Premiere Elements 2.0 beginner's guide to AMV's

[dragoneyes001]

Well I guess since many people like to make AMV's it would be a good thing to make a beginner's guide for one of the popular video editing products available.

this guide will be for the Premiere Elements 2.0 version

ok to get started the opening page:

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c58/dragoneyes001/PE2.jpg

once you have PE open your given 3 choices: new project, open project and video capture. for brevity we'll be discussing only the first two (the third is well documented in PE's tutorial)

since this is a beginners guide we'll asume its a new project.

click New project this page will come up:

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c58/dragoneyes001/PE2-1.jpg

now we decide on a name for our AMV and below that chose where to save the file its a good idea to make a file specificly for AMV's if you plan on making many videos.

now for open project page:

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c58/dragoneyes001/PE2-2.jpg

select project you've named from the list (has PE logo in the above pic "advent Rock") the program automaticly saves projects at time intervals in case of pc crashes but its a good habit to save manualy as well after adding new clips to the timeline(which will be mentioned later).

heres a pick of the control page with new project:

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c58/dragoneyes001/PE2-3.jpg

and here with a project already in progress:

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c58/dragoneyes001/PE2-4.jpg

heres a pic for adding media:

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c58/dragoneyes001/PE2-5.jpg

you will use this to retrieve all media you want to add to your AMV
first should be the Music which you can add to the timeline this will give you an exact length of time for your AMV unless you plan on compiling multiple sound tracks which you should have no problem doing on this editor.

at the botom of the picture you will see the timeline notice there are multiple timeline tracks there are several uses for these but firstly this will come in handy for AMV's since most clips come with their own sound tracks and you want to use your music track.

tip1) add music track to any of the three default sound timelines and when draging a new video clip chose another timeline to drop into so you can remove the clips sound track then move the clip to the same number track as the music usualy track one(the reason for this track will be explained later).


here's a pick for editing clips from a large source:

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c58/dragoneyes001/PE2-6.jpg

(1) once you have imported the source double click it to make the clip show on the viewer(2) you can click on the clip time to find a section you want(3)
to adjust to a specific point use the video controls (4) the slide can fast forward once you are at the start of the clip you want use the "IN{"(5) then forward the clip to the end of your clip and use the "OUT{" (5) you now have a clip the size you entered ready to be added to your timeline.


(its getting late i'll continue this tutorial over the next few days and add to a AMV im making keeping track of the steps beyond the curent base i've made heres a link to a poor quality first draft Youtube is really sucking.)

edit: I will be updating but work has put a damper on getting much done before this weekend sorry for the delay.

edit removed first draft link new link below.

[dragoneyes001]

OK I said I'd be continuing this beginners guide and here goes part two:

AMVs look good when you start adding effects these can be done in four choices video FX, video transitions, audio FX, audio transitions.

I'll be sticking to the video aspect in this guide simply to not have such a long guide it becomes a book.

first we'll take a look at adding video transitions to add a transition to an time-line you need to split the clip where you want the transition to occur (1) to make finding a sound bite(4) you want the transition to coincide with increasing the size of the time-line helps(3) to cut the clip you have two choices(2) the razor icon will cut only the video or audio while the scissors will cut both audio and video. once you have your clipped section chose the transition icon(5)

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c58/dragoneyes001/splitclipfortransitions.jpg


OK now that you have chosen transitions(1) there will be a long list of transitions you can use once you found one you feel is appropriate(2) drag and drop it onto the cut you made in the video(3).

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c58/dragoneyes001/editingatransition.jpg

now you can edit your transition its duration(5) the point at which the transition will start(4) in this case the direction of the effect(6) and there are more available edits like reverse and custom if you scroll down on the effect edit window.

a more advanced but popular trick in AMV's is picture in picture here's a quick how to:

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c58/dragoneyes001/pictureinpicture.jpg

to achieve picture in picture you need to know how the time-lines(1) work there are three default time-lines to chose from 1-2-3 the priority is in that order.
so any video on line1 will over-ride lines 2-3.(2) you will want your main video in one of the back time-lines so that clips you want to overlap will be opaque.

once you know where you want a picture in picture set the time-line viewer bar at the frame you want to start at drag the clip you want to it in the line below your main video it will snap-to the time bar you will now have a clip the same size[height and width] as your main time to edit this.

double click the clip in the viewer[showing time-line] this will bring up bounding lines(3) use them to reduce the size of your clip[they will stay constrained] then use the center X to move the clip to its final position. you now have a picture in picture.

if you chose to change the constraints of the clip you need to open "motion" (4) I'll be addressing this in the next effect.

side by side video:

similar to picture in picture except now you will alter the constraints on the two parts your putting together(1) uncheck the box constraining the ratio so you can reduce the width without reducing the height of the clips. also leave the size to just over 50% so you dont get a gap you dont plan on between the clips [if you want a line then reduce to smaller]. another thing to watch for is alignment (2) you'll notice both clips are even in height but the one high-lighted one is a bit too much to the right make sure your clip is properly placed there no bigger loss of time than rendering something only to have to repair a minor oops.

this should give you a basic guide to transitions i'll be adding another section on video effects later probably next weekend.

ooops. forgot to post the link to the video with transitions added the quality is somewhat better than first hopping the MPEG2 upload clears if it does i'll post it instead.

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2765478