4 Questions from a Newbie to UVS

[Ducklet Cat]

Hi
I'm a newbie to Ulead Video Studio, so excuse me if my questions seem absurd, but I'm trying to learn and develop my skills.


1. I have a video in the video track , and an a small image in the overlay track.
The image appears and disappears in a certain time span.
But is there a way to add "transitions" to the image on the overlay track? So that when it first appears it just not bangs out, but comes in a nice way?


2. Another thing about transitions, I can not put a transition before/after a clip in a video track, can I?
Because I wanted the clip to start in a certain way (fade in, fade out), and not to show suddenly, but when I dragged the transition, it won't allow me to add it in the end or the beginning of a clip. It only goes between clips.


3. What is the difference between voice track and music track? They are both "audio tracks". So, is there a difference in functions, or it is just a label?

4. Are there additional filters/transitions/titles/decoration/flash that are sold either as a package or offered by volunteers?
I know there is a great group of stuff, but I just wanted to know if there is more.


Thanks a lot

[allicorn]

Hey! I've only just started using VS too - and I ran into a couple of those questions myself.

You can do a simple fade in/out any video, picture or audio really easily. With the thing you want to fade selected in the timeline, look at the video tab somewhere near the middle right of your screen. There's a little clock icon and a duration control , a volume control and then there are a pair of little icons which look kinda like stairs going up and stairs going down. Just click these on and they create a nice fade-in or fade-out effect on the selected thing. They seem to appear for pretty much every type of content, audio, video, images etc.

If you want to insert an image into the middle of your video so that its shown for a certain amount of time, you can actually put images right on the video track (instead of the overlay track). Grabbing the end of the resulting image clip lets you drag it left/right to decide how long the image should stay. Once its there, you can add transitions that'll go from video->image or image->video by just dropping them in between your image and video tracks.

If you want to put that image right in the middle of a longer single video clip, just move the main timeline control slider to the point in the video where you want the image, then click the little scissors icon under the main preview - the video clip gets snipped into two parts and you can pop your image into the gap created.

Your last couple questions, sorry I don't know - very new to this too

Alli

[dvandyke]

UVS has a nice little feature that allows to record your own comments onto the movie (Director's commentary!). The vocal track, I believe, is the default storage for all/any of these comments from your microphone input. The good thing is when recording these you won't have to worry about it overlapping or messing up your mp3's or any existing sound files you have cause they're resting on the audio track.
Just having that extra layer can make editing more complicated movies that much easier and less confusing.

As for #4, i saw this thread going around too:
http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=32568

Keep an eye on it and hopefully we'll have some extra content templates and stuff for our movies.

[Ducklet Cat]

Hi allicorn
Thanks for your help.
1- The little icons did help me fade in and out the audio, but the audio only. They do not appear when I choose a title overlay image or a video.
Any idea on how to extend that to images and video? Or how to add transitions to the beginning and end?

Actually I have to put it in the overlay track, because I want it to appear on the video like a small logo.

Hi dvandyke
That's great. Thanks a lot

[Ken Berry]

With the image or video in the overlay track, click on it to select/highlight it. The select the Attribute tab (beside Edit in the centre right of screen). Then below the Direction/Style boxes below that, you will see fade-in and -out scales that look like the audio fade-in and out controls elsewhere in the program. But if you hover your mouse over them, you will see that they are 'Fade in Motion Effect' and 'Fade out Motion Effect'. You use those.

That is in effect, though, the only time you can get a sort of transition in the overlay track. The only other way is to actually overlay the end of one clip/image over the start of another in another overlay track. That will simulate a cross-fade.

As for adding transitions before and after a video or image in the *main* timeline, you drag a colour matte before or after the video/image, adjust their length, and then drop in a transition between the colour matte and the video/image. So, for instance, if you want to fade-in from black at the start of a project, first insert a black colour matte, then your first video clip (or image). Then drop in a cross-fade transition in between. For a fade-out at the end of your video, you do the same, though you can then use either the cross-fade or fade-to-black transition.

You can find the colour mattes by clicking on the drop down menu directly below the Share tab across the top of the program. There, with Video, Image, Audio etc, you will see Color.

[Ducklet Cat]

Thanks a lot Ken. Your solutions are smart.

[Ken Berry]

Afwan!

[Ducklet Cat]

Wow, you know Arabic.
Then I should have said shukran.