What you're referring to, Tom, is an effect called "time remap" that allows you to change a clip's speed without affecting the video's total duration. You'll find it in Edius by right-clicking on the track and arrange adjustments accordingly.

By the way, one of the reasons for which I decided to give-up on Premiere as my main editing platform - because I still have to work with it in some of my freelance jobs - is the fact that it is not as easy-going or fast as Edius and I have to tell you, even with a properly set up system, the company's co-operation with Matrox and its video cards has - at least from my not so little experience - created more problems than it has solved. Integration, as I mentioned in a previous post, is a plus but I prefer editing in Edius and authoring in an older version of Encore DVD or creating effects with After Effects. Edius is - again in my opinion - a powerful, very underestimated and much less system resource-consuming tool.

What I do, Markus, is create the effect I want in After Effects with an alpha channel of course and then import it as a finished project to Edius. Surely, it is not the same as in Premiere where changes can easily be adjusted and re-imported from one program to another without any rendering required, but if you think about it, that's all integration really is. Actually I like to be flexible, not a "prisoner" of a certain editing package.

As for graphics, Inscriber has some plug-ins to Edius that might come in handy and that goes also for Edius's Quick Titler, that absolutely SUCKS!! (what were you, guys, in Canopus thinking of?) Try some of the features in Titlemotion and let me know what you think, Markus. It mainly does title work but has some limited advantages in importing or creating ICG files for motion graphics.

I'm not sure this is what I'm getting at the moment Themis. At the moment I'm gradually altering a clip's speed (making it smoothly go faster or slower). When I do this it does indeed alter the length of the clip, so if Edius does this 'without affecting the video's total duration' something doesn't quite stack up.

tom.

Well, check the following address, scroll down to time remap features and see for yourself on the official Canopus site. I, myself, use time remap all the time.

http://www.canopus.com/products/EDIU...ewfeatures.php

If you don't believe it you gotta see it for yourself. Find someone who has Edius and you'll believe it.

Thanks Themis. The link does indeed look good and the clip length doesn't seem to change. But I still can't get my (stupid) head around the maths - if I slow a central portion of a clip down (100% > 25% > 100%, say) then the overall length of the clip must surely lengthen, yes? Hit me.

Magic!!! Just kidding. It's weird, Tom, but it happens. Did you try it yourself on Edius or are you just confused? To tell you the truth I can't explain it myself. But I've done it a million times. I assume that the speed raise is probably counterbalanced by the speed reduction but it's true that this doesn't apply in all cases. You got me intrigued. I'll look into it and let you know.

Just for the record, check the following video link. Its duration was 4 secs 22 frames both before and after applying time remap. Sorry for the low quality, though...

Yes, I see your clip slows, then speeds up (to compensate?). I just want to slow gradually, then come back up again. Great for confetti sequences.

Well, you can do that with time remap in Edius should you learn how to use it. Actually it probably works that way. It compensates for slow speed and vice versa. It was a great help for me in editing video clips and commercials. Very impressive and... it does not affect clip duration, either... Otherwise, you can do it using the speed option (right click, also) in which case duration is certainly affected.

I've just put up a few seconds of a typical confetti-throwing here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pukXsJ0B6Y

It sine waves from 100% to 20% and back to 100%, hopefully pretty invisibly. But it sure lengthens the clip. Anyway, Edius is sure to be my next NLE, so thanks for your input.

tom.

So that's what you meant by "confetti throwing".. you're a wedding videographer... :-) you're there when everybody's constantly happy... really cool... I can't say that's always the case on a shooting stage or the editing rooms I've been in, so you're lucky from many perspectives :-)

Anyway, Edius is also good for weddings. Adorage has some great plug-ins for wedding videographers, they are called "prodad". Look them up. I'm sure they'll come in handy...