Quote: I should know this, but I don't.

I've pretty much finished my movie, but want to make a few finishing touches. There's one part, early on, where I'm wittering on to the camera about the Grand Canyon, and I thought it would a good idea to drop an appropriate image in at this point (a map).

I already have a suitable track to drop it in, which has images in it elsewhere, but what is the approved way of inserting an image into an empty space on this track without anything (in any of the tracks) getting shifted to the right?

Or do I need to create a whole new track for this 1 image?

Thanks again - sorry if its obvious, I've read a bit on the subject, but I'm a bit confused.

If you do not want anything to move, then create a separate track for the image.
A Higher numbered track will overlay the lower numbered tracks.

If you want to insert the image into the Video between other videos, Scrubber at the insert point, drag the image to the scrubber, choose Insert.

Works in PD9 and above. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Hi Angus -

Here's an illustration of what Carl's talking about http://youtu.be/ZIGqPj-fbAg

Cheers - Tony
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Quote: Hi Angus -

Here's an illustration of what Carl's talking about http://youtu.be/ZIGqPj-fbAg

Cheers - Tony

Thanks guys - I think I pretty much understand that part of it.

My confusion is when you go back to an earlier part of the timeline and try and add something into an empty space - without that causing other things to shift.

Its like if you sit next to a girl on a sofa, you don't necessarily want her to move away from you when you sit down.

I messed about with the Edit section in Preferences by ticking and unticking the first box which I think groups things.

Its weird, sometimes I can drop something into a gap and all is well, with no resulting movement, other times I discover things have been moved out of synch.

I think some editing software refers to this as effect as "ripple" and I gather you can turn it on or off.

Angus -

How about taking a screenshot of your timeline & posting it here? That way members could see what you're talking about.

Are you inserting you images in a track below the other things? i.e. in a higher numbered track? or trying to insert them in already populated tracks?

Cheers - Tony


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Quote: Angus -

re you inserting you images in a track below the other things? i.e. in a higher numbered track? or trying to insert them in already populated tracks?

I'm trying to insert into an already populated track - but in an empty space, on that track.

My feeling is I ought to be able to do that without anything moving.

That will work if there's space to insert.

I'd just use a separate track, Angus. Much simpler & the end result is the same.

Cheers - Tony
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Quote: That will work if there's space to insert.

I'd just use a separate track, Angus. Much simpler & the end result is the same.

Its just that I would rather not add tracks if I don't need to, so this tiny brain can better keep everything on screen and in mind.

I had the same thing happen last night. I thought, hey, now that I think about it, it would be nice to throw up the name of that beach on screen briefly with a title, but when I tried to copy and paste a title to the appropriate place, all the other titles (to the right) moved right by the same distance.

Surely I'm doing something wrong?

Quote: ...when I tried to copy and paste a title to the appropriate place, all the other titles (to the right) moved right by the same distance.

Surely I'm doing something wrong?

You're not doing something wrong - You're trying to do something that doesn't work. Unfortunately, it's as the others have already said on this thread: To insert new material in an otherwise finished video, without items in a track moving right, you have to make a new track for the item. I understand your frustration, because I have it to. I can end up with so many tracks that are hard to keep track of and see clearly on the screen.

I know that other video editing software offers an over ride for this issue. Clicking Ctrl while inserting will prevent other items from moving right. But PD9 doesn't have that.

Here's an alternate method that I often do to avoid the one million track syndrome. Using your example of a title you've copied - Paste it out past the end of your project, then drag it into the place where you want. It's a hassle, calling for multiple grabs, re-zooming etc - But it works.

rbowser

Quote: Here's an alternate method that I often do to avoid the one million track syndrome. Using your example of a title you've copied - Paste it out past the end of your project, then drag it into the place where you want. It's a hassle, calling for multiple grabs, re-zooming etc - But it works.

Thanks rbowser, for clarifying that. It seems a bit weird, and a bit less 'non-lineaer' than I'd like.

I will definitely try your workaround - Maybe I can also get something working by grouping the entire project and then dropping it in.....

My friend, Caroline, just suggested, that maybe I could create a new track, put the material on that and then drag it on to the existing track - and finally delete the newly created track....

Hmmmm... probably all seems a bit daft to "new track" advocates.

Quote:

Quote: Here's an alternate method that I often do to avoid the one million track syndrome. Using your example of a title you've copied - Paste it out past the end of your project, then drag it into the place where you want. It's a hassle, calling for multiple grabs, re-zooming etc - But it works.

Thanks rbowser, for clarifying that. It seems a bit weird, and a bit less 'non-lineaer' than I'd like.

I will definitely try your workaround - Maybe I can also get something working by grouping the entire project and then dropping it in.....

My friend, Caroline, just suggested, that maybe I could create a new track, put the material on that and then drag it on to the existing track - and finally delete the newly created track....

Hmmmm... probably all seems a bit daft to "new track" advocates.

Hello again, Angus

Wanting PD to be more non-linear is the key problem for people trying to put together projects that are more complex than the average user's projects. With PD, home movies can be quickly put together with great looking results. Very little fussing, and with a lot of things automatically just happening for the user. But if someone wants/needs to do a lot of tricky edits involving hundreds of clips, split second timing, and with complicated, precise control, PD can present obstacles.

I haven't upgraded past PD9 because of my lack of love for the program. It's hard for me to imagine the newest version would really be all that more usable for me. But it does look like there are some advances that were, to me, glaring omissions in PD9: Markers in the time line, and working with key frames directly in the preview screen. Lack of markers drives me nuts. I'm constantly needing to drag clips to a frame-accurate spot in the timeline, but the cursor doesn't stay put when you grab a clip, the way it does in a sound recording program such as Sonar. Getting the clip in position is a trial and error proposition that's far too fiddly. And using the "PiP Designer" for animating the movement is an awful exercise in frustration to me with its non-expandable screen, and non-intuitive, clunky tools for working with key frames. In brand X software I used to use, automating the movement of a clip, for instance a dot to block out someone's face as they move around in a scene, was relatively easy. In the preview window you just clicked to add nodes wherever needed. Very straight forward. I think PD11 has that capability now.

But - back to your topic. What your friend suggested would work as long as no copying and pasting of existing clips is involved. Pastes can only go to the track the original came from. That's why I sometimes C&P way at the end of a project and then drag it to wherever I need in a project, at any point, on any track - as I described before.

Adding a new track really is still the easiest thing to do, but I agree it gets to be a hassle when you have to scroll vertically very much to see things. You can right click and choose Adjust Track Height>Small to instantly re-size all tracks to the smallest size available, and then drag the border of the tracks pane up so you can see them all - but of course by then, things are too small to work with and edit. Still, that's part of my work flow, to re-size, just so I can see again where some clips are.

Here's exactly what I did on my last project when I had a list of new things I wanted to insert without effecting any existing clips:

--As always, I constantly checked and unchecked the "link all tracks" option which is in Options (gear icon)>Editing>first option box. That's what you referred to on this thread. It turns Ripple editing on and off. There are often times when you Do want to insert something new and have everything shift to accommodate the addition. But there are also plenty of times when you don't want things to shift. So, when I'm putting together a project, part of my work flow is constantly change the status of that Ripple effect.

--When "link all tracks" is off, only the track you're working on is effected. If you try to insert a clip larger than is available, then you'll have the option to Insert or Overwrite. The former will shift the existing clips to the right, the latter will leave clips where they are but partially overwrite what exists - logically enough.

--It's copying and pasting where you get in trouble. Your example of wanting to insert more Titles is good, because the easiest way to have all the Titles have the same design and with the same font is simply to C&P and then edit the text. SO:

--In my last project, after I had version 1 of the edit finished, I went back through and saw more places where I needed to insert titles. I created one new track. I copied one of the original titles, pasted at the end of the project. I dragged that to the new track, then dragged it left to where I wanted it. At that point, I copied the new copy and could paste in that new track. I could add all the titles I wanted without anything shifting as long as I kept working linearly. Working in a linear fashion, always moving right - that's not the problem. But I knew what I wanted to insert into the project at that point, so was able to do all these new insertions on that one additional track. I didn't need to insert multiple tracks to get accomplished what I needed.

--I left that one new track in. But, I could have done what you mentioned on this thread. I could have lassoed all the titles in that new track, selecting them, and then dragged them into the previous title track

--Note that Titles can be on any video track, not just the one predesignated as the Title track.

If PD11 has a way to instantly and easily go into non-linear editing mode like other programs, via a Ctrl or Alt key shift, so that the user can insert and paste anywhere without effecting any existing clips - then I might be tempted to upgrade. Being able to paste on any designated track, rather than only the original one, would be another very helpful bonus upgrade.

rbowser

Quote: --I left that one new track in. But, I could have done what you mentioned on this thread. I could have lassoed all the titles in that new track, selecting them, and then dragged them into the previous title track

Much appreciate the post rbowser. Its great to have a better understanding of what is possible in the program.

I had a very constructive 2 hour session on PD 9 last night, using the copy to the end of the track, then paste on to a temporary new track then back again to the original track approach - or the Hobbit method, as I call it (There and Back Again).

Also, to sort out a problem early on, I grouped together about 45 minutes of subseqent material and dragged it a few seconds to the right, so I could then extend the offending footage - which seems to have sorted it out.

I've also been using a procession of asterisks in the Title track to trace our route out over an image of a map. Because I was a bit out of my depth when I applied those, they just vanished as the map fades into the next scene - but I've been right through those applying a fade to each asterisk, and I'm feeling pretty good about the result.

....until I spot the next glaring error. l

Thanks again - (y'all)

I'm using PD9 for making music videos and this "linear" editing thing is a nightmare! I'm moving different camera shots and clips all over the place whilst still trying to keep the pre-recorded audio track in sync; and this program makes the whole thing so time-consuming. For what I'm doing, I never want any of the clips I've placed to move as they are positioned in sync with the audio.

I too discovered that the only way I could insert a clip without everything else moving, is to put it right at the end, then move it into position. Deleting or changing the length of clips brings on the same problem. It even happens when I insert or remove transitions.

It's hard enough to get the audio in sync in the first place. The visual wave form doesn't move when you zoom in and move a track by a very small amount like a few milliseconds. So its impossible to see whether you've moved it by the correct amount without playing it back. Then you have to play it right from the beginning of the film anyway, because playing it from anywhere else puts the audio out of sync again.

Maybe I'm just asking too much. I'll have to save up for a professional program

Quote: ...It's hard enough to get the audio in sync in the first place. The visual wave form doesn't move when you zoom in and move a track by a very small amount like a few milliseconds. So its impossible to see whether you've moved it by the correct amount without playing it back. Then you have to play it right from the beginning of the film anyway, because playing it from anywhere else puts the audio out of sync again.

Maybe I'm just asking too much. I'll have to save up for a professional program

I feel your pain, Lynnmonk. You're a user, like me, who is needing to do edits more complex than what the program was designed for. To force the program to do these edits we want, we have to come up with all these work-arounds which are are a PITA. Other programs have a simple way to over ride all ripple editing effects - just clicking Ctrl while working with a clip will isolate it so that your work on the clip doesn't effect anything else in the program.

And what you say about the audio wave form not displaying properly when you zoom is absolutely right. That's such a bad problem, it really seems like a bug to me. I often need frame-perfect sync between an audio track and the clips I'm working with. It's extremely time consuming to get things lined up right.

BUT - this may be something you haven't discovered. When you've zoomed in, and you can see the wave form hasn't updated, if you put your cursor in the time line and move it right and left, back to the tight zoom you want, you'll see that then the wave form Does get updated, and you can see where you are.

ALSO - I don't know why you're having to play from the start of the film to test things after you've moved a clip. I don't have to do that. After being zoomed in as closely as PD allows, and making an adjustment in a clip's placement, I zoom a bit out again, choose a spot a few seconds before the edit, hit Play, and everything's in sync, playing back properly. If it were otherwise, and I had to start from the top again - I'd have to totally give up, because I'm working with video files that are 1 and 2 hours long!

Here's a problem happening for me that you didn't mention - The wave form for the original audio on a video never, Never displays accurately. The display is a split second too far to the right, late. That means that the spikes in the sound track I can hear are never in sync with the visual display. The swoop up in the wave form that's displaying that spike in volume is just to the right - So I'm always having to guess at where the precise spot is where I may need to split the clip, or where I need to move a clip on another track to sync up to that spike mark.

However - and this is so inconsistent that I can't make any sense of it: When I import audio, the wave forms DO display perfectly accurately. So, imported tracks are easier to work with, while the display of original video audio is off. -- ?

And so forth. I think you're right, that to do the kind of work we're talking about, we would need to spend a Lot more money on a more professional program - like the #1 pro video program we all know the name of, but which we don't spell out here since it's a Cyberlink competitor.

rbowser

Quote: Its weird, sometimes I can drop something into a gap and all is well, with no resulting movement, other times I discover things have been moved out of synch.

Its like if you sit next to a girl on a sofa, you don't necessarily want her to move away from you when you sit down.

Just to clarify, and partly so when I bump into this problem in 6 months time, I'll know what's going on - On my system the shift to the right occurs with still images, or titles, but apparently not when dropping a piece of video into an already populated track.

It is stryyyyyange!

Hi Angus and rbowser at al,

Just in case you’re unaware, regarding these shifting and editing issues in PD9 that you’ve been discussing. Most if not all of them have been corrected, addressed, and resolved in PD11’s new right click menu and command pop-ups, that now appear in PD11’s new interface.





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