Part VIII: Working with Video and Animation 808 Opening and Placing Video Files Getting started with video editing in Photoshop is as easy as opening a video file. After you have one video file, you can place more video files in the same document to create a composite. Opening a video file Opening a video file in Photoshop isn’t any harder than opening any other kind of file. But you need to import the smallest possible file for editing. Photoshop is not meant to create and manage extensive video projects. A large video file has the capability of creating a very unwieldy work area at the best and bringing your work in Photoshop to a grinding halt at the worst. You shouldn’t be discouraged from bringing in as much video as needs to be edited, but don’t bring in any more than is necessary. You can trim larger video files down to an editable size in the video-editing program of your choice by creating a work area or trimming around the area you want to edit and rendering just that portion to a separate video file that you can then import into Photoshop. Taking the time to trim a video file down to a manageable size saves you lots of time and frustration later. To open a video file in Photoshop, choose File ➪ Open and browse to a video file with a supported extension. Your video file opens in Photoshop. If you don’t have the Animation panel open, you can still play your video file by using the spacebar to stop and start the playback. To open the Animation panel, choose Window ➪ Animation. Your newly imported video file appears as one uncomplicated layer in the timeline. Don’t worry; you’ll change that before too long. Figure 25.21 shows a video file that’s been imported into Photoshop. Note To play video in Photoshop, you must have QuickTime 7 installed on your computer. You can get a free QuickTime download from www.apple.com/quicktime. n Tip For your own sanity, rename your layers as soon as you import them. As you can see in Figure 25.1, the layer associated with the opened video file is named Layer 1. If you’ve never bothered about your layers in the past, keeping track of them through their icons or knowing which ones they were just because you had only two or three, change your ways now before it’s too late. Give each layer a descriptive and unique name. n Note Photoshop has no sound capability when it comes to editing video clips. Although your sound is embedded in your video file (and is still there after your Photoshop edits), you can’t hear it or edit it in Photoshop. n 36_584743-ch25.indd 80836_584743-ch25.indd 808 5/3/10 10:48 AM5/3/10 10:48 AM Chapter 25: Video Editing Basics 809 FIGURE 25.21 A newly imported video file Adding additional video files You can add video files to an open video document in several ways. You can drag a video layer from another file into the window of the file it’s being placed in, or you can choose Layer ➪ Video Layers ➪ New Video Layer From File. Either of these options places a new video layer on top of the video or other layers already present in your file. Most of the time, this is exactly what you want to do, so either of these methods works well. Figure 25.22 shows two video layers placed together in the timeline. Both videos are from the same wedding. Now I can combine clips from both layers to create one final video project. Sometimes, you may want to add a new video file differently than just inserting it over the last one. You may want to change the size of it, for example, to create a picture-in-picture effect. In this case, you want to place the new video file. Choose File ➪ Place, and browse to the new video file. The new file is placed over the existing layers with a bounding box around it, allowing you to scale, rotate, and place it where you want, as shown in Figure 25.23. 36_584743-ch25.indd 80936_584743-ch25.indd 809 5/3/10 10:48 AM5/3/10 10:48 AM Part VIII: Working with Video and Animation 810 FIGURE 25.22 Two video layers in the timeline Of course, you can create the same effect after the fact by selecting the video layer and choosing Edit ➪ Free Transform, but placing the video file in the first place saves the extra step. Note Whether you use the Place function or the Free Transform function, a transformed video layer becomes a Smart Object. n Importing image sequences An image sequence is a series of image files that are saved in sequence for an animation or video. Usually, they are exported out of a video project. A video file is very intense to render, especially if it contains several layers, high-resolution images, or 3D objects. If you render a video project as an image sequence rather than a video, the rendered—and saved—images are preserved, even if your computer crashes, allowing you to start the rendering process where you left off. Photoshop allows you to import these rendered images together as one animation file. 36_584743-ch25.indd 81036_584743-ch25.indd 810 5/3/10 10:48 AM5/3/10 10:48 AM Chapter 25: Video Editing Basics 811 FIGURE 25.23 Create a picture-in-a-picture by placing the second file. You can do this in two ways. The first imports the image sequence as a single layer, creating one video layer from the individual image files, just as if it had been a single video file. The second way imports the Image Sequence into a stack, giving each frame its own individual layer without any extra steps. I show you how to import using both methods. Note Before you import an Image Sequence, make sure it has been saved correctly. An image sequence should be a series of images saved with sequential filenames and placed in a folder that doesn’t contain any other files. n Importing an image sequence into one layer Opening an image sequence as one video layer is the fastest, and in most cases probably the pre- ferred, method of importing an image sequence. You can open an image sequence as just one video layer by following these steps: 1. Choose File ➪ Open. 36_584743-ch25.indd 81136_584743-ch25.indd 811 5/3/10 10:48 AM5/3/10 10:48 AM Part VIII: Working with Video and Animation 812 2. Browse to the folder containing the image sequence, and select the first file in the sequence. 3. In the Open dialog box, click the box next to Image Sequence, as shown in Figure 25.24. FIGURE 25.24 Be sure to check the box labeled Image Sequence so all the files are opened. 4. Click Open. 5. You are prompted to enter a frame rate for your image sequence. If this is an exported video, select the original frame rate. If this is a series of still shots, select the frame rate that will work best and click OK. You now have a simple file that looks just like you opened a video file, as indicated in Figure 25.25. This file was generated fairly quickly and is very easy to work with. 36_584743-ch25.indd 81236_584743-ch25.indd 812 5/3/10 10:48 AM5/3/10 10:48 AM Chapter 25: Video Editing Basics 813 FIGURE 25.25 An image sequence can be opened to create a simple video layer that’s easy to work with. Importing an image sequence into multiple layers If you need your image sequence to be placed in separate layers, you can use a method that creates the layers as the images are imported and opened. With this method, there is no waiting time to cache the frames after the file is created. You can create an individual layer for every image in an image sequence by following these steps: 1. Choose File ➪ Scripts ➪ Load Files into Stack. This opens the Load Layers dialog box. 2. Choose Folder from the Use drop-down menu. 3. Browse to the folder containing the image sequence you want to open, as shown in Figure 25.26. 4. Click OK. 36_584743-ch25.indd 81336_584743-ch25.indd 813 5/3/10 10:48 AM5/3/10 10:48 AM Part VIII: Working with Video and Animation 814 Note If your image sequence contains more than 50 files, you may want to go out to dinner or watch your favorite TV show. Loading these images as separate layers in the Animation panel is a time-consuming process. n FIGURE 25.26 The Load Layers dialog box 5. Click the Animation (Timeline) panel menu icon, and choose Document Settings. Now that the images have been loaded into separate layers in a new document, the docu- ment settings need to be changed from the default setting. 6. Set the duration and frame rate to match the number of frames in your image and how long you want each to last. Click OK. 7. Click the Animation (Timeline) panel menu icon, and choose Make Frames from Layers. This creates one frame for each layer at the frame rate specified in the document settings. Caution As you make frames from layers, make sure your current time indicator is placed at the beginning of your time- line. The first frame is placed at the location of the current time indicator. n Now your animation contains a separate layer for every single image in your image sequence. This is handy if your image sequence is short, containing only a few images, but it isn’t so great if you have several images. In Figure 25.27, you can see a view of my Animation panel after importing a 5-second sequence. Of course, my frame rate is set to 30, so the file contains 125 images. That’s 125 layers in the timeline, 125 layers in the Layers panel . . . well, you get the idea. 36_584743-ch25.indd 81436_584743-ch25.indd 814 5/3/10 10:48 AM5/3/10 10:48 AM Chapter 25: Video Editing Basics 815 FIGURE 25.27 This is about one-fourth of the layers that are actually contained in this timeline. Tip If you are importing a fairly large number of images, using the first method of importing an image sequence and then choosing Flatten Frames into Layers followed by Make Frames from Layers is a faster process then importing the stack, and it achieves the same result. n Trimming Video Layers As you add new video layers to a project, you may find that you need to trim them. Trimming a video layer consists of cutting the unwanted ends off the layer, leaving the rest of the video intact. You can trim a layer in several ways—by manually dragging the layer duration bar or by using the Animation (Timeline) menu options. 36_584743-ch25.indd 81536_584743-ch25.indd 815 5/3/10 10:48 AM5/3/10 10:48 AM . Part VIII: Working with Video and Animation 808 Opening and Placing Video Files Getting started with video editing in Photoshop is as easy as opening a video. video file Opening a video file in Photoshop isn’t any harder than opening any other kind of file. But you need to import the smallest possible file for editing. Photoshop is not meant to create. program of your choice by creating a work area or trimming around the area you want to edit and rendering just that portion to a separate video file that you can then import into Photoshop. Taking