Editing your video on a computer can bring life and sparkle to your projects. Using video editing software can transform you and your video in to creative visually telling wonders. Editing video is quick, exciting and unique. Unfortunately this deep learning curve of most video editing programs intimidates lots of folks and they give up in frustration. In the life long professional video producer, I think the biggest thing that confuses people is when they first open any video editing software and they see this window like man effects.
Now other computer genre packs as much on to the screen as video editing and I think people get very confuse by it. This is windows movie maker, a free program you will find installed on most PCs when you but them. Windows movie maker is a basic program with a relatively universal interface. In other words virtually all editing programs share window movie makers basing on screen lay out. You can see that there are four open windows at the moment and they all have separate functions. Now additional windows can be called up in windows moviemaker but not all at one, of course all you at any one time.
You can hide some windows and something else will be displayed. In all a computer video editing program might have anywhere from eight to about 20 different windows. No wonder people get confuse what the heck is all this stuff. Okay, well here is the basic explanation. In windows movie maker as all video editing programs, when you divide the screen in to two sections horizontally, you will see that the top half contains three windows and the bottom half is one large window. Starting in the upper left, in windows movie maker you have the task to paste. Then in the middle, you have a viewer window that can do multiple things. On the far right, your third window across the top is an output monitor. Now on the bottom half of windows movie maker, you will see what we call the time line and it takes up the entire bottom half of your screen. Now let’s have a more detailed explanation of each of these separate windows.
Let’s start with the time line. The time line is universal to all video editing programs. The time line is where you build you movie. The time line is a visual representation of your story. You can see which clips you have good wear. Also, you can see a way form representation that is quickly in line of your audience. In windows movie maker, your time line has one line for standard video, one line for video effects and transitions. The third video line is for titles and two lines for audio. Their label here on the far left of the screen and the thin black line which is running horizontally separate them, and as you play your time line that is your movie and you see it in your output monitor which is in the far right. More programs that are sophisticated have additional lines available for video and audio.
Cut express, which is what I use, has 99 lines for each. Some programs have an infinite number but honestly that is kind of over killed, I have never gone over 25 lines and that is even enormous headache. You use multiple lines to mix together multiple sources of video or audio like what you are seeing now. All of these floating charts are considered different sources and they are all on their own individual video line. Now for simple productions you won’t need anymore than windows movie maker gives you. Now if you do want to get funs here , you’ll have to look at a more expensive program than movie maker. Looking at the top half of your screen, you see three open windows. Like I said earlier, thee first one on the left is the task open. The task open list such tasks as importing video or audio.
You also have a list called edit movie, which brings out a different windows and functions. In the task open you also have set of links that bring out functions for saving your movie to the hard drive or burning the disk. Lastly the task open has links, the tips on how to edit. You can learn a lot from these links. Now if you wish you can turn your task open on or off and then view pull on menu which is located across the top. Moving over to the middle window in the top half you have your viewer window. The viewer window can be set to show anyone of three things by clicking the small field in the middle. The viewer window will show you collections, effects or transitions. Collection is the name given to all the Medias that you have collected within your project.
Every clip of video, every audio clip and every still picture is what collections will show. As with all three viewers window options you, can set collections to be viewed as either thumb nails, or list which is referred to as details. If you change your viewer window to effects you will see a total off 42 different effects. Everything from changing the color, pixilation to rotation is found on these effects. You add effects to your movie simply by clicking and dragging the icon you choose down in to your time line. Changing the viewer window in to transitions, you will see 60 different transitions that give your video some process that you change from one shot to the next.
To use any transition, just click whichever blue icon you want and drag it in, in to your time line. Using effects and transition is easy, and they give your movie mini advance digital enhance effects. Moving in to the third window on the top in the far right this is called your output monitor. This is where you watch you edited movie. Generally speaking, the output monitor is used to show what is it in your time line and this is very much just like miniaturized TV inside your computer. In fact, in order top get a better understanding of why there are so many windows in the video editing program. It helps to know just a little bit about the history of editing video tape. Of all computers, it took literally about $1,000,000.00 of separate components to edit video using motion effects and graphics. A well stock edit room has dozens and dozens of different pieces of equipments.
Here is a picture of an old fashion analog system that I bought in the mid 1980’s. Now this is not a million dollar system, this is a cheap system and it did not include hardly any belts and whistles yet. It still contains eight different components. Today’s’ computer video editing programs, squeeze down each component in to its own little window which is why the editing interface is so complex. Once you become familiar with all the different windows what they do and switching between them editing video tape in the computer will make a lot more sense.
Well that’s it for this lesson on basic video editing. I hope you enjoyed it. For more information, contact us at video production tips.com. Thanks for watching. I am Lorraine Grugal.
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