Avid Editing Tips and Tricks - Part IV

DV Fanatics

Since the Avid Editing Tips and Trick series continues to be very popular on the DV Fanatics Blog, this week is the fourth edition in the series. Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions or comments regarding these tips. You can reach me via comments on this blog, through Google+ or through LinkedIn.

Here are this weeks tips and tricks. Some are relatively simple, while some are a little more involved. I am using Media Composer on the Mac, so if you are using a Windows system, remember that COMMAND on the Mac is the same as CTRL on Windows and OPTION on the Mac does what ALT does on Windows.

• Creating a Sequence of Stills with Dissolves - Have you ever tried to import a bunch of still images, drop them into a sequence and then wanted to add a dissolve to every transition? You soon find out that you can't add a dissolve because there isn't any adjacent material to use in the dissolve. Here's the solution. Begin by setting your "Import Settings" to the duration that you want each still to remain on screen. In my example, I have the "Frame Import Duration" set to 2 seconds - the length of time each image will remain on screen. After you've selected a duration, import all of your images, select them in the bin and drag them into a new sequence.
  
  To give each of these clips in your sequence the appropriate handles for a dissolve, select all of them in the bin and choose "Batch Import..." under the "Clip" menu. A dialog box will appear and ask which clips you want to import, click the "All clips" button. In the next dialog box, under the "Import Options" section, click the "Override clip settings with current settings" box and then click the "Current Settings..." button. Change the "Frame Import Duration" to include media for a dissolve. I want a 15 frame dissolve, so I add a second to duration, changing the duration to 3 seconds. read more...