Scott Cole
Forum Replies Created
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Kell,
Read your rant about “one keystroke markers” which you seem to have edited out. If you indeed want Avid to just drop in a marker (or locator as they used to be called) without the window popping up to type marker info in, that’s doable as well. But first, I believe that F3 is the normal keystroke for adding markers. I know it’s mine and I’m 99% sure it’s the default. As David tells you above, you can verify it’s location by opening up the Keyboard settings in the Settings Tab of the Project Window. I’m not at an avid at the moment so I can’t verify that F3 is indeed the norm.So, go to the settings tab of the project window and go down to Markers. Click on that and an options window will open up which will allow you to tick on or off the option for a text window to come up when you add markers.
My observation about Avid, everyone wants it to work they way they want it to work, therefor the interface is incredibly customizable. This has its pros and cons. When one edited 2″ tape, not counting the knobs to set up the VTRs, you really only had less then 10 buttons to worry about: Stop, Play, FF, REW, Record, Edit, and a knob for Video, Audio or Both. CMX, the mother of all linear editing devices had a full QWERTY keyboard, with all it’s functions labeled, but you could not customize the keyboard at all. This was a good thing. It meant I could walk into any edit suite and start editing once the tapes were mounted and set up. No loading my settings and keyboard, etc. Just edit. Other linear editors allowed some customization and that became more difficult. Avid is totally customizable and is often shipped without a marked up keyboard. I still prefer a marked up keyboard, and most of my keys are as marked (okay I’m old, and I don’t want to commit a lot of functions to my slowly failing rote memory). On the other hand, I’ve added a whole lot of shortcuts to my keyboard where they make sense for me. I work in a building with dozens of other Avid editors and everyone of us edits differently, and we all learn from each other. Keep at it and you’ll eventually love it.
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net -
Another suggestion if I may… Find a friend who knows Avid and is willing to give you a few hours or a couple of days to walk you through the basics, show you all the settings windows, teach you about master clips vs media files, AMA vs native files, and all the other things that make Avid unique. Once you break the ice, learning all the details will be a lot easier. Avid is indeed a complicated program with lots of details, but and you’ll never know what you don’t known, but having someone walk you through it certainly makes it easier.
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net -
Avid has 3 types of settings, “User,” “Project,” and “Site.” The right most column in the Settings Window (actually the Settings Tab in the Project Window) indicate which kind each of the settings are. Project Settings get reset to the default each time you create a new project. If, however you want to define project settings to come up a specific way as a default, you can make them “site settings.” First define all the project settings you desire to change. Then under the menu pulldown SPECIAL, you’ll find an item called SITE SETTINGS. Click on that and a window will open up. Drag all the Project Settings you defined into that Site Settings window and those settings will be implemented every time you start a new project.
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net -
I’m at home, not in front of an Avid. But I have a hard time believing that even on a fruit based editor (I only use PCs) that any of those commands are more than a two finger commands.
This link contains shortcuts for both Macs and PC.
https://hershleder.com/content/keyboard-shortcuts-keyboard-shortcuts-avid-media-composer#editingScroll down to the “Editing Shortcuts” section
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net -
Activate the V1 track. Mark the in and out of the clip, either by using the “Mark IN to OUT” button if you want one clip as it already sits in the timeline, or the “Mark IN” and “Mark OUT” buttons if you aren’t copying an exact clip. Press “Alt-X” which will place the marked region in the the source window while deleting it from the current timeline, or “ALT-C” which will copy the marked region into the source window while also leaving it in the timeline. Clear your marks on the record side, place your blue playhead marker where you want the material inserted, and hit V or “INSERT EDIT”
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net -
I often take screen grabs of my keyboard layout both in the unshifted and shifted mode, along with a variety of other settings windows after I get my settings finalized and/or before I know a major update of MC is going to be installed. These become references as I’m creating new settings in the new version of MC.
Gadwin Print Screen is a great freeware plugin for capturing specific screen regions for windows, I think it is also available for that fruit based machine as well.
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net -
That comes from the thought process developed by just about anything involved in linear video editing where the “out point” of the current edit on your record machine is the “in point” of the next edit. The way I’ve often explained it to folks is “you are out of your edit by this frame.” This is often called “Exclusive Out.” On any EDL (Edit Decision List for you newcomers), you could literally scroll down the list and check that the outpoint of your current edit was the same as the inpoint of your next edit, and that’s one of the things you checked to make sure you had a “clean EDL.”
The non-linear model of editing is the same as a film editor’s model, where the “out point” is the last frame you see in your clip, and it is included in the edit, hence the term “Inclusive Out.”
I’ve seen this issue trip up people in both directions.
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net -
Unfortunately, as Avid, and most other non-linear edit systems as well, use “Inclusive Outs” when you go forward 5 seconds and mark an out point, you will wind up with a duration of 5 seconds and 1 frame. You have two options if you want an exact 5 second clip; either type in 4:29, “enter” and “mark out,” or type 5:00 “enter” then “1” which will move you back a frame and then “mark out.”
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net -
The concept is really simple, the work can either be easy or tedious depending on the shots.
Simply apply the “PAINT” effect (under IMAGE I believe) to your shot. Enter effects mode, select either the circle or rectangular selection tool and draw your shape over the item you desire to block out. Towards the top of the effect window will be a pulldown menu labeled “MODE”, select either “BLUR” or “MOSAIC”. Create keyframes as the shot moves and move your object as needed. You can adjust both the amount of blur/mosaic, and you can also feather the edges.
Some other tips. You can use the bezier system of control points to create irregular shapes. You can also do several blurred or mosaiced objects at the same time. You can also apply trackers to the objects. The other cool trick is that you can use the “ERASE” mode within the same effect to create an object that stays uncensored, think of a face walking behind a wall. “ERASE” the wall and as the blurred face moves behind the erased wall, the wall will stay sharp.
The possibilities are unlimited… but it can become very tedious depending on the movement of the objects on the screen, and how critical you want the defocused area to be.
I would read the help files on either the paint effect or animatte to get hints on using Bezier Curves and control points to modify your selection so that you can tweak the shape of your effect.
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net -
The buttons are called “Sync Lock” buttons… There are no keyboard shortcuts that I’m aware of. The one in the timecode track does indeed turn them all on or all off.
M. Scott Cole
Senior Post Production Editor
60 MINUTES
CBS News, NYC
sc6@cbsnews.com
mscottc@comcast.net