Reports of the demise of this Web site are greatly exaggerated! We at sheldonbrown.com thank Harris Cyclery for its support over the years. Harris Cyclery has closed, but we keep going. Keep visiting the site for new and updated articles, and news about possible new affilations.


Five Ways to Produce a Picture in Picture
in Pinnacle Studio Ultimate
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by John Allen
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Five Ways to Produce a Picture in Picture!

This page is a companion to my page reviewing Pinnacle Studio Ultimate and its predecessor, Avid Studio Ultimate video editing software. I examined Pinnacle Studio 16 Ultimate, but the new version 17 appears not to have changed the effects available in the Effects Editor.

These applications have five different modules which produce picture-in-picture effects, all under the 2D-3D heading in the Effects Editor. The five modules have many features in common, but also important differences. Some are easier to use, and others provide a wealth of options. It is important to know about all of these modules in order not to be caught up with one of them which lacks a desired feature. Another may have it. Be careful in choosing which module you will use. There is no way to convert among these modules.

There is an additional Multi-Shape PIP module, which can produce a polygonal or star-shaped PiP, but it is different enough that I'm not covering it here.

(Message to marketeers: "Ultimate" means the last, greatest, most spectacular, ever, but a new, even more Ultimate version of Pinnacle Studio comes out about once a year...)

A lower-cost version, Pinnacle Studio Plus appears to have the same picture in picture effects, while the entry-level plain Pinnacle Studio lacks the ability to use keyframes to change an effect over time.

Avid Studio (no longer sold) is very similar to Pinnacle Studio 16. Pinnacle Studio 15 and earlier are a very different product.

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The Five Modules

The table below lists the parameters of each of each of the five modules. Some parameters have different ranges and work in opposite directions in different modules. I suspect that this results from the need to achieve compatibility when converting data from different legacy applications.

Some general comments about each of the modules:

Some parameters of these modules are available as other independent modules; for example, Pan and Zoom and Rotate, both available under the Camera heading in the Effects Editor.

Pinnacle Studio allows cascading of effects, but generally it is best to use only a single module to perform as many functions as possible, especially when changing the shape, rotation or size of an image -- requiring resampling the image, and with each resampling, there is a loss of image quality. To what extent Pinnacle Studio minimizes the number of resamplings, I don't know. Determining this would require either detailed research, or a knowledge of the inner workings of the software.

So that comparable parameters are seen side by side in the table below, they are not always listed in the same order as in the Effects Editor, Also, parameters may not occur at the same outline level in different modules.

The pairs of numbers in parentheses in the table give the maximum and minimum values of parameters. For linear changes, most are percentages, and for rotations, most are degrees. When there is a row of three numbers, the middle one indicates a default value.

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2D Editor Advanced 2D Editor CPU 3D Editor CPU 3D Editor GPU Studio PiP

Position (±200)

  • Horizontal
  • Vertical

Position (±400)

  • Position X
  • Position Y

Position

  • Position X (±400)
  • Position Y (±200)
  • Position Z (Zoom, ±400 but image disappears at -99 which is greatly enlarged)

Position

  • Horizontal (±200)
  • Vertical (±200)
  • Z Position (Zoom, (±1000) Image disappears at -500 (half-size) in Avid Studio.

Position (±100)

  • Horizontal
  • Vertical

Size (linkable) (0 200)

  • Horizontal
  • Vertical

Size (linkable, 0 400)

  • Width
  • Height

Size (linkable, 0 400)

  • Width
  • Height

Size (linkable, 0 200)

  • Horizontal
  • Vertical

Size (not linkable, 0 200)

  • Width
  • Height
   

Shear (±360)

  • Shear X (skew)
  • Shear Y (tilt)
  • Shear Zx (mirror-like)
  • Shear Zy (flip-like)


 

Rotation (±720)

Rotation (±360)

  • Flip Horizontal
  • Flip Vertical

Mirror

  • Flip Horizontal
  • Flip Vertical

Rotation (±720)

  • X (flip)
  • Y (mirror)
  • Z (spin)
 

Rotation

  • Rotation X (±360, flip)
  • Rotation Y(±360, mirror)
  • Rotation Z (±360, spin)
  • Pivot X (±400, changes axis)
  • Pivot Y (±400, changes axis)
  • Pivot Z (±400, moves axis ahead of and behind image plane
  • Backside image
    • Flip Horizontal
    • Flip Vertical
    • solid Color

Camera (perspective effects, like swings and tilts of a view camera, complicated interactions!)

  • Rotation X (-360 360, look right/left)
  • Rotation Y (-360 360, look up/down)
  • Rotation Z (-360 360, spin)
  • Pivot X (±400, moves vertical axis right-left)
  • Pivot Y (±400, moves horizontal axis up/down)
  • Pivot Z (±400, Moves axis of rotation ahead of or behind image plane
  • Position X (±400 right-left)
  • Position Y (±400, up is negative)
  • Position Z (Zoom, -400 100 400 but image disappears at 0, which is greatly enlarged)
  • Field of view (1 50.4 135 -- like 35mm camera lens focal lengths -- zoom)

Border

  • Width (0 100)
  • Color (any)
  • Softness (0 100)

Inner Border

  • Width (0 100)
  • Height (0 100)
  • Softness (0 100)
  • Transparency (0 100)
  • Color (any)
  • Blend Type
    • None
    • Gradient
    • Inside-Out

Inner Border

  • Width (0 100)
  • Height (0 100)
  • Softness (0 100)
  • Transparency (0 100)
  • Color (any)
  • Blend
    • None
    • Inside-Out
    • Gradient

Border

  • Width (0 100)
  • Color (any)
  • Softness (0 100)

Border

  • Width (0 100)
  • Height (0 100)
  • Color (any)
  • Softness (0 100)
  • Transparency (0 100)

Outer Border

  • Width (0 100)
  • Height (0 100)
  • Round Style
  • Softness (0 100)
  • Transparency (0 100)
  • Color (any)
  • Blend Type
    • None
    • Gradient
    • Inside-Out
  • Color Gradient (to any)
  • Direction (±180)

Outer Border

  • Width (0 100)
  • Height (0 100)
  • Round Style
  • Softness (0 100)
  • Transparency (0 100)
  • Color (any)
Blend
  • None
  • Inside-Out
  • Gradient

Transparency

  • Transparency (0 100)
  • Edge softness (0 100)

Transparency

  • Transparency (0 100)
  • Edge softness (0 100)

Transparency

  • Transparency (0 100)
  • Edge softness (0 100)

Transparency

  • Transparency (0 100)
  • Edge softness (0 100)

Video

  • Transparency (0 100)

Shadow

  • Offset (0 100)
  • Direction (0 360)
  • Transparency (0 100)

Shadow

  • X Offset (±50)
  • Y Offset (±50)
  • Softness (0 100)
  • Transparency (0 100)

Shadow

  • X Offset (±50)
  • Y Offset (±50)
  • Softness (0 100)
  • Transparency (0 100)
  • Color (any)

Shadow

  • Offset (0 100)
  • Direction (0 360)
  • Softness (0 100))
  • Transparency (0 100)

Shadow

  • Horizontal Offset (±50)
  • Vertical Offset (±50)
  • Color (any)
  • Transparency (0 100)
  • Softness (0 100)

Cropping (0 100)

  • Left %
  • Top %
  • Right %
  • Bottom %

Cropping (0 100)

  • Top
  • Bottom
  • Left
  • Right

Cropping (0 100)

  • Top
  • Bottom
  • Left
  • Right

Cropping (0 100)

  • Left %
  • Top %
  • Right %
  • Bottom %

Cropping (0 100)

  • Top
  • Bottom
  • Left
  • Right
  • Corner Curve

Corner Curve (0 100)

Corner Curve (0 100)

 

Quality

  • Custom quality (on/off)
  • Quality level
    • Preview
    • Best
  • 2D Filter
    • Box
    • Triangle
    • Hermite Cubic
    • Quadratic B-Spline
    • Fast cubic B-Spline
    • Cubic B-spline
    • Cubic Spline
    • 3-lobed Lanczos
    • 4-lobed Lanczos
    • 5-lobed Lanczos
    • 6-lobed Lanczos
    • Gaussian
    • Sinc 8x8
    • Sinc 16x16
    • Sinc 32x32
    • Moms3
  • 2D Precision
    • 1 bit filter
    • 2 bit filter
    • 3 bit filter
    • 4 bit filter
    • 5 bit filter
    • 6 bit filter
  • Lowpass Filter
    • Horizontal (0-100)
    • Vertical (0-100)

Quality

  • Custom quality (on/off)
  • Quality level
    • Preview
    • Best
  • 2D Filter
    • Box
    • Triangle
    • Hermite Cubic
    • Quadratic B-Spline
    • Fast cubic B-Spline
    • Cubic B-spline
    • Cubic Spline
    • 3-lobed Lanczos
    • 4-lobed Lanczos
    • 5-lobed Lanczos
    • 6-lobed Lanczos
    • Gaussian
    • Sinc 8x8
    • Sinc 16x16
    • Sinc 32x32
    • Moms3
  • 2D Precision
    • 1 bit filter
    • 2 bit filter
    • 3 bit filter
    • 4 bit filter
    • 5 bit filter
    • 6 bit filter
  • 3D Filter
    • Anisotropic 0
    • Anisotropic 1
   

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Links:

The Garmin VIRB 360 camera

The Sony AS100V helmet camera

the Mobius M800 action camera/dashcam

The Contour HD1080 helmet camera

The GoPro Helmet Hero HD helmet camera

The GoPro Session action camera

Synchronizing multi-camera shoots

Image stabilization for bicycle video

VirtualDub video processor

Image stabilization plugin for VirtualDub

Deinterlacing in VirtualDub

Saving to MP4 in VirtualDub

Using VirtualDub to improve video from VHS tape

Pinnacle and Avid editing software

Five Ways to Create a Picture in Picture in Pinnacle Studio Ultimate

Pinnacle overwrites voiceovers...

Techmoan Web site -- reviews of action cams

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Articles by Sheldon Brown and Others


Reports of the demise of this Web site are greatly exaggerated! We at sheldonbrown.com thank Harris Cyclery for its support over the years. Harris Cyclery has closed, but we keep going. Keep visiting the site for new and updated articles, and news about possible new affilations.

Copyright © 2012 John S. Allen

Harris Cyclery Home Page

If you would like to make a link or bookmark to this page, the URL is:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/avid-pip.html

Last Updated: by John Allen