Finding effects fast in the Video by Zaweba Effects tab
The Effects tab in Video by Zaweba lists every effect, transition, graphic and blend mode, with search, speed badges and a Surprise me button.
About 120 video effects ship in the current build of Video by Zaweba, plus 87 transitions, graphics and blend modes. Scrolling through all of that would be tiring, so they are gathered in one place, the Effects tab, with a search box and badges that tell you what each item is like before you use it.
What the tab lists
Everything you can apply to the picture lives here: effects, transitions, graphics and blend modes. The effects cover families such as colour, blur and sharpen, stylise, distort, keying, generate, time and 360 degree. Type a word in the search box and the list narrows to matching items, so typing blur finds the blurs and typing glow finds glow, edge glow and the 360 degree glow.
Reading the badges
Each entry can carry badges that describe it. A fast badge means the effect is light work for the computer and should play smoothly. A heavy badge warns that it takes more processing, so previews may slow down on a long clip or a modest laptop. The other badges, time, frame, 360 degree and sound, tell you what kind of item you are looking at, so effects that play with time, items meant for 360 video and anything that touches the sound stand out in a long list.
These are worth a glance before you commit. If you are cutting on a laptop, try heavy effects near the end of the job, after the edit is settled.
Three places an effect can go
Effects can be applied to a clip, to a whole track or to a source file wherever it is used. A clip effect is the usual choice and changes just that piece of the timeline. A track effect, set in the track Inspector, changes everything on that track for the whole project, which suits a logo track that should always have a shadow. A source effect, set in the clip Inspector under Source effects, follows the file into every place it appears, which is ideal when a camera clip has a fault you want fixed everywhere it is used.
Surprise me
The Surprise me button applies a random effect setting. It is a playful way to explore, and a good way to discover effects you would never have searched for. It can be surprisingly useful when you are stuck for an idea on a music video or a title sequence. If you don't like what it picks, undo and press it again.
Getting the most from effects
Stack with care. Effects run in order, and the order matters. A blur followed by a glow looks different from a glow followed by a blur. If an effect isn't doing what you expected, try moving it up or down the clip's list.
Effect settings can be keyframed like any other slider with a stopwatch, so a blur can grow, a colour can shift or a distortion can build over a few seconds. Effects can also be limited to part of the frame with a mask using the Only inside mask option, and good settings can be saved as presets in .ozfx files for later.
For changes that should cover a whole section across many clips, put the effects on an adjustment layer from Graphics instead of on each clip.
Things that catch people out
Too many effects on one clip is the main one. Each adds processing time and the picture soon looks overworked. If two effects nearly cancel each other out, remove both.
Forgetting where an effect lives is another. If a clip has a look you can't find on the clip itself, check the track Inspector and Source effects, and check for an adjustment layer above it.
And remember heavy badges at export time. A long project full of heavy effects takes longer to render, which is normal, not a fault.
The Effects tab is the front door to most of the creative tools in Video by Zaweba. A few minutes spent browsing it pays back many times over.
