Free movement of timeline clips

[frostyboy]

Hi all,
I'm trying to achieve free movement of video clips on the timeline and cannot do it.
I've seen lots of posts saying that it is not possible except in the overlay track, yet here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szNgUvrcLXU&t=137s) is a 'Corel Discovery Centre' video where the poster appears to be doing exactly what I want to do.
I put together films for a private cinema and build Logos / Trailers / adverts / split film and interval into one HD file.
I find fade to black with a couple of seconds gap, then fade in from black is quite a professional and restful way to move between changes.
To do this with VS is extremely complicated having to build fades and black pictures etc. And there seems to be no separate 'fade up from black' in the transition library.
I would appreciate comments.
frostyboy

[lata]

Hi Frostyboy
And welcome to the forums

There are several ways use the A/B transitions.
Generally we use the transitions across two adjacent clips although we can attach to one end of a clip, read the tool tip when dragging a transition.
With one image in the top track we can add the Cross Fade transition to the beginning of the clip, and indeed to the end of the clip, that will fade in and out to the background which by default is black.
Customise Motion is another way to change the image opacity and with a couple of keyframes can create the fades along with other animation options, think of Customise Motion as your friend
It is really what you wish to achieve, Video Studio will probably be able to do it, just a learning curve

[BJC]

and free movement of clips was never available in VideoStudio X10 - it has only recently been introduced - upgrade to Videostudio 2020 and try again

there is no problem with leaving the video track empty and putting all your clips in one of the many overlay tracks - giving you the freedom to move clips and fades at will

[tletter]

And there seems to be no separate 'fade up from black' in the transition library.

The 'Fade to black' transition acts as a 'fade up from black' either when placed between two clips or when placed simply at the start of a clip.

yet here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szNgUvrcLXU&t=137s) is a 'Corel Discovery Centre' video where the poster appears to be doing exactly what I want to do

According to your profile, you're running VideoStudio X10. The video is based on VS2019. There are important differences in working on the video track between these two versions of VS.

tletter
https://www.youtube.com/user/tletter

[frostyboy]

Thank you for your advice. I appreciate it.
I'll read up on the customise motion feature. It is obviously a powerful tool which will take some time to play with.
Also adding fade to black at the end of one clip AND at the start of the next, then adjusting the time of them works nicely.
The problem with using VS2020, according to my research, is that I cannot have 5.1 surround sound with HD video. It is hard to imagine a modern video editing programme with only stereo sound in a 4K or blu-ray quality output. I need a minimum 1920 x 1080 res and 5.1 sound.
Many thanks
frostyboy

[lata]

Hi frostyboy
Customise Motion is probably one of the best features / tools the program has provided, just personal opinion, then you should explore the Split by Scene
Fade to Black, I would have thought one transition sat across the two clips would work equally as well rather than the two transitions, assuming the clips are adjacent with no gap

Surround Sound
Yes for some unexplained reason Corel have dropped 5.1 Surround Sound in favour of stereo, given no explanation as to that decision we are a bit mystified. So if you do need Surround Sound 5.1 you will have to use another editing program. I believe Pinnacle still supports 5.1, and that program is owned by Corel, go figure.
Afaik 2020 authoring of Bluray now supports 4K, at least the conversion settings from the burner module lists 4K. I did a test a while ago and was not that impressed, I do try to create a compliant video before using the burner to avoid the additional conversion, but that did not seem to work that well, so burning a disc takes quite a long time.
Bluray 1920 x 1080 of course works ok, although I would create a Disc Image or Folder then use ImgBurn to create the actual disc.

frostyboy
can you confirm which version of Video Studio you are using, thanks

[frostyboy]

Hi Trevor,
I have X10 and 2018. I inadvertantly listed the X10 in my specs.
With 2018 I can use 5.1 audio, whereas upgrading would not give me that. I don't burn to disc, just play from the file, usually about 25GB give or take.
I'll play around with the customise motion and split by scene.
Thank you.