Avid Xpress Xpress 4.0 Quick start guide

a

tools for storytellers®

Avid Xpress

®

Getting Started Guide

2

Avid Xpress Getting Started Guide • Part 0130-04549-01 Rev. A • August 2000

3

Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction

Using the Tutorial Sections. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

What You Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Turning on Your Equipment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Installing the Tutorial Files (Windows) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Installing the Tutorial Files (Macintosh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Starting the Avid System (Windows) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Starting the Avid System (Macintosh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Electronic Licensing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

How to Proceed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Using Help. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Setting Up Your Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Getting Help for Windows and Dialog Boxes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Getting Help for Screen Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Keeping Help Available (Windows) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Restoring Help from the Taskbar (Windows) . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Resizing the Application (Windows). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Using Alt+Tab (Windows) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Finding Information Within the Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Using the Contents List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Using the Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Using the Search Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Using the Glossary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Printing Help Topics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Using Online Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

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Chapter 2 About Avid Xpress

Video Editing with Avid Xpress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Avid Xpress Essentials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Subclips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Your Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Your Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

The Attic Folder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

The Avid Xpress File System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Chapter 3 Starting a Project

About Avid Projects and Avid Users Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Using the Bins Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

About Trash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Using the Settings Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Tutorial: Starting a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Starting the Application (Windows). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Starting the Application (Macintosh). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Opening a Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Creating a User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Selecting a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Chapter 4 Digitizing

Selecting Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

About the Digitize Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

About the Audio Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

About the Video Input Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Digitizing Preparations Check List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

5

About Digitizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Digitizing and Logging at the Same Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Batch Digitizing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Redigitizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Chapter 5 Getting Ready to Edit

About Bin Views. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Controlling Playback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Using Position Bars and Position Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Using Buttons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Play Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Step Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Using the Tool Palette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Using the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

J-K-L Keys (Three-Button Play) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Home, End, and Arrow Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Using the Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Stepping with the Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Shuttling with the Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Marking IN and OUT Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Creating Subclips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Tutorial: Getting Ready to Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Viewing Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Using Text View. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

Using Frame View (Windows) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Using Frame View (Macintosh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Playing Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Playing Clips in a Source Pop-up Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Controlling Playback . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Marking Edit Points. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Marking the planing ms Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Marking the ducks Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Marking the draw knife cu Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

6

Using Timecode to Find a Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Using Frame Offset. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Subclipping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Clearing IN Points and OUT Points. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Closing the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Ending the Session. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Chapter 6 Editing a Rough Cut

Viewing Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Navigating in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Using the Position Indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Using the Scroll Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Displaying More or Less Detail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Using the Track Selector Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Selecting Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Monitoring Tracks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Monitoring Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Tutorial: Rough Cut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Making the First Edit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Using Digital Audio Scrub to Locate a Specific

Frame of Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Splicing an Audio Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Playing a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Confirming the Duration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Splicing Video into the Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Splicing a Clip in a Pop-up Monitor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Playing IN to OUT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Using the Go to OUT Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Moving to the Head and Tail of a Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Using the Splice-in Button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Splicing a Clip into the Middle of a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Undoing an Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Using the I/O (IN Point / OUT Point) Tracking Display . . . . . 107

7

Chapter 7 Refining the Edit

Using Segment Mode to Edit in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Editing in Segment Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Distinguishing Between Two Types of Editing Buttons . . . . . 110

Basic Trim Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Entering Trim Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Exiting Trim Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Selecting Between Trim Sides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

Performing a Basic Trim. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Using the Command Palette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Audio Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Adjusting Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

Tutorial: Refining Edits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Overwriting Clips into a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Storyboarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Marking Clips for Storyboarding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Storyboard Editing the Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Rearranging Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Overwriting with the Three-Point Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Changing the Order of Clips in a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Removing Footage from a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Removing Footage and Closing the Resulting Gap . . . . . . . . . 128

Removing Footage and Retaining the Resulting Gap . . . . . . . 129

Trimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Adjusting Both Sides of a Transition

(Dual-Roller Trimming) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Using Dual Rollers to Trim the Outgoing Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

Trimming the pan lumber Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Single-Roller Trimming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

Adding Synced Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Working with Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Adjusting Audio Level. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136

Adjusting Audio Pan (Balance) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

8

Chapter 8 Adding Effects

Effects Editing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140

Displaying the Effect Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Effect Categories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Effect Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Transition Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Segment Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Applying Effects to a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Working in Effect Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Rendering an Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Tutorial: Adding Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Adding Transition Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Adding a Dissolve Effect (Fade-In) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Dissolving Between Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Creating a Series of Dissolves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Creating Audio Dissolves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

Adding a Fade-to-Black Effect Within the Sequence. . . . . . . . 150

Adding a Picture-in-Picture Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Using the Second Video Track . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Creating the Picture-in-Picture Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Repositioning the Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Adjusting a Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Adding Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Adding Background Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Rendering the Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Screening the Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Chapter 9 Creating Titles

Creating New Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Understanding the Title Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Working with Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Text Formatting Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

9

Selecting Colors and Setting Transparency. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Adjusting the Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Editing a Title into a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Tutorial: Creating Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Adding a Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Creating a New Title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Repositioning Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Changing Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Adding a Shadow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Saving a Title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Editing the Title into the Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Adding Rolling Credits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Editing an Existing Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171

Adding a Video Background. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Viewing the Creation Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Splicing the Title into a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Deleting Excess Footage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Closing the Title Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Chapter 10 Generating Output

Output Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Preparing for Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Digital Cut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

About Exporting Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Preparing to Export a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Tutorial: Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Recording a Digital Cut to Tape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Chapter 11 Backing Up

About Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Media Objects and Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

Media Relationships. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Basic Media Tool Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

10

Freeing Storage Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Consolidating Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

About the Consolidate Feature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Backing Up Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Backing Up Project Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Tutorial: Backing Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

Consolidating the Boat Shop Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Saving Your Work on a Drive or Floppy Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Restoring from a Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Quitting and Shutting Down. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Index

11

Figures

Figure 7-1 Command Palette Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

12

Tables

Table 6-1 Starting the Tutorial: Rough Cut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Table 7-1 Starting the Tutorial: Refining Edits . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Table 7-2 Mark Points for Tutorial Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Table 8-1 Starting the Tutorial: Adding Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Table 9-1 Starting the Tutorial: Creating Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Table 10-1 Starting the Tutorial: Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Table 11-1 Media Objects and Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Table 11-2 Starting the Tutorial: Backing Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194

13

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

This chapter sets you up to use this guide and explains how to work

through the tutorial sections that teach you the basics of your Avid

system. This chapter contains the following sections:

• Using the Tutorial Sections

• What You Need

• Turning on Your Equipment

• Installing the Tutorial Files (Windows)

• Installing the Tutorial Files (Macintosh)

• Starting the Avid System (Windows)

• Starting the Avid System (Macintosh)

• Electronic Licensing

• How to Proceed

• Using Help

• Using Online Documentation

14

Using the Tutorial Sections

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

guided Avid editing sessions, using the basic features of the system. In

the tutorial sections, you’re going to edit a 1-minute sequence about a

company in Amesbury, Massachusetts that makes small fishing boats

called dories.

The footage for the sequence is on the Avid Xpress Tutorial CD-ROMs

that came with your system. The CD-ROMs contain digitized media

that is ready for you to use.

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

editing process. The steps are:

• Starting a project (in Chapter 3)

• Getting ready to edit (in Chapter 5)

• Editing a rough cut (in Chapter 6)

• Refining the edit (in Chapter 7)

• Adding effects and titles to the sequence (in Chapter 8 and

Chapter 9)

• Preparing output (in Chapter 10)

• Backing up (in Chapter 11)

To complete this tutorial, you need a basic familiarity with the

Windows

®

operating system or Macintosh

®

computer. If you have

never used a Windows or Macintosh system, refer to the Windows or

the Apple

®

Macintosh manuals.

You don’t need any previous experience with the Avid system. The

terms and techniques needed for each tutorial section are in each

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

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

Help (see “Using Help” on page 27) and online books (see “Using

Online Documentation” on page 34) for more information.

15

This tutorial takes approximately 4 hours. Before you begin, you need:

• An installed Avid system

If you have not yet set up your system, see the Avid Composer

Products Setup Guide. If you need to install the Avid Xpress

software, see the Avid Xpress Release Notes.

• The Boat Shop media and project files on the Avid Xpress Tutorial

CD-ROM

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

can choose to work through the tutorial in either of two ways.

• If you have no experience with Avid Xpress or other Avid systems,

you should go through the entire tutorial.

• If you have used other Avid systems, you might want to read

certain chapters to understand the specific features of Avid Xpress,

and complete the tutorials in those chapters. Each tutorial section

is self-contained.

What You Need

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

files necessary to complete this tutorial. They are:

• OMFI MediaFiles folder — contains the digitized files you need

for the tutorial. You need to copy these files to your external media

drive.

• Avid Projects folder — contains the project and bins you need for

the tutorial. You need to copy these files into \Program

Files\Avid\Avid Xpress on your internal hard drive (Windows) or

to your Avid drive (Macintosh).

16

Turning on Your Equipment

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

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. For more information on setting up your system, see

the Avid Composer Products Setup Guide.

c

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

you could damage your computer or storage drives.

Always turn on the devices in the following order:

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

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

speed before starting your PC or Macintosh.

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

except the PC or Macintosh. These include:

- Monitors and speakers

-Meridien

™

I/O box

- Tape decks and additional autoassembly configurations

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

digitize or conduct an autoassembly

- Black burst generator (to maintain proper sync between audio

and video while digitizing and editing)

3. The PC or Macintosh

Windows:

For information on your

Windows features, such

as the desktop and

icons, see your

Windows

documentation.

a. Turn on your PC.

The computer goes through a self-check routine, and the

Windows startup screen appears.

b. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete and log on.

17

The Windows desktop appears.

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

documentation.

• The Avid startup screen appears and the initialization process

begins.

• The Macintosh desktop appears.

18

c

To avoid system damage, do not disconnect or turn off external

drives while the PC or Macintosh is on.

Installing the Tutorial Files (Windows)

The Tutorial CD-ROMs contain all the files you need for the tutorial

sections of this guide. The CD-ROMs contain an NTSC version and a

PAL version of the tutorial media files digitized at a 20:1 resolution.

The tutorial files require two CD-ROMs for NTSC and two for PAL.

The installation procedure is the same for installing either type.

Each CD-ROM has its own installation program and is installed

independently of the other CD-ROM. You will need approximately

1 GB of free space available on your external media drive.

It takes approximately 30 minutes to install the media files from the

CD-ROMs to the external media drive.

Avid drive

Media

(external)

(internal)

drives

19

To install the Avid Xpress tutorial on a Windows system:

1. Insert the Avid Xpress NTSC or PAL Tutorial Disc 1 of 2 into the

CD-ROM drive. The Avid Xpress Tutorial screen appears.

2. Click Installers.

3. Click Install Tutorial.

The Welcome to Avid Xpress Tutorial (NTSC or PAL) Setup dialog

box appears.

20

4. Click Next.

The Choose Destination Location dialog box appears. This allows

you to place the Boat Shop project files in the Avid Projects folder.

If an Avid Projects folder is not already created, the installation

will create one for you.

5. Select the destination location for the project files, and then click

Next.

The Select a Drive dialog box appears. This allows you to select

the drive where you want to store the media files. The media files

take up approximately 1 GB. Select a drive with adequate space.

6. Click the appropriate drive, and then click Next.

- If an OMFI MediaFiles folder already exists on the drive, the

media files are copied into that folder.

- If there is no OMFI MediaFiles folder on the drive, a message

appears asking if you want to create an OMFI MediaFiles

folder on the drive. Click Yes. The folder is created and the

media files are copied to the external drive.

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Avid Xpress Xpress 4.0 Quick start guide

Avid Xpress Xpress 4.0 Quick start guide

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