Understanding Timeline Slices

As you've been adding clips to the Timeline, you've probably noticed a number appearing above them (Figure 6.69).

Figure 6.69. Timeline slices appear as each clip is added or as the razor blade is used. (See color insert.)

This is called a Timeline slice and it's part of the media management system's way of keeping track of what's on the Timeline. Every time you add a clip and every time you use the razor blade, a new slice is created. Each slice can be manipulated independently.

Tip

• The more slices that exist on the Timeline, the slower Liquid Edition will respond to your commands. Once you reach a Timeline that contains many hundreds of slices (easily done on an hour-long project), you will see a significant lag when you add clips or trim clips. You can avoid this by making sure you create a new Sequence for every separate part of your Project. This will at least cut down on the slice count while you are editing. During the final assembly, there is no way to avoid a high slice count, but at that stage, most of your fine-tuning should have been completed.

The Color of Slices

Timeline slices come in five colors; each one represents the state of the clips directly below that slice.

• Gray: The normal state for a clip. The clip has no special effects attached to it and no rendering is required.

• Yellow: A real-time FX has been added to the clip. The FX will preview without rendering, but the slice will need to be rendered before it is taken out to DVD or tape.

• Red: A non-real-time FX has been added to the clip. The FX must be rendered to be viewed. This normally occurs during background rendering.

• Green: Real-time and non-real-time FX have been rendered. Normally the change from red to green is gradual so that you can see how much of the clip has yet to render. Any part of the slice that is green can be played back while you are waiting for the rest of the clip to render. This rule does not apply to yellow slices. For various technical reasons, some machines do not show a gradual change from red to green but rather a change once the render is complete.

• Dark Red: This means the clip directly under this slice cannot be found by the media management system. See Chapter 4 for details.

Background Rendering

All rendering in Liquid Edition (yellow or red slices) is carried out in the background. In practical terms, this means you can carry on using the program, opening new clips to edit, creating new titles, opening other FX windows, and so on, while the program carries on rendering anything you have already worked on.

To see the progression of the background rendering, click once on the Sigma icon in the Liquid Edition taskbar This will bring up the Render View dialog (Figure 6.70).

Figure 6.70. The Render box.

Here you can turn rendering on or off and you can also check the Include yellow slices box to render your real-time FXs.