Pinnacle Studio
Pinnacle's Studio video-editing software offers professional features at a consumer price. Long a leader in effects technology, Pinnacle Systems continues to improve on its simple yet powerful design. Getting the most out of any video-editing software requires practice and patience, so here are a few tricks to make your movie look like it was edited by the pros.
The Basics
You should first know the basics: capturing video, uploading music, placing clips on the Timeline and understanding Timeline layering. Video editing is a learning process that builds on practice, so once the steps of making a simple project with video, music and titles are second nature, you can then go on to explore Studio's excellent special effects, music and sound effects samples and professional features.
Workspace Layout
Pinnacle has kept its workspace simple and easy to use, and consistent with most upgrade versions. The tabs in the upper left corner--Capture, Edit, Make Movie (Export)--clearly show you each step in the editing process. Move video from the file bin to the Timeline and shorten or lengthen the clip by left clicking and dragging to change the duration. Play the video by pressing the space bar or clicking the play button in the monitor window. The tool bar on the left side shows you add Transitions, Themes, Titles, Photos, Menus, Sound Effects and Music. The left side of the Timeline indicates the layers and where to put video, audio, titles, sound effects and music.
Properties Menu and Tools
Double-clicking a clip or any one of the layers in the Timeline brings up the properties tool menu. This feature gives you many options such as freezing a frame of video, rotating the clip, changing the speed, creating two pieces of video in a single frame (called picture in picture), recording a voice track, adding audio effects and many more features similar to professional video editing software.
Picture in Picture
Picture in Picture allows you to stack two pieces of video on top of one another on the video and overlay layers. Double-click one of the clips in the Timeline, select the picture in picture icon and then crop or scale your video. Clicking the video clip in the overlay layer below it allows you to adjust that second clip and put it in a different location on the screen. You can add a border, shadow or change the transparency for both clips.
Keyframes
You can also make video clips rotate, move in and out or on and off the screen using keyframes. Click the effects button (last icon on left tool bar), which will bring up the Picture in Picture you've already applied and allows you to add more effects, such as rotate. Check the box next to keyframes click the Add button, which make keyframe No. 1, and then drag your timeline slider bar forward slightly, which will create keyframe No. 2. Click rotate and change the Size and Rotation sliders and you will see the video clip rotate in the video monitor. You can use two keyframes (the beginning of the move and the end of the move) or many keyframes to change several different parameters along the duration of the clip.
Still Capture
You can capture a frame of your Timeline video and make it a still picture. This works very well for creating beginning titles, graphics or stop motion. Double-click your video clip, click the "grab a frame" button in Properties Tools, move your video to the freeze point and click grab. Then add it to your movie or send it to your hard drive.
DVD Menus
Another great feature is the DVD Menu option, which allows you to edit the titles and graphics as well as adding a video image inside each chapter thumbnail. Select Show Menus in the main tool menu and choose one of the DVD Menu templates. Add that to your Timeline and double-click it. When the properties window opens select "create or edit a disc menu." You can set the thumbnails, create motion thumbnails, edit the menu graphics and control the DVD chapter settings.
Tags: Picture Picture, video clip, your video, click grab, clips Timeline
