divide and conquer

  • Thread starter Thread starter Phil
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Phil

I am wondering if it is possible to break up a large video
project into smaller sections, edit them as needed and
then when each is finished, combine them into the final
finished project.

Once a particular section is finished, it seems wasteful
to have to re-render all that again just to see how the
new section is coming along.

Thanks,
Phil
 
Yes, I subscribe to that very much. That's what lets me put much of my
source material on CDs, even though they can only hold about 3-1/4 minutes
of DV-AVI.

Divide and conquer.... Modular is a good thing.

I've recently moved toward maintaining multiple collection databases...
wherever I look, it seems that coordinated modular approaches work best.

PapaJohn
 
Thanks for your comments.

Just so I understand the _how_, as well as the benefits,
here's an example: My current video project naturally
falls into three parts.

I have the first part complete, so I save the movie to 'DV-
AVI' format. I assume DV-AVI is used because MM2 can
import that again. Is that correct?

Repeat this for each of the remaining parts of my video.

When all three are finished, create a New Project and
import these three 'DV-AVI' sections and make the final
movie.

Is that correct?

Couple more questions:
1. Will this final compilation require a final 'render' as
it saves the movie?
2. Will the original source files still be required? I ask
this because if they aren't required, the final
save/render might be accomplished on a much faster PC
located elsewhere. Have CD's, will travel. :)

Related thought - if the final destination was to be a DVD
this seems like a natural way to make the various 'scenes'
or 'chapters' that most DVD's have. I assume DVD authoring
software knows how to do this sort of thing.

Thanks again,
Phil
 
The DV-AVI format for each segment is preferred because it'll maintain the
quality of the source files. It's the highest quality... basically lossless.
Once you have the 3 new parts in DV-AVI quality, you could delete the
original source files in order to save space.

Importing the 3 new DV-AVI files and rendering the new full movie would be
another rendering process, but.. if you render to one large DV-AVI file, the
quality will be the same as the quality of the 3 parts. Once you have the
final one, you could discard the 3 source files.

You should be able to use DVD software to make chapter points from the
single file.... or use the 3 parts.


PapaJohn
 
You *could* join all three DV-AVI files together to create one large one,
but I don't think you need to.

I leave my DV-AVI files separate (no re-rendering, no chance of introducing
new errors into the rendering process) and add them to a DVD project
individually. You should be able to set an option in your DVD burning
software so that one scene will automatically follow on from the previous
one, which results in a smooth continuous movie. Conversely, you can set it
to return to the menu once a scene has finished, just like the 'special
features' section of a commercial DVD movie. IIRC you can set this option
individually for each scene.

The scene/chapter function on a DVD is largely independent of the source
files that you use. If your chapter breaks fall naturally at your movie
breaks, then great, but if you want additional chapter breaks within a scene
then you can add these too. I don't think you can span a single chapter
break across two source files, but then again why would you want to?

Your DVD creation software should allow you to preview your DVD's
functionality before it encodes and burns it, so you can check it before you
commit your project (and your time - DVD encoding and burning takes a lot,
lot longer than DV-AVI rendering!)

Hope this helps.

Jake
 
Thanks. I don't have any real experience with my DVD authoring software yet,
but I assumed it would have capabilities like you describe. I guess if it
didn't I would be shopping for better software.

One thing I discovered is that these individual files really need to be truly
individual. I did a small test case and of course, I saw something I wanted to
'fix'. Without the original source files, you can only edit/change what is
contained in these files. Also I had a sound track lead-in to a scene that
started several seconds before the video came up. Not easy to divide the
'chapters' where there is some kind of overlap.

So much to learn...

Thanks again for the comments.
Phil
 
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