Jon Zanone
Forum Replies Created
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Replace edit is your friend. Do a search on it in the help files – I’ll try to explain it as best I can.
In the command pallete (tool>command pallette) click on the edit tab. There is a blue arrow called ‘replace edit’. drag it to one of the buttons on your timeline or under your record monitor. If you are a keyboard guy, you can drag it to your keyboard after you open your keyboard in settings. If you want to use the add edit while playing audio, you MUST map it to the keyboard.
Replace edit ONLY works if you have at least as much source material as your edit. In other words, if you have 5 seconds of source, and want to fill 7 seconds on your timeline, fuggetaboutit – use fit to fill instead. It’s also helpful to map an add edit button from the command pallette (search around – I don’t remember which tab it’s under) to your keyboard.
You can add edit in any clip, or even in black. This technique is especially helpful when doing music videos. There’s an especially helpful tutorial somewhere on the COW, but I can’t seem to find it at the moment. Be careful – as you use add edit, make sure you have only the track you want to edit. If nothing else, having an audio track full of add edits doesn’t look very nice!
If your add edit is mapped to the keyboard, play your audio. If you are musically inclined, hit add edit to the beat of the music. Don’t worry if you screw up. You can trim the add edit later. Once you are done, start adding clips as described below.
If all you want to do is replace footage, place your blue line at the position you want to replace, place the position marker of your source and hit add edit. Remember, this only works if you have enough source footage on either side of the position line to cover your edit.
HTH,
Jon
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You need to step into the effect to see the others. There are two little triangles on the bottom left part of the time line – the one on the left points down, the one on the right points up. Place your blue position line over the effect, make sure the correct track is active and click on the down arrow to step into the effect. You can keep stepping into the effect as long as there is an effect to step into. It’s a very powerful feature.
If you are interested in visual FX, why not get into Adobe After Effects (or Apple Shake)? They are much more powerful compositing programs…
Jon
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If you look at the specs (specifically lines of resoulution), they are about the same.
Do you do alot of keying? Go component BetaSP (and stay that way – no composite). DV does not have the amount of color information for effective keys. Want your workflow to stay digital (meaning no generational loss)? Go DV. Working with firewire I/O means your signal stays digital. No generational loss (therefore your colors and resolution stays the same (theoretically). Cost is another factor – you can certainly get more bang for your buck using DVCam (or DVCPro for that matter).
Looking for a format that isn’t dead? Go DV. Sony stopped manufacturing the BetaSP equipment not long ago. Though you can still pick up decks and cameras (check ebay), BetaSX (which, in my opinion, is a stop-gap format), DV and DVCam are all ‘next-generation’ formats. BetaSP will still be around for years, but is quickly becoming a legacy format.
Jon
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Do you have the mute on at the keyboard?
Jon
“The Almighty tells me He can get me out of this mess. But He’s pretty sure you’re F%$#*D!”
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Every upgrade needs a dongle like the desert needs the rain. Like a poet needs the pain. You DO have a dongle, don’t you?
Jon
“The Almighty tells me He can get me out of this mess. But He’s pretty sure you’re F%$#*D!”
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Check and make sure you don’t have any other window touching the composer window…
Jon
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I don’t know if this is will help, but I had a really weird shift in Xpress Pro when using lower thirds. It would compress the entire frame horizontally during the time the graphic was up. I finally found that a mixdown solved the problem (or placing a submaster where I wanted the graphic and stepping into that to create my lower third. This actually showed up on the analog out as well….
HTH,
Jon
“The Almighty tells me He can get me out of this mess. But He’s pretty sure you’re F%$#*D!”
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Go to the Avid website and find out what the hardware requirements are.
Plenty of people still use Avid on a Mac, but you’ll find development lags behind the PC. That’s because Apple kicked Avid to the curb after years of Avid being exclusively (for the most part) Mac-centric. Apple wanted to develop this new fangled program called ‘Final Cut Pro’. I don’t think it’ll go anywhere, but hey – I think this thing called the internet is just a flash in the pan. Anybody got a rotary phone they want to sell?
Anyway, if you are going to buy an Avid, do yourself a favor and get a CERTIFIED SYSTEM from a reseller. You will have many people tell you on many boards “bah – I built my own system from paper clips and gum, and it works great!” If your computer skills are VERY good, go for it. I myself have better things to do other than spend my days immersed in the vaugaries of PC/Mac OS. Avid is VERY picky about what it has inserted into it’s slots. Adding Mojo complicates that exponentially. The cost is a little more, but you have somewhere to turn when something goes awry. You are, after all, making money (and I assume a living) off of this machine. If you truly cannot afford a system from a reseller, AT LEAST buy certified components for your system.
Otherwise, make sure you buy a good sturdy hammer. You’ll want it to inflict pain upon yourself when you can’t get your PC/Mac to play nice with Avid and you have a paying customer waiting for a product…
If on the other hand this is a hobby, maybe it will be a good learning experience.
Jon -
Well, assuming you are on a Mac (and taking into account I’m an Avid guy), I’d say go with FCP. Avid is picky about video cards, memory, CPU, RAM, – in short, look at Avid’s site and check out the hardware requirements. FCP has a leg up because on Apple makes the Mac (and one of the reasons Apple and Avid had a falling out after years of sleeping together – but that’s another story altogether).
If you are on a PC, then you can’t go FCP…
Jon
“The Almighty tells me He can get me out of this mess. But He’s pretty sure you’re F%$#*D!”
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Have you tried clicking through the message? We get the same thing, and cancel out of it. The machine performs well after that. We’ll call Tech support after the current ‘hot project’ get out…
Jon
“The Almighty tells me He can get me out of this mess. But He’s pretty sure you’re F%$#*D!”