Before Getting Started

Let's discuss a few points before jumping in. We'll start with setup options, specifically as they relate to background rendering as discussed in "Working with Background Rendering," in Chapter 8.

With background rendering enabled, Studio renders transitions and effects in the background, which speeds final rendering at project completion and provides a more accurate preview of the transitions and effects you've added to your project. If you don't enable background rendering, Studio will preview the effect, but what you will see is only an estimate, not the real effect applied to your actual source footage. For this reason, I generally recommend working with background rendering enabled.

In addition, note that video displayed on a computer monitor usually looks different from the same video displayed on a TV screen. If you're producing video for TV viewing on DVD, and don't preview on a TV or NTSC monitor during development, your results may not be optimal. For this reason, DVD producers should implement some sort of analog preview, either through a DV camcorder or the TV output of a graphics card like the ATI All-in-Wonder. See "Setting Up a Dual-Monitor Display" in Chapter 2 for more details.

Also, be aware that while effects have some similarities in interface and operation (as discussed in the next section "Learning the Special Effects Interface"), each effect, by necessity, looks and works differently. This is especially true of third-party effects created by companies other than Pinnacle.

Space doesn't allow a comprehensive review of all special effects, so this chapter demonstrates only the most widely used. Once you understand the basics, you'll find most other Pinnacle-created effects self-explanatory, though some third-party effects use different interfaces. If you're not comfortable teaching yourself how to use these effects, before buying a third-party effect, you may want to check whether the vendor provides user documentation.