Composite: photographs, clips and music

Tools → Composite. This is where a pile of material becomes a piece. It is the closest thing in AVPrep2 to an edit, and it is built around a list of visual segments rather than a timeline.

Project settings first

Project Settings carries Composite width, Composite height and Composite fps. Set them before you build, because everything you add is fitted to them.

1920 by 1080 at the frame rate of your main footage is the ordinary answer. 1080 by 1920 for vertical.

Adding segments

Add visual segment puts the selected source into the list. Photographs, video clips and generated frames all become segments.

Each segment has Segment In (seconds) and Segment Out (seconds), with Set Segment In (I) and Set Segment Out (O) to take them from the playhead. The source preview and its waveform sit above so you can find the point.

Image duration (seconds) sets how long a photograph holds, since a still has no duration of its own.

Remove Segment takes one out and asks you to confirm.

Transitions

Transition to next segment chooses the kind and Transition duration (seconds) sets the length, per segment rather than globally. So you can dissolve between photographs and cut between interview shots in the same piece.

Transitions straddle the joins and the total duration is preserved. A photograph has to last longer than half the transition, and the builder refuses with an explanation rather than producing something broken.

Pan and zoom

Pan and zoom with Motion intensity gives a still image slow movement. It is the difference between a slideshow and a sequence.

Keep it slow and keep it constant. And do not zoom past the point where the photograph runs out of pixels, which is where it goes soft.

Audio per segment

Keep Segment decides whether that segment's own sound is used. Clear it and you get the picture without the sound.

This is per segment. There is no single mute for the whole piece, and that is deliberate: a sequence usually wants the interview's sound and not the B roll's.

Segment audio level sets how loud that segment's sound sits in the mix.

A freeze is always silent. A segment set to freeze at its in point is encoded with no audio at all, whatever the keep setting says. On a photograph and music piece this catches everybody once. Put the sound that has to continue on its own segment.

Ducking music under speech

Duck amount (ratio) and Duck threshold (dB) lower the music automatically whenever somebody speaks.

The threshold is how loud the voice has to be to count as speech. Set it so breaths do not trigger it. The amount is how far the music drops, and nine to twelve decibels is the useful range. Less and the voice fights the bed, which is tiring even when every word is audible. More and the music pumps distractingly between sentences.

How long the piece runs

Duration mode decides what governs the length. It can follow the segments, follow the soundtrack, or take a Fixed duration (seconds) you set.

Fixed is what you want when a platform has a hard maximum. Following the soundtrack is what you want when the music has an ending you care about.

Freeze duration (seconds) sets how long a held frame lasts.

Output

Composite format, Composite CRF, Composite encoder speed, Composite audio bitrate and Composite fit, the same controls as Convert. Choose your output folder and export.

The command is shown and can be copied.

Working order

  1. Set the project size and frame rate.
  2. Add every segment and get the order right.
  3. Set the in and out points and the image durations.
  4. Add transitions where a cut is wrong.
  5. Set the audio: which segments keep their sound, at what level, and the duck.
  6. Choose the duration mode.
  7. Export.