I think you need to watch the video tutorials.

These should be viewed first
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/3523.page

and then:
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/7782.page

Look up Aspect Ratio, Slideshow PiP Designer and Magic Motion. actually watch them all.

Dafydd
[Moderator]

Quote: I think you need to watch the video tutorials.

These should be viewed first
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/3523.page

and then:
http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/7782.page

Look up Aspect Ratio, Slideshow PiP Designer and Magic Motion. actually watch them all.

Dafydd
[Moderator]

Thanks. I watched Aspect Ratio, Slideshow PiP Designer and Magic Motion tutorials. But none of them mentioned an option for changing the background color of the "letterbox" from black to other colors...

I guess there should be an easy way to change the background color? But how?

Put a color board in the timeline, stretch to the length of your video and place your video in one of the PiP tracks, easy isn't it

Robert Intel i7 930, 16GB ram, Radeon HD 5770 1Gb,Ver. 14.12 Win7 64 bit
Intel i7 7700 HQ, 16 GB ram Nvidia GTX 1050Ti 4GB dual drives 1 TB SSD + 1 TB HDD Win 10

PDtoots

Quote: Put a color board in the timeline, stretch to the length of your video and place your video in one of the PiP tracks, easy isn't it

Robert

That solves my problem. Thanks!

But it's like a workaround more than a setting.. The master video track is occupied by a white board and the videos/photos has to be put on PiP tracks.. Now I have to redo all videos/photos in Master Video Track and have them inserted in PiP Track. Too bad they can't be dragged directly from Master Video Track to PiP Track.. or is there a simple way to do it?

Just to make it easy for you to find the color boards as I could not find proper instructions in the help file.

1. Click on the button "All Content" and it is in the drop down menu.

Cheers

Robert S My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn

or - alternatively - right-click on the clip and change it to 16:9. Then you won't need a background!

That's all explained in the aspect ratio video tutorial.

Cheers - Tony
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Quote: or - alternatively - right-click on the clip and change it to 16:9. Then you won't need a background!

That's all explained in the aspect ratio video tutorial.

Cheers - Tony

I guess that would stretch the videos.. just like watching 4:3 TV programs on a flat TV in "wide mode". No that's not what I want to see for all my videos/photos.. But thanks for your input.

Quote: Just to make it easy for you to find the color boards as I could not find proper instructions in the help file.

1. Click on the button "All Content" and it is in the drop down menu.

Cheers

Robert S

Oh there are color boards in PD8.

I made a white 16:9 rectangle with photoshop and have it placed in master video track and all videos/photos in PiP tracks, just like what RobertJ/OZ suggested. It actually sounds a bit odd. But it works.

The downside is that I have to re-edit all my photos/videos because I can't simply drag them from master track to PiP tracks.

So what's the point of having Master VIDEO Track? Why not make all "PiP track"? At least they can drag back and forth from other PiP tracks. Or should it be renamed Master Background Track?

Don't get me wrong. I like PD8. It's relatively easy to use. I didn't spend much time on reading/watching many tutorials before geting myself started as most of the features are quite intuitive and easy to use. I'm a totally newbie to video editing stuff. I also downloaded Sony Vegas trial. Wow! I did't know where to start with!

Oh I just found that after I put a video in PiP tracks. All effects are lost. It's because the effect track is located above all PiP tracks.. sigh.

And also, no transition effects are possible on the videos/photos.. Guess I have to give up the idea of using PiP as video track. Just let the black margins stay there...

Hi again excited.ferd -

To be honest, it sounds like you're trying to too many things at once. Try to remember that dear friend of Marcus Aurelius who said, "I do one thing. I do it well. Then I move on."

Just a couple of ideas because you appear to be not understanding what others are saying to you...

1. You don't need to make plain backgrounds in Photoshop. That what Robert and Robert were saying. Just use Color Boards.
2. The only transition you can have in the PIP tracks is to fade in & out. Use the main video track for other things (also - put your name on this list http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/9387.page
3. You don't need to even put a coloured background on your 4:3 clip. You simply have to change it to 16:9.

Let us know if you have trouble doing those things.

Cheers - Tony
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Quote: Hi again excited.ferd -

To be honest, it sounds like you're trying to too many things at once. Try to remember that dear friend of Marcus Aurelius who said, "I do one thing. I do it well. Then I move on."

Just a couple of ideas because you appear to be not understanding what others are saying to you...

1. You don't need to make plain backgrounds in Photoshop. That what Robert and Robert were saying. Just use Color Boards.

I made the white board in Photoshop *before* Robert told me PD8 has such thing. ; Of course now I know there exists such thing inside the pull down menu "All Contents".

2. The only transition you can have in the PIP tracks is to fade in & out. Use the main video track for other things (also - put your name on this list http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/9387.page

Thanks. Added in the thread.

3. You don't need to even put a coloured background on your 4:3 clip. You simply have to change it to 16:9.

Like what I said in my previous reply. I don't want to see my clips being stretched to be fitted into 16:9 frame... Everything will look short and wide!

Let us know if you have trouble doing those things.

Cheers - Tony

Thanks for your reply.

Excited Fred,

I think you are getting over excited and can't see the wood through the trees, now think logically about what you are trying to achieve. You want to create a video with images, video and effects all in 4:3 ratio, then you want to view said masterpiece in 16:9 but without black bars.

As you say, you cannot create your video from within the PiP track, SO, create your masterpiece in the timeline as normal, then PRODUCE the video in the format you want, start a new project and import the PRODUCED video. Then place your colorboard in the timeline, your produced video in one of the PiP tracks and you are ready to complete your project, there you are, Bob's your uncle and Fanny's your aunt.

Robert Intel i7 930, 16GB ram, Radeon HD 5770 1Gb,Ver. 14.12 Win7 64 bit
Intel i7 7700 HQ, 16 GB ram Nvidia GTX 1050Ti 4GB dual drives 1 TB SSD + 1 TB HDD Win 10

PDtoots

Just another point, what the hell are we doing asking and answering questions on Christmas Day, don't we have better things to do.

Merry Christmas everybody

Robert Intel i7 930, 16GB ram, Radeon HD 5770 1Gb,Ver. 14.12 Win7 64 bit
Intel i7 7700 HQ, 16 GB ram Nvidia GTX 1050Ti 4GB dual drives 1 TB SSD + 1 TB HDD Win 10

PDtoots

Quote: Just another point, what the **** are we doing asking and answering questions on Christmas Day, don't we have better things to do.

Merry Christmas everybody

Robert

haha

Merry Christmas guys!

Quote: Excited Fred,

I think you are getting over excited and can't see the wood through the trees, now think logically about what you are trying to achieve. You want to create a video with images, video and effects all in 4:3 ratio, then you want to view said masterpiece in 16:9 but without black bars.

As you say, you cannot create your video from within the PiP track, SO, create your masterpiece in the timeline as normal, then PRODUCE the video in the format you want, start a new project and import the PRODUCED video. Then place your colorboard in the timeline, your produced video in one of the PiP tracks and you are ready to complete your project, there you are, Bob's your uncle and Fanny's your aunt.

Robert

That's another clever workaround too. Thanks.

That's a LOT of work to do. Will the video quality be degraded after this Produce->Import process? I never tried as I'm running out of time...

p.s. it's funny that threads in this forum are not sorted by the time of last reply.. at least not by default.

Quote: Put a color board in the timeline, stretch to the length of your video and place your video in one of the PiP tracks, easy isn't it

Robert

I have the same query but with images. If I move the images down to the pip track and put a color board in the video line I lose the ability to use transition effects.

Any way to change the backbround color to white?

Thanks,

Justin

There is no way to change the default background to anything other than black.

If it is worthwhile, I would suggest using a plain custom mask to "overlay" the default black areas - in effect the images would be in a (white?) frame.

Making a custom mask is not too difficult and it can be kept as a .png file to be imported whenever you need it or it can be incorporated into the PD mask "library".

Part 1 of these tutorials show how to make a complex custom mask as part of a more advanced technique but you will be able to see the principle :-

http://seemyworldonvideo.com/view/813/tutorial-advanced-colour-popping-part-1/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LWc_x1fVQ8

Cheers
Adrian Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. (see below)
Confucius
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