Avid Editing Workshop 2 - Professional Toolkit

In this second Avid workshop we ran back over the basics we learnt last time (see previous post) and then we moved on to look more into the effects you can create with Avid. It was a very different process compared to what Ive used before on programmes such as Premier Pro.

Firstly we looked again at the quick transitions option again but this time learnt about an effect called fade to/from colour depending on which way you want it to dip down:

It essentially makes the traditions between shots dip down to black (or another colour of your choice) and then fade back up. To change the colour and length etc you go onto effects editor which is the button on the left of the compose panel and looks like two sliders buttons.

To access the full range of effects and not just the few you see in the quick transition option you go into the project window and click on the tab which is a purple square cut diagonally in half with triangles and it opens up the full menu:

To add these to a clip you simply choose the effect you want and you then drag and drop it onto where you want it in the sequence. Again to edit these effects in more detail you click on the effects mode button once they have been applied:

When your on the effects mode option it gives you another way to keyframe within the composer window with the same pink triangle button:

Also while your on this composer window you can use the magnifying glass buttons below to zoom in and out to help you when applying and editing effects. If you do zoom in on this composer window you can hold the ctrl and alt button down to move around when zoomed in which again can be helpful for some more detailed effects.

Other things you can do while on the effects editor window are to click the button which looks like two squares one inside the other and this puts up the safe lines for you so you can position things correctly.

Also you probably noticed when looking at the effect editor window that you can bring up the timeline of the click so that you could potentially keyframe each individual frame if you wanted to as it allows you to see a lot more detail:

If you click the promote button when in effects editor which is in the right bottom corner and looks like a 3D square it gives you a lot more options when editing the effect:

When you are adding effects to the timeline by dragging and dropping you can also layers effects so you have more than one effect on a clip. If you simply drag and drop it won't work but if you hold alt while dragging a second effect over it will allow you to layer them. When you have a double layers effect you can double click on this clip in the timeline and it opens up the different layers of effects so you can see them clearer:

You can also use the button at the bottom of the timeline which looks like two triangles one pointing up and one pointing down and this will also allow you to step in and out of a clip.

Some effects that you can add like blur don't always work on there own. You must go onto effects editor and use the tools provided to activate it and get it to work:

You can also do things with this effect like tracking which you have the option to do with the tools on the right hand side of the menu. The tracking tool allows you to select a point and then have the blur stick to this point. Avid usually works this out well itself however sometimes you need to keyframe some points along the way to help.

Another good effect that you can use is the paint effect. This can be again found in the menu and can be used for things like making a clip have a vignette. You do this by firstly adding the paint effect and then going onto the effect editor menu. You use the shape tool to draw a black square over the whole clip/frame your effecting in the composer window. Then take the oval tool and fill up most the space only leaving the black corners then and then click erase on the style menu so that this oval is removed from the black and you are just left you dark corners. Then to make this more like a vignette you can feather it on the effects editor menu like so:

The way to speed up and down a clip and play with the speed in general is to add the effect 'time warp' to the clip. However to put this effect into action you  can't use the effect editor and instead you need the 'effect motion editor' which can be found in the bottom of the timeline tools as a little film frame with speed lines on it. This bring up a slightly more complex menu:

To change the speed on this menu you can simply move the green line using the pink diamond either up to speed up or down to slow down. This will change the speed of the entire clip. If you put the speed to below 0 it will then revers the clip. You can also in this menu keyframe again using the pink triangle at certain points and this will allow you to adjust the speed at certain points in the clip like so:

There is also options in the drop down menus which can change how smooth it looks and they way it speeds up and down. 

When doing large editing like speed etc you will need to save and render the clip. If a blue dot appears next to the clip on the timeline it means it hasn't been rendered and therefore cant play at all so you must go on and render this.

We also learnt a useful way to change the interface and add certain keys and buttons in to where you want them. This isn't advised but can sometimes be useful to do. You click on the tools menu and scroll down to command palette and this will let you remap keys like so:

You can also do this for the keyboard by clicking settings on the command palette and selecting keyboard.

If you decide to add the mitten editor button to your source window it will allow you to click it before even adding an effect and you can change the speed before a clip is even on a timeline. This create a whole new clip at a new speed which you can save into a VFX bin and insert into your timeline where and when it is needed. 

To freeze frame you select the clip you want so it is in the source window and then you choose the frame you like and put an in and out marker on this one frame. Then with this frame selected click on the composer option at the top of the screen and scroll down to freeze frame where you can choose a time for the freeze frame and then you can edit it as you like:

With certain effects when you keyframe them you may want to experiment with how the clip traditions from one key frame to the other. You can do this again in the effects editor to change the way it flows:

There are several options here such as-

Spline= It slowly ease from one key frame to another smoothly.

Shelf= It suddenly jumps from one key frame to another which isn't smooth at all.

Beziae= This lets you manipulate it yourself by clicking on the expansion triangle.

We then looked at how you would go about adding captions to your timeline/sequence. You firstly should always create a new track and bin just for captions to keep your work space organised. To create a title on this track click tools then 'title application' and this brings up a menu were you either select 'title tool' which is a still simple title or 'Marquee' which can be a much more complex title which you can make a roller or a crawler with too. 

Firstly I tried to add a simple title using the title tool. This has a lot of simple options such as font, text size and style etc:

You can also on both text options select the V which removes the background so you can make the title on a plain coloured background rather than on the clip. Once you are happy with the title you save it into your captions bin and then you can apply it to your timeline. Effects mode allows you to re-edit the titles.

I also tried making a roller credit using the 'Marquee' title option which brings up a whole different screen/window like so:

There is some really cool things you can do with this window. For example you can use a light tool which you can move around and adjust which works like a virtual light shinning on the text. It is the R and C buttons on the left which let you make it either a rolling or crawling title. You then save this again in the captions bin and can then add it to the timeline wherever you like it. To effectively add the title in you need to select an in and out point on the title in the source window and then choose an in and out point on the timeline and then insert it in. The speed of which the title rolls is based on how big a space you left in-between your in and out points on the timeline.

Here is my finished timeline/sequence which I managed to create today which uses all the effects we learnt and a lot more through experimenting:

I have found everything we covered in this workshop to be very useful and I feel like I am adjusting to using Avid to edit a lot more.