Quote So I have a 4 camera recording of an event. I wanted to split the videos from the cameras into sections so I did that using the preroll function.

Now I want to bring in one of the preroll clips from each camera into multicam.

But in multicam, when I try to retrieve a video via the media center, I can't figure out a way to select the preroll sections. Only the full video. It doesn't give you the little folder icon in the lower right like it does when you're not in multicam.

How do I select the preroll sections in multicam??

Thanks, gabo

Hmm, seems like they didn't make the MultiCam Designer "precut-aware"

In the Media Library, click on the little folder so that the precut clips are showing, then you can right-click on one of them and choose Edit in MultiCam Designer... which will place it in the first location and is what you're wanting to do. However, after that it seems that the only media you can add are whole clips, just like you said.

Maybe someone else has a better solution, but a simple way to do this right away would be to quickly produce the other 3 precut sections so that they become stand-alone clips. Place each precut in the timeline by itself and produce it. If you use SVRT, you should be able to do that pretty quickly and have no loss in quality.

As each clip is produced, it's also added to the media library so they'll all be easy to find when you start the MultiCam session, but you'll have to repeat this process every time so want to work in the MCD. Not the ideal solution, I know, but it will let you get working...

Quote

Hmm, seems like they didn't make the MultiCam Designer "precut-aware"

In the Media Library, click on the little folder so that the precut clips are showing, then you can right-click on one of them and choose Edit in MultiCam Designer... which will place it in the first location and is what you're wanting to do. However, after that it seems that the only media you can add are whole clips, just like you said.

Maybe someone else has a better solution, but a simple way to do this right away would be to quickly produce the other 3 precut sections so that they become stand-alone clips. Place each precut in the timeline by itself and produce it. If you use SVRT, you should be able to do that pretty quickly and have no loss in quality.

As each clip is produced, it's also added to the media library so they'll all be easy to find when you start the MultiCam session, but you'll have to repeat this process every time so want to work in the MCD. Not the ideal solution, I know, but it will let you get working...

Yea that's what I'll have to do. I was all excited about using preroll for this, but there just isn't a way to get more than one of them in the multicam designer.

This needs to be fixed, also while I'm at it. It would also be nice to be able to give a name to the preroll cuts. Currently it just assigns 01, 02, etc. to each of the segments and doesn't allow you to put in a name. Hard to keep the segments straight when you can't name them something.

gabo

Quote



Yea that's what I'll have to do. I was all excited about using preroll for this, but there just isn't a way to get more than one of them in the multicam designer.

This needs to be fixed, also while I'm at it. It would also be nice to be able to give a name to the preroll cuts. Currently it just assigns 01, 02, etc. to each of the segments and doesn't allow you to put in a name. Hard to keep the segments straight when you can't name them something.

gabo

You CAN rename your precut clips! Just right click on one of them and choose Change Alias, like this

Quote

You CAN rename your precut clips! Just right click on one of them and choose Change Alias, like this

Ah, thanks for that. If they ever fix the multicam issue that will come in handy. For now it's producing the clips and importing them back to media center.

gabo

Somewhat similar issue in video collage. But it has been since its introduction in PD16. You can only select whole clips from media room. Same exact work around that I have been using. A pain in the tookus. ____________________________________

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Using pre-cuts in MC Designer seems to go against the idea of MC designer. Precuts are a second way to get the same effect of using MC designer without using MC Designer. Also, the MC Designer is most useful for synchronising the footage from multiple cameras and then doing switches between cameras much like the director does at a live event. MC Designer also allows you to use the audio from a single camera or a separate audio recording. All of this just seems inconsistant with precuts.
I use multiple cameras in my flying videos and use MCD extensively for that. I don't use all of the footage end to end (most of my flights are 2+ hours long), I just start and stop the "recording" on the sections I want (the highlights of the flight) with the camera of my choice that shows what I want to show at that point.
It just seems to me that by trying to use precuts in MCD you're trying to use a hammer to drive screws. Scott Hendry
www.scotthendry.com
YouTube username TheCscottHendry

Quote Using pre-cuts in MC Designer seems to go against the idea of MC designer. Precuts are a second way to get the same effect of using MC designer without using MC Designer. Also, the MC Designer is most useful for synchronising the footage from multiple cameras and then doing switches between cameras much like the director does at a live event. MC Designer also allows you to use the audio from a single camera or a separate audio recording. All of this just seems inconsistant with precuts.
I use multiple cameras in my flying videos and use MCD extensively for that. I don't use all of the footage end to end (most of my flights are 2+ hours long), I just start and stop the "recording" on the sections I want (the highlights of the flight) with the camera of my choice that shows what I want to show at that point.
It just seems to me that by trying to use precuts in MCD you're trying to use a hammer to drive screws.

Precuts and MC designer are not inconsistent at all. I record concerts for bands using multiple cameras. The full video is the entire concert. I want to precut individual songs on each camera. So now I have a precut segment from each camera that is for a particular song. Now I want to take those precut sections and create a song video with many cuts and bring in the audio from an audio recording that is from the live audio board to sync.

So NO i'm not using a hammer to drive screws, there is a perfectly logical reason to want to use precuts in MCD.

The work around is to take the full videos, cut out individual songs and produce them to single videos. Then bring all those back in and use MCD to create the song videos. A clunky work around that could be avoided if you could use precuts in MCD.

If all your camera footage is continuous (which I assume it is because you are wanting to cut it up) then you are still using a hammer to drive screws.
Just bring all the footage from all four cameras into MCD and synch them once.
Then use the features in MCD to create the videos for each song and let that all go back to the timeline.

To produce each song independently from the timeline, just use the "produce Range" function.

If you pre-cut the footage from each song then import into MCD, you'll have to re-synch the 4 pre-cut clips each time. Scott Hendry
www.scotthendry.com
YouTube username TheCscottHendry

Can't do that. The audio is from a multitrack audio recording and is produced song by song. So each song, audio recording, corresponds to a 3-4 minute segment of a 2+ hour video recording.

Thanks for the suggestion though, but very cumbersome.

Look, you can make excuses for why you can't pull in preroll segments to multicam editing all day. And yes there are work arounds, which I have used. But in the end there is no excuse for it. It would just be more convenient to use preroll segments in MC. It shouldn't be that hard.

Actually now that you mention it. Why even have preroll edits, you can always just bring in the entire video to the timeline and edit it. Preroll edits seem like using a hammer to drive a screw. Or even multicam, you can always bring in all the multicam videos into the timeline, sync them up, and edit them.

It's really all about convenience. If you're not into convenience, then don't worry about it. I'm really not worried about it, I've already found a way and moved on. But if the bakers want to know what might be more convenient for some people, then maybe allow the use of preroll segments in MC. If that's not deemed useful, then no worries.

gabo

I don't see precuts as being cumbersome for the main timeline use. In fact a lot of other editors do it that way as industry standard practice going back to editing film.
But the MCD facility is light years ahead of trying to assemble a multicam production on the timeline.
Here's the work flow for that
1 Bring in all the camera footage (and audio track(s)) and synch it all together. Even in MCD this is a major pain if you can't use the audio synch function.
2 Scrub through all that footage and split all the footage and audio at your desired mark- and mark-out points. Delete the footage from the camera(s) that you don't want.
3 If your output is going to be discontinuous to the original footage, delete the footage and audio that is unwanted, being careful not to accidently delete wanted stuff. Hopefully, this closes all the gaps and everything is still is synch AND hopefully, PD doesn't crash in the middle of all this editing.
4 So far so good. But now imagine that you want to restore some of the footage you deleted as it's better than the a clip you actually included. Trying to get that footage back into the timeline and synched up with its audi is a nightmare scenario. I tried it before MCD came out. After 4 or 5 re-edits like this, I just gave up and said "Too hard!".
5 Re-editing with MCD makes this a breeze. You just go back into the MCD and move the ends of your "recordings around or get rid of them (this part is a bit clunky in MCD), then pres OK and everything gets synched up and the new version is there on the timeline "Hey Presto!".

6 Here's the best bit: I use the audio from my cockpit camera for "ambient" (read engine noise) sound. I use recorded audio that taps into the radio/intercom as the main audio. During the flight, the engine audio varies with climbing/descending etc and HAS to be synched to the video. So, How to get two audio streams? Like this

7 When I've finished my cuts in MCD and have included the intercom audio, that all goes back to track 1 on the timeline. Now, I select the first cut of the MCD on track 1 and copy it to track 2. I now have a duplicate MCD. I edit that MCD, but in this copy, I select the audio from Camera 3 (the cockpit camera) and then press OK. All my original cuts re-appear on track 2, but with different audio. I delete the video portions on track 2 (duplicates what's on track 1) and then with a bit of volume adjustments in the audio "room" I mix the cockpit voice (track1) and ambient sound (track2) to give a realistic effect.

Try doing all that just on the timeline!
This is how it all turns out Scott Hendry
www.scotthendry.com
YouTube username TheCscottHendry

Quote I don't see precuts as being cumbersome for the main timeline use. In fact a lot of other editors do it that way as industry standard practice going back to editing film.
But the MCD facility is light years ahead of trying to assemble a multicam production on the timeline.
Here's the work flow for that
1 Bring in all the camera footage (and audio track(s)) and synch it all together. Even in MCD this is a major pain if you can't use the audio synch function.
2 Scrub through all that footage and split all the footage and audio at your desired mark- and mark-out points. Delete the footage from the camera(s) that you don't want.
3 If your output is going to be discontinuous to the original footage, delete the footage and audio that is unwanted, being careful not to accidently delete wanted stuff. Hopefully, this closes all the gaps and everything is still is synch AND hopefully, PD doesn't crash in the middle of all this editing.
4 So far so good. But now imagine that you want to restore some of the footage you deleted as it's better than the a clip you actually included. Trying to get that footage back into the timeline and synched up with its audi is a nightmare scenario. I tried it before MCD came out. After 4 or 5 re-edits like this, I just gave up and said "Too hard!".
5 Re-editing with MCD makes this a breeze. You just go back into the MCD and move the ends of your "recordings around or get rid of them (this part is a bit clunky in MCD), then pres OK and everything gets synched up and the new version is there on the timeline "Hey Presto!".

6 Here's the best bit: I use the audio from my cockpit camera for "ambient" (read engine noise) sound. I use recorded audio that taps into the radio/intercom as the main audio. During the flight, the engine audio varies with climbing/descending etc and HAS to be synched to the video. So, How to get two audio streams? Like this

7 When I've finished my cuts in MCD and have included the intercom audio, that all goes back to track 1 on the timeline. Now, I select the first cut of the MCD on track 1 and copy it to track 2. I now have a duplicate MCD. I edit that MCD, but in this copy, I select the audio from Camera 3 (the cockpit camera) and then press OK. All my original cuts re-appear on track 2, but with different audio. I delete the video portions on track 2 (duplicates what's on track 1) and then with a bit of volume adjustments in the audio "room" I mix the cockpit voice (track1) and ambient sound (track2) to give a realistic effect.

Try doing all that just on the timeline!
This is how it all turns out

.
Yes, I fully understand the convenience of using MC and how to use it. What I don't understand is why you keep saying that preroll sections should not be available for use in MC. Preroll sections should be available for use in MC and any other place. They are just sections of video and should be available for use anywhere.

But you keep saying it's like using a hammer to drive a screw. It's not, it's using two convenient tools together. Cutting up a long video into preroll sections is convenient. Using those segments in MC editor would also be convenient. Using the preroll sections in other areas may also have conveniences, so they should be available for use everywhere.

gabo

Sorry, I'm not saying that precuts shouldn't be available to MCD, I'm saying that they seem redundant for MCD. Doing precuts for MCD adds extra editing that can just as easily be done in MCD.
But. I'm not judging, if you choose to do that. It's your time (and I assume money). Scott Hendry
www.scotthendry.com
YouTube username TheCscottHendry

I have a Christmas lights display and have a "show" that's approximately 30 minutes. In this, there are 10 songs. I use 2 cameras on a tripod and a drone to video the lights.

I'll have to replace batteries on at least the drone and 1 camera once throughout the show, so there isn't a continuous option for me (though that would've been a cool idea).

My GoPro also segments the files to keep filesize down so at the very least I'd have to render all these together to break them down to use the precut option.

Maybe there's a way to only use multicam and not using precuts, but I can't see how. At this point in time, I'm segmenting and rendering each song on each camera (a lot of time), then bringing them into multicam.


Any alternate ideas?

Quote I have a Christmas lights display and have a "show" that's approximately 30 minutes. In this, there are 10 songs. I use 2 cameras on a tripod and a drone to video the lights.

I'll have to replace batteries on at least the drone and 1 camera once throughout the show, so there isn't a continuous option for me (though that would've been a cool idea).

My GoPro also segments the files to keep filesize down so at the very least I'd have to render all these together to break them down to use the precut option.

Maybe there's a way to only use multicam and not using precuts, but I can't see how. At this point in time, I'm segmenting and rendering each song on each camera (a lot of time), then bringing them into multicam.


Any alternate ideas?

That's the way I've resorted to doing it as well. So I don't know of a better way.

You can do it with multicam in the same session, but managing it is not very easy. You have to cut all the segments from each cam, then bring them into multicam and produce. Then you have to go back to the video (probably should save that as a project first), bring in and cut up the next group of segments, use multicam and produce, etc. I find that whole process much more difficult than cutting them up and exporting them to later import into a new project, but that's just me.

If you export the individual camera in the right resolution (use the analyze function to get the right one), then the export goes really quickly and is basically just a copy of that segment out to disk.

G

Quote I have a Christmas lights display and have a "show" that's approximately 30 minutes. In this, there are 10 songs. I use 2 cameras on a tripod and a drone to video the lights.

I'll have to replace batteries on at least the drone and 1 camera once throughout the show, so there isn't a continuous option for me (though that would've been a cool idea).

My GoPro also segments the files to keep filesize down so at the very least I'd have to render all these together to break them down to use the precut option.

Maybe there's a way to only use multicam and not using precuts, but I can't see how. At this point in time, I'm segmenting and rendering each song on each camera (a lot of time), then bringing them into multicam.


Any alternate ideas?

The clips in the multicam timeline don't have to be continuous/contiguous. There can be gaps between clips where you had to change batteries. And once you've synched all the clips up, they stay like that no matter how many times you enter or exit the MC Designer.
I do about 90% of my editing in MCD. It really suits what I do and I haven't found another NLE that does it as easily as PD.