Newbie given video edit task by dumb boss

[talon]

I’m sure you have to deal with a dumb boss and their stupid decisions at some point
Sorry in advance

Boss: Add a titles and credits to these videos. I want it done as soon as possible
I was given a number of avi videos and Ulead Video studio 10 which I knew nothing about.
Me: I don’t know how to use this program to do that. how do..
Boss: don’t bother me can’t you see I’m busy

(Must resist urge to inflict pain)

Of course no one in the office was a video editor
I had a look at windows movie maker and that was just evilll

I started using Video studio and I worked out how to enter a title but the videos started immediately so there was no video run time to add title and credits

So here what I’m asking

How do I add a 5second clip of black background before and after the video in order to add the title and credits

I can’t have the title and credit interfere with the audio track

Thanks for you help

which is more then I got from my stupid boss

[Ken Berry]

Welcome to the forums!

I don't have VS10 on my computer at the moment, I am afraid, so I will have to do this from memory... (We are now up to VS 13/X3).

Up to the immediate top right of the preview screen, you will see a small window which has 'Video' written in it by default. If you click on the downward arrow, you then select 'Color' from the drop-down menu. You select the colour you want as the background to your title and drag and drop it to the slot in front of the first video. It will only run as long as the default duration set for these things (in File > Preferences). But if you *right* click on the colour clip in the timeline, you can Change Color Duration from there. Or simply left click on the thick yellow bar at the right-hand end of the color clip and drag it to the right for however long you want it. Then you title is overlaid over the color and not the video...

Hope that helps quell the boss!!

[BrianCee]

I hesitate to correct a master like Ken but I have to point out that there will not be an actual 'slot' at the beginning of the video for you to drop your black colour block into, the video will be hard up againts the left edge in the track but when you drag the block down and put it at the beginning the whole video will automatically slide to the right to make room for it.

For the ending just drag the block down and add it to the end of the video.

Incidentally it does not have to be a plain colour block that you add in behind the titles/credits/ending - it could be a picture - maybe impress the boss by having your titles run over your company logo.

[Ken Berry]

I take Brian's point, and can only say that I was thinking of a 'virtual' slot!! But I really just meant, as he says, to drop it into the (non-existent) space before the first video clip!!!

[talon]

thanks a lot that worked well

the only thing is when i insert the title into the video the letters seems to blur slightly
i tried different titles and different videos but it still happens. It does lower the quality a small ammount

Is this normal or is there a way to fix it

[lancecarr]

On the preview screen the letters will seem to blur a touch but once you have rendered the final video it will look sharp enough. One way to reduce this effect is to use only "sans serif" type fonts on the titles. An example of a sans serif font is Arial and an example of a serif font is Times New Roman. The "serif" is a little pointy bit (hope that's not too technical) at the end of the strokes of a letter. (sans = French for without/not having)

[sjj1805]

Further to the above size matters the bigger your text the less blurry it will be.