Nelson's Video Editing Forum

Creating Media Files

Although it is true that media files need to either be imported or digitized to be used in Liquid, the exceptions are certain types of media you can create inside Liquid.

These fall into five categories:

Creating a color clip
Creating a signal clip
Creating a DVD menu
Creating a title
Creating a SmartSound clip

You'll learn how to create a DVD menu in Chapter 12, a title in Chapter 10, and a SmartSound clip in Chapter 7. This next section explains how to create color and signal clips.

Creating a color clip

You'll often create a color clip to function as the background in an effect or to be used for the lead-in to start a video or the lead-out to end it.

To create a color clip:

Do one of the following:
- Select the Rack inside which you want to create the clip, and right-click in the right window of the Project Browser.
- Right-click on the Rack Window button at the top right of the Project Browser.
From the contextual menu, select Create > Color Clip ( Figure 3.31 ).

Figure 3.31 Accessing Create > Color Clip.

This brings up the Color Matte Clip box.
On the right side of the box, choose from three settings: Single color: A standard color clip made from the color of your choice ( Figure 3.32 ).

Figure 3.32 Choosing a single color.

Linear Gradient: Uses two colors and creates a gradual fade from one color to the next on a user-defined path. A path is created by clicking the mouse inside the color window and dragging the cursor around to create the desired effect ( Figure 3.33 ).

Figure 3.33 A linear gradient color clip.

Circular Gradient: Uses two colors and creates a gradual fade from one color to the next in a circular pattern from a user-defined radius. To create a user-defined radius, click anywhere inside the colored area and drag the point of the circle outward or inward ( Figure 3.34 ).

Figure 3.34 A circular gradient color clip.
Choose which color you want by clicking the small colored rectangle to bring up the color picker ( Figure 3.35 ).

Figure 3.35 The color picker tool.
Once you have decided on a color, click the check mark to exit the color picker.
Click the check mark to exit the Color Matte Clip window. A color clip is created in the Rack you have selected. You can insert this new media clip into the Timeline or the Source Viewer and use it just like any other media clip.

Creating a signal clip

The use of a signal clip is somewhat esoteric; all you actually create is a WAV file with a single beep inside it. Some editors use this to give the end of scenes an audio mark or to create an audio queue that they can use as a guide while editing. The rest of us will find its functionality less remarkable.

To create a signal clip:

Do one of the following:
- Right-click inside the right window of the Project Browser.
- Right click on the Rack Window button at the top right of the Project Browser.
From the contextual menu, select Create > Signal Clip. The signal clip is created inside the Rack you have selected.

Resizing Images

Converting images can be achieved at three different times:

During Import
While it is in the Project Browser
When it has been placed on the Timeline

To resize during Import:

Select Edit > Control Panel ( Figure 3.22 ).

Figure 3.22 Selecting the Control Panel.
Click Image Import ( Figure 3.23 ).

Figure 3.23 The Image Import icon on the Control Panel.

This brings up the Image Import Properties box ( Figure 3.24 ).

Figure 3.24 The Image Import Properties window.

Most of the settings here are for various specialized image-related problems and configurations. Details on this can be found in Chapter 6 of the Avid Liquid Reference Manual. The two areas of greater interest are
- Scale to fit: When selected, this will import images to the current TV standard.
- Image Duration: This defaults to 3 seconds, but most editors prefer a minimum duration of at least 10 seconds. You can set this here and dynamically resize it on the Timeline at a later point.
Click the Scale to fit check box.
Close the Image Properties box and import your image. Figure 3.25 shows the original image imported with this setting. Don't worry too much about the black border running around the outside of the screen; remember, not all of the Inlay will be shown on most TV screens. Trial and error is required here to see what works for you and what doesn't.

Figure 3.25 The original image reimported using the new settings.

To resize in the Project Browser or on the Timeline:

If you have already imported your images and you now want to resize them, right-click the image in the Project Browser (or on the Timeline) and select Properties from the menu ( Figure 3.27 ) to display the Properties of that image.

Figure 3.27 Accessing the media clip's properties.
Select the V tab to display the visual settings and select Fit largest - Keep Aspect from the Scaling Menu Bar ( Figure 3.28 ).

Figure 3.28 Selecting Fit largest - Keep Aspect from the Menu Bar.
Click the plus button to apply this, and then click the check mark button to exit the Properties box ( Figure 3.29 ).

Figure 3.29 Click on the Apply button to apply the change.

Files that won't import or display correctly

Import problems

If you do come across a media clip that is not one of the recognized file types, or you have one that does show up in the Liquid file browser but will not import, then you will have to convert it before you try to import it.

Usually Liquid gives an error message telling you why it can't import the file, and you can use this information to help you find a conversion program. The popular program TMPGEnc (www.tmpg-inc.com) is good place to start, but other conversion programs are only an Internet search away.

Playback problems

Video files, particularly those downloaded from the Internet, are encoded with a variety of different codecs to help reduce their overall size. You may end up importing a media clip and then only seeing a blank screen when you try to play it back. If your system is working correctly, there are only two reasons for this:

The clip needs to render before it can play back. Check this by clicking the Render icon to see if the clip is rendering and how long it will take.
The clip uses a codec that is not installed on your computer. Check this by trying to play the clip in Windows Media Player. Media Player will give an error message if it doesn't recognize the codec. If you are very lucky, Media Player will download the correct codec automatically. But only if you are lucky—in the real world this rarely works.
Google is the place to search for the codec you are looking for, but be aware of what you are downloading! Viruses and Adware programs proliferate the codec market.

Which One Is Best for You?

This will depend on the original physical dimensions of the image, but because NLE is nondestructive, you can freely experiment to find out which setting works best for each image.

Figure 3.30 shows the six different options you have for stretching a photograph with the original image at top center.

Figure 3.30 The six different options for adjusting an image after it has been imported.

Fit largest - Keep Aspect: Stretches each side equally
Fit X: Stretches only the vertical and ignores the horizontal aspect ratio
Fit Y: Stretches only the horizontal aspect and ignores the vertical aspect ratio
Fit X - Keep Aspect: Stretches the vertical to fill the screen but keeps the horizontal aspect ratio correct
Fit Y - Keep Aspect: Stretches the horizontal to fill the screen but keeps the vertical aspect ratio correct
Fit Both: Stretches all sides, ignoring both aspect ratios

Dealing with Image Import Problems

Although Liquid can import pretty much anything, some imports may throw up unexpected results. Images from digital cameras and scanners are particularly prone to problems.

Most imported images will have been taken by digital cameras and will have frame and image sizes that vary to the moon and back. This is not a problem for Liquid to import, but it can be a problem if you want them to display correctly on the Timeline.

Figure 3.19 shows an image taken with a 2 MB digital camera. When imported into Adobe Photoshop, this image has a size of 1600 pixels by 1200 pixels. This is a large image, but not uncommonly large in the digital camera world. When the image is displayed in the Source Viewer, only a zoomed-in section of the image is shown; on the Timeline, the effect would be the same ( Figure 3.20 ).

Figure 3.19 The original digital image, reduced in size to fit in this book.

Figure 3.20 The same digital image placed on an SD DV Timeline.

Why does this happen?

Video editing systems have a resolution that is linked to the TV standard used in each country. For example,

In the United States, the National Television System Committee (NTSC) standard uses a screen resolution of 720 pixels by 486 pixels.
In Europe, the Phase Alternating Line (PAL) standard uses a screen resolution of 720 pixels by 576 pixels.

To display an image correctly, you must scale it to fit one or the other of these sizes or convert it from an oversized image to one that is the correct size.

Converting your images to the size you want requires time and an image manipulation program. This means that every photo you want to import into Liquid needs to be altered in this way. This is a laborious process if you have a lot of images to convert.

The solution is to let Liquid scale each image to fit the resolution being used on the Timeline. For details, refer to the "Resizing Images" section on the next page.