User manual PINNACLE STUDIO 8

Studio Version 8 Professional Quality Movie-Making Special thanks to Mike Iampietro, William Chien, Richard Edgley, Ivan Maltz, Jon McGowan, Keith Thomson, Jörg Weselmann, and Chris Zamara. Documentation: Nick Sullivan Studio, Studio AV, Studio DC10plus, Studio Deluxe, Studio DV, SmartCapture, SmartSeek, Pinnacle Systems, and the Pinnacle Systems logo are registered trademarks of Pinnacle Systems, Inc. The RealProducer is included under license from RealNetworks, Inc. Copyright 1995-2002, RealNetworks Inc. "RealProducer," "RealVideo," "RealServer," and "Real" logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of RealNetworks, Inc. All Rights Reserved. QDesign MPEG-2 Layer II Fast Encoder/Decoder © 1996-2002 by QDesign Corporation. Windows Media is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. You agree not to remove any product identification or notices of the property restrictions from Pinnacle Systems' products or manuals. All products mentioned in this manual are trademarks of their respective owners. Studio Version 8 User Guide © 2002 by Pinnacle Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this manual may be copied of distributed, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any human or computer language, in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, manual, or otherwise, without the express written permission of Pinnacle Systems, Inc. Pinnacle Systems, Inc. 280 North Bernardo Avenue Mountain View, CA 94943 Printed in the USA. ii Studio 8 Table of Contents GETTING STARTED On-line help Equipment requirements Abbreviations and conventions VII vii vii ix CHAPTER 1: THE STUDIO INTERFACE Capture mode The Diskometer The Camcorder Controller Edit mode The Album The Player The Movie Window The toolboxes The Video toolbox The Audio Toolbox Make Movie mode 1 3 5 6 6 7 8 12 17 18 22 24 CHAPTER 2: CAPTURING VIDEO Capture hardware The capture process Automatic scene detection DV, MicroMV and analog captures DV capture SmartCapture: Preview-quality capture Full-quality capture Audio and video levels Analog capture Capture quality options Audio and video levels Table of Contents 27 27 28 31 32 32 33 35 36 37 38 38 i CHAPTER 3: THE ALBUM The Video Scenes section Opening a captured video file Viewing captured video Displaying scene start and length Selecting scenes Combining and subdividing scenes Redetecting scenes Scene comments The Transitions section The Titles section The Still Images section The Sound Effects section The Disc Menus section 41 43 44 46 47 47 48 49 50 51 53 54 54 55 CHAPTER 4: VIDEO CLIPS Video clip basics Trimming video clips Trimming on the Timeline using handles Clip-trimming tips Trimming video clips with the Clip properties tool Resetting trimmed clips Splitting and combining clips Advanced Timeline editing Insert Editing Split edits Video clip effects The Adjust colour/Visual effects tool The Vary playback speed tool 57 58 60 60 63 63 66 66 68 69 71 75 75 77 ii Studio 8 CHAPTER 5: TRANSITIONS Transition types and their uses Previewing transitions in your movie Audio transitions The Ripple Transitions command Trimming transitions Trimming with the Clip properties tool 79 80 83 84 85 86 86 CHAPTER 6: STILL IMAGES Editing still images Trimming with the Clip properties tool The Frame Grabber The Frame grabber tool 89 91 92 93 94 CHAPTER 7: THE TITLE EDITOR Launching the Title Editor The Title Editor controls Title-type buttons Object toolbox Editing-mode selection buttons Object layout buttons Clipboard and delete buttons Text-styling controls The Title Editor Album The Looks Browser The Backgrounds section The Pictures section The Buttons section 97 98 99 99 100 103 104 106 107 108 108 110 111 111 CHAPTER 8: SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC The Timeline audio tracks The CD audio tool The SmartSound tool The Voice-over tool 115 116 117 119 121 Table of Contents iii Trimming audio clips Trimming with the Clip properties tool Audio volume and mixing Anatomy of an audio clip Adjusting audio volume on the Timeline Adjusting levels with the Volume tool 124 124 126 127 127 129 CHAPTER 9: DISC MENUS Understanding menus Disc authoring in Studio Using menus from the Album The DVD Player Control Editing menus on the Timeline Editing with the Clip properties tool The Disc menu tool 131 131 133 134 136 138 140 144 CHAPTER 10: MAKING YOUR MOVIE Outputting to a camera or video recorder... Output your movie to videotape Save your movie as an AVI file Save your movie as an MPEG file Save as RealVideo or Windows Media Share your movie via the Internet Output your movie to DVD, VCD or S-VCD 145 146 147 149 151 153 155 156 APPENDIX A: SETUP OPTIONS Capture source settings Capture format settings Edit settings CD and Voice-over settings Make tape settings Make AVI file settings Make MPEG file settings Make RealVideo file settings Make Windows Media file settings Make disc settings 161 162 165 170 172 174 175 178 180 183 184 iv Studio 8 APPENDIX B: TIPS AND TRICKS Hardware Software Increasing the frame rate Studio and computer animation Smart Capture Tips (DV only) 187 187 189 191 192 192 APPENDIX C: TROUBLESHOOTING Installation Operation 195 196 201 APPENDIX D: USEFUL HINTS Video Editing and Capturing Creating a Shooting Plan Editing Rules of Thumb for Video Editing Soundtrack Production Title 207 207 207 208 212 214 215 APPENDIX E: GLOSSARY APPENDIX F: LICENSE AGREEMENT APPENDIX G: KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS INDEX 217 233 237 241 Table of Contents v vi Studio 8 Getting Started On-line help On-line help is always available while you're working in Studio. · On-line help: Click the help button in the Studio main menu bar, or press F1 to display the table of contents page of the standard help topics. Click the Help > Help Topic > Index menu if you want to search for a specific topic or command. · Tool tips: To find out what a button or other Studio control does, pause your mouse pointer over it and a "tool tip" appears explaining its function. Equipment requirements In addition to your Studio software, here is what you need to make a Studio editing system. Computer · Intel Pentium or AMD Athlon 500 MHz or higher. · Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Millennium, Windows 2000 or Windows XP · DirectX-compatible graphics card · DirectX-compatible sound card · 128 MB of RAM (256 MB recommended) · CD-ROM drive · Speakers Getting Started vii · Mouse · A microphone, if you want to record voice-overs · 300 MB of free hard disk space to install software. Your hard drive must be capable of a sustained reading and writing at 4 MB/sec. All SCSI and most UDMA drives are capable of this. The first time you capture at full quality, Studio will test your drive to make sure it is fast enough. DV-format video occupies 3.6 MB of hard disk space for every second of video, so four minutes of DV video will require almost 900 MB of hard disk space. If disk space is a concern with DV captures, use SmartCapture to capture your video at Preview-quality (see Chapter 2: Capturing Video). This feature uses much less disk space. An entire tape can fit in as little as 360 megabytes. · We recommend using a separate hard drive dedicated to video capture to avoid competition for the drive with Windows and other software during capture. Video capture hardware Studio can capture video from a variety of digital and analogue sources. Please see "Capture hardware" on page 27. Video equipment Studio can output video to: · Any DV or Digital8 camcorder or VCR. This requires Pinnacle Studio DV or other OHCIcompliant 1394 port. The camcorder must be enabled to record from DV Input. · Any analogue (8mm, Hi8, VHS, SVHS, VHS-C or SVHS-C) camcorder or VCR. This requires Pinnacle viii Studio 8 Studio DC10plus, Studio AV or another Pinnacle card with analogue outputs. Output to analogue camcorders or VCRs is also possible using a Pinnacle Studio DV or other OHCI-compliant 1394 (FireWire) port if your DV or Digital8 camcorder or VCR can pass a DV signal through to its analogue outputs (see your camcorder manual and Chapter 10: Making Your Movie, for more information). Abbreviations and conventions This guide uses the following conventions to help organise the material. Terminology Studio: Studio refers to the editing software. DV: The term DV refers to DV and Digital8 camcorders, VCRs, and tapes. 1394: The term 1394 refers to OHCI-compliant IEEE1394, FireWire, DV or iLink interfaces, ports and cables. Analogue: The term analogue refers to 8mm, Hi8, VHS, SVHS, VHS-C or SVHS-C camcorders VCRs and tapes, and to Composite/RCA and S-Video cables and connectors. Buttons, menus, dialog boxes and windows Names of buttons, menus and related items are written in italics to distinguish them from the surrounding text, whereas window and dialog names are written with initial capital letters. For example: Click the Edit Menu button to open your menu in the Title Editor. Getting Started ix Choosing menu commands The right angle-bracket symbol (>) denotes the path for hierarchical menu items. For example: Select Toolbox > Generate Background Music. Keyboard conventions Key names are spelled with an initial capital and are underlined. A plus sign denotes a key combination. For example: Press Ctrl+A to select all the clips on the Timeline. Brackets denote keys that do not have names printed on them: Press [Spacebar] to display the tool. Mouse clicks When a mouse click is required, the default is always a left-click unless specified: Right-click and select Go to Title/Menu Editor. x Studio 8 Chapter 1: The Studio Interface Creating movies with Studio is a three-step process: 1. Capture: Import source video material to your PC hard drive. 2. Edit: Arrange the material as desired by reordering scenes and discarding unwanted footage. Add visuals, such as transitions, titles and graphics, and supplementary audio, such as sound effects and background music. For DVD and VCD authoring, create interactive menus that give your audience a customised viewing experience. 3. Make movie: Generate the finished movie in your choice of format and storage medium. Set which step of the movie-making process you want to work on with the three mode buttons at the top left of the Studio window: Undo, Redo and Help To the right of the mode buttons are the Undo, Redo and Help buttons. Undo allows you to back out of any changes you have made to your project during the current session, one step at time. Redo reinstates the changes one by one if you undo too far. The Help button launches Studio's on-line help system. Chapter 1: The Studio Interface 1 All other controls on the Studio screen are dedicated to tasks within the current mode. Starting with "Capture mode" on page 3, this chapter introduces the Studio user interface in each mode. Setting options Most options in Studio are set using two tabbed dialog boxes. The first lets you control options related to Capture mode and Edit mode. It has four tabs: Capture source, Capture format, Edit and CD and Voice-over. The other one is concerned with options relating to Make Movie mode. It has six tabs, one for each of the six movie output types: Each panel of both dialog boxes can be accessed individually with a corresponding command on the Setup menu (e.g. Setup > Capture Source). Once a dialog box is open, however, all its panels are available through the tabs. For simplicity, this manual generally refers to the different option panels independently, as in "the Capture source options panel". Detailed explanations of the options in both dialog boxes are contained in Appendix A: Setup Options. 2 Studio 8 CAPTURE MODE Capture is the process of recording from a video source to your PC's hard drive. The tools and controls you see in Capture mode are different depending on whether you are capturing from a DV or MicroMV source or from an analogue source. If your video source is analogue, you will connect to your computer hardware with either a composite or an S-Video cable. Your Capture mode screen will look like this: Chapter 1: The Studio Interface 3 If you are capturing from DV or MicroMV equipment connected to a 1394 port, the capture screen looks like this: These set-ups have two major differences in capability: · The analogue set-up lets you modify audio and video levels dynamically during capture. · The DV set-up lets you control the tape transport of the camcorder or VCR using an on-screen control ­ the Camcorder Controller. As the capture process proceeds, Studio fills the Album (top left of screen) with the captured video scenes, while the Player (top right of screen) shows the incoming video and the Diskometer monitors the free space on your hard drive. Readouts on the Player tell you the exact length of the captured video, and the number of dropped frames during the capture (normally zero). 4 Studio 8 The Diskometer The Diskometer displays, both numerically and graphically, the amount of space available on your capture drive. It also indicates the approximate duration of video that can be accommodated, which depends on both the available space and the configured capture quality. Capture quality settings are selected using the preset buttons displayed on the Diskometer for some capture devices, or by entering custom settings. See Chapter 2: Capturing Video and Appendix A: Setup Options for information on capture settings. The Start Capture/Stop Capture button on the Diskometer begins and ends the capture process. The default location for captured video is: C:\My Documents\Pinnacle Studio\Captured Video To save newly captured videos to a different location, click the file folder button to display the Browse for Folder window. The folder you assign will be used to store captured video during the current and future sessions. Chapter 1: The Studio Interface 5 The Camcorder Controller Use these on-screen transport controls to view your tape and to seek to the location on the tape at which capture is to begin. The counter window displays the current position of the camcorder tape, along with the current transport mode of the camcorder. From left to right, the transport control buttons are: Stop, Rewind / Review, Play, Fast forward / Cue and Pause. The Frame reverse and Frame forward buttons (second row) let you locate the exact frame you want. Reminder: The Camcorder Controller is available only for a DV or MicroMV device connected to a 1394 port. EDIT MODE Studio opens in Edit mode each time it is launched, because that is the mode you use most often. The Edit mode display includes three main areas: the Album, the Player, and the Movie Window. 6 Studio 8 The Album The Album contains the source materials for your video production. It is divided into six sections, selected by tabs as follows: Video Scenes: Your captured video footage. To use a given scene in your movie, simply drag it into place in the Movie Window. See Chapter 4: Video Clips. Transitions: Use fades, dissolves, and other transitions by dragging them into place between video clips and graphics in the Movie Window. See Chapter 5: Transitions. Titles: Editable titles to use as overlays or as fullscreen graphics. Studio supports scrolls, crawls, and many typographical effects. See Chapter 6: Still Images. Chapter 1: The Studio Interface 7 Frame Grabs: Your collection of bitmapped images and grabbed video frames. These can be used as overlays or as full-screen images. See Chapter 6: Still Images. Sound Effects: Windows wav and mp3 files can be added to your production. A full range of supplied sound effects gets you started. See Chapter 8: Sound Effects and Music. Disc Menus: A collection of chapter menus to use in DVD, VCD and S-VCD authoring. See Chapter 9: Disc Menus. The Video Scenes section of the Album. Click the tabs down the left side of the Album to access the materials in the other sections. The Player The Player displays a preview of your edited movie, or shows what is selected in the Album. It consists of two main areas: a preview window and playback controls. The preview window displays video images. The playback controls allow you to play the video, or go to an exact position within it. These controls come in two formats: standard and DVD. 8 Studio 8