picture fade in but keep the sound

[daddygez]

Hi folks. this is a bit new to me. I have video studio 7 (came with camcorder) and was wondering if there is any way to start a clip with the sound first and then fade in with the picture, or do it in reverse at the end of a clip. I know you can do it the other way with fading up (or down) the sound.

[Ken Berry]

Yes -- you insert a colour panel at the very start of the video -- black, if you want to fade in from black -- and set its duration for however long you want the fade to last. You can find the colour panels by clicking on the little window up in the top right of the VS screen (I think VS7 also had it there -- the one which appears with the word 'Video' by default.) You position your audio to start from the beginning of the black panel.

Then you need a fade transition between the black panel and the video, and in this case it would need to be a cross-fade. This might be a problem, though, depending on the version of VS 7 you have. By the sounds of it, it will be an SE version, and AFAIK all SE versions don't contain the Crossfade or Fade to Black transitions (under Transitions > FX).

But the good news is that you can get a free Crossfade transitions (and many other great ones) from http://www.burgers-transition-site.de/index2.html If I recall correctly, they should work with VS7. They certainly work with VS8 and 9, but you would need to look closely at the site to see if it is still the case that they work with VS7.

[daddygez]

Excellent Ken thank you. I do have version 7SE. I am managing to work around this but I am only allowed to put block colour in the video track, not the overlay track and of course that puts it before the clip I want to visually mask for a time. I can add a black still image (single shot with lens cap on) and put that into the overlay track but the fade transition is lost. Maybe I have to upgrade to another version? thanks Gez

[sjj1805]

Do not put the black colour clip on the overlay track, place it onto the video track then put your transition between in the usual manner.

[daddygez]

but that will not allow me to run the audio first on the clip before I bring up the video or am I missing something. the best I seem to be able to do is run a black overlay and have an instant transition to the video as transitions wont embed into the overlay track? gez

[Black Lab]

If you use the Split Audio function (which separates the audio from the video clip and places it in the audio track) you can then manipulate either of them separate from the other.

[sjj1805]

The Audio, are you inserting a new audio stream eg music or just using the exisiting audio stream?

If you are adding new audio you just add it at the start of the black colour clip.

If you wish to use the exisiting audio stream you will need to replace the first few seconds of your video with blank frames, to do this you need to know what you are doing otherwise you risk getting out of synch problems.

Briefly you would:
1. Create a soundfile
2. Cut your video into 2 sections (first section 1-2 seconds or however much fade-in you want)
3. Delete the first section.
4. Add a black colour clip at the begining the same length as the piece you have just deleted.
5. Then insert a cross fade transition - however this is where it gets tricky,
the cross fade transition will shorten your whole video slightly.
Imagine yourclips are two pieces of film. to achieve a crossfade the clips overlap each other - this is how a transition works. This is where you will introduce an out of synch problem if you dont get it right.
6. Now mute the original soundtrack
7. Insert the soundfile generated at step 1.

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi
You should be able to copy a colour frame to a bmp image then use the image in the overlay track.
(saves using the camera with the cover on)
Start a new project.

Drag a colour clip to the timeline.
Select the clip and use the ‘save as still image’ or save ‘current frame as’
The options are in the top menu ‘clip or tools’
I don’t have VS 7 installed but it should be possible.

This should save the colour frame as a .Bmp image, and place a thumbnail in the library.

Use the image in the overlay track applying from the ‘motion tab’ ‘direction and style’
Use ‘static with fade out’

As the clip is an image you can select any duration you require.

Hope this Helps

Trevor