 |
|
Express Tour |
|
|
What Is Pinnacle Express? |
|
|
You are probably aware that, as well as making movies to tape, you can also store them as files on your hard-drive. If you have a CD Writer, and format a CD with something like DirectCD, you can copy your movie file to it and then send it to someone for them to play on their PC. If your file was in DV-AVI format then you would only be able to make movies about 3 minutes long, and the person playing it would probably have to copy it to their hard-drive first to cope with the data rate. An alternative is to store the file in a compressed-movie format known as MPEG. This format is often available as an output option from Video Editing programs such as Studio7, or may be obtained by converting your DV-AVI using a utility known as a 'transcoder'. Movies of about 1 hour in length may be stored in this format on a normal writable CD. Although the quality will be lower than the original DV footage from your camcorder, it is often quite acceptable for normal viewing. The method described above will not give pictures on a TV however, unless you have special hardware to get TV signals out of the computer - a far cry from the user-friendly DVDs that we have been accustomed to using in recent years. There are ways to manually create CDs that behave in a similar way to commercial DVDs, but these generally require computer skills more aligned with the Enthusiast, rather than the casual Camcorder and Computer User. What is needed is a simple program that will create a movie file that can be decoded correctly by a DVD player, include an editor to allow interactive menus to be created, and add the file structure and support files necessary for it to be recognised as a playable disk by the DVD player. That is what Pinnacle Express does. Known as an 'Authoring Tool', it is a very simple-to-use application that takes all the hard work out of producing VCDs, SVCDs, and DVDs - and it is one of the first to do this in a what-you-see-is-what-you-get approach. There are three steps to authoring a video disk with Express -
They are selected from one of these
|
|
Import/Capture
'Bringing In' your 'Assets' |
This stage is known as 'Bringing In Assets' to your project. (An 'asset' is the authoring term for various components that you include in your project). You may choose to capture video directly from your digital camcorder, import a video file or group of files that already exist in your computer, or import still pictures in a variety of formats. All these kinds of assets may be
mixed in the same project. They will appear in the 'Asset List', shown to
the right of the camcorder. The When capturing from a DV camcorder, via an IEEE 1394 interface (not included), a preview appears in the 'virtual camcorder' display window, and the transport buttons may be used to control the real camcorder. As an aid to the simple editing of captured or imported video files, Automatic Scene Detection may be used as the asset is brought into the project. This 'marks' the video into individual scenes, based on time-breaks or sudden changes in picture content. This feature may be turned off if not required
|
Edit
Edit Screen |
When you enter Step2, you are presented with the Preview screen (see below). It is more likely however that you will want to trim your movie, or make adjustments to the grouping of scenes, so that will be explained first. The Edit screen shown here is entered from a button on the Preview screen. A vertical 'storyboard' is shown on the left hand side of the screen, which displays the first frame of each captured scene, or a thumbnail of any stills that you may have included. There is a 'Player' window to the right which enables you to view any scene, either continuously or frame-by-frame. Stills are also viewed here. Down the centre of the screen are a number of 'tool' buttons, which you can use to trim your movie in a primitive fashion - change 'in' and 'out' points of any scene, cut out unwanted segments, dissolve between stills, etc. There is another aspect of this Edit screen that is not immediately obvious, but is a very important part of the authoring process. Each of the thumbnails shown on the storyboard will finish up as a separate item in the interactive menus (which we shall look at in a moment). There are tools included to combine as many scenes, and stills, as you like, into a single thumbnail, and options to choose how these thumbnails will appear and behave when played in a DVD player. I have more to say about this aspect of Pinnacle Express in the Hints & Tips section.
|
Preview
Preview Screen
Custom Menu Designer Screen |
This is the screen you see when you choose the second icon in the the upper display panel. It performs a dual-role - you can preview your finished production as it will appear on TV, complete with a DVD player 'remote' - and you can design the 'look' of the menu pages that will give your audience access to the disk contents. It is from here (the small button at the lower RH corner of the TV screen) that you can launch the Edit mode described above. Also, for some obscure reason, it is here that you choose the quality of the movie (VCD/SVCD/DVD) you want to make, and the type of media (CD-R, CD-R/W, DVD-R, DVD-R/W). These options are set/displayed in the group of controls at the centre/bottom of the window. To preview the movie, it is a simple matter of operating the remote control as you would for a stand-alone DVD player. It will not, however, give an indication of picture quality - more a continuity check, and confidence in the 'look' of the final product before you 'burn' your disk. The second role this screen performs is to enable the look (and sound) of the interactive menus to be chosen or designed. Menus are made up of a number of elements - Background, Frames (for thumbnails), Layout, Text, and Sound. All of these can be customised by accessing the 'Style Chooser' - the gizmo in the top LH corner of the Preview screen. By opening the lower 'drawer' (shown open in the screen-shot), you can try out a number of pre-set menu styles or, by clicking on the button at the lower edge of the draw, open up a new window which lets you design your own. A screen shot of the Custom Menu Designer is shown opposite. With this, you can customise each element that makes up the menu screens, choosing a different style for each menu if you wish. Some elements, such as backgrounds and music, may be imported from your hard-disk - adding a real 'personal touch' to your production. If you want to use your design again later, you can save it - automatically adding it to the style-list.
|
Make Disk
|
This is the final stage, where you burn your epic to CD. You have very few options here. You have already set the quality, and chosen the medium in earlier stages. Now you just choose how many copies you want to produce, and the speed of the 'burn'. This stage will take some time. Initially, the upper progress bar will indicate progress in rendering your assets and control files to a temporary folder on one of your hard drives. The lower bar will then indicate progress in burning the CD. |
numbered icons in the upper panel of the User
Interface.
buttons above the Asset List give choice
in the kind of asset that you wish to bring in. You may also 'drag and
drop' files into the Asset List, straight from Windows Explorer.
