How To Loop An Animated Clip In Media Composer

What follows in this commodity is not a argue of Gorging vs. Terminal Cut Pro or a conversion document that says you lot should motility from Final Cut Pro to Avid Media Composer, merely rather a footstep-by-pace guide for anyone new to Avid (or curious almost the software in general) to launch the software and perform a few basic functions. It volition exist geared more toward the FCP editor, simply a lot of the bones functionality is the aforementioned in many non-linear editors. I won't compare and dissimilarity various Avid and FCP features every bit that'south not the focus of the commodity though I will point out the Avid equivalent of a number of FCP tools. And if you've never edited with a NLE application before then consider this primer a mode to get your feet wet in Gorging Media Composer 3.5.

The trial version of Avid Media Composer is costless with "total functionality for 14 days following installation" and includes electronic documentation and then a lot can be learned about the software if you lot have the time to spare. I think the most important thing for a Final Cut Pro editor trying out Media Composer for the commencement time is to throw away whatever preconceptions that yous may have heard or read about how Media Composer differs from FCP and realize that every bit a tool it is really … no better or no worse. They are different applications that practice some very basic things in very unlike ways. With that in mind I hope this tour through some of those very basic functions volition be a skillful introduction to Avid Media Composer.

No Dongle = Yep to Trial Version

With the release of Avid Media Composer 3.5 Avid began a path to eliminate copy protection via the hardware dongle that has been a slice of Gorging civilisation for years. While much maligned over the life of the product the dongle still has its fans. But one affair that the elimination of the dongle has done is allow Gorging, for the outset time, to offering a demo version of Media Composer Software. Yous can now download a fully performance fourteen solar day trial version. The debate is open as to the xiv day length of the trial but information technology'due south apparently due to licensing of sure codecs or software used within MC Soft that sets the limit to 14 days.

Of course the first step is to download and install the software. 3.five is available for both Macs and PCs (this article focuses on Macs with Macintosh primal commands) though information technology is only Intel uniform so older G5 and G4 PowerPC users demand not utilise. It won't permit yous install information technology at all … I know every bit I tried. You take to fill out a form and Avid will electronic mail you a download link so exist sure and check your spam folder if yous don't encounter the return email.

Lay of the Land

First launch Media Composer with from the icon in the dock or double click the icon in the Applications folders. Once launched y'all be greeted with the Select Project window:

A bare Select Project window that shows upon launch

Unlike Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere y'all tin only take one Gorging project open at a time, though y'all tin can open bins and edit sequences from other projects into your currently open project via the File > Open Bin bill of fare control. The Select Project window allows the editor to choose two principal things: the project and the User Profile. Avid collects all the user settings into a single folder (Hd > Users > Shared > AvidMediaComposer > Avid Users) that is movable from machine to auto. These user settings include things like custom keyboard layouts, saved Bin View columns, timeline customizations and saved export presets among other things. FCP has many of these same customizations but they are individually saved in unlike folders. The Select a Project pane is where you choose a projection. If you lot are starting a new project then the Select Projection window is too where yous create a new projection. Clicking the New Projet button y'all will select the name and format of the edit. This setup could somewhat be compared to the Sequence Presets in FCP.

If this is your first fourth dimension in MC Soft click the pop-up menu next to User Profile and choose Create User Contour. Give your profile a name as you have to have a User Profile in guild to launch a new project. Yous now have to create that project. Click the New Projection push button, give it a name and cull the type of project:

The New Projection setup box

You take the pick of all standard resolutions and frame rates. You likewise accept to choose the Raster Dimension. Since MC natively supports formats like DVCPRO HD, XDCAM and HDV they support the odd raster size that some of the formats utilize like 1440×1080 for HD instead of the standard 1920×1080. Native support ways less rendering and less processing ability required for playback.

For the purposes of this commodity I'grand going to use 720 59.94 every bit my format of option and so this is the format I volition cull under the New Projection setting. Upon cosmos of the project y'all volition be greeted with a blank Composer window (call up FCP's Viewer and Canvas in one window), an empty Timeline window, a unmarried empty bin and the Project window. The Projection window is where all of your bins reside and they can be seen in the Bins tab:

A newly created Avid project

There are other tabs across the top so feel free to click through and accept a look at the tabs. They are for information like the project format, Usage that keeps a running tab of how long the projection has been in employ, Info for hardware and memory allocations, and a purple icon that is the furnishings tab. The furnishings tab houses all the different effects and transitions. They are cleaved downwards past grade on the left with the different furnishings within a grade on the right. Of special note is the Settings tab. Settings is Avid's preferences menu. In fact if you admission the Avid Media Composer > Preferences carte information technology takes you to the settings tab. There are way too many settings here to go over in this article just let'due south look at a couple of them specifically.

With the Settings tab select in the Project window scroll down to the Media Creation setting and double click it. This setting is where you tell Avid how you want it to handle media creation from things like importing and digitizing to title creation and rendering:

Media Creation preference

It's similar to setting the Capture Scratch binder in FCP though you are setting more than just where media will reside. The easiest way to set your Media Creation settings is to select a tab like Import and choose both your desired video resolution and your Video Drive. You may see options for dissimilar resolutions like DNxHD where you will accept the option of setting different bit rates similar DNxHD 145 under Video Resolution. Next choose your designated fast media drive as your Video Drive. If you only have one fast RAID and then select that drive and choose Employ to All as this volition select that media bulldoze for all media created such every bit renders, imports, move effects etc. You tin can also cull to send audio and video to separate bulldoze by clicking the arrow if then desired. One time you've set Media Creation choose OK to save those settings.

The second setting to check is Keyboard. Double click Keyboard and a default Avid keyboard layout will announced:

A default Avid keyboard layout

It's important for an editor coming from FCP to sympathise this layout and how Avid thinks nearly its keyboard. Unlike FCP, the Avid keyboard doesn't effort to arrive piece of cake to think keys like Southward for Slip or D for Distort just rather it places the keys in a more frequently used type of positioning (read the Keyboard Manifesto for more about this topic). If you lot hover your arrow over the keys a pop-up will appear to testify what each key does. When you hit the SHIFT cardinal you will see the keyboard alter to testify what keys are mapped to a shift+keystroke. At that place's non many shift keys by default so they are waiting to be mapped. Also, all of the F-keys are blank so they are an open up pallette to mapping your nearly oft used commands like Match Frame, Add Edit, and Segment Fashion (more on that later) to name a few.

Next choose Tools > Command Palette (or command+3). This is a listing of all the push commands in Avid:

The Command Palette lists all Avid button in one palette

Tabs across the Command Palette represent all the various categories for different Gorging commands. You can use this palette to map keys to the keyboard. With 'Push button to Push' Reassignment selected you lot tin click and drag a command from the Command Palette to the keyboard (shift + drag to modify the shift keys). Agile Palette makes the Command Palette live and you lot tin can click the push to perform the various command. It'southward highly recommended that new users leave the Active Palette open to aid learn the diverse Avid commands and symbols. Finally 'Menu to Push' Reassignment lets yous click any button on the keyboard and and then assign that push to a menu command. Learn your keyboard well and y'all can work much faster.

Other settings worth noting are Bin which allows you to gear up (among other things) Motorcar-Save intervals. Capture, Deck Configuration and Deck Preferences for many settings relating to tape based capture. And Interface for customizing the appearance of the application.

Gorging Bin settings prefrence

Avid Interface preference for changing colors, shapes and other aspects of the interface

Next, getting media in to Media Composer and making an edit

Side by side, let's go some media into Avid. With the release of Gorging Media Composer 3.5 a feature has been added called Gorging Media Access (or AMA) that makes getting P2-based and XDCAM media into the application a snap. Since Avid's media format is MXF and both P2 and XDCAM media are MXF getting this media into Avid is a snap. The hope is that in the future Avid will expand the AMA architecture for including many other media formats. The primal when shooting P2 and XDCAM is to leave the file structure intact when backing upward your P2 or solid country cards equally Gorging will access this natively. It tin can also access media straight of the cards.

Getting that media into Avid is easy. Access File > Link to AMA Volume…

Then navigate to your P2 or XDCAM media and information technology will immediately create a new bin with that footage in your project. In this projection I had a single P2 menu from a shoot and I backed up both the CONTENTS binder and LASTCLIP.TXT file into a folder called test footage. I select the examination footage folder and AMA created a new bin called test footage and brought that media into the bin with all metadata intact. Y'all know a clip is an Avid Media Access prune as it is highlighted in xanthous in the bin. All other media would but sit on the normal bin background color:

AMA linked media in an Avid bin

You can likewise bring media into Avid via a firewire connected deck, File > Import, or drag and drop from the Finder. When drag and dropping Avid volition create new media in a specific Avid Media File folder on your designated media drive. This is another big difference from Terminal Cut Pro in that Avid will convert media to its own MXF format and store it in its own binder (that is for all except AMA linked media). One of Avid's strong points has ever been its media direction and this is function of the reason why … that and some kind of magic database that seems to work wonders when tracking media over huge jobs. For higher stop IO then Avid requires their hardware such as the Avid Mojo DX. Full Hard disk drive in and out but information technology is expensive.

Before we make an edit let'southward look at an Avid timeline. Choose Clip > New Sequence (or shift+command+Due north). When yous brand a new sequence you lot will exist prompted as to where to identify the new timeline you are creating:

Select a bin to place you new edit sequence in

Select your Edits bin that you lot create in the Projection window and you will now encounter an Untitled Sequence announced in your Edits bin. It's adept housekeeping to immediately rename that sequence into something that makes more sense. You volition see a bare timeline with 1 video track and two audio tracks. This is the default number of tracks created only this can be changed in the Settings > Timeline preference. Double click a piece of media on the little moving picture frame icon from your bin to open information technology in the Source monitor. This brings up both sides of the Track Selector Console in the timeline. The Rails Selector Console (or patch bay) is very similar to that of FCP. In fact, this is where FCP got the design of the FCP patch bay and it was dissimilar in early versions of FCP. Source Runway selectors are on the left and Tape Track buttons on the right:

If you have multiple video or audio tracks and y'all want to change where Source media is patch to you just click + drag in the V1 (for example) track selector on the Source side and an arrow will extend out. Elevate that arrow to a new track and it will patch. Earlier we make whatsoever edits, turn on Sync Lock past clicking the piddling gray box betwixt the two TC1 (timecode) tracks. Sync Locks are turned on when you see the little hash marks between the track selectors. Sync Locks are very helpful when learning the application equally it volition keep all audio and video in sync by adding filler when needed while performing edits and trims. FCP behaves in a way that it'south near like ever having sync locks turned on. I rarely plow the Avid sync locks off except for when I am doing very specific trims where I want clips to move in a certain way while trimming.

Allow's make our commencement edit. If it's not nonetheless there, double click a clip from the bin to open it in the Source monitor. Marking and IN and OUT betoken and then printing the Overwrite button between the monitors or (amend still) hit the B primal on the default keyboard. You can elevate the clip from the Source monitor into the timeline to create and edit but the less drag/dropping y'all practise the faster you can work. The first thing you'll notice afterward editing media into the timeline is that you tin can't click and select that media that you have just placed into the edit. Clicking on the media tracks or the timecode rail of timeline will move the playhead. Clicking and dragging will scrub the timeline. Turn CAPS LOCK on to turn on audio scrubbing. Clicking around in the areas outside of the tracks will produce no noticeable issue … at least not yet. This is probably the single biggest sticking point for an FCP editor when you try out Avid. Media Composer doesn't have the aforementioned kind of timeline interactivity that FCP employs. It'southward not better or worse, only dissimilar. An indepth look at just the Gorging and FCP timelines can be found here.

Load another piece of media into the Source monitor to brand another edit. Avid and FCP both employ the same concept of 3-point editing every bit the basis for making edits. As long as y'all have 3 INs and OUTs ready you can brand an edit. There are exceptions to this rule but that is the basis of the concept. Either ready an IN and OUT point in the Source or the Timeline and IN indicate in the other (the playhead volition as well human action as an IN point if i is not fix) and choose to Overwrite, B, or Splice-IN, 5.

The blood-red and yellow arrow icons are used all around the Media Composer application

Splice-In is Gorging's term for an Insert edit past the way and so if you Spline In you will move the media later the edit later in the timeline. You now have an actual edit in the timeline. Now perform a 2nd, third and fourth edit and we will utilise that simple timeline as a base to endeavor Segment fashion and trimming. Effort and fix a timeline that looks similar to this:

Equally I mentioned earlier, Avid's lack of click and drag timeline interactivity is a large turnoff to many who accept only edited with Final Cutting Pro or even Adobe Premiere. You shouldn't recollect of Avid'southward timeline manipulation as existence worse, just different. At commencement it might exist very frustrating that you lot tin can't merely click and drag clips effectually an Avid timeline or click and elevate to shorten or extend a clip. This can all be done, just in a dissimilar way.

To move a clip around the timeline via a drag and drop method you must enter Segment Style. Segment mode can be entered in several different ways just the active mode is identified past yellow and red segment way arrows in the lesser left corner of the timeline:

Avid Segment Way icons in the Timeline window

If you are in a item mode the cursor arrow will alter to the segment mode arrow and that mode volition be highlighted. Segment modes are simple and their function is reflected by their color and resemblance to the Overwrite and Splice-In arrows.

The yellowish arrow is Excerpt/Splice-In Segment fashion. This way volition allow y'all to move clips around the timeline and information technology will shift and shuffle other clips around and NOT leave a gap in the timeline. Information technology'due south somewhat comparable to moving a prune in FCP and belongings down the OPTION key to bandy their position though in Avid you can driblet a clip correct in the middle of another one. The best way to understand what Extract/Splice-In does is to select a clip in our elementary edit and move it. Y'all can enter segment mode by clicking the desired segment mode arrow at the bottom of the timeline or by click and dragging from LEFT TO Right beginning in the expanse higher up the timeline and lassoing down into the timeline to encircle an entire clip. Yous will see an outline as y'all click and drag to see what you are lassoing. If you don't circle the whole clip and but an edit yous volition enter trim fashion, more than on that later. If you were to have many video layers in an edit and couldn't become effectually the clip you wanted this way you can likewise hold down Command and lasso from LEFT TO RIGHT. When using the lasso method, whatever the Final segment manner that was chosen is the mode that will be entered. The lasso method can exist confusing at beginning so it's probably easier to click the segment mode to enter information technology (or amend all the same map the segment modes to your keyboard) and and then click, or shift+click to select multiple clips, the clip you want to motion. Once you grasp the lasso method though it can exist a very fast and powerful way to make multiple selections. The reddish arrow is the Lift/Overwrite Segment fashion. In this mode moving a prune will overwrite the media where you identify the clip and leave a gap behind. Permit'southward give them a try.

A good manner to sympathise what the two different segment modes do is to wait at what happens when you delete a clip via segment mode. First, click the red Elevator/Overwrite pointer, then click a clip in the middle of your timeline and hit the DELETE central. The clip is deleted and a gap is left behind:

Deleting a clip in Lift/Overwrite Segment Mode leaves a hole

Undo (command+z) that operation, click the yellow Extract/Splice-In arrow and do the same affair. Notice that the clip is deleted and the gap is airtight. In my example I deleted the video of clip 02 and all the rest of the media in the timeline moved to fill the pigsty left behind by the deleting of clip 02:

Deleting a clip in Excerpt/Splice-In Mode closes the hole and shifts the rest of the edit

Undo and let's try moving a clip with segment mode. Starting time click the yellow Extract/Splice-In pointer and motility one of the timeline segments to the right a scrap. You will meet that this manner has, in my example, moved segment 03 down and split up segment 04, moving function of 04 ahead of 03 to fill the gap left behind. No media has been removed from the timeline:

Moving clip 03 in Excerpt/Splice-In Fashion has shifted function of clip 04 earlier into the hole left behind

Now undo (command+z) that operation, click the ruby Lift/Overwrite arrow and practice the aforementioned thing. Lift/Overwrite mode does just that, it overwrites the media where the segment is placed and leaves a gap:

Moving clip 03 in Lift/Overwrite Segment Mode has left the pigsty backside and overwritten part of clip 04. Notice the shorter segment in the last bit of prune 04

You tin now undo the concluding operation equally well. That is the basics of how Segment fashion in Avid works. A couple of things to proceed in mind when using Segment manner. When dragging a clip you lot can press Command while dragging to snap the clip to other edits. Y'all tin select and move clips on both video and audio tracks at the same time. You can select the blackness FILLER between, higher up or below clips and motility that every bit well. You CANNOT select clips that aren't adjacent (for example clips 01 and 03 in my timeline above) and motion them at the same time. Clips must exist next … for any silly reason. And if yous mess something up there's always the Disengage bill of fare to assist out. Avid has a very helpful Undo/Redo List (Edit > Undo/Redo List) that is a line by line list of the last deportment. It tin can be a lifesaver when trying to get back to an earlier state:

Y'all may have noticed the Iv-Frame Display when dragging a clip in Segment mode:

This is a handy mode to come across what you are doing when moving a prune via Segment mode. The left frame is the last frame of the approachable clip and the right frame is the beginning frame of the incoming clips. The heart two frames are the first and last frames of the clip you are moving. When using the 4-Frame Display in Segment Mode the first and fourth frames are the ones that volition motion since they are the edits being affected.

Next, using one of Avid'due south most powerful features: Trim Mode

The next mode, and IMHO the thing that sets Avid Media Composer apart from all other NLEs, that needs exploring is Gorging's Trim mode. Trimming in general is a fashion to fine tune an edit one time you have media in the timeline. In FCP, trimming is accomplished through manipulating edits in the timeline via click and dragging using dissimilar tools. FCP has a Trim Edit window simply it is clunky, painful and seems to be rarely used. You tin think of the Avid Trim style equally an easy and very interactive manner to fine tune your edits. It performs via JKL scrubbing, the trim buttons, + and – values on the keypad and click and dragging as well. Trim way provides realtime feedback in the Source/Record monitors too as the timeline. No matter which method you are using you lot will run into a footling line motility with the clips you are trimming instead of the playhead as y'all make that trim.

That tiny line is an amazingly interactive way to monitor your trims in realtime

This little line provides very nice visual feedback as you brand a trim. I once wrote a detailed comparison of the Gorging and FCP trim tools and that can still exist found online.

Let'southward brand a simple blazon of trim that an editor makes all the time, performing a split edit (or a J cut) where the audio precedes the edit. In our sample timeline I want to take the audio on A1 and A2 ringlet it backwards. I haven't placed any audio in the timeline other than clip 02 but if you have audio in all of you lot clips information technology will human activity the same. There's several ways to enter Trim style and trim the audio in this scenario:

The most straight forward way to enter Trim Fashion is to striking the Trim Mode button, defaulted on the Avid keyboard to u . In that location's too a Trim Way push at the bottom of the timeline . To trim a specific edit move the playhead to the edit and press the u primal. Once in Trim Way you will see picayune pink trim rollers appear on the edit . If you entered trim mode and saw that the pinkish rollers have appeared on the V1 rail the press the 8 central to turn off V1 or click the V1 selector in the patch bay. In one case in Trim Mode you can toggle tracks on and off without always leaving the mode. This is another feature that makes it very powerful. In one case you have your trim fix to adapt the audio and make your split edit your timeline volition look something similar this:

You will also find that the Composer window has inverse a bit. The tic marks in the mini timelines below the Source and Record monitors have disappeared and little purple Trim Counters have appeared beneath the Source/Record monitors to go along track is how many frames have been trimmed .

Y'all tin can now create your split edit in a number of different ways. You can motion the cursor over the rollers (the arrow will modify to a roller icon itself) and click and drag the edit, you can hit + or – a timecode value on the keypad (in this case for a J-cut information technology could be – 24) or you could use the iv default trim buttons on the keyboard: m , (comma) . (flow) / . G and / will move an edit forward or backward 8 frames in a 24 fps project and ten in a 30 fps project and the , & . keys will motion the edit 1 frame. But past far the nigh powerful way to trim an edit is using JKL scrubbing. With the edit set up for a trim striking j to trim the edit dorsum. Observe the petty trimming line begin to motion instead of the playhead every bit yous see the media in the source monitor begin to scroll backwards. Even if you lot are only trimming audio yous volition see the video move equally a reference, another very powerful feature that is defective in FCP's trim window. After rolling the trim dorsum for about a 2nd you have made the split up edit:

Next, while all the same in Trim Mode, deselect A1 and A2 and select V1. Yous'll meet that the rollers have moved to select an edit in V1. Let's motion that selected edit downwardly a few edits later on by striking the due south primal. The a and s keys are defaulted to the Go To Previous Edit, Go To Next Edit keys respectively. By using the south fundamental to move the trim down we can jump from edit to edit and not go out Trim Mode:

In my case I accept moved the trim to the edit between 03 and 04. At present just play with your edit using JKL scrubbing. You can scrub the edit dorsum and along as well every bit double and triple speed the trim. This type of trimming is what FCP calls Dynamic Trimming (it has a toggle push to turn information technology on and off in the FCP Trim window). It was added to FCP in an upgrade after the software'south introduction and while information technology did make the Trim Edit window more than Avid-like it still doesn't piece of work nearly as well. This type of trim is a dual-roller trim in that trimming takes part on both sides of the edit and the overall elapsing of the timeline isn't being affected. A dual-roller trim is like using the Curl Tool in FCP. This is where the philosophy of Gorging and FCP differ. FCP wants you to select a tool and and then use that tool in the timeline, usually with a lot of mouse interaction. Avid wants you to enter a mode and keep to work in the timeline using your normal keyboard playback keys. If you observe Gorging Media Composer doesn't have any kind of tool palette at all like FCP or Adobe Premiere does. Hence the reason it has modes. Apple tree has always promoted FCP every bit "mode free editing" and while that may brand the app easier to learn initially at that place is a lot of power in Gorging's modes, Trim Mode especially.

It's also important to know how to perform a single-roller trim, or what FCP calls a ripple edit which is performed with the Ripple Tool. To perform a single-roller trim make sure you lot are nonetheless in a double-roller trim and click either the A or B side in the Composer, A existence what is now Source monitor and B being the Record monitor. This will select a single-roller trim and this tin exist seen in the timeline as the edit at present appears with a single pinkish roller on the side you selected. In my instance I selected the B side, by clicking the Tape monitor, and so my roller appears on the right:

The edit set up for a single roller trim

With this single-roller trim selected use any of the in a higher place methods (click and drag, keypad, JKL scrubbing) to perform the trim. A trim to the right (using the Fifty key) will "accept upwards" media in clip 04, making clip 04 shorter and shortening the overall length of the timeline. A trim to the left (using the J primal) volition "permit out" media from clip 04 and make the clip and the timeline longer. By trimming to the left you lot tin let out media from prune 04 until there is no media left in the clip.

Clip 04 trimmed out to include the entire clip in the edit

Instead of actually clicking in the Composer window to choose the blazon of trim you can likewise use the default of the p [ ] keys to select the A, B or both sides to trim . p will trim the A side, [ both the A and B side (a dual-roller trim) and ] the B side. Information technology'due south only another way to piece of work very quickly in the Avid trim mode while keeping your hands firmly planted on the keyboard.

Trimming on the fly is especially important as well. In one case in Trim Mode you tin press the space bar to preview the edit. At any time during the preview you can hit an IN or OUT fundamental and Avid volition readjust the edit to where you hit IN or OUT. Information technology can be a great fashion to identify an edit on a beat of music or just to place an edit past feel equally you are watching your program. It's a fashion of making an edit trim that is not really possible past clicking and dragging in the timeline.

These few steps are the basics of using the powerful Avid Trim Way. Delight continue to experiment by adding more layers of video, trimming dissimilar tracks at the aforementioned time and only playing around in general. As I have said IMHO the Avid Trim Way is 1 of the about powerful tools of any non-linear editor bachelor on the market. And information technology's used for the guts of an edit, assembling your story and fine-tuning that edit in a very fast and efficient way. To go into farthermost depth about Avid Trim Mode would crave much, much more time and type and so look upwardly Trim Mode in the Gorging aid files to learn even more. Simply to a higher place all just play with information technology as that's one of the all-time ways to learn how it works.

Next, Slipping and Sliding clips with the Trim Mode"

The other identify where Trim Mode works its magic is for Slip and Slide operations. FCP utilizes both the Skid and Slide tools for click and drag operations in the FCP timeline or Viewer as well as numeric operations using the keypad. Avid has always had an boosted fashion to slip and slide edits via playback and JKL scrubbing in Trim Mode. This again demonstrates Avid'southward ability to edit in a very interactive style as you lookout man and listen to your media playback as opposed to clicking and dragging in the timeline.

Permit'south slip a prune via JKL scrubbing. Slipping changes the IN and OUT points of a clip while leaving the clip in the same place in the edit. First we take to get our segment into Skid mode. This can be accomplished by the lasso method described in a higher place when moving into Segment mode but instead of dragging from left to right y'all click and elevate from Right TO LEFT either in the greyness space above the timeline or by holding CONTROL + dragging effectually an entire clip. You tin can also select a prune with either Segment mode and and then push the u key to enter Trim mode. When this happens the prune will appear with ii pink trim rollers on the inside of the caput and tail of the clip:

Slipping a prune is identified by trim rollers on the inside edits of a clip

When you lot accept a clip selected for slipping you will see the four frame display in the Composer window like in Segment way. When you have the clip selected for slipping, brainstorm to JKL scrub. You lot are now slipping the clip. You will run across the footling interactive playheads in the timeline move every bit you JKL scrub and the caput frame (the 2d clip in the Four Frame display) will play dorsum in realtime in the Composer window. If y'all would rather run across the tail frame during playback only place the cursor over the tail frame in the Composer (the 3rd frame in the iv frame display) and it will playback. You tin as well use the click and drag method by click on a pink roller and dragging, using + or – values with the keypad and the Trim Left or Right m , . / buttons. In one case you are done with your sideslip hit the escape to exit or press the Trim Mode (u) button on the keyboard to exit.

Trimming on the wing can be used in Slip and Slide trimming as well. Enter sideslip fashion, hit the L key to play the clip so watch as the prune plays in the four frame display. When you go to the frame you want equally your new IN betoken hit the i or e central to create a new IN signal and slip mode will finish on that frame with the new IN point you selected. Yous can so striking the space bar to review the edit while still in the slip Trim Mode. There are many many dissimilar ways to utilize all of these types of trims so it's best to just read over the help files and experiment.

You can also perform a Slide edit in much the same mode. A slide doesn't change the IN and OUT of a clip but rather where the clip is in the timeline. As you perform a slide edit, you "accept upwardly" or "let out" media on surrounding clips. A slide is identified by the pink trim rollers on the exterior of the head and tail of a clip. To enter slide style start put a prune into slip mode and then choice + double click on the clip. The rollers volition so ajust to the exterior of the prune:

Sliding a prune is identified by trim rollers on the outside edits of a clip

In the in a higher place case prune 02 was placed into slide style and the moved 48 frames later in the edit, hence the white out of sync indicators in the 02 sound beneath displaying 48. Place a clip in your ain edit into slide mode and utilize any of the methods discussed to slide the clip. When sliding a clip the 1st and quaternary frames of the four frame brandish in the Composer window volition move every bit you are altering the IN and OUT points of the tail frame of the approachable prune and head frame of the incoming clip. Playing the prune and editing on the wing by hit a new IN point is a especially powerful method every bit you can monitor audio and make these trims on the fly.

If you are reviewing edits while in Trim Mode with the space bar (or past clicking the Play Loop button in the Record monitor while in Trim Mode) and observe that you would similar more pre-roll before the edit or post-roll later on the edit then check y'all Settings tab > Trim:

Hither y'all can set that Preroll and Postroll while reviewing trims too as the Suspension, the pause between as it volition play the edit review in a loop.

You tin can also enter the slip and slide modes by showtime entering Trim Fashion and and so shift+clicking right on the inside or outside of the opposite side of the desired prune you have selected to trim. To sideslip shift+click on the inside of the clip opposite the double-roller and shift+click on the outside of the clip to slide. There are many different ways to achieve most any job in Avid so the more you lot read the assistance files and the more you experiment the more y'all will discover. The entire Trim Fashion, be information technology double or single-rollers trims of a single edit, slipping and sliding of clips, trimming multiple edits and/or clips at the same time, big or small Trim Mode, trimming on the wing, is so full featured that to explore it in detail could exist the subject of a whole volume. I promise this uncomplicated introduction to the basics of the Trim Fashion will evidence an editor new to Gorging a good gustation of the power than tin be unleashed when using Trim Mode.

And recollect to always go on an centre on the Trim Counters at the bottom of the Composer window while in Trim Mode. It keeps a running tab on how many frames you lot have trimmed since entering Trim Style, exist it regular roller-based trims or Slip and Slide trimming:

Both A and B Trim Counters evidence the same number of frames trimmed in a Sideslip or Slide or double-roller trim

Lastly, calculation effects, keyframing, titling and transitions

Calculation an outcome in Media Composer is a click and elevate proposition. Unlike FCP where all clips could be considered to have basic furnishings like scaling, cropping and positioning "built in" to the clip and waiting for adjustment in the Motion tab of the Viewer, Avid clips do not and so you have to add an upshot to a clip to do any kind of changes like scaling, cropping etc. The easiest mode to get access to these basic clip adjustments is to add the powerful 3D Warp upshot to a prune.

To add the 3D Warp effect (or any other effects for that matter) access the Effect Palette by either the Tools > Effect Palette menu (command + 8) or the Effect Palette tab in the primary project window. The categories of furnishings are listed on the left with the specific effects and their icons listed on the right. For the 3D Warp choose the Blend category > 3D Warp. Click on the 3D Warp icon and drag it onto a clip in the timeline. The result is now applied. Yous tin can run across the lilliputian icon on the clip in the timeline:

A clip with the 3D Warp upshot applied

Now fourth dimension to adjust parameters. With the playhead parked on the 3D effected prune (be sure the V1 icon is turned on in the timeline patch bay) enter Effect manner by clicking the result push button at the bottom of the timeline or using the Tools > Effect Editor bill of fare selection. With that the Effect Editor will open:

The Avid Issue Editor with the 3D Warp parameters

The Effect Editor is very similar to FCP's Viewer > Filter tab. It'south the place where all of the parameters for a given effect tin can be adapted and keyframed. At first it doesn't expect the same as in that location is no timeline bachelor for keyframing the effects. In older versions of Avid all keyframing took place by adding keyframes in the mini-timeline below the source monitor. With later on versions Avid added the Promote to Advanced Keyframes command which opens a timeline just for keyframing of issue parameters. To access advanced keyframes await in the lower right corner of the effect editor and click the Advanced Keyframe button:

A timeline will open in the right of the issue editor where keyframes can be added for all the unlike parameters of a given effect on the Keyframe Graphs. This Outcome Editor timeline behaves similar any other keyframing timeline that you might feel in Adobe Later Furnishings and FCP besides. Pick a parameter like Scaling and twirl downward the little disclosure triangle to the left of Scaling to open up the x and y parameter controls. You can then move the playhead within the prune and begin to add keyframes and suit parameters simply similar in any keyframe based animation timeline. Move your playhead into your 3D Warp effected clip, either on the Timeline window or the advanced keyframe timeline in the effect editor. You can add a keyframe past clicking the pinkish keyframe icon at the bottom of the Effect Editor or hit the ' (apostrophe) key on the keyboard. When you lot click the pink keyframe key at the bottom of the Effect Editor you lot will get a pop-up asking you lot exactly where you desire to add the keyframe. These dissimilar options are pretty cocky-explanatory and offer nice options when adding keyframes. I like to choose Add together to Open up Grouping as that will add keyframes to whatever parameters are twirled open up at the time. I tin control where to add keyframes by what I have opened. Practise this and adjust the scaling parameter, then move frontwards a bit, add together another keyframe and adjust the scaling parameter again. You've merely fabricated a scaling blitheness in Upshot Editor. Play it back to watch the animation in the Record monitor.

If y'all twirl downward the trivial triangle to the right of the parameter sliders y'all will open the blitheness curves graph. This is Avid's version of the familiar animation curves editor and correct clicking on a keyframe in the curves editor volition requite you a popular-up with all the usual keyframe eases and options:

Avid has done a lot of work to make keyframing easier. Yous can movement single keyframes by selecting a keyframe triangle either in the Effect Editor timeline or the mini timeline under the record monitor and holding the option fundamental downwards while dragging to move a keyframe. You tin can likewise move multiple keyframes at one time by shift + selecting all the keyframes yous desire to motility and and so option + dragging on 1 to move them all. If yous look at the advanced keyframe pop-up menu when yous right + click on a keyframe you will also see two options called Fixed and Elastic. Ane of those options will have a dot next to it to tell which is selected. When assault stock-still, the elapsing of a gear up animation will not change when you alter the overall length of the shot via trimming in the timeline. If set to elastic the keyframes will move either stretching or shortening the duration of the animation in proportion to how you have changed the length of the shot. If you've ever copy and pasted and deleted and reapplied keyframes in FCP then this is a welcome addition to keyframing. When working in the advanced keyframes timeline I enjoy really stretching out the Event Editor (I wish information technology would get even bigger) then information technology actually feels like any other animation program. Spend some time playing around with at to the lowest degree the 3D Warp effect and the advanced keyframes and the use should experience very natural if you've used this type of matter for motion graphics. When finished hit the escape key return to Source/Tape editing by hitting the y cardinal on your keyboard or clicking the Source/Record button at the bottom of the timeline.

It's besides of import to know how to apply multiple effects to an Avid clip. If you lot were to use another effect, say a Flip, right on to the clip where your 3D Warp was applied and then the 3D Warp would disappear. Yous have to exercise what Gorging calls a "Stride In" and use the consequence. To Step In place your playhead on the prune where you practical the 3D Warp upshot and click the Step In arrow at the bottom of the timeline:

Y'all and so get a view of only that single clip in the timeline with no result practical. Drag another effect from the Effect Palette to apply that event. You lot tin keep stepping in equally many times as y'all need to apply multiple furnishings. It's a clunky manner to utilise multiple effects just that's how it is washed in Media Composer. While you lot are stepped in begin to add keyframes and tweak parameters using the Upshot Editor like we did above with the 3D Warp tool. Some furnishings don't have keyframing options (like the Flip effect) so there will exist no parameters to keyframe. If the effect supports Avant-garde Keyframes click the button to open that timeline. If the Avant-garde Keyframes button is missing from the lower right corner of the Upshot Palette so keyframes can exist added in the mini timeline below the Record monitor:

If Avant-garde Keyframes aren't available for a particular event add keyframes in the mini timeline beneath the Tape monitor

In one case you take added keyframes to a stepped in outcome click the Step Out push to footstep back out to the total timeline. You tin then open the Effect Editor and see all of the effects you have applied. If you have promoted an consequence to avant-garde keyframes and animated a parameter while stepped in you tin and so adjust, keyframe and breathing all parameters of all effects in the Effect Editor. This is similar to having multiple effects applied to a clip in FCP and opening those furnishings in the Viewer under the Filters tab:

Multiple effects applied to a clip. Discover the Bezier curves applied to the Colour Effect

Allow'due south try simply a few other things before we wrap up this installment of The Basics of Avid Media Composer for a Concluding Cut Pro Editor. Avid has an Add Transition push button for adding bones transitions similar dissolves and fades to black. Put the playhead near and edit and hitting the (backslash) key. A pop-upwardly pops up for selecting the type of transition, the duration and the alignment. There'southward a mini timeline in the popup that shows the transition visually. You can as well click and drag both sides of the transition in this mini timeline to adjust it.

Use the Quick Transition popup to apply dissolves, fades and dips to colour

There'due south also a number of transitions in the Issue Palette similar wipes, peels and pushes to name a few. They can be practical past click + dragging them to the edit between clips in the timeline. Then park the playhead on the edit and enter Upshot Mode to adapt.

To create a title in Avid Media Composer cull Clip > New Title. You will get a popup asking if you want to create this title in Marquee or the Title Tool:

Check Persist if you want to avoid this popular-up. This can be turned on and off in Settings > Marquee Title

For our purposes here cull Title Tool for the uncomplicated titler. Marquee is an advanced titling application that is kind of like After Furnishings for titles. You can practise avant-garde titles and animations with Marquee and could spend many hours learning how to use it well. The simple championship tool is very bones but does offering a WYSIWUG design approach with shapes and borders and the ability to practise rolls and crawls. The Championship Tool volition as well show you lot the frame you are parked on in the groundwork to assist in design.

The Avid Title Tool showing a black background

If y'all've made it this far in the article then you must have been using this every bit a guide as intended to try out Avid Media Composer three.five. Thanks for taking the time to work through some of the basic features of Avid and through this article. As I stated at the beginning the purpose of this article isn't to persuade anyone to move from Concluding Cutting Pro to Avid Media Composer or to say that i application is better than the other, though there are features in each app that is meliorate than comparable features of the other. This commodity was meant to help anyone curious nigh Media Composer be able to download the free demo and "kick the tires" on some of the basic features that make Gorging Avid. If yous learn to use Media Composer properly and empathise the differences between it and FCP and sympathize why things are unlike information technology can be a corking tool to add to your editing tool kit, peculiarly if you are using Avid Media Access supported media like DVCPRO Hard disk drive and XDCAM. Happy editing on whatever platform you may choose!

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