Avid Community Tutorials

GenArts Sapphire Overview of New Effects in Version 3

Todd Prives — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:39:16 GMT

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Here is an overview of some of the cool new effects in Sapphire Plug-ins version 3.

GenArts Sapphire Cartoon Tutorial

Todd Prives — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:12:01 GMT

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Video Tutorial of the Sapphire Cartoon effect for Avid. The Cartoon effect finds the edges and gives them colored lines as well as smoothing the colors to give the image a hand drawn look.

GenArts Sapphire Glow Tutorial

Todd Prives — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:06:49 GMT

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Video Tutorial of the Sapphire Glow effect for Avid. The Glow lights the brightest parts of the image, creating a natural, organic light source. A mask input can also be used to determine the location of the glow.

GenArts Sapphire FilmDamage Tutorial

Todd Prives — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:01:21 GMT

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Video Tutorial of the Sapphire FilmDamage effect for Avid. FilmDamage simulates the look of damaged film with many options, including dust, hairs, stains, scratches, defocusing, flicker, and shake.

GenArts Sapphire RackDefocus Tutorial

Todd Prives — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:53:27 GMT

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Video Tutorial of the Sapphire RackDefocus effect for Avid. Rackdefocus defocuses using an iris shape convolution to simulate a real camera defocus.

GenArts Sapphire LensFlare Tutorial

Todd Prives — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:49:06 GMT

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Video Tutorial of the Sapphire LensFlare effect for Avid. The LensFlare effect renders a lens flare image over a background clip.

Confused by Track Selectors? - Part 2

drbgaijin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:33:04 GMT

I made this Tutorial as a follow up to the previous Tutorial, where I tried to explain the basics of Track Selectors.

This time I take things a step further and show the use of the 3 point edit when adding a second clip.

Regards,
Douglas

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Confused by Track Selectors?

drbgaijin — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:29:07 GMT

I made a Tutorial on Track Selectors a while back, but a recent Forum thread reminded me that there are newcomers arriving on Avid's shores all the time.
Those coming from NLEs that have a very different workspace, timeline and workflow from Media Composer's can find things very confusing at first.

So I decided to have a second attempt at clarifying things for just those newcomers.

Regards,
Douglas

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Zooming in/out and dragging the Monitor Pictures

drbgaijin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:56:39 GMT

When you use the "Ctrl +L" and "Ctrl + K" shortcuts they can be applied to more than just the height of timeline tracks.

By accident I pressed "Ctrl + L" while my record monitor was active and was surprised at the result.

My new found knowledge is probably more useful when in Effect mode and using some function like AvidFX's Paint Tool.

Regards,
Douglas

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Keyboard Mapping Suggestions - "Focus"

drbgaijin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:09:52 GMT

From time to time I will make a short Tutorial in which I will highlight some lesser known key that can be mapped to the keyboard.

This time it is the "Focus" key.

Regards,
Douglas

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Go to Next/Previous Edit without entering the Trim Mode

drbgaijin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:42:57 GMT

This topic keeps coming back again and again on the Forums, as newcomers arrive for the first time.

That gives me an excuse for making a short Tutorial on it.

Next time we see the question brought up there will be a Tutorial to refer to...............................

Regards,
Douglas

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24 KeyBoard Shortcuts

drbgaijin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:18:14 GMT

Some of these shortcuts have been featured in my earlier Tutorials others are making their first appearance.

I find that I need to refresh my memory as far as KeyBoard Shortcuts go.
It is so easy to forget them.
Especially if you don't use each one daily and if you are getting old, like me!

Hope you get your memory jogged too.

Regards,
Douglas

PS. This was done in MC 3.1.2. Starting from now, I will be using MC 4.0.2 in most of my new Tutorials

PPS. I mention a PDF document listing the shortcuts and their time on the timeline in the tutorial.
You can download the document from HERE.

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Using Boris Continuum Complete 6 Animated Presets with Avid and Adobe

Rich DAngelo — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 22:01:54 GMT

Boris Continuum Complete 6's new Custom Animated Presets feature lets you save and re-use every parameter animation in every BCC filter - even across host applications and platforms. For the first time, you can animate BCC filters in Adobe After Effects and transfer the animation to the Avid timeline while preserving After Effects keyframes. Boris Continuum Complete 6 AVX includes hundreds of factory-installed animated presets. Animated presets are now saved in industry-standard XML format and can be edited by any XML-compliant text editor. Watch this video tutorial and learn more!

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Boris Continuum Complete's Optical Stabilizer Filter

Rich DAngelo — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:09:08 GMT

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The BCC Optical Stabilizer filter enables you to stabilize shaky video footage. The filter uses optical flow technology to determine the movement of the camera and then adjusts the clip's position to compensate. Depending upon filter parameter settings, the motion in the clip will either be smoothed or completely locked down. Unlike many other image stabilization tools, the BCC Optical Stabilizer does not require you to set user-defined tracking points. This is useful for images where tracking data is unreliable.

Because the very nature of post camera image stabilization causes the image to be cropped, BCC Optical Stabilizer includes post image stabilization options to fill the blank areas around the frame - such as repeating pixels along the cropped edges, mirroring the image along those edges, filling them with solid color, or leaving them transparent. An auto-scale function automatically transform scales the image so that it fills the frame across time; it includes seven transform scale algorithms ensuring optimal post image sharpness.

4 Simple Steps from HD to an SD DVD

drbgaijin — Fri, 22 May 2009 00:09:49 GMT

Not everyone wants to author a fully featured DVD with chapter points. menues. subtitles etc.
Sometimes all that is required is a quick output of a sequence in MC to a DVD with nothing added.
Here is one workflow which is simple and requires only 4 easy steps.

Good luck!

Regards,
Douglas

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Avid DS Z Buffer FX

Igor Ridanovic — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:30:49 GMT

This Avid DS tutorial explains the basic use of Z buffer information when compositing 3D animation
elements in Avid DS.

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ClipDeko Managing Multiple Clip Databases

Shirley Oxendine — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 19:11:16 GMT

The ClipDeko option enables a Deko user to record, import, and play digital video clips, with or without key, and provides tools for the user to edit, loop, trim, and browse these clips. With the advent of Avid Deko ClipDeko option v 5.0 easy transition between multiple clip databases utilizing different video standards is provided. This document explains how to create new or multiple databases and how the databases are managed within the Deko system.

There are two types of clip databases in Deko: Standard clips and Power Clips. Standard clips are full screen, or full resolution, clips. Power Clips (Deko3000 only) are smaller-sized clips, such as ‘moving headshots.’ Power Clips have their own database separate from the Standard clip database. Both types of databases can be managed as discussed in this document.

To import clips, Quicktime Player, a free download application, must be installed on the Deko unit. As a review, there are two steps to importing and using a file-based clip, such as a *.mov file, in Deko:

1. Copy the media to the E drive, organized in your preferred directory structure.

2. Import the clip media into the ClipDeko database (This import process transcodes the *.mov file and the database manages the clip properties for each video standard.)

By default, a single clip database is created when the Clip Editor is launched and is named based on the video standard selection within your Deko settings. The new clip database is named automatically and placed in the C:\Dekoxxx\Database directory. If the video standard is set to NTSC, the database is named DekoClips.mdb. If the video standard is set to any other standard except NTSC then Deko automatically assigns the name DekoClips appended by the video standard setting followed by the suffix ‘.mdb’. For example, if the Deko launches in the 1080iHD standard, a new database is automatically created as ‘DekoClips_HD1080i.mdb’ to distinguish it as a separate database from those created using other video standards.

Each video standard must have a unique clip database for that standard. Consequently, a clip database does not clips with multiple video standards. (i.e. a single database does not contain both NTSC clips and HD clips.)

Regardless of the type of clip database there may be reasons a user may want to create and manage a new database or multiple databases from those that are automatically created on the ‘C drive’.

1. For organizational purposes to allow the user to easily locate a clip for a particular function or show. i.e. sports vs elections

2. For network share purposes to share the clip database without allowing share privileges on the C drive (IT personnel are reluctant to share items on the C drive.).

To create a new database, open the Clip Editor (View>Clip Edit or Ctrl+E).

The illustration below shows the clips editor with a loaded clip using a DekoClips_HD1080i.mdb database (the full database path is shown in the Clip Editor window) . Access a new database by selecting the Clips button in the Clip Editor toolbar.

This opens the dialogue box showing the current clip database structure.

Select New database, and navigate to the drive and/or directory in which you wish to create the new clip database. The name is assigned automatically with a *.mdb extension. Rename the database by right-clicking the name, retaining the *.mdb extension. After renaming the database name, select Open to launch the Clip Editor window. Conversely, you can accept the assigned name, select the Open button, close the Clip Editor and navigate to Windows Explorer to rename the database name.

Import clips as needed once you have completed these steps.

Set this clip database as the default database by selecting Options > Save Settings Now from the main menu.

Manage One Clip Database with Multiple Deko Units:

If you are managing multiple Deko units, save time by setting up all clip attribute functions, such as trim points, looping, etc., in one database, then copy the transcoded media (*.mxf formats) and the database to the E drive on the other Deko units. Remember to navigate to the clip database from each Deko Clip Editor and set the working database as the default by Options>Save Settings Now.

In copying databases from one unit to another, two file types must be copied for each clip database: *.blil and *.mdb.

Avid recommends closing the Deko application while copying databases. If a Deko is on-air during the database copy, the clip editor may not refresh properly.

Deleting a Clip - Revisited

drbgaijin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:51:58 GMT

When we are learning something new and we succeed, we tend to remember the success.
Next time we are back in the same situation we usually use the same method that we first succeeded with.
Even with Media Composer - when you first delete a clip successfully, you tend to continue using the same method in the future.

Sometimes, however, there are other ways of achieving the same success.
Sometimes the other ways may be more suitable for deleting a clip under different circumstamces.
Here is another way of deleting a clip that I came upon recently.

Regards,
Douglas

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Creating Transitions with BCC AVX's Swish Pan Filter

Rich DAngelo — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:20:34 GMT

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BCC Swish Pan lets you create fast, camera pan-style transitions between clips. The filter is fully automated and includes controls for the velocity of the pan with on-screen display of the ease-in and ease-out curve.

Deleting a Clip - Revisited yet again!

drbgaijin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 05:47:48 GMT

After uploading the "Deleting a Clip - Revisited" Tutorial I had a few enquiries as to why I used "CTRL X" rather than plain simple "X".

I started to reply to the enquiries and found it would be easier to make a follow up tutorial rather than explain in words only.

Here is the resulting explanation, as seen from my point of view.

Additional thoughts and explanations are more than welcome.

Regards,
Douglas

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That Puzzling Extra Frame!

drbgaijin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 12:29:24 GMT

After I migrated to Avid Media Composer, I spent about 4 weeks happily and unknowingly adding an extra frame to my clips!

It was really by accident that I discovered my error.

Here is an explanation of my error and why it was happening.

After you understand the error, the solution is simple.

Regards,
Douglas

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Controlling Clip Snapping

drbgaijin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 04:11:45 GMT

When moving clips on the timeline, there are many ways of controlling their movement.

Here are a few pointers that may be useful to you.

Regards,
Douglas

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Evapourating Clips!

drbgaijin — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 02:54:43 GMT

Newcomers to Media Composer sometimes get confused when they notice that one or more clips on the timeline seem to be "evapourating" or getting shorter!

I take a look at this strange behaviour and explain why it is happening and how you can avoid it.

Regards,
Douglas

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Transition Preservation Video

stevecohen — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:03:36 GMT

Media Composer 4.0 features Avid's new approach to handing dissolves in editing--Transition Preservation. TP makes the system much more forgiving, avoids error messages and is generally a lot more intuitive when you are moving dissolves around. It's hard to explain in words, so I created a video to explain it. Check it out here:

Transition Preservation

You'll find more tech videos on my blip.tv site.

For details, and for other tips, see my blog:

Splice Here

Enjoy,
Steve Cohen

Hold a Dissolve at 50% for a set Time

drbgaijin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 06:25:49 GMT

I saw a thread on the Avid MC-PC Forum asking if there was a way to create a dissolve that would stay still for 8 seconds when it was halfway!
I never tried that before, so I was inspired to get started and make a video tutorial to answer the post.
Now, just under 2 hours later, I have uploaded the result!

Let's see if any other NLE Forum can match that for service!

Regards,
Douglas

PS. I know there must be lots of other ways to do this.
Please feel free to post your own ideas in answer to the question.

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