Nationalsolo

Hi In general a newer version of VP will load older projects. Very old projects may not load as the architecture of the .vpj file was altered around version 4 (or so) .If it's a matter of an uninstall and reinstall the VP project should always reload provided the files (video clips etc) etc are still available on the PC and in their original folders. The .vpj files are not uninstalled with VP they remain as normal files on the PC. Nat

Hi Yes, that's the prompt you want..from the "File" menu .."Save Portable Project as.." Clicking this and navigate to a suitable folder (you can create one first with a recognisable name if you wish.) This prompt will save a copy of ALL the files in the project plus a .vpj file to enable it to be reconstructed. The other options create just a .vpj file. In fact this is one way of saving a complete copy of a project even if you later lose some of the original clips by accident. They are saved by number and date and because everything is saved the project can be moved to a different machine or uploaded elsewhere for reconstruction.....i.e. its portable. Zip the folder and send this as a public file to dropbox etc.with a link back on the forum. Someone will then no doubt take a look. Nat

Hi Unfortunately your upload only contained the .vpj file which is insufficient to load your project. You need to send the clips as well. The whole project can be saved to a folder on your PC by clicking SAVE AS PORTABLE PROJECT. This will contain all the clips plus a .vpj file. zip this folder and upload it. Nat

Hi Ive done a few videos for fun with my local orchestra using two and sometimes three cameras. One fixed and recording the whole scene and the others roaming around taking shots of various instruments etc. The main fixed video I use for the actual soundtrack and basic film. (It's only for fun so the sound quality is not too important.) Once the main fixed camera clip is on the timeline in VP I can easily add the others camera clips to the overlay tracks and then synch in their soundtracks simply by playing them individually with the main track and matching the audio peaks together. Once I have done this and they play OK I mute them and edit the overlay tracks for length and effects as required and then lock them At most I end up with 4 tracks and the cutaways nearly always look OK. It's pretty simple but it works. Nat

Hi VP doesn't just play the top track of course, it still has to "look" through all the overlays and play lower tracks in any gaps it sees. I presume it does this each time it previews, hence the "Building Preview" message when the PC struggles to keep up. Perhaps Adobe creates a continually updated background sequence as it goes along and plays this when previewed....don't know. Still , I tried 25 tracks with VP, just to see what my old PC would manage. ....... It was an interesting struggle,, (lots of BP messages and judderings in sequence preview) and I agree this would not be practicable (for me) if I worked this way. I seldom have more than 4-5 tracks and this was with only a single short clip on each track. It could well be that VP isn't a suitable tool for the particular way you work. On the other hand how DO you keep 25 tracks in view simultaneously? Nat

Hi No preliminary export is required . As I mentioned, you can still use the TOP "Video Effects" tab to apply your effect to multiple clips. Each clip will get the effect you set provided you group them first. Creating a sequence and then reloading it (not an export) IS another way but the clips now act like a sigle clip and so is not particularly useful..just a suggestion. Nat

HI 25 video tracks? ........ GOSH! My PC wouldn't budge ......(Might actually try it and see what happens... But seriously; are so many needed? Nat

Hi Select ALL the clips you require to use the effect on and if you like Group them Click the "Video Effects" tab from the Top Toolbar followed by the effect required from the dropdown lists. This will prompt if you want the effect on all the selected clips or just one.......i.e. In effect a "Master" effect.:-) Note: If you use the FX button on a clip, even if you have selected multiple clips or multiple clips grouped, the effect only goes on that specific clip. In some circumstances you might also save your set of clips as a sequence, reload it and then add an effect to the new sequence. This would work OK for things like colour temp etc. but not if you wanted the different clips treated with effects like Position and all different different . Nat

Hi Yes, don't use black letters unless you have a contrasting background. Unfortunately the text background option seldom looks right and you would do better to simply write your text in a colour that will be well seen over black and leave the text background transparent. Write your text to a width and font size suitable, in say, yellow. You can change colour,size and font later if it doesn't fit first time around. When completed it will be added as an image to the clip bin and also placed onto the overlay track whch you should then expand. You can now click the FX button and use POSITION to move it onto the right hand side (or the left) of the frame where when it is to be viewed. Use Sequence Preview to monitor its position. it will appear over the black background. Nat

Hi In the Position effects panel set the Horizontal value to -12.5 to move the 4:3 frame to the left of the 16:9 window. ( 12.5 to move it to the right hand end of the window.) Obviously you can monitor the exact position if you set it so the chequered area is just covered on whichever side you want the frame. Nat

Hi Dragging the dots as Borate suggests is the way to increase the size of the "Bin" area, but as you may also be referring to the thumbnail line of the tracks (as your image suggests,) this has a limited effect if you have added text or titles which appear on the overlay track (Video Track 2). This immediately reduces the size of both tracks but (for some reason) leaves quite a wide "Drag and Drop" prompt area. Provided you don't have anything of Track 2 (i.e. No Track 2) you can expand the thumbnails a great deal by dragging the dots up. With Track 2 in place you can't do much apart from expanding the track. I think there should be a control that allows the user to drag any of the track edges up or down and in effect reduce the "Drag and Drop" area to the benefit of the track area. Just a thought. PS I had a feeling this was mentioned some time ago... Nat

Hi Just to clarify....... This is the BACKGROUND image. This the GREEN SCREEN image. The background is to be made transparent With the background masked out and filled with red. (Could be any uniform colour...Not necessarily green). The Red area in this example will be rendered transparent using the green screen effect. In this example blue couldn't be used as the object is, in itself blue and would also become transparent. The Cornfield BACKGROUND image is placed on Video Track 1 The GREEN SCREEN Bubble car image is placed on Video Track 2 above the background image/clip When the sequence is viewed, the overlay clip covers the background.......the cornfield is hidden. The GREEN SCREEN effect is now applied to the overlay image.clip. The colour to be rendered transparent can be colour picked from the image or in this case, as it is pure Red .....Red can be set with the RGB settings. As soon as this is done the chosen colour in the overlay becomes transparent.......... Any remaining border can be removed or reduced with a higher Threshhold setting In this example the Bubble car clip appears against the background cornfield clip...... NOTE: The BACKGROUND clip/image goes on VIDEO TRACK 1 (Cornfield) The GREEN SCREENED image/ clip goes on VIDEO TRACK 2 (Bubble car) Upper tracks cover up lower tracks apart from transparent areas. (Not the other way.) Hope this makes this clearer. Nat

Hi The files downloaded OK. and the project file seemed to load them OK into VP except that the clip "Girl-369" didn't appear as part of the project The sequence played but was very jerky and had numerous stoppages and "Creating Preview" messages. This might have been my PC as it is getting old and slow but recent private MPEG4 H264 projects run and edit OK, so as an experiment I converted all the files downloaded to MPEG2 format. On screen these look almost identical to MPEG4 but are about 1/3/ of the size. I then reconstructed the project, allowing splits to some clips to make them as similar as possible to the original clip lengths. This played perfectly smoothly in the VP editor with no stoppages.. The project rendered OK, exported OK as MPEG4 (native) .avi and played perfectly in VLC. Quality seemed fine. Try converting the MPEG4 to MPEG2 and see what you think. personally I cant see a lot of difference. This is a Snapshot from the project one half MPEG4 and the other MPEG2. (.png) Nat

Hi You need to place your "Green" screen voice talent clip on Video Track 2 which is the overlay track and the "Background" stretched image clip on Video Track 1. Think from the point of view that clips on upper tracks obscure clips on lower tracksT. (i.e.They overlay). Any areas made transparent in those upper clips will NOT hide the lower track areas. Currently your "Background" stretched image clip is on the overlay track and consequently completely covers up your voice talent clip. You have correctly made the required areas of your voice talent clip transparent (i.e. the blue screen areas). It shows the chequered background in clip preview and this appears black in sequence preview. You need your voice talent clip on Video Track 2 and your stretched image clip on Video Track 1 so...Just swap the tracks. Nat

Hi That doesn't seem to happen here... (VP 5.11) e.g. Three clips on the timeline...A,B,C. Unlink B and delete the audio Add a new shorter audio under B. Line it up anywhere but best at a good synch point. Select both B and its new audio and group them from the right click menu. They should now stay together. Shorten A (as you appear to be doing) by dragging its right edge to the left. Clip A shortens and B and C move left to take up the spaced liberated. The audio on B moves with B and retains its position. That is what happens here. One slight anomaly though is that if your added sound clip is shorter than the video clip (i.e. the new sound for B is actually shorter than B and you have grouped them ,) then if you decide to shorten B by dragging the the right hand edge to the left, the audio is also proportionally shorted even though its not part of the visuals of B that are actually being eliminated. The way around this is to split B which leaves the audio untouched and then close the gap created. However I can't make the audio move relative to the clip once I have grouped them. If it still happens and to make it clearer, post the steps you are following (as above ) and someone will try and reproduce it. Nat

Hi Once you have unlinked and deleted the audio for your clip, add the new audio and drag it into position. Now left click the the video clip to select it, press SHIFT. Keep SHIFT pressed and select the new audio clip. Both clips will now be selected. Right click either clip and select "Group Selected Clips" You will now be able to delete gaps and move the clips and they will stay together. Nat

Hi Note that the green screen does not have to be green and can be colour picked from the windows matrix that is used for selection. The colour chosen is the colour that is made transparent in the overlay image. The intensity can be adjusted using the controls supplied. The effect in itself will not alter the overlay image colour but if any pixels in that image (even those in other areas) are made transparent (being the same as the selected screen colour) this can make those areas appear different as a component hue may have been removed. Play with the green screen Fading control or select a slightly different shade for the screen. In general the effect works best for pure shades. Nat

Hi Can't get this to happen here. What VP version are you using and what operating system? I have used a single avi clip and added around 5 zooms to different parts of the frame using keyframes as shown to move from one to another. It seemed to work OK and exported OK. Nat

Hi Is there any visual evidence that the beep is on the soundtrack? i.e. is a peak is visible? If so split the audio track just before it and mute or delete the section isolated. You can then alter your audio fade suitably. If you think that isn't working then you could delete or mute the offending section a replace it with a copy of a more suitable audio clip or add this to Audio track 2 with a tiny overlap so it blends in. Nat

Hi For options... Click Tools/Options....... Nat

Hi "Meaning that when the playhead is passing from the provious clip to the next I don't see smoothly on the project preview window. I tried to insert a very short transition (0.1 sec) between them and the result is much smoother. Why? " If you are using the Clip preview to edit and have used the IN marker to shorten the clip followed by the "Place" tab to move it to the end of the timeline, the join between the timeline and the newly added clip should be instant as this method will not leave a gap. If the action on the two clips is similar, perhaps moving in different directions, playing over the join can make it appear to appear to jump. Adding a short crossfade can make this look smoother. In some cases where a large chunk at the start of clip2 has been blanked off there may be a detectable delay whilst, I guess VP calculates the new start position. Try this as an alternative... Place your edited clip (Clip 2) on Video track 2 (The overlay track) Drag it back a little so it just overlaps the last clip on Video Track 1 (Clip 1) Play the timeline. You should see an instant change from Clip 1 to Clip2. This should look exactly like the change mentioned above using the "Place" tab. Nat

Hi Follow these steps... Move the red cursor line along the main video track to the point where you want to start cutting out the sound. Click the down arrow on the "Split" button under the Sequence Preview window. and hover over Audio Tracks Move the cursor right onto the list that appears to select the audio track to split. (Generally only one option) Click the option required Move the red cursor line to end of your selection where you wish the sound to start playing again and repeat the action. You will now have a secton of the sound track isolated. To delete the audio section right click it and select "Delete" from the menu.........or....... If you want to mute the audio section instead of removing it, click the loudspeaker icon that has appeared at the left end of the sound track section you have isolated and then click the Mute box. followed by OK. The selected section will now show a red loudspeaker. In either case the sound will not play for the isolated part of the audio track. Nat

Hi The drawback with that method is that if you create a sequence from the timeline and then reload it, the audio track is not visible. I don't know why this should be. It seems odd to me that you can create a single clip from your adited work, (a sequence) and it reloads with the audio track empty. Another confusing aspect of this is that you can add a second audio clip to the apparently empty Audio Track1 of the reloaded sequence which previously contained the audio from the original clips. Logically the sequence audio should show on Audio Track 1 and the newly added audio on Audio Track 2. Nat

Hi Forgot to mention...Ctrl A will select all the clips on a track or all the tracks depending where you click. i.e. if you click at the left end before the tracks and then CtrlA you will select all the tracks. Clicking on a track and then CtrlA will select just the clips on that track. Choosing Video Effects from the top toolbar will then apply to all the clips even on the multiple tracks. Not too sure if this works on the Audio tracks as well though. Nat

Hi The white edging you see (I am pretty sure) comes from your method of creating your image which I suspect you did using a mask.The mask line is the problem. If you have a suitable image (jpg/bmp etc you don't necessarily have to produce a transparent png. A jpg or bmp etc will do but will require a green screen as Borate suggests. In your graphics program.. Load a suitable image. In this case a mask (Scuse the pun!) Apply a mask to the part you require to keep Your program may enable you to use mask smoothing Invert the mask. The mask will now be the unwanted area. Your program may enable you to enlarge the mask to reduce the object border a pixel or two (feather). Fill the masked area with a pure colour...e.g. Green It will now look a bit like this...... Remove the mask Save the image as a jpg or bmp It will look a bit like this...... Open VP and load this image Load a clip or a blank frame....in this example I am using a blank black frame as it will better show the defect you are getting) Place the blank clip/frame on Video Track 1 and the Overlay image (the face) on Video Track 2 Click the FX for the overlay (Track2) clip and select Green Screen. As the clip image has been given a green background choose the same colour for the screen Put the sequence line cursor so it passes through both tracks and preview the sequence. At this point you will see that the edge of the mask is visible as a thin green line (This might be why yours is white??) To reduce this unwanted effect increase the value of the Threshold setting to 99% and the border should pretty well disappear.... Note that this over a black frame on Video Track1. Over a video clip .... Hope this helps Nat