Customizing Videos with the Video
Trimmer
The
Video Trimmer is an excellent tool to
use when you have long video clips, but you only want to feature a small portion
of the video in your slideshow.
Let’s say you have a video of a family member getting married. The video
includes the walk down the aisle, the kiss, and the departure from the
ceremony.
Now if you only want to include the kiss in this part of your show. You can
use the Video Trimmer to cut the video down to just that section and
include it on the slide.
Just like with all editing in ProShow, the trimming a video is a
non-destructive edit. Your original video file will not be changed in anyway.
You're simply telling ProShow which parts of the original video you want to
use.
To Access the Video Trimmer:
-
Open the Slide Options for a slide which
contains video.
-
In the Layers List, select the layer that
contains the video clip, and go to the Layer Settings tab.
-
In the Video Clip Settings area, click the
Trim button.
The Trim Video Clip window gives you access to quite a bit of
information at once.
At the top of the window you'll see the
Video Timeline. The timeline shows you still frames from different
points within the video. It also shows you an audio waveform for any sound in
the video.
Along the top, you'll find the video length. Just below the audio waveform
is a slider bar that you can use to move to different points in the clip.
Using the Video Timeline, you can visually pick just the part of the
video that you want to include in your slide
.
Below the
Video Timeline, you'll find three preview panes. All the
way to the left is the
Preview window. Use the playback controls to
preview the changes you’ve made. If you want to reset the video to the original
state, simply press the
Reset icon.
Just beneath the preview you will also find time and frame information.
This information will update as you move your mouse over the Video
Timeline. You'll find this very useful when making precision edits.
In the
Start Frame and
End Frame windows, you will see the exact frame and time
where the video will begin and end. You can select these points using the
Video Timeline, or by typing in time values. The back and forth arrows
below the
Start and
End Frame previews also make it easy to
advance one frame at a time in either direction.
At the very bottom of the
Trim Video Clip window you'll find the
Zoom slider. When you need to make precision
edits, you'll use this to "zoom in" on the timeline to see smaller increments
of time, right down to individual frames of the video. You can also control
the Zoom using the scroll wheel on your mouse.
The last bits of information you'll find in the Trim Video Clip window
are details about video file you are working with. The file location, the
original video length and the trimmed video length can all be seen in the lower
left corner.
Picking Just the Clip you Want
The Video Trimmer is designed to make using just the right part of
your video as easy as possible.
Begin by finding the area in the video where you want the trimmed down clip
to begin playing. You can do this by moving the mouse cursor across the
Video Timeline. Notice that the Preview window updates to show
you exactly what you’ll see at that point in the video.
Once you’ve found where you want your video to start, go ahead and click in
the
Video Timeline. This will place a marker in
the spot where you clicked.
I
n the
Start Frame preview,
click the
Set Start Time icon. This will move the starting position of
the video clip to the marker you set in the timeline.
Now do the same thing for the End Frame. Move the mouse across the
Video Timeline to find where you want to stop the video. Once you’ve
found that point, click to place a marker and click on the click the Set End
Time icon.
The highlighted region between the two markers is your clip. You can see how
the clip looks by clicking on the Play button. If the clip looks good,
click on Ok to apply your changes.
You can also trim your clip by clicking and dragging the start and end time
flags. The amount of the video in between those flags will be the trimmed
clip.
Making a Clip with Precision
For quick edits
, you'll probably find typing in
values for the
Start Frame and
End Frame to be very useful. Have
a 30 second clip, but only need 5 seconds of it? Just type in 10 and 15 then
press ok. Your clip has now been trimmed to 5 seconds long.
When you may need to be extremely precise with your edits, as mentioned
previously, there are several areas in the Trim Video Clip window that
help you determine very specific points in time.
With the Zoom slider, you can stretch out what you see in the Video
Timeline to show your clip in time increments as small as 1/10th of a
second. As you hover over the timeline, you'll be able to see each individual
frame of the video in the Preview.
When you find the right spot, set your marker, or go ahead and enter the
value in the Start and End Frame. For extreme precision, as you
type in 10ths or 100ths of a second values, you'll even see the number of the
frame change as well.
Note: like the other editing features in ProShow, creating a clip of
your video will not change or alter the source video in any way. Making your
own clips is a completely
non-destructive process. It doesn’t save changes to the
original video so you’re free to be as creative as you wish.
Using Clips of the Same Video
So what happens when you have one long
video and you want to use several different trimmed clips from that video in
your show?
Not a problem! Simply go back to your Slide List and re-add the same,
original video as a new slide in your show. The process is exactly the same as
making the first trimmed clip. You’re simply creating a new clip that features
a different section of the original video .
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