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Saving effects so they retain keyframes properly
After I make an effect that I know I’ll use throughout a program (such as a blur or glow transition), I save it to an FX bin so I can easily access it again, and drag it to new clips – only problem is, say the effect (ie, blur) when I created it on a 5 sec clip blurs only the last 10 frames. Now when I save it to a bin, then drag it to a different clip that is maybe 10 secs, the transition works, but it now takes 20 frames, like the keyframes adjust proportionally to the length of the clip the effect is applied to. So I then must go back into the effect and adjust the keyframes accordingly.
Can anyone tell me if there is a way to save your effects with the keyframes in tact?
Thanks you in advance for your knowledge and support.
Craig
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6 Replies
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That’s exactly how it’s supposed to work. The keyframes do adjust themselves proportionally, shortening and lengthening the time between them depending on the length of clip you put them on.
To get around this (and save yourself a huge amount of render time), do this:
If you want to blur out just the last ten frames of a clip, add a blank video track above the clip. Now go 10 frames from the end of the clip and–on the blank track–add an edit mark. Go to the end of the clip and add another edit mark in the filler on the blank video track. Add your blur to this and keyframe it. Your keyframed blur is saved, and everytime you need to use it just add edit marks and drop it on a blank track above the clip you want to blur.
This will keep your keyframes consistent because you’re setting the length in the filler of a blank track instead of relying on the clip length. It will also save you a huge amount of time rendering. Consider: if a nonrealtime effect (say blur) is on a 5 second clip, but you’re only blurring the last 10 frames and the rest of the clip has the blur set to 0, your Avid will still render the first 4 seconds and 20 frames, even though the effect isn’t actually effecting anything. So add it to filler and it only has to render 10 frames!!
Mike.
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I don’t think it is possible. The only way it stays is if you only have a beginning keyframe and an end keyframe.
What we do is
1. an add edit of ,ie. 10 frames back from the tail of the clip if you are blurring out or ahead if you are at the head to blur in.
2. Then we have that 10 frame blur out (0% on the first KF and 100% on the last KF) saved in a bin and just pop it on.It saves you from rendering the whole 10 sec clip.
Hope this helps -
Atleast I have backup.
Thanks Promoboy -
As they say in the Guiness commercials, “Brilliant!” Didn’t realize you could add effects to blank tracks, oh the possibilities…
Thanks everyone for your help, this makes a huge difference!
Cheers,
Craig
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Use “Advanced Keyframes”, you can change the standard “elastic’ key frames to “Fixed” keyframes which will keep the durations you originally set.
-Mike
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Ok, here’s something I was hoping would work but I needed to check it first. It works, and I think it’s pretty awesome.
Example: You have a client who wants a camera flash effect between cuts. You could apply your effects directly to your source clips, copy keyframes from one to the other, etc…but then you remember that you can add effects to a blank video track, making keyframing easier and saving you valuable render time.
So, you add a blank video track, then you add an edit mark in the filler of that track 10 frames before the cut and 10 frames after. You add a blur effect, keyframe it to start at 0, go to 25 at the cut point then back down to 0. You Alt+Add (nest) a Color Effect to the Blur. You keyframe the white input to go from 235 to 16 and back to 235 while you drop the saturation down a little bit. Quick render, the client loves it and wants it on several more transitions.
“Easily done!” you say, knowing you can save the effects to the bin, then each time you need to add the camera flash you just add edit marks, apply the blur, Alt+Add the Color Effect and you’re done.
But wait! There’s a better way! After your effects have been added to your blank video track–Alt+Add a Submaster effect to them. It’s under Image. Or, Mark Clip on the effects and do a Collapse of just that layer. It will automatically nest your effects into a Submaster effect. Now, open your Effect Editor, Alt+Drag the Submaster effect to your bin and you’ll see Submaster (with Src). This means you can now load your saved effects into your source monitor, just like a clip, and cut it into your timeline where ever you want. No more adding edit marks, applying one effect, nesting the next effect, etc… Now you can make a clip from your effects!
Hope this helps someone. It’s been a huge help for me, and I thought it was a pretty neat little trick.
Michael.
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