• Launching Pinnacle Studio 8
• Capturing video from VHS
• Editing your video clips & movie
• Exporting your movie to VHS
• Exporting your movie as AVI / MPEG files
• Pinnacle Studio manual (Adobe PDF - 3.5 MB)

Launching Pinnacle Studio 8

• Launch Pinnacle Studio 8, choose Start > Studio 8 > and click Studio
• If this is your first time, choose New Project from the File menu
• If you are returning,
  • choose Open Project from the File menu
  • browse to the file
  • choose Open

Capturing video from the VCR (VHS)

• Press the gray button on the Canopus box for Analog In
  • Squealing sound? - Turn down the TV volume until the movie is playing
• Pause your video several seconds before the the clip that you would like to import
  • You can trim excess footage off later
• Click the Capture tab above
• To begin capturing, click Start Capture
• The dialogue box will appear
• Enter name for the capture, and press Start Capture
• Press Play on the VCR
• The movie should now be in the capture screen
• The time will be counting forward in hours, minutes, seconds, and frames in the circled area (detail)
  • The Frames dropped: section indicates if there are problems with your video or storage space
    • The occasional dropped frame is not cause for concern. However, a steady stream indicates there is a problem, and the video will not play correctly
• To stop recording, click on the Stop Capture button
• The captured scene(s) will be placed into the album on the left (detail)
• If you have more clips to record, repeat this process as required
• Remember to save your project often, choose Save Project from the File menu

Editing your video clips/movie

In this mode, you will be able to split clips, trim clips, add titles, transitions, and various effects as well as add/edit the audio.

• Click the Edit tab
• Clicking a clip will select it (it will appear in blue)
• The selected clip will appear in the player window (detail)
  
  
• Playing your clips
• Trimming a video clip
• Splitting a video clip
• Assembling your movie
• Adding titles to your movie
• Adding transitions to your movie
• Adding visual effects to your Movie
• Adding motion effects
• Adding/editing audio in your movie

Playing a clip

• Play a selected clip using the set of playback controls in the window (detail)

Trimming a video clip

Trimming is where you select only a portion (designating beginning and end points) of your movie to keep.

• Drag the clip with the desired footage from the album down to the timeline area (detail)
• Click the video toolbox icon
• The tool box window will pop up (detail)
• Drag the first marker to the exact place/frame on the timeline that you would like your clip to begin
• Drag the second marker to the place on the timeline that you would like your clip to end
• The clip's timeline will be shaded gray between the start and stop points, this is the only footage that will be seen
• Close the toolbox by clicking the X in the upper right corner

Splitting a clip

In Pinnacle you can split a single clip into two clips, and split each of those subsequent clips as needed as well, etc. This is quite useful if you want to cut a long scene into smaller, more manageable segments. It is also another method to cut off unwanted footage.

• Select the clip in the album (or down in the timeline)
• Move the play-head (scrubber bar) to the exact frame where you want to split the clip
• Click the razor icon
• The clip will split into two clips
• Repeat as needed

Assembling a movie

• Drag clips from the shelf down to the timeline, place them in any order desired
• There are three different views for the movie timeline at the bottom of the screen
  • Storyboard (clip) view shows all of the clips
  • Timeline view shows a complete proportional timeline for the movie,including the audio, title, and music tracks below
  • Text view shows all of the information in a text/list format

Adding titles to a movie

Titles add descriptive text to your movie. You can use a variety of title styles, fonts, and colors. Titles can be superimposed over all or just a portion of a clip. Titles can also be added over black (or almost any other standard color) or over a custom background as a completely separate clip. You can also modify titles after creating them.

Adding a title over a video clip

• Select the show titles tab
• Select the desired title style from the album
• In Storyboard view, drag the title down over the desired clip.
• In Timeline view, drag the title down to the title track and place it where you wish it to appear in the clip
  • Timeline view is going to be better if you wish the title to be placed in the middle of a clip.
• Edit the title screen as needed (below)

Adding a title over a still color/background

• Select the show titles tab
• Select the desired title style from the album
• In Storyboard view, drag the title down over a blank clip frame
• Drag the frame and place it in the sequence where you wish it to appear in the movie
• In Timeline view, drag the title down to the main video track and place it in the sequence where you wish it to appear in the movie
• Edit the title screen as needed (below)

Editing a title screen

• Right-click on the title clip, choose Go to Title / Menu Editor
• The Editing title window will appear, with default title information
• Click in the text field(s) for cursor
• Add, delete, edit, and select text as needed
• Use the font menu to select the font type, size and style
• Use the selection menu for the select arrow, the add (another) text box tool, and the add ellipse/rectangle tools
• You can change the duration of the title screen by adjusting duration settings
  • 4 seconds is the default interval
• Other sections (detail)

Adding transitions to a movie

Transitions create a visible effect from one clip to the next creating a smooth change for the viewer.

• Click on the transition tab along the left side of the album
• Pages of various transitions will display (detail)
• Preview a transition effect by clicking on it
• Drag the desired transition down between the clips in the timeline where you wish it to take place (detail)
• Double-click the transition symbol,
• Preview and adjust duration as needed

Adding visual effects to a movie

Pinnacle has a variety of special effects that may be applied to selected clips, or the whole movie as needed.

• Click the video toolbox
• Choose the effects tab
• Select the clip(s) down in the timeline
• Change the drop-down menu and/or adjust the effect sliders as needed (see descriptions below)
• Close the toolbox by clicking the X in the upper right corner

The color mode for the clip is set with the Color type drop-down at the top of the tool tray. The four choices are:

• All colors: The default – colors are displayed normally
• Single hue: The tonal values of the clip are converted to varying intensities of a single color
• Black and white: The clip is rendered in shades of gray
• Sepia: A special case of Single hue using sepia tones for an antique look

Some of the color choices override some of the individual video parameter settings. In general, you can adjust video parameters in three categories:

• Chrominance (hue and saturation)
• Luminance (brightness and contrast)
• Style (blur, emboss, mosaic and posterize)

  Hue: This is the visual property that allows us to distinguish colors. The slider biases all the colors in a clip towards red (left) or green (right). This can be especially useful for correcting flesh tones in some video.

  Saturation: This is the quantity of pure color, ranging from zero (no color at all – a gray scale) to fully saturated (the maximum color intensity your output system can deliver). Move the slider leftwards for a tonally-reduced, washed-out look; or rightwards for extra vibrancy.

  Brightness: This is the relative intensity of light, without regard to color. Try adjusting both brightness and contrast to correct video that is underexposed or overexposed.

  Contrast: The range of light and dark values in a picture or the ratio between the maximum and the minimum brightness values. Moving the slider to the left lowers contrast, forcing all areas of the image towards medium brightness values. Moving the slider to the right increases contrast, making dark areas darker and bright areas brighter.

  Blur: This is an effect akin to defocusing a camera. Studio offers ten steps of blur.

  Emboss: This specialized effect emulates the look of an embossed or bas-relief carving. Studio offers ten steps of emboss.

  Mosaic: This effect breaks an image into increasingly large colored squares as you move the slider to the right. The mosaic effect has 64 levels.

  Posterize: This effect progressively reduces the number of colors used to render an image, with the effect that regions of similar color are coalesced into larger flat areas. Studio offers seven steps of posterization.

Adding motion effects

Pinnacle has two types of motion effects that may be applied to selected clips, or to the whole movie as needed.

• Click the video toolbox
• Choose the vary playback speed tab
• Select the clip(s)
• Adjust the motion effect sliders as needed
• Preview the effect in the player window by choosing Play (see descriptions below)
• Close the video toolbox by clicking the X in the upper right corner

The Speed tool allows you to set the speed of any video clip from one-tenth to five times normal. The clip will change length in the movie window as you vary its speed.

The Strobe tool creates a “frozen motion” effect reminiscent of a dancer under strobe lights. The displayed number indicates how many times to repeat each displayed frame in the currently-selected clip. The maximum setting is 50. The clip duration will remain constant, and Studio will automatically drop frames to make room for the repeated ones.

Adding/editing audio in a movie

There are basically three different types of audio:

• Original audio track, this is the audio that is associated with your footage
• Sound effect/voice-over track, this track is where sound effects from inside the Pinnacle program, downloads from the Internet (e.g. .wav files), or recorded by external microphone are brought in
• Background music track, this track is where you can import canned background music from the samples included with Studio, or from an audio CD track(s)

Editing the original audio

• To adjust audio levels higher or lower at specific points, find these points in the movie and drag these points higher or lower with the mouse as shown in red
• To crop, split, or move the audio track, use the same procedures as with video clips
  • If you want to manipulate the audio independently of the video, you must lock the video track by clicking on the camera icon as shown in yellow
  • You will not be able to add/edit/delete any video while the video track is locked

Adding sound effects

• Click the sound effects tab on the main window
• There are various sound effect folders included with Pinnacle. These are complete with many .wav files.
• Select one of these folders, or browse to one of your choosing.
• Click the folder icon to browse
  • When your movie is rendered, be sure that any of your files are in the same location and are available to the program
• Click on the sound effect to preview it
• Drag it down to the desired location in the sound effect/voice over track
• Adjust the volume for the three tracks by clicking the master volume adjustment tab
• Adjust the sliders up/down as needed
• The other tracks can even be muted entirely by clicking on the appropriate track icon

Adding voice over narration

• You must have footage in the movie timeline to put narration with
• Click the audio toolbox
• Connect a microphone to the input jack of the PC sound card
• Review your movie to decide where the voice-over will begin and end
• Select the starting point by:
  • selecting a clip (if you want it to start at the beginning of the clip)
  • playing the movie and stopping it at the exact point
  • moving the scrubber/player bar to the exact starting point
• Position the microphone, and try a speaking test:
  • look at the level, the ideal range is in the yellow
  • adjust the slider on the right down if it is too high, and up if it is too low
• Click the Record button
  • Wait a few moments, Pinnacle will signal Standby, and finally a 3-2-1 count down
• When the Recording lamp lights up and the movie begins to play, perform your narration
• When finished, click the Stop button
  • Once the sound is on the track, it can be trimmed, split, or moved as desired
• Adjust the volume for the three tracks by clicking the master volume adjustment tab
• Adjust the sliders up/down as needed
• The other tracks can even be muted entirely by clicking on the appropriate track icon

Adding background music from a CD

• Click the audio toolbox
• Click the CD tab
• Put your CD into the CD drive
• If prompted (first time), give a descriptive title for the CD
• Choose the desired track from the drop-down menu
• Trim (crop) the track if needed using the sliders below,
• Choose Add to Movie
• The music will be imported to the music track, where it can be edited as any other clip
• Adjust the volume for the three tracks by clicking the master volume adjustment tab
• Adjust the sliders up/down as needed
• The other tracks can even be muted entirely by clicking on the appropriate track icon

Adding background music from Pinnacle samples

Pinnacle studio has a nice selection of background music in contrasting styles.

• Click the audio toolbox
• Click the background music tab
• Choose a style, song, and version, choose Preview
• Place the the scrubber bar where you would like this to be inserted
• Click Add to Movie
• The music will be imported to the music track, where it can be edited as any other clip
• Adjust the volume for the three tracks by clicking the master volume adjustment tab
• Adjust the sliders up/down as needed
• The other tracks can even be muted entirely by clicking on the appropriate track icon

Exporting a movie to VHS tape

• Put a VHS Tape in the VCR and cue it up
• Press the gray button on the Canopus box for Digital In
• Choose the Make Movie tab
• Choose the Tape tab on the left
• Click the Create button
  • Your project will now be rendered
  • With longer projects, this may take some time
• When the rendering process is complete, you will be prompted to press the Play button to export
• To avoid missing footage, press record on the VCR
• Press the play button in Pinnacle as instructed
• Verify that your movie is exporting correctly (it should be visible on the TV monitor)

Exporting a movie as AVI/MPEG files

• Choose the Make Movie tab
• Choose the AVI or MPEG tab on the left,depending on your desired file type
• Click the Create AVI (or MPEG, depending on your file choice) button
• Choose a file name and location to save the file
  • Your project will now be rendered (if needed), and saved
  • With longer projects, this may take some time
• There are many different settings for MPEG and AVI files, please refer to the Studio Manual for details on advanced usage