Switching between 2 (or more) videos

[ProjectInspiria]

Hey!

I have a problem as I am quite new in video editing. I am starting a music project on YouTube. For this I need some information about how to make a nice video. Im Dutch, so I'm sorry for my English.

Here's the thing: The audio tracks are seperated from the video tracks. There are 2 or probably more (instrument) video tracks The only thing I want to know is how to put more videos up and switch between them. There's an example in the end of this post.

I work with MPEG, and with the program Camtasia Studio 6.

I hope you guys can help me out! Thanks in advance!

Bram Trommelen

EXAMPLE

[JimmyS]

Most all of what is done in the example video that you provided, should be able to be accomplished with one of the consumer level video apps. like Premiere Elements or Vegas Movie Studio. I have experimented with similar editing techniques, although not with music clips, Don't take my experiences with this as the only way this can be done, but I'll try to explain what I have found to work. For this example, I'm assuming using a 720x480 video source. And, I'll explain it as you would see it in Premiere Elements, but the procedure would be similar in Vegas. You can get free trial versions of both if you want try some of this yourself.

The number of video tracks you would need to have open, would be equal to the maximum number of views shown at any one time in your final video.. The way your example video starts, there are four views used. Clip(1) the drummer and drum set, Clip(2) the drum pedals, Clip(3) the guitarist, and Clip(4) duplicate of (3). How to get from the beginning single view of the drummer clip to the simultaneous views of the four clips could go something like this.

Drop each clip into one of the four video tracks. For example lets say you want to start with five seconds of the drummer full frame, then 30 seconds of all four views showing in the frame.. First split all four clips at the five second point, then unlink the audio and video (A/V) for tracks 2 3 & 4. Delete the 5 second segments of clips 2. 3 & 4. Now for the first five seconds, you see only the drummer segment, and the A/V unlinking left the audio in place. Make another split at the 35 sec. point. The A/V can stay linked here or not. Where unlinking A/V occurs usually depends if you are deleting parts of clips. If they are linked, the audio gets deleted along with the video.

Here is where we make the four separate views appear within the video frame. Select the 30 sec. segment of the drummer. When selected, the properties window shows a number of items that can be configured for that clip. We will want to change the motion properties for this clip segment. First scale the clip to 50%. Its size will now be 360x240. Now we want to change the position of the clip. Positions are listed by relation of the center point of the clip to the center point of the video frame with the 0,0 point being the top left corner of the frame. In the example video the drummer is in the top left segment of the frame. A nice feature of Elements is that you can drag and drop the selected clip to a new position right in the Monitor window. Drag it to the top-left position of the Monitor. You will see its center position change in the Properties window. If you do the math of where the center point of a 360x240 clip should be when it is in the top left of the video frame based on the 'position" sentence above, it should be located at the 180,120 point. You can type these coordinates in the position field manually to get the clip in the exact position. This will take care of the drummer clip.

The procedure for the three other clips is almost identical. Size then down to 360x240 then move then into their proper positions in the motion properties. As you can see there were quite a number of steps just for 30 seconds of video, but nothing that is really very difficult.

Another example of changes in the example video, if after the above 30 second edit, you want 30 seconds full frame of the drum pedals, you would move the time indicator another 30 seconds past your last edit, and split the clips again. You would also want to unlink the A/V. Now all you would have to do is delete the three 30 sec segments of the clips that you do not want to show here. Do you see the trend yet? You can give motion to a clip (make it slide across the frame etc.) by adding start point and end point keyframes in the clips motion properties. Key frames can also be used in the audio tracks to adjust individual track volumes, fade ins, fade outs etc.

Doing this type of editing is not extremely difficult, but it will require having a good working knowledge of the editing package you are using. Also the more thought and planning you put into want your final product to look like, the better the outcome will be.

Good luck with your endeavor.