Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Opening Your Video Clips into Photoshop
You can open a video clip to start building your movie like it was any other file, so getting
a clip to open in Photoshop is easy (especially since Photoshop supports all the most com-
mon movie file formats found in DSLRs), but this isn't about just opening a video clip in
Photoshop to start your movie project. This is really about what to do after you've star-
ted your video project, because knowing what to do next (how to add more clips to your
movie) can save you a lot of time and frustration. Later, you'll get to mix video and still
(and have audio, as well), so learning this first is worth the quick read.
Step One:
Once your movie clips have been imported from your DSLR onto your computer, you can
open these clips in Photoshop just like you would any other file—by going under the File
menu and choosing
Open
, which is what I did here (go ahead and open a video clip. If
you don't have one, you can download the ones I'm using here). When it opens, Photoshop
knows it's a video file and it automatically opens the Timeline panel across the bottom
(seen here), which is where we put our movie together. The length of the blue bar corres-
ponds to how long the video is (in minutes and seconds). The longer the bar, the longer the
video clip. You can change the size (magnification) of what's in the timeline by using the
slider at the bottom of the panel.
