[Dean Fragola]

Hi Paddy,
I know you’re going to think I’m crazy, but maybe I’m doing something wrong on the keyboard …
As whenever I click a clip in a bin, it is then highlighted (like I would expect) but then when I go to click the next clip below it (without holding the control or alt or shift keys), it then highlights that clip as well … so it’s like I can’t just move down the bin and click the next clip — as it just keeps the highlight on other clips as well).
Plus now, when I highlight a clip and hit the delete key, nothing happens … whereas, I used to be able to hit the delete key and then the box would pop up asking if I want to delete that media.
With all the major things you’ve helped me tackle …… ironically I’m now stuck (no pun intended) on something as simple as just trying to click/isolate single clips in a bin with a simple mouse click, but I can’t even do that now. Oh boy. lol
Dean

[Dean Fragola]

Hi Paddy,

Once again, thank you so much for all your patience … and encouragement … and for walking me through some of these new set-ups and configurations and layouts, etc in MC6.5 (as compared to what I’m used to with AVID Xpress Pro).

And your insight has been very, very helpful … as you are very good at giving (non jargon) instructions (step-by-step) on how to achieve exactly what I’m trying to do … and you have a very practical and articulate way of explaining things in a very easy to follow manner (especially to someone like myself who is not tech savvy) …. thus helping me achieve immediately positive results without getting anymore frustrated.

And thanks to you, I’ve now been able to get my Effects Editor Window displayed properly …. get my renders going to the proper drives … get my “show more/less detail” commands assigned to key strokes … and to get my trim mode working (and on a side note, the thing that was screwing me up as far as Trim Mode, was that in the trim mode settings, “always use small trim mode” instead of “never use trim mode” was checked; I’m not even really sure what the heck that means, but it can certainly screw up the layout/function when trying to trim.

And just one other question … when going from AVID Xpress Pro (which I guess is like 16 or 32 bit??) to MC6.5 64-bit, it seems that some of my segments (which have a Color Effect) are now way off … luckily I am able to simply open the Effect Editor and adjust them …. but I’m just curious as to what differences I should be expecting/prepared for now that I’m in a 64-bit system? …. do I need to make any setting adjustments since I imported projects from an Xpress Pro system that has a different bit-rate?

And if I now import HD footage into MC6.5, will I be able to simply edit that content right into my TIMELINE even though the resolution (currently in the sequence) is totally different since the media currently in the Timeline is SD footage that has already been cut into the sequence?

Thanks again for all your help as you have been a true Godsent … and I’m very grateful and very appreciative.

Dean

[Dean Fragola]

Hi Paddy,

Thank you so much for helping me as I can’t even begin to tell you how grateful I am. And I appreciate the reassurance that other people have been in this same boat before … as sometime I feel like I’m so far behind with all the technology that I’m just floating around on a sinking old tire tube while everyone else is now cruising along on the Queen Mary.

At any rate …

Thanks to your help, I’ve now been able to get my “Effects Editor” layout set the way I like/need it so that way the effects editor window stays open as I then mouse back-n-form from adjusting parameters in the effects editor window — over to moving keyframes around in the record monitor. Phew.

However, there are a couple of other things that I’m still having trouble with — and I’m hoping you can help me out. I can’t find any commands in any of the command categories in the “command palette” (for “less detail” or “more detail”) that I can then map to the “up and down arrow keys” (those keys underneath the “home” and “end” keys on my keyboard; am I missing them somewhere (as all I can find are the “-” and “+” keys which then just seem to zoom in and out of my record monitor — so perhaps I’m simply not looking in the right place for these “less detail” or “more detail” commands? Plus, honestly Patty, I’m not really sure how “menu to button reassignment” works as I’ve never used it before.

If there is simply no way to reduce the physical size of the effect icons in the TIMELINE, then I’m just going to have to try and get used to it. It’s just that it used to be so much easier on the eyes when the effect icons where small in the TIMELINE (like in Xpress Pro) as that way I could then see the text that was written on the segment.

And maybe you can help me with the TRIM settings — as I’m kinda losing my mind at this point. I used to simply be able to lasso an edit point in the TIMELINE which then simply took me right into TRIM mode — where I would then see the outgoing footage in the source window – and the incoming footage in the record monitor … and then just simply click on the source or record window to switch to “that side as a single roller trim” – and then tap or click single frames to increase or reduce whatever I needed (and I could see exactly what was going on in the footage) …. but now, in MC6.5 I’m baffled …. as there is nothing showing up in the source monitor? …. how does AVID MC expect people to know where they want the new cut point to be if you can’t even see the duel-screens? Plus, am I even able with MC6.5 to still simply click to the source or record monitor to then switch into single roller trim mode?

And I used to be able to lasso a segment and then go right into “slip” or “slide” trim modes (depending on if I started the lasso box at the upper right or left hand corner) …. but now it looks like MC doesn’t offer that? — as the lassoing isn’t working like it did in Xpress Pro. Does MC6.5 even offer slipping and sliding trimming? — or is that simply a thing of the past?

Would you happen to know how I can change the target drive for my renders? … as my “C” drive always appears the drive that AVID wants to send the render to … so I then have to manually drop down the box and select my F drive every time … which is a few extra steps and clicks every single time I try and simply add/render an effect.

And, to really think that I may be going nuts here (lol) as I’m not sure if my eyes are playing tricks on me ….. but I tried adding a very simple “film dissolve” between two segments/clips in the TIMELINE — and I can swear that AVID then actually changed the outgoing shot by moving it back to an earlier starting point as well as then leaving off earlier than where it was?? (so if my eyes are correct, MC actually changed the segment/clip from what I had in my Timeline prior to adding the film dissolve transition effect??) … is that even possible? …

Oh boy …. my head feels like it’s in a hurricane here as so many things look and act differently in MC as compared to Xpress Pro …. but hopefully I can get back on track with the basics here —- as that way I can then at least resume editing from where I was (while I’m moving forward and learning what’s available in MC6.5) ….

Oh and, by the way, what the heck is “small mode trim”?? … as I’ve never even heard of that 🙁

And to answer your question, honestly I would have been happy just sticking with my Avid Xpress Pro …. but unfortunately Xpress Pro just wasn’t compatible with any HD formats … plus Xpress Pro was very limited as far as a lot of effects that people/customers were requests (particle and blur kind of stuff, etc) … so I needed to get more up to date ….

I just would have never dreamed it would be this complicated … as I honestly thought that Media Composer would be like working in Xpress Pro except now being able to handle more resolutions plus having more effects available.

Thanks again for all your help Paddy as I’m indeed very grateful and very appreciative.

Dean

[Dean Fragola]

Hey John,

Thanks again, as I really do appreciate it. And I’m thankful for any tutorials I can find on Youtube … plus forums like this one where people such as yourself can help me out (otherwise I’d be lost).

And just one other quick question regarding having a clip in the source monitor in AVID … I’ve tried to open up “motion effect” so I could then slow it down, but AVID won’t let me ……. so I’m assuming that you can’t do motion effects on a piece of source content that has an ALPHA channel?

Thanks.

Dean

[Dean Fragola]

Hi John,
Thank you so much ….. as your advice has been dead-on perfect both times. As you were exactly right in that I just needed to hit the 3D button in the lower right hand corner of the effects editor — as that now gives me all kinds of parameter options including scaling with the ALPHA channel footage.
Thanks again as you’re a life savor …. as prior to you giving me advice, I was literally about to completely give up on trying to use the ALPHA clip content … as I couldn’t import it properly nor alter it’s parameters.
Thanks again.
Dean

[Dean Fragola]

Hi John,

Thank you very much for helping me … as I’m new to this ALPHA channel stuff, so I really appreciate your patience … and your advice.

And I’m happy to say that your initial idea/suggestion worked great (In the import dialog, change the alpha setting to the opposite of what it is set to now. If its set to “Do Not Invert”, then set it to Invert. If its set to Invert, set it to “Do Not Invert”) …

As I now have the media imported and looking good as a MATTE KEY piece of media … and when I edit it onto a segment in the Timeline it look good (and I can adjust the foreground level with no problem once I open the effect editor) ….

However … the only problem is, AVID won’t let me adjust the “scaling” in the parameters? …. am I doing something wrong? … or is a matte key just not able to be scaled? …

If I try and move the scale parameters in the effects editor, the image disappears and I just have a black screen. And I’m not able to nest in and adjust the scaling either … and if I try and drop an image resize effect onto the MATTE, Avid just tells me that “effect cannot be applied”.

Thanks again for all your help.

[Dean Fragola]

Hey Glenn,
Thanks so much for all your help.
Unfortunately, I don’t know anything about computers technically speaking (as I really am 99% just a director/writer/videographer) …
And I can kick myself for trying to tinker around with files …
As unfortunately things have gone from bad to catastrophically worse.
Yesterday I was at least able to launch AVID and pull up the media into my sequences … but I just kept getting that Exception: omfiHPDomain_INT_FAILED, file:msmMMOB.mdb error box popping up that was then keeping from being able to work …
But now …
After tinkering around with things …
While AVID is now in the process of launching — and it get to Initializing Media Streams Manager — the then start scanning the media in my external drive (H) … after getting through about 50% of the scan, I get a message that saying:
An error occured reading the Database file for the directory ‘H:OMFIMedia Files’ Exception: ‘omfiHPDomain_INIT_FAILED’ The Database ‘msmMMOB’ may be corrupted
And then when I have to hit (OK) I get an even more dubious box that comes up saying:
Media Will be Unavailable in the media Directory
And then when I have to hit OK … and it continues to launch into the AVID interface, my heart drop as my timeline is there, but the Source and Composer windows are absolutely blank.
So now I’m having a panic attack thinking that I either accidentally deleted something very important (a pointer, etc) that has caused irreparable damage … AND/OR that something is so corrupt in my system that I have now actually lost a link to all my media (and ostensibly lost all my media).
As I’ve also (at a few different point) had some other rather inauspicious messages come up such as:
Exception: FailedLock’
And
The Process Cannot Access the file because another process has locked a portion of the file.
So, at this point, any suggestions that you may have would be an absolute life savor as I have no idea what to do nor where to turn at this point as it’s looking pretty grim.
Thanks.
Dean

[Dean Fragola]

Hi Michael,
I’m actually on an XP operating system. Yikes.
However, like you suggested, perhaps I can delete the mdb files in my media folders. I won’t be risking “losing” anything by doing that, will I?
Thanks again.
Dean

[Dean Fragola]

Hey Glenn,
Ok, thanks. I’ll keep an ear out for the final audio mix.
Dean

[Dean Fragola]

Hey Glenn,
Thanks for the help.
It’s not too long of a video … it’s 13 minutes … and the client is going to put it up on his website (and I guess that’s why he needs it in mp4?).
At any rate, he’s wants the highest image quality possible so I’m trying to do my homework here as far as the settings (and I’m a little nervous that I’m going to screw up a few settings since this was shot in 24p … and I would imagine that most default settings on these compression / converters are set for 30fps).
Where can I download/buy “streamclips” … and does it allow for the input of quicktime references files to then be compressed / converted into mp4?
Thanks.