Hello everyone, and welcome to this video! In this video we'll see all
the advanced features in Lightworks 14, such as effects and text.
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Let's assume you have a Lightworks project ready. You can add special
visual and audio effects through the VFX and the AUDIO workspaces, that
you can open through the tabs on top.
The VFX workspace is used to apply video effects, in order to adjust
the appearance of videos and pictures, or to add special visual effects,
including text and transitions.
To start off, select the clip where you would like to apply the effects,
by simply placing the red playhead on it. At this point, the Effect panel
opens on the left, with the list of all the effects applied on each clip.
By default, a single effect called Colour Correction is present, which is
used to adjust the colors inside the video or the picture clip. Under
Main, you can correct the color intensity through Saturation, and the
contrast and the brightness with Contrast and Brightness. Under RGB, you
can correct the color intensity, contrast and brightness on each of the
three main colors. Under HSV, you can use Hue to change the overall
colors inside the clip.
You can add other visual effects by clicking on the plus button above,
and choosing the correct section on the right. The effects listed are
divided between Components, which are the main visual effects available,
and the Presets, which are ready to use effect templates where you can
apply one or multiple effects. You can also enable the star icon on the
left to include an effect or a template inside the Favourities section.
Double-click on an effect or a template to apply it on the clip. This
will be added in the effect list under the Settings tab, complete with
its name and settings at the bottom. Click on the name to rename the
effect, and use the bars and the markers to edit the effect, by checking
the big preview on the right. You can also enable and disable each effect
by clicking on the green light. Next to it, you can open the Settings
menu to either reset the effect settings, or remove the whole effect from
the clip.
All effects applied on clips are represented as small colored rectangles
on the timeline.
Besides visual effects, you can also apply text and titles, that are all
listed inside the Text section. There are three kinds of text: the
Crawl text, which goes from the left to the right; the Roll, which
creates a credit roll; and the Titles, which are simple pieces of text.
For all of these, the settings panel is the same. Type inside Sample text
to change the text content, and regulate the font style below, such as
the font family, the bold or italic effect, the font size through Size
and the font transparency through Opacity.
Additionally, under the Face tab, choose the right color for the text,
and apply either a solid color through Flat colour, or a cool gradient
with Vertical gradient.
Under Position, decide where to place the text in respect to the
horizontal (X) or the vertical (Y) direction. You can also click and drag
the text directly from the preview to move it.
You can also apply shadow and outline glow by using Shadow and Outline.
Enable the effect first, and then regulate them by checking the preview.
Under the Effects tab you can add fade transitions, in order to make
the text appear (In) and disappear (Out), with a defined time length.
If text is applied on a clip, the clip shows a green rectangle, and the
text itself is dependent on it. This means that the text appears only
through the entire clip duration.
To create an independent piece of text just place the red playhead on a
vacant space, and then add text. This is represented as a green clip
on the timeline, contained inside a new track, called Effect (or FX)
Track. You can edit the text settings through the Effect panel inside
the VFX workspace, and regulate the clip in position and duration under
the EDIT workspace, as a normal clip.
You can also apply effect clips completely independent from clips in this
way.
Inside Lightworks, you can also apply effects with properties that change
in time by using the Keyframes.
Keyframes are special markers that save, for a fixed instant of time, a
defined set of properties for the specific effect. In this way, if you
playback from the first keyframe to the following one, the effect changes
in time, from the properties of the first keyframe to the ones from the
second keyframe.
Several effect or text properties have a watch icon. If you turn it on,
you will enable keyframes for the property.
The Keyframes bar at the bottom shows all the keyframes placed in time
through the whole clip length. By default, two markers are placed, at
the beginning, and at the end of the clip. You can use the left and the
right arrow buttons to select the right keyframe in time. Hover over the
first keyframe to fix the initial value for the property, then hover
over the second one to set the final value. Check the preview to see
the result.
You can also add other keyframes by choosing another instant of time,
and changing the property on it. To remove a keyframe, just click on
it to select it, and use the Minus button on the left.
You can disable all the keyframes by turning off the watch icon.
In case you have keyframes on multiple effects, you can manage them
easier by using the Graphs tab. For each effect property that has
keyframes, a graph is shown, representing each keyframe through circle
points. The height of the circle represents the property value saved by
the keyframe, and the horizontal position the instant of time from the
beginning of the clip.
You can edit each keyframe in time and properties by clicking and
dragging it freely. You can also use the Plus and the Minus buttons to
add or remove keyframes, and the green icon on top to enable or disable
them.
Keyframes are also used to apply visual fade-in and fade-out transitions,
to make clips appear and disappear. Inside the Mix section are all the
visual effects which can be used to add transitions if you apply
keyframes on them. A fade-in transition is added by passing from a 100%
keyframe to a 0% one, placed at the beginning of the clip. A fade-out
transition is made by passing from 0% to 100% through the end of the
clip. Remember that the transition duration is indicated by the time
between the two keyframes.
The last tab, called Routing, represents the order of all the effects
applied on the clip, from top to bottom. By changing this order, you may
change the final appearance of the clip. Take a look!
All these settings, such as the keyframes and the routing, are completely
independent between one clip and another.
Now, let's take a look at the AUDIO workspace. With respect to the VFX
workspace, this is used to correct and adjust the audio files inside your
timeline.
On the audio clips, you can click and drag the dashed line to regulate
the clip volume uniformly, or click and drag from the clip corners to
apply volume fades.
In the top right corner, you also have a Master panel, used to control
the way the Audio Tracks must interact. Each Audio Track is shown with
its name at the bottom, and its volume meter. The LR Track on the right
is the Master track, which represents the sum of all the audio content
of the project.
To regulate the volume balance between the two stereo channels, use the
panning knobs on top. To regulate the volume of each Audio Track, just
click and drag from the blue markers you see. You can use these to
reduce the volume, in case the volume meter falls inside the red color.
Keep in mind that all these adjustments affect any audio clip inside the
Audio Track.
Additionally, you can use the Effects panel in the top left corner to add
audio effects and adjustments, such as the audio filters through the
Equalizer (EQ). The way to add, edit and manage these audio effects is
identical to the visual effects inside VFX, apart from the keyframes.
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