Grid Pro Manual - Managing Media
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| Grid Pro Manual |
|---|
| Getting Started |
The Basics
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| Advanced Features |
| Optimizing Grid Pro |
Managing Media At the core of the GRID Pro interface is the Media Grid - a large, easy to use thumbnail file browser used for the loading, organizing, and triggering of video files. The Media Grid is made up of 13 pages, each of which can hold 60 media files.
Contents |
Adding Media
Before we can mix video, we'll need to load some files from a local hard drive into the Media GRID. There are three methods that can be used to add files to the current page of the Media GRID.
When loading files, they will automatically be loaded on to the current page. Pages are a great way to organize different sets of media files. To jump to a page, simply click on the page tabs above the Media GRID. You can also use the Pg. Up and Pg. Down keys on your keyboard to change the page.
By File
To add a single file to the Media GRID, select Add Movie from the File menu- this will bring up a dialog box asking for you to find the file you wish to load. Once you have found and selected the file you wish you load, click "Choose" to have GRID Pro automatically add the file to the next available Media Cell.
By Folder
To load an entire folders worth of files at once, select Add Folder from the File Menu - this will bring up a dialog box asking for you to find the folder you wish to load from. Once you have found and selected the folder you wish to load, click "Choose" to have GRID Pro automatically add all the appropriate files in the folder into the available Media Cells.
From the Finder
To load files from the Finder, simply drag and drop any selection of files or folders from a Finder window onto the Media GRID in GRID Pro.
Add Live Input
Instead of using a Quicktime video file playing from a hard drive, any cell in the Media Grid can also be used to provide a video input from virtually any video digitizer, such as a DV camera, iSight or DFG-1394 analog to digital converter.
Setting up a live input
Before adding live input cells in the Media Grid, you'll want to open the GRID Pro prefernces and configure your input device under the LIVE INPUT tab. To open the configuration window, click the "CONFIGURE DIGITIZER" button. Within the configuration window you can select which digitizer to use, along with any other settings specific to the selected digitizer. Once you have finished setting up your digitizer, click the OK button to return to GRID Pro.
Auto-Crop
Sometimes when using a live input, a black border will appear around the incoming video. Due to differences between digitizers, the size of the border will vary slightly depending on your setup. Using the Auto-crop feature, GRID Pro can automatically trim this black border, providing a full frame image with no border.
Auto-crop can be turned on and off in the LIVE INPUT tab of the preferences. To save on processor usage, the auto-crop feature will only detect the boundary points of the incoming video when the RESET-BOUNDS button is clicked.
Making and Triggering Live Input cells
To make any cell into a live input, use the selction tool (or hold shift while clicking in the media grid) and select from the Cell menu "Make Selected Live". The selected cell will turn red indicating that it can now be used to trigger the live input.
Once you've turned a cell into a Live Input cell, it can be triggered like any other cell in the Media Grid using the keyboard, mouse, or a MIDI note trigger. Because the live input is buffered, you'll even be able to scrub and adjust playback speed as if it were a movie playing off your hard drive.
Organizing your media
Because files are added alphabetically, you may find it necessary for organizational purposes to move, copy, or delete cells in the Media GRID. From the Toolbar at the top of the GRID Pro interface you access the tools you will need to do this. see video demonstration...
Trigger tool
This is the default cursor mode. The Trigger tool is used to start playing movies into the mixer / transport area of GRID Pro. You will learn more about this in the chapter on movie playback.
Selection tool
(keyboard shortcut: hold shift)When using the Selection tool, you can highlight multiple cells. Once selected, these cells can be moved or copied using the Move and Copy tools, or deleted by pressing the "delete" key on your keyboard.
Move tool
(keyboard shortcut: hold cmd + shift)The Move tool can be used to change the position of a Media Cell within the bin. To use, simply click and hold down on the cell you wish to move and drag it to its new location. The Move tool can be used in conjunction with with the Selection tool to move multiple cells at once.
Copy tool
(keyboard shortcut: hold cmd + opt)The Copy tool can be used to copy the contents of a Media Cell to another cell position without modifying the original cell. This is useful if you wish to have different settings for the same movie file (For more information, refer to the section on Transport controls). To use, simply click and hold down on the cell you wish to copy and drag it to its new location. The Copy tool can be used in conjunction with with the Selection tool to copy multiple cells at once.
Books
Now that you've taken the time to organize your media files, you may find it useful to save a Book file. A Book file is a saved state of all the files currently loaded into your Media GRID.
The current Media GRID is automatically saved as a temporary Book file. The next time you load GRID Pro, you will be presented with an option to load the temporary Book file, or start with a "clean slate".
Saving Books
To save the current Media GRID, simply select "Save Book" from the File Menu. To save the currently loaded Book under a different name,select "Save Book As..." from the File Menu.
Loading Books
To load a Book file, select Open Book from the File menu. You will be presented with a dialog box asking you to locate the Book file that you wish to load. Once selected, click Choose. If any of the media files in your Book can not be found (eg. they have been moved or the Book file came from another computer), you will be asked if you wish to cancel the load, continue loading without the missing files, or re-link the missing media.
If you choose to re-link your media, GRID Pro will present you with a list of the missing files and where they were last seen. To re-link a file, simply double click on it to bring up an open dialog box. Once you have located and selected the file, click Choose to re-link the file. Each time a file is re-linked, GRID Pro will automatically try to re-link any remaining missing movies to other files in the same directory.