Hi Rich,

I would suggest that a simple solution (if you indeed just want a photo to display in place of the video, while the audio from the video clip continues), is to...
- Just place your photo in PIP track #1 at the desired position where you want it to start to display > click Modify > extend the photo's borders so it completely covers the video clip > set the duration that you want the photo to display.

If the photo you wish to use is not a perfect 4:3 or 16:9 image, and is for instance narrow and tall, then the background video will still show through on the sides. If this is the case...
- I would put a black (or any color) Color Board in PIP track #1 > click Modify > extend the color board’s borders so it completely covers the video clip.
- Then place the photo in PIP track #2 > click Modify > Extend the borders of the photo to set the size of the photo that is now framed by the color board.
[Remember, you can un-check the little Keep Aspect Ratio (or Ration, hahaha) box, to change a PIP to any size/shape]

Using this method, the video (with it’s audio) will keep playing underneath the PIPs for the duration you set for the PIPs. You can also apply a fade in/out to the PIPs.
If you are not familiar with using the PIP tracks, here's a link to an overview video tutorial of PIPs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhzNu168S1g
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Rich -

My only suggestion to you is to do what Cranston says. He knows his stuff. Though it might seem a bit complex at first, after the first go you'll save mountains of time... especially if you're going to a similar thing throughout the doco.

When you watch the tutorial, you'll see that you can add a number of PIP tracks.

Here's an example of what you can do with them...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NsWa7BIUPI

Cheers -

Tony
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Thanks! I'll give that a try when I get a chance in a couple of hours.

One question beforehand, though... it's important that I'm able to apply user-defined magic motion effects so that I can pan photos in the way popularized by Ken Burns.

I know I can do this using the Master Video Track. Can I do this using a PiP track?

Thank you again.

-- Rich

Hi Rich -

Yes - easy enough to do... and you have a fair bit of flexibility about how you do it too.

The background image(s) can be still or animated, masked or unmasked... lots of options.

I made a little demo to show you what Cranston was talking about. The PIP track was produced from a set of images, made into a motion slidshow, then produced as a separate project. Then it was added to the PIP track, masked & faded in and out. After the titles were added, it was a done deal.

The little guy in the video is my beautiful grandson, Hugh. If you want, you can check it out at...

http://seemyworldonvideo.com/view/535/grandson-pipped/

If I can do it, anyone can!

Cheers -

Tony
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Tony --

Egads! What a cute kid!

You did that just for me? May you be blessed many times over.

Since my last post, I played around with panning photos (per the youtube video Cranston suggested), and it works, but I'm not sure it's any easier than the way I had been doing it. And the "fade in" and "fade out" check boxes don't give you any flexibility (that I can find, anyway) as to how quickly things fade in and out. A great learning tutorial, however.

But now I see the light, through your suggestion: you're saying to produce my photos as a separate project, then drop this finished project (with pans, etc.) into the PIP track of my final project. Do I understand this correctly?

Spins and rotations aren't important to me... what's important is having the pan and zoom be the proper time-length, and being able to adjust the time it takes to fade in and fade out. Can I adjust the time it takes to fade-in and fade-out doing it this way?

I'll play around with it some more.

Thanks again!

-- Rich

Thanks Rich -

Yes - he is a gorgeous kid.

You understand it absolutely correctly. I always make each little bit separately and then put it together at the end.

One of the threads recently started is about workflow... http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/6731.page - and I know Dafydd's Project Designing tutorial gives loads of ideas. Might be worth a look.

You're right about the fading in and out. In the PIP track, I don't know of any way to vary the fade speed, even though that can be done in the title track easily.

Thank you for the blessing - I need all the help I can get!

Cheers -

Tony
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Hi Rich & Tony (the blessed),

There is a bit of a workaround I came up with where one can adjust the fade in/out duration of a PIP. However this workaround will only “shorten” the duration of a fade, it will not allow you to “lengthen” the duration. It’s not a perfect solution, but in a pinch, it can be quite useful. Anyway, it goes a little something like this...

[Note: As we know, by default, the overall length of a clip or image placed in a PIP is a major determining factor in just what the duration of the “preset” fade in/out will be. (e,g. If the clip/image’s duration is 50 seconds, the fade in & outs will be longer in duration than if the clip/image’s overall duration is 10 seconds). But one can, with some experimentation, shorten the fade durations of the 50 second clip by doing the following.]

- Place (for instance), a video clip or image that is 50 seconds long, into a PIP track. (the clip will display as a highlighted 50 seconds segment in the PIP track)

- Move the slider/pointer to say... the 5 seconds mark of the clip. (first 10% of the segment)

- Click on the “Split” tab (you will now see a red line where the “split” has been created.)

- Click on the 5 seconds segment to highlight it.

- Click on Modify to open PIP Designer > Click on Add/Edit Motion tab.

- Place check mark in the Fade In box.

Since the segment that the pre-set Fade In is applied to is now only 5 seconds long, the duration of the fade in will be shorter than if you were applying the pre-set Fade In to the whole 50 seconds clip.
However, “Spliting” at the 5 seconds mark (10% of the 50 seconds clip), may result in the Fade In being too short for your liking. A 10 seconds “Split” may work better for you and your tastes. That is why I mentioned above that this workaround requires some experimentation to achieve the perfect shortening of the pre-set fade in/out durations for any given clip/image that one places in a PIP track.
This will also work with a clip that is only say... 10 seconds long. Just extend the timeline by dragging it left, and set the “Split” point at 1 or 2 seconds. Again, experiment.

In text form, this may appear to be an arduous procedure, but after just one try, you’ll find it’s a breeze to do.

By the way Rich, heed Tony’s sage advise, and always think in terms of.... What can I do in separate “pre-production” phases, that will make my final editing/production phase easier and more successful.
In my humble opinion, “pre-production” is the key to a more organized work flow, and superior results. As opposed to just throwing everything into the library, and trying to make everything that you can envision, happen in one pass. Plus, employing “pre-production”, and applying these pre-produced elements to your final editing process, will usually lead to fewer PD7 crashes & freezes, and lost projects. And please remember to use “Save As” (not “Save”), to frequently create consecutively numbered .pds files. [e.g. Bill’sParty-1, Bill’sParty-2, Bill’sParty-3, etc], so if (no, let me change the “if” to “when”), you do have a crash, you will be able to go to a previously saved .pds, and resume from there. Because if you just use “save”, you are putting all your eggs in one basket. And if something happens to that basket, you lose all your eggs, and Tony doesn’t get his omelet.

Happy Editing!
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Okay. Next issue.

I'm building an opening photo montage for this documentary. I have a black colorboard in the Master Video track, for a duration of two minutes and 44 seconds. There is a song in the music track for a duration of 2:38 (leaving three seconds of silence at the beginning and end).

I'm using two PiP tracks. One is for the left half of the screen, the other is for the right. Photo 1 will fade up on the left side of the screen four seconds into the song, and remain there for eight seconds, fading out at the end. Photo 2 will fade up on the right side of the screen halfway through Photo 1's tenure, meaning they're together on the screen for four seconds. After Photo 1 fades out, Photo 3 immediately fades up on the left side of the screen, and it last eight seconds -- the first four seconds of which are the LAST four seconds of Photo 2's tenure? This continues for the duration of the song -- about 80 photos.

(Am I making this any clearer than winter fog on the nearby Oregon Coast?)

So here's the problem: I want these photos to be timed to the music... and after about six of them, they suddenly stop fading up when they're supposed to. The pictures begin falling behind -- they don't appear on the screen as the timeline indicates they should. They're late.

I'm heeding Cranston and Tony's advice to build this two-hour documentary in chunks -- but I shouldn't have to do that with a simple two-and-a-half-minute music video, should I? I thought of organizing the photos into groups of six or seven, producing them and then dropping them all in group after group, but that would make it much more challenging to time them to the music.

FYI, I'm using 7.00.2206. Also FYI, there are no pans or zooms in any of the photos -- just fade-ins and fade-outs.

Any thoughts on why my misbehaving photos won't fade up when they're told?

Thanks!

-- Rich

FYI, I just tried creating it to disc, and the photos on the produced DVD DO come up at the right time. Still, though, I'd like it to work in the edit view, so I can properly nudge the timing of the photos a millisecond here or there for the timing of the music.

Thanks again!

-- Rich

Rich -

Just a quick question... under your preview screen there's a rectanglular icon, where you can change the view quality. What's it set to? Running it on high might have an impact, depending on your system.
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There's another possibility...

Why no make a cell template slide show for the montage... you can set it (under advanced) to only show a certain number of images. You can also sync it with the music. That might work for you.
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Hello Rich,

I think Tony got it right. Setting your preview to "low" resolution, will lessen the load, (if you will), on your computer, and go a long way to reduce freezes, skips and delays in your preview.
I know it certainly helps for me, as my laptop just meets the recommended specs for running PD7.
And then after you get the timing right, for critical color correction, sharpening, etc., you just switch back to "high" resolution.

However, there is one possible trick you could try if your rigs processor still can't quite keep up.

Right now you've got your images stacked in 2 PIPs, and overlapping like a brick wall, right? And the images in PIP #1 are on the right, and images in PIP #2 on the left (or vise versa).
Well how about doing a "save as" of where your project is now (better yet do 2), and then...

- remove all the images in the lower PIP.

- playback and double check that the PIPs in #1 sync to the music just like you want them to.

- produce this to Mpeg 2 (or whatever format you choose), and archive.

- open new project, and load the Mpeg2 to a PIP #1 (or Master track).

- load your (left side) images to PIP #2

[Edit: I meant to write... Open your main project (with the 2 PIPs loaded) and replace images in PIP #1 with the Mpeg2]

Now you can fine tune the placement and timing of the left side images in PIP #2, as the Mpeg2 plays above. This way your computer isn't processing all those image changes and fades in & out that it was doing for the right side images (in addition to also processing the same for the left side ones), its just playing back the Mpeg2, and now just having to deal with all those image changes and fades in only one PIP.

Not a great workaround, but if one's computer isn't the biggest beast on the block, one does what one has to do.
Or, you can continue on the course your on, and just produce drafts from time to time, to view your progress in say Media Player. Then go back to PD7 and make the needed adjustments.

Now, If you respond back with the fact that you are using an 8 core rig with an i7 processor, and 8 million gigs of RAM...
Then please ignore this post, hahaha.
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Wow. You guys have been great. Again.

I'm confident one of those two things will work.

I really appreciate the help!

-- Rich

(P.S. Cranston, you described it perfectly when you said they were stacked like a brick wall. That's exactly the point I was trying to get across.)