Filmmaking magic made possible by Pinnacle Studio

Video-editing has traditionally been the work of professionals, but Pinnacle Studio has made a name for itself as the market-leading software for amateur filmmakers. Its latest release, Pinnacle Studio 12, has a range of new features – but we’ve taken you through some simple steps to edit your first video down to size. All you need is a camcorder or digital camera with video capabilities, and a copy of Pinnacle Studio 12.

Step 1. Video capture

First things first – you need to have some video footage ready to edit. Maybe it’s a video you shot of your friend’s birthday that you want to put together, or it’s a montage of your family holiday. Connect your camcorder/camera to your computer and open Pinnacle Studio 12. You’ll quickly notice that there are three main tabs running along the top, giving you an easy, three-step process.

Click on ‘1 Capture’. If you device is connected, it will show you the files you can drag into the program. In the bottom-right, a pie-chart will show you how much hard disk space is free and how much is used.

Toggle between ‘DV Capture’ or MPEG capture’ depending what format your camera uses. Note how the pie-chart changes – capturing a file to DV is much more of a drain on your free space.

Press ‘Settings’ for further options – including codecs, background rendering, previews and TV standard, whether it’s NTSC, PAL or SECAM. If you’re doing an MPEG capture, you can set the quality level accordingly.

Under Settings>Capture Format tab, ensure MPEG-1/2 is marked in ‘Presets’ and choose whether you want to record a DVD quality video (High quality) or lower. If you’re not fussed about quality and want to save space, you could opt for a VCD quality (low quality) or SVCD setting (medium quality).

Step 2. Drag and drop

When the video capturing is complete, it’s time to begin the main exercise of editing your video content. Click on ‘2 Edit’ – and you’ll notice icons running down the left side of your screen. The bottom half of your screen will display a timeline of your video, with the separate tracks of video, audio, music, sound effects and text in different rows, designated by an icon.

Pinnacle Studio 12 breaks your footage into sizeable chunks based on major variations of light. If you click on a particular scene, you’ll notice that a player in the top-right allows you to preview the scene at any time. All you need to do is drag and drop the scenes into the video track below, in any order you wish. If you’re not happy with the order, experiment a little.

Step 3. Cutting scenes

Once you’ve got all your scenes into a general sequence of events for your final cut, you might find there are bits that you don’t want – this is inevitable, no matter how good with the camera you are. It’s time to cut out the unwanted bits.

Cropping each scene is easy and painless. Double-click on the scene in the video track, and a window will expand out to show you the first and last frames of that scene, along with a control bar.

To crop the scene, simply drag the drop the blade icons at the beginning and end of the scene track to the preferred spot. Use the preview player to see the edited clip. Step 4. Transitions

Next up, you’ll want to ensure that your scenes flow smoothly from one to another. This is done by adding transitions. There is a selection of 72 transitions which give you a huge choice of how to move between the scenes.

From the traditional and subtle Fade In/Out, or Dissolve transitions, you’ll find more dazzling Star Wipes and Pin Wheel wipes for added effect.

Again, to preview the transition before applying it to your video, just click on one you want to see, and it will appear in the preview player in the top-right. Once you’ve found one you like, drag and drop the transition between the two scenes you want it applied to.

Step 5. Sound effects

Background music and well-timed sound effects can add some much-needed substance to your video, or emphasis the comedic value of particularly moments. Both have their own track row so they don’t get in each other’s way.

For music, click on the musical clef, and browse through your hard disk to find an MP3 or .WMA file that you want. Once you have chosen your song, drag and drop it into the music track to the place you want it. Just like the scenes, if you double-click on the music, you can crop parts of the song to hone in on the part you want.

For sound effects, there are 13 categories to choose from, including animals, bells, cartoons, electronic and gunshots. Again drag and drop the sound effect into the appropriate track for it to take effect.

You’ll notice that for the audio, sound effect and music tracks, if you click on them, a yellow line will appear. This is the volume level of the track at any given point. In the default setting, it’s uniform for the duration of the track.

To modify the volume, all you need to do is hover your cursor over the line and click and drag it up or down to your liking. It needn’t all be at the same volume either. Click on hold on any point in the audio file, and raise or lower it.

Note: To be more precise about your adjustments, zoom into the tracks to get a closer look. That way you can be more precise about synchronising music or adjusting volume to make it picture perfect.

Step 6. Adding effects

Perhaps the most fun part of this video editing process is adding video effects. Click on the plug icon at the bottom of the left-hand bar or go to Toolbox>Add Video Effects. You’ll notice that there are different categories. The Standard RTFX includes Pan and Zoom, Rotate, Stabilize, Noise Reduction and Auto Colour Reduction.

Using ‘Speed’, you’ll be speed up your clip by up to five times, or slow it down for slow-mo scenes. In addition, you can play the clip in reverse.

In the RTFX Volume 1 category, choosing ‘Old Film Advanced’ will make your scene look like it was filmed by a Super 8 camera – complete will the sepia-coloured look and the lines across the screen.

You can add a combination of effects for each scene. In addition, clicking on ‘More Effects’ will allow you to download addition third-party plug-ins for those of you that want to spend more time tinkering with the effects. Step 7. Adding a title

It’s always nice to give videos a title (and a date) for you to remember it by. If you click on the T icon, or go to Toolbox>Create Title, you can choose from a list of preset title layouts. Clicking on Create Title Overlay replaces the screen with a picture of your first scene inside a general text editor.

Here you can choose from a range of fonts on the right, and make all kinds of changes, including font size, the position of the text and so on. By dragging and dropping your title box into the position of the text track, you can ensure it appears (and disappears) exactly when you want.

Perhaps you want titles for each section of your video. Create new title boxes and drag them into position. The text editor is fun to experiment with, so you can spend as much time or as little time at this stage as you wish.

Step 8. Creating a menu

If you’re making a DVD, another crucial element is the DVD Menu at the start. Click on the Show Menus icon on the left-hand side, or go to Album>Disc Menus. Forty-nine different preset menus in different styles will appear.

Choose one, and click and drag it into your main video track. A window will appear, giving you the choice to create your chapters manually or automatically.

To simplify this process, let Studio create the chapters for you at the beginning of each clip, but specify the minimum length of a chapter (the default setting is 60 seconds). After Clicking OK, you will see what your Menu looks like with your chapters. Click on ‘Edit Menu’, and you’ll be taken into a text editor, where you can manipulate the text and positions of the boxes.

Otherwise, drag and drop the scene boxes into the appropriate chapters.  If you check the ‘Motion thumbnails’ box, then each chapter will play that scene. Choosing ‘Set thumbnail’ gives you the option of which frame in the scene you use as the picture displayed for that particular chapter.

Step 9. Making a movie

Now it’s time to make the movie. Click on ‘3 Make Movie’. You have the option of creating a Disc, File, Tape or Posting it to YouTube or Yahoo! Video online. Select the appropriate setting, according to the four icons that appear on the left-hand side.

If you’re creating a file on your computer, under File Type, choose which format you want – options include AVI, Flash, MPEG, DiVX, Sony PSP Compatible, 3GP and iPod compatible. Then select the appropriate Preset, depending on the quality you’re after. All you need to do then is click on ‘Create’.

If you’re creating a disc, you can save to Blu-ray, HD DVD, DVD and more. If posting to the web, you can choose between ‘Best Quality’ and ‘Fastest Upload’ presets.

Click on the computer screen icon with WWW inside to see your video online when the upload is complete. And there you have it – your first edited video.