Making your own Intros & Outros

terrypin wrote on 9/10/2013, 2:36 PM

Anyone else tried making their own Intros and Outros?

I did so ages ago and have a couple of working additions. But either I've forgotten how I did it or something in MEP 2013 has changed, because I hit an odd snag every time I try it now.

Briefly, I save the text object in the composition (using Save as special effect...), change its extension to CFX and move it to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\MAGIX\Movie Edit Pro 2013 Premium\IntroOutro. But on dragging that new Intro onto a video object in track 1, the text element gets displaced over to the start of the timeline.

In this example, the only change I made was to replace the title 'INTRO' with 'Changed', before saving the group as a special effect.

Or for better quality: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/Intro-Original.jpg

Or for better quality: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/Intro-Changed%2BSaved.jpg

If the real project looked like this then it's a trivial matter of moving the revised title back into position. But, of course, in reality the timeline will be highly populated.

I have a nagging feeling I'm missing some basic point here!

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

Comments

browj2 wrote on 11/2/2013, 7:34 PM

Hi Terry,

I see no one has tackled this. I too want to make my own stock intros and outros, so I would like to see this thread continued.

At the end, what I would like, is to be able to select my homemade intro from the menu as you did and have it work like the stock intros do, or at least close to it. In the future, I could just copy the appropriate files from one version to another and have them work, after minor adjustments, such as in the ini file.

First off, I could not reproduce your problem, either with MEP 2013 or 2014. However, what I did find is interesting in that there seems to be a major difference between the two versions that I cannot explain.

Before getting into my testing, I wanted to understand the parts of an intro as per Magix, so looking at the folder for Intros & Outros, I see 5 file types:

m2v - which I understand is an animation, that can be done in Xara or in MEP, including video effects. In Xara, the export is avi. In MEP, the export would be mxv. The m2v format is just a video file, so far as I know. The animation can just be a video clip.
ogg - a music or sound file.
cfx – this contains information about the intro including the files, video, sound and titles that make up the intro, along with any effects. When the cfx is created, the files of the objects have to exist and be available when the intro is applied, or it won’t work, which is why the m2v and ogg files are in the same directory as the cfx file. If one makes an intro composed of files that are elsewhere, then the cfx will have to locate them in the same location as when the cfx was created.
hdp - the Magix created file containing – I am not sure about the usefulness of this.
ini - contains information about the intro, including the template or placeholder text for the title. The name also gets the icon if it exists (I haven’t tried this). It can also contain the minimum length of something. I’m not sure what this does. The minlength seems to have no impact on my homemade intro.

Ignoring the m2v and ogg, one can do as you did, just use a photo or video clip as background, add a title with some effects, export it as an effect, which creates txf file in titles\standard folder, copy it to IntroOutro folder, change the extension to cxf and then use the effect as an intro in another project.

MEP 2013
In 2013, I don't think that you can do it the way that you did it, or at least I could not. My testing with Intros in MEP2013, is that they require an object to which the intro is applied, otherwise it doesn’t work. Normally an intro is supposed to be at the beginning of a video, but it could be placed anywhere as you mentioned, so long as an object is on the timeline and has been selected.

To create my intro, I inserted a video on track 1 and a photo on track 3. The photo flies in from the left with rotation and size effects. I removed the audio from the video and added in a part of an ogg file as background music on track 2. I created a title with some text on track 5, but also changed the font, gave the title a movement effect coming in from left to right and stopping on the screen. I then grouped all objects with their effects, selected the title object and then did a Save as special effect. A tfx file was created in the “C:\ProgramData\MAGIX\Movie Edit Pro 2013 Plus\Titles\Standard” folder. I copied it to the IntroOutro folder and changed the file extension to cfx. I modified the “Translation_EN.ini” file by adding the following:

[Title_test2_intro]
name=Title test2 (Intro)
text=Dogs name
minlength=15

I then opened a new project and, as a first step, tried to insert my Intro where I wanted to place it. The program requested that I add this Intro to an existing selected object; no objects were in the timeline. I inserted a photo and dragged the intro onto it. The image below shows the result. The title that had been created on track 5 was transformed into the photo object that I had selected. The sliding effect that was on my title was now applied to the photo that got moved from track 1 to track 5 by the program, and anything black in the photo became transparent.

The image below shows the effect just after it was applied to the photo object. It seems that the length of the intro became a function of the length of the clip or object selected. I tried with a 30s video clip and my intro was stretched out to more than cover this. Note that the source video and audio files were longer than what I prepared for the effect, thus they were able to be stretched out. I tried another test, described below, by creating fixed mvx and ogg files with the length that I wanted, to see if this changed anything. In any event, the effect was strange and my title disappeared.

The image below shows the screen just after inserting the intro:

The image below shows when the object (the photo that was on track 1 and is now on track 5) that was placed on the timeline before applying the intro, starts to slide in from the left.

I created another intro with the title on track 4. No difference, track 4 was replaced by the object selected to place the intro

MEP 2014 PLUS

I followed a similar process for 2014 with some slight modifications. I inserted 2 videos, one on track 1 and the other on track 3. The second video flies in from the left with rotation and size effects. I removed the audio from the videos and added in a part of an ogg file as background music on track 2. I created a title with some text, changed the font, gave the title a movement effect coming in from left to right and stopping on the screen. I then grouped all objects with their effects, selected the title object and then did a Save as special effect. A tfx file was created in the “C:\ProgramData\MAGIX\Movie Edit Pro 2014 Plus\Titles\Standard” folder. I copied it to the IntroOutro folder and changed the file extension to cfx. I modified the “Translation_EN.ini” file by adding the following:

[John_test3_intro]
minlength=12
name=John test3 (Intro)
text=by John C.

I then opened a new project and tried inserted my Intro partway along the timeline and without having an object on the timeline. The program did not request that I add this Intro to an existing selected object. The image below shows the result. The title is as per the effect created, not to the left as in Terry’s example, and it puts in the text proposed in the ini file (it is not shown because the timeline marker is at a point where the text starts to scroll across the screen). There was no change in length from what I created.

You might notice that the image icons for the intros did not show up. Strange. They came back when I reopened MEP2014.

Obviously, something changed between versions 2013 and 2014. MEP2013 insists on placing the intro on an object and uses the object as part of the intro by replacing the text object with the existing object and using the effect that was with the title. MEP2014 places the intro as designed.

Further Testing

In turn, I copied the cfx from each version of MEP to the other, added them to the ini files, and brought them into a new project. Each version of MEP reacted as described above, so it was not something in the way that I created the effects.

In MEP2013, I went back and created one mxv file from my 2 video tracks, and I created an ogg file the correct length of the audio (which was originally a longer ogg file). I put them in the IntroOutro folder and reimported them into the timeline, added my title with effects, grouped them, saved as an effect, copied to the IntroOutro folder, changed the extension to cfx and applied the resulting intro to a long object. The result was the similar; the title was replaced by my seeded object, but now the length of my effect was fixed because the mxv file was now shorter (the original clip had been trimmed and 2013 managed to find it and extend what I had intended). The object took on the effects applied to the title, including black transparency, and extended well beyond my other effects (video and audio).

Some questions that we can investigate and discuss are:

What really is supposed to go into the cfx file?
If we want an effect that uses the target object as part of the intro, how do we do it? I can think of a way in MEP2013, but not MEP2014.
Is there another way to create a cfx file without going the route that we took – creating a tfx and changing the extension? Note that the effect the way that we did it could also be brought in as a title.
What is the role of the minimum length in the ini file?

Regards,
John

cpc000cpc wrote on 11/3/2013, 1:03 AM

I can help with John's question #3 -- racking the old brain brain back to the days of roll-your-own collages...

In the save as window use the 'Save as type:' dropdown to pick all files rather than the defaults for projects:

Then you can use the .cfx extension:

I'd suggest creating a shortcut to the IntroOutro folder wherever your usual projects are stored to save having to drill down from the top of C:/. Also if you name it with a leading underscore it will appear at the top of the list along with _Studio-Preview and _TV Anti Cropping.

I'll try to do some tests on this intro/outro puzzle, though my priority for brain teasers remains stuck on DVD menu customization. Note that the 'All files (*.*) trick works just as well for loading a .cfx file which might be better than applying the intro/outro to a real timeline object. Going this way reveals the 'User footage' placeholders.

Regards,

Carl

terrypin wrote on 11/3/2013, 1:57 AM

Hi John,

Wow, good work! But after 7 weeks I must admit I've forgotten much of the detail. Also become preoccpied with various other MEP customising and bug-chasing stuff. So it may be a while before I can pick it up again.

And I suppose it would help if I could settle on 2013 or 2014 as my version of choice, given that there appear to be differences in this context.

Later...

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

browj2 wrote on 11/4/2013, 12:11 AM

Hi Carl and Terry,

To reply to Carl's comments, I don't know why I haven't created shortcuts to folders that I regularly go to, other than to say that maybe I don't go to them often enough, or, I would probably have too many on an already crowded screen. Still, it's a wakeup call that I should do some at least; I keep saying this to myself.

As for Intros/Outros and titles, I prefer to use Magix Media Pool to look for these things under the normal tabs, and keeping anything that I make, like an Intro or a title, in the same folder as the similar Magix objects makes it easy for me to remember where to find them - I see them in the Media Pool in the right place.

I did the same with masks; I created (actually found on my computer under other programs when I searched using the word "mask") many masks and I created subfolders under C:\ProgramData\MAGIX\Movie Edit Pro 2014 Plus\VideoEffects\EffectAlphaMasks for the various types. Not much thinking on my part is involved because the folders show up when I am in Video effects and want to load an effects mask. Magix takes me to the above folder and I just have to decide which folder and mask to open. For me, this keeps everything together. I have enough of a problem organizing all of the other files created elsewhere by Magix programs. That said, I think that users may have trouble finding the masks, I know I did, so this may help them.

As far as saving as cfx instead of tfx and selecting the correct folder, yup, I should have thought of that. Too obvious, I guess. Never thought about using the underscore, good point.

I'm looking forward to seeing how to better create Intros and cfx files.

Carl, I think you mentioned in another post that you were working on DVD menu problems. Looking at the posts, I realized that for me, my standard intro, if I ever finish it, would be destined for the Intro video in front of the DVD menu. Thus, my main intro would just become a single compiled video. So, I guess I would create and use other intros to introduce chapters or separate videos, once the user has selected something in the menu. Subjects like family, friends, parties, Christmas, travel, vacations, and weddings are common for me, and I don't like the most of the stock intros.

Maybe this is a separate topic, but I tried adding an intro video to the Menu, under Disc options. I did not burn it, but I wanted to see the result. I could not find how to do this except to run it with the arrow to the right of the Intro video option. The intro video does not show up in the arranger or in the Preview, only the menu shows up. Is this how it is supposed to work? Burn first, review later? No way to use a stock intro in front of a menu? If so, maybe Magix could improve on this. I would like at least to have a transition between the intro video and the menu.

Thanks,

John

terrypin wrote on 11/4/2013, 1:00 AM

Maybe this is a separate topic, but I tried adding an intro video to the Menu, under Disc options. I did not burn it, but I wanted to see the result. I could not find how to do this except to run it with the arrow to the right of the Intro video option. The intro video does not show up in the arranger or in the Preview, only the menu shows up. Is this how it is supposed to work? Burn first, review later? No way to use a stock intro in front of a menu? If so, maybe Magix could

Hi John,

On the few occasions that I've used that 'Intro video', which is of course intended for a quite separate purpose to the 'Intro/Outros' videos, I've previewed it by opening the Arranger then temporarily dragging the MXV from its XP Explorer folder to a convenient place on the right of the timeline and playing it there.

Of the three choices I've only used C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\MAGIX\Movie Edit Pro 2013 Premium\DVD\Media\IntroVideo\classic_count.mxv (under \Program Data on your PC, not D&S). A sort of attention getter so that my audience don't miss the brilliant opening seconds of my animated menu!

We could of course add to these by exporting a project to an MXV file.

The DVD tab of MEP seems in a universe of its own, so it may be best continued as a separate post before this thread gets too complex!

Terry, East Grinstead, UK