Have my daughter singing on V1. I have the professional singer in a music video on V2. if i want to "cut" between the two, do i physically cut with the blade and reassemble on V1 or is there a way to "pop" back and forth between V1 and V2? Since they are in sync, it would be easier to find a why to tell the timeline when to choose V1 and when to choose V2.
If you want the audio from one video or the other to remain intact, unlink the audio clips from their respective video clips before you start cutting. Next, double-click the video on V2 to load it into the Viewer window. Click on the Motion tab then use the Scale and Center controls to resize the V2 video and position it in one corner (picture-in-picture effect). You can also achieve this by using the Image+Wireframe mode in the Canvas and scale/center manually. This will be only temporary; either method will allow you to see the video on both tracks during playback which will enable you to more accurately choose which track you want to keep at any given time.
While playing or scrubbing through the Timeline, cut and delete (lift delete) the clip on V2 when you want the clip on V1 to be seen. Once you're done with the cutting, select all clips remaining on V2, right-click on one and choose "Remove Attributes" from the pop-up menu. Click the Basic Motion selection. All clips on V2 should now go back to full sized and centered.
If you want to easily add transitions, while all the clips on V2 are selected, hold down the Shift key and drag them to track V1.
Or you can purchase FCP and use the Multi-clip function.
Thanks. However, i would want the respective audio to play with the given video. Would your answer still hold true if i wanted the audio to go 'with' the video? or is there an easier method?
If you want the audio to swap with the edit, then simply leave the video clips linked with their respective audio so when you cut and delete, the audio is also deleted.
I wouldn't do any cutting, just use opacity/transparency level on video and volume on audio.
When you want to see your daughter, lower the opacity of v2. (That is essentially telling FCE to "choose v1"). When you want to hear your daughter, turn a2 volume up and a1 volume down.
To see the opacity and volume levels, click on the little icon in the bottom left-hand corner that looks like a little mountain beside a valley. You will then need to use the pen tool (looks like fountain pen nib) on the far right to enter points that you can adjust to push volume and opacity up or down.
I did this recently when I made a music video. It was much easier to keep everything in sync this way, rather than cutting little clips into one video track.
