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Pinnacle Studio
™
19 User Guide
Including Pinnacle Studio™ Plus and
Pinnacle Studio™ Ultimate
Contents i
Contents
Before you start. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Abbreviations and conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Buttons, menus, dialog boxes and windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Help and Tooltips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Finding your version information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Upgrading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Chapter 1: Using Pinnacle Studio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
The Importer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
The Exporter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The central tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
The next step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The Movie Editor and the Disc Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The media editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
The Player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Pinnacle Studio Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Chapter 2: The Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Adding assets to a project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Correcting media files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Instant gratification: SmartMovie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Understanding the Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
The Navigator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Project Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Collections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
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Favorites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Managing Library assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
The Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Thumbnails and details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Optional indicators and controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
The Library preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Choosing what to display in the Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Correcting media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Video scene detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
SmartMovie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Chapter 3: The Movie Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
The compact Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Previewing in the project editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
The Project Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
The timeline toolbar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
The timeline track header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Editing Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Title Editor, ScoreFitter, voice-over. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Deleting clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Clip operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Using the Clipboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Speed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Movies within movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Clip effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Clip context menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Chapter 4: Corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Media editing overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Contents iii
Photo editing tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Correcting photos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Red-eye. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Correcting video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Video tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Video corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Stabilize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Correcting audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Chapter 5: Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Effects in the media editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Effects on the timeline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
The Settings panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Working with keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Video and photo effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Working with transitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
Pan-and-zoom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Chapter 6: Montage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
The Montage section of the Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Using montage templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
Montage clips on the timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
Anatomy of a template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
Montage editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Using the Montage Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Chapter 7: The Title Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Launching (and leaving) the Title Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
The Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
The Presets Selector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Preset Looks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
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Preset Motions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Creating and editing titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Background settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Look settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
The Edit window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Text and text settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Titles and stereoscopic 3D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
The Layer List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Working with the Layer List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Working with layer groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Chapter 8: Sound and music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
The Audio Editor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Audio corrections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Audio effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Audio on the timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Timeline audio functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Audio creation tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
ScoreFitter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
The Voice-over tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Using Audio Ducking to automatically adjust volume . . . . . . . . 264
Chapter 9: Disc projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Disc menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Adding disc menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Previewing disc menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Menu editing on the timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Timeline menu markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Authoring tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
The Chapter Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
The Menu Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Contents v
Menu buttons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
The Disc Simulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
Chapter 10: The Importer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Using the Importer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Importer panels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
The Import To panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
The Mode panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
The Compression Options window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
The Scene Detection Options window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307
The Metadata panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
The Filename panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Selecting assets for import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Selecting files for Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Customizing the browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Adjusting the import file date and time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Scan for assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Import from DV or HDV camera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Import from analog sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Import from DVD or Blu-ray Disc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Import from digital cameras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Stop motion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Snapshot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Chapter 11: The Exporter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Output to disc or memory card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Output to file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Output to cloud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Output to a device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Output to a MyDVD file. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
vi Pinnacle Studio
Chapter 12: Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Watchfolders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
Audio device. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Event logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Export and Preview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360
Import . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Project settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
Storage locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Restore purchase. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
Chapter 13: Screen capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Starting a screen capture project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Recording your screen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Chapter 14: Multi-Camera Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
The Multi-Camera Editor workspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
Basic steps in multi-camera editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
Importing video and audio clips into the Multi-Camera Editor . . 380
Synchronizing video and audio clips in multi-camera projects . . 381
Choosing an audio source for your multi-camera project . . . . . . 382
Editing multiple clips to create a multi-camera compilation . . . . 384
Adding picture-in-picture (PIP) in the Multi-Camera Editor. . . . . 387
Managing multi-camera source files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
Saving and exporting your multi-camera project . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Using Smart Proxy for a faster, smoother editing experience . . . 390
Appendix A: Troubleshooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Contacting support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Forums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Contents vii
Top support issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Capture hardware compatibility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Serial number information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Error or crash while installing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Hangs or crashes while launching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Troubleshooting software crashes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
Case 1: Studio crashes randomly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Case 2: Studio crashes after a user action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Case 3: Studio crashes repeatably . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Export problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Disc playback problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Appendix B: Videography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Creating a shooting plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
Rules of thumb for video editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 418
Soundtrack production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Appendix C: Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Appendix D: Keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
General shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439
Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440
Playing and transport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441
Importer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
Movie interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
Media editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
Title Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
Appendix E: The installation manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
Before you begin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445
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Upgrade Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Launching the Installation Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Supporting installations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
The Welcome Screen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Common controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Installing plugs-ins and bonus content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
System requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448
Before you start 1
Before you start
Thank you for purchasing Pinnacle Studio™19. We hope you enjoy
using the software.
If you have not used Pinnacle Studio before, we recommend that you
k
eep the user guide handy for reference even if you don’t actually read
it all the way through.
In order to ensure that your movie-making experience gets off on the
r
ight foot, please review the topics.
Note: Not all features described in the user guide are included
in all versions of Pinnacle Studio. For more information, please
visit www.pinnaclesys.com and click Compare.
Abbreviations and conventions
This guide uses the following conventions to help organize the
material.
Common terms
AVCHD: A video data format used by some high-definition
camcorders, and for creating DVD discs that can be read on Blu-ray
players. Successful editing of AVCHD files requires more computing
power than other formats supported by Pinnacle Studio.
DV: This term refers to DV and Digital8 camcorders, VCRs and tapes.
2 Pinnacle Studio User Guide
HDV: A ‘high-definition video’ format that allows video in frame sizes
of 1280x720 or 1440x1080 to be recorded in MPEG-2 format on DV
media.
1394: The term ‘1394’ applies to OHCI-compliant IEEE-1394,
FireWire, DV or i.LINK interfaces, ports and cables.
Analog: The term ‘analog’ applies to 8mm, Hi8, VHS, SVHS, VHS-C or
SVHS-C camcorders, VCRs and tapes, and to Composite/RCA and S-
Video cables and connectors.
Buttons, menus, dialog boxes and windows
Names of buttons, menus and related user interface items are written
in bold to distinguish them from the surrounding text.
Choosing menu commands
The right arrowhead symbol (>) denotes the path for hierarchical
menu items. For example:
• Select File > Burn Disc Image.
Context menus
A ‘context menu’ is a pop-up list of commands that appears when you
click with the right mouse-button on certain areas of the application
interface. Depending where you click, a context menu may pertain
either to an editable object (like a clip on an editing timeline), to a
window, or to a zone such as a control panel. Once open, context
menus behave just like the ones on the main menu bar.
Context menus are available in most pa
rts of the Pinnacle Studio
interface. Our documentation generally takes for granted that you
know how to open and use them.
Before you start 3
Mouse clicks
When a mouse click is required, the default is always a left-click unless
otherwise specified, or unless the click is to open a context menu:
Right-click and select
Title Editor
. (Or, one might say, “Select
Title Editor
from the context menu.”)
Key names
Key names are spelled with an initial capital and are underlined. A plus
sign denotes a key combination. For example:
Press
Ctrl+A to select all the clips on the Timeline.
Please refer to
Appendix D: Keyboard shortcuts
for a comprehensive
table of available shortcuts.
Help and Tooltips
Immediate help is available while you are working in Pinnacle Studio
via the Help menu.
Help
The Help menu lets you access a variety of learning resources. Click the
Help button > User Manual to access the Learning Center page with
links t
o video tutorials, the Pinnacle Studio 19 User Guide PDF, and
oth
er community and support links.
Video tutorials
You can access video tutorials from the Learning Center page (Help >
User Manual) or by visiting the following sites directly:
4 Pinnacle Studio User Guide
• YouTube — http://www.youtube.com/user/pinnaclestudiolife
• StudioBacklot.tv — http://www.studiobacklot.tv/studio19
Get a 30-day, all-access pass to StudioB
acklot.tv, featuring brand-
new Pinnacle Studio 19 content, loads of other training and a
royalty-free stock library. (Training is in English only.)
Tool tips
To find out what a button or other Studio control does, pause your
mouse pointer over it. A ‘tool tip’ pops up to explain the control’s
function.
Finding your version information
Whether you are considering upgrading your software or looking for
support, it’s good to know your version information. To check the
version of Pinnacle Studio that you have, click the Help button >
About.
Upgrading
There are different versions of Pinnacle Studio and features vary
depending on the version you have. For more information, please visit
www.pinnaclesys.com and click Compare.
For information about upgrading your softwar
e, click the Help
button > Online Offers & News > Software Offers.
Chapter 1: Using Pinnacle Studio 5
Chapter 1: Using Pinnacle Studio
For a simple outline of the digital movie-making process, you don’t
have to look any further than the central tab group of Pinnacle Studio’s
main
window. The same steps apply to any type of production, from
an unpretentious slideshow with dissolves between each frame to a 3D
extravaganza containing hundreds of carefully-arranged clips and
effects.
Pinnacle Studio’s main control bar summarizes the movie-
making process.
The Importer
Import on the right, is a preparatory step. It involves procedures like
‘capturing’ video from your analog or DV camcorder, bringing in
photos from a digital camera, and copying media files to your local
hard drive from a network location.
The Pinnacle Studio Importer provides tools for these tasks, along with
a Snapshot feature for grabbing frames
from video files, and a Stop
motion tool for building up video frame-by-frame. See “Chapter 10:
The Importer” on page 291 for details.
File menu import commands: Choosing Import from the file menu has
t
he same effect as clicking the Import tab: it opens the Importer. The
m
enu provides three other import-related choices as well. Each of
6 Pinnacle Studio User Guide
these opens a Windows file dialog to permit import of files from a hard
drive or other local storage.
• Import previous Pinnacle Studio Projects lets you load movie
p
rojects created with earlier versions of Studio.
• Import Studio for iPad App Projects lets you bring in projects
exported from Studio’s companion app for the iPad.
• Quick Import lets you directly select ordinary media files—photo,
vide
o, audio and project—for import.
Studio Importer
The Exporter
At the other end of the movie-making process is Export. By the time
you get to this stage, the hard part of the task is behind you. The
creative energy that went into making your movie has paid off in a
production that now lacks only one ingredient—an audience.
Chapter 1: Using Pinnacle Studio 7
Studio Exporter
The Pinnacle Studio Exporter helps you over that last hurdle with tools
for taking your movie to its viewers, whoever and wherever they might
be. Create a digital movie file in the format of your choice, burn a DVD,
or upload directly to destinations in the Cloud like YouTube and Vimeo,
or to your personal Cloud-based storage area.
Like the Importer, the Exporter o
pens in a separate window, and
returns to the main window after its work is done. See “Chapter 11:
The Exporter” on page 337 to learn more.
The central tabs
The three central tabs, Library, Movie and Disc, are where most of your
work in Pinnacle Studio takes place. The first of these opens the main
view of the Library, where you can ‘curate’ your media collections.
8 Pinnacle Studio User Guide
The other tabs open the two project editors, one for digital movies,
and the other for disc projects, which are digital movies enhanced with
interactivity in the form of DVD menus.
The Library
The Library is a cataloging and management tool for all the file-based
resources – or
assets
– that you can draw on when authoring. Almost
all of the materials of your movie – video footage, music and audio
files, and many specialized resources such as transitions and effects –
originate as assets in the Library. Many Library assets are supplied with
Pinnacle Studio, and are available for royalty-free use. These include
p
rofessionally-designed titles, DVD menus, sound effects and more.
The Library uses project bins to organize assets. Project bins are virtual
f
olders for your assets. They are created automatically during import
and you can create them manually to organize your assets according
to your needs (for example, by project).
You can also use watchfolders to a
utomatically monitor and import
media files that are added to the folders you choose to “watch”. For
information about activating watchfolders, see “Watchfolders” on
page 359. When you use watchfolders, a Library Media branch is
added to the Asset Tree in the Library
. You will also see a Library Media
branch if Pinnacle Studio detects a library from a previous version of
Pinnacle Studio (you must enable watchfolders if you want to continue
populating this branch).
Main view
When you click the Library tab, the Library takes over the main window.
This ‘main view’ gives you spacious access to a number of cataloging
and search tools, including those for categorizing assets by means of
ratings and tags, and those for creating user-defined asset collections.
Chapter 1: Using Pinnacle Studio 9
Compact view
The ‘compact view’ of the Library squeezes virtually the whole
functionality of the main view into a panel embedded within certain
other windows, such as the Movie Editor and the Disc Editor. The
primary p
urpose of the compact view is to allow assets to be brought
into a movie or disc project from the Library by drag-and-drop.
The main view of the Library consists of navigation controls
for exploring media assets (left) and a browser for examining
and selecting assets (right).
Player
The tools available from within the Library include the Player, a viewer
that works for all media types handled by the application. When used
from the main view of the Library, the Player opens in a separate
window. When the compact Library is used, an embedded version of
the Player appears in the same window. For more information, see
“The Player” on page 14.
10 Pinnacle Studio User Guide
Previewing a Library video asset in the resizable Player
window, with full transport controls including a shuttle
wheel. You can keep working in the main window while the
pop-up Player is open.
For comprehensive coverage of the Library and its uses, please see
“Chapter 2: The Library” on page 17.
The next step
The next step, once you know your way around the Library and have
made any changes needed to the default set-up, is to start creating a
movie. There are two ways to go about this.
The usual way
If you want to exert detailed control over the way media assets are used
in your production, you will usually start building your movie or disc
project from scratch in one of the two project editors.
These are described below.
/
