The Lightworks Crash Course for Beginners (Part Two): Importing

wolfcrow by Sareesh Sudhakaran

In Part One we looked at how to set up Lightworks. We also understood some basic terms and what the workspace looked like.

In this part we’ll look at how Lightworks imports files and deals with different codecs.

The Lightworks workflow

We left two threads hanging in Part One: how resolution and frame rates are handled in Lightworks. Let’s deal with that first.

Frame rates

Lightworks avoids showing us 23.976, 29.97, 48 and 59.94 fps but it’s still there. Project frame rates are divided into three families:

  • 24 – This includes 23.976 and 48 fps as well.
  • 25 – This includes 50 fps as well.
  • 30 – This includes 29.97, 59.94 and 60 fps as well.

  • You can only choose the frame rate once. After you ingest or import the first clip, the project frame rate cannot be changed. Every clip you import MUST be the same as the project frame rate. E.g., if you have a 25 fps project, and try to bring in a 29.97 fps clip, it will not work. This is a major limitation. In fact, for those looking at working with slow-motion footage, it might as well be a deal breaker.

    50, 59.94 and 60 fps is only available up to 720p. 1080p is limited to 30 fps, which is also somewhat limiting (for lack of a better word) but not really a problem in a broadcast or cinema pipeline.

    Resolution

    Lightworks claims it can take up to 5K material if necessary. The timeline is able to work with footage at a high resolution; however, a project can only be one of the following standards: read more...

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