Avid Media Composer

These articles are on the Avid Media Composer video editing software. Learn virtually any aspect of the NLE here. And if you can’t find it here, check out our ultimate list of Avid Media Composer resources.

There are tutorials, courses, quizzes, and tons of insights from an editor with more than a decade of experience churning out videos from Media Composer.

Learn everything from bin management to restoring offline media from these articles. Here are some more things you can learn here:

  • How to use the Trim to Fill effect
  • Clip Color
  • Every single keyboard shortcut
  • How to make a template sequence
  • The difference between fixed and elastic keyframes
  • When to use 3D Warp instead of the Resize effect
  • Using Markers properly
  • How to remap your keyboard
  • And so much more!

Mastering Avid Media Composer’s Keyboard Shortcuts – Lesson 3: Moving

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Mastering Media Composers Keyboard Shortcuts – Lesson 3 on Moving

This is the third lesson in a series on mastering Avid Media Composer’s keyboard shortcuts and it’s on moving inside of Media Composer. Each lesson tackles a handful of shortcuts. Those shortcuts should be practiced until the next lesson in a few days. By the end of the lessons you should be flying through your editing sessions.

This isn’t just any old list of keyboard shortcuts in Avid. For many of them I explain how they work and how I use them everyday as a professional editor.

If you’re just getting started, no worries. You can take this lesson and circle back to the previous lessons. You can find all the lessons here.

This lesson focuses on the moving keyboard shortcuts in Avid. By moving I mean having the Time Position Indicator (the blue bar in the timeline) go from one frame to another frame. There are a bunch of different keyboard shortcuts that do this for us faster and more accurately than clicking the mouse around the screen. Let’s get started!

Lesson 3 Keyboard Shortcuts - Moving in Avid
Lesson 3 Shortcuts – Moving
Number pad with keys highlighted that are used for moving in Avid
Like my coffee-stained number pad?
Time Position Indicator...this is what we're moving in Avid
Time Position Indicator…this is what we’re moving

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Mastering Avid Media Composer’s Keyboard Shortcuts – Lesson 2: Marking and Playing

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Mastering Media Composers Keyboard Shortcuts – Lesson 2 on Marking and Playing

This is the second lesson in a series on mastering Avid Media Composer’s keyboard shortcuts and the topic is Marking and Playing. In each lesson we tackle a handful of shortcuts that should be learned and practiced until the next lesson in a few days. This isn’t just any list of shortcuts. For many of them I’ll explain how they work and how I use them everyday as an editor.

Lesson 1 was on Media Composer’s Tools. This lesson is on the keyboard shortcuts in Avid for Marking and Playing. These are some of the most primary shortcuts I think you should learn. Some other shortcuts (Z, X, V, B, etc.) you can do damage to your timeline by accidentally doing something you weren’t expecting. With these shortcuts the worst thing you can do is clear an In or Out Point. Let’s get started!

Lesson 2 Keyboard Shortcuts - Marking and Playing in Avid
Lesson 2 Shortcuts – Marking and Playing

Marking Keyboard Shortcuts in Avid

Mark In Point

Mark In Point Keyboard Shortcuts in Avid
Mark In Point

Shortcut: E or I

Marking an In Point is one of the must learn keyboard shortcuts. Media Composer works on three-point editing. Basically you need two In Points and an Out Point or vice versa. Put an In and Out Point on the clip in the Source Monitor then an In Point on the Timeline then hit Splice-In or Overwrite Edit and the clip from the Source Monitor gets edited onto the Timeline. Kind of make sense? There’s a bit of a hierarchy when it comes to In and Out Points and three-point editing but that’s for another lesson.

Even though I stand up here on my soapbox preaching about how important keyboard shortcuts are you will still use the mouse. It’s inevitable. So if you’re right-handed you will generally have your left hand on the keyboard. If so you’ll find you use “E” way more than “I” to mark an In Point. I however am I lefty so my right hand is always on the keyboard. That means I use the “I” key to mark an In Point more often. The same goes with our next shortcut.

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Mastering Avid Media Composer’s Keyboard Shortcuts – Lesson 1: Tools

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Hey! This is the first lesson in a series on mastering Avid Media Composer’s keyboard shortcuts and it’s on Tools. We’ll go through pretty much every keyboard shortcut in Media Composer in this series.

If you’ve taken either of my quizzes (Quiz 1 and Quiz 2) and/or you are interested in becoming a faster, more efficient editor than this series is for you. Each lesson we’ll tackle a handful of shortcuts. We’ll go through what the shortcut is and for some I’ll comment on the tool, function or whatever the keyboard shortcut does based on my experience using Avid Media Composer hour after hour over the past decade.

Okay, enough talking. Let’s get into our first lesson!

Avid Media Composer Keyboard Shortcuts for Tools Recap

There are a bunch of tools in Media Composer. There’s the Audio Mixer, Audio EQ, Composer, Effect Editor, Media Tool and more. Ten (10!) of them have simple shortcuts. In this lesson we’ll cover them.

Audio Tool

Audio Tool in Avid
Audio Tool

Cmd+1 (Mac) | Ctrl+1 (PC)

The Audio Tool shows the audio levels (how loud or soft it is) in visual form. Once you hit play the Audio Tool goes up and down based on the audio that’s being played at that frame. There’s a small sideways Audio Tool at the top of the Timeline. However the normal Audio Tool makes it much easier to see. I tend to always have this tool open.

Calculator Tool

Calculator in Avid
Calculator

Cmd+2 (Mac) | Ctrl+2 (PC)

Did you know Media Composer had a calculator? This isn’t your ordinary calculator either. This calculator counts timecode!

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Free Avid Media Composer Quiz

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This is a free quiz on the keyboard shortcuts for Avid Media Composer. It is part of the free Master Avid Media Composer’s Keyboard Shortcuts Series.

EVF Tutorial – Title Tool Shortcuts in Avid Media Composer

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This tutorial is on a few useful shortcuts in Avid Media Composer’s Title Tool. We’ll cover how to center an object horizontally and vertically, creating a shape, how to change an object’s stacking order and how to add a soft drop shadow. Let me know if you have any questions on the Title Tool, on … Read more

A Few Updates!

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Updates-Aug2015

Hey! I just wanted to give you a couple updates on what’s going on here at EVF.

First off, I’m about to be busier than ever. I’m shooting every weekday until… August 29th. Yep. The rest of the month. I’ll be shooting in four different cities and on top of that I’ll have to be editing a lot of what I shoot at night.

I can’t tell if all this is coming at a good time or not. I would like to get my mind off things but at the same time want to be around for everyone. Over the past month I have lost two people very close to me, one very unexpectedly. Myself, my friends and my family have been weathering the storm admirably and I’m extremely proud of them, proud to be part of my circle of friends and proud to be a Short.

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Export Graphic from Avid Media Composer

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ExportingStillsFromMediaComposer

The other day a new editor asked me how to export a still graphic, like a .jpg, from Avid Media Composer. By now it’s second nature how to export a graphic in Avid but once I started explaining it I realized there’s a lot more that goes into it than a couple keystrokes and some clicks I no longer have to think about.

Here’s how to export still graphics, like .jpg and .png, from Avid Media Composer:

1.   Selection

First, select the In Point and Out Point around the frame of video you want to export. Then select the track(s). You do not have to select every video track if you don’t want to. If you have your shot on V1 and just select that track and not V2 and V3 where titles and graphics could be, you will only export the shot. If you select all the tracks you’ll get the graphics and titles too.

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What’s Working for Me in Post – Summer 2015 Edition

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WhatsWorkingInPost2015

Last summer I wrote a post called What’s working for me in post right now. In it I mentioned a handful of items, methods, services and more that I’ve been using which have been helping me tremendously in post production. I feel like it’s time to update it with what’s been working for me more recently in what I’m calling: What’s Working for Me in Post – Summer 2015 Edition.

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23 Posts about Video Production, Post Production, Avid and More

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23 Posts on Post

I’ve been writing for my friends over at ScreenLight for…well…a long time. It’s been over two years and in the Internet world that’s a really long time. Over that time I’ve been able to stockpile a bunch of writings that I want to share with you today. 23 of them to be exact.

The posts range from Media Composer tips to the Pomodoro Technique for time management to Apps for Editors and so much more. I’ve broken them up into a couple of categories. At the very top are a few of my favorites and ones I think you should definitely read.

My Favorite Posts

The Edit Bay – A Romanticized View of One Editor’s Relationship With Four Walls

Video Editor is Not a Synonym for Motion Graphics Artist

Editor: The Amateur vs. The Professional

How to Setup a Video Company on a Realistic Budget

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Media Composer Keyboard Shortcut Quiz #1

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Hey! Just to let you know I’ve made a 2nd and IMO a better overall keyboard shortcut quiz for Media Composer. You can find it here. — Hey there! This is my second product and my first quiz. This is a quiz for Media Composer editors who want to improve their keyboard shortcut skills. It’s a … Read more

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