Comments

terrypin wrote on 9/13/2014, 4:41 AM

Hi,

 

Too vague!

Title template? Movement template? Movie template? Slideshow Maker template? DVD menu template?

I'll take a guess and assume the latter.

"Any ideas?"

About what? You need to tell us exactly what you want to do, what you've done so far, and what obstacles you've encountered. MEP menus are not its strongest point but there is scope for customisation. Have you studied Help or the PDF manual? Searched the Q&A and Forum using the box on the right of this thread?

And it would help to know what version of MEP you're using. DVD Menu dialogs have varied a bit over the years.

Read this sticky too:

http://www.magix.info/uk/please-do-the-following-before-posting-your-question.forum.621831.html

 

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

 

Last changed by terrypin on 9/13/2014, 4:48 AM, changed a total of 2 times.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK. PC: i7 6700K, 4.0 GHz, 32GB with Win 10 pro. Used many earlier versions of MEPP, currently mainly MEPP 2016 & 2017 (Using scores of macro scripts to add functionality, tailored to these versions.)

markstone02 wrote on 9/13/2014, 3:39 PM

Wow,  What a rude and condescending response.  I can only hope that the real admins of this product are a little more courteous.  I was excited that this product was something I had been looking for for a long time, but am now left  feeling negativly towards it.

Yes I did search the help thoroughly before posting, and I am sorry that this question seems to have struck you as a personal insult.

No wonder small companies with good products like Magix get bad press for their support if you are berated by forum members because you didnt add enough detail (mainly down to needing guidence in the first place).

Thankyou for taking the time to respond (in some way).  I have had my question answered by someone a little less negative.

Regards

browj2 wrote on 9/13/2014, 11:26 PM

Hi,

Don't take offence. If Terry had told you verbally exactly what he wrote, you would have a different opinion. Never try to read someone's thoughts or tone of voice into an email or other written message. You will usually be wrong.

No one here works for Magix. We are all just users trying to help other users.

I am sure that I have seen this question before and my reply was about the same as Terry's. Rather than try to answer the wrong question, which some of us have done many times, often spending hours only to find out that "what I meant was something else," you have been given multiple choices for your question, in one shot, and also given guidance as to the information that you should supply. If, as you say, you had done a thorough search, you would have known to supply a clearer question, like the type of template that you wanted to make, along with information as to your version of MEP, including whether it is regular, Plus or Premium. There are differences. You would also have seen the questions and detailed replies that have been given, many by Terry, in the Q&A part and in the MEP Discussion Forum, all done by users helping users.

So if you still want help, then supply more information. If you have solved your problem, then maybe you could do up a tutorial and post it to help others. At the very least, post your solution here so others can profit from it.

You can also help answer questions, and you will see first-hand what we mean by insufficient information. It's not easy.

Last changed by browj2 on 9/13/2014, 11:26 PM, changed a total of 1 times.

John C.B.

VideoPro X(16); Movie Studio 2025 Platinum; Music Maker 2025 Premium Edition; Samplitude Pro X8 Suite; see About me for more.

Desktop System - Windows 10 Pro 22H2; MB ROG STRIX B560-A Gaming WiFi; Graphics Card Zotac Gaming NVIDIA GeForce RTX-3060, PS; Power supply EVGA 750W; Intel Core i7-10700K @ 3.80GHz (UHD Graphics 630); RAM 32 GB; OS on Kingston SSD 1TB; secondary WD 2TB; others 1.5TB, 3TB, 500GB, 4TB, 5TB, 6TB, 8TB, 12TB, 14TB; three monitors - HP 25" main, LG 4K 27" second, HP 27" third; Casio WK-225 piano keyboard; M-Audio M-Track USB mixer.

Notebook - Microsoft Surface Pro 4, i5-6300U, 8 GB RAM, 256 SSD, W10 Pro 20H2.

YouTube Channel: @JCBrownVideos

markstone02 wrote on 9/15/2014, 6:08 AM

Thanks browj2 for your much more reasoned and informative response.  

I provide enthusiast support for other products as well, and I took offence at the intial "Too Vague !", rather than your more reasoned and welcoming response to the forum.  I run / read a few forums myself and understand communication through text can be difficult, however even I found that a little strong.  I generally keep a paragraph similar to Terrys post on hand, which starts with "Hello, welcome to the forum" and contains the words "In order to help you it would be great if you could tell us...".  It also ends with "Many Thanks for your question, I hope this was helpful".

Nevertheless,

I edit experience DVD's, and edit the same pattern of clips into the same movie for around 25 different people every weekend.  

I found the software (MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 2015 Premium Trial) and noticed it made the task of dragging clips into a movie template very easy, and wondered whether it would be a good base for our 20 strong camera team, editing and burning their video footage onto dvd within minutes.  I have searched around and found that you can buy movie templates, but couldnt find any way to create my own.  Hence the question of being able to create our own custom movie template, in the pattern that we normally adhere to.

I believe the word I missed out was MOVIE templates.

I am very new to this product as I am comparing it to other similar ones such as Muvee Reveal and Avid (a little overkill), to see if any of them can do what I need, so I dont know all 5 products I am comparing inside out.

If I dont get on with a product I tend to move on to the next one, however I see potential in this one.

I have had some feedback from others, but any thoughts / friendly advice you have would be appreciated.

Many Thanks

Mark

browj2 wrote on 9/15/2014, 11:06 AM

Hi Mark and welcome to the Forum,

I don't have MEP2015 (64bit), only 2014 (32bit) and Video Pro X6 (VPX6) (64bit).

Most people are searching for help with DVD templates.

Movie templates are special and, as far as I know, cannot be created the same way that Magix does it. When you insert one, the mode changes to Storyboard. If you click on Timeline mode (if the button is still there) or go to Window, Edit mode, Standard mode (in case they removed the button and it's like VPX6), you will see how they put together the template. They usually have a fixed length that fits with the length of the music. Some of the objects are quite standard, like the titles. They are images or video with a preset title template (font, colour, size, etc.) and all you do is change the text. The other objects are placeholders with a specific length shown. All of the transitions are there and visible. You can right-click on the box on the transition to see the type of transition.

When you drag a video clip onto one of the placeholders, it will either tell you that it is not long enough, or it will trim it. This is the main feature of the template. As far as I can tell, this is all programmed into a file with the extension .mis available in the C:\ProgramData\MAGIX\Video Pro X6\MovieTemplates folder. And as far as I know, there is no way to create these or modify the source, unfortunately.

The template program also mutes the audio of imported tracks because it supplies music. This can, of course, be modified.

You can insert other objects anywhere (multi-track ripple insert mode), but this interupts the music, so editing would be required.

CREATE YOUR OWN TEMPLATE

However, you can create something that resembles the template and call it a template. Put together everything that you want, titles templates with background image, intro, outro, music, and use the placeholder images (or your own) from the folder C:\ProgramData\MAGIX\Video Pro X6\MovieTemplates\PlaceholderPictures_video, (or copy the images to another location like a project folder). 

Instead of the stock placeholder images, you can make your own images that show instructions as to what to put in its place.

Note that still images can have a defined insert length in the settings, all would have to be the same length.

Set the insert object mode to Exchange. Unless they have fixed this in 2015, do not create any transitions as this messes up the downstream part when overwriting. In exchange mode, you just click on the object that you want to replace, and insert the new clip (there is an angled downward arrow when you mouseover the file in the media pool) or drag it on top of the object. The placeholder will be replaced by the new object, to the length of the new object, and everything else will move to the right.

I'm not sure whether or not you would want fixed length video clips, so this method allows for flexibility in length.

Set up any export templates.

If burning to DVD, then this would also have to be predefined but is another detailed topic.

Save your template.

The user:

  1. Opens your template;
  2. Does a Save as... with a different file name;
  3. Ensures that insert object mode is set to Exchange;
  4. Clicks on the title(s) and changes it;
  5. Replaces the placeholders with new images or video clips as per the instructions;
  6. Does any trimming;
  7. Applies transitions (fades). If you have a template transition, this can be applied automatically to all objects;
  8. If there is a music track, adjusts it to the length;
  9. Saves;
  10. Exports.

There are variations to this, such as importing only part of a clip, but this is a detail.

Sounds a bit complicated, but it's not really. 

This is the best that I can come up with. Maybe someone else has a better solution. If you find one, please let us know.

Good luck!

 

Last changed by browj2 on 9/15/2014, 11:06 AM, changed a total of 1 times.

John C.B.

VideoPro X(16); Movie Studio 2025 Platinum; Music Maker 2025 Premium Edition; Samplitude Pro X8 Suite; see About me for more.

Desktop System - Windows 10 Pro 22H2; MB ROG STRIX B560-A Gaming WiFi; Graphics Card Zotac Gaming NVIDIA GeForce RTX-3060, PS; Power supply EVGA 750W; Intel Core i7-10700K @ 3.80GHz (UHD Graphics 630); RAM 32 GB; OS on Kingston SSD 1TB; secondary WD 2TB; others 1.5TB, 3TB, 500GB, 4TB, 5TB, 6TB, 8TB, 12TB, 14TB; three monitors - HP 25" main, LG 4K 27" second, HP 27" third; Casio WK-225 piano keyboard; M-Audio M-Track USB mixer.

Notebook - Microsoft Surface Pro 4, i5-6300U, 8 GB RAM, 256 SSD, W10 Pro 20H2.

YouTube Channel: @JCBrownVideos