|
Home - Animation - Video - Projects - Image Manipulation - IWBs - Interactive - Presentations - Multimedia Tutorials - Other Tutorials - Art Links - Gallery - About
|
||
|
|
||
|
Capture
video from a DV camera Build a rough cut and edit clips: Trim clips Cuts Transitions Effects Slow and fast motion Text Make a movie-in-a-movie: Using a mask Using a Transform Envelope Add audio Export the movie
|
||
| You
will need two video sources for this project: of a greetings card, a seasonal object or
a view for the background movie;
and an activity such as carol singing, dancing or
ice skating for the foreground action. Click on the stills above
to play the movies.
|
||
 |
Capture
video from a DV camera
|
|
 |
Open
Serif MoviePlus and from the Start up Wizard select Start
from Scratch. From the dialog box that appears choose your preferred
setting e.g. DV PAL or DV PAL Widescreen. Settings can also be accessed
and changed later via the File > Project Settings menu. The
example uses the DV PAL setting, which is 720
x 576 pixels. For use in a presentation or on a website choose Multimedia,
which is only 320 x 240 pixels. Click OK.
|
 
|
 |
 Connect
your camera or other video source to your PC following makers’
instructions and choose Capture from the Tools menu, or
click the Capture button. MoviePlus automatically captures
from DV cameras in the correct format. It is good practice to capture
source footage at the highest resolution because the edited movie can be
resized and compressed later if necessary.
|
|
 |
Cue your tape to the point where you want to start capture using the controls under the Preview pane to play, pause and rewind it. Ensure that the Capture audio and Capture video boxes are both checked if you want to capture audio along with the video footage. Select the Split files by scene checkbox to have all your scenes saved automatically as separate files. This will give you short clips to sequence and edit.
|
|
 |
Browse
to a suitable folder to save your captured footage. Start your tape a
few seconds before the point where you want to start capture, then click
the Record button [1]. When you’ve finished click the Stop
button [2]. You can also Pause the tape [3]. Read the MoviePlus
Companion or the program’s Help files for greater detail
about the capture process if needed. You may want to rename the separate
clips or leave them numbered sequentially.
|
|
 |
Repeat these steps with your second video source. | |
| |
Build
a rough cut and edit clips
|
|
|
Add
the media you need such as video clips, images, or audio to the project
using the Explorer pane. Make sure that it is open (View >
Panes > Explorer), or press Control+ Alt + E and navigate
to the folder where you have saved the components. Roll your mouse over
the video clip thumbnails to watch the footage. You will need three
Video Tracks for this project: one for the background source - the Christmas tree in this case;
one for the foreground source, the skaters in the example; and one for
the mask. The mask layer should be above the others and the background
source at the bottom.
|
|
|
Create
a new video track for your mask
and drag it above the other existing video tracks: Insert > Video
Track.
Your clips for the first
video source should be dragged onto onto Video Track 1 on the
Timeline. Repeat this with
all the other clips you want to use. The sequence can easily be changed
by dragging and dropping clips into a different position.
Save your work.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
There are some occasions when
film convention calls for a more elaborate transition, usually to show
time passing, for a flashback or dream sequence or to introduce a change
of location: but take care not to overdo such effects. Click
on the Transitions pane to
select from a range of transitions such as Iris
Wipe, Zoom & Spin or Clock
Wipe. Create a cross fade and then drag and drop one of
the preset transitions onto the overlap region indicated by the dotted red
box. Preview and save your work.
|
|
 |
Effects
can be added to give the whole movie or one of the clips a particular style e.g. an old
fashioned black and white film.
In the case of both transitions and effects, ‘less is more’; in other words, don’t overdo their use. Apply a transition or an effect because it has a particular meaning that you want to communicate.
|
|
|
You can increase or decrease the play speed of a clip to create fast or slow motion effects by holding down the CONTROL key and dragging an edge of your source clip outwards (to slow down) or inwards (to speed up) the action.
|
|
|
 |
To add text to your video clip make sure that the Sources Pane is visible (View > Panes > Sources) and choose Text. Choose a text source from the right-hand pane, clicking and dragging it onto the Timeline as you would a video source. |
 |
 Select
the text source and then click on the Edit Text tab. Highlight,
type over and delete the default text. You can select a different font,
edit the size, style and alignment as in any other text editor.
You can also choose scrolling text for end credits. You
can edit text at any time by selecting the text source on the Timeline
and clicking on the Edit
Text button in the Properties
pane. Preview and save your
work.
|
||
|
Text overlays Overlays, that is words that appear over the footage, are layered on multiple tracks. To create overlaid text, add a new video track to the project (Insert > Video Track), select one of the available preset styles and drag it into position on the new Timeline. The example shows a two-track project and how it appears when previewed. |
||
|
|
||
|
|
Make
a movie-in-a-movie
|
|
|
Using
Masks
|
||
|
NOTE:
As in digital imaging, masks in MoviePlus are a way of cutting out an
area of one layer to reveal the layer below, although with moving video
clips rather than still images. MoviePlus has a selection of ready made
masks for you to use, but you can also make your own in a bitmap editing
program like PhotoPlus or Photoshop. Masks need to occupy a track of their own and to
sit above the video sources. The white region of the mask allows the
underlying video to show through. The Virtual Artroom has a tutorial on
making masks in both Photoshop and PaintShop Pro:
http://www.virtualartroom.com/photoshop.htm
|
||
|
|
Make a mask by painting an opaque white area on a transparent background in any bitmap editing software such as PhotoPlus, Photoshop or PaintShop Pro. The white area will reveal the footage on the Video track below.
|
|
|
|
The
video track below the mask will have an area of visible video created by the
white region. The transparent area will show as black unless you group the
video sources below it. Adding a group means that all the tracks in a
group inherit any effects applied, or can be moved together. To create a
video group use Insert > Video Group and drag the track header
that appears into the group to the left of the Timeline. In
the example the Tree video track is not grouped to allow the region
around the bauble to show.
|
|
|
|
Select the Mask video track and click
the Blend Mode button: choose Mask from
the list of video blend modes. Preview and save your work.
|
|
|
|
. |
|
|
|
||
|
Using
a Transform Envelope Transform Envelopes are ideal for polygonal shapes.
|
||
|
|
Build the layers in the same way as before with the foreground footage on a video track above the background track. In order that the foreground (top) video reveals the background scene it must be resized to fit the framing feature - in this case a Christmas card on a mantelpiece. Group the background clips so that the effect will be applied to them all by selecting them and choosing Video Group from the Insert menu. |
|
|
|
Click on the Show/Hide Envelopes button at the bottom left of the
Timeline and then on the grey Key Frame marker, which will turn red
as in the example. You
will notice that the Preview window now has Transform
handles. To resize keeping the same proportions hold Control + Alt + Shift while
dragging on a corner handle, but to change the perspective and size press
the Control key and drag the envelope corners individually to fit
the required shape.
Preview and save your work.
|
|
 
|
||
|
|
||
| Top | ||
| |
Add
Audio
|
|
|
Natural sound or sync’ is added
automatically on Audio Track 1 at the same time as the video
clips it is linked with are dropped onto the Timeline, but it can
be edited independently. Right-click on the sound clip you want to edit
to bring up a menu of choices.
|
|
|
To
capture audio from a CD, select the Tools > Capture From CD menu
item. When capture finishes, click the Close button to return to
MoviePlus. In the Explorer pane, navigate to the folder where you
saved your audio source, then drag it onto a new Audio Track on the
Timeline.
|
||
|
Editing sound Audio can be edited in MoviePlus to coincide with the visuals on cue. It can also be faded in and out and blended with other audio using the controls on the Audio Track. To set the volume of a whole track adjust it with the Gain slider.
|
|
|
To
adjust the volume levels of a particular source at any given point, select
the object on the Timeline, then display the envelope for the track
by clicking on the Show/Hide Envelopes button. Click on the red
horizontal line in the envelope to create a key frame, shown by a red
button, at the start and end of the track. Then add another two key frames
a little after and before these. Drag
the second and third buttons up to create a fade up at the start and a
fade down at the end. You can also cut and trim audio clips in the same
way as video clips.
|
|
| |
Export
the movie in a suitable format
|
|
| NOTE: MoviePlus allows you to export in three main formats for video: AVI (for showing on non-Windows PCs), MPEG (general purpose) or WMV (for websites and CDs). | ||
|
Choose File > Export Movie
> To File and select a suitable quality and format for your
assignment brief.
|
|
|
1. File Type |
|
2. Template |
3. Quality |
|
|
||
|
Via
the Internet Raw
video is too large to view or download within a reasonable time, so you
need to compress your movie when you export it. You can do this in three
ways: by selecting a small viewing size e.g. 320 x 240 pixels or lower;
by using video compression (called a codec), which is built into the Export
wizard in MoviePlus; or by reducing the frame rate i.e. the
number of images per second.
|
|
|
Via
CD or DVD Try a several formats and make a note of the file sizes before choosing the one that suits your project specifications best. However, remember that you will need to keep a copy of the editable file for yourself, as you may need to make adjustments in future.
|
|
| © RKM 2002 - 2007 | ||
|
Home - Animation - Video - Projects - Image Manipulation - IWBs - Interactive - Presentations - Multimedia Tutorials - Other Tutorials - Art Links - Gallery - About |
||
Zoom
in on the Timeline for greater control when editing using the Zoom
button, the scroll wheel on your mouse, or
The
most common type of transition is a cut – where the end of one clip is
immediately followed by the start of the next. In MoviePlus
Dragging
one frame so that it overlaps the previous one gives a cross-fade
transition between the two. The time length of the fade depends on the
amount of overlap, indicated by a red dotted box. The example shows
the previous two clips with a cross-fade applied and the resulting visual
in the Preview window.
Make
sure that the Sources Pane is visible (View > Panes >
Sources) and choose Effects. Point to the effect thumbnail for
an animated preview, then drag your chosen effect onto the selected video
source. Effects can also be combined. Preview and save your work. 
