PM response

[Gorf]

Got a PM asking some questions, so rather than responding by PM, I'm answering here, in case it helps anyone else.

1. How do I rejoin a video after I split it

Depends what you mean by "split" - if you mean join two clips together, just hold down the S key or select the scissor tool. The scissor cursor will change to half a scissor if the clips can be joined, or it will change to a bisected circle if it's not possible to join them. There are many reasons why a scissored clip cannot be restored.
If you mean rejoin audio to its original video then right click the audio or video and select "Unite". If you only have one or other (i.e. you've kept audio or video and deleted the video or audio respectively) then right click the clip you kept and select "Expand". There are many reasons why you might not be able to expand a clip.

2. Duplicate and ejust. I tried to highlight both colors off the track but can't?

painfuly copy pasted like 40 black and white clips.

Exponential copy: Space out your clips as you want them ON A TRACK OF THEIR OWN. Click the track title (e.g. Video3) to select all the clips. Hold down {Ctrl} and drag the clips to a new position on the same track. They will be copied. Repeat these two steps as often as necessary.

For example starting off with a single colour clip, the first copy produces a duplicate for a total of two. The second copy results in four, the third copy, eight. By the time you get to the sixth copy you need to delete a bunch of extra clips to get down to your 40.

Another tip: "Stitch trim" works on colour clips too, so if you have adjacent colour clips and you want them to end and start at a different time, just enable stitch trim and drag the clip edge between the two.

3. then went to create file but as preview range and I couldn't not click this.

Set a preview range using {F3} and {F4} or drag a preview range in the time strip at the top of the timeline.

I noticed you have "perform non-square pixel rendering" unchecked, Mine is checked. What is this?

Dunno. Seems to cause less problems when it's switched off. It's implicit in the DV codec anyway, so it makes no difference with my work whether it's on or off.

Toggle the setting if you're having problems with the placement of titles in your final render.

[Ron P.]

Thanks Georf for posting that. I'm sure others will benefit from your great wisdom..

Perform non-square pixel rendering, if I understand it correctly is for rendering video that is to be burned to DVD and played on TVs. Most TVs do not use square pixels, in fact don't use pixels. The data is interlaced line by line. Monitors, and some of newer LCD TVs use square pixels. So rendering a video for PC viewing I would de-select that box.

[sjj1805]

Another reminder of an entry in the Web Board Rules

Private Messages and Emails to Forum Staff

[Gorf]

Thanks Georf for posting that. I'm sure others will benefit from your great wisdom..

Hmm - if ever there was a need for <Sarcasm> and </Sarcasm> tags, it looked like "great wisdom" was it.

Perform non-square pixel rendering, if I understand it correctly is for rendering video that is to be burned to DVD and played on TVs....

I don't think it's quite that simple, because it sometimes works fine if you keep it clear on TV-destined projects. I think it's more to do with CGI input or situations where you're mixing pixel aspect ratios. Having said that, I don't know what it really does, I just know that it makes no difference if checked or not, with my workflow. My output is almost exclusively to 4:3 DVD.

[Devil]

My understanding (which may not be right!) is that PAL 4:3 needs no non-square pixel rendering because 720:576 is 1.25, which is close to 1.33, whereas the 720:480 of NTSC is 1.5 and is not so close. Please correct me if my reasoning is poor!

[Ron P.]

Well that helps clarify my response. Since I'm located in the U.S., I use NTSC, so I've always had the understanding that if I did not check the non-square pixels box, the video would be distorted.

[dabear]

Got a PM asking some questions, so rather than responding by PM, I'm answering here, in case it helps anyone else.

I never seen the rules before about pm's, So sorry Gorf. I was just thinking who better to talk to about a video tuteral then the guy who made it. Also I kind of cought hell for asking about video reverse/play back so I didn't want to ask about "Rejoining a clip" In front of everyone.

1. Rejoining a clip - The video tuteral is really good but I can't see you hold down "S"
2. "painfuly copy pasted like 40 black and white clips" I figured this out now and this will save so much time. "Click the track title" I didn't know to click this. But I still can't hightlight off the track like you I have to clip the mass of color clips and move em.

3. Set a preview range using {F3} K i did this and was able to click the Preview botton now. I just created the video and it came out as black and white flashes so far. But I have to step out so I haven't Cleared out the color clips and finished with the tuteral. I will have to return to this just no time at the moment.

Quick question.

What does the preview range do after I created and saved but then come back and delete the color clips. The preview range remembers the color clips? How does this work I have no idea.

Thanks gorf for all your help and time and effort It really means a lot to me. I'm not done with the tuteral so I will post my questions in here from now on.

[Gorf]

I never seen the rules before about pm's

I didn't even know there was a "rule" on this forum - it's just good netiquette to make some responses public so that others might benefit, whatever the forum.


It doesn't bother me at all. I'm just lazy, and don't want to be replying to the same questions again in a month. Much better to get all "superior" and b*tch about people not searching before asking the question...

...I was just thinking who better to talk to about a video tuteral then the guy who made it.

The questions you were asking were more general ones about the way MSP works, rather than the tutorial itself, so I moved the response to the forum. Don't beat yourself up about it - I've also been known to take discussions offlist when they become too specific.

Also I kind of cought hell for asking about video reverse/play back so I didn't want to ask about "Rejoining a clip" In front of everyone.

Yeah but to be fair, reversing the clip is pretty intuitive - it's described in the manual, the help file and is obvious in the right-click menu. Rejoining a clip is not so easily found, as it's likely that different people use different terminology.

..."Click the track title" I didn't know to click this. But I still can't hightlight off the track like you I have to clip the mass of color clips and move em.

On the left side of the timeline, where you can enable/disable individual tracks, lock or solo them - the track name itself turns into a button when you hover over it. Clicking it selects all the clips on that track. Note that when you try to move them, it's subject to the same rules that govern moving individual clips, but because you might not be able to see all the selected clips, it might not be obvious why things aren't working. For example, if you can only see the first 30 seconds of the timeline, and one of the selected video clips two minutes into the film also has audio, you might be unable to move it to certain locations because the audio conflicts with what's already there.

What does the preview range do after I created and saved but then come back and delete the color clips. The preview range remembers the color clips? How does this work I have no idea.

The main function of the preview range is that it serves to act as a minor irritation when you come to render your finished video. The workflow is as follows:

1. Work on 00:22:16;10 to 00:23:01:00 of a 90-minute film
2. Set preview range to 00:22:10;00 to 00:23:10:00 and press {Space} to watch the one minute section.
3. Start a render
4. Go to bed
5. Wake up next morning
6. Realise you never cleared the "Preview range" option when you started the render
7. Swear
8. Realise that the useless one-minute render finished 3½ seconds after you closed your office door the night before
9. Kick the cat, while swearing
10. Understand that you either need to suffer a 16-hour wait before you start your overnight render again, or your PC will be pretty unresponsive for a couple of hours while you do the two-pass render during working hours
11. Try to kick the cat while swearing, miss (because it's got wise to your mood, now), swear obscenely (because the cat sinks its teeth into your calf as a retaliatory measure), lose your balance, knock your coffee all over the keyboard, then try to correct your balance by grabbing the chair arm. It's a swivel chair...

That's my typical workflow, anyway.

Thanks gorf for all your help and time and effort It really means a lot to me. I'm not done with the tuteral so I will post my questions in here from now on.

No problem - glad it helps. Anything specific to the tutorial ("Why did you..?" etc) should be sent by PM. More general stuff ("How did you..?" etc) should go on the forum.

[dabear]

I did it man and got it working smoothly! Thanks again for all the help on all these topics. I feel like im up a level in my editing now. Truely thankful