- Getting Started
- Arranging and Trimming Clips in the Timeline Viewer
- Working with Audio in the Timeline Viewer
- Adding Subtitles and Closed Captions to Your Project
- Editing Subtitle Attributes
- Review
Arranging and Trimming Clips in the Timeline Viewer
The Encore DVD Timeline Viewer does not pretend to be a video editor. It offers a limited, but very handy set of editing tools.
For example, you can add multiple clips to a single timeline. At the very least this saves you from having to create multiple timelines. Later you can create menus that let viewers access clips individually, sequentially, or in customized orders.
Once you add multiple clips to a timeline, you can rearrange them by simply dragging them along the timeline, before or after other clips.
In addition you can:
- Trim the beginning or end of clips (you also can lengthen still image clips).
- Delete clips from a timeline.
On the other hand, here’s some of what the Timeline Viewer cannot do:
- Fill gaps left when clips are moved to a new location.
- Fill gaps left after you trim a clip.
- Let you put more than one type of some audio files on the same track.
If you want to do any kind of detailed audio or video editing, your best bet is to do those edits in Premiere Pro, After Effects, or Audition, and then import those assets into Encore DVD.
Previewing the Project
In this exercise you’ll start by working with still images to keep things simple. Later, you’ll learn some tips and discover some limitations of working with video and multiple audio file types.
- View the Lesson 3 Intro Video.
- Start Encore DVD and open the Lesson 3 project.
This is what you will end up assembling in this lesson.
- Look at the Timeline Viewer. It has two timelines:
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Brazilian Dancer —This one has five image clips. You’ll rearrange and edit that group.
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Behind the Scenes —This has two subtitle tracks. You might need to expand the height of the Timeline Viewer to see them.
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- Click on one of the Subtitle Track Selectors—the empty boxes to the left of the Subtitle track names—to switch on the subtitle display of that track in the Monitor.
- Drag the CTI to one of the subtitle clips and you’ll see the subtitle display in the Monitor.
Working with Clips in the Timeline Viewer
- Choose File > New Project and name it My Lesson 3.
- Import as assets at least the first five of the files in the Encore DVD 2.0 CIB Assets\ Images\Photos file folder.
Use one of the import shortcuts—Ctrl+I is an easy choice.
- Click on the Brazilian Dancer.psd file in the Project panel to select it and then choose File > New > Timeline.
This is another way to make a timeline. You used the right-click method in the previous lesson. The Brazilian Dancer timeline will show up in the Project and Timelines panels and in the Timeline Viewer tab.
- Select four other photo files and drag them to the Brazilian Dancer clip in the Timeline Viewer Video track.
That adds them after the dancer clip. Your five-clip timeline should be 30 seconds long (if you opted for the default 6-second duration for still images).
- Click inside the Timeline Viewer to make it the active panel, then press the backslash shortcut key to zoom out the timeline view to see all five clips.
- Click near the center of the fourth clip and drag it to the left so that its left edge is at the beginning of the second clip.
- Release the mouse button to drop the clip there.
As shown in the previous figure, four things happen:
- The clip is inserted ahead of the second clip.
- The second and third clips slide to the right.
- There is a gap where the fourth clip used to be.
- The fifth clip is moved to the right such that its end is at 36 seconds. Your timeline grew by 6 seconds.
- Partially fill that gap by hovering your cursor over the right edge of the fourth clip until it turns into the Trim cursor
, shown in the next figure, then drag that edge to the right a couple of seconds.
This lengthens the still image duration. You could have dragged it far enough to completely fill the gap but you’ll fill it using the other method in the next step.
- Fill the rest of the gap by dragging the entire fifth clip (not its edge) to the left .
- Delete a clip by selecting it and pressing delete or by right-clicking on it and pressing clear.
That leaves a gap. But there is a better way to do this.
- Press Ctrl+Z to undo the delete.
- Right-click on a clip you want to delete and choose Ripple Delete.
That removes the clip and slides the clips to its right over to the left to fill the gap left by the deleted clip.