It would be great if you could trim clips without their transitions being destroyed.

I'm sure most users find it natural to start at the beginning of their clips and then work to the end, but with AVS Video Editor you need to start at the end of the clip and then work backwards to the beginning of the clip if you don't want to lose all the time that you spent perfecting the transition for the beginning of the clip.

Example:

You have 3 clips on a time line: Clip A, Clip B and Clip C.

Clip A is the first clip and it is placed at the very beginning of the time line. You then want to blend from Clip A into Clip B and do the same again for Clip B to Clip C (so there are 2 dissolves instead of using quick jump cuts).

You position Clip A on the time line and then trim it.
You then position Clip B after Clip A and spend time deciding how much they should overlap to get the transition that you want.
Once you are happy with the transition, you move forward to the end of Clip B and decide how you want to deal with that.
You see that Clip B is too long, so you trim Clip B in preparation for adding the final clip (Clip C).

However, when you trim the end of Clip B, you lose the overlap at the beginning of Clip B (between Clip A and Clip B) and there is no way to get it back other than to use 'undo' (which means that Clip B becomes un-trimmed again).

It would be much better if trimming (either at the beginning or end) of any clip did not affect the transitions.

Where the beginning of a clip has been trimmed after it has been overlapped, the same duration of overlap should be maintained, but using the new trimmed point as the start point instead (in other words the clip is shifted forward by the amount that it has been trimmed, but the exact duration of the transition is maintanted even after trimming).

It's really frustrating to have to keep going back to re-create transitions whenever you just want to remove or add a few frames to a clip. This is especially so when the clip that needs trimming is right in the middle of a long sequence of clips, because it can end up having a nock on effect right the way down the time line.

To: Quisquose

Hello,

I would advise you to trim all clips for the first and then add a transitions when all scenes are in the order you need and you can then think about suitable transitions for them. For example, if you trim the second clip from the beginning, the transition between first and second clips may not fit to the scenes. If you need just cut some scenes from the end of the clip, you can use Split button or just reduce the clip on Timeline.

Regards.

To: Vlad

Thanks for your reply, but that is not an intuitive way to work.

Often the amount of trim that is needed on a clip will be determined by the transition. For example, if you want a long slow dissolve but want the dissolve to be completed by a certain point in the second clip (so that you can clearly see the second clip without any of the first clip showing as well) then you need to set up the transition in order to be able to see how much time needs to be added to the beginning of the second clip allow the dissolve to be complete by the appropriate frame in the second clip. This is exactly why video editors have a preview window, so that you can see what the outcome is rather than having to guess. In the old days you had to render all transitions before they could be seen, and while this was normal in video editors of that time, it was a horrible way to have to work.

Also, it is a very common occurrence that having set the trim for come clips, you later change your mind. Having to set all clip lengths first, does not allow for this very natural human trait of changing your mind once you've seen the first attempt. You have to get it absolutely right first time, or go through and waste time re-creating your transitions again.

Clip lengths need to be determined in context. Having to "imagine" what clips will look like with transitions in place is not a good way to be expected to work.

I hope the developers will consider my idea because it should not be that difficult to implement and it would make editing a much more intuitive and straightforward process that does not require the user to alter normal behaviour in order to accommodate the software.

Thanks very much.

To: Quisquose


Ok, I will forward your suggestion to our developers. :) Thanks for posting it.

Regards.

Thank you very much for your understanding Vlad.

I appreciate you forwarding my request and comments to the developers.

I would draw your attention to the idea suggested by Chriscb here: http://forum.avs4you.com/posts.aspx?lng=ENG&t=3095. He suggested that there could be two video timelines with a transition line in between.

This would also be a good way to get around the transition destruction problem that I described above.

To: Quisquose


You are welcome

As for Chriscb's suggestion, sorry to say that currently we do not plan to add two video lines into the program.

Regards.

Chriscb's suggestion seems to be a great idea. I hope someday, you will plan to add it.