Multiple questions about moving to start of selected clip, copy paste between projects and feature recommendations in 3.79

StephQ09

I have a number of different questions so I will list them all here rather than a different thread for each:

1. Moving to start of selected clip

I imported one video which I then split into multiple sections. I can click on each clip individually, but how do I move to the start of a particular clip? Say I split the video into 3 clips, I select clip number 3. How do I move exactly to the beginning of that clip? Click and drag on the red line/cursor thing isn't accurate enough. The 'home' button goes to the beginning of the entire sequence and Ctrl + Home goes to the beginning of the video's start point, whatever that is.

2. I am working on a video and I have saved different versions of it. Now I want parts of the video that was saved in one project to be placed in another. At first I tried to just select the file then copy it, open the other file and paste it by right clicking on a blank area and select "paste overlay". Then it stopped working, and then it only goes one way ie I can copy paste from Project A to Project B but not the other way around, and even this method doesn't work all the time. I didn't change any settings or anything.

3. Is there a feature that, or a way to let me do, the following:

You know how there are 2 preview windows, a Clip preview on the left and a Sequence preview on the right? I want to use the clip preview to find a place where I want to split the clip at. I want to be able to view a selected clip in the Clip review on the left, then pause the video at the time that I want to split at, with the red cursor going automatically to that spot in the entire sequence so then all I have to do is to click on "Split selected clips". This would be very useful to me because I have multiple clips in the project I am working on, and sometimes I move the clips around. This feature would let me be able to find that position in a clip and I can split it there, no matter where I move the clip to in the sequence.

4. Is there something that would let me cut a piece of the main video's visual part (not the clips) out for a certain duration, and put something else in either a picture or an inserted 2nd video, like a green screen but I could use it where we can't use a green screen? For example, say in the main video there is a girl watching a video on an electrical device, and then the scene cuts completely to the device's screen for 5 seconds. Here I can cut a rectangle shape out of the picture from say 0:03 to 0:08 and insert another video to make it look like she is watching it. If you record electrical device screens with a camera the picture goes weird. This feature would be useful if the scene is hard to utilize a green screen and or we don't have access to one.

Thanks

c_major_2

Thank you for the excellent post. All points are noted.

We are developing a masking tool for VideoPad could be useful for situations like No.4.

Best Regards

[deleted]

1) It seems you can't jump to the start of a selected clip that is on the sequence line automatically ,although you can in the clip preview screen. However you can quite easily select the last frame or first frame of a clip. Justs place the red cursor line at the join, zoom if you need to. Use the sequence pane step forward or backward buttons to select the last frame or the first frame.

2) If I am understanding exactly what you are saying...You can't add a project file (.vpj file) to another project file.....only import the component clips which you would then have to re-edit. I would suggest that you should have saved your previous work as sequences within the current project using the + sign after **Sequence 1 X to the left of the timeline. This would have placed your first edited version in the sequence bin of the media list where it would behave like a complete clip for later re-editing. It would leave the timeline clear for creating further sequences even using the same original clips. The whole work being saved as a single project from time to time. Alternatively you could have exported your edits as stand-alone avi (or other type) files and then load them back when finished.

3) You can use the clip preview pane to select a point at which to split the clip but this place is only referenced to the clip not the sequence line. In fact the selected clip may not even be on the sequence line and your idea wouldn't work. If it is on the sequence line then you can just as easily select your split position by refering to the Sequence preview pane and using the main line cursor. I think the clip preview pane is really envisaged for splitting/selecting sections of a clip prior to placing it onto the sequence line with the green down arrow. I think we may be trying to make a more complex situation here from something that can be achieved by simpler steps.

4) You could use the overlay track to add the "device screen" image as a scaled or cropped image positioned carefully over the area required in the lower track, but I don't think it would quite produce the effect you want but worth playing with. A lot would depend on the size and shape etc. A masking tool as mentioned would be useful but would have to be pretty flexible.

Best of luck with your project.

Nat