There may be occasion when you may want to adopt some of your favourite

audio for use in your MoviePlus project, whether as a complete song, piece,

narration, or as a smaller excerpt. If located on an audio CD, MoviePlus can use

ripping to capture each audio track sequentially; each track shows in your Media

pane after audio ripping. By default, tracks are saved as compressed wma files.

The dialog shows in-progress track-by-track digital ripping from an audio CD.

Track 1 is being ripped from the audio disc in drive F (and saved in

c:\musicroom\).

To rip an audio CD:

1. Click

Import Media on the Tasks toolbar or from the top of the

Media pane.

2. From the drop-down list, select Rip CD.

3. From the dialog, choose a Device from the drop-down list; this is the

disc drive currently containing your audio disc.

166 Audio

4. (Optional) Use the playback controls under the track list to review

tracks on your CD, e.g. use the button to play a selected

track. A bar under the play control buttons indicates the audio

playback progress. For ripping selected track only, uncheck unwanted

tracks from the list. Otherwise, all tracks are ripped.

5. Use the Browse... button to specify a location that the audio files will

be ripped to.

6. (Optional) Instead of a file name Prefix of "Capture" enter your own

prefix. MoviePlus will name each captured file with an incremented

number suffix.

7. (Optional) Enable the "WAV (uncompressed)" option, if you want

uncompressed larger files. For wav rips, a typical 4 minute audio track

will occupy about 40MB of hard drive space (typically 700MB per

audio CD). Otherwise, keep the "WMA" option enabled to create

smaller file sizes.

8. Click the Rip CD button to start ripping your checked audio tracks. A

currently ripped track will show a

symbol next to it; a green

progress bar indicates that ripping of that track is in progress.

You'll notice that ripped audio files will appear in your Media pane (in the root

of your Project tab).

When you've finished capturing your audio, click the Close button to return to

MoviePlus.

Text, Images, and

QuickShapes

168 Text, Images, and QuickShapes

Text, Images, and QuickShapes 169

Adding text

MoviePlus provides a high level of support for managing text in your project.

Typically, text within MoviePlus can be used for titles, captions, or credits.

Titles

No movie is complete without initial

titling to introduce the movie's name to

the viewer.

Captions

Captions are always overlaid over an

existing video or image clip, and display

for that clip's duration. They are used to

explain and provide context to the clip

currently being displayed.

Credits

Credits tend to be closing credits, i.e.

appearing at the end of your project,

where you may want to acknowledge

actors, and copyright information.

Credits look great when

animated!

However you plan to use your text, you create text as a text clip. This clip

behaves much like a video clip but is purely a container for your text. You can

position your clip on the same video track as your video clip, or above a video

track for use as captions. By default, MoviePlus offers an Overlay Track on your

timeline which is ideal for storing text clips as captions.

The text within your text clip is called a text object. A text object is a single

instance of text which can be easily edited, when selected, using the following

tabs on the text object's Properties pane.

170 Text, Images, and QuickShapes

• Format: Apply font type, font size, attributes, alignment, filter effects,

and text styles.

• Properties: Control scrolling, playback and opacity.

• Animation: Make your titles and credits come to life—apply Blinds,

Fly, Slide, Spin, and more.

• Effects: Include eye-catching special effects.

You can add additional text objects to your text clip at any time. Text clips can

also have supporting images and QuickShapes added to them. (See Adding

images and QuickShapes on p. 180.)

Titles

Titles are typically presented at the very beginning of your project. They tend to

be a single word or at best only a few words long, but are usually shown in a

large font size.

To add a title:

1. On the storyboard, select a clip (usually the first).

On the timeline, set your time indicator's position.

2. From the Insert menu, select CG Clip>Text.

Select

Add Text from the Video Preview pane.

3. In the Video Preview pane, type directly into the text box to add you

own title text.

4. Drag over the text to highlight and choose a preset text style from the

Properties pane (Format tab) or choose your font type, font size, text

alignment, font colour, transparency, line style and whether text is to

be bold, italic and/or underlined. See Formatting text on p. 175.

Text, Images, and QuickShapes 171

Alternatively, you can use ready-to-go Titles presets from the

Galleries pane (Titles tab); simply drag and drop onto your

storyboard or timeline.

Captions

Captions are typically superimposed onto an existing clip to explain the

underlying clip in text form. An example could be an overlaid title at the start of

your project. For image clips, you could describe each photo's location, subjects

in shot, etc.

To add a caption:

1. Select an existing video or image clip.

2. From the Insert menu, select Caption.

Select

Add Text from the Video Preview pane.

In the Video Preview pane, you'll see default caption text added in

front of the clip.

3. Type directly into the text box to enter your own caption text.

In Timeline mode, the caption text clip is added directly above the selected clip;

both clips will be of equal duration. The Overlay Track, shown above all other

tracks is intended to store your caption text clips.

You can change a caption's start time and/or duration from the text

clip's Properties pane (Properties tab).

In Storyboard mode, a clip with a supporting caption will show

a Text icon under its thumbnail.

172 Text, Images, and QuickShapes

Credits

Credits are used to acknowledge cast and crew, as well as copyrights. They

usually close a movie and tend to be presented on a neutral background

(typically black). As a result, in MoviePlus it's best to present credits on their

own text clip rather than as an overlay. This stops the viewer from being

distracted by the underlying video clip.

A possible requirement when adding credits is the ability to display more than

one frames worth of text (you may have a long list of cast, crew, and copyright

information to acknowledge!). This is made possible by using rolling credits—

the credits are made to move up, down, left, or right.

To add credits:

1. Deselect all clips on the storyboard

Move the time indicator to the end of the last clip on your timeline.

2. From the Insert menu, select CG Clip>Text.

Select

Add Text from the Video Preview pane.

3. Type directly into the text box selected in the Video Preview pane and

edit as described on p. 175.

4. (Optional) To scroll overflowing credit text, set Scrolling in the

Properties tab of the text clip's Properties pane—choose from Up,

Down, Left, or Right. Set the Duration of the text clip to a value which

allows credits to be read comfortably (the greater the duration the

slower the credits).

Alternatively, you can use ready-to-go Credits presets from the

Galleries pane (Titles tab); simply drag and drop onto your

storyboard or timeline.

To import text from other Word processing packages, cut and paste

directly into selected text in your Video Preview pane. For

paragraphs, you'll need to add your own line breaks to set line

lengths before copying.

Text, Images, and QuickShapes 173

Adding more text

It's easy to add a single passage of text by clicking and typing. However,

MoviePlus can include more text, in addition to the initial text associated with

the text clip. More text lets you build up additional subtitles, captions, or credits.

Each text object is independent of each other and can therefore adopt its own

format, properties, animation, or effect properties. The example below shows a

title and subtitle, each possessing very different styles.

To add more text:

1. Select an existing text clip or video/image clip with overlaid text.

2. Click

Add Text on the Video Preview pane. An additional text

box appears which can be edited as before. This creates a new text

object associated with the original text clip.

Setting a default text style

If you've spent time creating the perfect text style and layout you might want to

apply this to other text clips you subsequently create. This is done by making

your chosen style the default style.

To set a default text style:

• Right-click the text clip, and select Set Default Text Style.

The next text clip you create will be based on the text clip you chose as the

default.

174 Text, Images, and QuickShapes

If you want to change an existing text clip which isn't based on your default, you

can apply the new default to it.

To apply the default text style:

• Right-click the text clip, and select Apply Default Text Style.

Selecting and editing text

Text editing is possible only once text is selected—corner or edge control

handles on the selected text's bounding box can be used for different operations.

Selecting text

For any text clip, click on the

text you want to edit. A

bounding box appears around

the text once selected.

Click again for a insertion

point where you can add

additional text at that point.

To select only part of your text,

drag over part of your text to

select. Typing will replace the

selected character.

Double-click on a word to

select it.

Triple-click anywhere in the

bounding box to select all text.

Text, Images, and QuickShapes 175

To select text objects, use the Select button on the Video

Preview pane.

Editing text

To edit text:

1. Click on text in the Video Preview pane to select the text object.

2. Click again and type to replace all text (selected in purple).

Drag over characters or words then type to replace highlighted text

only (again shown in purple).

Use the Edit menu or keyboard shortcuts to access text editing

operations such as Cut, Copy, and Paste.

You can format text from the Properties pane (Format tab).

To add a line break:

1. Click for an insertion point at the position where you want the line to

break.

2. Press the Return key and continue typing.

Formatting text

MoviePlus lets you apply typical text formatting functions such as:

• Text formatting (font type, font size, attributes, alignment)

• Colour fill (solid and gradient) and transparency.

• Line weight and colour.

• Filter effects, such as drop shadow, glow, emboss, outlines, etc.

176 Text, Images, and QuickShapes

Instead of designing text styles from

scratch you can adopt a text style preset

from the Properties pane's Format tab

instead. If needed, you can then

customize text further by using the

settings above the text style gallery.

To format text:

1. Select a text clip on the timeline (or an added text object in the Video

Preview pane).

2. From the Properties pane's Format tab, you can alter (or apply):

• Font (typeface), font size, text attributes (bold, italic, underline).

• Paragraph alignment (left/centre/right).

• Fill (solid or gradient colour). The swatch, when clicked, lets you

apply a different preset fill (or edit a fill of your own). The swatch

changes to reflect the text's current colour setting.

• Transparency (solid or gradient). The swatch, when clicked, lets

you apply a different Transparency preset (or a edit a

transparency of your own). The swatch changes to reflect the

clip's current transparency setting.

• Line. When clicked, displays a Line Style dialog so that line

weight and fill can be applied.

• Effects. When clicked, a dialog for applying multiple 2D and 3D

filter effects is displayed. 2D effects include shadows, glow,

outline, bevel, emboss, colour fill, and feathering.

Add solid or gradient background colours to your text clip using Fill

on the text clip’s Properties pane (Properties tab).

Text, Images, and QuickShapes 177

The following examples show each 2D filter effect when applied to the letter "A."

Drop Shadow

Inner Shadow

Outer Glow

Inner Glow

Inner Bevel Outer Bevel Emboss Pillow Emboss

Gaussian Blur Zoom Blur Radial Blur Motion Blur

Colour Fill Feather Outline

See 2D filter effects (on p. 139) for more information.

Changing the line style:

• To adjust the currently selected text's line weight either drag the slider

left or right or enter a point size value in the input box.

• For changes to Line fill, click the Line fill swatch to apply a different

fill (or edit a fill of your own).

• Uncheck Behind Fill if you want the line fill to show over the top of

your colour fill rather than behind it.

178 Text, Images, and QuickShapes

Animating text

Animation brings your text to life, creating titles, captions, or credits of great

visual appeal. MoviePlus not only offers some familiar animations such as Zoom

and Fade, Fly, Slide, Spin, and Explode but controls whether the animation is

applied at the start or end of your text (or both). These are called In Animations

and Out Animations and are key to understanding how to get the best out of

your animations. As an example, the Out animation called Explode can be

applied to the text clip containing the text "Animate".

Animation presets for In and Out animations can be applied from the context

toolbar or from the Galleries pane. This saves you from having to create your

own animation, although you're able to customize any presets and save the

resulting animation for future use.

For text clips with multiple text objects:

• to apply the same animation to all text objects, apply the effect with no

text objects selected.

• to apply independent animations to individual text objects, apply the

effect with the text object selected.

To apply an animation:

1. Select a text clip (or text object).

2. Click Animation on the context toolbar.

3. From the drop-down list, pick either Set In Animation... or Set Out

Animation... from the list (for a respective In or Out animation).

Text, Images, and QuickShapes 179

4. From the Choose Animation dialog, choose an animation category

from the upper window. In the lower window, review the presets

available for that category (especially their names, which indicate their

intended function). Select a preset, e.g. Blinds.

5. Click OK.

If you've already applied an In or Out animation, repeat the above procedure to

apply the complementary Out or In animation, respectively.

For an alternative way to apply an animation, open the Galleries

pane, select the Titles tab, choose a preset from the Animations

folder then drag and drop it onto your text clip (or object). A dialog

lets you choose whether to add an In or Out animation.

Hover over any preset to get a preview of how your animation will

look!

Once you've applied animation, you can edit animation properties. As well as

being able to check which animation is applied (and it settings), you can swap

out one animation for another, alter its duration, and edit other animation-

specific properties.

180 Text, Images, and QuickShapes

To edit an animation:

1. Select a text clip (or text object).

2. Choose Edit Animations from the context toolbar's

Animation drop-down list.

3. From the Animation tab on the text clip's Properties pane, modify the

In or Out animation.

To save your animation (Timeline only):

• From the text clip's Properties pane (Animation tab), expand In or

Out Animation, click Select, then click

Add to Gallery. The

animation will appear in the relevant folder under the Animations

folder in the Galleries pane's Titles tab.

To delete an animation:

1. Select a text clip (or object) with the animation applied.

2. From the text clip's Properties pane (Animation tab), select Reset for

the In or Out animation you want to delete.

Adding Images and QuickShapes

Images and QuickShapes can be added to your text clips to improve visual

appeal.

Text, Images, and QuickShapes 181

Once added, you can position, resize, rotate, transform, align, and order the

image or QuickShape in relation to other objects. (See Manipulating objects on

p. 182.)

Adding images

1. Select your text clip.

2. From the Video Preview pane, click

Add Image.

3. From the dialog, locate and select the file to import, the click Open.

The dialog disappears and the mouse pointer changes to the

Image Size cursor. What you do next determines the initial size,

placement, and aspect ratio (proportions) of the image.

4. Either:

• To insert the image at a default size, simply click the mouse.

• To set the size of the inserted image, drag out a region and release

the mouse button.

By default, the image's aspect ratio is preserved.

Adding QuickShapes

1. As above, but click Add QuickShape instead of Add Image.

All QuickShapes are created initially as a square (or rectangle).

2. With the QuickShape selected, the Properties pane allows you to:

• swap the QuickShape to another QuickShape type, including

Ellipses, Stars, Spirals, and Speech Bubbles.

• morph any QuickShape to create many different shape variations.

See Using CG Clips (p. 57) for more information.

182 Text, Images, and QuickShapes

Manipulating objects

The term object refers to any text, image, or QuickShape that you've added to

your text clip. You'll typically add objects to enhance your titles, but you can add

additional objects at any time as long as it is to a text clip.

These objects can be positioned, scaled, rotated, and transformed, as well as

ordered and aligned—all from within the Video Preview pane.

The examples below mainly involve text only, but the principles can

be applied to text, images and QuickShapes equally.

Positioning

Drag a selected object around the

pane into your ideal position.

Scaling

Scale text by dragging a corner

handle (this maintains aspect

ratio). Drag with Shift key pressed

for unconstrained scaling. By

default, scaling is made in relation

to the opposite corner (or edge)

handle.

Instead, to scale from the origin

point (

), use the Alt key—drag

edge handles to stretch and shrink.

Rotating

Hover over a corner—when the

cursor changes to a Rotate cursor

drag to rotate text.

To rotate about a custom

origin point, press the Ctrl key

before dragging to move the origin

point to a new position.

Text, Images, and QuickShapes 183

Shearing

With the Ctrl key pressed, drag an

edge handle to shear.

Skew

Drag a corner handle with the Ctrl

key pressed.

Ordering (Arranging)

To order a selected object in

relation to other objects (by Z-

order), right-click the object and

choose Arrange> then one of the

following options:

• Send to Back

Sends the selected object

to the back of the Z-

order stack, behind all

other objects.

• Bring to Front

Brings the selected

object to the front of the

Z-order stack, in front of

all other objects.

• Back One

Shifts the selected object

one position toward the

rear in the Z-order stack.

• Forward One

Shifts the selected object

one position toward the

front in the Z-order

stack.

184 Text, Images, and QuickShapes

Aligning

To align multiple selected object in

one operation and within their

selection box, right-click the

selected objects and choose

Align>, then one of the following

options:

• Left, Right, Top,

Bottom: Aligns all

objects to leftmost

object, rightmost object,

etc.

• Horizontal

Centre/Vertical Centre:

Aligns all objects to

centre of the selection

area (horizontally or

vertically).

To centre object(s) horizontally or

vertically in relation to their frame

width/height, right-click on the

selected object(s), and choose

Horizontally or Vertically from

the Centre> flyout.

Exporting

186 Exporting

Exporting 187

Exporting movies

There are a number of ways you can export your movie once you've edited it

with MoviePlus... the project might look fantastic in your Video Preview pane,

but there's likely to be an upper limit to how many people can crowd around

your monitor and watch your preview, so you'll need to export your movie in a

standard distributable format to allow others to share the experience!

The considerations you'll face when deciding how to export your project are the

same for all video editors—the most important is "what device will the video be

watched on and how am I going to deliver the video to the intended viewers?"

This double-barrelled question, once answered, will help determine how you

should export your movie for best results.

To play on: You can: Reference

computer (with CD)

create a Video CD

(VCD)

p. 188

DVD player (TV)

DVD drive

(computer)

create a DVD

create an AVCHD DVD

p. 188

Blu-ray player (TV)

Blu-ray drive

(computer)

create a DVD

create an AVCHD DVD

create a Blu-ray Disc

p. 188

iPad

iPod

iPhone/iPod Touch

Add to iTunes (for sync

with Apple device)

p. 199

PSP

upload to PSP device

p. 201

YouTube

upload to YouTube

p. 202

Internet

standalone file p. 198

Requires DVD Writer/Rewriter or CD Writer.

Requires Blu-ray Writer.

Requires a USB-connected PSP (set to USB mode).

Requires a valid YouTube account.

188 Exporting

Exporting movies to disc

MoviePlus can export your project directly to disc (DVD, Blu-ray Disc, or

VCD), producing a movie which will play on your TV or computer (via an

appropriate disc player).

Optionally, you can create your own easy-to-navigate disc menus based on one

of an impressive array of templates—all easily modifiable to suit your taste.

For DVD/Blu-ray export, Dolby® Digital is used for audio encoding.

Disc settings

By default, MoviePlus will suggest the most appropriate export settings for your

project, although you can alter these settings specifically for export if you have

custom requirements. For example, PAL DVD and HD project settings are used

directly for export settings in DVD and Blu-Ray disc creation.

Several stages make up the disc creation process:

1. Chapter point set up. If you want a menu on your disc, chapter points

define locations in your project from which menu chapter thumbnails,

when clicked, will begin playing the relevant video—much the same as

the initial menu shown on any movie disc from your local movie store.

See Using chapter points on p. 110.

2. Disc Setup. To setup basic and advanced disc settings. Includes Menu

Designer, a template-driven tool to easily create optional disc menus.

3. Write Project. To initialize and create the disc.

The user is led through each stage seamlessly, culminating in the completion of

your MoviePlus project.

To create a disc (using project settings):

1. Select

Export on the Tasks toolbar.

2. From the drop-down list, choose a disc-related option (DVD, Blu-ray

Disc, AVCHD, or VCD).

3. If you haven't already created a disc menu you'll be asked if you want

to create one. If so, select Yes and the Menu Designer is launched.

Exporting 189

Otherwise, the Export settings dialog is displayed (i.e., your disc will be

menuless).

4. (Optional) From the dialog, choose a different export template from

the list if needed. Normally, the already selected export setting is

chosen by MoviePlus as the most appropriate setting and should be

kept as is.

5. Click Next>.

6. From the Disc Settings dialog, review whether a Disc menu is required

(check or uncheck as needed), and if necessary click the Edit... button

to edit your menu in Menu Designer (see p. 190). The preview shows

your currently selected menu.

7. (Optional) Check Loop Playback to make your movie start from the

beginning after playback.

8. Use the Disc Type drop-down list to select your media. You can check

that your project will fit intended blank media (e.g., DVD 4.7GB for

DVD, BD-RE 25GB for Blu-ray Disc). Click Detect... to discover your

writable disc drive(s).

9. Click the Finish button.

From the Write Disc dialog, choose a write Speed and Drive where your target

media is located. Your completed disc will be ejected once the process is

completed.

For subsequent disc creation, caching technology is used to speed up the process.

The AVCHD option lets you write HD projects to DVD.

The Disc Settings dialog also lets you create either an ISO disc image

or a disc folder (great for viewing disc-related projects without

writing to disc). For ISO images, you can write a disc from image

instead of immediately committing to physical media at a later date

(see MoviePlus help).

190 Exporting

PAL vs. NTSC video standards

Whether you choose a PAL or NTSC template should depend on whether you

intend for the video to be viewed in a PAL region or NTSC region. NTSC is the

broadcast and recording standard used mainly in North and South American

continents, plus parts of eastern Asia including Japan and South Korea. PAL is

used widely throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Oceania.

Using Menu Designer

The Menu Designer is used for designing a disc menu, a navigational aid to

easily access key points in your movie called chapters. Its user interface lets you

design either your own menus from scratch or adopt a professional-looking

template preset—choose either according to the extent of your design ability!

Once your menu is complete, you can create your disc directly from Menu

Designer.

The interface can be used to access template galleries, backgrounds, layout

options, and much more, from a single Menu Bar. When selected, each bar's

option offers a host of context-sensitive design elements appropriate to that

option chosen.

Exporting 191

Disc menus are also hierarchical, allowing main titles (e.g., Play Movie) to be

placed on the top-level menu page, with other menu options (e.g., Scenes) able

to be placed on a secondary-level page.

For movies with multi-page menus, typically for projects with many chapters, all

pages can adopt the same design or each page can be designed differently. (See

Creating multi-level menus on p. 196).

Once the disc is created the menu will display when the disc is loaded, allowing

easy access to important parts of your movie. When viewing the movie on

computer, simply navigate via mouse; for TV, use the remote control's

navigation buttons to jump between disc menu's chapters and pages.

To launch Menu Designer:

• Click Menu Designer on the Tasks toolbar.

You can also access Menu Designer during Disc setup (see

p. 188), accessed via the Export button (pick a disc option).

192 Exporting

Galleries

To make life as simple as possible you can adopt one of a series of "themed"

templates, stored in galleries such as Modern, Seasons, Funky, and Moods,

amongst many others.

Gallery

Click the Gallery button to display an upper menu above

a gallery of template presets for a selected menu item (as

shown in example above). Choose a menu item, navigate

the gallery, click a thumbnail of your chosen template,

and then view your design.

Double-click on "Your Title" text and type your own disc

title, then either close Menu Designer or, more typically,

customize your template further.

Customizing a template

The Background, Layout, Title, Thumbnail, Buttons, and Labels buttons can all

be used to modify your chosen template. By clicking any one of these options

along the top bar the user interface refreshes to display an appropriate menu and

accompanying gallery on the right-hand side of the Menu Designer workspace.

For example, if you click Title, then a text-related menu will be shown above a

gallery of title presets. Try it out by clicking on each button on the Menu Bar!

Background

Click the button to display an upper menu of background

types above a series of gallery thumbnails for the selected

menu item. You can choose from a gallery of solid or

gradient colours, or from a range of artistic background

images.

To import your own image or video for use as a

background, click My Image or Video, then click the Add

button. From the Open dialog, choose a media file to add to

the background gallery—click the media file to apply it as a

background.

Exporting 193

Layout

Pick an accompanying layout which will house thumbnails

for all chapters, either on a single or multiple pages.

Thumbnails are arranged in rows, columns or in more

artistic patterns. For example, a page layout with eight

thumbnails would match perfectly with a movie with eight

chapters.

If you choose a layout option with fewer chapter

thumbnails than the number of chapters in your project

you automatically create a multi-page disc menu. For

example, a "4 Per Page" layout would create a two-page disc

menu for a MoviePlus project with 8 chapters.

Title

If you want to change the attributes of your current title,

click this button. The gallery will show a range of preset

titles with various effects applied—some relatively modest,

some downright flashy! Select a preset closest to the one

you want to use. The titling will update on your main page

to reflect the change.

If you want to then edit your title, use the menu to change

the Font, Effects, Colour and Opacity of all your title

characters.

The Menu Designer supports in-place text editing, which

means direct editing of title text is possible. Either click on

the title and type to replace the title text or type at a

insertion point to add more text. You can perform all the

common text editing functions such as copy (Ctrl+C), paste

(Ctrl+V), and delete; you can also add a soft carriage return

with Ctrl-Return.

Thumbnail

Select this button then choose the Frames or Shapes

category. The latter offers shapes such as Ellipse, Star,

Diamond, amongst others. Pick a preset from the lower

gallery—a whole range of thumbnail shapes and styles are

available. For shaped thumbnails only, change the

thumbnail's Border Colour, Border Opacity, or apply

Effects.

194 Exporting

Label

Chapter thumbnail labels can be modified as described

above for Titles. Note that the change affects all labels and

not an individual label. In-place text editing is supported.

Buttons

Navigation buttons are used to navigate between multi-

page disc menus. You can swap out the current buttons,

especially if a colour clash occurs with your background

(preset or imported). Click the button to reveal a gallery of

buttons. Pick a button style, then select your chosen button

colour from the menu above the button gallery.

Full Page

For multi-page menus, changes are made across all pages

by default. If the button is disabled, changes are made to

the current page only.

Preview

Click this button to view how your project will look like on

your TV without the need to create a disc. Preview, adjust

your menu design, then preview again until your menu is

to your satisfaction. Use the accompanying buttons to

simulate your DVD player's remote control for testing.

Editing chapter properties

When you launch Menu Designer, you'll see either:

• a single thumbnail called "Play" appear in your menu workspace. This

occurs if you haven't inserted chapter points on your timeline.

• If you have inserted chapter points onto your storyboard or timeline

(as part of video editing), a series of thumbnails are shown which

represent the chapter at which you added a chapter point.

Once chapters are present, their properties can be edited or viewed, i.e. you can:

• preview the content of each chapter by playback.

• zoom in/out of individual frames to inspect the chapter.

Exporting 195

• swap to a different thumbnail (taken directly from the frame at the

chapter point position), e.g. a frame which typifies a chapter much

more than any other.

• change the chapter name, i.e. the label shown next to the thumbnail.

To view chapters:

• Double-click a chapter thumbnail in the menu workspace.

In the Chapter Properties dialog, the video frames displayed for a chapter are

those spanning between the selected and the next chapter point on the timeline

(if no chapter point exists after the current one the remainder of the movie is

shown).

The available navigation controls assist with the inspection, viewing and editing

of the chapter.

To use a different frame as thumbnail:

• In Chapter properties, use the navigation controls to navigate

then pick the right frame. Once you're happy with the thumbnail

shown in the preview window, click the Jump to Caret button (this

aligns the red Image indicator under the time indicator position). On

exit, this thumbnail will now be shown to represent your chapter.

• Drag the red indicator, which realigns then synchronizes the time

indicator to it. This automatic alignment provides a simple method for

alternative thumbnail selection (avoiding the Jump to Caret

operation).

Changing the thumbnail picture does not affect the chapter point

positions on the timeline. However, moving chapter points on the

timeline will reposition your modified thumbnail, so remember to

always check thumbnails are correctly set.

To rename your chapter:

• In Chapter properties, enter a new Name (or edit the existing name).

196 Exporting

Creating multi-level menus

In advance of entering Menu Designer, your chapter points need to be defined

for your project. If you want to create multi-level menus, chapter points for your

top-level menu have to be additionally set as "Top Level" chapter points. This is

done from the Properties pane when your chapter point is selected—simply

select the Top Level option, adding your own text if required.

All other chapter points without this option enabled are automatically relegated

to lower-level menus.

For more information about chapter points, see Using chapter points on p. 110.

Setting background music

By default, no background music is played when your disc menu is displayed on

your target device. However, it's often a nice finishing touch to complement

your menu design with supporting audio—use it for instructional reasons or to

simply play background music. The audio stream of a video file can also be used

as a background music.

If you've used a background video on your menu, you can use its

audio as a page soundtrack. The same music can be applied to all

pages or you can apply different music to the current page only

using the Apply to All button.

To enable background music:

1. Click the

Page Setup button on the Menu Bar.

2. From the dialog, pick an option from the Music section. Either:

• For music from a saved audio or video file:

Click the second radio button, and either type the path to the

media file or click the

Browse button to navigate to the file.

For the latter, navigate and select a media file (video file must

contain audio) from the dialog. Common Audio files such as

.MP3, .WAV, and .WMA are supported, as well as video files

such as .AVI, .MPG, .MOV, .WMV and .ASF.

Exporting 197

• For music from the page's background video:

Enable the Use soundtrack from background video button. You

must have previously set a video as the Custom Background from

the same dialog.

3. Click OK.

Writing project

The Menu Bar hosts a button which displays a drop-down menu with

options for writing to Blu-ray discs, AVCHD discs, DVDs, and VCDs directly

from the Menu Designer.

Animating your menu

If your menu needs some extra visual appeal it's possible to animate your menu

thumbnails or background, or both. This will automatically play movie chapters

within their thumbnail preview, or play any currently configured video

background.

To animate thumbnails and/or video backgrounds:

• In Page Setup, check either Animate Thumbnails or Animate

Background, or both. A slider sets the time the thumbnails or

background will animate for before the animation loops and plays

again.

Closing Menu Designer

• Choose Exit Menu Designer in the Options menu or click

the Close button. You will be prompted to save your project if it is

currently unsaved. Your updated template will be shown by default the

next time you load the Menu Designer.

198 Exporting

Exporting as a file

MoviePlus can export your project to one of several commonly encountered

video file formats.

In most instances, you would export your file as an MP4 Video (*.mp4), unless

there is a specific reason for choosing a different export option. The MP4 format

is a modern compressed streaming format (utilizing the H.264 video codec),

ideal for Internet use and storage on both local and portable devices.

To export as a file:

1. Select the

Export on the Tasks toolbar.

2. From the drop-down list, choose File.

3. Select your chosen file type from the list according to intended use,

then click Next>.

4. From the Export Settings dialog, several options are available:

• (Optional) Select a preset export template (choose from Normal

or Widescreen templates). Click Customize... to create your own

export template if necessary.

• (Optional) Change Render Quality (between Draft and Best

quality) to control the level of video and audio processing carried

out during export.

Exporting 199

• (Optional; timeline mode only) If you're exporting just part of

your project, the Export selected range option can be checked to

limit the export; you need to place selection markers on your

timeline first.

5. Click Finish.

6. To save the file, locate a target folder and specify a name for your file

in the File name box, then click the Save button. Your project will

then be composed and converted into the specified format and you

will be shown a progress bar during this process.

7. On completion, the file can be opened with the Open button (to play

the resulting video in your default media player software), you can

explore the file's folder with Open Folder or just Close the dialog and

return to MoviePlus.

You can click Cancel to abort the export process (you'll be

prompted to confirm this in case of an accidental key press and be

offered to delete the file).

Exporting to iTunes/PSP

MoviePlus allows you to share your finished movie via Apple devices (iPad,

iPhone4, and video-capable iPod devices). By exporting directly to iTunes you'll

be able to include your movie in your iTunes library; simply sync up to your

Apple device and your movie is ready to be shared.

You'll also be able to upload your movie to Sony PSP devices.

Export to iTunes

Exporting your movie to video-capable Apple devices is carried out in two

stages—exporting the movie automatically to iTunes and subsequently syncing

the movie to your Apple device. MoviePlus takes care of the first stage, but you'll

need to sync your movie to your device as you would for any other movie file.

200 Exporting

To export to iTunes:

1. Select the

Export on the Tasks toolbar.

2. From the drop-down list, choose iTunes/PSP.

3. From the dialog, select an export setting from the list for the intended

Apple device, choosing an appropriate video standard (PAL or NTSC),

quality level and optional Widescreen support.

You can click Customize... to create your own export template.

4. Change Render quality—set Draft when testing and Best for final,

high quality.

5. If you're exporting just part of your project, the Export selected range

option can be checked; you'll need to place selection markers on your

timeline first. See Using selection markers on p. 111.

6. Click Finish.

7. From the Save As dialog, locate a target folder and specify a name for

your mp4 video file in the File name box, then click the Save button.

Your project will then be composed and converted into the specified

format; you will be shown a progress bar during this process.

You can click Cancel to abort the export process (you'll be

prompted to confirm this in case of an accidental key press and be

offered to delete the file).

8. On completion, the file can be opened with the Open button (to play

the resulting video in your default media player software) or you can

explore the file's folder with Open Folder (or just Close the dialog and

return to MoviePlus).

9. Click Continue to launch iTunes automatically. Your movie will

already be added to your iTunes library (under Films).

The next time you connect your Apple device, it will sync up to your iTunes

library, copying your movie to your device.

Exporting 201

via PSP

If you own a Sony PSP, you can export your movie easily. In USB mode, your

PSP is seen as any other removable storage device—as such your movie is

uploaded onto the device with the minimum of fuss.

To upload, your PSP must be in USB mode.

To export to PSP:

1. As for exporting via iTunes (above) but instead of choosing an Apple

device export template, choose a PSP-specific template from the list.

Click Next>.

2. From the Upload to PSP dialog, enter a Movie title and select the PSP

device from the drop-down menu. This should show the PSP as a

removable storage device.

3. (Optional) Check Keep a local copy... to save the exported movie for

use again (leads to quicker exports for unchanged projects).

4. Click Finish. The project will then be composed and converted into

the specified format and you will be shown a progress bar during this

process.

You can click Cancel to abort the export process (you'll be

prompted to confirm this in case of an accidental key press and be

offered to delete the file).

5. Click Continue to upload the local movie up to the PSP.

202 Exporting

Exporting to YouTube

You may have been aware of the mass popularity of video hosting sites, notably

YouTube, in recent years. Placing a movie on YouTube means that you can

share a short movie worldwide without writing to media or uploading to your

own web site. The two-stage process involves exporting a file optimized for

upload (i.e., wmv) then uploading the file to the YouTube website.

A working YouTube (or Google) login is required to upload your

movie to YouTube. If you don't have a login, visit www.youtube.com

and register!

To export to YouTube:

1. Select

Export on the Tasks toolbar.

2. From the drop-down list, choose YouTube.

3. From the dialog, select a YouTube export setting from the list. A low

quality setting will create a lower quality movie by reducing the Video

bit rate on export.

You can also click Customize... to create your own export template.

4. (Optional) Change Render quality—set Draft when testing and Best

for final, high quality.

5. (Optional) If you're exporting just part of your project, the Export

selected range option can be checked; you'll need to place selection

markers on your timeline first. See Using selection markers on p. 111.

6. Click Next>.

7. From the Save As dialog, locate a target folder and specify a name for

your wmv video file in the File name box, then click the Save button.

Your project will then be composed and converted into the specified

format and you will be shown a progress bar during this process.

8. You can click Cancel to abort the export process (you'll be prompted

to confirm this in case of an accidental key press and be offered to

delete the file).

Exporting 203

9. (Optional) On completion, the file can be opened with the Open

button to check before YouTube upload (this plays your video in your

default media player software) or you can explore the file's folder with

Open Folder.

10. Click Continue to launch the YouTube Upload dialog. Add your

YouTube login details (UserID and Password), movie Title and

Description, a YouTube Video Category, and some keywords (Tags)

for users to search for.

Instead, you can upload by using valid Google account details (but

you'll still need a valid YouTube UserID also).

11. Click Finish to begin the file upload. A progress bar is shown during

upload.

204 Exporting

Appendices

206 Appendices

Appendices 207

Performance Notes

While MoviePlus has been engineered from the ground up to provide a fast

working environment, video editing is still a task that demands a great deal from

a typical computer. The amount of data being moved between the system's hard

drive, memory, and processor (and back again) can be immense, stretching the

capabilities of many PCs. At the same time the system processor (CPU) has to

perform the additional task of visual effects processing and composing your

edited clips into a resulting movie.

There are several techniques used for improving playback performance as well as

computer performance checks to help optimize your computer for video editing.

The former involves pre-rendering and proxy file generation (for HD video); the

latter will help overall speed, but in particular will help with data-intensive

operations like composing and exporting a movie with MoviePlus!

Improving playback performance

For non-HD projects, you may not experience any playback problems during

preview. However for more complex projects, i.e. those using a myriad of special

effects or transitions on multiple tracks, or HD projects you may encounter

stuttering playback. Several options can be used to alleviate this:

• Dropping the Render Quality during preview

• Pre-rendering (a clip, transition, or time range)

• Creating proxy files (if using HD video)

You can adopt a combination of these methods to suit your project.

Render quality

The Render Quality setting on the Preview menu (or right-click on the Video

Preview pane) determines at what quality your movie will be previewed and will

determine how hard MoviePlus will work to draw (render) your movie. Quality

options range from Draft to Best—if you are experiencing stuttering playback,

especially where transitions or effects are in progress, you can reduce the

preview quality to improve playback speed without harming your project.

208 Appendices

Render Quality has no effect on your export quality, which is

controlled separately.

You can also improve playback performance, by reducing the

size of your preview (zoom out) by clicking the Zoom Out button

(or via the same option on the Preview menu).

Pre-rendering

Pre-rendering can be enabled in advance of video preview to improve playback

performance, especially when displaying transitions, effects, blending, and text.

It can take place in several ways—either for your entire project, for specific clips,

on one or more multiple transitions, or over a set time range.

When you drag clips onto your timeline, you'll see red pre-render indicator bars

(arrowed below) above your timeline ruler to show areas which are suggested for

pre-rendering (in the example below, transitions between clips are suggested for

pre-rendering).

Once you've pre-rendered your project (discussed later), these red bars will

change to green bars.

Appendices 209

If pre-rendering is in progress, the indicator bars for the portion of

your project currently being pre-rendered shows temporarily in

orange.

Pre-rendering is a background task, which allows you to get on with

your project development. The process actually creates preview files

which can be managed and deleted.

Pre-rendering is also a cross-track operation; all objects on all tracks

within the red indicator bars will be pre-rendered.

A green progress bar on the Status Bar indicates pre-rendering

progress. Pre-rendering may take some time to complete for larger

files. If needed, you can click the Cancel button on the bar to abort

the process.

A standard location is used to store pre-rendered files. This location

can be viewed or changed from Tools>Options>Folders—you can

click the Browse... button to select a different Pre-rendered video

folder location.

To pre-render your entire project:

• Right-click the Video Preview pane and select Pre-render All.

The Status Bar indicates pre-rendering of your project. Once complete, pre-

rendering will have changed any red indicator bars to green.

As you further develop your project—changing transitions, adding clip effects,

adding text clips, performing video blending—you'll see red indicator bars again.

Don't panic! You just need to pre-render your project again!

MoviePlus lets you pre-render complex areas of your project in isolation (if

you've got a particular reason to do so).

To pre-render clips or transitions:

1. (Optional) Select one or more clips or transitions on the timeline. For

all transitions, right-click and pick Select related objects.

2. Right-click on the object(s) and select Pre-render.

210 Appendices

For a time range, you'll have to insert and position Start and End selection

markers on your timeline (p. 111).

To pre-render a time range:

1. Click on the timeline ruler to set the time indicator's position.

2. From the context toolbar's

Markers drop-down menu, choose

Set Selection Start (or right-click on the time indicator) to set the start

of your time range. From the same menu, select Set Selection End to

set the end of your range.

3. (Optional) Drag your

Selection Start and Selection End

markers along the timeline to fine-tune your time range.

4. Select Pre-render Selected Range from the Preview menu (or right-

click on the Video Preview pane).

The Preview menu also lets you temporarily switch off pre-rendering (uncheck

Use pre-rendered video) or delete any previously rendered preview files (Clear

pre-rendered video). Preview files can also be deleted via the Helper File

Manager. (See Managing helper files on p. 212.)

Using Proxy files

A proxy file in MoviePlus is a reduced-resolution file which is written to assist in

the playback of your HD video clip, therefore optimizing the program's playback

performance. Otherwise, previewing a HD video clip will put extra demands on

your computer's processor due to its high resolution characteristics, resulting in

stuttering playback.

Proxy files are created by default when you drag HD media onto your

timeline/storyboard. You'll see a progress bar on the Status Bar showing each

proxy file being created for each HD video clip in turn.

For computers with quad-core processors, previewing HD video smoothly is a

reality. As a result, proxy file generation in MoviePlus when using such

computers is disabled by default. For some higher performance computers, you

may not need to proxy your HD video files as your computer may be sufficiently

powerful to preview acceptably. This can be disabled from Tools>Options... if

needed.

Appendices 211

To switch off proxy files automatically:

1. Select Options... from the Tools menu.

2. From the Proxy Files menu option, uncheck Use proxy files for HD

video.

You can always temporarily check how the original file plays back at

any time by right-clicking your file and unchecking the Use Proxy

File option prior to previewing.

Instead of creating proxy files automatically, you can create proxy files for

specific HD video files directly on the storyboard (timeline).

To create a proxy file for a single HD video clip:

• Right-click on the HD video clip (timeline only), and select Use Proxy

File.

You have the option of creating proxy files in the Media pane before

committing HD video clips to the timeline/storyboard. Right-click a

clip and choose Create Proxy File. This avoids having to generate

lots of proxy files sequentially as you add HD video clips to the

timeline.

Proxy files are not removed on exiting MoviePlus. If you're worried

about disk space usage you can:

- Delete the proxy files via the Helper File Manager (see below).

- Change the standard folder location used to store proxy files. This

location can be viewed or changed from

Tools>Options>Folders—you can click the Browse... button to

select a different Proxy files folder location.

- From Tools>Options>Proxy Files, use a different Codec for

encoding proxy files. WMV or MPEG codecs offer reduced proxy file

sizes.

212 Appendices

Managing helper files

Helper files comprise a range of file types, such as pre-rendered preview files

and proxy files, that are created as background tasks to optimize MoviePlus

performance. Files for indexing, scene detection, audio waveforms, and motion

(Image Stabilization) are also considered helper files.

All of these file types can be generated as background tasks at different times in

your project. The Background Task Manager (File>Background Tasks...)

displays these files while being processed.

Once generated, the helper files can be displayed and, if needed, deleted from

one location, called the Helper File Manager (File>Helper Files...).

To delete helper files:

1. Click Helper Files... on the File menu.

2. From the Helper File Manager dialog, select the relevant option in the

drop-down list. For example, choose Preview files or Proxy files when

deleting pre-rendered files or proxy files, respectively.

3. Select an individual preview file in the list and click Delete.

Alternatively, click Select All, then Delete to remove all preview files.

4. Click Close.

When deleting preview files, you'll notice that the pre-render

indicator bars revert from green to red.

Appendices 213

Improving system performance

Disabling Anti-Virus on-access scanning/live protection

Many anti-virus programs offer a live virus-checking service running in the

background, often called auto-protect, active shield service, or on-access

scanning. This increases the level of security offered by your PC as all files being

accessed are checked for viruses instead of waiting for a full system scan once a

week to know you're safe, but this of course does slow down disk access for other

programs. If MoviePlus performance is not as you expect, it might be worth

investigating your current auto-protect or on-access virus scanning settings as

they may be affecting disk performance while using MoviePlus.

Using a fast drive

To optimize the speed of access to your MoviePlus project files and project clips

you should use a dedicated fast drive if possible.

You should also avoid using an external disk drive as the location for your

project and its clips. External drives will affect disk access times and impair

video preview playback.

Windows swap file location

If you are a power user familiar with the Windows swap file or virtual memory

settings, you may like to consider moving your swap file location to a drive other

than the one used to store or process your video. This may help improve

performance when Windows is using your virtual memory in complex

compositions or exports. This should be carried out at your own risk.

Disk defragmentation

A defragmented drive or dedicated empty drive is preferred for video editing

work.

You can defragment your drive using a built-in Windows tool, normally

available by right-clicking a drive in Windows Explorer and choose Properties,

the Tools tab, then click Defragment Now....

214 Appendices

PC processor performance

While it may not be necessary to upgrade a computer in order to run MoviePlus,

there are some things to bear in mind in the event of a new PC purchase or

upgrade, if your video editing warrants the attention.

• If you're considering upgrading to a HD camcorder, and are expecting

to create HD projects natively you need to consider using a computer

with a quad-core processor.

• If you're upgrading to a computer with a dual-core processor, you may

need to proxy files for HD operation. You may need to experiment

with HD video playback with and without proxy file support. See

Using proxy files.

Memory requirements

Consider upgrading your RAM if you plan to work on projects involving HD

video. Increasing RAM will also improve MoviePlus performance on larger

projects generally. See System Requirements on p. 14.

Appendices 215

Keyboard Shortcuts

These published shortcuts are the program default shortcuts.

However, it is possible to customize these to fit your own

requirements, invalidating this information.

Single-letter

keys

Description

G Group

I Set Start Time

M Mute

O Set End Time

S Split

Control Keys Description

Ctrl+Shift+C Copy Frame in Preview

Ctrl+Shift+F Autofit

Ctrl+Shift+F Destroy Group

Ctrl+Shift+0 Zoom Preview to 100%

Ctrl+Shift+Left Go to Previous Marker

Ctrl+Shift+Right Go to Next Marker

Ctrl+Left arrow Moves track out of group (Timeline mode)

Ctrl+Right arrow Moves track into group (Timeline mode)

Ctrl+Up arrow Move track or group up the stack (Timeline mode)

Ctrl+Down arrow

Move track or group down the stack (Timeline

mode)

Ctrl++ Zoom in to timeline

Ctrl+- Zoom out of timeline

Ctrl+[ Zoom to all (timeline)

216 Appendices

Ctrl+] Zoom to Selection (timeline)

Ctrl+< Select Previous Keyframe

Ctrl+> Select Next Keyframe

Ctrl+\ Switch to Timeline (Storyboard) mode

Ctrl+A Select Related Objects

Ctrl+C Copy

Ctrl+Delete Delete Selection Only

Ctrl+Home Scroll to Time indicator

Ctrl+M Go to Marker (or chapter point).

Ctrl+N New MoviePlus Project

Ctrl+O Open MoviePlus Project

Ctrl+P MoviePlus Project Settings

Ctrl+S Save MoviePlus Project

Ctrl+V Paste

Ctrl+X Cut

Ctrl+Y Redo

Ctrl+Z Undo

Ctrl+1 Draft Render Quality

Ctrl+2 Preview Render Quality

Ctrl+3 Normal Render Quality

Ctrl+4 Good Render Quality

Ctrl+5 High Render Quality

Ctrl+6 Best Render Quality

Appendices 217

Misc keys Description

Del Delete

End Go to end of movie

Esc Stop the movie (and return to start of playback)

Home Go to start of movie

Left Go to Previous Frame

Right Go to Next Frame

Space Play/Pause the Movie

Function Keys Description

F1 Help

F5 Starts/stops video playback

F6 Inserts a marker

F7 Inserts a Video Effect

F8 Inserts a Video Effect Group (Timeline mode)

F9 Inserts a Video Track (Timeline mode)

F10 Inserts an Audio Track (Timeline mode)

F11 Inserts a Video Group (Timeline mode)

Ctrl+F12 Inserts an Audio Bus (Timeline mode)

Shift+F6 Inserts a chapter point

218 Appendices

Shift Keys Description

Shift+F Align to Frames

Shift+G Remove from Group

Shift+L Linking (Timeline mode)

Shift+P Move time indicator to end of clip when pasting

Shift+R Rippling

Shift+S Snapping

Shift+Left Go to Previous Clip

Shift+Right Go to Next Clip

Appendices 219

Index

Index 221

2D filter effects, 139

3D filter effects, 141

animation (text), 178

Apple devices (exporting to), 199

Attributes menu, 70, 95

audio, 151

adding, 153

adding tracks, 71

adjusting pan in, 161

bus, 157

capturing, 28

clips, 153

editing, 152

effects, 145

VST, 148

fading, 156

levels, 160

mixing, 148

pan, 161

ripping, 165

volume, 161

waveform display, 154

AVCHD writing, 189

Menu Designer for, 190

background clips (CG), 60

Background Task Manager, 209,

212

backgrounds, 114

blue screen, 118

removing, 114

blue/green screening, 118

Blu-ray writing, 188

Menu Designer for, 190

bus (audio), 157

buses, audio

assigning audio tracks to, 159

creating, 159

camcorder

capture from, 28

captions, 169, 171

capturing (video), 28

CG clips, 57

background, 60

QuickShapes, 61

chapter points, 194

on storyboard, 45

on timeline, 110

Chroma Key, 118

clip groups, 85

clipping (audio), 160

clips, 45, 67

arranging, 49, 78

audio, 153

background, 60

colour, 58

Computer Generated (CG), 57

crop, 50, 88

linking (timeline), 79

overlap control of, 105

QuickShape, 61

resizing, 50

selecting, 48, 73

splitting, 88

text, 169

default, 173

transform, 128

transparency, 59

trimming, 32

colour, 58, 144

correcting, 144

fade to, 60

Computer Generated (CG) clips,

57, 169

copy from device (media), 26

222 Index

counter, 69

credits, adding, 169, 172

crop envelope, 91

cropping, 88

masks, 90

custom projects, 22

cut-outs, 114

detecting scenes, 36

Dolby Digital, 188

download (media), 26

DV format, 31

DVD writing, 188

from AVCHD, 189

Menu Designer for, 190

effect groups

audio, 148

video, 87

effects, 133, 145

2D filter, 139

3D filter, 141

audio, 145

VST, 148

envelopes, 68, 90

crop, 89

opacity, 112

preset, 93

exporting, 187

as file, 198

to Blu-ray, 188

to disc, 188

to DVD, 188

to iTunes/PSP, 199

to YouTube, 202

fading, 60, 101

in audio, 156

on storyboard, 52

on timeline, 60

with transitions, 52, 101

features

key, 4

new, 10

unlocking, 14

filter effects, 139, 141

full screen preview, 39

getting started, 19

groups, 68, 85

applying effects to, 87, 148

clip, 81

master, 87

video, 85

guides, 38

HD video

proxy files for, 210

header, 67

Helper File Manager, 212

images, 181

on text clips, 181

manipulating, 183

importing (media), 26

installation, 14

iPad/iPod/iPhone, 199

Ken Burns effect, 55

key features, 4

keyboard shortcuts, 215

keyframes, 68, 96

mode for, 100

scaling, 100

view, 68

levels (audio), 160

link overlays, 81

linking, 79

markers, 69, 108

chapter points as, 110

selection, 111

masks, 114

crop, 90

Index 223

master groups, 87

matting, 118

media, 25

adding, 46, 72

capturing, 26, 28

copy from device, 26

downloading, 26

importing, 26

rotating, 28

Media Pane, 27

Menu Designer (for discs), 190

chapter points, 194

meter (audio levels), 160

mixing (audio), 148

mono (audio), 151

movies, adding, 25

multi-trimming, 35

muting, 70

narration, 162

recording, 163

new features, 10

NTSC, 190

objects, 180

Image, 181

manipulating, 182

QuickShape, 180

text, 169

opacity, 112

envelope, 91

optimizing performance, 207

overlaps, 105

Overlay Track, 121, 169, 171

overlays, 121

link, 81

PAL, 190

pan, 161

pan and zoom, 55

Pan envelope, 91

performance, 207

picture-in-picture, 128

playback, 36

pre-rendering, 208

preview, 36

full screen, 39

project, 19

opening, 20, 23

settings, 20

custom, 22

starting a new, 20

proxy files (for HD video), 210

PSPs, 201

QuickShapes, 57, 61, 181

as CG clips, 57

on text clips, 181

manipulating, 183

registration, 3

ripping (of audio CDs), 165

rippling, 83

rotating (media files), 28

ruler, 69

scene detection, 36

scene splitting, 31, 35

scrolling (timeline), 76

scrubbing (timeline), 77

seeking (timeline), 77

shapes, 57, 61, 181

on text clips, 181

manipulating, 183

sharing, 187

shortcuts (keyboard), 215

slow motion, 112

snapping, 84

speeding up, 112

splitting clips

in Media pane, 35

on timeline, 88

224 Index

storyboard

adding media to, 47

arranging clips on, 49

basics, 43

fading in/out on, 52

resizing clips on, 50

selecting clips on, 48

stretching, 112

strips, 67

system requirements, 14

text, 175

adding, 169, 173

aligning, 182

animating, 178

editing, 175

formatting, 176

manipulating, 182

selecting, 174

styles (default), 173

time indicator, 65, 69

moving the, 76

timeline

adding media to, 72

arranging clips on, 78

basics, 65

effects, 137

groups, 85

scrolling the, 76

scrubbing the, 77

selecting clips on, 73

splitting, 88

trimming, 87

zooming the, 76

titles, 169, 170

tracks, 65, 67, 71

adding and arranging, 71

transform envelope, 91

transforms, 128

transitions

storyboard, 45, 52

timeline, 68, 102

Transparency, 112

trick play, 37

trimming, 32

multi-, 35

on timeline, 87

VCD writing

Menu Designer for, 190

video

adding clips, 25

adding tracks, 71

arranging clips, 78

capturing, 28

effects, 133

groups, 81

previewing, 36

video groups, 86

Video Preview pane, 36

Video Standards, 190

NTSC, 190

PAL, 190

voice-overs, 162

volume, 161

envelope, 91

VST audio effects, 148

Waveform Display (Audio), 154

Welcome, 3

What's new, 10

write, 188

to disc, 188

to disc, from image, 189

YouTube videos, 202

zoom and pan, 55

zooming (timeline), 76

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