Pain Free Video Editing (page 2)
Importing Problems
Your video editing application is no good without media to edit, so the next task is to get your media assets captured/transferred and/or imported. This can be a bit confusing for the first-time editor. Capturing is the process of reading a real-time video data stream from your camcorder, saving it to your hard drive and then importing (adding) that asset to the project library. Transferring is the process of reading raw video data from a camcorder (usually faster than real-time), converting the data to a format that the application prefers, saving it to the hard drive and then importing that asset to the project library. So, video that's stored on your camcorder's media needs to be captured or transferred. Anything else that's already saved to your hard drive (including video files) can simply be imported. Although, you will only be able to import file types that are supported by your video editing application. File type support varies between different applications.
Music CDs and Video Editing
Another common hiccup is music CDs. Most video editing applications will not allow you to import a music track directly from a music CD. You need to first import a music track from the CD using another application (e.g., iTunes, Windows Media Player, etc.) and save it as a music file type that works with your video editing application. The WAV and MP3 formats are most commonly supported.
My Pictures Are Way Too Big
Pictures can also throw you for a loop. Often times digital photographs are taken at a higher resolution than video. When you import these high resolution images and place them into your timeline, you'll likely see only a small portion of the picture. This is because the project settings have a resolution that is smaller than the picture. Don't bother trying to change your project settings. Simply resize the scale of the photograph so that it fits into the smaller resolution of your video project. You may also consider using project presets in your photo editing and graphic editing applications (e.g., Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator) that match your video project settings. This will resize the photo or graphic software's canvas to be the exact size of the video project resolution. Your exported photo or graphic will be just the right size when you import it to your video project.
Keep in mind that your video project resolution is typically tied to a resolution standard based on your camcorder. While you edit, everything will be based on this resolution, but it's not often the final resolution of your finished product. You can export to a myriad of other video resolutions that are a better fit for web video, mobile devices, DVDs, and other deliverables.
Exporting
Speaking of exporting, when it comes time to share your edited project, you'll be given a whole bunch of options. If you're delivering a video to the web (e.g., YouTube, Vimeo, etc.), choose an export preset designed for the Web. Many editors will literally have a "Web" preset and perhaps even a "YouTube" preset. Use these presets and save yourself the headache of trying to define what the video settings are for each unique scenario. The same is true with exporting to a DVD, use the presets as this will help you when you take the exported video to your DVD authoring application (if it's not a part of your video editing application). It's also a good idea to name the files in a way the denotes the intended delivery format. For example, "Wedding-DVD" and "Wedding-YouTube" will help you keep from making DVDs of lower quality web video.
