Avid Xpress 2.0 Macintosh Quick start guide



tools for storytellers™

Avid

®

Xpress

™

for Macintosh

®

Getting Started Guide

Release 2.0

ii

Avid Xpress for Macintosh Getting Started Guide• Part 0130-01214-01 Rev. A • 2/98

iv

Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction

Using this Guide

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Using the Tutorial

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

What You Need

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Turning on Your Equipment

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Installing the Avid Xpress Tutorial Files

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Launching the Avid Xpress Application

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Electronic Licensing

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

How to Proceed

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Using Online Help

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Finding Topics with the Index

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Searching with the Find Feature

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Using Online Documentation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Chapter 2 About Avid Xpress

Video Editing with Avid Xpress

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Avid Xpress Essentials

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Media Files

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Clips

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Subclips

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Sequences

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Your Program

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Bins

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Your Project

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

The Attic Folder

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

v

The Avid Xpress File System

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Chapter 3 Starting a Project

About Composer Projects and Avid Users Folders

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Using the Bins Display

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Using the Settings Display

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

About Settings

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Reviewing Basic Settings

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Using the Info Display

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

About Projects and Memory

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Viewing Memory

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Tutorial: Starting a Project

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Starting the Application

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Opening a Project

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Creating a User

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Selecting a Project

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Chapter 4 Digitizing

Selecting Settings

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

About the Digitize Tool

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

About the Audio Tool

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

About the Video Input Tool

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Digitize Preparations Check List

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Digitizing

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Digitizing and Logging at the Same Time

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Batch Digitizing

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Redigitizing

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Chapter 5 Getting Ready to Edit

About Bin Display Modes

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Controlling Playback

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Using Position Bars and Position Indicators

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Using Buttons

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

vi

Play, Fast Forward, and Rewind Buttons

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Step Buttons

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Using the Tear-Off Palette

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Using the Keyboard

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

J-K-L Keys (Three-Button Play)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Home, End, and Arrow Keys

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Marking IN and OUT Points

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Creating Subclips

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Tutorial: Getting Ready to Edit

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Viewing Clips

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Viewing in Text Mode

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Viewing in Frame Mode

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Playing Clips

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Playing Clips in the Source Pop-up Monitor

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Controlling Playback

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Marking Edit Points

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Marking the

planing ms

Clip

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Marking the

ducks

Clip

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Marking the

draw knife cu

Clip

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Using Timecode to Find a Frame

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Using Frame Offset

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Subclipping

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Clearing IN Points and OUT Points

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Closing the Project

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Ending the Session

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Chapter 6 Editing a Rough Cut

Viewing Methods

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Navigating in the Timeline

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Using the Position Indicator

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Using the Scroll Bar

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Displaying More or Less Detail

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Using the Track Selector Panel

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

vii

Selecting Tracks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Monitoring Tracks

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Monitoring Video

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Tutorial: Rough Cut

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Making the First Edit

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Using Digital Audio Scrub

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Splicing an Audio Clip

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Playing a Sequence

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

ConÞrming the Duration

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Splicing Video into the Sequence

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Splicing the

ducks

clip

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Playing IN to OUT

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Using the Go to OUT Key

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Moving to the Head and Tail of a Shot

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Using the Splice-In Button

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Splicing a Shot into the Middle of a Sequence

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Undoing an Edit

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Using the I/O (IN Point / OUT Point) Tracking Display . . . . . . 92

Chapter 7 Refining the Edit

Using Segment Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Editing in Segment Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Distinguishing Two Types of Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Basic Trim Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Entering Trim Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Exiting Trim Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Selecting Between Trim Sides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Performing a Basic Trim. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Audio Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Tutorial: ReÞning Edits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Overwriting Shots into a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Storyboarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Marking Clips for Storyboarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

viii

Storyboard Editing the Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Rearranging Shots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Overwriting with the Three-Point Edit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Rearranging Footage with Extract/Splice-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Removing Footage from a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Removing Footage with Extract/Splice-in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Removing Footage with Lift . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Trimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Dual-Roller Trimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Using Dual Rollers to Trim the Outgoing Shot. . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Trimming the pan lumber Shot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Single-Roller Trimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Adding Synced Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Working with Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Adjusting Audio Level. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Adjusting Audio Pan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Chapter 8 Adding Effects

Effects Editing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Displaying the Effect Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Effect Categories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Effect Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Transition Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Segment Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Applying Effects to a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Working in Effect Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Rendering an Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Tutorial: Adding Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Adding Transition Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Adding Fade In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Dissolving Between Shots. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Creating a Series of Dissolves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Creating Audio Dissolves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

ix

Adding a Fade Within the Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Adding a Picture-in-Picture Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Using the Second Video Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Creating the Picture-in-Picture Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Repositioning the Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Adjusting a Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Adding Key Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Adding Background Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Rendering the Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Screening the Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Chapter 9 Creating Titles

Creating New Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

Understanding the Title Tool Window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Working with Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Text Formatting Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Choosing Colors and Setting Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Adjusting the Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Saving Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Editing a Title into a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Tutorial: Creating Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Adding a Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Creating a New Title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Repositioning Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Changing Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Adding a Shadow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Saving a Title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Closing the Title Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Editing the Title into the Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Adding Rolling Credits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Editing the Title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Adding Video Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Viewing the Creation Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

x

Splicing the Title into a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Deleting Excess Footage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Exiting the Title Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Chapter 10 Output

Output Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Preparing for Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Digital Cut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Supported File Types for Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Preparing to Export . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Tutorial: Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Recording a Digital Cut to Tape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Chapter 11 Backing Up

About Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Media Objects and Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Media Relationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Basic Media Tool Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Freeing Storage Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Consolidating Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Backing Up Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Backing Up Project Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Tutorial: Backing Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Consolidating the Boat Shop Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Saving Your Work on a Disk or Drive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Restoring from a Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Quitting and Shutting Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Index

xi

Tables

Table 6-1 Starting the Tutorial: Rough Cut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Table 7-1 Starting the Tutorial: Refining Edits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Table 7-2 Mark Points for Boat Shop Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Table 8-1 Starting the Tutorial: Adding Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Table 9-1 Starting the Tutorial: Creating Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Table 10-1 Starting the Tutorial: Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Table 11-1 Media Objects and Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Table 11-2 Starting the Tutorial: Backing Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

12

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

This chapter sets you up to use this guide and work through the tuto-

rial sections that teach you the basics of your Avid Xpress system. This

chapter contains the following sections:

¥ Using this Guide

¥ Using the Tutorial

¥ What You Need

¥ Turning on Your Equipment

¥ Installing the Avid Xpress Tutorial Files

¥ Launching the Avid Xpress Application

¥ Electronic Licensing

¥ How to Proceed

¥ Using Online Help

¥ Using Online Documentation

13

Using this Guide

This guide introduces you to Avid Xpress. It presents the essential fea-

tures of the system; most chapters also contain hands-on tutorial

sections so you can practice what you learn.

Using the Tutorial

The self-paced tutorial sections included in this guide are designed as

guided Avid edit sessions using the basic features of the Avid Xpress

system. In the tutorial sections, youÕre going to edit a one-minute

sequence about a company in Amesbury, Massachusetts that makes

small Þshing boats called dories.

The footage for the sequence is on the Tutorial CD-ROMs that came

with your system. They contain digitized media that is ready for you

to use.

The instructions in this tutorial take you through each step of the edit

process:

¥ Starting a project (in Chapter 3

)

¥ Getting ready to edit (in Chapter 5)

¥ Editing a rough draft (in Chapter 6)

¥ ReÞning the edit (in Chapter 7)

¥ Adding effects, titles, and other Þnishing touches to the sequence

(in Chapter 8 and Chapter 9)

¥ Preparing output (in Chapter 10)

¥ Backing up (in Chapter 11)

This tutorial assumes a basic familiarity with the Macintosh¨ com-

puter. If you have never used a Macintosh system, please refer to the

Macintosh Getting Started tutorial.

14

You donÕt need any previous experience with the Avid Xpress system.

The terms and techniques needed for each tutorial section are in each

chapter. However, it will help to read Chapter 2 of this manual before

starting any of the tutorial sections. You can also use the Avid Xpress

Help (see ÒUsing Online HelpÓ on page 21) and online books (see

ÒUsing Online DocumentationÓ on page 23) for more information.

This tutorial takes approximately four hours. Before you begin, you

need:

¥ An installed Avid Xpress system

See the Avid Media Composer Products Setup Guide if you have not

yet set up your Avid Xpress system. See the Avid Xpress Release 2.0

Release Notes if you need to install the Avid Xpress software.

¥ The Boat Shop media and project Þles on the Avid Xpress CD-

ROM.

Depending on your level of expertise in editing on Avid systems, you

may choose to go through the tutorial in either of two ways.

¥ If you have no experience with Avid Xpress or other Avid sys-

tems, you should go through the entire tutorial.

¥ If you have used other Avid systems, you may want to read cer-

tain lessons to understand the speciÞc features of Avid Xpress, and

complete the tutorials for other lessons.

You can do this tutorial in one or several sessions. Each section is self-

contained.

15

What You Need

The CD-ROMs packaged with your Avid Xpress system include all

Þles necessary to do this tutorial:

¥ Read Me First Þle Ñ contains the installation instructions for each

of the Þles on the CD-ROMs. These instructions also appear in

ÒInstalling the Avid Xpress Tutorial FilesÓ on page 17.

¥ MediaFiles folder Ñ contains the digitized Þles you need for the

tutorial. You need to copy these Þles onto your external media

drive.

¥ Composer Projects folder Ñ contains the project and bins you

need for the tutorial. You need to copy these Þles onto your Avid

drive.

Turning on Your Equipment

Begin your edit session by turning on the various components of your

Avid Xpress system. If any part of your system fails to turn on, make

sure its electrical cord is plugged snugly into an appropriate electrical

outlet or power strip. See the Avid Media Composer Products Setup Guide

for information on setting up your system.

c

If you fail to follow the proper sequence for starting up your system,

you could damage your Macintosh computer and/or storage drives.

Always turn on the devices as follows:

1. Fixed-storage drives: Turn on Þxed-storage drives before starting

the computer. Allow 10 to 15 seconds for the drives to spin up to

speed before starting the Macintosh.

2. Other peripheral hardware: Turn on all other peripheral units

except the Macintosh. This includes:

¥ Monitors and speakers.

16

¥ Tape decks and/or additional autoassembly conÞgurations

(switcher, time-base corrector, and so on) if you plan to digi-

tize or conduct an autoassembly.

¥ Digidesign¨ audio interface hardware, if your system

includes these. Turn on the Digidesign hardware and black

burst generator in order to maintain proper sync between

audio and video while digitizing and editing.

n

The black burst generator that accompanies the Digidesign hardware should

already be turned on if it is connected to an active power strip.

3. The Macintosh: Press the Power On key located at the upper right

corner of the keyboard.

When you start the Macintosh:

¥ You hear a tone that means the hardware is operational.

¥ The computer goes through a self-check routine. If the

Macintosh passes all of its internal logic tests, the smiling

Macintosh icon appears.

For information on

Macintosh features,

such as the desktop and

icons, see your

Macintosh documenta-

tion.

¥ The Avid startup screen appears and the initialization process

begins.

17

¥ The Macintosh desktop appears.

c

To avoid damage, do not disconnect or turn off hard disks or indi-

vidual disk drives while the Macintosh is on.

Installing the Avid Xpress Tutorial Files

The Avid Media Composer Products CD-ROM contains all of the Þles

you need for the tutorial sections of this guide. It takes about 30 min-

utes to copy the media Þles from the CD-ROM to the external hard

drive. You need to have approximately 970 MB of free space on your

external hard drive to accommodate the media.

The CD-ROMs contain several versions of the tutorial media Þles digi-

tized at different Avid Video Resolutions (AVRs). You need to use AVR

70 for Avid Xpress. You also need to have approximately 110 MB of

18

free space on your external hard drive to accommodate the media. The

tutorial Þles for AVR 70 require two CD-ROMs for NTSC and two for

PAL. The procedure is the same for installing either type.

To install the tutorial Þles for AVR 70:

1. Insert the CD-ROM labeled Avid Media Composer Products

Online Tutorial (PAL) Disk 1 or Avid Media Composer Products

Online Tutorial (NTSC) Disk 1 and double-click its icon.

2. Double-click the folder at the top level.

You should see two folders labeled Composer Projects and

OMFI MediaFiles.

3. Do one of the following:

¥ If there is an existing OMFI MediaFiles folder on the external

media drive, open the OMFI MediaFiles folder on the CD-

ROM, choose Select All from the Edit menu, and drag the con-

tents to the OMFI MediaFiles folder on the external media

drive.

¥ If there is no existing OMFI MediaFiles folder on the external

media drive, drag the OMFI MediaFiles folder from the CD-

ROM to the external media drive.

The Þles are loaded on the drive.

4. Do one of the following:

¥ If there is an existing Composer Projects folder on the Avid

drive, open the Composer Projects folder on the CD-ROM and

19

drag the Boat Shop folder to the Composer Projects folder on

the Avid drive.

¥ If there is no existing Composer Projects folder on the Avid

drive, copy the Composer Projects folder on the CD-ROM to

the Avid drive.

5. Eject the CD-ROM in the drive.

6. Insert the CD-ROM labeled Avid Media Composer Products

Online Tutorial Disk 2 and double-click its icon.

7. Double-click the top folder.

You should see a folder labeled OMFI MediaFiles-2.

8. Choose Select All from the Edit menu, and drag the contents to the

OMFI MediaFiles folder on the external media drive.

20

Launching the Avid Xpress Application

The Avid Xpress application icon is located in the Avid Xpress folder

on the Avid drive. For most users, the desktop or the Apple menu is a

more convenient location for launching the application.

n

The application will not launch properly if the icon is moved out of the Avid

Xpress folder. To launch the application from a convenient location, Avid rec-

ommends that you create an alias and place it in a convenient location.

For more information

on making an alias and

using the Apple menu,

see your Macintosh

documentation.

To launch the application, double-click the application icon or alias, or

choose it from the Apple menu.

The Avid splash screen returns, then the License Agreement dialog box

appears.

Electronic Licensing

To accept your Avid Xpress product license electronically:

1. Read the License Agreement, then click the Accept button or the

Decline button at the bottom of the screen.

The agreement appears the Þrst several times you launch the

application. After several launches, a new button appears at the

bottom of the screen.

2. If you do not want to see the license agreement again, click the

Accept and DonÕt Show Again button.

A dialog box appears.

3. Enter the name of your organization in the dialog box, and click

OK.

After the application starts, the Project Selection dialog box appears, as

described in ÒOpening a ProjectÓ on page 41.

21

How to Proceed

The following are a few tips for taking full advantage of the Avid

Xpress documentation and other resources:

¥ Complete the tutorial sections in this book before starting a

project.

¥ Begin learning about basic procedures by using the default set-

tings. As your conÞdence builds, begin to explore additional pro-

cedures and settings.

¥ Keep the Avid Xpress Quick Reference on hand during sessions to

speed the use of functions, shortcuts, keyboard commands,

menus, and icons.

¥ Make a habit of reading AvidÕs newsletters, mailings, and other

trade publications.

¥ Make use of additional training resources provided by Avid when-

ever possible, such as classes and instructional videotapes. For

more information, contact Avid at 800-867-2843.

¥ Check the Avid web site at www.avid.com/services/training/

training.html for listings of courses, schedules, and locations.

Using Online Help

This release supports online help for your Avid Xpress system. The

online help is automatically installed with the application.

You can access online help in two ways:

¥ From the question mark menu in the upper right corner of your

screen, choose Composer Help.

¥ As context-sensitive help:

a. Position the cursor on the window for which you want help.

b. Make sure your Avid Xpress system is active.

Avid Xpress 2.0 Macintosh Quick start guide

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