Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
You can open a video clip to star t 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 common 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 started 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.
Opening Your
Video Clips
into Photoshop
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
, or double-clicking on
a video clip in Mini Bridge, 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 togeth
er.
The length of the blue bar corresponds
to how long the video is (in minutes and
seconds). The longer the bar, the longer
the video clip.
Step Two:
If you want to add another video clip to
play right after this clip, then you'd click
on that little filmstrip icon to the right
of Video Group 1 on the left side of the
Timeline panel (it's shown circled here in
red), and choose
Add Media
. In the Add
Clips dialog, navigate to the next video
clip, select it, and click Open. This adds
that video clip right after your first clip
(the clips play in order, from left to right
in the Timeline panel).
