Pinnacle Studio is a great program for both beginner and advanced users wanting
to create their own slideshows or videos. In this tutorial I'm going to walk you
through how to set up your first project. Before we get started, if you're watching
this video on YouTube you'll find a link in the description below that will take
you to our tutorial page on the Discovery Center. Here you can download a
written copy of this tutorial to follow along. Let's get started.
Once you open Pinnacle Studio click on File > New > Movie. This will open up a
new timeline where you can start building your slideshow or video. First
we want to build a project bin with all the media we're going to use for this
project. Go to the left and click on the Project Bin icon then select the Create
a New Project Bin icon. A small dialog box will pop up asking you to name your
new project bin. I'm going to name mine Family Fun Slideshow.
Now a new project bin has been created and we can add our media. One way to do
this is to click on the Quick Import icon. From here you can browse to the
file folder that contains your images and drag to select your media, then click
Open. Alternatively, if you have a file folder open on your computer that
contains your chosen media, you can left-click to highlight the media you
want to add then drag and drop it directly into your project bin. Now that
we have gathered the assets we want to use we can make some adjustments to the
default settings of our project. To do this go to Setup then select Control
Panel. Now click on Project Settings. Here you will be able to adjust all your
default movie project settings. Under New Movie Project Format you can select your
video's default resolution. You can also select the option to automatically
detect the video format from the first clip added to the project and use that
as a default for the rest of your movie. Next we can change the default durations.
You can adjust how many seconds for the default duration for new titles, stills
and transitions. T there's also an option to enable or disable Ruler Zooming so
you can zoom up on your timeline. I like to keep it enabled. In the Control Panel
you can also customize Import Settings. Click on Import. Here you can change the
default storage locations for media and projects that are physically copied when
you use the importer. You can change the default video, audio,
image and project directory by clicking on the Browse button and selecting a new
folder. Once you have selected a base folder you can optionally set up a
sub-folder. You can create a sub-folder named with the current date today, by
creation date, current month or select Custom to name your own sub-folder.
Now let's click on the Storage Locations tab to set where to save media and
projects that you create. Here you can change the default locations for the
projects you are working on in Pinnacle Studio, including your movie projects,
disc projects, titles and more. To change where you'd like these projects to be
stored simply click on the Browse folder to select a new folder.
Finally let's click on the Startup Page tab. Here you can select which workspace
tab will display when you launch Pinnacle Studio, such as the Edit tab. By
default the Welcome tab is open. I suggest keeping the welcome screen as
your default startup page since it has new content all the time, including new
Pinnacle Studio tutorials, special offers, new filters and more. Once you're happy
with your settings click Apply,
then click OK. And now you are ready to start creating your project. If you're
watching this video on YouTube you'll find a link in the description below
that will take you to our tutorial page on the Discovery Center. Here you can
find more Pinnacle Studio tutorials that will teach you the basics of creating
movies and slideshows, as well as more advanced video projects and special effects.