Sitter M Apple Pro Training Series Logic Pro 7 and Logic Express 7 / Using the Global Video Track

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Apple Pro Training Series Logic Pro 7 and Logic Express 7
Authors: Sitter M
Published year: 2005
Pages: 128-129/197

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Using the Global Video Track

The Global Video track provides a thumbnail view of the video you're scoring across the top of the Arrange window. The thumbnails let you see at a glance the various scenes in the movie. And you can also use the Global Video track to open or close Logic's internal movie display window. Any way you slice it, the Global Video track is central to scoring video in Logic, so let's dive in.

Navigate to the APTS_Logic_7 > Song Files > Lesson 13 Project Files folder, and open the song file named 13Begin.lso .

From the Arrange window's local menu bar, choose View > Global Track Components > Video.

The Global Video track opens at the top of the Arrange area.

NOTE

A hard cut is a point in the video where a whole scene changes from one frame to the next. In other words, the entire picture must change. The Detect Cuts button scans the movie and places a marker in Logic's Bar Ruler for every hard cut it finds. This function will not identify transitions that blend one scene into the next .

Opening a Movie in Logic

The Track List portion of the Global Video track has an Open Movie button. As its label promises, clicking the button opens a movie in Logic and thumbnail images are displayed in the Global Video track.

1.	In the Track List portion of the Global Video track, click the Open Movie button. An Open dialog appears.
2.	In the Open dialog, navigate to the APTS_Logic_7 > Song Files > Lesson 13 Project Files > Movie Files folder, and double-click the movie named Turtles.mp4 . The movie opens in a floating Movie window. If you close the Movie window, the movie itself does not close; it is still visible as thumbnail images in the Global Video track.
3.	In the top left corner of the Movie window, click the Close button. The Movie window closes , but the images are still visible as thumbnails.
4.	In the Track List portion of the Global Video track, click Open Movie again. The Movie window reopens.

TIP

You can open movies in either a standard or floating window by visiting the Options > Movies menu. This menu contains options for reopening a closed Movie window similar to toggling the Open Movie button in the Global Video track.

Changing the Movie Window's Display Size

Screen real estate plays an important role in scoring video because you need to see both your video and your arrangement at the same time. Logic provides several options for changing the display size of the Movie window.

1.	Click and hold anywhere on the Movie window. A menu pops open. The top portion of the menu lists several Movie window display sizes. NOTE In Logic Express, the Movie window menu has fewer options than shown in the figure.
2.	Select a display size. The Movie window changes to the selected size. The Movie window also contains a presentation mode you can use while auditioning your score.
3.	Logic Pro users, double-click any portion of the Movie window. The movie expands to fill the screen. Additionally, the Parameter display at the bottom of the Movie window is hidden.
4.	To shrink the Movie window to its default size, double-click the expanded movie.

Working with the Movie's Audio

If you were listening a few seconds ago when you opened the Turtles movie in QuickTime, you heard the audio in it. You can choose to have Logic play the movie's audio over the score you're creating, or tell Logic to ignore the movie's audio and just play sound from the Arrange window. (The rest of the tasks in this lesson are for Logic Pro users only.)

1.	Press the spacebar to play the song. As the SPL moves across the Arrange area, the movie plays. However, you do not hear any sound yet.
2.	Press the spacebar to stop playback.
3.	Click and hold anywhere on the Movie window, and choose Video/Movie Settings from the menu that appears. The Song Settings window opens with the Video pane showing. At the bottom of this pane is a Sound Output menu.
4.	From the Sound Output menu, choose Internal.
5.	With the Song Settings window still open , press the spacebar to start playback. As the song plays, you now hear the movie's audio. However, it's much more useful to have the video's audio in the Arrange area, where you can edit it. In the next section you'll add the movie's audio directly to your Logic song using a single step. NOTE If you have your Video Output set to FireWire, the External Sound Output option sends the movie's sound out to the FireWire display device. For more information on using the FireWire Video Output option, see the sidebar below titled "FireWire Video Display."
6.	Set the Sound Output menu back to Mute.
7.	Close the Song Settings window.

FireWire Video Display

If you have a FireWire video camera or video deck attached to your system, you can set Logic to display the video you're scoring on an external video monitor attached to the FireWire camera or video deck. In this situation, the Movie window is disabled in Logic, freeing up valuable screen real estate for other editing windows . To enable a FireWire display, visit the Song Settings window's Video pane, and choose FireWire from the Video Output menu.

If you use the FireWire Video Output setting, you may notice a slight delay, or latency, in the display of your video. In other words, you'll hear sound playing from Logic before you see the corresponding graphics displayed in the monitor. This occurs because it takes time to send that video down the FireWire pipe, making it very hard to accurately score your video. But all is not lost. You can adjust the offset applied to the video playback by visiting Logic's Video Preferences pane. There you will find an adjustment labeled External Video to Song. Use this setting to adjust the playback offset in quarter frames until your video is playing exactly in time with the audio coming out of Logic.

Importing Audio from the Movie

Logic provides a great option for importing the movie's audio directly into your song. When you use this option, Logic provides a dialog that lets you choose which of the movie's sound tracks you wish to extract. Logic then converts all of the audio files in the movie to a stereo AIFF at the sampling rate used for your song.

1.	Choose Options > Movies > Extract Audio from Movie. The "Choose tracks to export" dialog appears. This movie has only a stereo audio track in it, so the stereo track is displayed and selected by default. However, keep in mind that QuickTime is just a media wrapper. You can have several tracks of audio in the same QuickTime movie. Indeed, a QuickTime movie can also have several tracks of video, interactive sprite tracks, and even effect tracks that apply blurs or ripples to the video. QuickTime movies can be very complex creatures . MORE INFO To create interactive QuickTime movies, you need a product called LiveStage Professional, by Totally Hip software.
2.	Click the "Choose tracks to export" dialog's OK button. Logic converts the movie's audio and adds it to the Audio window.
3.	Press Cmd-9 to open the Audio window. There sits the converted movie audio.
4.	Drag the movie audio to the track named Audio 2, and drop it at the beginning of bar 1.
5.	Close the Audio window.