User manual ULEAD VIDEOSTUDIO 7

VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 1 VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 2 First English edition for Ulead VideoStudio version 7.0, January 2003. © 1992-2003 Ulead Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or storing in a retrieval system, or translated into any language in any form without the express written permission of Ulead Systems, Inc. Software license The software described in this document is furnished under a License Agreement, which is included with the product. This Agreement specifies the permitted and prohibited uses of the product. Licenses and trademarks ICI Library © 1991­1992 C-Cube Microsystems. Ulead Systems, Inc., Ulead, the Ulead logo, and Ulead VideoStudio are trademarks of Ulead Systems, Inc. All other product names and any registered and unregistered trademarks mentioned in this manual are used for identification purposes only and remain the exclusive property of their respective owners. Sample files Files provided as samples on the program CD can be used for personal demonstrations, productions and presentations. No rights are granted for commercial reproduction or redistribution of any sample files. North & South America Ulead Systems Inc. http://www.ulead.com E-mail: info@ulead.com International Ulead Systems, Inc. http://www.ulead.com http://www.asiapac.ulead.com http://www.ulead.com.tw E-mail: info@ulead.com.tw China Ulead Systems, Inc. http://www.ulead.com.cn E-mail: info@ulead.com.cn Japan Ulead Systems Inc. http://www.ulead.co.jp E-mail: info@ulead.co.jp Germany Ulead Systems GmbH http://www.ulead.de E-mail: info@ulead.de VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 3 Table of Contents The big picture ...................................................................... 7 Analog vs. Digital ................................................................................ 7 DVD, VCD, and SVCD ......................................................................... 8 How VideoStudio works ...................................................................... 9 What's New ....................................................................... 10 System requirements ............................................................ 12 Hardware checkup before using VideoStudio ............................... 12 DV IEEE 1394 capture card .............................................................. 13 Analog capture card .......................................................................... 15 USB port ............................................................................................ 15 Installing and running VideoStudio ........................................... 16 Configuring VideoStudio ........................................................ 17 DV (IEEE 1394 capture card) ............................................................ 17 Analog capture card .......................................................................... 18 USB input device ............................................................................... 18 Getting around VideoStudio .................................................... 19 The Options Panel ............................................................................ 20 Capture Settings tab ..................................................... 20 Batch Capture tab ......................................................... 20 Video tab ...................................................................... 21 Filter tab ........................................................................ 22 Edit tab ......................................................................... 23 Motion tab ..................................................................... 23 Edit tab ......................................................................... 24 Animation tab ................................................................ 24 Voiceover tab ................................................................ 25 Music tab ....................................................................... 25 The Navigation Panel ....................................................................... 27 Timeline: The VideoStudio Work Area .............................................. 28 The Library ........................................................................................ 29 VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 4 Getting started ................................................................... 31 The File menu ................................................................................... 31 Creating a new project ...................................................................... 32 Setting your preferences ................................................................... 34 Preferences: General tab ...................................................................... 34 Preferences: Quality & Duration tab ..................................................... 36 Preferences: Capture tab ...................................................................... 37 Preferences: Preview tab ..................................................................... 38 Creating movie templates ................................................................ 39 Steps to create your movie ..................................................... 40 Capture .............................................................................................. 42 Checklist for successful video capture ................................................ 42 Seamless DV and MPEG Capture .......................................................... 43 Capturing DV video ................................................................................ 43 Capturing analog video .......................................................................... 45 Direct video capturing to MPEG Format ................................................ 46 Direct video capturing to Windows Media Video ................................. 47 Video Capture Property Settings dialog box ........................................ 50 Capturing TV footage ............................................................................. 51 Split by Scene ......................................................................................... 52 Batch Capture ......................................................................................... 53 Capturing still images ............................................................................. 54 Edit ..................................................................................................... 55 Storyboard Mode .................................................................................... 55 Timeline Mode ......................................................................................... 56 SmartRender and Play Project/Clip button ............................................ 57 Preview Files Manager .......................................................................... 58 Inserting a clip into the Timeline ............................................................. 58 Trimming a clip ........................................................................................ 59 Split by Scene ......................................................................................... 60 Extract Video .......................................................................................... 61 Saving trimmed clips .............................................................................. 62 Playback Speed ...................................................................................... 63 Capturing still images in the Edit Step .................................................... 63 Using color clips ..................................................................................... 64 Using video filters .................................................................................. 65 Key frame Settings ................................................................................ 66 Effect .................................................................................................. 68 Creating effects ..................................................................................... 68 Customizing effects ............................................................................... 69 Overlay ............................................................................................... 70 Inserting video/image in the Overlay Track ........................................... 70 VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 5 Title .................................................................................................... 72 Creating text titles .................................................................................. 72 Fading in & out ........................................................................................ 74 Other title animation effects .................................................................. 75 Audio .................................................................................................. 76 Creating voiceover narration ................................................................. 76 Adding background music ..................................................................... 77 Inserting audio files ................................................................................ 78 Trimming audio clips ............................................................................... 78 Mixing it together .................................................................................... 79 Fade ........................................................................................................ 79 Share ................................................................................................. 80 Creating and saving a video file ............................................................ 80 Video Save Options ............................................................................... 82 Project Playback ..................................................................................... 86 Creating an audio file ............................................................................. 86 Exporting your movie ............................................................................. 87 Creating disc ........................................................................................... 94 Working with Ulead COOL 3D ................................................. 102 Appendix A. Technology Overview ........................................... 105 SmartRender Technology ............................................................... 105 DV SmartPlay .................................................................................. 105 Appendix B. Tips and techniques ............................................. 106 A. DV camcorder tips ...................................................................... 106 B. Video capture and editing tips ................................................... 106 C. Web video tips ............................................................................ 107 D. Troubleshooting tips .................................................................. 107 Shortcuts ......................................................................... 109 Glossary .......................................................................... 111 Index .............................................................................. 121 VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 6 Thank you for purchasing VideoStudio 7, the video editing software that allows even beginners to come up with professional-looking movies. It provides you with a complete set of tools to cut, mix, run clips, add special effects, and do almost anything digitally possible with your work. This user guide was produced to assist you as you navigate through the program and learn basic operating procedures. It will familiarize you with the program interface and workflow. Most importantly, it will provide you with easy-to-follow procedures for every videoediting task that you need to accomplish. Although little experience in actual video production is required from the user to understand this manual, it may prove useful to acquire relevant information from other sources, including Ulead's tutorials on the basic aspects of video. For details, please visit Ulead's Web site at www.ulead.com. Ulead VideoStudio VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 7 The big picture Digital video editing used to be dominated only by professionals. Advances in technology, however, made it possible for almost anyone to create desktop video productions even at home. Analog vs. Digital With repeated use, the magnetic tape used in High-8, 8 mm, VHS, and S-VHS becomes prone to wear and tear. It gets thinner and thinner until the video could no longer be played. On the other hand, the quality of digital video doesn't diminish over time. You can play DVs countless times and still expect the quality to be as sharp as it originally was. Digitization also extends a video's life span and allows you to enhance its original sound and picture quality. Digitizing analog videos is a breeze with VideoStudio, wherein data captured from an analog device are automatically converted to digital format. Once digitized, you can edit these footage and output them in any disc format of your choice. Footage can be captured from your analog source and digitized for editing in your PC. VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 8 DVD, VCD, and SVCD There are several factors to consider in choosing an output format for your project. These include your desired output quality, target playback device, and viewing screen size, among others. Here are the advantages and disadvantages that picking each output format entails: · Video Compact Disc (VCD) is a special version of a CD-ROM that uses the MPEG-1 format. The quality of the exported movie is almost the same, but usually better than VHS tapebased movies. A VCD can be played back on a CD-ROM drive, VCD player, and even on a DVD player. · Super Video CD (SVCD) is commonly described as an enhanced version of VCD. It is based on MPEG-2 technology with Variable Bit Rate (VBR) support. The typical running time of an SVCD is about 30-45 minutes. Although you could extend this to 70 minutes, you will have to compromise sound and image quality. SVCDs can be played back on stand-alone VCD/SVCD players, most DVD players, and all CD-ROM/DVD-ROM with a DVD/SVCD player software. · Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) is popular in video production because of its quality. Not only does it guarantee superb audio and video quality, it can also hold several times more data than VCDs and SVCDs. DVDs make use of the MPEG-2 format, which has a much bigger file size than MPEG-1, and can likewise be produced as single or dual-sided, and single and dual-layered. They can be played on stand-alone DVD players or on the DVDROM drive of your PC. VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 9 How VideoStudio works VideoStudio follows a step-by-step paradigm so that editing tasks remain uncomplicated from start to finish. VideoStudio also offers more than a hundred transition effects, professional titling capabilities and simple soundtrack creation tools. Learn in seconds, create in minutes. VideoStudio breaks up your movie into separate tracks, giving you broad creative freedom. Changes to one track do not affect others. After transferring footage from your camcorder, you can arrange scenes, apply special effects, overlay images, add animated titles, sync in a voiceover narration, and use background music from your favorite CDs in formats such as WAV and MP3. All these can be done using drag-and-drop, cut-and-paste, or select-and-apply operations. All the tracks in your movie are then organized into a video project file (*.VSP), which contains all the video and audio information on how your movie is put together. When everything is all set to go, your computer collects all information needed to create your final movie file. This process is called rendering. You can then output and distribute your movie as a DVD/VCD/ SVCD title, streaming Web page video, or an e-mail attachment. You can also record your movie back to your camcorder or VCR. Components of a finished project as displayed in Timeline Mode VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 10 What's New Take advantage of VideoStudio's latest features and enhancements: · Windows Media Format Now you can capture directly from an analog source or DV camcorder straight to Windows Media Video (WMV) format. You can also directly insert Windows Media Format clips into a timeline for editing. (WMA, WMV, WMF) · Seamless MPEG Capture VideoStudio overcomes the 4GB video file limitation in Windows 98 and Me (also in Windows 2000 and XP, if they are installed in FAT 32 formatted drives), letting you capture MPEG, DV Type-1, and DV Type-2 video files as large as your hard drive will allow. · Extract Video Sometimes you have a long scene that you want to edit several parts out (like a TV show you recorded). Rather than repeatedly editing out a bit at a time, this tool lets you select all of the sections you want, then extract these segments all at once. · Offline Scene Change Detection In DV AVI and MPEG video, VideoStudio can detect actual scene changes (such as motion changes, camera shifting or lighting changes) and cut the video into separate files. VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 11 · New Video Filters Five new filters are being added to VideoStudio's already huge selection, expanding your ability to give your video a creative flair like (like making your video look like an old movie with the Old Film effect). Also includes Lightning, Lens Flare, Comic and Bubble effects. In addition, video filters are now fully key-frameable. This allows you to customize a video filter at any point in a video clip. · Enhanced Title Animation VideoStudio provides you with more ways to make your titles come alive. Add your favorite captions, subtitles, popup titles, and compose end credits like you find in theatrical films. · DVD Authoring Wizard By integrating a DVD authoring wizard into VideoStudio, you can now create a DVD, SVCD or VCD complete with interactive scene selection menus and background music. · Play Back DV Type-2 Video to DV Camcorder VideoStudio's DV Smart Playback feature now supports DV Type-1 and Type-2 video files. Both types can be played back to a DV camcorder. VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 12 System requirements Video demands a lot from your computer. When setting up your system for video editing, the basic factors to consider are the size and speed of your hard drive, RAM, and processor. These determine how much video you can store and how quickly you can process or render your files. If you can afford a bigger hard drive, higher RAM, and faster chip, go with it. Just remember that technology is changing so rapidly and by evaluating first the kind of video editing projects you plan to do, you can better determine the setup that works best for you. Following are the system requirements for setting up VideoStudio: · Microsoft Windows 98 SE, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows XP · 800 MHz above CPU speed is recommended · 128 MB of RAM (256 MB or above for editing) · 500 MB of available hard disk space or above; 4 GB is recommended (best results can be achieved with a 30 GB Ultra-DMA/66 7200 rpm. hard disk) · Video for Windows and DirectShow compatible video capture card · Windows compatible sound card · CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive Tip: Follow the installation instructions of your hardware components carefully, particularly your capture card and consult the operating manual of your camcorder or capture device. Hardware checkup before using VideoStudio To ensure that your video production runs smoothly and troublefree, click Control Panel: System - Hardware - Device Manager and check if your devices are working properly in accordance with your Operating System (O/S). VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 13 DV IEEE 1394 capture card The following Windows operating systems support the IEEE 1394 capture card. Always remember to turn on your DV camcorder or VCR connected to the IEEE 1394 interface so that it can be detected as image device or sound, video and game controller. Windows 98 Second Edition / Windows 2000 Windows 98 Second Edition and Windows 2000 include the Microsoft DV driver and still support the Texas Instruments DV driver. Check that the following devices are working properly: · 1394 Bus Controller · Image Device: Microsoft DV Camera and VCR (For Microsoft DV driver only.) · Sound, video and game controllers: 1394 camcorder (For Texas Instruments DV driver only.) Windows Millennium Edition (Me) Windows Me fully supports the IEEE 1394 card. Check that the following devices are working properly: · · · · 1394 Bus Controller 61883 Device Class AVC Device Class (Brand name) DV Camcorder: The brand name depends on the DV camcorder connected to the IEEE interface card. VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 14 Windows XP Windows XP fully supports IEEE 1394 and is also the only PC O/S that offers wireless access to cameras and other devices over a network. On a wireless IEEE 802.11 home network, attach an IEEE 1394-enabled laptop to a Windows XP-based PC and instantly access all other connected devices. To run VideoStudio under Windows XP, check that the following devices are working properly: · · · · 1394 Bus Controller 61883 Device Class AVC Device Class (Brand name) DV Camcorder: The brand name depends on the DV camcorder connected to the IEEE interface card. Note: In addition to commonly used Texas Instruments and Microsoft DV drivers, there are other drivers available. Consult your camcorder's manual for suitable drivers. Enabling DMA for IDE disks If you use IDE disks in Windows, enable DMA (Direct Memory Access) for all the hard disks that will be used for capturing video. DMA avoids possible drop frame problems when you are capturing video. VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 15 Analog capture card Windows 98, 2000, Me, and XP supports analog capture cards. Remember to turn on the camcorder or VCR and connect it to your computer. Then check that the following devices are working properly: · Sound, video and game controllers USB port The Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector lets you attach a wide array of devices to your computer quickly and easily. These devices include digital cameras, Webcams, and just about every computer peripheral. Since Windows 98, 2000, Me, and XP fully support USB, installing the driver for this device is quick and easy too. Check that the following device is working properly: · Universal serial bus controller VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 16 Installing and running VideoStudio To install VideoStudio: 1. Place the VideoStudio CD into your CD-ROM drive. 2. When the Setup screen appears, follow the instructions to install VideoStudio onto your computer. Note: If the Setup screen does not appear after loading the CD, then you can manually start it by doubleclicking the My Computer icon on your desktop, then double-clicking the icon for the CD-ROM drive. When the CD-ROM window opens, double-click the Setup icon. VideoStudio installation screen Please install also the following applications, because they are very important in making digital video work well on your computer. The installation program will walk you through installing: · · · · QuickTime Windows Media Format RealPlayer Acrobat Reader Note: Skip this step if you already have newer versions of the above supporting applications installed in your PC. To run VideoStudio: · Double-click the VideoStudio icon on your Windows desktop. OR, · Select the VideoStudio icon from the VideoStudio program group on the Windows Start menu. Running VideoStudio from Windows Start menu VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 17 Configuring VideoStudio Camcorders, VCRs, and VCD/DVD players are common sources of video footage. To ensure a smooth interaction between these video sources and your computer, make sure that the settings of VideoStudio are configured properly depending on the capture device you are using. DV (IEEE 1394 capture card) To check the setup of VideoStudio for DV interface: 1. Connect your camcorder to your IEEE 1394 capture card. 2. Insert your video tape into the camcorder and switch it on. Make sure it is in playback mode (usually named VTR or VCR). Check your camcorder's manual for specific instructions. 3. Click Capture Step and check if your device is displayed in the Options Panel under Source. Note: When your camcorder is in Record mode (usually named CAMERA or MOVIE), you can still capture real-time video directly in VideoStudio, even if there's no video tape inserted. VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 18 Analog capture card To check the setup of VideoStudio for analog interface: 1. Connect your camcorder, VCR, or other video source device to your analog capture card. 2. Insert your videotape into the capture device and switch it on. Make sure it is in the playback mode (usually named VTR or VCR). See your machine's manual for specific instructions. 3. Your Capture plug-in will be detected automatically. 4. Click Capture Step and check if your device is displayed in the Options Panel under Source. Note: If your capture device supports multiple video sources, the Input Source dialog box allows you to select your desired video source such as Composite, Tuner, or S-Video. Likewise, if you have multiple audio sources, this dialog box allows you to select your desired audio source. USB input device To check the setup of VideoStudio for USB interface: 1. Connect your video source device to your USB port using a standard USB cable and switch it on. 2. Your Capture plug-in will automatically be detected. 3. Click Capture Step and check if your device is displayed in the Options Panel under Source. VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 19 Getting around VideoStudio The VideoStudio interface has been designed to make the sometimes complicated task of editing movies on your PC intuitive and enjoyable. This illustration shows the major components of the program. The next few pages will detail each component's specific features and functions. Options Panel Contains controls, buttons, and other information that you could use to customize the settings of the selected clip. The contents of this panel change depending on the step you are in. Preview Window Shows the current clip, video filter, effect, or title. Timeline Displays all the clips, titles, and effects included in your project. Select the media track that contains the clip you want to edit. Navigation Panel Use these buttons to go through a selected clip for precision editing or trimming. Library Stores and organizes all of your media clips. VIDEOSTUDIO HELP Table of Contents | Index Back 20 The Options Panel The Options Panel changes depending on the program's mode and the step or track you are working on. The Options Panel may contain one or two tabs. Information in each tab vary, depending on the selected clip. Capture Options Panel Capture Settings tab · Duration: Sets the length of time for the capture. · Source: Displays the detected capture device and lists other capture device drivers installed in your computer. · Format: Where you select a file format for saving your captured video. · Split by Scene: Automatically separates captured video into several files based on changes in recording date and time. (This feature can be used only when capturing video from a DV camcorder.) · Capture folder: Where a copy of your captured file is saved. · Options: Displays a menu allowing you to modify your capture settings. · Capture Video: Transfers video from your source to your hard disk. · Capture Image: Captures the displayed video frame as an image. Batch Capture tab · Capture Video: Begins the batch capturing process. Batch Capturing allows you to choose DV segments from a tape from a DV device, and capture them all in a single session. · Play Selected Tasks: Plays the selected video clip from the list.