Nationalsolo

Hi You will require VP version 2.41 to do this with no complications. I shall assume that your narrator will be in the smaller image/video. So you will need two videos...the narrator and your main video. First of all use the "Add Media" button on the left end of the tool bar to add your narrator clip and your main video clip to the media list.(They could equally be images but as this adds slight complications I shall describe the process using video clips) Put VP into Timeline mode (as you can see things better,) and then drag and drop your main video clip onto the sequence line. (There are other ways but this is the easiest to start with.) This will be your background clip. At this point you have a simple video of this clip. It will appear on the sequence as a series of thumbnails with its audio line beneath it on the audio track. Now grab your narrator clip from the media list and drag it to the overlay track (between the thumbnails and the audio track) and drop it there, vertcally under your main video clip. Wait for VP to register it. (A grey bar will run along the top of the overlay track.) You can drag your overlay left or right to set it in its correct place as you wish.(But wait for VP to record it before you continue) Drag the red cursor along the sequence line a bit to see what you now have, and if you check the right hand preview window you will see your narrator clip) as a small image at the bottom centre of the main clip. Left click the overlay and it will now appear in the left preview pane with its controls beneath it. In the arrow matrix square click the arrow corresponding to the side/corner where you want your narrator clip to appear against the main clip. You will see your little thumbnail in the right hand pane move as you do this. Use the "Size" slider to adjust the size of your overlay. Use the "Opacity" slider to set its density. You can set its precise position with the border settings button (square with the two arrows). You can now monitor your movie by playing it in the right hand preview pane. You can reset any of the positions etc. if they don't seem correct. Your problem now will probably be the narrator clip sound track as the overlay will not have any sound(even if there is a soundtrack associated with the clip and I am assuming the narrator clip will have sound. ) So. Left click the narrator clip in the media list window and select "Save audio track as a separate file". This will place the sound from the narrator clip onto the media list. From here drag onto Soundtrack 1. All you need now to do is to synch up you soundtrack 1 with the narrator overlay video by playing the film and sliding the sound clip left or right until it matches your narrator. (you may have to enlarge your overlay to see it better and zoom in with the slider bottom right of the screen. If you want to keep the sound associated with the main clip then OK. By right clicking the main audio track you can select to lower the volume or you can add fade in/out points to it as the narrator speaks by adjusting the yellow line. If you don't want the main track sound then you can either mute it or remove it. Removing it looks better (and you can replace it easily enough if you want it back.) Right click the sequence line thumbnails and select to "Unlink the sound" This will drop the sound clip down to Soundtrack 2 leaving the audio track empty. (Soundtrack 1 has the narrator sound.) Left click the sound track (which will select it AND nudge it to unlink it**) and then Right click it to select "Remove selected audio" You will now have only the narrator sound track playing. It will be up to you to adjust the clip lengths etc. ** Unless you move the sound track it doesn't unlink and deleting it will also remove the video, Left clicking it as well as selecting it, will also nudge it but you could equally grab it and drag it with the cursor (which means using the left hand mouse button). Hope this helps. Nat

Hi Normally VP produces excellent slideshow videos (better than WMM IMHO)but a lot depends on the bit size (and pixel size) of your images. What size images are you using, and what output settings have you in VP? Are you comparing them as a finished video or in preview: For best results try not to use compressed images; 5-10 megapixel raw images straight from your camera will work fine. If you have already compressed them to a jpg then rendering them further to produce a DVD may give disappointing results. Note also that the preview image is not representative of the final output quality..its only a preview and as such can appear blocky. I often use static images (of static objects) within an HD film if I don't have a specific video clip. By using a pan or zoom with such an image (to give a feeling of movement) there is hardly any difference to note in the quality between the video and the image. Nat

Hi Sorry. No idea at all. However (and I know you say the preview plays OK..but...)have you checked the Options/Other tab to set the "Normalize Volume" box? Tested a short clip which has an audio track to see if it behaves similarly? Tested a short clip that you have muted and which has an added soundtrack on the lower soundtrack line? Checked that you have not inadvertantly faded the soundtrack. (Right click it and select "Remove all fade points") With some video formats there can be on occasions a short blank section of sound (1-2 seconds) at the end of each video clip requiring each clip to be lightly trimmed. If none of these is the culprit.... What is the size and format of your imported video? Is it the audio from Soundtrack 1,2,3 etc., or the audio from the Audio track which fades? Is it only the END of the film that is affected? What settings are you using when you save your output? Nat

Hi This is a problem I am afraid that occurs when you add a further video clip to the middle (or start) of an already edited film on the sequence line that has sound effects etc. on the lower soundtracks. Inserting the new clip moves the video track and its associated sound track along to the the right (which is logical) but doesn't move the sound clips along the other tracks, leaving them out of synch from the point of the new insertion. Unfortunately there doesn't seem a way to even link the sound clips on a track together so you could move them en masse along the track and so retain their separation. This a feature available in other editors (even WMM!) and it seems strange it hasn't been implemented here. The only way I see that you can do it (and which I have had to do from time to time) is to start at the end of your sequence and move each sound clip individually along the respective track to the old synch position. With a long film containing dozens of sound clips on several tracks this is quite a task. Nat

Hi Oh dear..you have an older version.. v2.41 has been out for a while. I am sorry to say that as far as I remember v2.22 doesn't have an overlay feature so the chroma key option is not an option. You will have to contact NCH and see if you can get it upgraded to the latest version. I really don't know why, particularly when you payed, you weren't upgraded to the latest full version as a matter of course. That would seem logical to me. I think that the quickest way forward is to download 2.41 from here (or eleswhere...search Google)....... http://downloadall.net/16945/videopad-free-video-editor-free-download This is the unlicensed basic free version 2.41 has the functionality you want (plus lots more) but, as with the other free versions the output formats are limited. You should download the file vpsetup_v2.41 which you then open to install the software. Nat

Hi Naima "So I am waiting on their helpers to contact me." I don't think they will on here... So I'll do my best. I haven't mentioned "Video/Image upload" in my post so I am not clear about what you are referring to. Where exactly do you have "Image"? What VP version are you using and what buttons do you think you are missing? I cannot see why it might be much different from the version I use which is V2.41. The version number appears in the border at the bottom left of the screen. Note that you cannot add an image or video clip to the overlay track unless you have a video already ON the sequence line, (although it will appear in the left hand preview window.) Do the procedure in the order I have suggested in my post. i.e. Load your clips to the media list using the "Add Media" button, (situated on the tool bar at the top left of the screen. When they appear in the media list window,(you may have to click the little tab marked "Media List" immediately beneath the "Add Media" button,) add your background video to the sequence line by dragging and dropping it there and then add your overlay video to the overlay track in the same way. Then you should be ready to continue as in my previous reply. Nat

Hi See my reply to your last post. Hope this helps. Nat

Hi From your post I get the impression that you are trying to put your "green screen" film on the sequence line which is incorrect. Your background (animation footage)goes on the sequence line and the "Green Screen" foreground object (your person speaking)on the overlay track. This is how I suggest you proceed. (It's a bit long so you might be best printing it out.) Under normal circumstances you film a normal background clip (your animation in this case)against which you will place your "green screen" object/person. So the first thing is to open VP and then add ("Add Media") your background clip (your animation) to the media list. From there you drag it to, and drop it onto, the sequence track. (You can add it to the sequence in a variety of ways but drag/drop is simpler.)So far this is a simple normal film. Now you will need your foreground "Green Screen" clip. This can be filmed against any reasonable background colour. i.e you could use the side of a coloured building, or a single coloured sheet. It doesn't have to be pure green (or even green) but it should be reasonably uniform to work well. (Even white will work but not too well as faces have white areas.) Try not to get other items in the shot that have a different colour and its also best if the subject doesn't have anything clothing on that is near to the colour of the background or it will disappear also in the final result. (They won't become naked however ) So, create your clip,(your person speaking) add it to the media list and then drag/drop in onto the overlay track. Align with your sequence clip and wait while VP registers it. By default it will probably appear in the preview window (on the right) as a little image at the centre bottom. IMPORTANT....One thing to note however.- Your person speaking will be silent as the overlay track is only a video track, it has no associated soundtrack. To get around this right click this particular clip in the media list and select to "Save audio track as a separate file". This will put the sound file in the media list from where you can drop it onto Soundtrack 1. You will have to match it up with the overlay at the end. Now,Left click the overlay track clip so as to select it and the image will appear in the left preview window with the controls beneath it. You may have to scroll the preview window to the right to show all the controls. Now click the centre square of the arrow matrix to centre the overlay image and then adjust the size slider so the overlay image is full size. (I am assuming it is the same size and shape as your sequence line video clip.) Now the only image you should see in either preview pane will be the overlay image. This is because it is fully opaque and it covers the sequence line video clip. So, in the left hand preview pane,click the green chroma key button followed by the colour square. Select a colour that is closest to your chosen background colour. As you have the image present on the screen you can make a reasonable guess as to the closest shade. You can also, if you wish, create a new colour or adjust a selected shade by clicking the "Personalised colour" bar and then using the colour matrix that appears. Whichever way you select your colour-Click OK. Next. Set the Opacity to 100% to ensure your "subject" is not a ghost image. Now you can adjust the "Foreground" slider towards the 100% end and as this is done the colours in the overlay that correspond to your selected colour gradually become B/W checked squares. This indicates which parts of the overlay have become transparent. By adjusting both background (the sequence line)and foreground (overlay) sliders you can see what effect you are getting in the right hand preview window. However you will have to click OK after each adjustment to see the effect you have achieved. With care you can totally remove the overlay background colour leaving your subject appearing in the foregound of the sequence clip. If you can't totally remove the background chroma colour from your overlay try selecting a slightly different chroma colour and try again. You will now nee to adjust the soundtrack that you added to soundtrack1 so that it matches (synchs) the overlay image. You can do this by zooming in and then gently dragging the track left or right. A bit fiddly but not too difficult. Nat

Hi I suspect this is most probably due to the format you have chosen to film in. I think the S20, similar to my SX500 produces video as MPEG4 H.264 high definition and I am guessing that you may be shooting at the top setting of 1920 x 1080p at possibly 60fps. This setting (on my camera at least) produces a big image that in VP, and most players I have tried, runs almost in slow motion, almost jerky, with a very appreciable lag between the sound and the image. The image continues to appear well after the sound has played and the longer the sequence the worse the lag gets. Obviously this makes editing very difficult. VP (via your PC graphics card ) has a lot of work to do process all these big frames and then display them reduced to preview size at their correct speed in the editor. The result is that everything slows down. It would seem that the sound is easier and quicker to process and is not slowed down. That is at least how I see it. I have done quite a few test films at all the settings that my camera provides, and for my particular setup (it may be different for yours) I find that if I shoot at 1280 x 720 25fps and convert the raw MPEG4 from the camera to MPEG2 format, the result comes out OK and editing is not affected, every thing plays OK. The result via a DVD on an HD TV is quite accepatble. The larger 1920 x 1080i 25fps output when converted to MPEG2 is also usable but I suspect it might be better edited on a faster and more powerful PC. I would suggest that you convert your downloaded clips to MPEG2 format and then see what you think when you edit them. (You don't lose your original footage BTW) If you are not sure how to do this come back here. Nat

Hi VP will only output with a single soundtrack as far as I am aware..... However you may find something useful here ... http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/115275-DVD-with-Multiple-Audio-Streams-Basic-Guide Nat

Hi No problem. Glad it helped. Nat

Hi Is the "knock" visible on the soundtrack? If so it probably originates in the camera. Nat

Hi Although you can "freeze" the action easily enough, this won't always look quite right. Although you say that you don't want to alter the synch of your associated audio, any method that alters the length of your video will have some effect on the sound, and "freezing" the action certainly will unless you are prepared to play about with the sound track. If you find you cannot shorten your narration to fit the video clip then you should try slowing down the action in the clip section concerned as I am going to describe. The first thing to do is save the project then you can always reload it if things don't go OK. I am assuming here that you have recorded your bit of narration as a separate clip, or have cut it out of a complete narration and it's in the media list. Now you will need to cut out (not remove...just isolate ) the section of your video against which you wish to place this narration. Play your video to the point where your piece of narration is going to be placed. It's better to stop at the point where the shot or section or scene in question changes, (and provided you don't have the previous bit of narration there.) Adjust the red cursor line to exactly this spot by stepping forwards or backwards with the < > buttons whilst monitoring the right hand preview screen. Zooming in can help here. Now split the video by clicking the button marked "Split" on the left of the screen. Play on to the end of the shot and split the video once more.You will now have isolated the clip against which you want to place your narration. Now drag and drop your narration clip from the media list to soundtrack 1 so it is under the isolated clip. If you are correct in your post, the narration will extend beyond the end of your isolated clip. Left click the isolated video clip to select it and then left click the effects tab. Select the "Speed" effect. Slide the slider to the left and you will see your isolated video clip increase in length. You can now adjust its length with the slider until your narration fits. You can, of course then drag your narration clip left or right so it starts and finishes where you want it to within the elongated video clip. Note that the frequency of the audio track will alter (gets lower) but provided the speed ajustment is not too much and the soundtrack is not music,you may not notice too much difference. This is one reason why you should split the original main clip where the shot starts and finishes as it is at these points that the audio track would normally change anyway. The synchronisation of the audio track will not alter using this method. Hope this helps Nat

Hi Normally VP can load large files and 2GB should not be a problem although it may take a while. (I have some over 3.5GB that load OK.) Note that although the main load window shows it has loaded and the clip name appears in the media list window the load bar at the bottom right of the screen may continue to show loading activity for quite some time further. I would also suggest that you go into Options and untick the two boxes relating to removing the cache files (if they are ticked) and then click the "Clear cache" button, followed by trying to reload your clip. Nat

Hi If your video or sequence of clips/images doesn't have the 16:9 ratio or a ratio of video that you don't want to crop then you can get a white border by adding a WHITE blank frame to the main sequence line and then adding your video clip(s) (by dragging from the media list) and dropping onto the overlay track. As you say your clips are a white background animation sequence they will appear against the white frame and will then seem to be a full frame (16:9) sequence. Obviously the blank frame must have the same duration as your video clip. When you have dropped it on the overlay track it will appear as a small frame usually at the centre bottom. Right click the overlay and it will preview in the left hand screen with its controls beneath. Right click the centre square of the arrow matrix to place your overlay image in the centre of the sequence frame then adjust its' size with the size slider. Slide the Opacity control fully to the right. Your sequence will now have a white border. This is probably the nearest you will get to what you are wanting. If you have a Audio track associated with your animation sequence then you will probably want to separate it as it won't play when it's on the overlay track. Right click it in the media list and select "Save audio track as a separate file" You can then add it to one of the soundtracks where it will play OK. Nat

Hi You posted twice.......... ........ so same reply.... Hi OK. First of all open VP and then click "Add Media" Navigate to the folder that holds your video and load your video to the media list. It will list up on the left. Click (grab) your video on the list and drag it to, and drop it onto the sequence line. (There are other ways) You can now preview it in the right hand window when you click the Play tab (The triangle). As it plays the red cursor bar will move along the sequence line. Stop the video playing when the bad bit is reached. You can drag the red cursor line right or left to pin-point the spot excactly by grabbing the little circle at the top. Now click the button marked "Split" at the left of the screen. This will cut your sequence at the cursor point creating in effect two clips. Now play further along the sequence (the right hand clip) until you reach the end of the bad bit. Once again grab and drag the cursor line to the exact point if needed and then split the sequence again exactly as above. You will now have three clips on the sequence line. Your bad bit of film will now be isolated in the middle. Right click the bad bit of film to select it (It will highlight blue) and from the menu that appears choose to "Remove the selected clip" Your bad bit of film will be removed and the ends of the good bits will slide togther and play without a break. They will remain as two clips as you can't join them together again. However behind the scenes all your clip is still present. If you find the cut is not exactly where you want it you can still drag the ends of the two clips you have created to replace all or part of the bit you removed. In fact you can remove a section by cutting at the end of the bad bit and then dragging the end of the left hand clip to the left, in effect "hiding" the bad section. Nat

Hi On my PC MPEG4 clips always play ,,,,,but the sound plays back at the correct speed whilst the video lags progressivly behind with longer clips.It's even worse with the bigger formats. NCH say its a PC performance related problem. MPEG4 HD 1080 or 720 would seem to require a lot of unpacking but the sound can be played more easily. I convert all my clips to MPEG2 before I edit and this plays OK. The star and the box are for adding effects etc to the clips concerned. Click em and see! Nat

Hi If all you want to do is change the clip then give the new clip a different name ....say "Intro_image2" Add it to the Media list. ** Go into Storyboard mode and note the duration of the current clip. Drag and drop your new image/clip so that it follows the current image/clip and then adjust its duration to match. Now select and remove the old image/clip. The new one will replace the old one. Resave the project. Both clips will still list up just as before. **(In fact if you add a same name clip to the media list, VP adds 1-2-3 etc. so it won't automatically overwrite as the added clip is always different. However, I think that if you remove the old clip from the media list first without altering the sequence and then add a same named new clip it will overwrite it if you then save the project and then reload it but to avoid timing difficulties with any synched sound tracks they would have to be identical durations.) Nat

Hi OK. First of all open VP and then click "Add Media" Navigate to the folder that holds your video and load your video to the media list. It will list up on the left. Click (grab) your video on the list and drag it to, and drop it onto the sequence line. (There are other ways) You can now preview it in the right hand window when you click the Play tab (The triangle). As it plays the red cursor bar will move along the sequence line. Stop the video playing when the bad bit is reached. You can drag the red cursor line right or left to pin-point the spot excactly by grabbing the little circle at the top. Now click the button marked "Split" at the left of the screen. This will cut your sequence at the cursor point creating in effect two clips. Now play further along the sequence (the right hand clip) until you reach the end of the bad bit. Once again grab and drag the cursor line to the exact point if needed and then split the sequence again exactly as above. You will now have three clips on the sequence line. Your bad bit of film will now be isolated in the middle. Right click the bad bit of film to select it (It will highlight blue) and from the menu that appears choose to "Remove the selected clip" Your bad bit of film will be removed and the ends of the good bits will slide togther and play without a break. They will remain as two clips as you can't join them together again. However behind the scenes all your clip is still present. If you find the cut is not exactly where you want it you can still drag the ends of the two clips you have created to replace all or part of the bit you removed. In fact you can remove a section by cutting at the end of the bad bit and then dragging the end of the left hand clip to the left, in effect "hiding" the bad section. Nat

Hi Sorry can't get this to happen. I can load a clip to media list (MPEG2). Highlight clip in list and then add it to the sequence line using the green down arrow. (I usually drag/drop it myself but it has the same effect.) The loaded clip looks OK and I don't have a black frame at the end of the sequence.(Once the clip has played the right hand preview pane displys black though, but its not part of the sequence.) If I use the green down arrow again to add the same clip to the end of the first, the two clips now on the sequence link perfectly. There is nothing between them nor at the end of the sequence either. What format of clips are you using? Nat

Hi In the absence of any other replies, I a pretty sure that VP will only see your loaded DVD as a single length of video,i.e. one long sequence, even if the original DVD had chapters. I don't think these are automatically added into VP. Similarly even of the cameraman shot every scene separately the ends/begining of the individual shots are not recognised in VP. This would mean that if you wanted to move scenes about, you would need to locate the start positions and end positions of each section (the "Plays" you refer to.....Its Soccer we have here .) Now you would split the sequence at these points in order to recreate the cameraman's shots. Having done this you could then move the sections about just as you wish. If you then (after your editing) add chapter marks to the starts of the scenes you have created, the completed DVD produced by VP would have "Stop" and "Start" points in it (the chapters) that are recognised by your DVD player and you would be able to jump from Play to Play. Nat

Hi Does VP crash or just appear to stop? If it crashes and you restart the program (e.g. after a Cntrl+Alt+Delete) you would normally see a small window come up first asking if VP actually did crash or stop for some other reason. On the other hand whilst the program appears to stick is there a blue moving progress bar active at the bottom right of the window? If there is it indicates that VP is still processing your changes and actually can't do anything else until those changes have been updated e.g. loading effects and transitions. Depending on the length of your video and the processing power of your PC this can take some time and give the impression that it has stopped. However I have no real idea what might be happening. I can only suggest (in the absence of any other ideas from elsewhere) that if your video runs OK before you add your transitions , then you save your project at that point.(As..say, Proj-1) Then proceed to add your transitions one at a time and playing over each one, checking each time. If all is well after doing a few then again saving your project as Proj-2.and so on. This way, if it stops again you haven't lost anything as you can reload VP and then the last working saved project. You could alternate the two saves if you want to. I know this doesn't actually solve your problem which may be PC related but it might help you complete it. (And, of course you may already do this) Nat

Hi In short--If you add an image/video to the overlay track it should have the same aspect ratio as the main video. If not then you will be left with borders where the main video will be visible. This assuming you have placed your overlay in the centre and enlarged to full size. There will be no borders if the overlay has the same aspect as the main video and no distortion either. If the overlay has a different aspect then there will be parts of the background video visible, but, again, your overlay will not stretched or distorted. You can change the aspect of the overlay so it matches your video in two ways. Both involve cropping (or zooming) Click the overlay so it appears in the left preview pane and add a crop effect, setting the option to 16:9 (if thats the video ratio of you main video); setting the overlay central and using the size slider to make the overlay as large as it will go. It will expand to either reach from side to side or from top to bottom depending on the aspect ratio.Now move the red rectange in the crop window up or down to set it where you want. You will lose some of the overlay top or bottom or both depending where you set it. If the overlay is actually smaller then it may be also expanded to fit the frame with the size adjustment The other way is using the "none" option and then dragging the borders of the red rectangle out until the overlay just covers the video. (as seen in the right hand preview window).Inevitably you will lose some of the imagery in the overlay but it won't deform it (It may enlarge it). Setting the chroma key values will not deform the overlay either. So Unless I am missing something I cant see how you are getting your overlay deformed. I have tried all sorts of ratios and image sizes with no problems Nat

Hi Seems a common problem. NCH say its performance related with HD as the PC has a lot more processing to do with the video part over the sound. If you are getting the effect I get with HD in the larger formt MPEG4, the visuals lag behind the sound with increasing desynchronisation. As I have posted frequently, rightly or wrongly I convert my video to MPEG2 and the problem goes away. Nat

Hi I presume you are doing this in Videopad? It shouldn't present too much of a problem. Load your song (music) and the video that you have created into VP using the "Add media" tab. They will then show in the "Media List" window. Drag and drop your video from the media list to the sequence line and do the same for the music file, but dropping it onto the soundtrack 1 line. If your video has a soundtrack it will be visible on the "Audio track" line. If you don't want it to play, then you can either mute it or delete it. To mute it, right click the Audio track and select "Adjust clip volume". Tick the "Mute" box and then click OK.This will mute the track. If you prefer to delete to it, right click the Audio track and select"Unlink sound clips" The track will drop down to sountrack 2 line. Now left click it and drag it a short distance to the right.(This unlinks it from the video) Now right click the track and then select to remove it. If you have removed it and want to restore it again then simply right click the video sequence and select to "Restore sound clip". Now... The music track can be dragged left or right to any start point relative to the video so you can set the music to start wherever you like. Play the video (It will from your point of view play the music) for the 1.50 minutes that you require. Stop the playback at this point. The red cursor line now will be at the point in the music where you want to cut it. You can adjust it if you want by dragging. Now click the button on the left end of the soundtrack 1 (Its under the word "sound") This will cut the sound track at the cursor line. Now play on to the second place you wish to slice the sound...45 seconds from the end. Do the same procedure. Your soundtrack will now be in 3 pieces. Right click the middle section to highlight it and from the menu select to "Remove selected audio" Your two sound bites will now be left but separated. Simply drag the 45 second section along to the left so it just overlaps the first (1.50 minute) section. It will auto arrange to remove the overlap and the soundtrack will now play as a complete piece without a break. Note that the soundtrack is independant of the video and you can drag the two pieces left/right to match the visuals as much as you wish but you cant link them together however. If your cuts are not exactly where you wanted them simply pull the sound bites apart a little and drag their ends in or out until the effect is what you want. If you zoom in using the control at the bottom right of the screen you can drag the cut points with a bit more precision. Hope this helps. Nat