Nationalsolo

Hi

Here is an example of L split with two clips...

• Unlink the audio/video for both clips
• Move cursor to point where video 1 is to stop
• Use the scissors down chevron under the Sequence preview screen to split Video Track 1
• Step the cursor along to the end of clip 1
• Grab the split off section from clip 1 and drag it to an upper track...you are going to use this as a measure so...
• Move it along so it lines lines up to the right of the the cursor.
• Jump the cursor to the end of this split off bit
• Use the scissors down chevron under the Sequence preview screen to split Audio Track 1
• Now delete the split off bit that you used as a measure.
• Now delete the audio section... The timeline should look like this...The two gaps have identical durations...
• 
• Close both gaps..
• L split is complete
• 

Nat

Hi

Well, as I mentioned above 

• Create a stopwatch clip that starts at 0 and ends at the end of the process...30 mins...1 hour...2 hours..whatever.
• Export this as a stand alone clip (e.g. STOPWATCH.mp4 for example)
• Re-import this into VP and place it on the overlay track. (Track 2)
• Use a Green Screen to render any background transparent. (Initially this will be black.)
• Move (Position) the stopwatch to a suitable place on the screen.  That's the stopwatch complete.
• Now set up your clips with the process on Track 1.  The stopwatch will appear where you placed it and should time the process accurately from start to finish.
• Group all the clips if required
• Initially the stopwatch will start 0 and remain running throughout the whole process you have filmed.
• Do any cuts/deletes to both tracks
• Close any gaps
• The stopwatch timings will still show the process time.
• The stopwatch will jump on where cuts have been made and sections deleted. It will remain in time with the process.

I think this solves your problem.

An alternative is to create a new stopwatch for every section of the process and reset the start time...which is rather (quite...VERY) fiddly. The suggestion above is the simplest.

Nat

HI

Dragging the left block to the right won't alter the start time, This will remain at 0. Dragging the block to the right shortens the duration. (Instead of being 0 - 30 it becomes for example 0 - 20. It would be the same if you dragged the right hand block to the left.

Grabbing the body of the clip and dragging should shift the whole clip to a new timeline position. You can set the start time of the stopwatch in the Edit Stopwatch window...

Nat

Hi

Not sure what you mean by "correct timing."  The stopwatch starts at 0 and ends at your selected duration value. As it's on an upper track it in effect times the action on the  lower track (Starting from where you place it).

If you want the timer to move on from where you remove a piece of the lower track.. i.e. if the action gets to 5 seconds and then resumes at 10 seconds and you want the timer to show that.. i.e. 0 - 5 and then 10  onwards then that is a bit more complicated.  You could create a new timer clip that starts at your new position time but that is VERY fiddly.

! think that if this is the scenario you have in mind then you may have to simply export the timer as a stand alone clip...use a monochrome background to the numbers and then once imported back to your project use a green screen to render the background transparent. In this way the timer clip can be cut without resetting the timer which seems to happen if you set up the stopwatch from within VP.

Even dragging the timer from the track to the clip bin to create a new clip won't work or creating a sequence of just the timer.

Nat

Hi

If the stopwatch is positioned at the start of the timeline then you can grab the white block at the left end and drag it to the right. This shortens the duration of the timer.  It should also be possible to drag the whole timer clip right and left so it starts at a different point on the timeline. I think it might be useful to just extend the animation duration to a value greater than what you want as you can then shorten directly on the timeline. I agree it sometimes behaves a bit oddly.

Nat

Hi

Dragging the bracket to the right extends the stopwatch duration. e.g. Timer clip below plays from 0 to 20 seconds..

Dragging the end out to the 30 mark and the Stopwatch plays 0 to 30 seconds .....

In both of these the stopwatch starts from 0 at beginning of timeline. To move the timer along the track and retain the selected duration.....

• Press the Alt Key and left click the stopwatch clip
• Drag the stopwatch clip  along the track so it starts from 0 at the required position.

There are other ways of doing this but this is probably the most logical.

Nat

Hi

Not difficult..

• Place video clip(s) on Track 1
• Place Stopwatch on Track2
• Adjust starting position for the stopwatch clip.
• Set Animation and Clip duration so timer starts and finishes at required times.
• Move red cursor line to split position
• Click the scissor icon down arrow under the Sequence Preview window (NOT the icon by the cursor line.)
• Select Video tracks
• Select Split Video Track 1. (See below) Video track 1 and associated audio will split.
• 
• Do the same for the second split position on Video Track 1. You will have now isolated the clip section you want to remove remove to shorten Track 1
• Delete section between the splits (Video and audio) This leaves a gap in Track 1
• 
• Close the gaps
• Stopwatch will still play from start to finish points selected without a break. It wont restart where you split sections out Of course it will continue to time beyond the end of video track1.
• 

All tracks can be individually split.

Nat

Hi

CPU usage

VP at rest with empty cache.........2% (Running VP forum at same time)

Add a 5 second blank clip to bin ....................14% for around 1/2 second then 3%

Place clip on timeline...................17% for 1/2 second and then 3%

Extend clip to 60 seconds by dragging end.........13% for 1/2 second then 1%

With a blank clip there should be virtually nothing for VP to do.

Nat

Hi

There is no dragging to corners when using Split Screen, VP puts the clips/images in the selected boxes automatically. As Borate mentions Scaling the images first or using the Scale control in the Split Screen control window is all that is required. Vertical images will, of course have wider borders to the left and right. I use an old Vista machine with GeForce  GT 730 card and it seems quite capable.

Nat

Hi

This is pretty straight forward..

• Place background video on Track 1
• Create a black blank and place it Track 2
• Adjust the length (duration) to required value
• Click the FX for Track 2 and add a Split Screen Effect
• Select Horizontal 3 and click box C
• Looks like this now....
• 
• RHS third is now black.

For each image you want to place to the right in the black area you can...

Place on a separate track above track 2 and then Scale and Posiition to the where you want

or

For each image/clip placed on the higher track use a 3 x 3 split screen and put them in different boxes but only boxes on the right....

Voila!

Nat

Hi Dave

Your original VP Show and Tell  clip (with car alarm turned down) played OK. Did you export it as a standalone clip? If you did It would seem that all you need to do is simply add it to your title section.

Certainly your full file has a problem after the title section. With regards the title section I feel it needs to be twice as long (at least) i.e. slower to give the viewer time to read the scrolling text. What I did that you could try...

• Load full file to VP and split off and delete the section after the title
• Un-link the sound track and save as a separate file.
• Change the speed of the title on track 1 to 50%
• Play the audio to a point where the melody repeats (around 10.9 seconds in)
• Split the audio track and delete the section to the right.
• Fade the last 2 seconds of the audio
• Add the audio copy to audio track 2 and line it up (around 8.3 secs in)
• Now cut all tracks at 19.1 seconds.
• Add the Show and Tell clip (with car alarm turned down) to end of timeline.

This works but even at around 50% the titles are still a bit fast. Certain things might be added like fade ins and crossfades after the title. Have you thought of the Space title?

Nat

Hi

I think this is what gdog is referring to.......

Here a node is placed at about 1/2 way along the clip at 15 seconds. The clip speed is 100%....

The clip speed is now reduced to 50% (twice as long.)  However the node does not move with the new speed to appear in the middle ....it remains at 15 seconds. ......

Although this might seem quite logical, try moving the node to a new position. As soon as you grab it a new node appears to left of this one......

Now try grabbing the grabbing  the blue line away to the right. The cursor jumps to the grab position but A NEW node appears  nowhere near that position you grabbed.....

What seems to be happening is that although the blue line extends the full length of the slowed down clip, the node positions still appear in distances proportional to the  original length clip.

This might be considered a bug.

After testing a bit.....If you place a node in the centre of the clip and then speed up the clip to double speed (halving the duration) you can't any nodes at all.

Nat

Hi

This seems to be a possible glitch.

Setting an audio node in mid clip at normal speed does not move to mid clip if the speed is changed. e.g. halving the speed to 50, the node shows up at 1/4 instead of 1/2.

Nat

Hi

Using VP 8.77

The imovie,mov gave a smooth playback with VLC. When loaded to VP the Clip Preview (played from the bin) was just as smooth even when the window was undocked. However, when played from the timeline in Sequence Preview there were continual "building preview" messages with consequent interuptions. I have to put this down to the format being .mov as mp4s and avis normally play smoothly in Sequence preview especially when the size is only 568 x 320 as yors is.

The NCH.mov gave a very slightly jerky pan and zoom in VLC so this definitely seems inherent in the export you posted, so not as smooth as the imovie.mov as you rightly noted.  In VP the NCH.mov previewed from the bin like in VLC...a very slight jerky pan and zoom. In sequence preview from the timeline it previewed without the building messages and played in an identical fashion to Clip Preview and VLC even though is was a larger format 1280 x 720. So the NCH export gave consistent results both in VLC;Clip Preview and Sequence Preview....but was very slightly jerky.....Perhaps due possibly to image clip duration being a little short at around 3.5 seconds to mis dissolve????

It would be interesting to repeat the VP Pan and Zoom with the two original images and see if it could be made smoother. (The imovie.mov seems quite OK here even though image clip duration is the same) As Borate suggests post the two images and we can have a look.

Nat

Hi

A look at your project would be helpful.

In general however, as mentioned, videos on higher tracks will cover up videos that are placed on lower tracks. They all play simultaneously but the videos underneath can't be seen.

However, if you make the upper clips smaller by Scaling them, then the lower videos will become visible. If some still overlap then you might add a Position effect to move them apart. This is often done to get a PIP (picture in picture) effect.

Another way to make the tracks all visible is to use a split screen effect on each track and allocate each  to a different screen area.  In this way you could easily show up to a maximum of 25 tracks although less is more normal.

e.g. A 3 x 2  layout with 6 tracks...

.

Nat

Hi

Pan and Zoom effects work best if the slide has a longish duration. In general set images to last for greater than 10 seconds and the effect will be a lot smoother.  Image pans and zooms look quite smooth here with image durations around 14 - 15 seconds. Drag the ends of each clip out along the timeline, or right click on each one and change the Duration and see what happens. If the preview actually keeps stopping and starting it may be due to very large image files. Even so,you will probably find the export looks OK. Try just a few images and see what the result is.

Nat

Hi

".....In The newest version of videopad, the images in the timeline dont load...."

If your images are on the timeline they have loaded.      Do you mean that images from your computer won't load to the Image bin or images in the image bin won't load to the timeline? Images don't have associated audio so are you referring to clips?

Nat

Hi

• Place background clip on Track 1
• Place insert (PIP) clip on Track 2
• Add Zoom effect to Track 2
• Add Scale effect to Track 2

Add the effects in this order. The PIP will zoom as requested.  Use keyframes with the Zoom to set the start time and end time of the effect.

Start....

End.....

Nat

Hi Aiella

Not too clear on your description but I hope the following is a better explanation......

Things have changed slightly since the original post.

In the original post (from last year) the user found that he had a file in the Sequence bin called Sequence 1 although he hadn't added any clips to VP. This had a clapperboard thumbnail....

I explained that this was quite normal and was a dummy  file...in effect a space to hold the contents of the timeline. At the start the timeline is empty so Sequence 1 is also empty hence the clapperboard. Sequence 1 cannot be deleted.

As soon as you add a clip to the timeline Sequence 1  is updated and the clapperboard changes to a frame from this clip. Sequence 1  now becomes a copy of the timeline. You can rename it if you want.

How do (or can) we use this? As I said Sequence 1 is updated as you add more clips to the timeline or if you edit the timeline. At some point you may decide that the timeline is complete up to this point and you would like to put it to one side. This is done by clicking the + at the left end of the timeline that follows the words Sequence 1 x.

This fixes Sequence 1  (a copy of the whole timeline) in the Sequence bin and creates a new empty place for more work, calling it Sequence 2. This action empties the timeline so Sequence 2 is also empty and has a clapperboard thumbnail.

In effect you are back to square 1 but have saved your work (the timeline) as Sequence 1.

As soon as you add new clips to the timeline Sequence 2 is updated and shows a thumbnail of the new clip instead of the clapperboard. You can now carry on editing the timeline ; adding clips or images or text...you can even add Sequence 1 back in a new position if you wish,) and Sequence 2  in the Sequence clip bin will update with your changes.

As you complete a section of timeline you can repeat the save process by clicking the + at the left of the timeline  following the words Sequence 2 x    Note that the horizontal list is also updated....

As before the timeline is emptied and Sequence 3  is created in the bin and consequently shows a clapperboard. You can now add new clips to the timeline and continue with a new section. (Note that you can, if you wish add your previous work (Sequence 1 or Sequence 2) to the current timeline as in effect they are complete clips.

In short, use the Sequence bin as a temporary store for completed sections of the timeline but remember clicking the +  converts the timeline to a single sequence clip.  If you want to save all the component clips etc then you should save your work using Save Project  or Save Project As The latter is preferred as you can use specific incremental names without overwriting the old save.

All the clips in the Sequence bin can be deleted apart from Sequence 1. which will remain as a thumbnail until the timeline contents are deleted when it will be replaced by a clapperboard thumbnail.

I haven't seen Sequence 0 unless something was renamed.

I hope this explains a basic way of working with the sequence bin files. The are also other option available for sequences.

If still not clear come back in with more detail

Nat

Hi

The structure of the vpj file for earlier versions was different to the later ones. So you may not get the same result.

e.g. with 2.41.....

...and with 8.77......

So you may not get to load you old vpj file to a later version of VP and get back exactly what you originally saved. I'm not sure which version was in vogue when the changes occurred. I thick the structure of the cache also changed around that time.

Nat

Hi

"...it always stretches up and makes it look unnatural...."

That doesn't happen here VP 8.77. However, what happens if you use the Pan and Zoom  effect instead?

• Set your first Frame.
• Alter the rectangle for the end frame and set it.
• Clip will zoom from first rectangle to second rectangle.

Note: The rectangle stays the AR of the clip or image. To avoid a Pan having just a Zoom, keep the rectangle central in the frame. The pan and Zoom effect acts on the whole clip and keyframes can't be used.

Nat

Hi

..........  Otherwise just post specific questions and we'll do our best to reply.

Nat

Hi

You don't mention the version of VP you are using. The bright green bar on the right side of the frame was a problem experienced with a previous version and was fixed as soon as it was reported. You probably downloaded VP during this short interval. Download the latest VP from the link Borate has provided. There are no settings to prevent this happening.

Nat

Hi

Just check this....

Open the cache folder and delete the whole contents. Including the sound cache folder which you will also find there. leave the cache folder totally empty.

Open VP and load your mp4 clip to the timeline. There should be a waveform visible on the audio track but wait until the clip has cached fully. If you don't see a waveform try to preview the clip. if it is still caching the you should see a message relating to this in a yellow bar beneath the timeline.

If the mp4 previews OK but with no sound and no warning and you know that there should be attached audio and the audio track is still black then open the VideoPad cache and check that the VideoPadSoundCache  folder inside it has some files in it.

With a single sound clip on the timeline the cache should look like this...

and the contents of the VideoPadSoundCache folder (shown selected above) should look like this...

If this folder is empty (of which one instance I have noted with VP 8.77) then something is not right. It would be interesting to see what you find.

Nat

Hi DIYMan

A lot of work (and advice) and it's working OK!  Congratulations!  A lot of people looking at this small clip might not realize what a lot of work (and fun I hope) went into it.  Well done!!   Perhaps a bit of animation of the "fly down" figure would make it even better..currently that is a bit static.

Now.....About the full movie....he's going to dash into the street now and lift a 10 ton truck up off  a damsel in distress...Yes??

Nat