What is Avid VideoShop 2.0.3?

Avid VideoShop 2.0 is the latest version of the QuickTime movie-editing program originally produced by DiVA Corporation, which was acquired by Avid Technology in 1993. The first version of VideoShop was based on HyperCard, which limited its functionality; version 2.0 is a stand-alone program and is much improved. VideoShop is an easier-to-use alternative to Adobe Premiere 3.0, which is widely used for nonlinear, offline editing. Most people who want to incorporate QuickTime movies into their multimedia productions aren’t professional editors and can be overwhelmed by Premiere’s complexity and learning curve, not to mention its price. VideoShop is designed for anyone who creates QuickTime movies for CDROM projects, for interactive presentations, or for short videotapes.

Launching VideoShop takes you to the VideoShop desktop, which opens with three windows: Volumes, Canvas, and Sequencer. Although the Volumes window resembles the Finder with its familiar file and folder style, only files that can be worked on from within VideoShop — such as QuickTime movies, audio files, and PICT images — are shown. QuickTime video clips are represented as oversize icons, called micons, that show a preview frame of the clip. Selecting the micon animates the clip and shows you the clip’s action in thumbnail. Micons are a terrific feature that greatly eases identifying video clips.

VideoShop is easy to learn. In the Volumes window you locate the video and audio clips that you want to assemble and drag them to the Sequencer, which has separate video and audio tracks. You edit clips in the Sequencer window, which has two modes. Time View, the main editing mode, shows the frames in each clip. In this view you can see every frame of the video sequence; you can adjust the time scale so that you view just one frame out of each full minute of video; or you can set the scale to something between those two extremes. You use Time View

to edit video clips and audio tracks and to apply effects and transitions. Storyboard View shows one frame of each clip, along with the clip’s name; you use this mode to assemble many clips into approximate running order. I like Storyboard View because it lets me organize the clips in an editing overview before I do individual frame editing in Time View.

In Time View, the Sequencer window has a time ruler across the top and a toolbox at the left side with selection, magnification, cut, and transition tools. The Sequencer window displays an unlimited number of video and audio tracks, allowing you to work on very complex composited movies. To edit video, you drag micons from their folders into the Sequencer window, usually to Storyboard View. Clicking on a micon with the magnify tool switches you into Time View, where you can select and trim frames and lengthen and shorten clip lengths.

VideoShop comes with more than two dozen filters and 49 types of transition effects. You can apply filters to one, two, or three video tracks at a time. VideoShop can use most Adobe Photoshop-compatible plug-in filters. To add a new filter you simply drag its plug-in file to the VideoShop Plug-Ins folder. You apply a filter to a video using the Apply Filter dialog box. After you select the video for filtering in Time View, the Apply Filter dialog shows you a scrollable list of available filters on the left and a video-preview area on the right, with the standard QuickTime movie controller. A duration bar under the preview area lets you increase or decrease the length of the video sequence to be filtered; this method is much more efficient than programs that make you leave the filter dialog box to change the filter’s duration.

After you choose a filter and adjust the duration, clicking on the Build Effect button creates the preview and plays it in the preview area. If you don’t like the result, you can immediately build another effect. When you find the right effect, clicking on OK applies the filtered video to your clip. Filtered video is shown in the Sequencer window’s Time View with a blue bar above the clip. To remove the filter, you select the blue bar and choose Clear from the Edit menu. If you’ve applied multiple filters to a clip, only the last filter effect will be deleted. You apply transitions similarly. You can preview different transition types before applying them, and you delete transitions the same way you delete filter effects. This nondestructive editing is a good feature, as it lets you make creative changes without laboriously rebuilding video sequences.

VideoShop 2.0 enables you to add motion along a path. In the Canvas window, you can resize a video clip, inset it within another clip, and use the Path Editor to move it around the screen along a user-defined path and to resize the clip as it is moving along the path. You can also save paths for later use.

To access VideoShop’s new Titling tool, which lets you insert antialiased titles, you add a Text track in the Sequencer window. You can use any font for titles, although PostScript and TrueType fonts w'ork best. You have control over title style and color; and titles can automatically scroll in, out, or through the video frame, as well as in several directions. Adding titles is easy, and you receive instant feedback on your titling decisions in the Canvas window. You can have multiple text tracks, each in its own language; you select which language track you want to use when you play die completed movie.

VideoShop has some limitations, a few annoyances, and some problems worth noting. VideoShop isn’t an appropriate editor for QuickTime users whose primary output medium is videotape. VideoShop doesn’t use SMPTE time code, and it doesn’t create edit decision lists (EDLs), so you can’t use VideoShop as an effective offline editor. It also lacks Premiere’s videotape device control extensions. The Desktop window doesn’t show the length of an audio clip, and VideoShop can’t play a regular System 7 Sound file unless you drag the sound into the Sequencer window. You control audio levels by adjusting points in the area below each audio clip, called rubber bands, in the Sequencer. This method is awkward and imprecise when you are working with several audio tracks at one time. Although title control is good, it would be nice to be able to control the kerning between letters in a title.

The program’s Read Me file gives a long list of problems in several areas of the program. Most of the problems are cosmetic bugs — for example, in some instances the screen doesn’t redraw properly after an operation — but a few are serious. It’s to the company’s credit that it lists these bugs, with workarounds in most cases, but I can’t help wondering if the program was released a bit too early.

VideoShop 2.0’s manual is a vast improvement over the previous version, which often seemed as though it were written to confuse rather than inform. The new manual comes with a listing of shortcuts and a quick-reference card, as well as a separate booklet detailing the filter and effect transitions.

Hard-core desktop video mavens who find that VideoShop falls short on the features they need, such as the ability to handle time code and create EDLs, should check out Adobe Premiere. But VideoShop shines in its intuitive, easy-to-use interface. For multimedia producers who use QuickTime as only one part of their presentations, Avid VideoShop 2.0 is a worthy — and less expensive — alternative to Adobe Premiere.

Negrino, Tom. (February 1994). Avid VideoShop 2.0. Macworld. (pgs. 75, 77).

Download Avid VideoShop 2.0.3 for Mac

Architecture

68K + PPC (FAT)

Compatibility notes

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Basilisk II