Avid Xpress 5.0 Quick start guide

Avid Xpress

®

Getting Started Guide

Copyright and Disclaimer

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Portions of this software are based on work of the Independent JPEG Group.

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Footage

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™

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Canyonlands — Courtesy of the National Park Service/Department of the Interior.

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Windhorse — Courtesy of Paul Wagner Productions.

Avid Xpress Getting Started Guide • Part 0130-05034-01 Rev. A • April 2002

Contents

Using This Guide

Who Should Use This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

About This Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Symbols and Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

If You Need Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Related Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

If You Have Documentation Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

How to Order Documentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Chapter 1 Introduction

Using the Tutorial Sections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

What You Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Turning on Your Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Installing the Tutorial Files (Windows) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Installing the Tutorial Files (Macintosh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Starting the Avid System (Windows). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Starting the Avid System (Macintosh) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Electronic Licensing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

How to Proceed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Using Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Setting Up Your Browser. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Getting Help for Windows and Dialog Boxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Getting Help for Screen Objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Keeping Help Available (Windows Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Restoring Help from the Taskbar (Windows Only). . . . . . . . 37

6

Resizing the Application (Windows Only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Using Alt+Tab (Windows Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Finding Information Within the Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Using the Contents List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Using the Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Using the Search Feature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Using the Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Printing Help Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Using Online Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Chapter 2 About Avid Xpress

Video Editing with Avid Xpress. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Avid Xpress Essentials. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Subclips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Your Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Bins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Your Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

The Attic Folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

The Avid Xpress File System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Chapter 3 Starting a Project

About Avid Projects and Avid Users Folders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Using the Bins Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Using the Settings Display. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

About the Effect Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

About Trash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Tutorial: Starting a Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Starting the Application (Windows) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

Starting the Application (Macintosh). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Opening a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

7

Creating a User . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Selecting a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Chapter 4 Digitizing

Selecting Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

About the Digitize Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

About the Audio Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

About the Video Input Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Digitizing Preparations Check List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

About Digitizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Digitizing and Logging at the Same Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Batch Digitizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Redigitizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Chapter 5 Getting Ready to Edit

About Bin Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Controlling Playback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Using Position Bars and Position Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Using Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Play Button. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Step Buttons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Using the Tool Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Using the Keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

J-K-L Keys (Three-Button Play). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Home, End, and Arrow Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Using the Mouse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Stepping with the Mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Shuttling with the Mouse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Marking IN and OUT Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Creating Subclips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Tutorial: Getting Ready to Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Viewing Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Using Text View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

8

Using Frame View (Windows) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Using Frame View (Macintosh). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Playing Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Playing Clips in a Source Pop-up Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Controlling Playback. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Marking Edit Points . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Marking the planing ms Clip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Marking the ducks Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Marking the draw knife cu Clip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Using Timecode to Find a Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Using Frame Offset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Subclipping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Clearing IN Points and OUT Points. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Closing the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Ending the Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Chapter 6 Editing a Rough Cut

Viewing Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Navigating in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Using the Position Indicator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Using the Scroll Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Displaying More or Less Detail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Using the Track Selector Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Selecting Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Monitoring Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

Monitoring Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Tutorial: Rough Cut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Making the First Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Using Digital Audio Scrub to Locate

a Specific Frame of Audio. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

Splicing an Audio Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Playing a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Confirming the Duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

9

Splicing Video into the Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Splicing a Clip in a Pop-up Monitor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Playing IN to OUT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

Using the Go to OUT Button. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Moving to the Head and Tail of a Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

Using the Splice-in Button. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Splicing a Clip into the Middle of a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Undoing an Edit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

Using the I/O (IN Point / OUT Point) Tracking Display . . . . . 117

Chapter 7 Refining the Edit

Using Segment Mode to Edit in the Timeline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Editing in Segment Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Distinguishing Between Two Types of Editing Buttons. . . . . . . 121

Basic Trim Procedures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Entering Trim Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Exiting Trim Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Selecting Between Trim Sides. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Performing a Basic Trim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Using the Command Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

Audio Editing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Adjusting Volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Tutorial: Refining Edits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Overwriting Clips into a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

Storyboarding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Marking Clips for Storyboarding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Storyboard Editing the Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Rearranging Clips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Overwriting with the Three-Point Edit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Changing the Order of Clips in a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Removing Footage from a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Removing Footage and Closing the Resulting Gap. . . . . . . . . . . 138

Removing Footage and Retaining the Resulting Gap. . . . . . . . . 138

10

Trimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

Adjusting Both Sides of a Transition (Dual-Roller Trimming). 139

Using Dual Rollers to Trim the Outgoing Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Trimming the pan lumber Clip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Single-Roller Trimming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Adding Synced Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Working with Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Adjusting Audio Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Adjusting Audio Pan (Balance) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Chapter 8 Adding Effects

Effects Editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

Displaying the Effect Palette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Effect Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

Effect Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Transition Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

Segment Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Applying Effects to a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Working in Effect Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Rendering an Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Tutorial: Adding Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Adding Transition Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Adding a Dissolve Effect (Fade-In). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Dissolving Between Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Creating a Series of Dissolves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Creating Audio Dissolves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Adding a Fade-to-Black Effect Within the Sequence . . . . . . . . . 158

Adding a Picture-in-Picture Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Using the Second Video Track. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159

Creating the Picture-in-Picture Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Repositioning the Image. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162

Adjusting a Parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Adding Keyframes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

11

Adding Background Images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Rendering the Effect. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Screening the Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166

Chapter 9 Creating Titles

Creating New Titles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

Understanding the Title Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Working with Text. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Text Formatting Tools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Selecting Colors and Setting Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Adjusting the Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

Editing a Title into a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

Tutorial: Creating Titles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Adding a Title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Creating a New Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Repositioning Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

Changing Color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Adding a Shadow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Saving a Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178

Editing the Title into the Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Adding Rolling Credits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Editing an Existing Title . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Adding a Video Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180

Viewing the Creation Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Splicing the Title into a Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181

Deleting Excess Footage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182

Closing the Title Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183

Chapter 10 Generating Output

Output Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Preparing for Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Digital Cut. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

About Exporting Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188

12

Preparing to Export a Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Tutorial: Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Recording a Digital Cut to Tape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

Chapter 11 Backing Up

About Media Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196

Media Objects and Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Media Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Basic Media Tool Features. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199

Freeing Storage Space. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

Consolidating Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200

About the Consolidate Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Backing Up Media Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Backing Up Project Folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Tutorial: Backing Up. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Consolidating the Boat Shop Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Saving Your Work on a Drive or Floppy Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

Restoring from a Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Quitting and Shutting Down. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Glossary

Index

13

Figures

Figure 7-1 Command Palette Tabs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

Figure 7-1 Command Palette Tabs (Continued) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

14

Tables

Table 7-1 Mark Points for Tutorial Clips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .132

Table 11-1 Media Objects and Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .198

Using This Guide

This guide provides information about how to get started using your

Avid Xpress

®

system. It presents the essential features of the system;

most chapters also contain hands-on tutorials so you can practice what

you learn.

n

The documentation describes the features and hardware of all models.

Therefore, your system might not contain certain features and hardware that

are covered in the documentation.

Who Should Use This Guide

This guide is written for video editors who are learning to use an

Avid Xpress system and are learning about digital editing.

16

Using This Guide

About This Guide

The Contents that precedes this Using This Guide section lists all

topics included in the guide. They are presented with the following

overall structure:

• Chapter 1 explains how to turn on your system, install the tutorial

media, and use Help and online documentation.

• Chapter 2 presents basic editing concepts and walks you through

a typical workflow scenario.

• The main body of the guide presents introductory material on

various aspects of your workflow, followed in most chapters by a

tutorial section. Work through the tutorial for guided hands-on

experience with your Avid Xpress system.

• A detailed Index helps you quickly locate specific topics.

This guide should get you started with your Avid Xpress system. For

more information on using Avid Xpress, choose Avid Xpress Help

from the Help menu or see the Avid Xpress User’s Guide.

Symbols and Conventions

Unless noted otherwise, the material in this document applies to the

Windows 2000 and Macintosh operating systems. When the text

applies to a specific operating system, it is marked as follows:

• (Windows) or (Windows only) means the information applies to

the Windows 2000 operating system.

• (Macintosh) or (Macintosh only) means the information applies to

the Macintosh operating system.

The majority of screen shots in this document were captured on a

Windows 2000 system, but the information applies to both

Windows 2000 and Macintosh systems. Where differences exist, both

Windows 2000 and Macintosh screen shots are shown.

17

Symbols and Conventions

The Avid Xpress documentation uses the following special symbols

and conventions:

1. Numbered lists, when the order of the items is important.

a. Alphabetical lists, when the order of secondary items is

important.

• Bulleted lists, when the order of the items is unimportant.

- Indented dashed lists, when the order of secondary items is

unimportant.

t One arrow indicates a single-step procedure. Multiple arrows in a

list indicate that you perform one of the actions listed.

The k symbol refers to the Apple or Command key. Press and hold

the Command key and another key to perform the keyboard

equivalent.

In this document, Avid drive refers to the Macintosh system’s internal

hard drive. Apple Computer, Inc. names the internal hard drive

Macintosh HD. Depending on your system’s setup, the internal hard

drive might have a different name.

Courier Bold font identifies text that you type.

Look here in the margin

for tips.

In the margin, you will find tips that help you perform tasks more

easily and efficiently.

n

A note provides important related information, reminders, recommendations,

and strong suggestions.

c

A caution means that a specific action you take could cause harm to

your computer or cause you to lose data.

w

A warning describes an action that could cause you physical harm.

Follow the guidelines in this guide or on the unit itself when

handling electrical equipment.

18

Using This Guide

If You Need Help

If you are having trouble using you Avid system, you should:

1. Retry the action, carefully following the instructions given for that

task in this guide.

2. Check the documentation that came with your hardware for

maintenance or hardware-related issues.

3. Check the release notes supplied with your Avid application for

information on accessing the Avid Web site and the Avid

Knowledge Center.

4. For support services, call Avid Customer Support:

- Broadcast products — call 800-NEWS-DNG (639-7364).

- Postproduction products — call 800-800-AVID (2843).

Related Information

The following documents provide more information about the

Avid Xpress product:

• Avid Xpress Release Notes for the Windows 2000 Operating System or

Avid Xpress Release Notes for the Macintosh Operating System

These release notes include important information you should

read before installing and using Avid Xpress.

• Avid Symphony and Composer Products Site Preparation Guide for the

Windows 2000 Professional Operating System or Avid Composer

Products Site Preparation Guide for the Macintosh Operating System

These guides provide electrical, environmental, size, and weight

information for users who are responsible for preparing a site for

installation of an Avid Xpress system.

19

Related Information

• Avid Symphony and Composer Products Setup Guide for the Windows

2000 Professional Operating System or Avid Composer Products Setup

Guide for the Macintosh Operating System

These guides are designed for anyone who is installing an

Avid Xpress system, moving a system, or solving problems that

can arise with the system hardware.

• Avid Xpress Getting Started Guide (this book)

This guide provides a step-by-step tutorial covering the basic

features of Avid Xpress.

• Avid Xpress Quick Reference for the Windows 2000 Operating System

or Avid Xpress Quick Reference for the Macintosh Operating System

These folded cards list convenient keyboard shortcuts for using

Avid Xpress.

• Avid Xpress User’s Guide

This guide provides complete information on all editing tasks,

such as recording footage, viewing and marking footage, editing,

trimming, importing, exporting, and generating final output.

• Avid Xpress Effects Guide

This guide describes techniques for using digital video effects,

titles, third-party plug-in effects, mattes, keys, and layering

options.

• Avid Products Collaboration Guide

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for transferring

project files, audio files, and graphics and effects files between

various Avid products.

The most recent update of the Avid Products Collaboration Guide is

provided online. Check the release notes supplied with your Avid

application for information on accessing online documentation.

• Avid Xpress Online Publications CD-ROM

This online collection provides electronic versions of most

documents listed in this section, as well as documents for related

20

Using This Guide

Avid applications. You can view these documents with Adobe

®

Acrobat

®

Reader

®

, which you can install from the CD-ROM.

• Avid Xpress Help

The Help system provides all the information included in the

Avid Xpress User’s Guide and the Avid Xpress Effects Guide supplied

with your system. The Help operates in a Web browser. To open

the Help, choose Avid Xpress Help from the Help menu in the

Avid Xpress application. For information on using Help, click the

Using Help button in the Help system.

If You Have Documentation Comments

Avid Technology continuously seeks to improve its documentation.

We value your comments about this guide, the Help, the Online

Publications CD-ROM, and other Avid-supplied documentation.

Simply e-mail your documentation comments to Avid Technology at

T[email protected]

Please include the title of the document, its part number, revision, and

the specific section you are commenting on in all correspondence.

How to Order Documentation

To order additional copies of this documentation from within the

United States, call Avid Telesales at 800-949-AVID (2843). If you are

placing an order from outside the United States, contact your local

Avid representative.

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Avid Xpress 5.0 Quick start guide

Avid Xpress 5.0 Quick start guide

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