Had to share this - containers really are an incredibly useful tool, but it takes some a little playing with them to understand them - and I don't think I still fully do!

I have a sequence that has within it three segments with dissolves between each; each segment has four layers to it, each with a couple of filters on them. The problem arose when dissolving between the three segments; weird things were happening visually.  I tried to solve the problem by first taking each segment and fusing it, and dissolve between them.  Didn't work, but I really don't know why.  Then I tried creating each segment as its own sequence, and dropped them in to the the master timeline and dissolve between them.  Didn't work either.  Finally I took the plunge and created containers for each segment, and dissolved between them.  Success!!  Of course I found out that the containers need extra frames to allow for the dissolves - that stumped me for a little while.

Like I said, I don't think I fully understand containers, so if anyone can either share some other tips, or point me to them, I'd love them even more!

Louie 

One question: why can't I hear the audio playback from within the container?  I don't mean scrubbing, I mean just regular audio playback when I'm editing in the container. 

So, when you play the container from the timeline it plays with audio but when you step into the container there is no audio??

Louie -

I too could do with one of the Liquid gurus here offering a list of key rules ('do's and 'don't's) when trying to use containers.

Over last weekend, I had naively hoped that creation of a final project of containers dragged to a new timeline would be straightforward.

But Liquid seems to require some degree of discipline in the construction of the new sequences that are saved as containers. It won't allow any old array of tracks within different containers.

If you happened (as I did) to create (in one sequence) two separate chunks of video (both with multiple layers - picture-in-picture, titles etc), both turned into individual containers... how can they be managed as individual components of the final sequence? I ended up fusing them/re-importing.

David 

 

I'll have a go at explaining.

First, there are 2 ways to create containers. The first is directly on the timeline. In this method, you set the mark-in and mark-out to encompass what you want in the container, and activate (or deactivate) the tracks so that the active tracks are what you want in the container. Then you select the Build Container command.

The second method is just to drag any sequence from the rack into the current timeline. The entire sequence comes in as a container.

I prefer the second method. The first method has the limitation that if you have subtracks or matte tracks, you can't include those in a container. But they work fine when in a sequence within a sequence.

Containers work a virtual clips. By default, they have no leeway. When building containers, if you plan on using transitions between a container and another clip (or container), make sure that the material in the container has sufficient space at either end for the necessary leeway.

Using containers also offers the ability to use an absolute keyframe in an effect. For example, let's say you have a filter on a clip that goes from 0% transparent to 100% transparent. Now you want to shorten the clip so that the frame at the 75% mark is the last frame. When you pull in the handle for the clip, no matter where you pull it the last frame will be 100% transparent. That's because the placement of the keyframes is relative to the length of the clip, and not at a specific timecode.

If you place the clip in a container, and then shorten the container to the 75% frame, it does not cause the keyframes within the clip in the container to be recomputed. So you have what you want, the last frame of the container is at 75% transparency.

If you are planning on using complex effects on a clip (or clips), containers let you manipulate the entire effect as a single clip. In the example given by DGVideo, I'd have used a separate container for each clip with it's effects, and then added the containers into the final master sequence. This is a workflow I use all the time with color corrected material. 

Lew,

Well, never mind I guess!  Now I do hear playback.  I guess a reboot fixed it, maybe?

 

Just a comment - I have had one example of very odd behaviour in a container, which I never resolved. I had a simple dissolve between two clips, 15 frames long, inside the container. When I ran the container from outside, with some other effects applied, I had a single black frame in the middle of the dissolve. There were no overlaps of special effects between inside and outside the container.

Now this was odd - but what was really strange was that if I shortened the dissolve to 14 frames, or lengthened it to 16, the problem disappeared ...