Beginner's Video Editing questions, Magix Pro 14, your help appreciated.

davidronen wrote on 11/8/2008, 9:14 AM

 I have have successfully imported an (mpeg2 shot with camcorder) video of a friend reading poetry into Magix Edit Pro.  Now I'm trying to create very simple video (to post on my website and on YouTube) consisting of:

Text intro/titles
Poetry reading (one view, no effects)
End text/credits

I'm a total video editing software beginner.  I have carefully looked at the PDF manual and it wasn't very helpful or clear to me.  I don't have the CD video Tutorial becuase I bought the download version (trying to get the CD from Magix on Monday).  I also looked at the YouTube videos and the videos on Magixician #2's website, but they were about more advanced effects (they were cool - maybe I'll need those someday! :-). 

I'd like to learn to use "Timeline" for editing - it seems the most intuitive to me.  Here are some of my beginner's questions:

1.  What are the two red arrows do?  Sometimes they seemed to mark the beginning and end of the video, and sometimes they just seemed randomly placed.  Sometimes they seemed (my imagination?) to interfere with my attempts at cutting a section of the video out.  How do I use the red arrows for simple editing functions? 

2.   What are the little white squares in the frames in the video timeline and how are they used?  Something tells me they're important!

3.  How do I select only certain sections of the video/audio to work on - in Timeline mode?  I know this important!!! 

4.  What is that little clawed hand cursor?  sometimes if I clicked using it, it undid stuff! :-(

5. How can I cut out sections of the video/audio?  Note: I tried the method recommended in the manual of using the "t" on the keyboard (pause video where you want the cut, press "t", then delete) but it never  cut at exactly where I paused the video - always a little before or after! :-(  I want a precise cut!

6. and... the "t" method wouldn't let me cut out the a section at the very beginning of the video (wouldn't let me mark the start of the video as the first part of the cut)! :-(  How to do that?

7.  Once I have the cut, I see how to drag the two pieces to join each other, but how to I make them softly transition at the cut, instead of "jerk" from one image to the next?

8.  How do put just plain text (with a simple still image background, or even just black) at the beginning of the video?  I want a title and then an introductory text before the main part of the video.

9.  How do I fade in only the audio track (while the intro text is showing, for example) without also fading in the video?

THANK YOU!!!!

Comments

webguy wrote on 11/9/2008, 8:57 AM
I have a blog with some tutorials (www.intheviewfinder.blogspot.com) and a DVD there too. The tutorials may help or the dvd.
(1) The red line is the scrubber and it will cut whereever it is placed. Use the razor blade undere the viewer to cut.
(2) The white squares on the top o the clip fade the clip in and out by pulling them inward. The middle square will fade the entire clip by pulling downward. The bottom squares will let you grab the clip on either end and pull it inward making the clip shorter or longer.
(3)Place the red line (beginning) and red arrow (end) on the section you want to work on. if you need to isolate the section cut it into its own clip. The area that is red when clicked once will be the section you are working on. (hard to explain this in text)
(4)Not sure (clawed hand??) probably does undo or moive something
(5) Place the red scrubber line at the point you want to cut and select the razor blade under the viewer. It will cut precisley on the red line.
(6) The T cuts where the red line is. You may have cut and didnt see it.
(7) Push them together so they overlap. The length they overlap determines the length of the dissolve.
(8) Select the TITLE function at the top, this will open the titler options in the media pool. Select standard and drag it onto the time line. The titler will open. Type in the test you want and any setting then close. Place that clip under the photo and title - photo at the beginning.
(9)Use CTRL=M to seperate the audio from the video, then use the top square on the clip to pull the sound inward, this will make the sound fade up.

Check out the MEP users group at www.mepusers.ning.com or my blog above for more help and to meet other users who can share their knowledge. :-)
J.
Hope that gets you started and you come to love the software like I do!
J