ADVANCED EDITING TOOLS
This unit will focus on two useful editing tools: the ripple edit and the rolling edit. These are tools for adjusting edit points within a sequence. Both of these tools can be activated by clicking on the appropriate button in the vertical toolbar.
[a] Ripple edit tool
[b] Rolling edit tool
[b] Rolling edit tool
RIPPLE EDIT
The Ripple edit tool, much like the regular Trim tool will trim the head or tail of a clip once it has been added to the timeline. However, unlike the Trim tool, the Ripple tool will lengthen or shorten a clip without leaving any gaps in the sequence. Instead, any adjacent clips will slide to fill the gap. Here's how it works:
After activating the ripple tool, we lasso the edit point in the timeline that we want to adjust.
Here's a ripple edit in process. Once the edit has been selected, we can click on the highlighted edit point and drag it one way or the other. In this case, we are dragging the edit to the left. Note how we can preview the new out- and in- points of the edit in the project window.
After dropping the edit in the new location, we can see how we have shifted all the material downstream from the edit point to the left. In doing so we have trimmed the tail of the first shot. This is how a ripple edit works: it affects only one side of the edit point, leaving the other side intact.
ROLLING EDIT
With a Rolling edit, there is give and take. When we adjust an edit using the Rolling edit tool, we shift the out- and in-points on both sides of the edit. Let's take a look:
After activating the Rolling edit tool, we lasso the edit we want to adjust.
Once again, we drag and drop the edit point.
Here is what the timeline looks like after the Rolling edit. Unlike with a Ripple edit, the downstream shots have not shifted to the left. Instead, the tool has trimmed the tail of the outgoing shot and added the equivalent amount to the head of the incoming shot.
Here's another very handy way to use the Rolling edit tool. We can lasso an entire shot, applying rolling edits to both ends at once. We grab one of the activated edit points to drag and drop.
Now when we drag and drop, two edits shift simultaneously.
Here we see the results after using the Rolling edit tool on two edit points. Both points have shifted to the left, but the overall length of the sequence has not changed.
Click here to proceed to the next section of this editing guide.