Adobe Community : Popular Discussions - Premiere Elements Tips & Tricks

Fixing Background Noise in Audio

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:35:45 GMT

Users often encounter situations, where there is much background noise also recorded along with the human speech, that they are attempting to capture. This can be heavy ambient noise from near-by traffic, and A/C unit, wind, birds in a park, or others speaking close enough to the mic to be picked up. Most of the time, these extraneous noises are unwanted in the audio portion of the AV file.

Unfortunately, the best solution comes before one captures the footage. A good mic, good mic’ing technique, quieting the environment, or moving the taping to a quiet location are the best practices. Sometimes, many of these “cures” are not possible. Still, they are where one really needs to start.

When the audio has been captured, there can be major issues, when trying to remove the unwanted noise. There are some programs, and techniques that might be helpful at reducing these noises, but remember, these will only be so effective. If the noises are isolated to particular frequency ranges, outside of those of human speech, the prospect increases of success. A 60Hz hum is a good candidate for removal. Other human speech is certainly not. Wind noise can be broad spectrum can be very problematic, as if you remove it, for all overlapping frequencies with the human speech, those will all be removed, leaving the desired sound removed too. This is not what you want. One’s success will depend entirely on the frequencies of the undesirable noise, and how much of it, one can live with.

Now, there are some tools, that can be very useful, but only within the realm of the parameters discussed above. Regardless of which tools you use, you had better plan on spending a lot of time with a good set of headphones, and a lot of listening and testing.

The first tool that I turn to is Adobe Audition. It is a pro-level audio-editing program, and is not inexpensive. It is very powerful, but with that power comes both a learning curve and a lot of manipulation. One of its Restoration Effects is Noise Reduction (Process). This is used in conjunction with the Capture Noise Reduction Profile, which, when applied to a section of the offending noise, without the human speech, will map the audio profile of that noise. This profile will then be loaded into Restoration>Noise Reduction (Process). There, one has many controls for the application of the Effect, and the ability to Preview those settings. Plan on spending some time with this Effect, as it can be very easily overdone. When this happens, the human speech will take on a strong echo. As you reduce this undesirable effect, the ambient noise level will increase. Make settings, test - repeat - repeat - repeat. When you have balanced the noise reduction vs the distortion, that is as good as it gets.

From that point, one would then look to Effect>Parametric EQ (Equalizer) or Effec>Graphic EQ, to manually reduce certain frequencies (outside of the range of human speech), and also pump up certain frequencies that make up human speech - 125 - 250 Hz is about where most human speech occurs. These can be increased, but if your noise is full-spectrum, remember you will also increase any part of that noise, that resides in this range too.

After all has been done here, there are three Filters, that might help too: Low-Pass, High-Pass and the Notch/Gate Filters. Again, these can be very useful if there is zero overlap from the noise to the spectrum of human speech. Again, apply, test - repeat, etc.

One very useful Effect in Audition is Repair Transient. This can be used to remove pops, clicks and other transient noise. Many bird calls are Transients, and with a bit of work, can often be eliminated completely. I could not live without this Effect, as it can clean up so very much, leaving the noise floor untouched, but completely removing the Transients.

Now, buying Audition is not in everyone’s budget. One good freeware program for audio-editing is Audacity. It can work with many VST’s, and there are VST versions of several different EQ’s, plus High-Pass, Low-Pass and Notch/Gate Filters. I have never seen a noise-reduction VST that really worked, nor a Transient Removal VST, but they might exist. Note: while Audacity is free, only some available VST’s will be free. Some are more expensive than Audition.

Some years ago, I was working on a particularly badly degraded piece of audio. It came from a VHS tape of an old TV show, and apparently the tape deck had major problems, and maybe the signal was poor as well. This piece of audio just did not exist beyond this VHS tape, so I had to work on it. I spent a full day in Audition, and really was not doing well. It seemed that if I reduced part of the noise, some aspect of the audio disappeared also. Months before, I had purchased one of the Magix Music Studio programs. It came bundled with a little program called Audio Cleaning Lab. I installed both programs, but never touched ACL. It just languished on my Desktop. As I was about to give up on the restoration, I opened up all of my Magix programs, hoping to find a “magic bullet.” Nothing in the usual suspects, and then I opened up ACL for the first time. It had a simple little interface and looked more like a toy, than a serious audio program. There were default presets for several parameters, but not much more. Out of curiosity, I grabbed my WAV from Audition and ran it through ACL with the default presets. I was amazed at how much it improved on my day’s work. When the shock subsided, I decided to try it on the un-altered WAV. It was amazing. I then worked on the output from ACL, back in Audition, and got a useful file. That little “toy,” had done a fabulous job within the parameters and limitations of a program that does only one thing - cleans up audio. If one does a little additional work in a full-featured audio editing-program, like Audition, things can be amazingly good. Even then, one still must be ready to adjust, test, and repeat.

My audio “toolbox” runs from Audition to Audacity, and includes several of the Magix programs and many others. When trying to “clean up” existing audio, I am ready to use any/all of those, and be patient.

Still, recording the cleanest audio initially, will pay dividends. Cleaning up poor audio in post-production is limited and is very labor-intensive.

Another “fix” for bad audio is “dubbing.” This is the process of re-recording the audio in a quite location, with good mics, and the actors watching their performance on a monitor. This is the opposite of lip-syncing, but can be very effective, and is done in Hollywood often. Once a good clean dub has been recorded, it would be Imported into one’s NLE (Non Linear Editor) of choice and aligned with the Video portion of the Clip, that was used as a visual for the dub. The original Audio would be Deleted, or Muted. One of the nice benefits of doing things this way is that one can dub to an edited visual. If necessary, one could also do a tiny bit of Time Stretch on the dubbed Audio, to get perfect sync. This does get involved, but can be done. Many programs will allow one to alter time, but maintain pitch.

If necessary, other audio, besides just the dubbed human speech, can be added, where necessary. If one needs certain SFX (Sound Effects), to match visuals, these can be added. A second similar method is to do Foley Sound, where one finds items that will sound “like” what appears on screen. These range from things like “creating” thunder by shaking a sheet of aluminum, or similar. If one’s dubbing is also missing wanted sounds, using SFX Clips (either recording these, or finding them online) or doing Foley Sound can replace those audio elements that are now Muted, or Deleted.

I also highly recommend that one use a good pair of noise-canceling headphones, and apply a liberal dose of patience, when doing any audio work. Often, it can take far more time, than either setting it up correctly in the first place, or just doing a reshoot.

Hope that this helps someone,

Hunt

DVD - VOB Files - The Lowdown

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 13:25:01 GMT

We often see people trying to edit existing DVD-Videos. Some seem to be able to do this fine, while others struggle mightily. What’s the deal? Why can’t one just Import those VOB files and edit happily away?

Let’s go back to the basics just a bit. A .VOB file is a "Video Object File." As such, and by the DVD-specs., it can contain quite a bit of stuff. Some of this is beyond just the Audio & Video contained in the usually present MPEG-2 file, which is hidden inside the VOB. This VOB can contain subtitles, Menus, and ROM content, to name but a few. With simple VOB’s, one can often play them, if they are just renamed to .MPEG, though not always. In the case where this works, one does not need a DVD software player. Any player program that can handle MPEG-2 can play the file.

The structure and elements of a DVD-Video DVD-5 (4.7GB, single sided, single layer) will be in most cases:

AUDIO_TS folder (usually empty). May also not be present.

VIDEO_TS folder, which contains VIDEO_TS.IFO (Video Manager.info), VIDEO_TS.BUP (VMGI.backup), VTS_01_0.IFO (Video Title #1.info), VTS_01_1.VOB (Video Title #1.video), and more of these, incremented by 1. Depending on the number of "titles" on a particular disc, the numbers can range up to the limit of 99. For Projects from most NLE/authoring programs will only have one "title," so you’ll likely not see more than 4 VOB’s and their accompanying IFO’s and BUP’s. The VOB’s will be approximately 1GB in size, the upper limit.

The title of the "movie" inside the VIDEO_TS folder will be contained in the .IFO and the BUP files. If you open up a DVD-Video in Windows Explorer, you’ll see just the folders, and no name, or anything else. The same is for the file names inside the folder(s). They will look the same for all DVD-Videos, though the exact number of these will differ, depending on the structure and number of discrete titles on the disc. It’s not until one opens the DVD-Video in either a software player, or in a set-top player, that the IFO files will play, allowing the player to then access and work with the .VOB’s, via the instructions that are contained in the IFO and BUP files.

Editing a VOB can be a tricky, as it can contain all those different things. Ripping the MPEG-2 file from the VOB is usually the best approach. That is what PrPro, PE, or other NLE’s (Non Linear Editor) attempt to do. Sometimes, it works fine, but sometimes it does not. Another problem can be when there are multiple VOB’s, as the MPEG-2 files can span multiple VOB’s, as they cannot contain more than about 1GB of data. This is why a DVD-Video can only have 1GB of space for ALL Menus and their elements.

As VOB’s can contain the full menuing structure (this will be the first VOB), unless this structure is done 100% by the DVD-specs, there will be issues. Most DVD-recorders include some form of menuing, and most do not do it perfectly. This WILL create issues. Ripping via software will likely be the only answer, or doing a manual capture from a set-top DVD player, hooked up appropriately to your computer with a capture card, or bridge, and using the software that came with that device. You will not have any "device control," so you must start the capture software, hit Record, and then start your DVD in its player. If you do this, make certain that you capture to DV-AVI Type II w/ 48KHz 16-bit Audio.

Once one has edited the Audio & Video contained in the .VOB(s), the process to get the resulting Project back into DVD-Video form is to Burn to DVD. This is the authoring process.

Three things happen:

1.) The edited file is Transcoded to MPEG-2. If you were working from a VOB already, the Audio & Video material has already been Transcoded to MPEG-2, in which there will already be compression of the data. If you do this again, there will be more compression of the data, resulting in a loss in quality. Some NLE’s can do "smart rendering/encoding." None of the programs from Adobe can do this, as they are designed to work with material captured from a miniDV tape camera. While they can handle other footage, there will be compromises. When designed, DV-AVI Type II was chosen as the base workflow, because that was what most miniDV tape cameras produced. The introduction of flash memory, miniDVD, and hard drive cameras, plus the introduction of HD, has changed things a bit, and will continue to change them over the next versions of the programs.

2.) The folder structure and the necessary files are created.

3.) The above material is then physically Burned to a DVD-Video, or is copied to a folder on the computer in the required, and necessary form and structure.

In the case of the former, one can then play the DVD-Video via a software player on a computer, or on a set-top player hooked to a TV or display device. In the case of the latter, one needs a software player to play the files in the VOB, with the instructions coming from the IFO, or the BUP files.

Hunt

Using External HDD's for Video Editing

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:24:50 GMT

External HDD’s (Hard Disk Drives) are everywhere, and quite popular. These allow one to increase the storage capacity of a system greatly, quickly and easily, for not that much money. We now have many sizes, and many connection types. Some connection types are better than others, if one is doing more than off-loading data to archive it, and perhaps free up internal HDD space. With the right connection type, one can also edit to/from the external HDD’s. Again, some connection types are better than others. Note: for editing Video, the physical HDD’s need to be at least 7200 RPM.

For simple archiving, any connection type will work well. In that process, files are just written to the external HDD, and when needed, read from the external HDD. The problem comes in, when one tries to edit to/from the external HDD. Most current computers are faster than the slower connection types can manage. The OS is firing commands for reads/writes too fast. The OS expects rapid response, and can overwhelm the external HDD. When one adds in an NLE (Non Linear Editor) program, there is a great deal of HDD activity, and this requires many reads and writes, and requires them quickly. The files are very large too. Suddenly, the I/O (Input/Output) sub-system is overwhelmed, but the requests keep coming.

Here is a real-world look at the data transfer of some common connection types:

Average transfer rates in MB/s for different interfaces:

USB2: 20 - 25, depending on other USB devices sharing the same bandwidth
FW400: 30 - 35
FW800: 50 - 60
USB3: 65 - 80, depending on other USB devices sharing the same bandwidth
eSATA: 100 -140
SATA: 100 - 140

Raid0: 0.9 x N disks over a single disk

Raid3/5: 0.8 x (N-1) disks over a single disk for read, 0.6 x for write. ICHR10 figures are a bit lower than hardware controllers.

Note: “FW” refers to FireWire, which might also be referred to as IEEE-1394a (FW-400) or iLink, and as IEEE-1394b (FW-800). The connectors are different, as are the cables. Also, one needs the appropriate controllers. Most computers have FW-400/IEEE-1394a/iLink controllers on the MoBo and connectors available for the cables. For FW-800/IEEE-1394b, one usually needs to add a controller, either on a PCI card, or via PCMCIA, or ExpressCard. More on controllers later.

As one can see, the USB 2.0 connection is slower than the rest. Problems can arise, when trying to edit to/from such an external HDD. They can be plagued with read/write errors, as they cannot maintain the data transfer, required by the OS and by the NLE program. When the allowed time has expired, based on the OS’s expectation of data transfer, it stops the process, and issues a read/write error. In a worst-case scenario, the OS will have routed the write data into a buffer, waiting for the external HDD to catch up. These buffers are finite in their capacity to store the data, while the OS is waiting. It does not take too long, before the dreaded “Delayed write failure” rears up. This can lead to a catastrophic failure of the external HDD, as the data is only partially written, and the File Allocation Tables are not completely written, causing the loss of ALL data on the external HDD. At that point, all data on the external HDD is lost. It might be possible to do a recovery with a program, like Stellar-Phoenix, but it is not cheap, not is it fail-safe. Depending on the value of the files lost, one might hire a data recovery service, but these are anything but cheap. Probably best to just do a complete low-level Format of the external HDD and then do an OS Format.

Also, while speaking of Format, most external HDD’s come from the factory, Formatted to FAT-32, an older Format type. Besides being slower, FAT-32 has a max. file size of about 4GB, and AV files are often much larger. One needs to CONVERT the Format to NTFS for the PC, or to the Mac OS’s Format, to allow for the larger files, and to increase the speed a bit. On the Mac/PC front, a PC can read/write to FAT-32, or NTSF. However, a Mac can ONLY read/write to a PC external HDD, Formatted to FAT-32. If one is migrating the HDD’s between Mac’s and PC’s, the external needs to remain in FAT-32 with its limitations. Just one consideration, when setting up external HDD’s for use with an NLE program.

For editing Video, I have found that the connection types should be considered this way:

USB 2.0 - archiving for storage only
FW-400 - archiving for storage, and light editing to/from (just very slow)
FW-800 - archiving for storage, and regular editing to/from (fairly fast)
eSATA - archiving for storage, and regular editing to/from (about as fast as an internal SATA)
I have not tested USB 3.0 in editing situations, so cannot comment on their acceptability.

Obviously, a SATA internal is ideal for all tasks.

Now, back to controllers. The real-world throughput of an external can be diminished due to the controller, and the number of chips available. Many MoBo’s have 1 - 2 USB 2.0 chips, and 1 - 2 FW-400 chips. One needs to check the number of chips provided. One might have multiple connectors, either on the computer’s case, or direct from the MoBo. These connectors might go to multiple controller chips, or might all feed into one. The same can be said for add-on cards, PCMCIA cards, or ExpressCards. The number of connectors does not guarantee the number of chips.

The more externals, and peripherals that are connected to the controller chip, the lower the data transfer rates. This holds for hubs especially. One might have various externals and peripherals plugged into various connectors, but everything being fed through a single controller chip. Add to that, the ability to daisy-chain multiple externals through the In/Out connectors on most external HDD’s, and overall performance falls even more. USB 2.0 and FW-400 suffer most from these multiple externals limitations, but FW-800 can too, just not to the same degree.

When one is using an external to edit to/from, there is another consideration. When peripherals with mass storage capabilities are plugged into a computer, a drive letter is assigned by the OS. Most NLE programs, like PrE/PrPro rely on the drive letter to link to the Assets. They do this via an absolute path, including that drive letter. Depending on how many other peripherals are plugged in, and the order that they are plugged in, that drive letter assignment might differ, session to session. When using external HDD’s, one should go into the OS’s Disk Management console and assign a fixed drive letter for that individual external HDD. This would hold for however many one is likely to use, and each should have a unique drive letter. I suggest marking each external with the drive letter that the user assigns to it, say Z:\. Then, whenever Z:\ is plugged in, it will always be seen as Z:\. This way, the NLE can keep up with where the Assets are located, starting with the drive letter. If one is migrating Projects between computers, they will repeat this exact process in the OS of each computer. Note: when doing the migration, ALL Assets, Scratch Disks, and the Project file, MUST be included on that external, or one will spend a good deal of time tracking down the Assets.

External HDD’s are great devices, but some considerations need to taken into account, before one just plugs them in, and begins editing.

Hunt

Go-Pro Helmet Cam Footage Editing Tips

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 18:23:07 GMT

This was graciously provided by Gonza, and I hope that it helps others:

Editing GoPro HD with Premiere Pro CS4

Introduction

GoProHD has many different resolutions, all of them progressive scan (p) with square pixels, titled R1 to R5. It records in MP4 files, using H.264 video (AVC) and AAC audio.

Here I will address R2 to R5:

R2 = 1280 x 720 30p (widescreen 16:9)

R3 = 1280 x 720 60p (widescreen 16:9)

R4 = 1280 x 960 30p (standard 4:3)

R5 = 1920 x 1080 30p (widescreen 16:9)

Preparation of files

It seems Premiere Pro CS4 does not like the way GoPro builds the MP4 container. So you have to re-write it so that it has a more standard form. You can do that using MPEG Streamclip (or Quictime Pro, but that one is not free)

http://www.squared5.com/

If you open your GoPro videos in MPEG Streamclip (or Quicktime Pro) , and then you just save them again ("save as... MP4") , then the MP4 container will be re-written but the video will not be re-encoded (hence, there will be no quality loss!)

You can also process many files at once, using the batch feature: Just go to List>Batch List and start adding files. Then as task, choose “save as”.

Sequence Preset

Now that you have all your files converted, we need to pick the right project sequence preset for the resolution you are working on, all of them based on AVCHD

· For R2 choose AVCHD 720p30

· For R3 use AVCHD 720p60

· For R4 you will need to create a custom profile, because there is no built-in profile for this resolution: Select AVCHD 1080p30 and then go to the General tab. Change Editing Mode to Desktop, so you will be able to modify the resolution. Change the resolution to 1280 x 960 and then press the Save Preset button to save your newly created sequence profile for GoPro R4

· For R5 use AVCHD 1080p30

Export

After all your editing (using the modified MP4 files) you will want to export your final product.

I usually export in meg2 or MP4 files, for direct use on my PC, but you can try many others.

· For MP4 files (H.264 video and AAC audio) choose “H.264” as format. I started out with the HDTV 1080p 29.97 High Quality profile but the bitrate was too high for me. So I set out to create a bunch of MP4 export presets for the GoPro, doing some tests and trying to preserve the aprox. bit-rate that GoPro uses for each resolution.

I did them with the Baseline ecoder profile, but you can change it if you want to to use other.

There’s one normal profile and one “low” profile for each resoultion. The “low” one will have a lower video bit rate and 64kbps AAC audio (instead of 128 kbps)

· For Mpeg 2 files choose MPEG2 format (nahh!! really?? J )

For R2 and R5 you can use the corresponding HDTV profiles, but for R3 and R4 I had to create them myself.

To install my profiles just extract them from the archive zip file , and copy them to:

C:\Documents and Settings\YOUR_USERNAME\Application Data\Adobe\Premiere Pro\4.0\Presets

Then they will automatically appear under the MPE2 and H.264 formats.

Enjoy!

Gonza

Large Still Images into PE - One Workflow

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:04:07 GMT

Everyone wants the highest quality that they can obtain when doing their videos. It’s natural to want the best. Well, when dealing with still images, bigger is not necessarily better, for two reasons. First, overly large still images can really tax a system and second, one is limited to the frame size of the video, so these have to be resized somewhere - this resizing can be in the NLE (Non Linear Editor) program, or in an image processing program like PS (Photoshop), which does a better job anyway. Doing this in PS, or PSE, will result in better resized images, and they are easier for the NLE to work with. Quality is as high as your Project’s Preset will allow, and you are more efficient, with fewer crashes, slowdowns and hangs. It is a win-win situation.

Here is my normal workflow when dealing with still images. This workflow is for NTSC 4:3 720x480 with a PAR (Pixel Aspect Ratio) of 0.9. If your Project’s Presets are different, use those specs to resize to.

Since I shoot my still images in RAW, I Copy my files from the CF card to my system and catalog these images by location, subject and date (if necessary). I’ll do a quick conversion and Save_As Adobe DNG for backup. I then process these RAW images in PS with the ARC (Adobe Raw Converter), correcting them and then doing a Save_As PSD into a sub-folder. All of this is in my still photo library.

Normally, I will edit these PSD’s to find the images that I wish to use in a Video Project, and will Copy the selected images to another folder. You’ll see that I work with a lot of Copies, so my original files are always untouched and stored elsewhere. This guards against anything happening to them.

At this point, I’ll decide how I wish to use these selected images in my Video Project. Let’s just say that they are all horizontal images, and are still full-size from my camera. As stated, my Video Projects are DV-NTSC 4:3 720x480 PAR 0.9. [Remember, your Video Project may vary, so you will need to plug in the dimensions for YOUR Video Project in that case.] I also will have done my Cropping on each image individually, to get them to 4:3 Aspect Ratio. I do this my eye and by hand, rather than via an Action, because I want full aesthetic control.

In PS, I have a set of Actions for Video. An Action is like a Script, but less powerful and less involved in the writing. As I have already done all of my image enhancements and additional processing before I did my Copy to the selected folder, I only have to worry about my Action resizing these selected images for use in my Video Project. My Action here is to resize to 720x480 with a PAR of 0.9, and I normally use the Action that does this with a particular resizing algorithm, Bicubic-Smoother (though I also use Bicubic-Sharper on occasion).

For the next step, I go to my folder structure (remember, this folder contains copies of my selected still images in PSD format), and create a new sub-folder "[Project Name]_720x480." Back in PS, I choose File>Automate>Batch. Here I set my Source Folder, my Destination folder and the Action to perform. In my case, it’ll be the Destination Folder, that I just created, [Project Name]_720x480, and my Action will be my NTSC 4:3 720x480 Smooth. I check to have the Open command by-passed, because I do not need to see this take place on my monitor. When I hit OK, PS grabs all files in my Source Folder, runs the commands of my Action and does a Save_As for all files into my Destination Folder. I can process hundreds of large images down to a great 720x480 PAR 0.9 via Bicubic-Smoother interpolation, in moments. Now, I’m ready to go. Last, I Copy my Destination Folder to my Video Project’s folder hierarchy (usually on another HDD), and then Import these processed stills into my NLE.

What if I need to pan on one, or more of these images, while they are zoomed out completely? I don’t have enough pixels in my horizontal dimension to do this. I am just filling the frame with my still. Well, if I find that there are such images, I go back to my folder with the full sized images in my still images library, and select the ones that need to be larger. I run another Action on these, but it’s one that resizes to something larger than 720x480, say 1000x750. Now, I have another Destination Folder with the name [File Name]_1000x750. I’ll Copy this over to my Video Project, and Import these into the NLE. Here, I can go to Project Panel and remove the 720x480 versions if I so choose, but since a Premiere Project file (.PRPROJ or .PREL) is only an XML database, I may just leave them. It does not contain any media files, just links to where they are on the system and to what operations are performed on them.

By doing my resizing in PS, rather than in Premiere, I have accomplished two things:

1.) I have better quality resized images, using the algorithms in PS, plus have a choice of several interpolation methods to work with.

2.) I have lessened the processing load on my NLE and on my system, while doing the editing

I get higher quality and lower resource overhead - hence my reference to "win-win."

Now, back to my aesthetic control. I do not do any automatic zooming or panning. If one allows the NLE to do this, then they will want to probably process all of their images to 1000x750 (remember, this is for an NTSC 4:3 Project, so you will need to calculate what YOUR Project will require).

The two programs that I use are Photoshop and Premiere Pro, but Photoshop Elements can do the same things, though the exact commands might be different. Premiere Elements will handle the resized still images, just like Premiere Pro and the only difference will be the terminology used when one wishes to Import the still images.

I also keep all of my images in .PSD (the native format of PS), and do not convert to JPEG, or other. If one’s camera shoots only JPEG, I suggest writing the Action to do the Save_As to .PSD, as another JPEG compression will cost one quality. Yes, the JPEG’s will be smaller, but remember we are looking for the ultimate quality, so larger file sizes are just part of that equation.

One does not have to deal with all of the Copies, as I do. However, this allows me to go back to the originals, or to the processed full-sized .PSD’s at any step along the way. There is only one thing worse than not being able to go back to an intermediate version with full Layers and Adjustment Layers, plus any Alpha Channels, and that is finding out that you’ve lost your original RAW and DNG backups! That’s why I do a lot of Save_As and also work from Copies all along the way.

Hunt

Rendering - What Does That Mean?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 21:23:26 GMT

There are often questions regarding the process of Rendering, for smoothest playback of the Timeline. The need to Render, for the smoothest possible playback is indicated by colored bars, just below the Timeline Ruler - red bars/lines, green bars/lines and in PrPro, yellow bars/lines. With the exception of the yellow bars/lines, it's the same for either PrPro, or PrE. This ARTICLE goes into more detail. Though Todd and Steve created it for PrPro, with the exception of the yellow bars/lines, it's the same in either program.

Hope that this explains Rendering, how and why it's useful and how to tell if your source footage needs it, for smoothest playback.

Depending on what one has in their Timeline, what they are doing with it, and how critically they need to see it in playback, one might never really need to Render, or they might need to Render small segments many, many times, as they make adjustments.

Good luck, and thanks to Todd and Steve!

Hunt

Conforming & Indexing of Files

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 01:51:39 GMT

Wil Renczes, from Adobe, just posted a great outline of what happens with Conforming and Indexing of files on Import. He was replying in the PrPro forum, but you can substitute PrE for PrPro in his post, as they are the same here. He also addresses why/how Conforming can not take, and the program will do this every time that the Project is opened, though the processes have already taken place before.

Wil writes:

PPro generates two potential sidecar files for audio - PEK and CFA files. The PEK file is simply a quick data pass of the audio data that allows the app to draw waveforms (ie it should be pretty quick) - the CFA files are required if the file source is either too slow to decode the audio in realtime (like some MPEG long GOP, for instance), or if there's a mismatch in the sample rate depth. The idea is that the conform files will match your sequence's audio bitrate settings so that the app can play & mix audio in realtime.

How does PPro track these additional files? Every file that is imported is stamped with XMP, which is how we handle metadata on source files. XMP creates a unique ID which the app uses as a lookup value when it wants to find the PEK & CFA files that it generated for a file. So, usually, if you have a project where certain clips constantly reconform, it has something to do with XMP. Why? Usually it's because XMP can't write to the file. So, every time you launch PPro and open the same project, the media file has no XMP data, so it tries to generate a new ID, so any old CFA/PEK files have an ID mismatch and the app thinks it needs to generate new ones.

Typical cases why XMP can't stamp files:

- the media file is read-only.

- the media's hard drive is read-only.

- the file itself is corrupted/malformed, and XMP takes the safe route & decides not to try to write any additional data to the file. (I've personally witnessed this occur with WAV files captured by a Tascam field recorder.)

- someone deleted the XMP files by hand (certain media types have it as a sidecar .XMP file instead of embedded). (Don't laugh - I recently encountered a case where people had instituted a server folder rule to delete all files on a network share that weren't .mpg. )

A workaround you can try:

There's a preference setting to turn off injecting XMP into your media. If that setting is in effect, PPro will not rely on the XMP ID for the CFA/PEK files.

One other note, if your problem is specific to MPEG files: it might be that PPro isn't able to index the file properly. If it can't index, it might be trying to re-index on each launch; audio conforming always triggers after indexing. So watch for it constantly indexing - if that's the case, all the XMP stuff I described above has nothing to do with the problem. It's a side effect of something in the MPEG stream that we're barfing on. If you do see it constantly re-indexing MPEG files, it would be really helpful to send in a sample so that we can examine the stream.

Cheers Wil

If someone is having problems with continuing Conforming, though it completed earlier, think about what Wil has said.

Good luck,

Hunt

Adding an Arrow or Other Shape/Character to Video

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 17:54:45 GMT

Often, one needs to add an element to “call out” a person, or object in the video. There are several methods to call attention to the person, or object, but one way is to just add an “arrow,” pointing to that person/object.

This can be done easily in the Titler, and one can use Shapes, or characters in a particular font set. Wingdings and Webdings are two font families with all sorts of arrows, and other symbols, that can be very useful.

To accomplish this, one would Open Titler, and then choose a character in a font family, that has the right look. That character would be added in the Text box, after one deletes any “placeholder text” from the Title. For this example, I used Wingdings 3 arrowhead, and chose a font size that was adequate for my image. I adjusted the Stroke and Fill to suit. Note: in PrE’s Titler, one must first add a Style w/ Stroke and Fill, before they can make the adjustments. In PrPro, Titler will add, and allow adjustments to any selected object, without the need to first add a Style.

In Titler, one can position, scale and rotate, as is needed. That Title is placed on a Video Track above the Video Clip. Then, if necessary, they can animate the fixed Effects>Motion>Position (to track with a moving subject), or Rotation, if necessary. This is done by adding Keyframes to make changes over time. Note: in PrE, one goes to Edit Effect with the Clip Selected to access the Effects Control Panel. In PrPro, with the Clip Selected, one just Opens the Effects Control Panel, Window>Effects Control Panel. Also note: this is NOT the Effects Panel, but the Effects Control Panel.

One can also create these Titles in Photoshop/PhotoshopElements, and can use the included Shapes. In PS, one would choose New Image, and then choose the Preset to match their Video Frame Size, say, NTSC 720 x 480 Standard/4:3 w/ Guides, and a Transparent Background. When done, they do a Save_As PSD, to be Imported into their Project and would drag that from the Project Panel to a Video Track above their Video Clip. That PSD can also be animated, and the Scale can be tweaked, if necessary, by Effects>Motion>Scale.

One of the beauties of using Titler is that they can work on the Title with the underlying Video Clip visible (can be toggled ON/OFF in PrPro). If working in PS/PSE, they might want to do a still capture of a Video Frame, to use as a guide. This would be placed on a Layer below the Shape’s Layer, but would need to be either Deleted, or have Visibility turned OFF, prior to doing the Save_As, since one would NOT want that to appear in the PSD - it is only a reference to be used for the layout of the Title.

Here is a look at a Title with an "arrowhead" used from the Wingdings font family:

The program, in this case, is PrE 4's Titler.

Here is a look at the partial character set of Wingings 3:

Hope that this is helpful.

For other methods of highlighting a moving subject, see this ARTICLE

Hunt

Note: this general technique can also be used to "draw" onto, say a map. In that case, one might want to add an animated Crop Effect, or an animated Wipe Effect, to simulate the "drawing" of the line, or Shape.

Adjusting Audio Volume Levels

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:44:48 GMT

Often, one has Audio that is too loud, or too soft. Sometimes, they have added a music Track, that needs to drop down to clearly hear the dialog from another Clip. While there are Audio-editing programs, like Audition, SoundBooth, and even the free Audacity, PrE, or PrPro can handle such adjustment just fine. These adjustments can be made for the entire Clip, or can be Keyframed over time.

First method, and not one that I recommend, is to adjust the Audio Gain of the Audio Clip. This is done by either Rt-clicking on a separate Audio Clip, or by first Alt-clicking, and then Rt-clicking on a Muxed Audio Clip (Multiplexed with both Video and Audio in one file). Then, one would choose Audio Gain, and adjust that. This method will also allow one to then adjust the Volume by a greater amount, and has the bonus of increasing the Waveform Dislay vertically.

The next method is to look at the Audio Clip (or the Audio portion of a Muxed Clip), and click-drag on the yellow-orange “rubberband” for Volume, and move it up, or down. This can be Keyframed, but the next method is much better and more precise, in my estimation.

My first choice is to adjust the fixed Effect>Volume. This is done from the Effects Control Panel, and it is very easy to Keyframe these adjustments over time. This is much more accurate, and actually easier, than click-dragging the rubberbands in the Clip itself. Accessing the Effects Control Panel is slightly different, from PrE to PrPro. In PrE, one would Select the Audio Clip, then go to the Effects Tab, and choose Edit Effects, locating the Volume Effects and twirling it open to view the slider. In PrPro, if one does not already have the Effects Control Panel in a Pane in the GUI, it would be accessed from Window>Effects Control Panel. With the Audio Clip Selected, one would locate the fixed Volume Effect, twirl that open, and make the same adjustments, including Keyframes, if necessary. These will be Clip Keyframes, and will follow that Clip, where ever you move it. This is a difference from the next method.

My other choice would be to use the Audio Mixer (Window>Audio Mixer, if not open), and to automate the Volume settings. This is accomplished by playing the Timeline and adjusting the sliders for Volume for each Track. In PrPro, one would first set the Send to Write, or Touch, to make those adjustments, then switch back to Read, when done. There are no adjustable Sends in PrE, so one is always in Read, until adjustments are made, and then it’s set to Write, but you will not see this change. After you are done, you can playback the Timeline, and watch the slider(s) automatically move. These will be Track Keyframes, and will remain on the Track, regardless of what Clips you add/remove from that area of the Track. Unlike the Clip Keyframes, these will NOT follow the Clip.

One can toggle the Keyframe of an Audio Track between Clip, or Track. Also, the default frequency of Audio Track Keyframes in PrE & PrPro is a bit high, in my opinion. I drop these down a bit in Edit>Preferences.

For the Keyframing, one can alter the Velocity of the Keyframes to Bezier from Linear, and the adjustments will be a bit smoother. Besides the Bezier, one can use Ease-Out and Ease-In, which are Bezier, but basically in a Preset. In PrPro, one has several different Bezier options. In PrE, one is a bit more limited.

For setting the Volume, I recommend that one only glance at the Levels Meters (unless they are peaking in the red), and instead use a pair of high-quality headphones (noise canceling models are worth the money), or fully calibrated studio monitors. Let your ears make the decisions for you, as the dB settings should only be a starting point.

In PrPro, one can also Rt-click on the Audio Clip, and choose Edit in Audition (if you have it installed), or Edit n Soundbooth (if you have one of the suites).

Here is a look at Audio Keyframes in PrPro 2.0. Things are similar in PrPro later versions, and also in PrE, with the above noted differences:

HD to SD Tutorial

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 22:31:48 GMT

Jeff Bellune, noted author, frequent contributor to several Adobe fora and a Community Expert, has just posted a link to his TUTORIAL on getting SD material from HD original material. It is based on PrPro CS4, but much will apply directly to PrE.

While Premiere can down-rez HD to SD, the results are not the best. Jeff uses free, open-source programs to get the ultimate output.

If you have HD material and wish to end up with SD material, this would be a must-read.

Hunt

Analog Signal to Digital a Primer

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 18:32:21 GMT

Many users have analog material sitting around, and they would like to get it into digital form, so that it can be edited. As this material is below SD (Standard Definition) quality, I will address the methods for digitizing it, so that it can be best edited in a DV Project. The output can be a DVD-Video, or other format, depending on what one wishes.

The process of getting this analog material into a digital form, is referred to as Capturing, and it is digitizing the analog material and writing it to a file, that can be edited.

One will need some method of getting the analog signals into digital form, and for connecting the analog output from their analog playback device to the computer. Though the analog signal could come from all sorts of devices, I’ll use a VHS tape deck in this example.

Since a VHS tape deck does not have an A-D (Analog to Digital) processor, and also does not have a a digital signal Out, one needs something in between it, and the computer. That “something” serves two needs: mechanical connection of cables and the ability to convert the analog to digital for use in an NLE (Non Linear Editor). That “something” can be a digital video camera with pass-through capabilities, a device, called a “bridge,” or a capture card inserted into a bus slot in the computer. All three have pluses and minuses.

The first two methods rely on one having a FireWire connection on the computer and will use the Capture module in the NLE software.

The digital video camera route is good, as one already owns it. Having one with pass-through capabilities is getting more difficult. The camera also has to have FireWire (FW, IEEE-1394a, or iLink) output, and the computer must have a matching connection.

An A-D bridge will do the same thing: allow one to connect the analog cables to one end/side, process the analog signals to digital and then output via FW to the computer. There are various such bridges available and two of the most often recommended makes/models are: the ADS-Pryo, and theCanopus/Grass Valley ADVC-110. Products, like the Dazzle lineup, just do not seem to work, or work well. I would avoid such.

A dedicated capture card performs the same task, with one exception. The card will mount into an empty PCI slot on the MoBo, and have inputs for the analog cables. The card will have chips on it, to digitize the analog signals and feed these to the computer via the PCI slot. These do not connect via FW, but have one drawback: they must, in virtually every instance, use additional software to do the actual Capture, as most NLE’s cannot directly see and work with them. Some of the included software Capture programs are better, than others. One common issue with many of these cards is a loss of sync, between the Audio and the Video. This is usually static OOS (Out Of Sync), in that it is usually off by a fixed number of frames, and does not drift over time. This can be fixed in the NLE, but is extra work. This ARTICLE will give you tips on correcting OOS.

Now, we are ready to begin the Capture, as our equipment and cables are all ready to go. We have a big decision in front of us - what format/CODEC do we use to Capture our digital files? Since we are doing an SD Project with non-HD (High Def) material, there is one fine choice: DV-AVI Type II w/ 48KHz 16-bit PCM/WAV Audio, using the DV/DVC CODEC. These files will be approximately 13GB / hour of Duration. Storage will need to be considered. These files are also I-frame, meaning that each “Frame” is rendered and available, so that frame-accurate editing is possible. The NLE will not need to do any processing, or conversion of these files, as even the Audio is ready for DVD-Video. Note: there will still be Conforming and the generation of PEK (Waveform Display) files, but the NLE will be able to do this quickly and efficiently.

Using AVI Uncompressed will get you nothing that you can see, other than larger files. Do NOT use any compressed format/CODEC, like MPEG-2, WMV, MOV, etc., as these will loose data from an already inferior source, and will then need conversion to be used, either with a stand-alone conversion program, or internally by the NLE. You loose quality and then have more work to be done. Do not let the temptation of smaller files lure you into using anything but DV-AVI Type II, and just accommodate the larger file sizes.

With the file format/CODEC decision made, the cables and devices hooked up, we’re ready to start the Capture. The exact operation will depend on what our equipment choice has been. See above for talk about additional Capture software, if one uses a capture card. Otherwise, we should be able to use the Capture module of our NLE. The first issue is that we will NOT have Device Control, as we would with a Capture from a miniDV tape-based digital camera, where we can control the mechanical aspects of the camera, during this process. As our VHS deck is hooked up to the A-D bridge, or digital camera w/ pass-through, via analog cables, our control signals cannot be sent to it. One would cue up the tape in the VHS deck, and then choose Record/Capture in the NLE’s Capture module, starting the Capture. Instantly, they would hit Play on the VHS deck, or via that deck’s remote control. This is easier the second time that one does it. I sit with the mouse in my right hand, poised over the Record/Capture button, and the VHS deck’s remote in my left hand, finger hovering over Play. It’s then a 1 - 2 push, and all starts. One can stop the Capture, if an unwanted section of tape comes up. The Capture module of the NLE will direct us on how to proceed from there, should more Captures be wanted. Some will just start up at a later point, and write an additional file for that portion of the tape, but some might require that one basically sets up a new Capture session One should investigate just what their NLE will require for doing multiple Capture sessions from one VHS tape.

When done, one closes the Capture module, and then navigates to the location that these DV-AVI Type II files have been stored in, and Imports them into the Project. This differs slightly from doing the Capture from a miniDV tape camera, as those Captured files are already in the Project.

Edit away, and Export/Share to the necessary output settings, file type and CODEC.

What about those VHS - DVD decks, the ones that will burn a DVD directly from the VHS tape? They seem so simple to use, and for the most part are. However, those DVD-Video discs, contain pretty heavily-compressed MPEG-2 AV streams. These MPEG-2's, besides being compressed, are in aGOP structure and are muxed (Multiplexed into one file with both a Video & Audio stream), plus there is often some Menus and navigation in the first VOB, the main container components of a DVD-Video. Many NLE’s can Import the VOB’s, and basically rip the MPEG-2 out of them, but that first VOB can be highly problematic, due to the way that most of those decks do the Menus and navigation. It is seldom 100% DVD-compliant by the DVD-specs. This can be a major problem. This ARTICLE will give you some background and tips on DVD VOB's.

Those dual-decks are good for doing one thing, regarding the DVD’s that they produce - provide one with an archival DVD-Video of the VHS tape, and not to be edited. However, the VHS side of these works well with an A-D bridge, just like a pure VHS deck does. I would strongly recommend that one does NOT use the DVD-Video portion of these, if editing will be desired. They cause many more problems, than they solve - just use them for an “archive” copy of the tape to a DVD-Video, for playback on a computer via DVD software or a set-top player, hooked to a TV.

What about film? Well, film is obviously analog, and one needs to digitize this to edit on the computer. The process of this digitizing is referred to as telecineing the film. While one can buy equipment to do this, it is expensive, and involves a lot of setup and testing to get the job done. There are many service bureaus, that offer telecining. Some are better than others. The main considerations are: care in handling of fragile film, how the telecining is done, i.e. frame by frame w/ a liquid gate, or just by straight projection, and then output format for the digitized files. Some of these services will offer a DVD-Video disc. Do not be tempted to do this. See above. Others will offer to write these digitized files to a miniDV tape, and this is just fine. One does then need a miniDV camera, or miniDV tape deck, to then do the Capture from, but the quality and editability will be preserved. The final delivery format would be to put these DV-AVI Type II files onto an external HDD. This saves one from having to do the Capture from miniDV tape, having to have a miniDV camera, or miniDV deck, and only Importing of those files would be required to get them into the Project. Many of these service bureaus will either sell you the external, or use one provided to them. Check out specifications for things like format of the external. FAT-32 will limit the file sizes to ~ 4GB max, and NTSF will have no such limitations. However, if the service bureau is on Mac, and you’re on the PC, their Mac’s can ONLY see FAT-32 HDD’s. Talk this over with the service bureau first, so that there are no surprises later on.

Hope that this helps,

Hunt

PS - also see this FAQ Entry for more detail.

Intermediate Files - Maintaining Ultimate Quality

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:45:42 GMT

Once, most people were shooting to miniDV tape, and then capturing from that to a DV-AVI file for editing. In that Capture, it was a byte for byte transfer of data, and then written to a DV-AVI file, with very light compression.

Now, nearly everyone is editing some form of highly-compressed Video file. At some point, after the image being recorded strikes the sensor, and the final file on the camera's memory card, or similar, there is compression being applied to the data, and it's much more significant. Often, it's a form of the H.264 CODEC, but not always. Still, some compression is being applied. This compression goes pretty much unnoticed, since the material is HD to begin with, but it is there.

Once edited, if one then goes directly to BD (Blu-ray Disc), there will be one more layer of compression, either to H.264, or HD MPEG-2. Still, quality is quite high, and seldom calls attention to itself.

What does one do, if they need to edit, then output to an intermediate file, work on that in another program, like Adobe AfterEffects, and then will need to do additional editing to the output file from AE, before going to that BD? If one continues to do a succession of heavy compressions, quality will go down, and rather quickly. The degrading will most likely be seen where there is rapid motion (either camera or subject) and also in the form of artifacts, which will grow with each generation of compression. It's like looking at a FAX, of a FAX, or a FAX.

This is where using a lossless CODEC to create an intermediate file, can be very useful.

If you are in need of an intermediate file, to do more editing on, about the best that you can do is use one of the lossless CODEC's, like Lagarith Lossless, or UT Lossless. Both are free, and both are good, but the file sizes WILL be large. Prepare for that. One would just download and install one of those CODEC's, and reboot. Then in Export/Share, they would choose MS AVI, and under Compressor, would look in the drop-down list for the Lagarith, or the UT Lossless CODEC. The file format will be .AVI, and contain the lossless CODEC. Those files will then Import into the video-editing program, or compositing program, with no loss in quality. This will eliminate one compression stage, and improve overall quality. The fewer compression steps, the better the final output.

Note: if one is sharing the .AVI's with either of those lossless CODEC's, then the recipient will need to have that CODEC installed, as well, or they will not be able to even play the file, much less edit it. Remember, these CODEC's are for intermediate files, and are not ideal as final delivery formats.

Both of those lossless CODEC's are fairly quick to both Encode and Decode, but there IS some processing necessary, so they might not Import, or edit as quickly as the original material, and certainly not as quickly as using a DV-AVI in an SD Project was - but still fairly fast.

If you are in need of intermediate files, give either the Lagarith Lossless, or the UT Lossless a try. Remember, after installation, and rebooting, they will then be found in the MS AVI (not DV-AVI), and then under the Compression/Compressor choices for the CODEC inside the AVI wrapper.

Hunt

Alignment Grids for Titler in PrE & PrPro

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 19:02:29 GMT

There have been several discussions on the lack of real alignment tools in Titler, for both PrE and PrPro. I use a workaround to this, and just Import a "grid" image, created in PS and Saved to .PSD with Transparency. I use the same technique to build layouts for PiP and similar.

One just Imports the .PSD into their NLE (Non Linear Editing) program, as a still, or as Footage in PrPro. The .PSD is then placed on the Timeline in a Video Track above any other Clips. The Title is then placed above the .PSD. In PrE, one sees the Video below the Title automatically. In PrPro there is a checkbox to do this.

The grid in the .PSD is used for alignment of the elements/text in the Title.

Be sure to remove the grid, when you are done, or in PrPro, you can turn off visibility for its Video Track. Otherwise, you WILL Export the grid, and that is not what you will likely want to do. Do not forget to disable this .PSD, before the Export.

Attached are an NTSC 16:9 .PSD and an NTSC 4:3 .PSD, with proper PAR for each.

Hope that this helps someone, where they need better alignment in Titler in either PrE, or PrPro.

Hunt

Fonts & Crashes with Titler

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:07:15 GMT

Fonts are a subject that comes up often. When things work fine, a user will often ignore them. When something goes wrong, or a font is not available in a program, the search for answers begins.

Where are the fonts?

Fonts can be in at least two places:

1.) installed on the system, and located in the C:\Windows\Fonts folder

2.) in separate folders, often, though not always, associated with particular programs

With Adobe fonts, they are now most often OTF fonts (Open Type Fonts), and most Adobe programs, that have fonts, will just install them into C:\Windows\Fonts folder. You will usually not see them elsewhere, i.e. they will not appear in any other folder, as they were installed on the system, when the program was installed. If, when you open Control Panel>Fonts, and see any OTF fonts, these likely came from your Adobe programs. This indicates that they are in C:\Windows\Fonts and are installed on the system. In the past, Adobe programs would locate the Fonts in the program’s folder structure, and would often install some/all onto the system. This became a bit confusing, if one had many Adobe programs, as each program could have separate folders of fonts - some installed, and some just residing on the system. Back then, computers were a lot slower, with fewer resources. Having any more fonts installed, than was necessary slowed things to a crawl. Adobe refrained from automatically installing all the fonts provided with the programs. Now, computers, in general, are more robust and with better handling of resources. Fonts do not strain a system, like they once did. [Too many certainly can, for even the most robust workstation, but in very general terms, most people do not have enough fonts to worry much about.this] Adobe also found that many people were purchasing suites of their programs, so having the same fonts in separate folders for, say Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Acrobat, Premiere and Encore was a waste of HDD space. Now, most included Adobe OTF’s are installed, and do not appear elsewhere - usually.

With some Adobe programs, there is often additional Functional Content somewhere on the installation DVD set, often in folder named something like "Goodies." This Functional Content can be things like 3rd party plug-ins (some totally free, and some in demo mode), additional Menus, Title Templates, and fonts. In the case of these "bonus" fonts, you need to copy over their folder from the installation DVD to the location of choice. Note: doing this will NOT install these fonts on the system. One would use Control Panel>Fonts to navigate to that folder to do this install. Control Panel>Fonts is the mechanism for getting fonts into, or out of the system. One can use it to remove installed fonts in two ways: uninstall the font, but leave the file on the system, or uninstall the font and remove the file from the system. The differences are obvious.

Usually, fonts are not thought about much, other than trying to pick the right one for a Title, or to use on a Menu. So long as one finds them when necessary, they are otherwise out of sight and out of mind. Then something happens. Titler crashes, or will not launch.

What has happened? Well, Titler, in both PrE and PrPro, is really a sub-app. nestled within the editing program. Unlike all other Adobe (and other software companies’) programs, that use fonts, it is VERY sensitive to any problem with a font that is installed on one’s system. Remember, those are the ones in C:\Windows\Fonts, that have been installed. When Titler starts, it surveys all installed fonts, not just the ones that you are likely to use - all of them. If one is corrupt, it can crash Titler in an instant. This most often happens when the sub-app. loads, and before it is even used. Some fonts, just do not work with Titler. Deja Vu, loaded by SunMicro Systems’ Open Office is one of these. Some do not display in Titler. This is a function of a poorly formed font, and these will usually not crash Titler, but just display boxes, or other cryptic symbols.

Now, there are a couple of ways to address corrupt fonts. This is only for the fonts that are corrupt. For the ones that will crash Titler, that are not corrupt, there is a method for them too, and it will appear at the end of this article.

1.) I use Extensis FontDoctor to locate, repair/remove corrupt fonts. For me, it’s part of my Extensis Suitcase suite. I use Suitcase to dynamically manage all of my fonts, so I only need a few hundred installed at one time, but still have access to over 12,000 residing on my system, but not installed. This font repair utility can scan the entire HDD structure, looking for any and all font files. I have the majority of my uninstalled fonts in a folder hierarchy below a main folder, Fonts. I have these grouped by type, PS Fonts, TT Fonts, OTF Fonts, etc. Of course, I also have my installed fonts in C:\Windows\Fonts.

There is a freeware program, FontFrenzy, that will also manage fonts, and has a repair utility in it, as well. I have not used this program, but it comes highly recommended. Note: there are other utilities, some freeware, and some for-pay. I have not used any current ones, so I cannot comment on them. Google will be your friend, as will recs. for various fora.

For problems with Titler, one is ONLY concerned with the fonts that are installed on the system, i.e. those in C:\Windows\Fonts. Now, I run FontDoctor on my entire system, as I do not want to dynamically install a font for a job, and have it crash Titler. I want clean, well-formed fonts only in any folder where I am likely to store my fonts.

2.) There is also a manual way to find corrupt fonts, but it takes some time, and one should exercise caution. First, there are fonts, and then there are fonts. Some fonts are "system fonts," and Windows relies on these being installed to run. You will want to make sure to NOT include these in this next operation. Then, there are "program fonts." These are fonts that are necessary for certain programs to run. They are almost as important as are the "system fonts." I advise one to exclude these from the next operation too. Unfortunately, there is not really any sign on these "special" fonts, when one is viewing C:\Windows\Fonts. One just has to poke around and try to decide which fonts are "system fonts," which fonts are "program fonts," and which are plain old fonts. It’s the latter that we want to address now. We will use the "rule of halves." I won’t explain that now, but you’ll see what I’m talking about in just a moment. In some ways, this is like Calculus, but with fonts.

To do this next operation, we will remove one half of the regular fonts in C:\Windows\Fonts. I recommend that anyone doing this first makes a copy of their C:\Windows\Fonts to a safe place. If we are careful to NOT remove "system," or "program" fonts, one of two things should happen:

1.) Titler will open and run fine. Then we know that our corrupt font(s) is/are in that half that we removed. More on tracking down the corrupt font(s) in a moment.

2.) Titler will crash, so we know that we have not yet removed ALL corrupt fonts. There could be a bad one in the group that we did remove, so we do not know if those are clean yet.

With #1 above, we would then replace one half, of the one half that we initially removed and test Titler again. If it still runs fine, then we go with one half of the remaining fonts. We do this, until we get the crash. Then we know that somewhere in that last batch is at least one corrupt font. We do the halves again, first removing one half of that last batch and testing. We then zero in, by using the "rule of halves." Repeat, until we have isolated any/all fonts that are corrupt.

With #2 above, we continue removing half of the remaining fonts, until Titler runs, and then using the "rule of halves," replace until it crashes. We narrow down that batch of fonts, until we have isolated the corrupt font(s).

As you can see, this is tedious work, and one has to remember to step around all "system fonts," and should stay clear of all "program fonts." Obviously, the hope is that one, of either sets, is NOT corrupt. Usually, if one of these is, the OS, or the program, that relies on them, will have already given you an error message. We will assume that all of these are good.

It should also be clear why I chose to purchase FontDoctor to do the "heavy-lifting" for me. Depending on the number of installed fonts, this manual process could easily take a full day. Also, it’s highly repetitious and if one get interrupted, they could easily forget which "half" they are now dealing with.

After one has isolated all corrupt fonts (remember, there can be more than one), it’s best to uninstall that/those font(s). Repair might be possible with a utility, but for now, we just want to get it/them out of C:\Windows\Fonts, so we can run Titler.

Now, this does not address those "problem fonts," like Deja Vu. The only way to track them down is to first look to see which program installed them, or again, apply the "rule of halves." This is not at all easy, as one usually has to look in the particular programs’ documentation to see if there is a font list - often there is not. Various fora will often yield clues as to which fonts cause problems for Titler. I picked up on Deja Vu from a post by Jeff Bellune in the PrPro CS4 forum. He had stumbled upon it after he installed Open Office and Titler always crashed afterwards. He tried repairing any corrupt fonts, but none were. He then had to systematically remove all new fonts (installed with Open Office), until he hit on Deja Vu. There could be hundreds, or even thousands of "problem fonts" out there. When installing any program, that also installs any fonts, or when installing fonts from any source, one should immediately check Titler to see how it behaves. Because of its high sensitivity to installed fonts, it will act like the canary in the coal mine, warning of a lack of oxygen and a presence of deadly gasses.

Hunt

WAB - Work Area Bar - What's That?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 19:42:00 GMT

We get a lot of questions on the WAB (the Work Area Bar) in all versions of Premiere. Many of those questions come when someone has accidentally reset the WAB, and cannot find out why parts of their Timeline are not Rendering, or maybe Exporting. Though there are some subtle differences between versions, it basically works the same way.

It can be used for several functions:

It can limit the area of a Timeline, that is Rendered
It can limit the area of a Timeline, that is Exported, with most Export/Share formats
It can act as a ruler to tell you how long, say 4 Clips, plus two partial Clips will be - useful for things like adding music to just part of the Timeline

It has some dynamic features, and Stan Arthur covers many of them in his TUTORIAL on using the WAB. His example is done in PrPro CS 5/5.5, but the functions are almost identical in earlier versions of PrPro and also PrE.

As Stan did not cover using the WAB as a "ruler" I have added an image showing how to access that function - just hover the cursor over the little box in the middle of the WAB and read the info shown. I find this particularly useful, when I need to know exactly what Duration I need for a particular part of the Timeline, when doing a SmartSound music piece.

Hope that this helps answer the questions on the WAB.

Hunt

Windows Indexing - What is It, and How Can it Affect Me?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 18:43:54 GMT

What is Windows Indexing, how do I use it, and why might it be getting in the way, when I am doing Video editing?

Well, most versions of Windows has a feature, called Windows Indexing. This is a little application that roams your system, looking for files, that it can Index, so that Searches are quicker. For many computers, it causes no problems, as it goes about looking at your DOC, and TXT files, compiling indexes to speed up Searches, especially for content. When it’s working, it’s behind the scenes, and usually causes no problems. When a DOC or TXT file changes, or is created, it will Lock that file, while it searches through its content for future Searching.

Now, when one is doing Video editing, they are working with some large files. Windows Indexing cannot glean anything from the AV files, or from the various working files, that an NLE (Non Linear Editor) creates, and updates constantly. The inability to extract useful info from those files does not stop Windows Indexing from trying - and trying. The files get locked, so that the user, or the NLE cannot access them, when needed. Every time that one of these files gets changed, or written, Windows Indexing will immediately Lock it, as it attempts to do its job. This can cause all sorts of issues, and many slowdowns and even program crashes.

One can find out if they have Windows Indexing turned ON, or not. It will be ON by default. Go to My Computer and click on each HDD (Hard Disk Drive), both internal and external, and then Rt-click, choosing Properties. In most versions of Windows, the Windows Indexing status will be shown near the bottom of the drop-down menu.

This differs by version, but one can usually turn it OFF for the entire HDD, or can limit it to just certain folders. I turn it OFF, as I mostly do Video and image editing on my computers, but some do leave it on, but just for folders with their DOC and TXT files, as it does speed up Searches, and Windows Indexing can speed those up, for the DOC, TXT and some similar files.

Hope that this explains why one might be getting “access denied,” “file locked,” and other errors, or major slowdowns, especially when working with large AV files, or perhaps when writing a DVD to a folder. Also, Render files can get locked by Windows Indexing, as it struggles to do its job.

Hunt

MJPEG - How to Handle It

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 18:42:49 GMT

MJPEG (Motion JPEG) compression has been around for quite a while, but there has been a resurgence recently, when Nikon and a few others began shooting motion with their DSLR and other still cameras.

Some systems have MJPEG CODEC’s installed already, and some NLE programs also include them with installation. Many camera mfgrs. will include one (often tweaked to their specs.) on their utilities disc. One might be installing it along with the driver for the camera, or perhaps with the installation of the utilities on that disc. The latter is becoming more popular with camera mfgrs., but a separate installation for the particular CODEC would be a better solution. That seems to be falling out of favor, amongst camera mfgrs. though.

If one is getting the “Unsupported Format/CODEC” message, it could well be that their system does not have an MJPEG CODEC installed, or the version that they do have is not matched to the one used by their camera, or it could be that their NLE (Non Linear Editor) program, just cannot use that particular version.

There are two very popular commercial MJPEG CODEC’s, that seem to work very well for most users with many different MJPEG footage - Morgan Multimedia and MainConcept. These, however, are slightly generic, and might not work with a paticular camera mfg's. tweaked version. Always try to go to "the source," and install the version, that came with the camera. If you are editing footage from a camera, that you do not own, ask for the utility disc, that came with that camera, to get THAT version of the MJPEG CODEC.

If one has MJPEG footage (often in an AVI wrapper), they should investigate one of those two CODEC’s, after checking their camera’s utility disc.

For more background on file formats as “wrappers,” please see this ARTICLE.

For more background on CODEC’s in general, see please see this ARTICLE.

Hope that this helps,

Hunt

Highlighting a Moving Object with Track Matte Keying

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 19:45:13 GMT

b Highlighting a Moving Object in Premiere Elements with a Track Matte

This is a step-by-step article on highlighting a moving object in Premiere Elements (PE). There are variations of this used to obscure the identity of a person, license plate or even add softening to skin on a model. They all work alike, though the Effect chosen will obviously be different. For this example, I will be using PE4 and creating a highlight with the Track Matte Effect.

In our case, well highlight a football player in some game footage. Since Im dealing with words, and not doing a visual and audible tutorial here, you will need to tune up your imagination, if you are going to play along at home.

Imagine that we have a 30 sec. Clip of our player, Tom, a wide-receiver in an American football game. We have placed the Clip on the Timeline in PE, and its on Video Track 1. Our Clip has a static camera, with just a wide enough lens angle to include the line of scrimmage and the goal line. The Clip starts with his team lined up at the line of scrimmage. Hes stationary on the end of the formation, closest to our camera. When the ball is snapped, hell run left to right and slant toward the middle of the field. At that point, the quarterback will throw to him. Hell catch the ball and continue down the field, crossing the goal line for a touchdown. During this play, there will a lot of other players around him and we want to make sure that he stands out in the Video Clip for the entire play. Since hes starting with the 21 other players around him and hes static, you have his exact location and its fixed for say 2 sec. Lets play ball.

Now that you have the mental image in mind, you have some decisions to make. The first is how do we make Tom stand out from the other players and the rest of the field of view. We could brighten him up, but then the exposure of his image would suffer. Lets assume that the exposure is perfect now for the entire field of view. Instead of brightening him, lets darken the rest of the field of view. Well create what will appear to be a moving spotlight on him, but in reality we will be creating a moving shadow on the rest of the field. Its really like taking a piece of cardboard with a hole in it, and moving it between a light source and the ground. The cardboard throws a shadow, but the hole lets the full illumination through. We are going to create that piece of cardboard, in the Titler in PE and punch a hole in it, but first we need to duplicate our 30 sec. Clip on Video Track 1. Well Alt-click on it, to select just the Video portion, as we do not need to duplicate the Audio, then hit Ctrl-c to Copy it to the Clipboard. Because PE will not allow us to select the Track to Paste to, we need to position the CTI (Current Time Indicator) to the end of our Clip, where there is nothing else. The easiest way to do this is to hit End, to go to the end of our Timeline. Now, we Ctrl-v to Paste the copy of the Clip onto the Timeline. Next well move this copy to Video Track 2 and align it perfectly with the original Clip on Video Track 1. The Snap feature allows us to align the CTI to the head of our original Clip then drag our duplicate to that point, but onto Video Track 2. Check that the two Clips are aligned and that you did not exceed the Snap function.

We are set to create our highlight with the Titler. In the toolbar, click Title>New From Default Still. This creates a new Title with a default Text Box. We dont want text, so well click on the Selection Tool (the little arrow at the top of the Titlers Toolbox. When we see the bounding box around our Text Box, we hit Delete to remove it. Now, go back to the Toolbox and select the Ellipse Tool. Click in our Title and Shift-drag to create a circle. If everything is set at default, tt will appear white over a black field. Size it roughly to about the size of Tom. We can fine-tune its size later.

Place this new Title on Video T

New to Premiere Elements? Some Resources

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 16:58:43 GMT

The question "how do I get started with Premiere Elements?" comes up quite often. I have decided to put together a list of resources to help one get up to speed with the program, and even take it beyond normal video editing.

One of the first places to learn how to do things in PrE is this sub-forum, Tips & Tricks. However, that might not be the best place to start. I'd suggest "walking before one attempts to run," and then to come back to this sub-forum. It's the same with reading the posts in the main PrE Forum - lot of great discussions no how to do much in the program, but they are usually around one operation, or revolving around a particular problem, so probably not the ideal start either. Let's look at some great resources, beyond this forum, but do keep it, and the general PrE Forum in mind for later studies.

Steve Grisetti, our MOD here, has put together a great Basic Training Series, that is available on Muvipix.com (more on Muvipix.com later). This will provide the new user with a great foundation for using PrE, and can help refresh the memory of even a seasoned user. This series is free.

Next, Steve has a continuation of that Basic Training Series, in his Learning Series, which is free to subscribers (more on that later) of Muvipix.com. This is a perfect and logical "next step" in the process.

Steve has also written several books on PrE, and one that combines PrE & PSE in one book. These BOOKS are available from Amazon.com, or from Muvipix.com. Along with the general books on PrE, he has written a Tips & Tricks book, that will help take ones' video editing to a whole new level.

Adobe has released Adobe Classroom in a Book for Premiere Elements 9.0, Adobe Press. I have not seen this edition, but love the CiaB series for many other Adobe programs, like PS, AI, InDesign, PrPro, AE and others.

There are other books, but I have no direct experience with them. Perhaps others can add their recs. for books that they found useful.

Now, let's talk about Muvipix.com. It is a multi-tiered Web site, with a very active forum, for everything from general video production and editing, to program-specific fora, and other topics. While many of the fora and also the users there, are on Adobe programs, the site is not exclusive to Adobe programs. The forum, Steve's Basic Training Series, and some Functional content, are all free, for just signing up. There are more articles and a lot more functional content, and most is available for a price to download, or free if one subscribes to Muvipix.com. It would not take too many individual downloads, to pay for a subscription. Some of the additional Functional Content is: Stock Motion footage, Motion Backgrounds, Menu Sets, original Music, and much more. Just the fora are worth the time to read, as there is some great info in the threads, and they are broken down by program, or by operations, such as music production.

Hope that these resources provide a good start to the wonderful world of video production and editing, and especially with PrE.

Hunt

[Edit] As Adobe has released PrE 11, and as there are some changes, I have added some updated links at the bottom of this thread, that should be specific for PrE 11.

BSOD - A Serious Issue

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 16:06:23 GMT

A BSOD is a major problem, and is very often a sign of hardware issues. The main causes are:

Heat buildup - in the CPU, or the HDD's

RAM - bad, or going bad

PSU - going bad, or improperly connected

MoBo - going bad

This ARTICLE will link to tools that will help you track those elements, and possibly show the bad element, or potentially bad element.

I would also change Reboot on Error, to OFF, so that you can write down the report on the BSOD. There might be something in that load of "abstract code" that will be helpful, but maybe not. Also, when one reboots after a BSOD, Windows will usually yield an error message to the effect of "Windows has recovered from a serious problem... " and will often help you trace the issue. Also, this ARTICLE will give you tips for finding clues as to what was happening, just before the BSOD.

This ARTICLE will give one tips on setting up their computer for an editing session.

This ARTICLE, though directed at PrPro, will be useful for troubleshooting.

If nothing else works, see this ARTICLE.

Before doing anything else, I would solve the BSOD issue.

Good luck,

Hunt

Need Help On Adobe Premiere elements 12

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 19:12:01 GMT

I have made a recording on my DVR and captured it onto my laptop with the Hauppauge capture device without a problem I have edited it with the Premiere elements but upon reviewing it it looks a little more pixilated than the original.

What are the correct settings to finalize it without it seeming so pixilated Im looking to save it to a external hard drive Thanks

Premiere CS6 is not showing waveforms ¿what to do?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sat, 12 Jul 2014 16:39:46 GMT

Waveforms are not showing neither for audio clips or video clips.

I tried clean cache, and play with all the options in Preferences>Media Cache

including

-Save media cache files next to original

-Write XMP ID to files on import

-Enable cliip and XMP metadata linking

All what I see instead waveforms are only empty channels without any waveform inside.

SOS!

[PrE 12] Differences Between PC & Mac

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sat, 15 Feb 2014 15:42:48 GMT

There are some aspects of PrE 12 (and some earlier versions), that differ by platform. Steve Grisetti has published a list of those differences: http://muvipix.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=103&t=12342

Most of these differences are with Effects that are available in the PC version of the program, but missing from the Mac version.

Hunt

Quick Links to Elements Adobe TV Tutorials

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 17 Jan 2014 15:35:03 GMT

Note that in many cases tutorials from earlier versions will still be applicable to later versions.

Premiere Elements

Version	Link
12	http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-premiere-elements-12/
11	http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-premiere-elements-11/
10	http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-premiere-elements-10/
9	http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-premiere-elements/
8	http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-premiere-elements-8/
7	http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-premiere-elements-7/

Photoshop Elements

Version	Link
12	http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-photoshop-elements-12/
11	http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-photoshop-elements-11/
10	http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-photoshop-elements-10/
9	http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-photoshop-elements-9/
8	http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-photoshop-elements-8/
7	http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-photoshop-elements-7/

Cheers,
--
Neale
Insanity is hereditary, you get it from your children

Marking Replies as "Correct," etc.

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 17:18:03 GMT

Adobe is monitoring the support provided by the Adobe Forums. Part of that monitoring is data gathering on how effect the Replies and the forums are.

When one posts a problem to the forums, they, only they (or one of the MOD's), have the ability to mark a Reply as "Correct," or "Helpful." If "Correct" is chosen, then the thread is marked as "Answered." This does two things:

It provides the Adobe Forum Support Team with info to go to the upper-management of Adobe, to prove that the forums are viable for support.
It also provides users, who visit the forum later on, with the same, or similar problems, with knowledge that a particular threads HAS an answer, that was useful to the OP.

There is also a little set of buttons in the Replies, "Was this helpful? Yes - No" that anyone can choose. This also provides data to the Adobe Forum Support Team, as it shows that others, viewing the thread, found the Reply to bue helpful to them.

To all OP's, please stop back by your threads and mark Replies as "Correct," or "Helpful," when they are That will mean a lot to the future of the Adobe Forums.

To all, who read threads, if you find a Reply helpful to you, please take a moment to let Adobe know that it was helpful - anyone can do this, and not just the OP.

Thank you,

Hunt

Multiplexing - What Is It & How Do I Do It?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 20:37:09 GMT

There is often confusion, when it comes to outputting a "muxed" AV file, i.e. one that combines both the Audio stream and the Video stream into one, discrete file. This is where Multiplexing comes it. It combines the two streams into one file, that can then be played in all players that support that file type and the chosen CODEC's.

In most Export/Share settings Panels, one will see multiple Tabs, such as Audio, Video and Multiplexing. To output an AV file, that combines the Audio & Video from the Timeline, one must first set the Audio and the Video to Export. This is usually done with checkboxes, for Export Audio and Export Video. That is the first step. Now, and this is often overlooked, one must go to the Multiplexer Tab, to instruct Premiere how to combine the two streams. The options differ slightly, depending on the format/CODEC chosen in the Audio Tab, and the Video Tab, but "DVD" is the most common. The other choice will usually be "None," which will result in the Export of elemental/elementary streams, i.e. one Audio-only file (with the settings on the Audio Tab), and a separate Video-only file (with the settings on the Video Tab). This non-Multiplexed output is often used, when one is doing authoring to DVD, or BD, in a separate authoring app., and is usually the preferred workflow, but that will depend on the exact authoring app. chosen. For a single file, with both the Audio and Video combined, one will want to set Multiplexing, and usually to "DVD."

Hope that this helps,

Hunt

Media Offline? What You Can Do About It

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 16:43:39 GMT

Have you gotten a Media Offline message? Do your Assets show this screen?

Chances are that when you last did a Save of your Project, the Path to those Assets no longer exists. Has the Path changed in any way? Have you Moved, Renamed, or Deleted any of the Assets? Is there an external, or networked HDD in the mix anywhere, that might now have a different drive letter? The Path in the XML code of the PRPROJ/PREL file links to the Assets is absolute - it must match from the drive letter, to the folder structure, to the file name, and match 100%. Change one thing, and the link via that Path is broken, and must be restored.

When you first Opened your Project, did PrPro/PrE ask, "Where is file ______.avi?" Were you able to use the Find function, to re-establish the link to that, and any other missing files?

Now, most people will ask, “how do I relink my Assets easily and quickly?” The answer to this question is "it depends."

First, it depends on whether you first accepted to Offline the media, and then did a Save, which overwrote your existing PRPROJ/PREL file. If you did do a Save (a Save_As, or a Save_As_a_Copy will be OK, as you would just go back to the original, and Find the missing files - more below). The next consideration is where the files reside, and the folder structure.

If you did NOT Save the Project, overwriting the original PRPROJ/PREL file, I would do things in this order:

Locate where the files are now, and make note of the full Path.
Open that Project, and when you get the "Where is file _____?" navigate to the new location, and choose that file. PrPro/PrE are pretty smart, and will look in that folder, linking automatically to all other Assets in that folder. If you have many folders, you will have to repeat for each folder.

If you did Save, overwriting the PRPROJ/PREL file, and have accepted the media being Offline, you will then need to do one of two things:

Manually relink each of the Offline Assets in the Project Panel
Go to the last AutoSave PRPROJ/PREL file (note: check the time/date, and do not just rely on the file name, as 003 might be newer than 005), and Open that, following the steps above to let PrPro/PrE relink to the assets. You will loose any editing that you did from the time of that last AutoSave.

Note: PrPro uses the file extension PRPROJ, and PrElements uses the file extension PREL

Good luck,

Hunt

Handles & Transitions - What are They?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:03:42 GMT

The concept of Handles with Transitions can be very confusing at first. When one sets the In & Out Points, or they use the Razor, or Scissors, they have not altered the original Clip in any way. They have only issued a set of instructions to Premiere on what parts of that Clip to use for both display and for Export. The original remains safe on the HDD (Hard Disk Drive). This is what "non-destructive editing" is all about. If there are Frames, from other "scenes" in that Clip, they will not display, or be used, if one sets the In & Out Points, or uses the Razor, or Scissors, to "Cut" the Clip - unless one adds a Transition, and the Handles are not adequate. Then, Frames for the "scenes," that the user believed were "cut out," will be used. This is the upper example in the following graphic.

Now, if the Clip ONLY contains that one "scene," and the Out Point is set to the physical end, the last Frame will be repeated, as many times as is necessary. This is the lower example in the following graphic.

Her is a bit on Handles from the Help files:

Here is a graphic showing the Transition area and the Handles:

NOTE: the above example shows how things would look when editing film, or video in an A-B Roll editing environment. As most NLE (Non Linear Editor) programs place the Clips on a single Video Track, the Handles will not be seen. Only the portion of the Clip, between the In & Out Points wil be visible. The above is for demonstration purposes only. See the image in Reply # 1 to see how the Clips, on the same Video Track, will appear in Premiere.

This is example shows an A-B Roll editing environment, where it is much easier to understand the concept. What trips many users up is that with a single Track editing program, they cannot see the Handles. Also, when one Cuts, or sets the In & Out Points, they can no longer see the other Frames in the Clip, so are surprised, when they suddenly appear in a Transition.

This shows the same two Clips, 003.avi & 002.avi. The upper two Video Tracks show how it would look with A-B Roll editing, showing the Handles as an "overlap." The lower Video Track shows how those two Clips would appear, with their In & Out Points set to provide Handles for the Transition - the "overlap" is not visible there.

Hope that this helps,

Hunt

Screen-caps - A Photoshop Workflow

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:37:31 GMT

Users often ask how to do screen-caps, to show what is happening with their program. Below are possible workflows for creating the screen-caps, and then there are instructions on how to "attach" the screen-caps to a Reply in the Adobe Forums, but only if one is accessing them via a Web browser - with e-mail access, you cannot attach a screen-cap, or other image file. There are first several utilities that will help you do this, but I will outline the steps using Adobe Photoshop and the Windows Clipboard. One can substitute their image editing program of choice, such as Photoshop Elements, PaintShop Pro, or other.

Windows has a Clipboard feature, and one can use the Print Screen key (often seen as Prt Sc, etc., and depending on their computer, might have to also use a modifier key, such as the Ctrl key).

First, set up your program, so that the necessary items are shown. This might be zooming in on the Timeline, even expanding it vertically, moving the CTI (Current Time Indicator with the red Edit Line attached), and perhaps selecting a problem Clip. Often, the Program Monitor will also need to be seen, and perhaps the Project Panel showing the proper Asset, or maybe the Effects Control Panel. Get these setup, so that they are visible, and where you want them. Now, hit the Print Screen key (see above for comments). The screen will now be an image in Clipboard.

Open your image editing program. Here, I’m using Photoshop. Create a New Image. Photoshop will first look in the Clipboard, and if there is an image there, will even set up your New Image to match that w/ the proper pixel x pixel size. Here, I name that New Image with a name that means something to me, like, “PrE_Audio_Mixer_01.” I use the underscore, in lieu of spaces, as the forum software sometimes has problems with file names containing spaces. Yes, I know that this is so Windows 98, but it works well for me.

Hit Ctrl+V to Paste the image from the Clipboard into this New Image. If my full screen-cap has captured more image area, than I need, I Crop to the important parts.

Next, if I need to do call outs, or annotate the image, I use the Text Too, and maybe will draw boxes, or circles, to make sure that the viewer knows exactly where I want them to look and what to look for. To draw arrows, or lines, I use the Shape Tool, and/or the Pen Tool, and Stroke, or Fill these Paths, as is necessary.

At this point, I have a Layered file with drawings and text, overlaying my screen image. I will do a Save_As and choose .PSD to keep my Layers handy for any additional editing, if necessary. The one problem is that the Adobe forum will NOT attach a .PSD file. Here, one has several choices. One is to do a Save_for_Web, and let PS Flatten the Layers, and merge them into one Layer. That will also remove any Alpha Channels, and/or Paths. Two popular formats are .PNG, or JPEG, and Save_for_Web allows for either of these. The choice is yours, but I normally just use JPEG with a Quality of about 9, in Photoshop to compress the image, but still leave it sharp enough for others to read. Again, PNG is a good choice as well, and will yield slightly better quality for the file size. Only possible issue is that many older browsers (what the viewers will be using to view the screen-cap) do not handle PNG. All newer browsers do, and do so very well. I have begun using PNG, instead of any compression of JPEG, and the results are better, and sharper.

With the screen-cap image Saved to our HDD, I use the little “camera” icon, in the lower-middle of the Adobe Forum editing screen’s Toolbar, to actually attach the image:

Here is an example of a screen-cap with the program setup as I needed, call outs and annotations:

Hope that this helps. Note: other image editing programs will differ, as will various screen-cap utilities.

Good luck,

Hunt

Sound Effects & Music - Possible Sources

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:16:00 GMT

Often, one is looking for SFX (Sound Effects) files, or music files for use in their videos. This is a list of some possible sources. Some of these are free, while some are for sale. While there are many more, and they will be added, as I come across them, these URL's would be a good place to start. I have used several of these, both free ones, and commercial ones, but cannot comment directly on all of these, as many were added by others.

http://www.stevengotz.com/audio.htm

http://www.findsounds.com/ISAPI/search.dll

http://www.freesound.org/index.php

http://www.a1freesoundeffects.com/

http://www.ljudo.com/default.asp?lang=tEnglish&do=it

http://www.sounddogs.com/

http://www.soundsnap.com/

http://www.stock20.com/commerce/index.php

http://www.shockwave-sound.com/index.html

http://www.smartsound.com

http://www.ilovewavs.com/Effects/Music/Music.htm

http://www.jamendo.com/en/albums

http://www.5alarmmusic.com/

http://www.studiocutz.com/

http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/

http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=180598

http://www.soundrangers.com/

http://www.beatsuite.com/

http://www.beatsuite.com/sounds/bsengine/Royalty_Free_Music/_Flash_Button_Sounds_/

Good luck,

Hunt

Some Tools for Use With Editing & More

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 02:05:27 GMT

Harm Millaard had posted this list of "favorite tools" in the PrPro Forum. These might be of great use.

Good luck,

Hunt

Everything That You Ever Wanted to Know About DVD-Video

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:06:02 GMT

On these fora, there are many questions on DVD-Video. What it is, what it isn't, types, limitations, and the list goes on.

Jim Taylor, author of DVD Demystified, tells you everything in his wonderful book. He also has a DVD FAQ page, that covers most of the main parts of his book. While I highly recommend the book (should be in any video editor's library), some times people only want to learn of a specific topic. Mr. Taylor makes that easy.

DVD Demystified, Jim Taylor, Mark R. Johnson and Charles G. Crawford, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-07-142396-6. I have the Third Edition, but there may be newer releases.

If it involves DVD-Video (or BD, or even CD), his book will give you all of the answers.

Good reading,

Hunt

GOP - Group of Pictures - What Does That Mean?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 23:56:39 GMT

There are often discussions on trying to edit footage that is in a "delivery format." The topic of GOP comes up. This is an abstract concept, on its surface, especially if one came from a film background, where you could hold your footage up to a light and see each frame.

This ARTICLE covers it pretty well.

Here is a visual example:

Hunt

J & L Cuts Described

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:28:48 GMT

J & L Cuts Described

Because of a discussion in the PrE forum, I decided to do a short article on using J and/or L Cuts in editing.

I guess that I come from the David Lynch school of imagery. I like giving the audience something that they cannot define at first, and then revealing it to them for a brief moment, before taking it away from them, about the time that they recognize it, and get comfortable with it. I find that J & L cuts do a bit of that - let the audience hear something that they cannot see yet, before revealing it, or let them see something that they cannot hear yet, and then bring in the Audio to reenforce what they are seeing.

For this example, we will assume that we have two Clips with Audio recorded during the shot. For the J Cut (so called for the shape of the Audio & Video, where the cut is made. Our Clips are Clip 1 & Clip 2. Clip 1 is of a young lady talking on the telephone and we hear her conversation. Clip 2 is of a factory. Both Clips 1 & 2 are on the Timeline and butted up to each other. The Video of the Clips is on our Video Track 1 and our Audio is below on the Audio Track 1. Right now, the Audio and Video of the two Clips is the exact same length. Here, we want the audience to "hear" the audio from Clip 2 (the sounds of the factory), before they see the visuals in that Clip. To accomplish this, we want Video portion of Clip 1 to continue, while the Audio from Clip 2 is coming in.

First, we’ll Alt-click on the Audio from Clip 1 to select just that Audio. [Note: in PrPro, one could Lock the Video Tracks, so that all editing would only be in the Audio portions.] We then Click-drag on the Tail of the Audio in Clip 1, shortening it. Now, we Alt-click on the Video of Clip 2 and then Click-drag on its Head to shorten it the same number of frames, as we shortened the Audio in Clip 1. Last, we will Select both Audio & Video in Clip 2 and drag to the left, until they butt up to the altered Clip 1. If you look at the two Clips now, you can see an abstract letter J. We can then add any appropriate Transitions to both the Audio & Video to match the theme of our movie. I would explore the Dip-to-Black Video Transition, especially if we want a hint of drama. When played, the audience will see the young lady on the phone, but the Audio from the factory will fade in and the audience will hear it, while the young lady is still on the phone, even through the Dip-to-Black - then, they will see the factory, that they have been listening to.

From both an aesthetic and a psychological standpoint, the audience has begun to hear something that is not yet visually revealed. They know that something different is coming, but cannot yet see it. They are being transported to a new place, and possibly at a different time, but not necessarily so - they two events, the telephone conversation and the factory, might be taking place simultaneously. That is the implication, but with the Dip-to-Black the times might well different - time might have passed.

Now, we use those same two Clips, but instead of bringing in the factory sounds over the visual of the telephone conversation, we alter the Video of Clip 1 to shorten it, using the same techniques. The Audio of the telephone conversation continues longer than the Video. We also shorten the Audio of the factory by the same amount and butt these altered Clips together, adding Transitions to suit. When played, the telephone conversation continues, even though the visual of the factory have come onto the screen. Regardless of the Transitions, the audience will now be convinced that these two events are happening at the same time, just in different locations. When viewed on the Timeline, one can see an abstract L in the pattern of the two Clips.

Both Audio and Video are very powerful, and an audience is accustomed to being able to both hear and see something on the screen. We have altered that to create an artistic effect. In our first case, the J-cut, the audience has heard something that they could not yet see, while in the second case, the L-cut, they saw something that they could not yet hear.

J-Cut Edit

L-Cut Edit

Hunt

Forum Email Notifications

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:18:38 GMT

Because of the frequently asked question - "how do I turn off Email Notification in the forum," I'm doing this little tip sheet. If you are getting tons of Emails, and do not want them, you need to go to your Your Stuff>Profile. Start with Manage Email Notifications, Image 01:

You will then get the screen below, Image 02:

As you can see, I have no Email Notifications selected, but verify what you have, and then go back to the Profile and choose Edit Preferences, Image 03:

From there, choose Email Notifications Preferences tab, image 04:

There, you can choose from 12 possibilities, for Email Notification.

Hope that this helps.

[Edit] Note that this has been changed to reflect the Adobe Forum changes, and the new skins.

Message was edited by: Bill Hunt

SmartSound - What Is It & How Do I Use It?

forums_noreply@adobe.com — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:25:43 GMT

For some time, there has been discussion on the use of SmartSound® with various versions of Adobe Premiere®. Often, there is a bit of confusion, as to what SmartSound is and how best to use it. I hope to provide some information on both the programs as well as the "Series," that make up SmartSound music.

First, here is some background. SmartSound’s programs come in basically three "flavors" now. First, there is QuickTracks for Premiere®. This is a plug-in for PrPro/PrE. It works from within the NLE program itself. Then, there are two versions of Sonicfire Pro®, which is a stand-alone program that is similar to QuickTracks, but offers so very much more in the way of power with the Strata Series® (and other Multi-track music) Series. One of these is the ExpressTracks® version, which is free with the purchase of any Strata Series disc., and the other is the full Scoring Edition®, which can be purchased separately, or upgraded free, if one has a registered copy of Sonicfire Pro 4 with S/N. While the basic function of the programs is similar, the mechanics can differ, as well as the final output.

Second, there is the music. It is grouped into several Series. All can only be used in the SmartSound software. The SmartSound® Music library is a very creative and flexible collection of royalty-free* music. It's the only music that gives video editors access to perfectly edited music from any SmartSound software or embedded technology.

Looking at it from one side, the Series are grouped by style, theme and mood. On the other side, they are grouped by the type of discs. At a basic level, there are three types of these discs:

Single Layer tracks: no Mood Mapping capability, however there are 22KHz, 44KHz and 48KHz single layer tracks (the Classical Suite albums are single layer 48KHz. Note that single-layer music cannot be used with Mood Mapping.

Multilayer tracks: all multilayer tracks have Mood Mapping, and there are only 44KHz and 48KHz multilayer tracks.

Some of the recent releases of the Strata Series discs, only contain the 48KHz versions Remember, only the 48KHz can contain Mood Mapping, and can only be used with Sonicfire Pro. For the QuickTracks plug-in, one would use the 44KHz version, and of course there is no Mood Mapping in QuickTracks.

All of the various Series also contain several variations on each "cut." The vast majority are original creations and the few that are "public domain" are original performances.

Generally, the price of the music Series goes up with both the quality (sample-rate) and with the multi-layer aspect. Still, "sales" do happen from time to time.

Ignoring the Mood Mapping feature for a moment, I’d like to talk about what SmartSound and Sonicfire Pro do, when used with the SmartSound music Series. These programs and this music will allow one to exactly tailor their soundtrack, and far beyond what one can do using loopology. The intros and outros can be specified. If you know the exact Duration of your Video, you can tailor your resulting score to that Duration.

With Sonicfire Pro, and a Strata Series multi-layer disc, one can tailor much more, than just the Duration of the music. This is where Mood Mapping comes in. With Mood Mapping there is almost unlimited control on what the same piece of music can sound like. Within the Mood Mapping control panel, one can use many Presets, but can also control virtually every aspect of the music. Imagine being able to take a full orchestral version of a piece of music, and then separating out just the violins, or just the brass section. Both versions of Sonicfire Pro can utilize Mood Mapping, but there are limitations on the ExpressTracks version, and even more power in the Scoring Edition, including Timing Control.

Now remember that I mentioned that QuickTracks for Premiere was a plug-in and that both versions of Sonicfire Pro are stand-alone applications. How does this affect how one uses them? Because of the plug-in nature, QuickTracks is launched from within Premiere via the New icon and SmartSound from the drop-down menu. This brings up the QuickTracks interface, where one can tailor the Duration, and the variation, of the piece, but also contains a link to a browser. In this browser, one can sort by various criteria, plus are also allowed a text Search function to use the notes with each music cut. There are also filters to limit ones view to criteria, such as Music on My Computer, Music Owned by Me, Music On SmartSound’s Web site and All.

As Sonicfire Pro is a stand-alone, one would first Export a "reference" AV file, to use when scoring. One day, I would love to see Sonicfire Pro as a plug-in for Premiere, so that this one step would not be necessary. The next best thing would be for Adobe to do a Dynamic Link to Sonicfire Pro. There is no need for any reference file with QuickTracks, as one is working in the Sequence’s Timeline.

When the purchased Series have been installed on one’s computer, it will contain a preview, regardless of whether the actual sound files are copied to that computer. One can work from the copied music files, or from the DVD discs. [Note: because of the limitation on QuickTracks to just the 22KHz and 44KHz music, installations usually do not have to be done separately, unless the user wants both the multilayer version installed and the single layer versions installed. Any single layer albums will only need to be installed once (with the exception of Classical Suites, since they have 48KHz and 44KHz, but if installed in Quicktracks first, the 44KHz versions will be available in Sonicfire Pro.)] Personally, I copy the DVD’s to my HDD’s, for quick and easy access. However, that is not necessary, if one does not mind placing the DVD into a drive.

If one does not wish to purchase one of the discs, the full library, they can still listen to the cuts, via the preview, and can purchase much of the music, by the cut, directly from SmartSound for download. This can allow one to use just the right cut, without having to invest in the full Library.

One of the real advantages to registering one’s SmartSound, besides notification of updates, is the notifications of the "sales." These usually offer select Series at greatly reduced rates. I find the "regular" prices to be in line with what one gets, but a sale makes it even better. My biggest problem has been that I now own most of the Series, and the ones that I do not own are ones that I will likely not use. It’s getting more difficult to take advantage of these sales, no matter how low the price has dropped - I already own it.

Last, SmartSound also has several Series of SFX too.

* Excludes public performance as part of a film released through major theatrical distribution or broadcast on national television. See our Professional Music End User License for details regarding these uses.

Note:

SmartSound, QuickTracks, Sonicfire Pro, ExpressTracks, Mood Mapping and Scoring Edition are all registered property of SmartSound Software, Inc.

Adobe Premiere is a registered property of Adobe Software, Inc.

SmartSound's Web site