Adding and Saving New Background Images

Richard9909

Newbie Joined: Nov 12, 2011 08:19 Messages: 26 Offline

Solved by

Mar 05, 2020 10:55

I am an infrequent user of PD who recently upgraded to PD 18 Ultra Version 18.0.2405.0 SN VDE191105-01. My questions are so basic that they don't seem to appear in the help files.

I downloaded a nice image to use as a background image in a slideshow. With PD 18 open in "Media Room" I went to "Background Images" where I see the stock images that came with the software. I right-clicked and selected "Import media files..." I selected the image I just downloaded in the "Downloads" folder on my PC and that image appeared in PD 18. It appeared in the "Media Content" area, not the "Background Images" area but I found it. I then added the image to my timeline and did some editing of the new image. When asked, I chose "Save as" and supposedly saved my edited background image. I then closed PD 18 and re-opened it. Neither the original background image nor the edited background image seems to appear anywhere in any section of the "Media Room."

This raises a couple of questions.

1. If I successfully import an image into the "Media Content" area of "Media Room" how can I move that image into the "Background Images" area?
2. If I do get an image in either the "Media Content" or "Background Images" area, shouldn't they reappear after I've closed and then reopened the program?
3. Where should I look for the edited background image I saved?

Thanks in advance. Point me toward a tutorial or section of the Help manual if appropriate.

Warry

Senior Contributor Location: The Netherlands Joined: Oct 13, 2014 11:42 Messages: 853 Offline

Mar 05, 2020 17:13

Before getting into the questions: the Media Content Area is an area that PD maintains for all media files that you may want to work with in your project. It is your working area from which you add media into the time line to build and edit and produce a video.
The other media types that can be selected from the drop down menu are all media (files) that PD makes additionally available for building your video project. I have to admit that this at first can be very confusing, because they all appear in the same area on screen.
The Media Room is a working area specific to your project. Hence when you save a project all media in this working area is saved as part of the project. Thus also when you open a project the complete working area is reinstated too. A new project will come with an empty workspace (=media content area).
The other media from the dropdown menu always stays the same: background images, color boards, etc.
Your questions:

If you permanently want to add a background image (available to all your projects), click on the background images in the dropdown menu and right click on any of the images and select from the menu: Open File Location. This will reveal where PD stores these images. You can add your image into this folder, and it will reappear next time when you select back ground images. Note also that the images may vary per video format and that they are kept in different folders (which becomes apparent from the folder name). Mind you: this only applies to the back ground images. And it applies to the sample clips (which have their own folder) that can automatically be added to the Media Content Area that will appear when you tick the box in preferences.

From the above it becomes clear that reopening the program or making a new project, will have impact on the media content, but not on the back ground images collection. Your additional image will be there where you have put it; provided you are using the same video format.

In the folder used in 1) 😊

O, and notice that the folder structure is for PD 18, so any new version may come with a new folder structure. It would make sense to save to old folder before you upgrade!
Have fun!

Richard9909

Newbie Joined: Nov 12, 2011 08:19 Messages: 26 Offline

Mar 05, 2020 17:28

Many, many thanks, Warry. You gave me enough of the logic behind the Media Room to understand your three answers. I'll experiment a bit with saving a special background but it seems that you've pointed me in the right direction.

Thanks!