Copyright: This file © Thugs at Bay 01/10/01
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Table of Contents

Input and Output

Changing the Clip Position and Length

Cropping and Panning

Key Frames

Adding Effects

Adding Text

The DV Transfer Utility

Extra Help


Make Strip

Import a Clip

Source Rectangle

Effect Rectangle

Destination Rectangle

Arrangement Window

Adjust Colour

Adjuster Example

Example of Opacity

Key Effect

Key Smoother

Volume

Audio Fade In

Capture to a File

File Transfer to Camera

Preview

Clip Time Slider

Current Clip

Open Project

Fade In and Out


Import a Clip

To import an *.avi, *.wav,  *.bmp or *.jpg file, click on the file menu and select Import Video Clip.   You can also import media clips from the internet.  Select Import Clip URL and type the url into the dialogue.

Another way to access the file menu is by right clicking in the arrangement window.


Open Project

To open a project file, click on the file menu and select Open Project.   You can also open projects from the internet.  Select Open Project URL and type the url into the dialogue.


Input and Output

To begin, please import a clip  You will see it appear in the Arrangement Window as a red strip.  To play the strip in the Destination Window, either right click the clip and select Play from the clip menu, or pull down the Source Menu and select Clip – Play.  To stop press the Esc key.  You will notice that both the clip time slider which appears above the arrangement window and the project time slider which appears below the arrangement window will follow the clips progress.

To set the area of your project that will be generated, adjust the make strip at the bottom of the arrangement window.

To save your project, pull down the File Menu and select Save.

To output the file please first select the output size and frame rate from the Destination Menu.  Then go the Destination or File Menu and select the Export submenu.  Select the format you want to generate.  Several dialogues will appear allowing you to choose compression options. Once these have been completed, the video will start to generate automatically.  Please disable screen savers while video generation is in progress.  To stop the video while it is generating, press the Esc key.  The portion that has been generated will open in the appropriate player.


Clip Position and Length

To change the time position of the clip in the arrangement window, drag it left or right.  If you have multiple clips in your project, you can also change the order in which they are drawn.  (Clips are always drawn from bottom to top.)  To do this, right click the clip to get the clip menu and select up or down, bottom or top from the menu.

To change the length of the current clip you have several options.  To cut time off at the end, drag the end of the clip to the left.  To add extra frames (last frame will repeat) drag to the right.

To split the clip, set your clip time slider to the right location and right click the clip for the clip menu.  Select Split at Current Time from the menu.

The best way to change the start time is to set the clip time slider to the point in the clip at which you want it to start.  Then click the number which appears directly above the arrangement window in the center.  This is the clip offset number. Select Set to Current Time.  Your clip will be shortened.  To reset, click the number again and select reset.  Note that you must reset every time you wish to change the clip offset.


Make Strip

The purple Make Strip (bottom of arrangement window) covers the area of the project that will be included when you export to a file.  When you import the first clip into the project, the make strip covers the whole clip.  To change the size, drag the ends.  To change the position, drag in the middle.


Current Clip

The Current Clip is the clip that appears red in the arrangement window.  To make a clip current, left click it in the arrangement window.


Cropping and Panning

The rectangle at the top left is the Source Rectangle.  It displays the current clip.  You can crop the video or picture by dragging the corners and edges of the rectangle.  Please read about key frames to find out how to pan.

The rectangle at the far right is the Destination Rectangle.  You can use this rectangle to shrink, enlarge and change the clips position.  Drag corners and edges to change shape, drag in the middle to change position.  Right click the rectangle to get a menu which includes rectangle options.

If you need more space around the rectangle, for example, if your rectangle is outside of the visible area, you can shrink the Destination WIndow by dragging the slider below it to the left.


Key Frames

Key Frames will be applied to almost anything you can do to your media clip.  Key frames allow you to change effects over time, pan around in video clips, give your clips motion etc.

Whenever you change the size of a rectangle or move an effect slider, a key frame is set.

You can set key frames for all rectangles and effects.  For effects, the sliders will turn yellow on a key frame.  For rectangles, the corners will turn yellow.

You will notice a lot of arrow buttons on the interface.  These arrow buttons jump to the previous and next key frames.  You can easily change key frames by using the arrow keys to navigate between them and then right clicking the rectangle or slider for a list of options such as delete, use start to end, etc.

For example.  Set your clip time slider to the beginning.  Crop the source rectangle by dragging one of its corners inward for your current clip.  You will notice that the corners turn yellow.  This signifies a key frame.

Now drag the clip time slider to the end of the clip.  Right click the source rectangle and select Reset Rectangle.  The rectangle will return to its original size with yellow dots in the corners to signify a key frame.  Now click the left arrow button below the source rectangle.  The time slider will jump back to the beginning of the clip, because that is where your first key frame is positioned.  Drag the time slider along the ruler to see the resulting motion.


Source Rectangle

The Source Rectangle is the rectangle which appears above the arrangement window on the left.  It shows you the current clip as it is in its original state.


Effect Rectangle

The Effect Rectangle is the rectangle which appears in the middle, above the effect buttons and sliders.  Note that this rectangle only appears when there are effects added to the current clip.  The rectangle can be adjusted to change the area to which an effect applies.


Destination Rectangle

The Destination Rectangle is the one which appears to the far right.  It appears on top of the composite window.  All clips are composited (bottom to top) in this window.  The current clip is the one to which the rectangle applies.


Arrangement Window

The Arrangement Window is the left bottom area.  In this area the clips are arranged.  You can have up to 256 media clips at one time.  Video clips are read from bottom to top, and audio clips just mixed all together.  The vertical position of audio clips is irrelevant.


Clip Time Slider

The Clip Time Slider is the slider that is directly above the arrangement window.  It applies only to the current clip.  You can drag it from the beginning to the end of the clip or you can double click the number on it and type the time you want to go to (then press enter).

You can also step through the clip using the arrow buttons to either side of the slider.  The size of the step is determined by the quantize setting (preferences menu)


Adding Effects

The upper middle portion of the interface is where effects are added and the effect rectangle appears (when a video effect is selected) To add a video effect, you can either click the bar marked “add video effect” or go to the source menu and select add video effect.

To add an audio effect first click on the Audio Effects button.  This renames the bar “add audio effect”.  Now if you click on it you will get an audio effect menu.  Alternatively go to the source menu and select add audio effect.  (If you do this, make sure you click the Audio Effects button to view the effect.

The effect will appear as a button (below the “add video effects” bar), labeled with the effect name, which you can depress in order to view the effect variable sliders.  By default it is depressed when you add it.  You can add up to 64 effects chained serially.  To change the order that the effects are applied, right click an effect button and select sooner or later.  You can also delete the effect from this menu.  For individual effect examples see below.

Fade In and Out Adjust Colour Key Effect Key Effect Smoother	Adjust Volume


Fade In and Out

Select a video clip that you want to work with in the arrangement window.  Go to the source menu and select Add Video Effect.  Choose Basic Effects – Opacity from the menu.  The effect will show up as a bar below the Effect Rectangle (top middle).  Note:  If you right click this bar you can delete the effect, or change the order when you have more than one.

There is a single slider below the effect rectangle.  Drag it to the left to make the clip more transparent.  Drag it to the right to make it less transparent.

Every time you change the slider position, a new key frame is set.  In this way you can make your video fade in or out or just remain semi-transparent.

Example of Opacity Effect


Example of Opacity

To fade your video in at the beginning follow these steps:

Drag the clip time slider all the way to the left so you are at the beginning of the video clip.

There is a slider below the effect rectangle.  Drag it all the way to the left so that it reads –1.  The clip will be transparent (no picture).  A key frame is set.

Next, drag the clip time slider to the right several seconds.  (See quantize for options). Or, you can double click the number and type 2.

Drag the opacity slider to the middle again (0).  A second key frame is set.

Now your video will fade in from black.  You can check this by dragging along the time ruler above the arrangement window.


Adjust Colour

Select a video clip that you want to work with in the arrangement window.  Go to the source menu and select Add Video Effect.  Choose Basic Effects – Adjuster from the menu.  The effect will show up as a bar below the effect rectangle (top middle).  Note:  If you right click this bar you can delete the effect, or change the order when you have more than one.

There are five sliders below the effect rectangle.  They are labeled.  Drag the first three to adjust the red, green and blue in the clip.  The fourth slider adjusts the saturation.  If you drag it all the way to the left, the clip will be gray scale.  The fifth slider is opacity.  Drag it to the left to make your clip more transparent.

You can set key frames so that your video gradually changes colour.  Whenever you change the sliders position at a different point along the timeline, a key frame is automatically set.

Example of how to use the Adjuster


Adjuster Example

Example:  Say you wanted to have the clip play normally for 5 seconds and then change to a blue-er colour scheme over a period of 10 seconds.  Here’s what you would do:

Drag the clip time slider all the way to the left.  Now you are at the beginning of the clip.

Right click each of the first 3 sliders and select Default from the menu.  (Not necessary to change bottom 2 for this example.  They remain default) The slider knobs will turn yellow.

Now there are key frames at 0 time, set to the normal setting.

Double click the number in the clip time slider strip.  Type 5 and press enter.  Now the time is set at 5 seconds.

Right click the sliders again and select Default to set your second key frames.

Now drag or double click the time slider to 10.

Drag the blue slider (3rd down) to the right and the red and green sliders to the left.  The clip will turn blue and key frames will be set to those settings.  If you set no more key frames, the colour will remain blue until the end.

To view the results, drag the time slider the length of the clip.


Key Effect

A key effect is one that lets you select a colour, brightness or shape and make it transparent.  There are a variety of key effects you can use in Zwei-Stein.  For this example we use the RGB key, a key in which you select any colour with a colour picker.

Select a video clip that you want to work with in the arrangement window.  Go to the source menu and select Add Video Effect.  Choose Key Effects – RGB Key from the menu.  The effect will show up as a bar below the effect rectangle (top middle).  Note:  If you right click this bar you can delete the effect, or change the order when you have more than one.

There are six sliders and a colour picker below the effect rectangle.  They are labeled.  To pick the colour that will become transparent, left click on the colour picker and drag (hold mouse button down) to a colour shown in the source rectangle.  This colour appears in the colour picker now.  It is represented by the first three sliders, red, green and blue.

Note:  You can pick a colour from anywhere on the Zwei-Stein interface.  The source rectangle is only the most sensible place from which to pick.

The lower three sliders represent the tolerance of the selected colour, divided into red, green and blue components.  These let you choose in detail how much of the colour to key out.

You can set key frames so that your video gradually keys something out, however, I wouldn’t recommend it.

You may notice that your results are chunky or have leftover colour where you don’t want it.  If so, please check out the Key Smoother.


Key Smoother

The key smoother is a matrix effect.  Use it after a key effect to smooth the results and get rid of unwanted key artifacts.  Please see Key Effect to add an RGB key.

Your clip should already have a key effect.

Go to the source menu and select Add Video Effect.  Choose Convolution Filters – Key Smoother from the menu.  The effect will show up as a bar below the effect rectangle (top middle).  Note:  If you right click this bar you can delete the effect, or change the order when you have more than one.  Make sure it is to the right of the key effect.

Instead of sliders, you will see that the effect toggle and enable switches are displayed below the effect rectangle.  You will need to choose the effect variables.  Do this by clicking on the bar marked “Click here for more parameters” (located below switches) and selecting Matrix Variables 1 from the menu.

The first slider is the matrix size, the second is the effect level.

The key smoother will already be in action because the default setting for effect level is 1 (Max).  To smooth more, drag the first slider to the right.  Please note that the processing time increases exponentially the higher you set the matrix size.  To smooth less, drag the second slider to the left, decreasing the effect level.

You can set key frames so that your video gradually smooths a key, however, I wouldn’t.


Volume

To set the volume of an audio clip or the audio on a video clip.

Select a video (with audio) or audio clip that you want to work with in the arrangement window.  Go to the source menu and select Add Audio Effect.  Choose Volume/Pan from the menu.  You will probably have to push in the button labeled “audio effects” (upper middle section of screen) in order to see the effect.  The effect will show up as a button below the effect rectangle (no effect rectangle for audio effects).  Note:  If you right click this button you can delete the effect.

There are two sliders, the top one is volume and the lower one is pan.  The volume is set to maximum by default and the pan is set in the middle.

Example of audio fade in


Audio Fade In

To fade the audio in at the beginning of a clip do this:

Select a clip with audio in the arrangement window.

Depress the audio effects button located just above the arrangement window to the right.

Click the bar marked “Add Audio Effect”

Select Volume/Pan from the menu.  The two sliders appear.

Drag the clip time slider all the way to the beginning of the clip.

Drag the volume slider (top slider) all the way to the left (0).  This creates a key frame.

Now drag the clip time slider 3 seconds to the right or double click the number on the clip time slider and press 3 and then the enter key.

Right click the volume slider and select “default” or “maximum”.  This sets a second key frame.  If you wish the volume to remain at full until the end of the clip, no more key frames need to be set.

You will have to generate the video in order to hear the effect you have just added.


Adding Text

To add text, you need to create a new clip called a “text string”.  Go to the file menu and select “Import – New Text String”.  A new clip will be created in the arrangement window lasting 10 seconds.  To shorten or lengthen the clip, drag on the right edge.

The text string can only be one line of text.  Paragraph support has not yet been introduced.  To type the text string, double click the button labeled “New Text String”. This button is located below the font variable sliders, which are below the source rectangle.  Beside it is a button labeled “System”.  Double click it to set the font.

While the text string is the current clip, the font variable parameters (sliders) are displayed below the source rectangle.  There are many different parameters available for new media clips.  To access the different slider sets, click on the bar labeled “Click here for more parameters” (under the current slider set).

Note: Two of the parameters are Source Rectangle and Destination Rectangle.  The source rectangle and destination rectangle sliders correspond to the size and shape of the rectangle.  If you change the rectangle, these slider will automatically appear.  To return to the font or any other variables you must “Click here for more parameters”.

Font Variables. Double click the button marked "System" to set the font.  There are four sliders.  Font size (sets the size of text), Font Weight (drag to the right to make the text more bold), Italic (this works like a switch on/off), Underlined (this also works like an on/off switch).

Foreground Colour.  The easiest way to set the foreground colour is to double click the “F” button located to the left of the “System” button.  There you can choose a colour from the dialog.  Alternatively, click the “Click here for more parameters” button and select “Foreground Colour” from the menu.  There are three sliders to adjust the colour, Red, Green and Blue.

Background Colour.  The easiest way to set the background colour is to double click the “B” button located to the left of the “System” button.  There you can choose a colour from the dialog.  Alternatively, click the “Click here for more parameters” button and select “Background Colour” from the menu.  There are three sliders to adjust the colour, Red, Green and Blue.  Note:  The background of the text string is automatically keyed out.  In order to make it visible, you must set the Pre-Effect Opacity to 1.  “Click here for more parameters” and select “Clip Variables” from the menu.  That will give you the pre-effect opacity slider.  Move it to the right.

A text string clip works like all other video/picture clips.  You can change its size shape and position with the source and destination rectangles and set key frames to create custom scrolling effects.


Extra Help

This manual is a work in progress.  If you have any questions or suggestions, please send them to support@thugsatbay.com

The plan is to update this manual with every new release of Zwei-Stein.

There is an online html manual which you can view from http://www.thugsatbay.com/zweistein/manual  This manual has more information about specific areas.

There is also context sensitive help available in the program.  Hover the mouse over an area and press F1 to access.


The DV Transfer Utility

You can use the DV Transfer Utility to perform the following functions.

Preview footage from your DV camera,

Capture from the camera to a file on your hard drive

Transfer File to the camera.

To open the DV Transfer Utility, pull down the capture menu and select DV Transfer Program.

Make sure your camera is connected with a firewire cable into a firewire card in your computer and that the camera is on and in VCR mode.  (Not playing)

Preview

Capture to a File

File Transfer to Camera


Capture to a File

To capture from your DV camera to a file on your hard drive, pull down the DV to File menu.  From the Change Decode Size submenu you can select the dimensions of your captured video.  From the Capture Size submenu, you can set a time or size limit or none.

Make sure your camera is stopped in the VCR mode.

Step 1: From the DV to File menu select DV to File (type 2).  This will allow you to choose a filename and destination folder. The default folder is the Zwei-Stein folder, located wherever you installed Zwei-Stein (typically C:\Program Files\Thugs at Bay\Zwei-Stein).  The default file name is Output.avi.  You may choose any name and folder you like.

Step 2: Wait for the camera to start playing the tape.  If the camera has not started to display the video yet, the capture will not work.  (Note that the video will not playback in the preview window until you press record)

Step 3: Press the red circle record button, located on the right above the preview window.  This starts the recording process.  To stop recording, press stop.

If you need to rewind or fast forward your tape after you have selected a file name, you can.  Use the buttons above the preview window.  Note, however, that you can not press the stop button or the capture process will be stopped.

For more information see the Preview section.

The DV Transfer Utility

Preview

File Transfer to Camera


Preview

You can use the DV Transfer Utility to operate the camera and preview the video before transfer.  You can not preview audio.  The program is automatically in preview mode.  You may notice the preview option under the file menu.  Please ignore this option.

To preview, use the play, play rewind, play fastforward, fastforward, rewind and stop buttons located below the pull-down menus.  They have tool tips to identify themselves.

Preview buttons (except stop) can be operated after you have entered a file name and initiated the Capture to a File procedure, they can not be operated after you have initiated the File Transfer to Camera procedure.

For more information see Capture to a File and File Transfer to Camera

The DV Transfer Utility

Capture to a File

File Transfer to Camera


File Transfer to Camera

To transfer from a file on your hard drive to your camera, pull down the File 2 DV menu and select File (type 2) 2 DV.

Deduce that if you didn’t capture the video with this program, it may not be the right type. It has to be DV (type 2) format.

The video will start to play back both in the Preview window and on your camera.  To start transfer, press the record button (red circle button on upper right)

Please do not press stop or pause until you have transferred the video.  If you need to stop without recording, close the program.  There are some problems here that will be ironed out, keep eyes open for next version.

You can not navigate file or tape after you have selected a file to transfer.

The DV Transfer Utility

Preview

Capture to a File