The Montage Editor
The Montage Editor allows you to customize a Montage clip by specifying your own subclips and other customizations. The editor can be invoked from a Montage clip once it is placed on the project timeline by double-clicking the clip or by selecting Edit Montage on the clip’s context menu.
Using the Montage Editor
Each Montage template has its own set of slots for video and photo content, represented by drop zones in the Montage Editor. Most templates have at least one of these; the maximum is six. Some also provide text captions and other parameters as required to customize special features.
The Montage Editor is split into five parts. On the left, the compact version of the Library provides access to your videos and photos; on the right is a customization panel including any text fields or other controls required by template parameters. The Player shows you the results of your changes. Below the Preview are the drop zones for your video and images.
Interior trimming of Montage clips
When a Montage template begins or ends with a user-settable amount of full-frame video, as many do, the Montage Editor timeline provides handles for adjusting the lead-in and lead-out times – the durations of the full-frame portions. Click a handle and drag left or right to adjust either duration separately. The duration of the center part of the clip – the animated part – will shorten or lengthen accordingly. If you want to balance the lead-in and lead-out without affecting the duration of the center portion, click between the handles and drag.
Part of the Montage Editor window, with the timeline (bottom) and drop zones for video or images (middle). The lower portions of the Library and the Player are at left and upper middle respectively. To trim the Lead-in or Lead-out portion of the clip, click and drag the adjustment handles or the dotted parts of the line. Click between the handles (on the solid part of the line) to drag both at once, thereby repositioning the center in the clip without changing its duration.
For a detailed explanation of the template structure, see Anatomy of a template.
Clearing drop zones: To delete a subclip from its drop zone, right-click the zone and select Remove Media from the context menu.
Muting subclip audio: Some drop zones are marked with an audio symbol, indicating that the audio portion of any video in that zone will be included in the Montage clip’s audio. If you don’t want the audio to be used, click the symbol to mute the subclip.
Choosing the start of your subclip: Video in a drop zone can be adjusted to start from an offset in the subclip. Click and drag the start of clip slider located under the drop zone to adjust the start frame. The keyboard left and right arrow keys are handy for making fine adjustments.
If the drop zone you are working with is active at that time index, the preview will reflect any changes to the start frame. When you are fine tuning the start frame of a subclip, it’s a good idea to set the scrubber position to the location where the Player preview will be of the greatest assistance.
Using the start of clip slider changes neither the position of the subclip within the template nor its duration. Rather you are only choosing which excerpt of the subclip is used. If you set the start of the subclip so late that the video runs out while its zone is still active, the last frame of the subclip will be frozen to fill the allocated time.
Adding effects within drop zones: It is not possible to apply video or audio effects directly to a Montage subclip. Instead, prepare the video segment with all desired effects as a separate movie project, then drag that project onto the drop zone. Keep in mind, however, that assigning elaborate movie projects to Montage drop zones can significantly increase the performance and memory load imposed by the project that uses them.