Effects Video Track Isolation Q

[Michael Hancock]

Color effects need to go directly on the clips, before other effects. Otherwise they will effect the background. If you already have other effects in place, step into them until you get to your original master clip, then apply your Color effect.

Michael.

[Matthew Rundell]

Thank you. But this opens up other questions, such as masking, etc. The mask takes over not only the layer I want, but others below. I am prepping for an Avid show; I have been hired. I am an FCP guy for 10 years. I have Media Composer 2.8 at home (the show is on 3.0.6). Regardless, it seems Avid really needs an order to filters/effects applied. Any way to remember/predict the order? Is there a basic, global scheme to remember for this software? Any links on advanced editing/tutorials that can get me up to my skills needed as fast as possible? Thanks for the response. Thanks a lot.

Matt Rundell

[Michael Hancock]

Honestly, I’m not sure of any hard and fast rules for effect stacking. I can typically get what I want, but I’ve been using Avid almost exclusively for the last 3 1/2 years, and 2 years of that were doing news promotions which were very effect heavy. A lot of trial and error for sure.

Can you give us a rundown on what you’re wanting to achieve? I may be able to offer some tips on effect order, or make a quick tutorial. One thing for sure–Avid needs to update its effects handling.

Michael.

[Terence Curren]

Two simple rules.

1: Avid looks from the top of the timeline down.

2: Inside of any layer of video, you can nest more layers in which Avid looks from the top down but then only presents the result to the surface layer.

There are two types of effects in Avid land. Single input and multiple input effects. To grok the difference, follow the steps below.

If you add a “one input” effect, like a resize for instance, on V2 or above you will only see the top layer and any resizing will only effect it. If you shrink it down, you will only get black around the edges, not see anything below it.

Step inside this effect and you will only see V1. that is your current layer.

Now remove that effect and add a “multiple input effect” like the simple Picture in Picture effect. If you shrink it down, you see the video behind it.

Step inside this effect and you will see multiple video layers. In the case of a PIP, you will see V2 and V1. V1 will be blank which means the next track down on the surface layer is coming through there. If you just monitor V1 you will see the combination of any tracks below coming up through this effect.

To prove that point, cut some other video onto V1 in the nest. When you step back out you will see your PIP over the video you just cut into V1 inside the nest and nothing below.

So V1 must remain empty in a multiple input effect for the rest of the tracks below to come through. Step back in and lift that video on V1. Now step back out. You will now see the tracks below behind the PIP again.

Let’s say you want to add color to the shot in the PIP, but not to the shots below. If you nested the color effect on top of the PIP, you would be looking through the color effect (a single input effect), at the combination of the tracks below. That won’t help you.

If you step in the PIP, and add the color effect to the video on V2, it will only effect that video. Now when you step back out you will see the PIP layer colored, and the background layer unaffected.

The next tricky one is the keying effect, which is a multiple input effect, like a title for example.

Create a title and cut it into your timeline on an upper track. Step inside and you will see three video layers. V1 will again be blank as it is the combination of the tracks below coming through. V2 will be the fill, and V3 will be the matte which is cutting the hole for the fill. In this instance you can add the color effect to V2 and change the properties of your title without affecting the background. It’s the same principal as above.

The next tricky effect is the Multiple Layer AVX effect with the ability to map which layer is affected. BCC effects by Boris are an example. When you apply some of there effects, and step inside you will notice there are multiple empty video tracks. This allows you to cut in different video there and use it to do different things. I won’t go into all this as there are plenty of tutorials on BCC and how to use it.

Hopefully this helped you get a better handle on what Avid is doing. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, this would be easier to demonstrate graphically, but I’m not a graphic artist so you are out of luck there. 😉

Terence Curren
http://www.alphadogs.tv
http://www.digitalservicestation.com
Burbank,Ca

[Matthew Rundell]

Thanks a lot guys. Both of your comments have helped. In comparison to FCP, Avid is of course far more user intensive when it comes to effects stacking and I will just have to learn as I go, with help from guys like you and trial and error. One question was what I was trying to accomplish– I am just giving myself a crash course in the app due to being hired on a long term Avid show with a team of other guys (and my advanced knowledge is in FCP). I will learn more about Avid in the team environment too of course. I just didn’t want to embarrass myself in the first week on the job. Now I won’t. Thanks again.

Matt Rundell

[Juris Eksts]

Excelent explanation Terence, it makes things very clear for me.

From your explanation I’ve been trying different things, and have a problem with titles in this respect.
nameley: how can I affect a TITLE only and not the background. I’ve been trying to Shatter (from the BCC effects) the TITLE only.
The problem is that the stepped in channel is locked, it says can only be unlocked from the top layer, and nothing seems to unlock that.

Any hints?

Yours in anticipation,

Juris Eksts