Animation and Video

Animation and Video Lesson 4 — Working with Video

Objectives • Set up a video project. • Capture video from a camera or tape. • Import video from other digital sources. • Create a video from source clips and preview a video. • Edit a video. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Video Versus Animation • Video is similar to animations that you have seen in earlier lessons. • Both video and animations are organized around the concept of frames. • Unlike animation, each frame of a video is one entire bitmap image. • There is no text or drawn objects. • The process of converting text, images, and shapes into a single bitmap image is called rendering. • Animations are rendered when they are played. • Video frames are rendered when the video is created. • Animation files are usually smaller and faster to download than video files. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Comparison of Video Frames to Animation Frames The figure on the left shows an animation frame, with two objects contained in the frame. The figure on the right shows the same frame in a video. There are no longer any distinct shapes, just a grid of colored dots that make up the image. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Set Up a Video Project • Most video-editing programs store all data and files in a projects file. • When creating a video project file, you need to consider • Frame size - The larger the frame, the higher the quality, but the larger the file size. • Frame rate – The more frames per second, the smoother the movie, but the larger the file size. • Color settings – The higher the color setting, the larger the file. • Compression settings – Can greatly reduce file size, but can also affect the quality of the movie. • Sound settings – Speech does not require the same level of sound quality as music would require. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Create a Project File • When you launch Adobe Premiere, a dialog box will appear where you can select the settings for your video. • You may be able to select from pre-set options with standard settings for the selected video format. • When you choose your editing format, the Load Project Settings dialog box will open. • Choose your settings and click OK. • The user interface will appear with three main windows. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

The Adobe Premiere Interface This figure shows the Adobe Premiere user interface window. The Project window is where you stage your source clips. The Timeline window is where you put together the pieces of your movie. The Monitor window lets you view your movie. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

The Settings Viewer Dialog Box Open the Settings Viewer dialog box shown here by clicking Project on the menu bar, then clicking Settings Viewer. Choose your settings here, but note the message at the bottom of the dialog box. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Capture Video from an External Source • After setting up the project, you need to insert video to be used in the movie. • You can capture video from an external source, such as a VCR or digital video camera. • You can import video or still images stored on your hard drive. • Video programs have a capture mode to input video from an external source. • When the part of the video that you want to use begins to play, start the recording process. • Stop recording when you have captured all of the video that you want to use. • It is saved on your hard disk as a source clip. • Record as many segments as you want, and each one will be stored as a separate source clip. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

The Movie Capture Window This figure shows the Movie Capture window. To open this, click the File menu, then click Capture, then click Movie Capture. Connect your video source and begin recording. Click Esc to stop recording, and save the source clip in the dialog box that opens. Click Record to begin recording. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Preview a Clip in the Source Window When you have captured a source clip, you can preview it in the Source view window. Use the Playback controls at the bottom of the window. Source clip Source view Playback controls Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Import Video Sources from Other Digital Media • In addition to capturing video from a digital source, you can import existing video from disk to your project. • You can also import still images to use in a video collage. • The video-editing program does not change source clips in any way. • You combine pieces of the various source clips to create a movie. • A single source file may be used in many different movies. • If you change a source clip and retain its original name, any projects using that clip are affected by the changes. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Create and Preview a Video • The timeline is the centerpiece of all video- editing programs. • Source clips become part of the video by dragging them to the timeline. • You can drag the entire clip to the timeline or just use portions of a source clip. • Set an In point where you want to begin copying the source clip. • Set an Out point where you want to stop copying the source clip. • Be careful not to create gaps in the timeline when dragging multiple clips. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Setting In and Out Points This figure shows an example of a source clip being partially copied to the timeline. Drag the SetLocation marker to the spot on the timeline, then click the Mark In button to set the In point. Set the Out point the same way by using the Mark Out button. Out point Mark Out In point Set Location Mark In Lesson 4 – Working with Video

The Timeline with a Partial Clip The top figure shows the timeline with one source clip already on it. The bottom figure shows the same timeline with the partial source clip from the last slide copied to it. Once the segment from the 12-second to the 17-second mark was set, that segment could then be dragged to the timeline. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Edit a Video • When you have clips on the timeline, you may want to edit the video. Most programs allow you to • Rearrange or delete clips. • Adjust a clip’s In and Out points. • Change the speed and duration of a clip. • Cut and splice clips. • Insert or overlay new material using three-point editing. • You can also insert timeline markers to help you keep track of where events occur. • To edit a clip on the timeline, you must first click on it to select it. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Rearrange or Delete Clips Clips are rearranged just by clicking them and dragging them to a new location. Other clips will move as needed to accommodate the clip being moved. You can also select and delete clips to remove them from the movie. It is easy to create gaps when moving or deleting clips. If you create a gap, drag other clips to remove the gap. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Adjust In and Out Points Some video-editing programs allow you to shorten or lengthen clips already on the timeline. You do this by adjusting the In and Out points for the clip. Position the pointer over the beginning or end of the clip until it changes into the Edge Trim tool, then drag in the desired direction. The start point for the river clip has been changed by moving the In point to the right. Note the gap that has now been created. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Adjust Speed and Duration You can change the speed of a clip by specifying a new speed as a percentage of the original speed. This figure shows the river clip being adjusted to play at 200%. Notice it now takes only half as much space on the timeline as it did previously. Select the clip, click Clip on the menu bar, click Speed, and select a speed value. You can also tell the program how long you want the clip to play (the duration), and it will calculate the correct speed for you. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Cut and Splice You can edit tapes by cutting slices out of one spot on the timeline and splicing them into another section of the timeline. You can also cut segments and delete them from the timeline. Use the Razor tool to cut the clip sections to be moved or deleted. Once cut, rearrange them as with other clips. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Use Three-Point Editing • Three-point editing can be used to add new content or change existing content to the timeline. • Three-point editing involves a source and a destination. To do this: • Set the In point for a source clip. • Set the Out point for the source clip. • Set the destination clip’s In point. • Start the copying process to insert the source clip at the destination In point. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Examples of Three-Point Editing This figure shows two examples of three-point editing. In an Insert edit, the new clip is inserted into the timeline at the given point, rearranging clips already there. An Overlay edit replaces anything on the timeline with the inserted clip. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Use Timeline Markers You can create “bookmarks” on the timeline using timeline markers. These can be used to help you quickly return to some specific point on the timeline. To create one, move the edit line in the timeline to the point that you want, then use a command to set the marker, as shown here. Marker 0 Marker 1 Edit Line Marker 2 Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Summary • Digital video does not store text, shapes, or other components directly. The video is stored as a sequence of frames, each of which is a separate bitmapped image. • Because each frame is a complete image and because there may be 10 to 30 frames appearing every second, video files are often very large and usually require compression. Video compression takes advantage of the similarity between frames by encoding each frame based on the previous one. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Summary (continued) • Video files can also include audio tracks, which are also usually compressed. • When the video includes text, shapes, pictures, or pieces of other video, that data must be rendered into a new sequence of frames. Rendering occurs when you preview the video or export it as a movie. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Summary • Video-editing programs usually are based on “projects,” as text programs are based on “documents.” A video project contains all the pieces that go into the video, all the compression and file-handling settings, and a record of all the editing operations needed to create the video. • A video is constructed of a number of source clips—individual video files or still images— that go into the final video production. These sources are copied, not modified, when you use them as part of a larger video project. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Summary (continued) • Source clips can either be captured from external sources, such as a digital video camera, or imported from other data files already on your computer. • Central to most video-editing programs is the idea of a timeline: a sequence of source clips or parts of source clips arranged in sequence. • To see the result of the sequence of clips on the timeline, you can at any time preview the result. It may sometimes take time to build the preview if the clips must be rendered. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Summary (continued) • You determine the part of a clip used on the timeline and in the final video by specifying In and Out points. • After placing clips in sequence on the timeline, you can edit the result by rearranging them, adjusting the In and Out points, changing their speed and duration, cropping them, and inserting and overlaying new clips. Lesson 4 – Working with Video

Animation and Video