How to change default values in older effects?

[chinabus]

I have been using Videostudio since it was sold by Ulead, and each time I upgrade to a different version (currently Ultimate 2021) I hope that the following issue would have been resolved, but it never has been.

There are some effects which I regularly need to apply to certain parts of a clip. But the use of these effects is made more difficult by the fact that they have unhelpful default values. Not only that, the default values change from the beginning of the clip to the end. These effects are:

Hue & Saturation
Both Hue and Saturation start at -10 and rise to +10

Brightness & Contrast
Brightness starts at 50 rises to 100
(Contrast and Gamma are both set properly and do not change)

Color Balance
Red, Green and Blue all start at 0 and rise to 100

In all these cases, the most helpful default value to apply to the whole clip would be zero (no effect). As it stands, before you can do anything else, you have to set each of these values to zero and then apply them to the whole clip - a process which only takes a few seconds but which has driven me mad over the years!

I cannot be the only person who finds this incredibly frustrating, and I am certain that somebody out there must have discovered a fix for it. If so, please share it with me.

I always thought that good programming meant putting default values in a .INI file and letting users alter the values themselves if they feel the need.

BTW I took up this issue with Corel Customer Services a few years ago. Not only could I not make them understand what I was talking about, they treated me like a complete novice!

Thanks to anyone who can help.

Simon

[lata]

Hi Simon
I did not understand at first, now realise you are referring to the FX filters within the Darkroom section.
I do not have a fix for this but agree that the default could be user defined, in fact there should be an option to save your customised settings, this should allow you to load your preset.

There is a workround using the “copy and paste attributes” options
Using a short clip, named as Hue & Sat
Apply H&S or Brightness to your preferred settings 0-0 first and last keyframes, ok to close
From the timelines drag this clip to the media library, I would create a new media library folder for these clips.

When you wish to apply H&S instead of going to FX go to the media library, drag the H&S clip to a spare position maybe on the overlay track, right click for Copy Attributes, right click target clip for Paste Attributes
Remove H&S clip from timeline
This could be useful if you need to set the same effect to multiple adjacent clips.

Otherwise there are other colour options, I assume you are aware
Just in case double click your clip to open the options panel, choose the Color tab, explore the options there

[chinabus]

Thank you Trevor, that's a really clever idea for me to try out.

Simon

[lata]

Did you know for some effects using keyframes, we can right click a keyframe for "copy and paste options, or chose any other keyframe to paste"
So setting everything to zero right click key 1

[chinabus]

I find the quickest is to reset frame 0, then copy and paste to all. Is that what you're saying?

[lata]

Yes