How to create a split edit effect with iMovie 11

1. The Precision Editor

Find a clip in your project whose audio you'd like to extend and mouse over its thumbnail. You'll see a button appear lower left of it. Click on it and select the first option: Precision Editor. The lower part of the interface is replaced with a more zoomed-in version of your clips and their edit points.
2. See waveforms

By default, you'll only see the video clip. Just like the project section, you can zoom in or out of it with the slider, bottom-right of the section. If you want to see the clip's audio track, you need to click on the Show Audio Waveform button, top-right of the interface.
3. Create the split edit

Move the cursor to the edit point's blue line and make sure it's over the audio waveform, not the video. Now drag to the right to extend the audio but leave the video exactly where it was. You can do the same for the clip beneath it so you don't hear two audio tracks at the same time.

How to create a cutaway effect with iMovie11

1. Make a cutaway

With iMovie's Advanced Tools turned on in the Preferences window, select a shot from one of your Events and drag it over a clip in your chosen project. A contextual menu will appear. Select Cutaway and the clip will be placed above the original, on a second layer.
2. Move and alter

As you drag the cutaway along, a shadow will appear on the clip beneath it to give you an idea of which part will be obstructed. Move the cursor to either one of the cutaway's edges to turn it into a resize tool. You can drag the edges inward or outward to decrease or increase duration.
3. Fades and opacity

Double-click on the cutaway to open the Inspector window. The middle section offers you a couple of options specifically for that type of clip: you can choose to add a cross-fade transition which will appear both at its start and end; or alter the opacity to see part of the lower clip through it.

How to convert MKV to AVI format and import into Sony Vegas to edit

When you got a MKV video and want to edit it with Sony Vegas, you will find that this professional video editor does not support MKV video. As wen know, Sony Vegas is a professional video editing software package for non-linear editing systems (NLE) originally published by Sonic Foundry, with video file formats supported including AVI/DIVX/XVID/WMV/MPEG. That means if you want to import MKV video files to to Sony Vegas for editing, you need to convert MKV to Sony Vegas video with a MKV to Vegas Converter first. Next I will introduce a reliable method to convert MKV to AVI format easily so that you can edit your video.

At first, you need to download a great Video Converter. I recommend you to use Leawo MKV to AVI Converter. This video converter could not only convert MKV to Sony Vegas AVI/ DIVX/XVID/WMV/MPEG, but also convert other video files to Sony Vegas videos for easy editing.

So, let's get this tutorial start.

Step1: Import MKV video
Launch this MKV to AVI converter to import MKV video for converting. Preview source MKV video files to make sure you import the right MKV files you want to process.

Step 2: Select the output profile and video quality.
Select the output profile as AVI video and click "settings" to set the output video quality.

Step 3: Start Conversion
Click the big button on the left to start convert MKV to Sony Vegas video format.

How to alter a clip progressively over time with iMovie 11

1. Find and cut



Find the clip you want to alter over time and add it to your project. Skim over it with the mouse until you're over the part you'd like the change to occur. Without moving the cursor, press the Shift+Command+S keys to activate the Split Clip tool, which cuts the clip into two at that very point.

2. All change

Double-click on one part of the clip to bring up the Inspector window. Select the Video tab and make your changes. You can also make use of the Video Effect menu in the Inspector's Clip tab to add a single effect to your clip (only one can be used at a time). You can alter your modifications at any time.

03. Transition

Go to Window > Transitions to reveal the Transitions panel, bottom-right of the interface (or use the Command+4 keyboard shortcut). Locate Cross Dissolve and drag it onto the gap between the clips. To change its length, double-click on it in your project and type in a new value in the Duration field.

Most Popular Video Editor: Adobe Premiere Pro

Whether you're editing home movies to show the family over the holidays or you're getting ready to upload your YouTube movie masterpiece for the web to see, you need to edit your video before you let the world watch it. There are more than a few video editing tools on the market, and they run the gamut from entry-level to professional-grade. Last week we asked you which video editing tools you use to get the job done, and then we took a look the top five video editors based on your nominations. Now it's time to highlight the winner. Voting was tight all weekend long. Adobe Premiere Pro took the top spot with just over 36% of the vote. Final Cut Pro was hot on its heels with just over 24% of the votes cast, and Sony Vegas Pro took third place with 20%. In fourth place was Apple's consumer video editing product, iMovie, and bringing up the rear with 7% of the vote was AVID.

Source is
http://lifehacker.com/5865617/most-popular-video-editor-adobe-premiere-pro

Five Best Video Editors in 2011

Whether you're editing home movies to send to family and friends, or you're planning your web video takeover of YouTube, it's important to have the right tools to edit your videos before you put them where the world can see. This week we're going to take a look at five of the best video editing tools, based on your nominations.

Earlier in the week we asked you which tools you used to edit video, regardless of what that video was intended for. Whether you're a semi-pro looking to show off your skills, or you just want to throw together a video for your YouTube subscribers, there are tons of great options. We couldn't possibly highlight the over two dozen nominees you offered, but here's a look at the top five.

iMovie (Mac OS)

Apple's consumer-end video editing package is so ubiquitous that you can tell if a video has been edited with iMovie just by looking at the opening and closing screens and the type of cuts and swipes used over the course of the video. That said, a skilled video editor can make great looking videos with it, it's incredibly easy to use, and the drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to apply effects, titles, soundtracks, and other tweaks to your video and then sit back, preview it, and export it to burn to DVD, upload to YouTube, or save in HD for big-screen watching. iMovie is part of iLife, and ships on every Mac.

Sony Vegas Pro (Windows)

Sony Vegas Pro is pricy, starting at $599.95, but that price gets you serious power and professional-level features for the video editor that's looking to take their videos out of Windows Movie Maker and up to the next level. Vegas Pro offers Blu-ray disc authoring, editing tools for standard def, high definition, or even 3D video, support for multi-camera video editing, and support for more audio and video formats than you could possibly need. In addition to its video editing tools, Sony Vegas Pro also offers professional audio editing tools to match, and a drag-and-drop interface that makes getting started with the tool deceptively easy considering the power that's under the hood.

Final Cut Pro (Mac OS)

Whether you prefer the newest version, Final Cut Pro X, or the previous "classic" version before Apple's many changes to the product, Final Cut Pro has been a staple in video editing for years. The tool is considered by many to be the perfect bridge between consumer-level and professional-level video editing products, thanks to its easy-to-understand interface and powerful editing tools. Final Cut Pro has broad file format support for audio and video, multi-track editing that allows you to see all of your audio and video tracks in the same view, an media organization window that shows you all of your available video and audio clips in one view, a preview mode that lets you try your edits on for size before you commit them, a comprehensive clip manager, and more, in all resolutions, from standard def to HD and up to 4K. Power doesn't come cheap though, Final Cut Pro will set you back $299.99.

AVID (Windows/Mac OS)

AVID Media Composer is a professional-level video editing tool, and has been used to produce more than a few big box office films, as well as music videos, TV shows, commercials, and everything in between. AVID Studio on the other hand is the home and pro-sumer version of the award-winning professional product. AVID Studio will set you back $169.99, where AVID Media Composer is a much priceier $2,499.00. Both products have more than enough power to get the job done, but the one you want will depend on what you're editing video for. AVID Studio is best suited to users looking to make home videos, produce home films or independent films (while getting some exposure to the professional toolset in AVID Media Composer), and need comprehensive media management and editing tools to help make their independent movies look as professional as possible. AVID Media Composer on the other hand is a video and audio editing powerhouse used for professional video production, with a feature set to match—one that includes all of the features of the other suites in the roundup.

Adobe Premiere Pro (Windows/Mac OS )

Adobe Premiere Pro is part of the Adobe Creative Suite of design and media applications, but can be purchased stand-alone as Adobe Premiere Elements for $99, and Adobe Premiere Pro for $799.99. Despite its price tag, Premiere Pro is a video editing standard for many, and offers integration with other Adobe products, more video effects than you could possibly want, native file format editing (and, it's worth noting, supports a wealth of video, image, and audio formats without forcing you to convert first), 3D video editing, automatic color and image corrections, multi-camera editing, and more. Premiere Pro is a favorite among people making original mashups and creations from a collection of other video, but the tool is just as effective when it comes to edit your own creations.

Source is
http://lifehacker.com/5864841/five-best-video-editors

How to add effects with iMovie 11

Change a clip's look progressively over time using iMovie's built-in effects
Modern camcorders can automatically focus, white balance and colour correct for you. As such, most of your clips will look fine and be ready to be included into a project the moment you import them. But machines being what they are, they do sometimes get it wrong, which is why iMovie's various video tools can come in so handy.

With them, you can alter the brightness, contrast and colour of any shot. You can obviously use them to also distort the image, giving it an unnatural appearance to simulate unusual weather conditions or to create that alien planet feel you were after.

Couple those changes with one of iMovie's 19 video filters and you have a broad palette to play with (you can also copy and paste those changes from one clip to others by using the Edit > Paste Adjustments commands in the menu bar; these can save you a lot of time if you want to create a special visual style for a large part of your project).

Unlike Final Cut Pro and other professional editing packages, there isn't an obvious way to gradually apply that change over time – it's a black and white clip, or it's a colour one, for instance; there's no in-between.

So what do you do if you want to play around with your image and slowly intensify the colour – like the effect in Limitless when a mind-enhancing tablet is taken? Thankfully, such an effect isn't out of the reach of iMovie. All you have to do is cut the clip in the right place, as shown below.

How to alter a clip progressively over time

1. Find and cut


Find the clip you want to alter over time and add it to your project. Skim over it with the mouse until you're over the part you'd like the change to occur. Without moving the cursor, press the Shift+Command+S keys to activate the Split Clip tool, which cuts the clip into two at that very point.

2. All change


Double-click on one part of the clip to bring up the Inspector window. Select the Video tab and make your changes. You can also make use of the Video Effect menu in the Inspector's Clip tab to add a single effect to your clip (only one can be used at a time). You can alter your modifications at any time.

03. Transition


Go to Window > Transitions to reveal the Transitions panel, bottom-right of the interface (or use the Command+4 keyboard shortcut). Locate Cross Dissolve and drag it onto the gap between the clips. To change its length, double-click on it in your project and type in a new value in the Duration field.

Use Extermal Microphones with iMovie 11 to Make Your Video Better

If your movie sounds great it will make your screen images look even better 

There's one element that makes it obvious you're watching an amateur movie as opposed to a professional one: the audio. Although nearly all camcorders or video recording devices capture sound as well as images, the quality is often very poor. Even HD camcorders that produce vibrant, high-quality clips are often let down by the low quality of the on-board mic.


It's a well-known fact that audio is crucial to the appreciation of your film. Poor sound makes your audience feel that the video was actually of poorer quality than it actually is. Good-quality audio enhances the whole experience. So get yourself a device whose sole purpose is recording sound and you will greatly increase your production value for very little money indeed.

Small recorder 

 

Take the Samson Zoom H1, for instance. It's a tiny audio recording device that records very high-quality sound in stereo. You can choose various formats, but since we're going for quality, you should select an uncompressed one: WAV. This means that the files will take up more space, but this is a small price to pay for higher quality.

If you're going to go for this device (which is available via www.amazon.co.uk) make sure you also budget for its Accessory Pack, which includes a tripod and a windscreen foam cover, designed to cut out unwanted sound (which often gets captured, especially when shooting outdoors). In total, this should cost you something in the region of £100.

If your camcorder is capable of taking in audio input – with a line in stereo jack, for instance – then you could connect it to your microphone. That way you wouldn't have to worry about syncing the sound with the video later on in the editing process. But having an external mic can offer you advantages that those tethered to the camera cannot match: you could have a long shot and still hear the people you're recording perfectly because the mic is hidden near them and a long cable would be hard to conceal from view.

So if you've got your audio and video on separate files on your Mac, how do you go about connecting them together? This can be a little difficult to achieve in iMovie but it can work.

First of all, you need a clear point of reference to achieve the sync. This is where clapperboards come in, but why purchase one when a couple of hands clapping will work just as well? As long as your clap can be seen on screen and heard on the audio track, then you can add a marker on your project when the clap happens (markers are one of iMovie's many hidden advanced tools that you can reveal from the Preferences window).

Toggle the waveforms for your audio tracks to see the spike that represents the clap, and move it until that spike is under the marker. Mute the original audio and play your footage back. Drag the audio left or right until the sync is perfect. Once you've achieved this, you might not use your camcorder's built-in microphone ever again.

YouTube Video Editor Already Used by Two Million People

Earlier this fall, YouTube debuted a web-based video editor that empowered the many millions of YouTube users to improve their videos even if they didn't have any knowledge about video editing or the money to buy specialized software.

The YouTube video editor was designed to be easy to use so it is rather limited in terms of features. That turned out to be a good thing as the editor has proven quite popular with plenty of users.

YouTube now says that two million people have used the tool to improve their videos and have worked on four million different videos, as NewTeeVee noted.

The idea behind the video editor was to empower those that had no way of improving or adjusting their videos and had no idea how to do it.

There are too many videos flipped to one side or videos that don't actually start until they're half way through on YouTube that would definitely need the help.

Considering the target audience, it's easy to understand why there are only a few features and buttons in the editor. But the ones that are there are exactly the ones that people would use the most.

One particularly interesting feature is "I'm Feeling Lucky" which automatically enhances a video, by boosting the colors, contrast or brightness when needed.

It's not perfect by any means, but the results can be surprising, when it works. A unique advantage of the "I'm Feeling Lucky" feature is that it analyzes the entire video and makes the necessary adjustments to every frame.

Doing the same manually with the tools provided by the YouTube video editor would be incredibly time consuming.

An interesting thing about the feature is that it was entirely coded by a YouTube intern over the summer. He set out to make videos better "just by pressing a button" and managed to do it in just two months.

Source is
http://news.softpedia.com/news/YouTube-Video-Editor-Already-Used-by-Two-Million-People-236911.shtml

How to smooth out the shaky shots with iMovie 11

1. Analyse in an Event

You can analyse your clips even before you add them to a project. To do this, select a clip (or multiple ones) and open the Inspector by clicking on the toolbar's 'i' button. Make sure that window's Clip tab is selected and click on Analyse Entire Clip. The process may take a while.

2. Choose the right part

By default, an analysed clip will have its motion smoothed automatically as soon as you insert it into your project – as long as you don't select any part of the clip that had those red squiggly lines. If you do, the stabilisation process will not occur, so make sure you only add a section that will work.

3. Stabilisation control

Play that clip back and you should see an improvement over the original. Unlike the green screen effect, you have some control over the process: double-click the clip to open the Inspector. The stabilisation section has a slider. Drag it to the left to lower the amount of stabilisation applied to your clip.

10 Insider Tips for Getting the Most out of Sony Vegas Pro 11

Have you upgraded to Sony Vegas Pro 11? Use these tips to get the most out of the new features.

1.    To deliver a high-quality video file for posting on sites like YouTube, Vimeo, or your own website, render to the MainConcept AVC format and use the Internet HD 1080p template. This provides a  high-quality video, and if you have an OpenCL-enabled graphics card in your render computer, the render will draw on the card’s GPU to render significantly faster than other formats.

2.    To render a file for Web streaming, render to the MainConcept AVC format and select the Enable Progressive Download checkbox in the Video tab of the Custom Settings dialog box. This results in a file that users can seek through even before the entire file has finished downloading from the streaming server.

3.    In the Render As dialog box, select the Add this render template to your favorites button for each template that you frequently use. Then, when you want to find those templates in the future, select the Show favorites only checkbox. This sorts your list of file formats and templates down to just those you’ve marked as favorites. Instead of looking through dozens of formats and scores of templates, you now only need to browse through your few favorites to find the one you want.

4.    If you have several events on your timeline that are related (for example, as part of a sequence), you’ll probably want to be able to control their position on the timeline as a related pack of events. The Grouping function is great for this. However, if you know that you may also need to tweak the placement or trimming of individual events within the related pack (e.g., making minor adjustments to the position of a sound effect event), grouping can be too restrictive. In such cases, use the new Sync Link feature to create a relationship between the events. Sync Link works much like Grouping in that you can move the entire pack by moving the control event, but offers more flexibility to adjust individual members of the pack without adjusting the others.

5.    The new OFX implementation for video filters, transitions, and media generators, provides you with greater control over parameter animation. To animate any parameter in these plug-ins, click the individual Animate button for that parameter. If you’ve animated several plug-ins in the same chain or several parameters of the same plug-in, click the Curves button to view and work on the resulting automation envelopes separately. Click the tag for the effect and parameter you want to adjust in order to sort the envelope view and make it very easy to find the envelope you need for the parameter you’re adjusting.

6.    To quickly add animated text to your project, click the Media Generators tab and select the new Titles & Text generator from the list. Point to the various presets to find the animation you like, and drag that preset into your timeline. If you decide you want a different animation, choose the new one from the Animation drop-down list in the Video Media Generator window.

7.    When using the new Titles & Text generator, use the text box that appears in the Video Preview window to adjust the size and position of your text. This makes it extremely easy to place your text into your video in a way that is most appropriate relative to the content of your video. If the position box does not appear in the Video Preview window, click the Generated Media button for the event that holds your text on the timeline. This opens the Video Media Generators window with the text controls in it, and also opens the position box in the Video Preview window.

8.    If you experience an edge violation in your 3D video clips, the viewer’s brain will have trouble making sense out of the placement of objects in the foreground of your scene. To avoid this problem, use the Floating Windows controls in the Stereoscopic 3D Adjust filter to mask the appropriate video stream, thus eliminating the conflicting visual signals caused by the edge violation.

9.    When you use the Cookie Cutter filter or the Iris or Cross Effect transitions on 3D footage, the cutout created by these plug-ins can conflict with the 3D placement of objects in your video. To correct such conflicts, use the new Stereoscopic 3D Depth Control to move the cutout behind or in front of screen depth so that it works more effectively with other objects in the video.

10.  You can specify whether you want Vegas Pro to process event video effects in your project either before or after any cropping adjustments to the event. Depending on the effect you’re using and the pan/crop adjustments you’re making, this can have a big impact on the final appearance of your video. Event pan/cropping is simply a part of the video event FX chain and you can place it anywhere within that chain. If you want to pan/crop before any video effects, you don’t need to change anything — this is the “Pre-Effect Mode” and is the default state. If you want to pan/cropping after the effects are applied (Post-Effect Mode), drag the “Pan/Crop“ button from the beginning of the effects chain and drop it after the button for the effect. You can set pan/cropping into post-effects mode for some effects in the chain while it remains in pre-effects mode for others.

Source is
http://www.onlinevideo.net/2011/11/10-insider-tips-for-getting-the-most-out-of-sony-vegas-pro-11/

Avid Editing Tools to Ship with Sorenson Squeeze 8

Avid's 64-bit editing tools Media Composer 6, NewsCutter 10, and Symphony 6 will come bundled with the latest version of Sorenson Squeeze, version 8. Squeeze 8 launched on November 1, and includes greater adaptive bitrate support, x264 support, and enhanced GPU acceleration. Avid's relationship with Sorenson isn't a new one, as it's been bundling Squeeze with its professional editing titles for eight years.

The two companies announced an expanded distribution relationship, however, that will bring the bundled titles to more channels. Classroom buyers will find education packages, for example. Further, Avid and Sorenson will partner on new initiatives, such as the Avid Marketplace.

New versions of Media Composter, Symphony, and NewsCutter were announced on November 8, but are not yet available. The Avid and Sorenson applications work together, letting editors send video files directly for encoding. Buyers will get the base version of Squeeze 8. Upgrading to the full version will cost $149.
"Our featuring of Sorenson Squeeze 8 in our new releases reflects Avid's ongoing commitment to provide our customers with best-in-class tools that enable them to effectively execute on their creative vision for their video," says David Colantuoni, director of product management, video, at Avid.

Source is
http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=78956

WeVideo delivers free collaborative, browser-based video editing

Despite the relentless coverage we give to the hardware end of the tech world, BetaNews is a software site at its heart, and we are always trying out new software.

Granted, in the last few years this has come to mean something different than it used to.

Most of the new software we are exposed to on a daily basis comes in the form of mobile applications, or as software-as-a-service or Web apps. This is because these are areas that haven't reached full maturity like desktop software has…and frankly, because it's still open season for developers to become quick millionaires on relatively straightforward concepts.

One of these areas of opportunity is in bringing established standalone applications to "the cloud," and turning them into collaborative Web apps. A few months ago, we looked at LucidChart, who was doing that very thing. They wanted to make a Web app version of Microsoft Visio, and had done a pretty good job with it.

Today, we took WeVideo for an spin. Even though this browser-based video editor is not even one year old, and is currently only in its second month as a beta, it's already an impressive product that is intuitive and fun to use.

It must be said right up front that this is not an HTML5 app. Like other graphically demanding multimedia browser content, WeVideo relies on Adobe Flash. So WeVideo's future on mobile devices is not extremely bright in its current form, but let's take it for what it has right now.

Users can upload their video to WeVideo and then edit it in a timeline format that should look familiar to anyone who's ever used a desktop video editor before. Videos can be cut up and rearranged, or layered with music and sound effects, graphical overlays, titles, and transitions. Each video project on the site can be edited and viewed by multiple users and saved under their respective profiles. Finished video projects can then be exported directly to YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook or Twitter.

WeVideo works on a freemium model, so the free user has 1GB of storage, and each project can have 5 collaborators. The real limitation comes in the export of this content: a free user can only export 15 minutes of video per month, and it is limited to 360p resolution with a WeVideo watermark. It supports in-app payments, however, and for a single payment of $2.99, users can export a higher quality video.

There are also subscription tiers that give users more storage, better quality exports, and the ability to collaborate with more users per project. The first subscription tier, ("Plus") costs $4.99/month or $49.99/year, includes 10 GB storage, 60 export minutes per month with 480p resolution, and no watermark, allows 10 collaboration invites per project and local downloads in addition to the export feature.

In typical web app fashion, the features of WeVideo are limited, but with an intuitive interface and the useful ability to collaboratively edit video projects, it's worth checking out.

Source is
http://betanews.com/2011/11/10/wevideo-delivers-free-collaborative-browser-based-video-editing/

Advanced iMovie Tips

iMovie is a proprietary video editing software application which allows Mac, iPod Touch 4th generation, iPhone 4 and iPad 2 users to edit their own home movies. It was originally released by Apple in 1999 as a Mac OS 8 application bundled with the first FireWire-enabled consumer Apple model – iMac DV. Since version 3, iMovie has been a Mac OS X only application bundled in the iLife suite of Macintosh applications.

iMovie imports video footage to the Mac using either the FireWire interface on most MiniDV format digital video cameras, the USB port, or by importing the files from a hard drive. From there, the user can edit the video clips, add titles, and add music. Effects include basic color correction and video enhancement tools, and transitions such as fade-in, fade-out, and slides.

Different with Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Por X, iMovie is a primary video editor. But even though, this software still has some advanced tips to help you create a great video. Here we go in the next video, it will teach you to getting more out of iMovie, including: 1080 Export with iMove, color grading, kenburns, and text effects.

How to Edit Video with Sony Vegas?

1.    Go to: File - New. This will bring up a new project where you will select your desired options. It will also ask you where you want your prerecorded files saved. Be organized! (If you ever need to work on something in the future, but you've move these files somewhere else in the meantime, Vegas won't be able to find them.) Make a new folder for your items. For learning purposes, keep the default settings: NTSC DV (720x480, 29.970 fps). This is for your standard aspect ratio (4x3) and a standard frame rate. You'll notice other tabs such as Audio, Ruler, Summary and Audio CD. Just stick with Video for now. This is all you will need to get started.

2.    Select your options and decide what folder you're placing your data in. Then import your video to edit. To import you can select File, Capture Video. Or, if your video footage is already on the computer, just go to File, Import, Media. You also have the ability to just drag and drop media into Vegas from a folder.

3.    Click Capture Video. The program will ask if it's DV or HDV. Select what applies to your camera. A window called Sony Video Capture will pop up. This gives you the options to Capture, Advance Capture, and Print to Tape. After plugging in your camera with the appropriate method, the program will automatically recognize your device. Proceed to capture the video, which will import into Vegas.

4.   Importing from a file is as easy as drag and drop, or File, Import, Media. Either way the media will fall into the Vegas Timeline ready for editing. Just select what media you want to drop, either from the Import menu or using drag and drop, and you're ready to begin your edit. (Note: Import Media or drag and drop also works on pictures and audio.)

5.    Begin some basic edits, now that you have your media in place.

Basic Edits

1.   Hit Ctrl A and drag your media to the beginning of the time line, if necessary. Use the Up and Down arrows to zoom in and out of the frames. If you use the Up arrow as far as it goes, you will see all of the frames. Use the side-to-side arrows to rewind and fast-forward through the timeline. You can select and use the trimmer, but it isn't necessary. That's getting a little more technical.

2.    Delete visual or audio clips by selecting the undesired and simply hitting Delete on the keyboard. If you want to shorten the length of a clip, simply click on the end or beginning of the clip with your mouse, and drag it to the middle to your desired length. If you want to cut (or splice) a clip in two, simply zoom in with the Up arrow, scrub through with the side arrow, and hit S to splice exactly where you want.

3.    Apply simply effects. If you look at the end of each frame, you will see there are two buttons: Event Pan/Crop and Event FX. You can also step things up with plug-ins, although out of the box Vegas has a lot of plug-ins ready to go. Select all of the frames you want to have the same effect: group them by right-clicking and going to Group. Then when you apply anything to one frame, it will do it to them all.

4.    Speed up or slow down a scene using Velocity Envelope, which many call Motion Control. Just go to the desire section you want to add slow-motion to. Splice exactly the scene desired, then right-click the scene and select Insert/Remove Envelope; Velocity. This will make a green line appear in the middle of the scene. You can move it down for slow motion, or speed things up by moving it up. Right-click the line to assign markers. With markers, you can gradually speed things up or down.

5.    Render your video. Just take your loop region at the top of the time line right above the times. Make sure you're at the beginning of the video. Drag it to the end of your video. Go to File, Render As and select an option. You can render your video in many formats, such as .mov or .wmv.

WeVideo goes commercial with cloud-based video editing

Video editing startup WeVideo is launching a new product that will enable organizations to use its collaborative editing products in the cloud. The WeVideo Commercial product is aimed at bloggers, journalists, marketers and other video creators who wish to easily edit, manage and publish videos from a single online platform.

By putting editing in the cloud, WeVideo is taking advantage of cloud-based processing power to eliminate the need for expensive editing hardware and software. It’s also betting on collaborative editing, which allows multiple editors to make changes and to approve videos before they go live.

The platform offers a suite of tools that match most prosumer video editing software packages, and it comes with a set of royalty-free audio clips, transitions and graphics. Since all editing is done in a web browser, the platform is agnostic to the device it’s being edited on, whether it’s Mac or PC — and it can even be used to edit on smartphones and tablets when connected to the Internet. WeVideo is also agnostic as to the source file or publishing destination.

Once completed, videos can be published on a corporate website, as well as popular destination sites such as YouTube or Vimeo. WeVideo also incorporates social sharing tools to let users publish or embed videos on social networks like Facebook or Twitter.

WeVideo operates on a freemium model, and it already offers a free, consumer-based product, which it launched at the Demo conference in September. It’s also available to YouTube users as a way to edit videos directly on that site. With the launch of WeVideo Commercial, it’s giving enterprise users a much greater amount of storage (50 GB), as well as up to 1080p video resolution and 24-hour support for $79 a month.

Source is
http://gigaom.com/video/wevideo-commercial/

Some PowerDirector 10 Tips

Cyberlink PowerDirector 10 is a video editing software program that typically comes bundled with a JVC camcorder. However, you can purchase PowerDirector separately on the Cyberlink website (see "Resources"). PowerDirector allows you to import or capture your video, edit it, enhance it and produce a polished product. Tips on how to add titles, color boards and transitions will help you in producing a great video.

Transitions

Transitions help to enhance the production of your video by allowing you to create effects like fade-ins and fade-outs. The "Transition Room" contains all of the transition effects that can be applied between video or image clips in the workspace. However, you may also apply transitions within one single video by simply "splitting" the video into separate clips directly from the video track on the timeline. To split a media clip, select the clip you want to modify. Place your cursor at the position at which you want to split the clip, and click "Split." The clip is split into independent clips that can be moved or modified separately in the workspace. Transitions may then be applied to as many of the split sections desired. Splitting a video or audio clip does not delete any portion of the content. Both halves of a split video or audio clip can be stretched back to any length up to the original duration.

Colorboards

Color boards are often used to create a color background at the beginning or end of a video. They are an excellent complement to a title because they help make the title stand out. To add a color board, click the "Media Room" icon on the left of the screen to open the "Media Room" in the "Library." Select "Color boards" from the "Filter" dropdown list. The current color boards appear in the library. Select a color board, then add it to the workspace. You may do this by dragging one or more color boards to a desired position in the video track. When adding clips to the video track, you cannot leave an empty gap between the last clip and the new clips you are adding. Clips added to the end of the video track follow immediately after the final clip in that track.

Titles

Titles can be added to the beginning of the video with or without a color board, directly on the video clip, and at the very end of the video with or without a color board. Note that color boards can only be added at the front or the end of the video. Additionally, you can select different effects for your titles as you desire. Click on the "Title Room" icon to add a title. The title effect options will appear in the window, and you can choose whether to add an effect or leave the title plain. Whenever you set an option in the "Title Designer," a preview of the effect is instantly displayed.


Source is
http://www.ehow.com/list_7483044_power-director-tips.html

Sony MoviEZ HD review

Sony's Vegas range of video-editing software excels with its swift, precise operation, but we still struggle to find the time to edit our home videos. MoviEZ HD is designed for people who want edited videos without the effort of actually editing them.

It looks nothing like the Vegas family with its single-screen interface and bare minimum of controls. At its simplest, producing a video involves importing source videos and photos and a musical soundtrack, choosing one of the 10 styles and clicking Save movie. However, there are some clever touches that help the finished results veer away from the gaudy, incomprehensible messes that tend to come out of these instant-results editors.

MoviEZ HD condenses the video editing process to three simple steps

Videos and photos can be automatically ordered by date and reordered by dragging and dropping. It's also possible to mark sections of each video with thumbs up and thumbs down buttons to dictate which bits should be included or rejected. For photos, you can define where the main area of interest is to assist the pan and zoom effect, or define start and end positions manually.

Another strength is the styles themselves. As well as the usual headache-inducing frenetic video-clashes, there are simpler styles that lay off the fancy transitions and effects to let the videos and photos speak for themselves. There's some control over the styles, too, with options for cutting rate, response to music, transition type and various creative colour effects.

Importing music would be easier if the file browser had built-in playback, but it's easy to trim and combine tracks. The Personalize dialog box handles intro and end titles, narrations and various global options to customise the behaviour of the automatic edits.

The MagicMoments editor makes it easy to define which bits of a video you want to keep or discard

There are a few areas where MoviEZ feels a little unrefined. Longer credits didn't fit on the screen unless we entered carriage returns manually. Photos automatically displayed embedded captions, but this meant that our slideshows had the words "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA" across every photo. A spam-style blacklist of ignored phrases is needed here. Videos often cut to a different part of the same video, showing almost exactly the same view. This so-called jump cut technique wasn't so bad in the busier styles, but in slower productions it looked odd. There are comprehensive export options including YouTube, Facebook, DVD, iPhone and iPad, but the frame rate doesn't automatically adapt to match the source footage.

Performance and reliability weren't up to Sony's usual high standards, either. We experienced quite a few crashes while testing, and rendering projects with footage from a Panasonic G3 AVCHD camera sometimes took hours when it should have taken minutes – one three-minute project took 18 hours. We discussed this with a representative from Sony and he recognised it as a bug that needed addressing. We would urge AVCHD camera owners to try the demo before buying, but licensing restrictions mean the demo can't import AVCHD files.

Most consumer video-editing software integrates this kind of automatic editing. Sony's decision to spin it out as a separate application feels much more focused but lessens the likelihood of users progressing to manual editing techniques. However, the results we got from MoviEZ gave us much less compulsion to resort to manual controls. This is a fun editor that aims to do one job well. Despite a few bugs and rough edges, it generally succeeds.

Source is
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/software/1288051/sony-moviez-hd

How to Make Templates for PowerDirector 10 Ultra

PowerDirector 10 Ultra is a video editing and DVD authoring program produced by Cyberlink. Although the application has many built-in features, users have the option to customize certain elements like DVD menu templates. PowerDirector users can do this when they launch the "Menu Designer" module.

1. 
   Launch PowerDirector 10 Ultra. Click the director's chair icon. Choose "File" and select "Open" from the menu. A file selection window will deploy. Search for your project file. Select the item and click "Open" to load the project into the program.
2. 
   Click the "Create Disc" tab and the DVD menu template library will display. Select a preferred menu template and click the "Modify" button to begin customizing it. The "Menu Designer" module will display.
3. 
   Click the "Set Background" icon. A file selection window will deploy. Search for an image to replace the default menu background. Select the item and click "Open." An image re-sizing dialog box will deploy. Choose from the "Crop," "Letterbox" or "Stretch" options to size the image for the menu background.
4. 
    Click the "Change Text Properties" icon. Scroll down the "Menu Properties" library and choose a color for the menu text. Go to the "Disc Menu Font Properties" toolbar and set the typeface, size and alignment of the menu text.
5. 
   Click the "Set Button Properties" icon. Scroll down the "Menu Properties" library and select a preferred layout for the menu buttons.
6. 
   Click the "Save" icon to store the custom template in PowerDirector. It will be available in the "Menu Designer" module for future projects.

Source is
http://www.ehow.com/how_10006998_make-templates-powerdirector.html

MAGIX Movie Edit Pro MX Plus review

Opting for a consumer video editor doesn’t necessarily mean going short on features, especially if you choose MAGIX Movie Edit Pro MX Plus.

The program comes packed with high-end functionality, from the full HD support, to the 99 editing tracks, the multicam and 3D editing options, powerful sound editing tools, and wide range of output options: file, DVD, Blu-ray, YouTube, Facebook and more.

And this latest version has more than 60 new features. Movie templates make it easy to create professional trailers; image interpolation delivers smoother slow-motion effects; export presets help ensure you produce the precise video file you need; and a host of performance optimizations deliver major increases in speed, from faster load times, up to 10x faster image stabilization, or 3x faster AVCHD export thanks to CUDA and OpenCL support.

Sounds impressive, but what would all this mean in practice? We took a closer look.

Interface

After a straightforward installation, MAGIX Movie Edit Pro MX Plus presents you with a familiar three-pane interface: video clips, transitions and effects top-right; preview window top-left; and your movie timeline displayed across the bottom of the window. Which works for us, although if you prefer another arrangement then panes can be dragged to rearrange them, or you can output your preview to a TV or a second monitor, leaving more space for the timeline and general editing tasks.

The media pool is similarly well-designed. You can jump straight to a common media folder (Videos, Pictures, Music), use an Explorer-type view to browse elsewhere, or launch a search tool to locate particular clips, and you’ll see their thumbnails displayed right away.

At least, that’s the idea, although we found the program wouldn’t generate thumbnails for all our .MOV sample files. Explorer and other programs displayed them correctly (even Movie Edit Pro did once we added them to the timeline), though, so we’re not sure what the problem was.

All our other media files were clearly visible, though, no real surprise as the program supports all the main formats (including Stereo 3D videos, audio files and images). MPEG-4, MPEG-2 and Dolby Digital Stereo licences have to be activated manually, but there’s no charge, the small licencing fee last time has gone.

Better still, in one notable addition to this version, you’re no longer restricted to the default tiny thumbnails. A Zoom button immediately above the media pool allows you to choose from 6 thumbnail sizes, anything from 48 pixels wide to a giant 240, which makes it much easier to spot some videos.

And once you’ve chosen a clip, a Jog button allows you to preview it frame by frame, and a quick double-click will add it to the storyboard or timeline. The missing thumbnails were annoying, but if you’re not working with similarly affected source files then you should find the core interface intuitive and easy to use.

The Basics

Getting started can be as easy as dragging and dropping any clips you need onto the timeline, then right-clicking a clip of choice to perform some action on it.

There’s capable scene detection, for instance. You get configurable image stabilization, which MAGIX claims is up to ten times faster than before; we didn’t test this specifically, but it is quick, just a few seconds for short clips (under a minute). And the versatile audio cleaner includes a DeClipper, DeHisser and excellent DeNoiser, a 10-band equaliser, compressor and stereo tweaker, all of which are both highly configurable and easy to use.

A “Find and remove ads” option tries to remove adverts from recorded TV. Results can be good for 16:9 movies as Movie Edit Pro will detect the presence (and absence) of the black stripes at the top and bottom of the screen, though it’s less reliable with other material.

And if you want to quickly apply some simple effects then you can add a pan or zoom, or maybe insert the movie’s date as a title in the opening few seconds, in just a couple of clicks.

There are some complexities here. The trimmers, in particular, are less than intuitive and it takes a little experimentation to figure out how they work. But for the most part MAGIX Movie Edit Pro MX Plus offers a good set of features that will have you producing your movie right away.

Effects

The download version of MAGIX Movie Edit Pro MX Plus only includes a few effects, to keep its file size down. And while there’s plenty of additional content available for free, downloading could take a while. The transitions pack is 135MB, for instance; extra title effects are 44MB; there’s more than 1GB of menu templates in three different files, and the list goes on. A fast Internet connection is a major plus here.

With everything downloaded (eventually), we found more than 100 transitions under the oddly-named “Fades” tab. These are categorised a little vaguely -- instead of “Slide” or “Spin”, say, you get sections like “Standard”, “Movement” or “Effect fades” -- so at first it can take a while to find what you need. But there are plenty of stylish choices (which now include sound), they’re easily applied by dragging and dropping them onto the appropriate transition point, and right-clicking this later allows you to tweak details like the transition length.

Clicking the Effects tab reveals plenty of additional options. There are a host of corrections, for instance: brightness, contrast, gamma, colour, sharpness, red-eye and more. Movement effects allow you to size, move, zoom, rotate, mirror and otherwise manipulate the movie. You can add fun effects from rain and snow, to thought bubbles, animated fish and other objects.

Advanced options include an effective chroma key, many picture-in-picture options, collages and more. And the Titles tab is just as packed with options, with over 200 styles on offer (including many 3D effects).

The sheer volume of possibilities is initially overwhelming, and a poor effects viewer doesn’t help. You can’t resize the effect thumbnails to better see what they do, for example, and the thumbnails won’t always rearrange themselves to fill the available space, so there’s some unnecessary scrolling.

The effects themselves are easily applied, though, and once you start work it won’t take long to figure things out. With the titles, say, you just choose a title style to see a preview, double-click to apply something you like, type your text in the editor, and that’s it – you’re ready to go.

Authoring

Once your movie is finished, then MAGIX Movie Edit Pro MX Plus can export it in many different ways.

You’re able to save it as a 2D video in MPEG2, MPEG4 or WMV formats, for instance; as a 3D movie in WMC anaglyph or side-by-side formats; or ready for use on a mobile device (iPod, iPhone, iPad, Android phones or tablets). Format and device support isn’t exactly extensive, but it covers the basics.

The program can also upload your creation to YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, or MAGIX own Online Album, ready for sharing with others.

Selecting “Export as media player” saves the movie in a web-ready form, both a video and HTML file linking to a video player, so it’s immediately ready for use on your own website. Though, bizarrely, there’s no progress bar, so after clicking “Save video” the program appears to have locked up until it finally finishes.

And of course there’s the usual ability to author DVD and Blu-ray discs, complete with a selection of animated and HD menus. There aren’t many of these, but they can be customised quite easily, and you can buy more online if you like (a typical price might be $1.99 if the disc is solely for private use).

More new features

MAGIX Movie Edit Pro MX Plus includes many new features, and the claim that it’s “on average 3x faster” (thanks to support for GPU-based acceleration) seemed particularly appealing. It’s true, too -- the program is noticeably more responsive in just about everything it does. But, of course, the competition is also accelerating, and in particular we found CyberLink’s PowerDirector 10 outperformed Movie Edit Pro in most areas, from launch time to rendering.

This new version can still improve your productivity, though, especially with the new Movie Templates. Choose from multiple styles (Action, Adventure, Love Story, Travel etc) and an appropriate storyboard appears, with soundtrack, effects and animations already added. Drag and drop your own clips onto the various placeholders, enter your own credits, and you could have a professional movie trailer ready in minutes.

The revamped travel route animation is another highlight, a great way to produce TV-quality animations showing your travels around the world (or just your local neighbourhood).

New frame interpolation support means that you can slow down a clip considerably, but still deliver quality results, as the program will generate intermediate images for you.

And there are many smaller additions dotted around, like the ability to view the EXIF data of images in the media pool, or the option to resize the heights of individual tracks according to your editing needs. Most of these are well-judged and genuinely useful, though, and they all play their part in creating what is a significant step forward for the Movie Edit Pro name.

MAGIX Movie Edit Pro MX Plus may have a few limitations and technical annoyances, but these are more than outweighed by the plus points: it's packed with useful features, highly configurable, generally easy to use and a significant step forward from the previous version. If you're looking for lots of functionality as a bargain price, then take the trial version for a spin - it could be just what you need.

Source is
http://betanews.com/2011/10/24/magix-movie-edit-pro-mx-plus-review/