Stop clips from moving (& general concepts)

[Uberprutser]

I'm currently adding some extra footage to my project, mostly using track 2.

But I just found out that almost everything on track 2 has moved again. Sigh. (probably after making changes on track one.)

I'm being careful not to add long clips on track 2 that might overlap with other clips on the same track.

And I did group clips together, but unfortunately that feature does not work for keeping things together.

So how do I make sure things don't change further up  in the time line that is out of my sight when zoomed in?

Because this is annoying and rather time consuming

[borate]

Lock tracks that aren't to be affected.  Right-click at the left of the track. 

If content is linked audio/video, then locked either will lock them both.

Selecting, then grouping selected clips, should move them all when dragged.  Does here.

[Uberprutser]

I will give that feature a try. Although it sounds a bit counter intuitive for an editor.

b.t.w. is there a easy option to ungroup everything and move all the clips on track 2 together (including audio) a bit to the right? Doing it one by one will take ages, and I don know when it got messed up because it happened out of sight because I was zoomed in.

 

[borate]

Typical Windows conventions...

Click the first clip, hold down <shift>, click the last.  All between the two on that track are selected.

Click various clips when holding down <ctrl> and each, individually, is selected.

Click any clip, then press <ctrl-A> and all clips, all tracks are selected.

It's not necessary to group clips in order to drag them in concert.  Just select the ones to be dragged.  BUT, this works only once.  Grouping locks them together.

To ungroup, right-click a clip in the group and UNGROUP CLIPS.

If you are working on a lengthy project with many source files you might want to save AS frequently and make test exports occasionally.  Multi-effect/transition/track projects can be problematic at export if not laid out efficiently.  This is a 32-bit program, with only so much capacity to access memory.

[Uberprutser]

I've given up on moving things back to its correct position in time.

But what is good practise when making changes to track on and adding stuff to track 2. I'm already saving a lot but loading a project can be so freaking slow and I don want to watch the whole timeline after every little change.

How about adding some text clip of the same length as a clip in track 1 and use those as a reference to check nothing has moved? Maybe also add some bogus wave file in the same position.

[borate]

Lock the tracks that you don't want affected.  No need to go through extra hoops.

[Uberprutser]

If I use the lock track option everything is locked and I can not make any changes. Besides I need to delete and reinsert a few clips on track one and I need to move everthing together (also track 2) with the changes I'm making. But I do not trust v.p. to do the right thing. And I don't want to check the rest of the time line all the time. Progress is slow already

[borate]

Only the locked track cannot be edited;  all others are active.

Moving clips in a track, if they are UNlinked, normally won't affect other tracks.  But there can be interactions, so locking the others ensures they aren't moved.

If a mistake is made immediately press <ctrl-Z>  (EDIT | UNDO) to backtrack, step-by-step.  Save AS often.

[Uberprutser]

Update. So I'm replacing a clip on track 1 and adding a second clip on track 2 in more or less the same location. So far so good. But when I change the length of the clip in track 2 by dragging the bracket on the left to the right so the clips gets shorter. But then everything in track 2 including the audio and a text file I placed on track 3 (no typo) gets moved to the left. To work around this behaviour I avoided using the brackets and cut the clip on track 2 into pieces and used the mouse to move it into the correct position. Looks like I found the problem that cost me a lot of time I suggest you avoid using the brackets. But a fix would be better.

Holding the Alt key while dragging the bracket seems fix my problem. I did not expect that would be necessary because there was nothing on track 2 next to the clip I was editing. Now I know better, good leanings moment for me

[borate]

The same version # may have several slightly different characteristics when installed.  It's a marketing tool.

Some behave as you describe - requiring the <alt> key to prevent snapping - and others do not.  It's strictly random which version is installed and can take a half-dozen install attempts to end up with a snap or non-snap version..

[Uberprutser]

And now another problem: Cut the clip on track one and deleted part of it. Everything automatically moved to the left. But not far enough. It stopped at the and of the clip in track 2. So I right click the gap in track one and select close the gap in the track. Gap closed for track one but everting else stays put. The option close gap in sequence was greyed out. Unexpected behaviour and I worked around it by moving the clip in track 2 a bit to the left. If I wasn't paying special attention things like this could do real damage! The "marker" clips I placed on track 2 and 3 and audio 2 worked great for this

[Alan R]

I understand exactly your problem.  My home projects are usually based around days out, and we usually generate 50 to 100 videos clips and as many photos per day.

1st I ensure all files (video clips and jpegs) are named according to their time of shooting/taking, usually HH.MM.SS.  Advanced renamer makes this dead easy taking less than a couple of seconds for a folders worth.

I too had the same issue as you, coupled with the fact that the final resultant video would usually be around half to three quarters of an hour long for the day out.  Large timeline, large render time and so I decided to chop things up making and working on smaller pieces in isolation.  Say we visit the giraffes, this will generate a number of clips and many photos.  Collected all the giraffe clips and photos and put them in your own personal bin.  Easy to make, your own personal bin has one special quality, it does not segregate clips and pics, they all got in the same bin.  Left to go in the default bins will separate video from photos, which prevents my next trick from working.  Select the contents (mixed clips and pics) and drag the whole lot to the timeline.  Being named as they are the pics end up on the timeline neatly next to the clips shot at the same time.  Yes we do make sure my video camera and my partners photo cameras clocks are in sync.

Broken into subject groups  means I will work on the giraffe memories clipped chopped  blended transitioned into a pleasing result, then I render partxxx, and that's it.  On to the next animal etc.  No interraction or clip movements to manage as they are all well contained within this small sub section.  By the time I get to the end of the collection of subsections each section will have only been rendered as much as necessary to complete that section.  As a large single project the giraffes may well have been unnecessarily rendered many times as I perfect all the other animal groups.

Not only does this larger project become more manageable, less time is spent rendering, less time worrying about undesirable movements and interactions.  At the end of processing all the subsections, I just make one mp4 by bolting all the "made earlier" mp4's and not even having to render them further.  This last act I do in a different editor, but may be something VP would do.  My method involves no rendering and as such works at lightning speed.

Works for me anyway, as I too found difficulty working out just when VP would split insert and move things out of view.

 

[borate]

Solid plan.  Organizing/pre-production can save much frustration.

VP will export losslessly, in no time, if the clips meet specs...  https://www.nch.com.au/kb/10288.html

 

[Uberprutser]

Thanks for sharing you process and experience Alan. For sure I could improve my work a bit, by organising things a bit better and using the media bins a bit more efficient

[borate]

 General concepts

   Clear the cache prior to beginning a new project, load only the clips to be used and when appropriate pre-trim them - perhaps with another utility.  For example, a recent project contained a 7 HOUR clip that, understandably, bogged down VP.  But only 2:30 of it was active video.  When the excess was removed, and the trimmed clip loaded, there were no slowdowns or export issues.

Add global effects that apply to lengthy sections or the entire project, last...
   Drop a sequence into another, which makes it into a single clip (effects and audio tracks won't appear, but they are there). Or export the sequence, re-import it, and add the global effect.

Use as few tracks, effects, and transitions as practical, and pre-produce repetitive scenes...
  Add overlays on the same track when possible, instead of staggering them onto different tracks.  While this may not be as pretty as having individual track labels for each overlay, it cuts down on the processing load considerably.  Clip names can be viewed by hovering over them.

Pre-produce repetitive clips...
     A project had a track of the same scene, looped and transitioned 25 times.  That could have been exported, then dropped into the final as a single composited clip.  Speed-altered clips may also benefit from pre-production in the same manner.

Break lengthy projects into manageable segments...
     Export and review each, then merge them for the final export.  Just because a project looks good on the tiimeline doesn't guarantee faultless export.

If clips are very high-resolution or lengthy, Proxies can speed editing.  Creating them takes a little time, but often pays off in the long run.  See https://nch.invisionzone.com/topic/26563-proxy-editing/

Routinely save, but don't click the SAVE button.  Click the chevron to the right of the button and Save As, giving it a unique # or name, to avoid overwriting prior saves.