Anyone know of a nice simple users guide for VS beginners

backert1 · Post by **backert1** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 6:45 pm

Hello,

I am looking for a nice succinct VS11+ users guide for begginers. My wife and kids will be editing some family video and would like a straight forward, simple to follow guide on steps to editing a video. I use Ulead but can't myself adequately provide a tutorial or reference "simple to follow" for them. I tend to be too technical and take the simple and fun parts out of a project. They have used other video editing software before but are unfamiliar with the VS11+ interface, commands, and nuances of efficent use. I have already provided them the AVI files on disk from which to work. Thier goal is to create a few videos with accompanying soundtracks slelected and cut from the heap of family footage now at thier disposal. What is really needed is a good method to get up and running with cutting multiple scenes from multiple AVI files and piecing them togehter with transitions, effects, and a customized audio drwan from MP3s.

Any good books or online material to recommend?

Thanks!

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 9:04 pm

There was a great book title Getting Results with VideoStudio by Charlie Hills (try Googling). Charlie stopped after v10, but you may still be able to get it, and I'm sure the basics are the same for v11.

There are great tutorials on this forum (link is in my signature) and by checking out takeoneflix.com.

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:24 pm

Look at Trevors links, they are excellent tutorials.

Found it, http://uk.geocities.com/trevor.andrew@b ... vs/all.htm

And, look in the forums tutorials sections.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 10:46 pm

Leaving the tutorial question aside, can we assume that the AVIs you are providing are DV/AVIs, which are easy to edit, rather than one of the myriad other formats which use 'avi' as their extension but which are more difficult to edit? And I trust you also realise that VS has some problems with certain mp3 codecs. It is often better to convert the mp3 to standard .wav format as this seems to avoid any potential problems.

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Mon Feb 04, 2008 11:37 pm

Ken,
I even found that when working on a large project if I export the projects audio out to a separate wav file, then remove my original audio tracks from the timeline, insert the wav file back into the timeline and export that the process is more reliable.
Similar to working with elementary streams, but this has been working well for me when the source videos are in Dolby 5.1 audio, so I'll export the edited project to a sound file first (5.1 Audio Wav File), then use that for the final encode.
This is when using the Mpeg optimizer with smart-rendering enabled, otherwise some of the exports would cause a hang (with smart render enable).
Using the audio as an elementary stream seemed to fix these issues for me.
I export the edited projects audio out after editing, not before.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 1:45 am

We have several online Video Tutorials available so you can just sit back and watch. Please check out the following forum:

VIDEO Product Tutorials

After viewing the video tutorials you can then read through:
From Camcorder to DVD with Video Studio

Regards
Steve Jones - Forum Admin & Tutorials Moderator.

backert1 · Post by **backert1** » Tue Feb 05, 2008 6:11 pm

Thanks for the references - I'll get a chance ot view them tonight. Also thanks for the mp3 vs wav thoughts. I had not yet run into an issue with then in previous videos but am planning a more extensive use now.