Video Demo Timeline demystified (cpvc-project)

Intro

In a first article about timelines, I described the common features: timeline ruler, playhead, eye button, lock button, control panel and the tiny icons at the bottom of the second column of the Timeline panel. This post will explain the more specific features of the Timeline panel in a Video Demo project (cpvc file).

Timeline in a CPVC or Video Demo Project

CPVC-files are created with the Video Demo application packed with Captivate. Those projects are pure video files, they can only be published to a video format (MP4 - H264 codec).  It has a dedicated video editor, which has some panels similar to those in a cptx-project. One of those panels is the Timeline panel, which is not hidden when entering the Video editor, contrary to the newbie UI for cptx-projects.. Here is a screenshot of a typical timeline of a video demo in the Video editor:

Similar to other video applications, you'll see one continuous timeline for the whole movie. I will use the word 'track' for each horizontal line in the Timeline panel. Immediately after creating a video demo only one track will be visible in the panel, the bottom track labeled as 'Video/Audio'. This label is automatically attributed to the first track.

The bottom track in the screenshot pointed at with the name 'Video/Audio' because contrary to a cptx project, the audio has no separate timeline, but is included in the video track. Another difference is that the bottom track can have several video clips. In the screenshot you see two full video clips and the start of a third clip.  

The video clips can be in sequence (clip 1 and 2) without a gap, or separated by one or more static objects. Clip 2 and 3 have a text and an image inserted between them. Those objects were added manually, and they appear in new tracks. Only non-interactive, static objects can be added to a video demo. Similar to the multiple video clips for the Video/Audio track, the other tracks can have multiple objects (which is not possible in a cptx project). New tracks are only added when necessary, when two or more objects overlap in time. In the screenshot you see multiple objects in three tracks. This explains the generic name 'Objects' for the tracks (first column). The names of the tracks cannot be changed, customized which is another difference with the object/style timelines in a cptx project. The Properties panel has not field 'Name'. 

Due to the possible presence of multiple items on a track, clicking a dot linked to the Eye and Lock button will affect all the objects on that track. It is not possible to lock or hide one object timeline (or one video clip). That is another big difference with the Timeline in cptx projects. 

More specific features are:

  1.  Just below the time ruler in seconds, you'll see diamond icons (and a half icon at the start). Those diamonds indicate the start/end of a video clip. Their color is grey by default. You can click such a diamond, and the color will be green. You can add a transition from the Video Effects panel that will appear automatically in the right docking station.After adding a transition the diamond's color changes to orange. You can add a transition to the start of the first clip, hence the half-diamond appearing at the start of the Video/Audio Track.

  2. The orange In/out markers are the same vertical position as the playhead. You'll find them at the beginning and the end of the Video/audio track. If you want to focus on one video clip, you can drag the In marker to the start of that video clip, and the Out marker to its end. When you use the Play button from the Control panel (or the shortcut key Space bar), the playhead will move only within that video clip. You can also use the Trim command to delete the darkened part by dragging the In/Out markers. If I did that for the situation in this screenshot, only the second video clip would be preserved.

  3.  In the Pan/Zoom status (which is the default status of the timeline, visible in the Screenshot images so far) the track with the video clips can have Zoom indicators (loupe icon). They appear when you add a zoom and/or pan effect. The duration of the zoom/pan transition is visualized by the width of the shadow triangle before the zoom indicator.
    In this Pan/zoom status you'll find under the timeline tracks the buttons 'Split', 'Pan and Zoom' and 'Trim' to be active.

  4. The second status, Mouse status can be made active with Edit, Edit Mouse points (use the same work flow to return to the Pan/Zoom status). The 'Pan and Zoom' button will be dimmed, inactive but 'Split' and 'Trim' buttons remain available. In this status the start of mouse trails are visible on the video/audio track as mouse icons(screenshot below): you can select them individually and edit or delete the mouse object.

  5. To trim away part of a video clip, you have to position the playhead near the location that you want to delete. When clicking the Trim button two black triangles, the Trim markers (In and Out) will appear. The gap between them will be greyed out and will be deleted when you click on the Trim button again. You can drag both Trim In and Trim out markers to select precisely the part to be trimmed. You'll end up after the trim action with two video clips, and a transition point (diamond marker) separating them.

The objects in the CPVC timeline have no real color coding (for cptx projects, this will be explained in a later blog post): everything is blue, the Video/Audio track is bit different but still blue. A selected video clip or object will be in a more saturated blue.

CPVC or Video Demo slide

You can embed a Video Demo in a normal cptx-project. This can be done either by recording directly from within the cptx-project with the big button, Slides, Video Demo or by inserting an exisiting (raw) cpvc project using the menu Insert, CPVC-slide. The look of such a slide, in the filmstrip and in the Timeline panel is identical to the look of the (old) FMR-slides (Full Motion Recording) that are created in a software simulation for movements that cannot be captured in static slides (like dragging, moving objects). The only way to recognize a cpvc slide is by the presence of the button 'Edit Video Demo' in the Properties panel.

Next post?

Soon I'll publish a longer article about the ins and outs of the Timeline(s) in a cptx-project: master slides, normal slides, effects....


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4 responses
Hello! This was wonderful, thank you. I am struggling with adding a pan and zoom. I have ensured that my video markers are within the video timeline and moved the red marker to where I want to add it, but all my pan and zoom buttons are greyed out?? Any ideas how to fix this?
— Phoebe
Could you please post your question on the forums, where you can insert screenshots and give more details?
— ir. Lieve Weymeis
So a video demo cannot have multiple audio tracks? If I record the video demo sans audio, I want to add multiple short audio tracks at different points along the video. Possible or not?
— Hal
You can always use an application like Audition to combine audio tracks, but not directly in the Video Demo editor I am used to record a Video de;o in short clips and add the final audio to a clip before transitioning to the next clip. I think that results in what you want as well. Just bit of planning before starting. This is even more important when later on you use the Video Demo for an interactive video, as I have published already some. You need those shorter clips for sure in that case.
— ir. Lieve Weymeis