X 2 overlapping clips in the overlay tracks

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi

So what¡¦s wrong with overlapping clips in the overlay tracks.

1 / you cannot turn off the affect.

2 / You cannot set a maximum default duration.

3/ if you drag and drop a clip to the overlay tracks you have to drop in a space, if the clip overlaps when you drop a transition is applied,
With X2 you have to be precise in the drop. With earlier versions you just throw them in.

4 / Video / Images if you overlap by mistake, or overlap too much you can re-size the transition.
Unfortunately you are only allowed to reduce the size not increase.

5 / When you reduce the transition duration the first clip is trimmed, obviously this is unacceptable..
If you delete the transition the first video is also trimmed. (at least it does with my program¡Xmaybe you can check this ¡Vthanks) Unlike the top track that maintains original length.
Your only option is to reposition the clip.

6 / Having Snap To would be a great advantage when moving clips right.

The more I look the more problems I find, I just want the program to work easy for the user.

[Ron P.]

Trevor,

#1 & 2 are correct you can not turn off overlapping, or set a max duration for transitions. Not really that big a deal, as it gives us the flexibility to make them how long we desire. Also back in MediaStudio Pro 7, there was no overlapping of clips. They had a ridiculous transition track, where you had to drop the transition effect. This track was positioned between two other tracks, A and B. However the video/image clips in tracks A and B needed to overlap, though not on the same track.

#3, The movement from one clip to another is called what?.... A transition, regardless of what effect, or no effect. A Hard-cut is still a transition. They just made it much easier adding the effect, by allowing the clips to be overlapped on the same track. You don't really need to be precise, if you overlap and a the transition is applied, just grab the clip (to the right of the transition) and drag it to the right until it no longer overlaps. With earlier versions you could just throw them in, however creating a transition (other than hard-cuts) was a pain, and you needed to be creative to do so.

#4. It has always been the case that the transition can only be increased to the extent of the adjacent clips. This has been known since I can remember. There's work-arounds, to get more time devoted to the transition from those clips. However since a transition is just an effect, that is applied to 2 joining clips, the duration comes from them, and generally is split evenly between them. They are not separate "clips". You're applying 1 effect to 2 clips, with one action.

#5. Yes that does occur, if by the first clip you're meaning the one to the left. You're transitioning from the left clip to the right adjoining clip. So I guess VS is going to use more of the left clip when an adjustment is made in the Timecode box. If you delete the transition the left clip will still be shorter, however easily corrected. If you just drag the right clip away to the right, it does not affect the duration.

#6. No arguments with this one, as it would make things much easier. Now again I'm going to throw in, that there are 2 such snap-to features present. When you're dragging a clip from Right to Left, and when it comes against a clip to the left, there is a snap to the edge of the left clip. Another is when you have Cue Marks, the clip will snap to the cue mark. You could Press [F5] key to create a cue marker at the end of your clip. Then it will snap to that cue marker. The [F5] keyboard shortcut has been around forever with VS, but has never been documented in the Help file or User Guides.

Tryout VideoStudio Express 2010 if you want an editor that allows you to do very, very little. No worries about overlapping, transitions being too long or too short, no cutting clips in overlay tracks. They basically are trying to develop the One-Click video editing application with that one.. Once you test-run (I wouldn't recommend buying it to my worst enemy), you'll really appreciate VS 8-12...

[Black Lab]

Maybe it's just a matter of taste, or touch, but I have no problem with the overlay tracks use of transitions. I am working on a large project at the moment (100+ clips) using the overlay tracks exclusively and have not had the problem of overlapping when I move a clip to the right. Maybe you need to adjust the sensitivity of your mouse?

Would a right side snap-to and the ability to turn on/off overlay transitions be an added benefit? Yes. Would I go back to previous versions that didn't allow overlay track transitions? Not a chance.