Understanding Timewarp

Timewarp is one the most commonly used filters in Liquid Edition, but it's rarely recognized as actually being a filter. But that's what it functions as; slowing down a clip or speeding it up is a way of filtering it in order to alter its appearance.

I touched on Timewarp briefly in Chapter 6, when I used it during a four-point edit. In that case, Liquid Edition added Timewarp automatically, but in this chapter, you're going to learn how to manually add Linear and Dynamic Timewarps to your clips in order to alter the speed at which they play back.

Both versions of Timewarp are Classic filters even though the Dynamic Timewarp is relatively new. This means you need to render Timewarp filters before you can view the results.

Understanding Dynamic and Linear Timewarps

The words Dynamic Timewarp and Linear Timewarp tend to cause some confusion among first-time Liquid Edition users, as does the word Timewarp all on its own.

Timewarp is simply a way to alteror warpthe way time plays back on your media clip. The two variations are also easy to understand. A Dynamic Timewarp alters the clip using keyframes, and a Linear Timewarp alters the clip without using keyframes. It really is that simple.

However, although the definitions are simple enough, the actual use of these is somewhat more complex.