Remove Entire Video Track?

[Elwood]

Hi, I just began using Premiere Elements 10. I put an animation video on one of my tracks and when I tried to remove it, some debris was left behind (tiny bits of the video) that I can't seem to delete. Is is possible for me to delete the entire video track? I've scoured my Muvipix book for an answer to no avail, so if it's possible to delete the track, can you tell me how to proceed?

Thank you,
-Elwood

[Chuck Engels]

You can delete empty tracks but not tracks with video on them, at least as far as I know.
Can you zoom in on the timeline and actually see clips still on the timeline?

You should be able to click on the track, press Ctrl + A and then press the Delete key.
That should get rid of everything on the track. If you Delete All Empty Tracks and that one doesn't go away then you know there is something wrong, could be a corrupt project file.

Is this something that you have too much time in to start over? How large is the project?
It would also be helpful to know your computer specs, Windows/MAC Version, source of the media used in your project and the project preset you started with.

We are always happy to help, sorry to ask for all of that info but most times that reveals some problems.

Welcome to Muvipix Elwood

[Elwood]

I figured out how to do the task I wrote about and thought I'd share. I simply had to Zoom in on the track to make it REALLY BIG so that I could click on the random animation "cells" left behind from an animation I'd deleted it earlier. I was then able to highlight them & delete. I had about five of those miniscule frames to delete and once that was done, I could delete the empty track. In this case, big WAS best!

-E

[Elwood]

Thank you so much, Chuck, for your quick response. I read it after I just posted my note. I hadn't zoomed in far enough to see the tiny clips, but all is well, now. I'm sure I'll be checking in here often as I learn the software & it's great to know you are around to help me out.

Best Wishes,
-E

[Elwood]

I just opened my Adobe Elements Inspiration Browser to get some help on applying Video Effects to one of my clips and, lo and behold, there you were, tutorial creator, Chuck Engles, ready to help me out! A Big Double Thanks!

[Dave McElderry]

Welcome Elwood!

You can also "lasso-select" areas of the timline by clicking and dragging your mouse over them. This selects anything that's in the lassoed area. Then all you do is press the Delete key. That's often helpful in cases like these.

[Elwood]

Thanks, Dave. I tried doing that many times and for some reason it seems that those rascally animation frames were too tiny for my mouse to select them. Odd. I'm an old hand at Photoshop (and Toon Boom Studio & iMovie) and I've never run upon something like this. But I'm sure I'll encounter all kinds of new stumbling blocks as I learn the software. So far, I've had easily as much fun as I've had frustration, so I have no complaints. I'm mixing up photos, my artwork, newly shot footage, old footage and my own animation clips, so I have my hands full.

Again, thanks to you both for you help.
-Elwood

[Dave McElderry]

Sounds like most of my learning experiences Elwood! Enjoy.

[momoffduty]

Welcome to Muvipix Elwood!

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Hi Elwood and welcome to Muvipix. Sounds like an intriguing project with stills, animation clips and all. Maybe you could post a small sample when you are finished?

[Elwood]

Thanks, everyone, you certainly make me feel welcome. I've made only a small handful of movies and animated projects, but I love doing it. I've spent a zillion years making funny pictures as a pro illustrator and, while animation is terribly labor intensive and making motion pictures is takes me way beyond my skill sets, I keep plugging away, trying to puzzle out why the best ones work and why, all too often, my own efforts are not up to snuff.

You can sample some of what I've done with moving pictures here on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/user2208473
And YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/elwoodhsmith (repeats abound)

The 3D animation was done in Maya by my friend, Brian Hoard, based on my stories, soundtracks and characters. I love it when someone else does all the work.

I don't expect to become a master filmmaker, but I do want to learn enough about editing to realize my ideas. I know it'll take a while. I will post my current project when I have something worth showing. As you can see, I'm an unabashed showoff.

Best,
-E

[momoffduty]

Wow! Very nice animations How long does it take to make one, the Greenbelt for example? How many stills? You must have a ton of patience.

[Elwood]

Thank you, Cheryl.

I ended up with a total of 1236 frames for the entire animation, but many of those were repeats of the same image. I just opened the project in Toon Boom Studio (vector animation software, sort of like Flash) and counted some of the images: I drew or pasted and revamped 110 frames of the guy with the umbrella, 25 frames of the caveman. 36 frames of the fish, 15 frames of the fish to caveman morph, plus all the backgrounds, the flying bird and the nasty stuff that swoops in on the man. I did most of the images on 3s. Normally, 2D animation cells repeat every 2 frames per second. I do the line art first and then add color, which is also very time consuming. I'm not, by nature, a patient person, but there's little choice if you want to make animation. Even shows like South Park are labor intensive. Old Disney cartoons? Forget about it!

By the way, is there a place to post movies here or does one have to link to the stuff? I just made a quick screen capture QuickTime movie to give you an idea of the Toon Boom overview of the Greenbelt animation, but need to put it up somewhere.

-Elwood

[Steve Grisetti]

The Gallery (follow the left-side navigation links on this web page) is our free video display area.

There's a 50 meg size limit -- but unlike most uploading sites, we don't re-encode your video. It's posted in whatever format you put up there!

[Elwood]

Thanks, Steve. I just uploaded the Q.T. file in the Gallery:

http://muvipix.com/cpg/albums/userpics/ ... roject.mov

The video grab might not help much to clarify the process used, but I showed what the final animation looks like in Toon Boom Studio. During the screen capture, I scrubbed back and forth now & then in the program to show how the various elements were added, frame by frame to give the illusion of movement. As I wrote on the Gallery page, I assembled this video in iMovie (added all the sound and tweaked it a bit), but I'll be using Premiere Elements 10 on all future projects.