Transferring effects, keyframes from one track to another

[William Tranter]

I have just 'designed' an effect which has lots of keyframes involved to keep a cropped clip in the required position. However, the clip isn't the FINAL clip, just one I had lying around.
Is it possible to transfer the keyframes and any effects to the intended clip (which hasn't yet been filmed, sorry recorded!)?
I use PE1 for my editing on my main computer, though I do have PE2 on my laptop.
Many thanks for any advice,
Bill

[Maxine370]

I do that all the time. It is simply done in v2 and I think it was the same in v1.

Copy the track (control c or right clip copy) you have keyframed. Lay in the new track. You can either lay it on another track and move it later or clear out the track which you have copied. Right click and you will see paste attributes. This will paste the attributes (effects) to the new clip. It applies the entire length of keyframing even if you haven't extended the clip as long as the original yet so you can paste in a small portion and drag it to the correct legnth later.

Unfortunately this is not something you can do with transitions yet in v2, not sure in v3.

[William Tranter]

Many thanks, Beth! I've never used this feature before.
All the best,
Bill

[William Tranter]

Beth, I did exactly what the 'Help' page said regarding 'Paste Attributes', but the feature resolutely remained greyed out.
However, if I selected the clip first, then selected the feature I wanted to copy over (in this case Crop keyframes), then Edit/Copy.
THen I selected the clip I wanted to apply the keyframes to, then Edit/Paste, and the keyframes were transferred successfully.
So it worked, even if the 'Paste Attributes' didn't become active, for want of a better term.
Anyway, thank you very much again,
Bill

[Chuck Engels]

Hi Bill,
I have never had any problems with this feature so I suggest you try it again.

Select the clip on the timeline that contains the effects you want applied to other clips, then I always use the menu options Edit/Copy. You need to make sure to deselect the clip after adding all of your effects, then select it again before doing the copy.

Then select the other clip or clips you want to paste the effects to, and from the menu Edit/Paste Attributes.

It works every time

[William Tranter]

Many thanks, everyone.
All the best,
Bill

[Chuck Engels]

Let us know if you get it working Bill, this is a very important feature and I would hate to see you without it.

[William Tranter]

Well, CHuck, here's what I've done.
1) Highlighted clip which has the features I want transferred to new clip - in this case (a test piece about 10 seconds long) I varied the Opacity five times, thus dimming down to zero twice and back up to 100% three times.
This was my test piece.

2) Then I produced another clip (but longer).

3) Then I went back to the first clip which had been rendered, highlighted that and moved cursor over to the Effects (Advanced), where I found Opacity, of course, complete with keyframes. No problem so far!

4) Right-clicked on the Opacity heading, which brought up a drop-down menu, and clicked on 'Copy'.

5) Highlighted the second clip on the Timeline, then went up to 'Edit', down the drop-down menu to Paste Attributes, but it resolutely remains greyed out. HOWEVER, the Paste button (?) is highlighted, so I clicked on that and the effects were copied into the required clip, with no problems whatsoever.

What I don't understand is why my 'Paste Attributes' button remains greyed out. Everything works OK, but this button doesn't come up.

I should mention that I'm using PE1. I have PE2 on my laptop (a Sony Vaio SZ1XP) which has PE2 installed on it by Sony, together with Photoshop Elements 4. I tried the same test upon this machine, and again, 'Paste Attributes' did not become highlighted. However, the effects were transferred just using 'Paste' in the drop-down menu from Edit.

Weird or not? Perhaps I have to highlight more than one attribute, though I tried this as well on both machines and still the Paste Attributes did not highlight - damn! If, however, the button doesn't work but I can still transfer the attributes via 'Paste', does it matter?

Interestingly, I can't transfer TWO lots of attributes at once - only one at a time. If I do this, I'm OK. I just can't transfer two attributes at the same time. I've tried Clicking (in this test piece) the word 'Opacity', then 'Posterize' with the Shift button held down, but the Copy didn't pick up both effects. Tried the same thing but with Control held down at the same time, but again I only got one effect. Could this have something to do with what I'm doing - probably something wrong! Usually is!

Thanks for all your help, and all the help from the rest of the Forum members.

All the best,
Bill

[Chuck Engels]

Bill, Don't use 'Copy' from Opacity, use the main menu; choose Edit, then Copy. After that the Edit/Paste Attributes will not be greyed out and you will be able to paste dozens of attributes at a time.

Please try this following the directions in my previous post exactly

[William Tranter]

Sorry, Chuck, I should have explained the problem a bit better!

I did as you described after transferring the attributes as I described above, and the second time I used Edit/Copy and Edit/Paste exactly as you described.

Although I transferred both effects successfully, and in one step, I still did not get 'Paste Attributes' highlighted! The result was the same, no 'Paste Attributes'.

The only difference achieved was that I copied and pasted two lots of keyframes (one set of keyframes from 'Opacity' and the other set of keyframes from 'Spherize' (I used a different filter effect for the second attempt) in one movement (Edit/COpy and Edit/Paste) rather than transferring the attributes of each filter effect separately.

Perversely, I don't suppose it matters very much - I'm still able to move my keyframes between different clips, which was, after all, the object of the exercise.

I have created an intro. which has lots of keyframes to Crop a clip which I haven't actually filmed yet - at the moment I'm using some stock footage as the video track - but when I get the proper footage, then the keyframes will be transferred. Because the intro. is rather complicated, it has taken me quite some time to develop it fully, and to re-set out all the keyframes necessary to achieve the zoom I want would make making the intro. and movie title much too long to achieve in between holidays.

This retirement lark is OK, but I find all the holidays don't leave me enough time to edit my movies, so most of them are left until November/December when we aren't away in our caravan.

I know, it's a tough life, but someone's got to do it!

Many thanks,
Bill

[Chuck Engels]

It is still weird that the Paste Attributes is not active. Glad you have a way to handle it though