Effects and Transitions

Also at the bottom right in the timeline, you can open the selection window with video effects. Lightworks offers several categories with a very rich set of effects and settings (Figure 5). For most of them, the program displays a preview, which makes finding the right effect a painless process.

Figure 5: Lightworks comes with numerous effects for pepping up your video recordings, including blurs, color filters, and mosaic patterns.

You can double-click or drag and drop to apply the desired effect to the current clip. In a dialog, Lightworks helps you compile combinations of clips, based on various criteria; you can then apply the same effect to all of them.

The classic effects include color correction and color effects; functions such as color keying and overlaying different tracks originate from the professional sector. Lightworks also offers vignettes and sharpening and softening of the image. With just a few mouse clicks, Lightworks also supports picture-in-picture compositions with extensive configuration options. The effects are managed in the Add Effects window, which opens when you click the Effects button below the timeline to the right.

You can create classical transitions by placing the cursor at the point where two clips intersect; again, the horizontal H appears to show you the right position. Then, using the right mouse button, you can pop up the context menu (Figure 6) and select the desired effect. Because of the focus on professional video editing, there are not too many of these: Hollywood editors work with clean cuts and rarely with colorful animations.

Figure 6: To create a crossfade, move the cursor to the point where two clips intersect and open the context menu.

Effects Control

After assigning an effect, a configuration dialog titled Effects: < window name> appears. You can edit several sections of a movie at the same time in separate edits; the corresponding tools are available in a separate window with its own color highlighting.

The Effects window also displays the options for the selected effects. If multiple effects exist in different tracks at a single point in the timeline, Lightworks numbers them V1, V2, and so on, thus letting you select the specific effects (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Effect control lets you adjust the effect to suit your needs. Parallel tracks can be accessed via the tabs at the top.

To control the timing of the effects, you need to select individual frames as keyframes. Just enable the keyframe icon (indicated by a stopwatch) in the parameter track. In the lower part of the effect editor, you can now move the track cursor to any position and set the enabled value. A marker appears at this point. In this way, different parameters can be controlled independently.

Picture-in-Picture

To create a picture-in-picture, or rather movie-in-movie, effect (Figure 8), first create a new edit and insert the tracks for the main or background movies and other additional image content. Keep the main movie in the bottom track and arrange the other movies in any order you like above this.

Figure 8: After a short learning curve, you can achieve effects like picture-in-picture with relative ease.

Next, open the Effects dialog via the button at the bottom of the editor window. The picture-in-picture effects are located in Video | DVE (Presets). You'll find several templates each featuring a different placement of the overlay video. For example, DVE Mid-R creates an overlay window at the center of the right margin of the projection surface.

Drag the effect into the track whose contents you want to appear at the specified position. In the editor preview, you will then see a movie-in-movie with the preview image for the current cursor position. If desired, you can then add more items to the video tracks.

In the Effects editor, you can now set the options for the individual parts, adjust the size and position, trim the video to a specific format, add shadows, and more. The 3D DVE effect lets you rotate the image in three dimensions. The currently selected tracks containing effects appear as an additional tab at the top of the window. Again, keyframes give you the option of animating the effects. For example, you can fade, or float, an overlay movie into the main movie.