What all do you have to do?

Ok, so now you need to get your video footage into a format that you can edit. There are lots of choices that you can make in this process. Usually the choice is between getting something done faster and easier, or potentially having your final video look nicer. If you follow the easiest paths, this will be a cinch, and your video probably won't even look bad (though it could potentially look much better). It is really worth learning how to do all of the material contained here though. Once you learn everything and know how to do it, its possible to go through the entire process in a matter of minutes (not including time spent waiting on the computer to process things).

Here is the entire procedure that we will follow:

1) What source will you take your footage from?

If you are obtaining footage by a means other than DVD, follow the instructions in step 1 to figure out which step to go to next. Otherwise, continue to step 2.

2) Rip the DVD(s)

3) Make DGIndex project file(s) and AviSynth scripts

4) Work out the properties of your footage so you know what to do with it later.

5) Remove interlacing with IVTC or Deinterlacing and prepare the footage for progressive editing

6) (optional) crop and resize sources to work with one aspect ratio.

7) (optional) Clean up the footage before editing.

8) Decide how you are going to use the footage (as clips, directly through avs, or using proxys)

9) (optional) a) Create high quality clips as source footage or b) low quality files for quick editing.

10) Set up your video editor using the correct project settings.

11) Edit your video - there's no guide on this, you have work out how to do it yourself. Read the manual of your editing program :)

12) (if you did part 9b) Swap your low quality editing files for your original avisynth files.

13) Export a lossless master copy of your video and audio.

14) Post-processing and encoding.

AbsoluteDestiny and Zarxrax - March 2008