Is there a primer on editing terms? I have tried 2 free trials without success and at this point, the problem has to be my lack of experience. Is there anything I can read that would help? I now have Sony Vegas 10 and it is probably over my head. I really want to do basic things with some color correction. Thanks
Beginners Video Editing Program
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jdandvalerie
Contributor
I've used quite a few of the standards (final cut pro and express, premiere pro and elements, movie maker, vegas, pinnacle) and I've found that getting my hands dirty and just working with each individual program opens up a lot of doors. Some are more intuitive than others but from all share similar structural formats (though I haven't used movie maker or pinnacle recently). I read and re-read each manual and then worked on one specific feature, in your case color correction, did searches...tried and failed, tried and failed again and finally got it somewhat right. I use Premiere Pro right now and also Final cut express if I'm on the road. The more you use them the easier it gets but for me, reading the manual and doing searches for the specific topic helped me the most starting out.
A few basic editing steps:
drag your clips to the timeline
trim your clips leaving only the part of the clip you want
color correct your clips using the 3-way color correction wheel effect
arrange your clips to the order you want
add your soundtrack
What step are you at ?
drag your clips to the timeline
trim your clips leaving only the part of the clip you want
color correct your clips using the 3-way color correction wheel effect
arrange your clips to the order you want
add your soundtrack
What step are you at ?
I've been able to import the files and drag them into the timeline, but it looks like there are several timeline tracks and that is where I am getting stuck. I just downloaded a free tril of Sony Vegas 10. I have been trying the tutorials but I think one of my big issues is I don't even know what all the terms mean. I usually do learn new programs by just doing them and trying things out but this time I am getting nowhere.
Thanks for responding- Sue
Thanks for responding- Sue
mdax
Contributor
I got sick of learning new programs for editing and just use movie maker
Windows Live Movie Maker 2011
Windows Live Movie Maker 2011
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I have Vegas Pro 10 also. It is really the most intuitive of the major editing suites, at least in my opinion. Vegas has plenty of free tutorials on their website Sony Creative Software - Training and Support , and there is another huge website with lots of assistance potential such as CreativeCOW
If you want to list out a few basic questions, I will help.
BDSC
Contributor
You can also go to sites like YouTube and see all kinds of demos and how-to-do-it videos for Sony Vegas.
Streamclips by squared5.com is free, for editing.
jdandvalerie
Contributor
The reason there are multiple timeline slots is creative in nature. You can do splitscreen or put a title/heading/writing on portions of your video; so the main video would be in the video timeline 1 and the title might be in video timeline 2. Another example would be putting one video in slot 1, another in slot 2 and applying an effect which causes the first to take up the top portion of the screen and the second to take up the bottom portion of the screen. There are endless ways to work with an individual timeline for both audio and video. I would start by putting a few videos in the timeline sequentially and work on individual effects between them. An 'effect' changes the video in one way, shape, or form. It might be a transition (like a dissolve) from one video to another, or it could be a color correcting effect which allows you to work with the colors, set WB, etc...Next put one video over another in the timeline (one in slot 1, one in slot 2). No apply a video effect that effects the size of each video respectively. This could be labeled PIP or something similar to show both videos on the screen at the same time. It's not uncommon to have 5-10 slots or more taken up at one time when working on footage, though simple clips can have 1 or 2 and still be fine. See how using each effect or transition effects your video. Also try using a title and see how that works within the timeline. If you want the title to start by itself, it would be first in the timeline. If you want it overlapping or to occur during the video, place it in slot 2 of that respective clip. Once you figure out how the timeline functions, things do get a little easier.
Baby steps.
Make a very short 1 minute video.
Put one video clip on the video timeline
Trim the clip so it only has the part you want, maybe 10-12 seconds.
Put another video clip on the same timeline after the 1st one. Leave a small gap. Between them.
Trim the 2nd clip.
Drag the 2nd clip so it overlaps the 1st clip a little. Maybe 1-2 seconds.
Repeat the above steps with more clips until the video length is approx 1 minute.
Put your music soundtrack in a different audio timeline.
Lower the audio volume on your scuba clip timeline track so you can hear your music.
Trim you music soundtrack to 1 minute.
Get this going 1st before you worry about titles, picture in picture, fades, effects, etc..
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