Complete Newbie - First Impressions of VideoStudio X8

[herein2015]

I am a complete noob to Corel VideoStudio X8, currently trying out the trial version after being completely frustrated by my previous NLE's horrendously slow performance on my high end dedicated video editing workstation.

So far Corel VideoStudio X8 has been phenomenal and I was able to find or reproduce all of the typical workflow settings I used in my previous NLE within VS X8 within less than an hour of experimenting. The render preview window is actually real time, and all of the features are pretty easy to find, the only thing that took me a little while to figure out was how to embed a slideshow into the video clip without manually creating each transition. So far there are only a few things that I am missing from my previous NLE and possibly they are all there and I just haven't found them yet so if anyone has any suggestions I would definitely appreciate it:

1) It was very easy to click the fade button and fade to black or some other color at the end or beginning of a movie clip in my previous NLE. Within VS X8 the only way I found to do it was to add a black background then add a cross fade transition. Adding a wallpaper color then adding the crossfade transition then figuring out the duration is not as easy as simply sliding the fader bar on the track within the timeline. The software lets you fade music with no problems, it would be great if fading video was just as easy.

2) As far as I can tell, the slideshow creator wizard in my previous NLE was slightly more intuitive. I just had to click slideshow, point it to a folder with pictures in it, select the transition type or types then complete the import.

3) One click trim of a video clip would be great. I have tried many NLE's and all of them let me place the playhead at some point in the clip then right click > Trim Start or Trim End. There may be a way to do it but I haven't found it yet. The way I am doing it now is to split a clip then delete whatever is to the left or right of the split.

4) The only real feature I truly miss is I haven't figured out a way to save customized filter settings. I have a specific color setting that I apply to clean up the colors of the footage from one of my cameras; typically I set up all of the settings then save them with a unique name so that I can always just drag that filter to the timeline as I import new footage. For the life of me I cannot figure out how to rename my customized color filter to something useful such as CAM1-Color-Fix. Right now the color setting is named Color Balance(1). Right click > Rename then Right Click > Save would be an awesome feature.

So far, I'm really impressed by this software and I will probably buy VS X8 Ultimate when the trial runs out (I want to make sure I don't have any crashing or freezing problems and that it continues to exceed my needs prior to buying), my only real annoyance is that I do not see a way to name and save the customized filters or better yet, save a collection of different customized filters that I can drag and drop onto clips that need them.

Maybe someone can chime in and let me know if this is an option for the Ultimate version since for the trial version you can only use Pro.

[lata]

Hi herein2015

welcome to the forums

1 / video clip fades, I generally use the Add colour option with a cross fade, but no reason why you cannot add a Crossfade to the first clip?
From Preferences (F6) edit tab set Photo durations, I use 10 seconds.
Set Audio duration 3 sec and transition effect to 3 sec.
Choose FX Crossfade for the default transition effect

2 / Slide Show You have set the image and transition durations above, also tick “auto add transition”.
Add your jpegs to the timeline.
Add an audio to slide show, maybe a few seconds short. fine tune image duration.
Shift click first and last image to select all, right click for Change Photo Duration.
Adjust image length frame by frame if required. Best to view timeline at last image.

3 / Set cut position, click clip to select clip, press F3 or F4 for Mark-in Mark – out, or click square Brackets adjacent to scissors. That will remove all frames from curser to end.
4 / I will look at that?

post updated
4 /
After adding the effect, double click the clip to open the options panel, Attributes tab, adjacent to Customise is an option to Save to Favourites

[herein2015]

lata,

thanks for your feedback, it looks like everything you recommended is the way I had found to do it as well, I guess I need to just get used to the software instead of trying to get it to behave exactly the way my previous software behaved.

For number 4 (saving custom filter settings) I did do all that you mentioned but the problem is there seems to be no way to rename the custom settings. I use multiple cameras and different lighting situations, I'm used to creating color profiles that clean up the footage based on the source camera and source lighting (i.e. sunny day vs cloudy). Within VS X8 if I were to create 4 customized color filter settings they would end up saved to my Favorites with names Color Balance(1), Color Balance(2), Color Balance(3), etc. Instead of useful names like CAM1-SunnyDay, CAM1-CloudyDay, etc. It would be great if I could just right click the saved customized filter and rename it.

[lata]

Hi

Two slow mouse clicks on the text at the bottom of the thumbnail will allow you to re-name.
the first click to select the thumbnail, the second the text.

[herein2015]

ugh, I can't believe I did not try that!! Thank you so much for your help, you just earned Corel a sale.