Picture-in-Picture Editing

Starting with version 3, Camtasia Studio offered the ability to include a second video stream to augment your screen video footage. This was mainly done with the purpose of letting you use a webcam so that your target audience could actually see your face as you walked them through the intricacies of your software. This video stream would appear in a window within the main screen recording (hence the term picture-in-picture, or PIP).

But that’s only the beginning, folks. You can place pretty much whatever you like inside your PIP track. You can, of course, insert a view of your face, but you can also use an action shot that thematically relates to the screen content. And who says that your PIP material has to be camera video at all? Perhaps you’d like to remind users of a previous talking point without leaving the current screen. Or maybe you want to do a zoomed close-up of a particular toolbar while still maintaining a view of the full user interface. By making use of screen video for both streams, you can accomplish both of the above goals with ease.

With version 3.1, Camtasia Studio included an additional convenience for those users who produce Flash (SWF and FLV) video files, namely the ability to lay out the two video streams in a side-by-side formation rather than superimposing one over the other. This way, you can ensure that nothing in your screen video will get obscured by another video window. This choice between two layout formats provides a lot of flexibility.

Up to now, our discussions of picture-in-picture video have focused mainly on creating it and importing it into Camtasia Studio. In this section, we’ll cast the spotlight on Camtasia Studio’s special editing options for PIP. Now, you can select and cut material out of your PIP track just as you would with your screen video track. However, the application offers additional tools that augment the inherent “PIP-ness” of your camera video, and that’s what we’re going to explore. But before we do that, let’s talk about previewing our PIP track and how this affects the editing process.

The PIP Preview

If you’ve been reading this book straight through rather than flipping around (which I realize is probably unlikely), then you’ve already discovered the various methods by which you can add video to your PIP track. To recap, it’s typically done in one of the following three ways:

• You were recording PIP at the same time as your screen video, and both tracks were automatically added to the Timeline when you chose to edit your work in Camtasia Studio (Chapters 5 and 8).

• You imported all your screen video and camera video clips into the Clip Bin, and then dragged the intended PIP clips down onto the PIP track manually (Chapter 9).

• You created PIP video using the Record Camera tool, and it was added to the Timeline automatically upon saving (Chapter 10).

No matter what method is used to “christen” your PIP track, once you’ve got a clip down there, the Select PIP Preview dialog is going to appear:

You’ve therefore got two choices as to how you want to display your PIP content while working in Camtasia Studio:

• Preview the PIP track on top of the Video track. This is a true “picture-in-picture” setup. The contents of the PIP track will actually display in a small window inside your Video Preview where your screen video is shown.

• Preview the PIP track as a floating window. This option allows you to view your PIP content separate from your Video track in a side-by-side formation. It can be shown in either a floating window or docked beneath your Clip Bin.

Regardless of which option you pick initially, you can always toggle back and forth between these two views by choosing View > Toggle PIP Preview Placement, or simply by pressing Ctrl-F8. If you opted for a side-by-side view, you can dock/undock this window at any time by clicking the button in the top right-hand corner of the preview window:

Now, pay close attention, as this next point is really, really important: Whatever option you choose has ZERO bearing on how the produced file will ultimately look. These preview choices are exactly that, for previewing your work. All your actual production-related decisions are made whilst traversing the Production Wizard dialog, which we’ll talk about in the next unit. That said, your preview mode does have an impact on the PIP editing choices you have at your disposal. So while you may freely flip back and forth between preview modes as much as you like, it would probably behoove you to maintain the PIP preview that resembles your planned output.

Editing Your PIP Video

Once you have a video clip or two in the PIP track of your Timeline, you can trim this content just as you would your screen video. All your basic editing commands still work. You can size down the video’s borders or cut from the middle to trim unwanted segments out of your clip. You can split your clips into individual sections, which can actually be quite useful for your PIP content, as we’ll see in a moment. You cannot, unfortunately, perform a couple of the more advanced commands such as extending a frame or altering the clip speed (though I’ve honestly never missed them).

Things really get interesting when we get into the editing tools designed exclusively for PIP clips. Keep in mind that the current preview mode will affect your available choices. For example, if you’re previewing your PIP track in side-by-side view, you won’t have options for the size and placement of your PIP window, since the size of your side-by-side video will be determined in the Production Wizard.

But first things first. Let’s actually open a PIP clip for editing:

1. From the Edit menu, choose Picture-in-Picture (PIP)….

   or

   Under Edit in your Task List, click Picture-in-Picture (PIP)….

2. You’ll see a list of your PIP clips on the table of your Picture- in-Picture pane. Double-click one of your clips.

   or

   Click to select one of your clips, and then click Modify selected PIP clip to open it.

   An alternate way of opening your PIP clip for editing (and perhaps the easiest) is to simply double-click it from the PIP track of your Timeline. It’s certainly the most direct route - you can skip step 1 of the above procedure entirely.

In addition to showing all the PIP clips on your Timeline and giving you the option of opening one, the Picture-in-Picture (PIP) pane also lets you do a little housecleaning:

You have options here to Remove all PIP clips, which clears your PIP track in one fell swoop, or Remove selected PIP clip, which only gets rid of the one you just clicked. Of course, you can also trash a clip the traditional way, by clicking it in your Timeline and then pressing Delete.

Now, let’s talk about the Modify Picture-in-Picture pane, and the editing choices located therein. I’m going to split this part into two sections, since you’ll be seeing two very different dialog panes depending on the current preview mode.

Editing the Side-By-Side Preview

Since the side-by-side view of your PIP content is quite a bit more static than the actual picture-in-picture view, you’ve got considerably fewer options governing the window’s appearance:

But the side-by-side view does offer a couple of variables we can adjust, the first of which is Fade PIP video in and out. When this option is checked, you have a nice effect of fading in from black when the PIP clip is introduced, and then fading to black again when it ends. And yes, the background color is always black, unless you specify a background image for your PIP window, which we’ll discuss in the next chapter.

The next section, Show/Hide PIP video, is very handy for those situations where you don’t necessarily want to show your face the entire time, but do want your PIP audio narration to carry through the entire length of the clip. To accomplish this, you’ll need to blank out the sections in which you don’t want the PIP video to be visible. It’s like taking a bottle of Wite-Out (or in this case, Black-Out), and painting over portions of your PIP Video track. And it’s really easy to do.

This is how you hide portions of your PIP video, and how you can make it reappear:

1. Navigate to the Modify Picture-in-Picture (PIP) pane if you’re not already there.

2. Select a portion of your Timeline that coincides with the part of your PIP track you want to hide. Don’t worry about locking other tracks, as this command applies only to your PIP track.

3. Click the Hide PIP button. The hidden portion of your PIP track will now display in gray:

   

4. To make any portion of your hidden PIP content visible again, select all or part of the hidden (grayed out) material, and click Show PIP. The selected gray portions will once again become white, indicating that they are now visible.

You can have as many hidden portions in a single PIP clip as you want. Keep in mind that if you have Fade PIP video in and out checked, it will fade in or out at every point your PIP content is shown or hidden. Of course, if you simply don’t care about preserving the PIP audio, you can accomplish the same effect by splitting your PIP content into separate clips and then moving them around on your Timeline. However, I really like the flexibility that the Show/Hide tool affords you in terms of easily bringing hidden content back.

Tip 

If you intend on transitioning your PIP content in and out over the duration of the video, you might want to try out a program called Visual Communicator from Serious Magic (www.seriousmagic.com). It too offers picture-in-picture effects, but with a large library of cool transition effects as well as the ability to chroma key your PIP video (meaning that you can digitally place a still or moving image behind your “talking head” in the video). I occasionally use VC to augment Camtasia Studio when I need to add a little “PIP pizzazz.” A demo is available on the companion CD.

Next, let’s talk about the somewhat broader range of editing options available for picture-in-picture editing. Remember that the options you’re shown on the Modify Picture-in-Picture (PIP) pane are reflective of the preview mode you’ve chosen. So, if you enter this pane only to discover that you’re in the wrong mode, you first have to cancel back to the main interface (where your Clip Bin is located), toggle the PIP preview by pressing Ctrl-F8, and then re-enter the Modify Picture-in-Picture (PIP) pane.

Editing the Picture-in-Picture Preview

If you enter the Modify Picture-in-Picture (PIP) pane while in Picture- in-Picture Preview mode, things now look a bit different:

Notice that you have the same options as before for fading the PIP video in and out as well as for showing/hiding portions of the video. But we also have some formatting choices regarding the size, location, and appearance of your PIP video that only make sense in a true picture-in-picture format.

Since the PIP window will be appearing over the top of your screen video, you’re going to want to adjust its size and position within the window in such a way as not to obscure anything important. So that’s where we’ll begin.

Here’s how to change the size and location of your PIP window within your Video Preview:

1. Open the Modify Picture-in-Picture (PIP) pane while in Picture-in-Picture Preview mode. If necessary, click to place the seek bar over a portion of the PIP clip that isn’t hidden. You should see a green rectangle in your Video Preview that contains the current frame of your PIP track:

   

2. To adjust the clip’s location inside your screen video window, click and hold anywhere inside the green rectangle, and then drag it to a new location.

   or

   For more precise placement, adjust the X and Y coordinate fields on the Modify Picture-in-Picture (PIP) pane. These coordinates represent the upper left-hand corner of your PIP window.

3. To alter the size of your PIP clip, click and hold on any of the black squares located around the border of the green rectangle, and drag to increase or reduce the window’s size. Note that the window’s aspect ratio is automatically maintained.

   or

   Enter values for Width and Height into the corresponding fields on the Modify Picture-in-Picture (PIP) pane. These values are measured in pixels. Note that the window’s aspect ratio is not automatically maintained, so be careful not to stretch your PIP video content into a funhouse mirror reflection of itself. If you do so accidentally, resizing it in the Video Preview will snap it back into proportion.

Now, changing the size and position of your PIP window in this manner changes it for the entire PIP clip in question. So what if you want the size or position (or any of the other formatting elements) of your clip to change at some point, for example to move out of the way of some important screen content? Simple. Split it up into separate clips. Just remember to lock your other tracks first (unless, of course, you want the split to happen there, too). Once that’s done, each clip in the PIP track can have its properties adjusted individually.

In addition to sizing, you can dress up the appearance of your PIP window with a few additional options. To wit:

• Opacity. This slider will let you set the opacity of your PIP window anywhere from 1% (nearly invisible) to 100% (fully opaque). You can use this tool to make your PIP window semi-transparent, which in addition to being a nice effect, gives the user a partial view of the content that’s underneath the PIP window.

• Include border. Lets you specify whether you want a colored border to appear around your PIP window. The border is a couple of pixels wide (the width is not editable). Click the Color… button to choose the border’s color.

• Drop shadow. Check this box to place a drop shadow just outside your box to give the PIP window a somewhat three-dimensional quality. You can even choose the direction of the shadow. In the Shadow direction drop-down list, simply pick any of the four corners of your PIP window for the shadow effect.

  Note 

  Now, as I’ve mentioned, most of the settings in this dialog pertain to Picture-in-Picture Preview mode. If you end up producing a side-by-side video after tweaking all these options, note that the Fade PIP video in and out and the Show/Hide PIP video options will still be honored, but everything else will be ignored. Of course, the project file will still maintain the settings regardless of how you produce, so if you ever do decide to produce in a picture-in-picture format, you won’t have to start over from scratch.

So that’s the scoop on editing your PIP video. In the next chapter, you’ll come full circle by learning how to produce those PIP segments as part of your final video. For now, though, let’s move on to the other special effects in your arsenal, going in order of their appearance in the Edit section of your Task List. We covered the Audio Enhancement options in Chapter 10, so next on the docket is transition effects.