Timeline Tips

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Timeline Tips

Some of the best tips, techniques and shortcuts can be found or performed right in the Timeline. These tips will take you from a standard editor to a power editor.

Tip 4: Trim a Track Buried Underneath Several Other Tracks

If you're working on a multi-layered sequence, the Trim mode can be quite difficult to step into if the edit you want to trim is on a bottom layereven more difficult when it's an audio edit on a sequence that has numerous video and audio tracks. For example, look at Figure 16.7. If you wanted to perform a trim on the highlighted edit, you'd have to turn off a lot of tracks. If you simply clicked on the Trim Mode button, all the edits above this track would be highlighted and ready to be trimmed (see Figure 16.7).

Figure 16.7. The highlighted edit can be difficult to lasso if you want to trim it.

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To trim this edit inside the Timeline, hold down the Control key (Macintosh) or the Alt key (Windows) when your cursor is inside the Timeline. This will allow you to draw a lasso over the edit you want without having to be above the Timeline (see Figure 16.8). So simple, yet so effective.

Figure 16.8. Use the Control/Alt key to trim a track buried underneath several others.

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Tip 5: Use the Q and W keys While Trimming

This tip has saved many editors from insanity. Here's the scenario. You have an audio edit between two audio clips. When you listen to the edit, you hear a small "lip smack" sound. But which side of the edit is it on? Don't fear; Avid Xpress Pro has a shortcut that allows you to pinpoint exactly which side the noise is on. This technique can also be used for video edits. To identify the problem, lasso the edit and step into the Trim mode. When you're in the Trim mode, the Play button becomes the Play Loop button. This button helps you identify where the extra sound is. Press the Play Loop button and then press the Q or W key on your keyboard. The Q key will play the sequence only to the edit and then perform the loop. The W key will play the sequence only from the edit and then perform the loop. Don't believe me? Try it. Even the Play Loop button icon changes to represent which mode you're in (see Figure 16.9).

Figure 16.9. The Play Loop key changes when you use this shortcut.

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This will not work if you've mapped other keys to the Q and W keys, of course. The default commands for the Q and W keys are Go To IN Point and Go To OUT Point. These are the commands you need to perform this tip.

Tip 6: Return to a Previously Trimmed Edit

I find that some of the best tips involve the Trim mode. But before you really start to see the value in a shortcut using the Trim mode, I suggest you first get comfortable using the trimming options. This next tip might not strike you at first as that important, but the time will come when you need it and you'll wonder how you edited without it.

Say you trimmed an edit, zoomed back out of the Timeline, moved the Position Indicator, and then realized that you indeed trimmed the wrong edit. You could go searching to find which edit you trimmed or you could hold down the Option (Macintosh) or Alt keys (Windows) when you click on the Trim Mode icon. By using these modifiers, Avid Xpress Pro will go into Trim mode on the last edit you trimmed. This is a big deal if you're working on a goliath sequence.

Tip 7: Add Filler While Trimming

When you're working on Avid Xpress Pro, there will be times you want to perform a single-sided trim and add filler as the edit is trimmed. Well, guess what? You can! Normally, if you perform a single-sided trim on a single track that is in sync, you'll break sync, thus causing all kinds of problems. Not when you use this tip. As you perform your single-sided trim, hold down the Control (Macintosh) or Alt (Windows) key. Avid Xpress Pro will add filler or black as you perform the edit (see Figure 16.10).

Figure 16.10. You can add filler to the Timeline as you trim.

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Tip 8: Change the Size of a Waveform

This next tip is extremely simple, but if you've been working with the Sample Plot view turned on inside the Timeline, you'll know how effective it is. When you turn on Sample Plot from the Timeline's Fast Menu, the system draws a waveform across your audio tracks. If the audio track if fairly aggressive , this display can be useless because all it displays is a solid black waveform due to the audio tracks (see Figure 16.11).

Figure 16.11. Sometimes the Sample Plot view is useless because the waveform is displayed so large.

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No matter how much you try to resize the track, you can never see the peaks of the waveform. To change that, select the audio track and hold down the Option (Macintosh) or Alt (Windows) key. Choose Enlarge Waveform or Reduce Waveform from the Edit menu (see Figure 16.12). These options are normally Enlarge Track and Reduce Track when the Timeline is highlighted. But by using the modifier keys, the command changes to allow you to resize your waveforms. Who knew? Now you can't bad-mouth the Sample Plot view anymore.

Figure 16.12. Sometimes menu items change when you hold down Option/Alt.

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Tip 9: Use the Replace Edit

In Chapter 3, I explained two types of editsOverwrite and Splice-in. There's also a third type of edit called the Replace edit. This type of edit requires that you have a clip already edited in the Timeline. When you choose the Replace edit, the Position Indicator becomes the sync point of the edit. Avid Xpress Pro automatically backtimes the edit and swaps the footage in the Timeline. To perform a Replace edit, follow these steps:

  1. Find the shot you want to change in the Timeline and place your Position Indicator on the frame you want to swap. For example, say your footage was shot with two cameras and you want to see how camera one's shot would look in place of the camera two shot you have in the Timeline. Don't worry about having any IN or OUT points. The length of the segment in the Timeline will dictate the duration of the edit (see Figure 16.13).

    Figure 16.13. The duration of the edit is determined by the length of the segment in the Timeline.

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  2. Load the source shot that you want to use into the source monitor. Place the Position Indicator on the frame you want to swap in the Timeline. Again, no IN or OUT points are needed to perform this edit.

  3. Open the Command Palette from the Tools menu.

  4. Click the Active Palette button (see Figure 16.14). This allows you to use commands directly from the Command Palette.

    Figure 16.14. This button needs to be selected if you want to use a button directly from the Command Palette.

    graphic/16fig14.gif


  5. Click on the Edit tab and choose the Replace edit, which is located beneath the Overwrite edit and the Splice-in edit (see Figure 16.15).

    Figure 16.15. The Replace edit is stored in the same tab as the Overwrite and Splice-in edits.

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  6. Avid Xpress Pro will sync up the two Position Indicators and replace the segment in the Timeline with the new source material. I suggest you map the Replace Edit button, because it's a great method for swapping edits in the Timeline.

NOTE

graphic/pnote.gif NOTE

A Replace edit is possible only if you have the added material on either side of the Position Indicator. If you don't have enough material, Avid Xpress Pro will present you with a warning (see Figure 16.16).

If you don't have enough material, Avid Xpress Pro will present this warning window.

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Tip 10: Loop Your Sequence (The Easy Way)

Here's the scenarioyou want to lay off your sequence to tape multiple times to create a looped tape. We've all been there before. Some editors will opt to re-edit the sequence on to itself over and over again. This can create problems. First, the edits in the Timeline can become so small you can't see where a sequence begins and where it ends. Secondly, you're going to really make Avid Xpress Pro work. This leads to crashes or errors. The easy way to loop a sequence is to use the Play IN to OUT key, which by default is the 6 key on your keyboard. Mark an IN at the beginning of your sequence and an OUT at the end. If you want black or filler between the loops , simply add some filler to the beginning of the sequence. Park your Position Indicator at the beginning of the sequence and crash record your VTR or camera. To start the loop, press the Alt (Windows) or Ctrl (Macintosh) key and press the Play IN to OUT key. The sequence will play from the IN point to the OUT point and loop over and over again until you press the spacebar or click the mouse. This only works as a crash record, not as a digital cut.

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Avid Xpress Pro Power.
Avid Xpress Pro Power!
ISBN: 1592001513
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 165
Authors: Steve Julin

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