To make it a bit more organized we've put the tips and techniques into PDF files. You can find them here.

TIPS:

• Tip 1:  2 Essential FREE Plugins Every XDV/XPro User Should Have!
• Tip 2:  Applying Multiple Effects to a Clip/Sequence
• Tip 3:  Free, Professional Stock Footage!
• Tip 4:  Hate Marquee?

Techniques:

• Technique 1:  "Instant Sex"
• Technique 2:  Effect Nesting for Turning Any Effect Into a Transition!
• Technique 3:  "Camera Flash"
• Technique 4:  "Pleasantville Effect"

Handy to knows

• Keyboard mappings(thx Aniphreak)
  

Tip 1:  2 Essential FREE Plugins Every XDV/XPro User Should Have!

Xpress DV is a great tool, for a decent price.  Unfortunately, it's hampered by a lack of effects and transfer modes.  Hopefully this changes with the next version of Avid software.  In the mean time, there's 2 FREE plugins that EVERY Avid user (minus DS) should get.  (XPro and Xpress Studio users, this includes you.)  Those 2 plugins are described here in this post.

The first plugin is called "Transfer AVX."  This plugin is definitely different than many of them out there in that its sole purpose is to provide desperately needed transfer modes (aka "blending" or "compositing" modes) in Avid NLE's.  For those of you who don't know what these modes are, be schooled!  They were (I believe) originally conceived by Adobe for Photoshop many years ago.  Their purpose is to take 2 or more layers and let them show through each other, which makes them a key tool for compositing.  There are many different transfer modes, each of which affects a layer's pixels differently, allowing for many different looks and ways for layers to interact with each other.  Quite frankly, I can't imagine trying to do much of any compositing without them!  "Transfer AVX" was created a few years ago by Profound Effects, makers of Elastic Gasket.  It was sold for the very-affordable price of $50, of which I gladly paid for and still use that same "$50" plugin today.  To add an interesting twist to the story, DMN Forums for some reason acquired the rights to use the plugin--I'm assuming they purchased it from PE, who has a trend of creating a cool plugin, selling it for 2-3 years, then selling it to another company.  When DMN took over the plugin, they left "Profound Effects" in the name, but offered it as a free download to registered DMN users.

By now, you probably look like this  or  and just want me to tell you where to get this plugin.  It's simple:  go to DMN and register as a new user if you haven't already.  (If you have, skip to the second link.)   http://www.dmnforums.com/forms/register.htm   Then, go here to download the plugin (as well as another cool AE plugin, if you have/use AE):   http://images.digitalmedianet.com/projects/profoundeffects/plugins/free_plugins.htm   Make sure you read the system specs to ensure your system supports the plugin, as well as ensuring you have a compatible version of Avid software to run the plugin with.  The download links are at the bottom of the page.  Install. 

To use it, simply start your Avid NLE, start/open a project, build a quick sequence of 2 video layers (ie, one clip on V1 and another clip on V2).  Open the Effect Palette, look for and click on "Profound Effects."  Grab the Transfer plugin and drag it to V2.  Enter Effect Mode.  In the Effect Editor, there's a drop-box that will show you a bunch of different available transfer modes.  Start clicking on them to sample what the plugin can do!

This plugin, while nothing super-amazing, will do wonders to your work until Avid gives us native transfer-modes built into our Avid timelines...something I've been championing for over a year.  We should not require a 3rd-party plugin to do this, IMHO.  I must add that Transfer doesn't provide nearly as good of results as the built-in transfer modes in AE, Photoshop, Boris and others, but it's better than nothing and you can't beat the price!

The second plugin is especially crucial to XDV 4 users, though it will benefit any Avid user.  It's a free Blur plugin!  It's from Digital Film Tools (who make some pretty amazing plugins), and it's called "DFT Fast Blur."  This plugin generates a standard blur and while it's not realtime, it renders REALLY fast.  It's included as part of one of DFT's products, called "Composite Suite AVX."  At $295, it's not only affordable, but also an incredible product and I HIGHLY recommend all users consider purchasing it.  Their zMatte AVX keying plugin is amazing, and very affordable as well.

Okay, on to the plugin.  Go here to download the demo for "Composite Suite AVX":  http://www.digitalfilmtools.com/cs-3/cs3dwnld.php   Install.  To use it, follow the same instructions as you did for "Transfer."  Look in the Effect Palette for "Composite Suite" (or possibly DFT, I forget off-hand).  Look for "CS_Fast Blur."  Apply it to any clip and enjoy!  One thing to realize:  because you're using the demo of Composite Suite, the other effects will be installed into your Effect Palette, but they will be demo versions, which will render a huge "X" over your image.  Feel free to play with them to see what's available, though you won't be able to use them in projects.  There's 2 ways to remedy this:  either contact DFT and pay for the plugin, to which they'll give you an unlock code and you can use your plugs, OR deal with it, because the CS plugin actually installs as one entitiy into your AVX Effects folder.  Uninstalling it means "Fast Blur" goes away with it.  If you're on XDV 4.x and don't have any third party plugin suites, this is a must-have plugin!

Get these and play with them for a while and I'll start teaching you some cool uses for them soon...or at least, other techniques for you to try in utilizing them!

Enjoy.

Technique 1:  "Instant Sex"

In the previous tip, I told you how to get 2 excellent, free AVX plugins.  Now that you've gotten them, you're probably wondering what all can be done with them, besides the obvious.  In this post, I'll teach you about a great little AE technique that you can do in Avid, called "Instant Sex."  (Don't ask me where the name came from.)  This technique I learned from Chris and Trish Meyer, from their book "Creating Motion Graphics With After Effects," published by CMP Books.  While it doesn't look as good in Avid as it does in AE or another compositing program, it still looks good and is a wonderful way of creating a "cool" image treatment for a clip in your sequence, or even your sequence as a whole.  I use this technique a lot on my Digital Juice Jumpbacks that I have, to help make them look less "Digital Juicey" and more original.  Note:  the way to truly create this effect is to use Gaussian Blur.  If you have BCC or Sapphire, use that instead.  If you only have DFT Fast Blur, that will work too.

Creating the effect is simple:  lay your clip on V1.  Make an exact copy of that clip and lay it on V2.  Apply "Transfer AVX" to the clip on V2.  Enter effect mode and set the transfer mode to "Screen."  Then, Alt+drag "DFT Fast Blur" to the track on V2 to nest it.  You should now see the effect.  Step into V2 and apply more blur to change the look of the image.  Don't apply too much blur, or you'll ruin the look!

Tweak to taste.  Feel free to experiement with different blurs and different transfer modes.  For an even more funky look, offset the 2 clips by one (or more) frames to create a wild "strobing," "acid-trippy" motion effect.  Again, this offsetting doesn't look as good in Avid as it does in AE or combustion, but it's still handy to know now and then.  Experiment with tossing in some of the XPro Timewarp FX presets (XPro only).

Enjoy!

• Q-Can i batch render multiple sequences over night?
  
  
• A- No not realy but there is a workaround. Select the sequences you want rendered and export them as QTref files. It will render the files. AFter export all sequences will be rendered. Only downside i could find was an occasional pop-up from asking asking me to which drive i wanted to render the fx.
  
  
  
• Saving Custom Transitions to the Quick Transition menu.
  
  
• Timecode burn in "realtime" workaround (by Ursula Mauer)
  
  
• Apply an effect over multiple cuts (ie: a fade to black) (thx Larry)
  

Many thanks to Sep, who came up with a good workaround for matching back to pre-computes. In the timeline, mark clip on the pre-compute you wish to match to.  Then, press CTRL + ALT + c.  This will load the full pre-compute clip in the source monitor with the name of your existing sequence.  However, when you edit it into the timeline, the original pre-compute clip name will be there. The "find bin" command does not work, but I'm very happy just to be able to call back  the complete pre-compute clip to the source monitor.

Again, thanks, Sep!

Another AK-Jake post!

Technique 2:  Effect Nesting for Turning Any Effect Into a Transition!

I got this technique from a book you absolutely must own, if you're serious about editing with Avid products.  It's called "Avid Xpress Pro and DV on the Spot," by Steve Hullfish, Chris Phrommayon, and Bob Donlon.  Published by CMP Books, it retails for around $28, though I got mine new on Amazon for $18.  It is brilliant!  You absolutely HAVE to have this book sitting on your shelf!  This technique, called "Segments in Transition," can be found on Page 120.

To quote the book:

"By default, several segment effects cannot be applied as transitions.  However, with a little nesting trick, any segment effect can appear to be a transition.

1)  Using the Add Edit command (mapped as the H key by default), add equidistant edits on either side of the cut.

2)  Select the two new adjacent segments in Segment Mode, hold Alt (or Option), and double-click the desired segment effect in the Effect Palette.  The two adjacent segments will automatically nest together, and the effect will be applied to the nest.

3)  Symmetrical keyframing will make the segment effect look like a transition.  You only need a few minutes of experimentation with each effect to see which ones you will like best."

In case you don't follow, I'll explain it in laymen's terms:

1)  Park your "blue bar" on the cut between the two clips where you wish for a transition to be.  Add-edits the same distance on either side of the cut (for example, add an edit 10 frames before the cut and 10 frames after the cut).  This will make 3 edits:  the original one, plus the 2 you just made.  The end result of these 3 edits will be 2 mini-clips in between 2 large clips.

2)  Enter Segment-Mode and select both mini-clips by holding Shift to select them.

3)  Open the Effect Palette and find the effect you wish to use as a transition.  In this example, let's use our old-reliable DFT Fast Blur.  Hold the Alt key (Option on Mac) and double-click on Fast Blur.  The effect will nest the 2 segments together, joined by the blur effect.

4)  Remember to exit Segment Mode.

5)  Enter Effect Mode and ensure both keyframes at the beginning and the end are selected.  Set the horizontal and vertical blur levels to zero.  (Note, the Fast Blur defaults to "5.")  Then deselect the first/last keyframes, go to the middle of the effect and create a new keyframe.  On this new keyframe, set your blur levels to the desired amount (let's say 150 on both horizontal and vertical).  Render the effect.  Amazing, isn't it?

This technique combined with other effects is infinitely tweakable.  I use this effect on titles, even (when placed over a solid color background, like black).  Try it with the Morph effect from Illusion FX.

I'll add this:  depending on what 2 clips you have together, and what effect you're using, you might notice an abrupt "jump cut" in the middle of your effect.  This is not cool...it's wrecking your effect, you say!  Never fear:  effect nesting and dissolves are here!  Select your newly-created effect, enter Effect Mode, and step-in to the effect (using the Step-In command, or any of the other means to step-in to an effect).  Apply a dissolve to the 2 nested clips.  (This depends upon having enough footage on the head or tail of the clip to apply a dissolve).  Tweak the length of the dissolve to taste, but I recommend not going any longer than the duration of the effect.  Step-out of the effect and back to the full timeline.  You may have to re-render your "transition" effect that you created with this nesting trick, but the results should be astounding.  If not, you're just going to have to spend some time playing with the settings and the length of the effect(s) to get it looking right.

You like this trick?  Buy the book!  It's full of more than 300 different tips and tricks, and it's cheap!

Have fun!

AK-Jake is on a roll... #3 just in

Technique 3:  "Camera Flash"

I also got this technique from "Avid Xpress Pro and DV on the Spot," by Steve Hullfish, Chris Phrommayon, and Bob Donlon, published by CMP Books.  This technique, called ""Camera Flash" is on Page 121.

To paraphrase the book:

1)  Add edits equidistantly on either side of the cut (default for Add-Edit is the H key).  For example, add edits 10 frames before and 10 frames after the cut you wish to effect.  This will create 2 new mini-segments (3 edits, the original, plus the 2 you just made will create 2 mini-pieces of footage).

2)  Enter segment mode and select the 2 mini-segments (hold Shift to select more than one).

3)  Press and hold Alt (Option on Mac) and double-click the Color Effect from the Effect Palette (under "Image).

4)  Ensure you're in Effect Mode.  Select both keyframes from the Color Effect and make sure the Luma Range White Point is at 235.  (This, coincidentally, is the brightest white accepted for broadcast.)

5)  Go to the middle of the effect, create a new keyframe, and set the Luma Range White Point of this new keyframe to 16.  (This, coincidentally, is the darkest black accepted for broadcast.)

6)  Apply a blur effect to add softness to the effect, and often add some "pop" (glow, often times) to the effect.  If on an Adrenaline or up, use the defocus effect (in 3D Warp) to create this.  You're set!

It may not be the greatest way to achieve an effect, but any time you can create an effect inside the Avid application without having to rely on 3rd-party plugins, I say you should know!  With that in mind, you may find that creating this technique in Boris FX/Red (or Avid FX), or using a 3rd-party plugin may be easiest and look the best.  If that's the case, I strongly encourage you to do what works best for you!  One AVX plugin I know of is from DFT's "Composite Suite," called "Camera Flash."  If you have the demo for "Composite Suite," play with "Camera Flash," it's great.  Another plugin like this is from Buena Software, called "Camera Flash."  Bundled as part of their "Effect Essentials" suite, it's also excellent.  Problem:  it's an After Effects plugin, in the .aex format.  Happily, if you have Elastic Gasket (from Profound Effects, which was included with XPro 4.0), you're set.  Download the "Effect Essentials" demo, enjoy your free "Camera Flash" plugin, and delete the rest.  Move "Camera Flash" to your AVX Plugins folder inside your Avid directory (most commonly found at c:\program files\avid\AVX Plugins) and you're set.

Have fun.

Contribution from Scott various tips on workflow and very cool Avid tricks. Read all about them in his thread.

CLICK

Technique 4:  "Pleasantville Effect" By AK-JAKE


This is a technique that many users have asked how to recreate.  The "Pleasantville Effect" is an old-school photography effect that was made popular in the 1998 movie "Pleasantville," directed by Gary Ross, and featuring an excellent cast, including Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, William H. Macy, Jeff Daniels, etc.  The effect is achieved in different degrees throughout the film, which starts out as exclusively black-and-white, but then slowly begins to allow certain items to appear in color, while the rest of the film remains B&W.  By the end of the film, the entire image goes color.  (Keep in mind this is once Tobey/Reese arrive in "Pleasantville."  If you don't understand what I'm talking about, watch the movie!)
 
Many have wondered how this effect was achieved.  Quite simply, it was achieved by secondary color-correction.  Unfortunately, as of XPro 5.2, we don't have secondary color correction.  For those who don't know what that is, secondary color-correction is when an editor/colorist/compositor (etc.) only color corrects a specified color vector within an image (or in layman's terms:  corrects a specific color in a region, without affecting the rest of the master image).  Uses for this include things like changing a red car to a blue car, making a blue sky even more intensely blue without affecting the other blues in the image, etc.  This feature is available in Avid Symphony, Avid Liquid (or many of XPro's competitors), but nothing lower in the Avid Product Family .
 
So you want to achieve the Pleasantville Effect, but don't have the ability in XPro...what to do?  Well, thanks to the folks at GeniusDV, you do something like this:
 
1) Edit the clip, picture, etc. into your timeline on V1 that contains the item you'd like to show in color (say, a blue car).
 
2) Duplicate the clip/pic, etc. on V2.  It must be an exact copy of the clip on V1, including start/end points!
 
3) Open the Effect Palette, look under "Image," and drop the Color Effect on V1.
 
4) Enter Effect Mode.  Also, ensure that the monitoring icon remains on V1 so you can see your effect.
 
5) In the Effect Editor under Color Effect, drag the Sat slider to minus 100 (-100).  This will remove all color from your image, making it B&W.  (For those of you wondering how to create B&W images in Avid NLE's, there you go!)  The image of your clip/pic in the Composer monitor should turn B&W.
 
6) Go back to the Effect Palette, look under "Key," and drop the Chroma Key effect on V2.
 
7) Ensure that V2 is selected, and not V1.  Patch the monitoring icon from V1 to V2 so you can see the effect of the Chroma Key in the Composer monitor.  Enter Effect Mode.
 
8) Now it can get a bit tricky, as you need to specify the color you want to "key" out, which for us would be the "blue" of our car (or any other color that you're trying to bring through).  In the Effect Editor, under "Chroma Key," look for the parameter that says "Key."  To the right of it should be a little square box with a color in it.  Move your mouse cursor over that colored box, click (hold the mouse button down after clicking) and drag to the image you want to see in color in the Composer monitor.  Once parking your cursor over that item, release the mouse button to sample that color.
 
9) Under the "Foreground" parameter in the Effect Editor, select the "Invert Key" checkbox to see the result of your effect, which should be a B&W background and a colored blue car (or whatever else it is you are trying to bring in color).
 
10) Chances are, the image isn't what you want and that's okay.  Now you need to experiment with different parameter sliders under the Chroma Key effect in the Effect Editor.  Hue, Gain, and Softness are usually the 3 sliders you will spend the most time working with.  It will probably take some time tweaking the effect to make it look right, but if done correctly, the results are astounding.
 
Did you get lost?  No problem, take a trip over to GeniusDV to see the tutorial laid out with color pictures:  http://www.geniusdv.com/avid-pleasantville.php
 
While this technique certainly isn't better than secondary color-correction, and quite frankly is more of a "one-trick pony" than secondary CC, it's better than nothing.  Now play with it some more, experiment and see what you can come up with!
 
Have fun.

And another one from Jake... read and learn

Tip 2:  Applying Multiple Effects to a Clip/Sequence

Many users out there are stumped as to how one applies more than one effect to a clip/sequence.  Avid uses a bit different design in its NLE's, very different from say Premiere, FCP, Vegas, etc.  But once you figure it out, it's not only easy, it makes sense.

To apply multiple effects to a clip/sequence, you must "nest" the effect(s).  To do this, simply press and hold the "Alt" key while dragging the effect to the clip(s) that already have an effect applied to it.  Or even faster, press and hold "Alt," then double-click on the effect in the Effects Palette.  Voila!  Done.  Third way:  enter Segment mode (default keys are : [colon] and " [semi-quote]).  Then click on the "Step-In" button on the timeline.  This will "step" into the clip to show the various layers of effects applied to that clip.  Once you've stepped-in, then drag your effect to the clip like any other one, without needing Alt.  Need a third effect?  Press the "Step-In" button again to step in yet another level and apply your effect normally.  When you're done applying/tweaking/rendering effects, simply use the "Step-Out" button on the timeline to step out.  You must press the "Step-Out" button as many times as you pressed the "Step-In" button to get you back to the timeline.

This technique may seem strange to some, and many Avid users I know would like to see this go away.  Until (or if) it does, this is how you do it.

For those struggling to learn the Avid interface, don't fight it.  You'll find it comes much easier if you abandon the "Well, Premiere/Vegas/FCP/Liquid/etc. does it THIS way" mentality, and learn Avid's way of thinking.