Paste Object to desired Track?

Squirrelly wrote on 12/11/2011, 9:10 AM

I'm using MEP MX+ (download ver. 11.0.2.2) on Windows XP with 4gb RAM. I have a project with multiple movies in it. I want to take clips from the various other movies and edit them into the first (main/production) movie. I go to one of the other movies, select an In and Out point, make sure the movie object is selected (there is only one track, no sound even), then go to Edit -> Edit Range -> Copy. Then I go back to the first movie, make sure the Time Line is where I want it, right click the Track I want, and choose Paste Object.

Now what I want is for it to paste it where I select. What it does is warn me that pasting it may cause object to overlap. I say OK and it pastes it to Track 1, which is where I have the audio track for the main movie. If that's locked then it just moves the timeline and doesn't add the object at all.

How can I Paste the Obect where I want and not just on track 1? Thanks!

Comments

emmrecs wrote on 12/12/2011, 4:33 AM

Not really sure, but two things spring to mind:

First, the version of MX you're running is not the latest, I think. Might be worth checking for updates.

Second, are you creating a cut in the movie that is having the new section pasted into it before you actually attempt to make that paste? I think without the cut MEP does not "know" where to place the pasted section. You also need to ensure that "Ripple" is on so that all tracks after the cut/paste point move along to allow the new section to be inserted rather than overwriting/overlapping the existing movie.

I think that all makes sense!

Jeff

johnebaker wrote on 12/13/2011, 2:13 PM

Just to add to Jeff's post.

Copying an object from one movie to another places the copied object in the target movie on to the same track as it was on in the source movie.

You cannot do what you want without moving either the object being copied or the pasted object to the required track.

John

Squirrelly wrote on 12/14/2011, 2:19 AM

@Jeff: Yeah I saw the Ripple option. And I'm not doing any cut on the primary movie. Track 1 has my sound track in this case, as I'm done with it, and don't wany any changes to it. I'm working with all the video to match it, using multiple tracks, so easist to do it all after the sound track. So I don't want that track being cut or "rippled" to anywhere. Where I am trying to put it, is after the last video on a traget track, so there is space to put it there.

@John: I'm starting to think that might be the case too. But that doesn't really work. Where I want to put it on the main movie may be any of multiple tracks, or just an extra out of the way track until I decide how best to arrange it. To do that, I then need to first find the clip I want in the extra movie. Then go back to the main movie, decide what track I want it on. Go back to the extra move, move it's entire video down to the track I want, then copy the clip. Go back to the main movie, then paste the object in. Not very easy work flow, for what might be hundreds or more clips to do.

What I may have to do is just in the main movie, move everything down a track so I leave track 1 open. Then I can do like you said, paste the object which will show in track 1, then move it from there to the desired track. But that's still a bit annoying, as I only have space to show a few tracks at a time if I want my preview monitor big enough to use, so I'll still be doing a lot of up and down scrolling and trying to find my place again.

Thanks both for the input though!

terrypin wrote on 12/14/2011, 1:21 PM

Can't you use Takes?

1. Select the objects in the source movie and save as takes with Ctrl+F.
2. Switch to the destination movie.
3. In Import > My media > Takes your clips will be displayed. Drag to wherever you want.

I don't think using track 1 for your audio is a good idea, as I recall there are several operations in MEP which assume that's your main video track. Couldn't you place the locked soundtrack out of sight in say track 16 or whatever?

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Squirrelly wrote on 12/18/2011, 7:48 AM

The docs aren't real clear on Takes (and looks like it's Shift-K now), but looks like it copies the selected object(s) into the "Takes" folder. And as far as I can tell, that doesn't seem to be per-project, so imagine that might get cluttered eventually. But yeah, that can be helpful. But in this case, each original video is one long file. Copying it to a folder won't help more than just drag & drop the file into the main movie. Which is what I was doing, but got too cluttered with all the working tracks, and then all the tracks for the various source videos, which I'd have to keep muting and unmuting while searching for clips, and then editing them into the main tracks. Moving them each to their own 'movie' within the project was nice and got everything out of the way, and didn't interfer with what I was creating. Now I just need to get them back, a piece at a time. :-)

I was avoiding "splitting" the source ones. Setting an In and Out and copy/paste the section would be perfectly what I want. And MEP has that. I just wish a way to paste without having to overlap. Otherwise it's kinda like, say, you had two text docs open. You copy some text from line 5 in doc A. Then go to doc B, on line 30, hit paste, and it put your new text on line 5, overwriting what you had there too. That wouldn't make sense. :-)

Scenestealer wrote on 12/18/2011, 4:47 PM

Not sure if you have worked this out yet but the "insert object" function (ripple etc) only works if an object is (selected) in the the media pool, which is where Terry's "takes" idea comes in.

Or, you could select your source file (of your other movie(s) ) in the media pool which makes it appear in the preview monitor, set the in and out points there and then use the insert command after placing the timeline play marker at the point you want to insert. Unfortunately MEP always wants to insert the video in track 1 but I imagine you would be wanting to ripple "All tracks" (except the T1 music track) so it would be really easy to drag the inserted video down to the appropriate track (and drag the cut music track back to the left to remove the space).

Or put your music track on a lower track and use the "Single track ripple" to ripple the video on T1 only, if that is what is required.

Frankly I would really have expected single track ripple to act on any track that you highlighted (or left unlocked) but this could be a suggestion for the next patch or version of MEP.