One of Blackbird’s standout features is its multicam syncing and editing capabilities. With support for multiple cameras and audio recorders, as well as timecode and sync maps, Blackbird makes it easy to set up and manage multicam groups for both live and non-live content.

Setting up a multicam group is simple and intuitive, with the ability to assign each camera to a number pad on the keyboard for easy switching between shots. Once your multicam group is set up, you can easily trim and adjust the sync relationship between shots, edit and switch cameras in a web browser, and preview your edits in a quad split view or non-quad split view.

Blackbird’s multicam editing tools also include advanced editorial controls, such as logging spans and sync maps for preparation and organisation, as well as the ability to create multi-group layers and transitions for a polished final product. And with Blackbird’s frame-accurate workflow, you can be sure that your edits are precise and seamless, even with complex multi-camera footage.

Once you’ve finished editing your multicam content, Blackbird makes it easy to deliver these assets to multiple platforms, with options for high bit rate delivery, conforming against high bit rate, and generating AAF files for other applications. You can also publish directly to social media platforms like Twitter or Instagram with simple publish buttons, making it easy to get your content in front of your audience quickly and efficiently.

For a deeper dive please enjoy this masterclass: 

The post Product Focus: File Based Multicam Editing appeared first on Blackbird.

There is no rendering needed for playback in the Blackbird Editor, this allows the user to view any effect instantly once the effect has been applied or modified. 

If there are effects that users want to use frequently, it’s simple for users to create effects templates to save, store and reapply effects in the editor. This can massively speed up workflows where all relevant effects can be filed in a way convenient to the user. A saved effects template can easily be dragged and dropped onto the edit window to apply to any part of a video the user decides. 

Some of the video effects included in Blackbird include: 

• Instant transitions

• Speed effects

• Alpha layers

• Layer transitions

• Colour adjustments

• Layers and sublayers

• Image effects

• Animation with curves

For an overview of how to use these effects please enjoy this masterclass: 

The sample assets will be made available to you within your Blackbird account to allow you to follow the tutorial at your own pace. Please contact support@blackbird.video if you need assistance with this.

The post Product Focus: Video Effects appeared first on Blackbird.

Blackbird has a number of different views and user roles depending on the workflow and feature set needed. The clipper role is designed for ease of adoption and the broadest pool of users that are not typically familiar with a timeline based NLE. 

This allows users to rapidly clip, label and publish video in both file and live based workflows with the user interface in a story board mode for maximum functionality with minimal complexity. Clips can be extracted from live feeds such as SDI, RTMP, Zixi, SRT, HLS and growing MXF feeds and can enable faster publishing of selected in/out points with their metadata to social and online platforms for rapid consumer distribution.

In the clip window, while playing the clip you can mark in and mark out using the mouse or keyboard shortcuts, which can be assigned for simplicity. Once the clip has been marked, both marks will show green and you can then title and save the clip.

For final publishing from the timeline of a saved edit, just drag to the desired publishing point and the data will follow the output media or be inserted into the output file.

The Blackbird cloud will take over publishing and delivery of these clips, so you can continue creating additional clips while this process is taking place.

This is a prominent use case for live sports and news channels to publish content rapidly to social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram.

Check out this tutorial video:

The post Product Focus: The Blackbird Clipper appeared first on Blackbird.

It allows you to reduce the original size of your picture and zoom in on a specific part of the frame, making sure attention is focused on the right part of the action.

The Crop function is part of the Image Effects bundle and is activated from the video track in your edit timeline. It operates in a similar way to the other Image function, Blur, and as such has the following attributes:

• The default shape is square but it can be altered:
  • Re-sized on the both the X & Y axis
  • Re-shaped into a Rectangular or a Circular mask
• It can be static or keyframes can be added to track moving objects
• Movement tracking can be linear or controlled with Bezier curve

Check out this tutorial video:

The post Product Focus:  The Crop Effect appeared first on Blackbird.

Examples of when this functionality would be useful include:

Volume Control

• Ducking your audio to make space for a voiceover
• Increasing the sound of a clip that was recorded at low volume

Pan Control

• Panning a music track left and right to enhance the stereo effect 
• Panning a car sound from left to right to create a sense of movement in the video

Blackbird has the capability to Rubber Band (automated control) your Volume and Pan within the standard editor timeline. By exposing the volume or pan information in your timeline you can then create as many keyframe points as you require, these key frame points can then be moved on the Y or X axis to change the following values:

• Horizontal (x axis) – changes the point the keyframe occurs in the timeline
• Vertical (y axis) – changes the volume or pan value

You can create as many of these keyframes as required depending on how much control you want over your audio.

Check out this tutorial video:

The post Product Focus: Rubber Banding Control on Volume and Pan appeared first on Blackbird.

Typically tracking objects in space requires precision. Even for simple use cases like a car or person moving towards and past a camera the movement and scaling of the resulting pixels is not linear.

For many of the effects in Blackbird it is fairly typical to need to vary these over time in ways to cover natural movements within the video content, such as people moving towards and across the camera. However when a linear movement isn’t sufficient and more granular control is required, Blackbird allows you to use a Bezier Curve.

For example, if you were adding a Zoom effect into an edit session but you wanted the zoom to be fast for the first half and then slower for the second half, a linear movement wouldn’t allow you to do that. You would need to use a Bezier Curve to change the speed values over the chosen timeframe.

The Bezier Curve operates on a simple XY axis where:

X = Time

Y = Motion

You can utilise the Bezier Spline Curve control on the following types effects:

• Titles
• Blur
• Highlight
• Pan
• Zoom
• Motion Control (Playback Speed)

The post Product Focus: Bezier Curves appeared first on Blackbird.

Once you have identified a frame from the clip in the edit timeline there are a number of ways to load the original clip in the source viewer, they are:

1. Double clicking on the timecode display on the edit window
2. Drag and drop the Edit timecode window to the Source viewer
3. Map and use the specific Match Frame keyboard shortcut

If you would like to have more than one of these source windows open at one time, double clicking on the Edit timecode window will open the original clip in a new source window.

If you’re using subclips in your edit timeline, the Match Frame function will track back through the sub clip to the original master clip it was created from.

The Reverse Match Frame works in the opposite way and by dragging the timecode from the source window to your edit window will identify if that source file is being used anywhere in your edit timeline.

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To apply a speed adjustment to a clip in your timeline, you use the Trimming Tool as you normally would. By holding down the shift key at the same time you will see it change to the speed adjustment mode. You can then extend or reduce the clip to your desired length.

When the tool is enabled, an interactive slimline display opens up above the timeline window that gives you the following detail to allow precise adjustments:

• Total Duration of the adjusted clip
• Speed Difference from original clip (anything less than 1x is slower, anything greater than 1x is faster)
• Duration Difference from original clip

This feedback gives you complete control over the length of the effect applied.

It’s important to remember that when applying a speed adjustment to a clip in your timeline, it will also change the speed and pitch of any audio attached to the clip:

• Shortening the clip will increase the speed and pitch
• Lengthening the clip will decrease the speed and pitch

More information on the other types of Motion Effects that can be applied with Blackbird can be found here in the tutorials section on our YouTube channel.

The post Product Focus: Time Stretching appeared first on Blackbird.

Transitional effects feed visual attraction to a production by presenting an element of motion to the graphics within sequences.  In video editing, they can help determine a transformation in location, or suggest the passage of time.

When editors want to join two shots together they often use a cut transition where the first shot is instantly replaced by the next. However, what if there is need to convey a distinct mood or a change in perspective? At that point, more creative transitions are needed.

In the Blackbird editor there are several transition effects available to use on video content as well as audio tracks on the timeline. The transitional features can also be added and modified as a keyboard shortcuts list, which can save a lot of time when many transitions are required to add to the timeline. The transitional effects available on Blackbird are:

• Fades

• Dissolves

• Cuts

• Wipes

• Audio fades

To find out more about transition effects in Blackbird, watch the tutorial video below:

The post Product Focus: Transitional Effects appeared first on Blackbird.

When it comes to live and post-production workflows, users may find that the white (gain), black (setup) and saturation levels may not be completely desirable from the original camera settings. It is possible to make colour adjustments in the Blackbird editor, enabling users to alter the colour through on-screen mouse gestures over various shots to a professional standard of appearance.

In the Blackbird editor, users have the ability to enhance or remove colour and even white balance. For example, black can appear richer and white can appear whiter, as in a fantasy scene. With this feature, the content can be made much more vibrant to produce a professional finish which evens out the edit from shot to shot.

The colour adjustment effect is added as an additional sub-track on the Blackbird timeline that can be trimmed or extended throughout the sequence. This colour effect can also be saved as a template as it can be reused on different shots and sequences. In Blackbird, additional mask images can also be used to enhance the content by adding vignettes.

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