IN THIS CHAPTER: 29 About the Timeline and Video Tracks 30 Add, Delete, and Size Tracks 31 Set Video and Audio Track Display 32 Define the Beginning and End of Your Project 33 Add or Move a Clip on the Timeline 34 Trim a Clip on the Timeline 35 Delete and Close Gaps in the Timeline 36 Split a Clip 37 Remove a Section of a Clip 38 Create an L-Cut or a J-Cut 39 Remove Audio or Video from a Clip 40 Slow/Speed/Reverse Audio/Video 41 Move Several Clips at Once 42 Group Clips 43 About Rendering the Timeline The Timeline: What a concept. Although this is the computer age, the concept of the Timeline was taken from the real-life video editing of the past. The best of applications take a manual process and automate it. That is exactly what Adobe has done with Premiere Elements. By using a digital timeline, tasks that weren't possible or even attempted in the past because of their difficulty or the time they took can now be accomplished in a very short and simple fashion. Digital video editing has shortened the amount of time it takes to edit a film, but the overall process has increased because of the unlimited number of things you can do with the video after it is on your computer. There was a time when it was very difficult to get film from several cameras or sources together into one movie. That is no longer the case; and you can do more today with Premiere Elements than the professionals did 20 years ago. Much of this is because of the ability to add many video and audio tracks to your movie. Many video-editing software applications have some form of Timeline. Some of those even have multiple video and audio tracks. However, very few consumer editing applications can add unlimited numbers of video and audio tracks, like Premiere Elements can do. This is one of the features that helps provide professional results and functions without the cost of professional software. For you, the video artist, the Timeline is your canvas. This is where you do the majority of your editing, add effects and transitions, and perform all of the tasks necessary to produce your movie. In this chapter, we will cover everything from getting media from the Media panel onto the Timeline to editing and rendering your clips. We will introduce you to video tracks (sometimes called layers), and show you how to use them. You will learn how to prepare your clips for transitions, remove unwanted scenes, and do a few things just like they do in Hollywood. As you begin your video-editing adventure, you will most likely return to this chapter repeatedly. This chapter and Chapter 8, "Advanced Timeline Video and Audio Editing," explain all the features available to you from the Timeline. Considering this is where you will spend well over 50% of the your time creating your movie, the information in these two chapters will become second nature to you. Before you know it, you will be creating L-cuts and J-cuts just like the pros. |