Hello John, I think I have finally resolved this problem. You asked what I mean by 'saved file'. What I did was to place a template on the timeline then complete it with varoius content and a title. Now this is where I went wrong: Under the heading of File I went down to 'Save Project As', I then named the file and that is what I mean when I say 'named file'. I assumed I was saving the project when it said save project as. I then went to New Project and tried to place that named file on to the timeline. I found that I then imported the original template in its original construction form, not as a completed video.

I tried the whole routine again but THIS time I selected Manage Movies, then EXPORT MOVIE, then selected avi. Then everything worked. I was able to import the edited template as a video on to the timeline and was able to further edit it including audio etc. I was also able to add further videos along the timeline.

I had seen Manage Movies before but when I saw the word .Export, I did not relate it to saving the template in any way. To me, the word export relates to exporting a completed video to a DVD or perhaps to Facebook etc. I think it would be more appropriate (under Manage Movies) to use the word CONVERT movie to avi etc. Had I seen the word convert, rather than export. I might have sorted things out somewhat sooner. 

Thanks again for youir help.

William

Hi John & William

I have moved this from Q&A so that it does not get buried there.

There is definitely a way that will allow you to get the Templates in MEP2015 into timeline mode, allowing you to edit the clips, effects, titles etc., and then combine it with your Movie as an intro.

There have been a couple of threads in the German forum about this since 2015 came out.

http://www.magix.info/uk/vdl-2015-film-assistent.forum.1102763.html

and:

http://www.magix.info/de/bei-video-deluxe-2015-plus-habe-ich-ein-problem.wissen.1103737.html#ca1026545

Use Microsoft translate in Internet Explorer to translate the page directly in the browser (a new tab opens) and you should be able to figure out the gist along with the screen shots.

It is a little hard to understand for me not having 2015 to play with but they seem to be saying that if you complete the template and then Export it as a Movie (arrangement) ie .MVD, that you can then open it with full access to the normal timeline and functions, do modifications and then attach it to your main Movie - or your Movie to it. As william has found none of this is made any easier by the confusion / ambiguity of the MEP commands like "Export" and "Movies"

It is hard to imagine Magix would have messed up this feature as it is quite cool for creating an intro or trailer that has predefined clip durations and text effects to give a suitable tempo and music rather than having to start from scratch. Further adding of effects, sound and zooms can give the short clips more punch as in the "Sports News" example I have uploaded of some airshow footage I shot back in 2013.

BTW -The way you can shift the trimmed content of the placeholder around within the clip by dragging the green highlighted range under the preview monitor, is a feature that would be good to have in normal editing projects. I know it is possible to use the "Object Trimmer", to find a trimmed clip's best start and end frames within a set duration, but that is way too clunky for most people to use.

@Peter,

I'll take a look in the morning.

There is no way to export the movie made with a template to an MVD file. See below. Under Manage movies, there is no export or attach. Look at the Media pool - no access to fades, titles or effects. Even the menus at the upper right are restricted when in a Movie Template.

Below is the normal Manage Movie menu in MEP2015.

See the difference?

Good movie!

What do you see if you click the down arrow next to the plus sign next to Icy Cubes tab?

Also, I think you may need to close the project after adding the Template for it to save the .MVD then reopen and select Import or Add Movie from the main movie tab. Add Movie should open a dialog with the Template .MVD path already filled in or you can select browse and the default folder with the Icy Cubes.MVD should open.

Good movie

Yes it was a good show. Quite an experience to see and hear the Mosquito flying - one of 2 remaining airworthy and fresh from its restoration here in New Zealand. I think it is an FB Mk26 which is one of the ones they built in Canada with the more powerful Packard Merlin engines.

Peter

@Peter,

For some reason, my last message disappeared.

No luck. See the image below.

At the left is the screen with the Movie Template and you can see in the popdown menu that Add movie and Export movie are not on the list. The right hand view is the normal timeline mode and you can see in the popdown menu that Add movie and Export movie are on the list. Once again, Magix seems to have covered everything.

Hi John

"....select Import or Add Movie from the main movie tab"

Looking at the righthand side of your screenshot it looks like it should be possible to do what I am suggesting ie. from the "Test Movie Template Icy Cubes" Tab click Add....or Import and follow the prompts and the "Icy Cubes" Tab contents should insert into the Normal main movie timeline.

Peter

@Peter,

A little more explanation. What you see is a combined image of 2 different things. At the left is the movie that is open with the Movie Template active. At the right is a normal movie with almost the same name, but made by dragging in the m2v and ogg files that are used for the template and adding my own images. It is not Movie template mode and you have to create everything yourself. Thus Manage movie, Attach and Export are available.

I looked at the German threads and I could not tell how they did it or if they actually did it. One seems to be saying to open a new movie and attach the MVD file made using the movie template. However, it is impossible to save or export the Movie made with a Movie Template to an MVD file. I tried Save as, changed the extension to MVD and the program changed it back to MVP.

I even tried changing the extension of the MVP file to MVD and importing it. MEP opened it in Movie Template mode as before.

The only solutions that I saw were the ones that I suggested, dragging in the m2v and ogg files and doing it yourself, or exporting the movie made with the template and reimporting it as a wmv or Magix video, MXV, and editing it like any other video clip.

Take another look at the video that I posted. There is no way to do anything that I have found to get the template movie onto the timeline, short of doing it in MEP2014 or VPX6. VPX7 is locked just like MEP2015.

Any other ideas?

John

The guy called freakguitar has clearly done it as his 4th screenshot shows all the elements, placeholders, titles, music of the template in Timeline mode as a project which he says he can toggle back to storyboard.

His method does seem a little strange but it took him a while to work it out. He opens a template and then he Rt.Clicks on the Tab (not on the dropdown arrow!) and a window / menu comes up with "Import Film" which he clicks and then after changing the path in the explorer window to All Files instead of MVD he opens "any video" and selects an m2ts video file and the template appears in timeline mode. I can only assume this video is appended to the template elements to form a standalone movie with an intro and the m2ts as the feature and then the project can be edited as normal. Maybe this is a workaround for a bug, as program appears to be trying to open a .MVD as I might have expected it to.  

Something that is a little odd is that his 4th screenshot does not have a Tab above the timeline with the movie name on it?

In the other linked thread @Bildermacher has also achieved a timeline with all the template elements in it - maybe by right clicking  a tab to get a menu so it must be possible.

Peter

Hi

I have een watching this topic with interest.

. . . . he opens "any video" and selects an m2ts video file and the template appears in timeline mode . . .

It does not matter what you import jpg, video or audio - the view switches to timeline mode.

. . . . . I can only assume this video is appended to the template . . . .

It goes nowhere (at least on mine) - it does not appear in the tempalte anywhere nor as a second timeline.

However there is an issue - when you switch to Burn mode and then revert back to the timeline the project is again in the template wizard mode.

This behaviour suggests there is a bug - either the timeline feature for templates is not disabled correctly or the template feature is not configured correctly to switch to timeline mode and stay in timeline mode when you switch modes.

John EB

In 2014, you could start a movie template, switch to the timeline and basically do what you want. In 2015, you cannot. Magix has a new program for movie templates within MEP that does not allow you to mess it up. This is made for users who what short movies, with music, thematic background and music, and who do not want to edit the details.

Hi John,

You've sure been busy!

As you know, I'm still running with 2014 Premium, for now at least. That might even be permanent.

Do you think this issue with 2015's less versatile movie template functionality is symptomatic of a general dumbing down?

--------------------

Hi William,

As a general observation, I frequently find that an 'export and re-import' approach is often the simplest way to achieve stuff in MEP, not least because it's the most intuitive.

@ Terry

. . . . Do you think this issue with 2015's less versatile movie template functionality is symptomatic of a general dumbing down? . . . .

I think it is a bug - it would not be logical to dumb down the movie templates.

There is also a bug in MEP 2014 - the Text dialog / entry box does not always appear until you click on a text placeholder - you have to click the T icon above the timeline to get it to open.

John EB

Hi Terry and John EB

Thanks for your input.

Do you think this issue with 2015's less versatile movie template functionality is symptomatic of a general dumbing down?

One of the German members in those threads thought it may be to make it compatible with the Movie Edit Touch functionality...

Terry - fair comment about doing things the most intuitive way however you appear to be losing a lot of functionality unless you can get into timeline mode. For example that intro I posted required quite a lot of massaging of the clips that I used - exposure, HDR, stabilisation, etc. plus some Size / Position tweaks.

Like you, I am not sorry to be sticking with 2014 for the moment.

Let's see if John CB can get it working to our satisfaction

@Peter,

Thanks for the translation. The right click on the tab was what I didn't understand.

@All,

Confirmed! However, I believe that this workaround method is a bug. Unless Magix comes back and tells us that locking the Movie Template Wizard was not intentional, I think we have to assume that it was. VPX7 has exactly the same thing, no way to get to the timeline, and the workaround method does not work.

Thus I think that the Germans found a hole in MEP2015 that Magix will undoubtedly plug.

Below is a screen shot of MEP2015 showing what happens after doing the right-click, import, and selecting a file, which as John EB pointed out doesn't actually come into the project (so the method is probably a bug).

The tabs for Movies disappears, but I could edit as normal. See below where I changed the colour of the car from reddish to green. Saved the project and restarted and the change was still there, but the project opened in Movie Template mode.

I confirm also what John EB found about switching to Burn and then back; the movie comes back in Movie Template mode.

As for dumbing down, I think it was intentional as probably most users of this feature want a quick way to create a video without going into editing, and they can't break anything. Unfortunately one has to live with whatever the designer at Magix wanted, and for us this is undesirable. Below is a screen shot of the Movie Template Ultra Boys showing the title. Bad!

I would not be able to accept the title like that. The font is too light and the botttom of the second line gets cut off, meaning that the amount of text is limited.

As I pointed out before, the way for the adept to use the movie template is to simply import the m2v and ogg files into a normal project and do everything manually. Maximum flexibility.

VPX7 now comes with the features of MEP, meaning design effects, movie templates, fades, etc. VPX6 came with hardly anything and Magix confirmed that this was intentional because these things were for consumers and that professionals wouldn't need them. It also reduced amount of unnecessary files to be downloaded. I guess they reversed this thinking in VPX7 after many complaints and also to be able inflate what they were offering in this version.

It seems that Magix added more than what I have in MEP2015Premium in the way of Movie Templates. There are 71 in VPX7 and only 40 in MEP2015. These were probably developed for the new Fastcut. See below.

Is someone going to ask Magix about the locked Movie Template Wizard?

VPX7 has exactly the same thing, no way to get to the timeline, and the workaround method does not work.

 Hi John C.B. I

In VPX7 you have to select the line check.

Max

@Max,

Brilliant! Didn't notice that check mark.

I presume that this is a difference between MEP2015 and VPX7? I don't see a similar check mark in MEP2015.

I presume that this is a difference between MEP2015 and VPX7?

I confirm that this feature doesn't exist in MEP2015

Greetings

Max

I have found out a workaround for MEP2015

Open a "movie template", type CTRL+ALT+L on the keyboard and export the project as a "MVD file".

Then open a new project, click on arrow near the name of project and select "Add movie",  import the "MVD file" that you has saved.

Click on OK on the open windows and the Timeline is on !

Now you can save the project from the menu file>save project as... MPV

in the video I use MEP2015 in Italian language

greetings from Italy

Max

Nice one Max !

Cheers

John EB