| The Roll tool adjusts both sides of an edit point at the same time. It will adjust the Out point of one clip the same amount it adjusts the In point of the following clip. This allows you to move the edit point earlier or later without changing the overall sequence duration. There are many valuable uses for rolling edit points. For example, if you are cutting a sequence of two people talking, rolling the video edit point of the clips left or right can make the dialogue seem more natural. You can also roll video edit points to change their timing against a narration track. TIP In each example, zoom into that area of the Timeline in order to see the clip names more clearly. 1. | In the Timeline, click the Intro Rolling sequence tab to make it active. Play the two clips, johnny runs and truck on road. The clips' timing against the narration track in this sequence seems to be a little off. The truck on road clip should really start sooner, where the narrator says, "By road." But the length of the sequence is correct. | 2. | Move the playhead to just before the narrator says, "By road." Make sure snapping is on so you can snap to the playhead location. | 3. | In the Tool palette, select the Roll tool, or press R.
The Roll tool shares the same tool area as the Ripple tool. The Roll icon looks like two rollers because it trims or adjusts two sides of an edit point. | 4. | Click the edit point between the johnny runs and truck on road clips.
Both sides of the edit point become highlighted. | 5. | Drag the edit point left until it snaps to the playhead location, and note the following before you release the mouse: | 6. | Release the mouse, and play the edit. The timing between the video and narration is improved, and the length of the sequence remains the same. NOTE You can come back to this sequence later to continue practicing rolling edit points to improve the timing. | 7. | In the Timeline, click the Canoe Club Rolling sequence tab to make it active. Play through the edit point between the tilt down canoe clip and the daryl cu clip. In this sequence, each clip begins with a downward rowing stroke. This was one way to maintain sync with the other video clips and the rowing sound effects. But let's say you want to give the daryl cu clip an extra stroke at the head of the clip without changing the sequence length or upsetting the sync between the clips. | 8. | With the Roll tool selected, drag the edit point between the tilt down canoe and daryl cu clips to the left. In the Canvas, look at the new edit points as you drag, and release the mouse when you see the frames you like. Play through the new edit point.
TIP In this situation, you may want to press N to toggle off snapping so you have greater control as you roll the edit point.
These two clips remain in sync with the rowing action because the amount that was added to the head of the daryl cu clip was taken away from the end of the tilt down canoe clip. | 9. | Click the Amanda Rolling sequence tab in the Timeline, and play the third 98B-man clip. TIP You can always press Cmd-F to find a clip in the Timeline. Make sure the playhead is at the head of the sequence before you begin your search. This clip includes the man speaking, so you don't want to adjust the audio portion of this clip. But this edit might appear smoother if you stay on Amanda's video a little longer and slightly delay going to the man's video. | 10. | Move the playhead to after the man says, "We' ne tsi." To adjust just the video portion of these linked clips, toggle off linked selection by pressing Shift-L or clicking the Linked Selection button in the Timeline (so it is gray).
| 11. | With the Roll tool, drag the edit point to the right to snap to the playhead. Play through the new edit point.
Rolling this video edit point creates a smoother transition between these two video clips but maintains the consistency in the audio. |
NOTE If a clip has no additional frames to use in the adjustment, an end-of-clip filmstrip will appear on one of the Canvas frames, and you won't be able to roll the edit point any farther. Other Rolling Options You can enter the amount of a roll adjustment in the Timeline or use shortcut keys, just like you did with the Ripple tool. You can also use the Extend Edit function, which will extend the selected Out point of one clip and the In point of the adjacent clip to the playhead location. 1. | In the Amanda Rolling sequence, play the next two clips, where Amanda and the man speak together in their native tongue. The edit point between these two clips might be improved if you stay longer on Amanda's video before cutting back to the man. But, as in the previous example, you don't want to change the audio portion of these clips, just the video. | 2. | With the Roll tool, select the video edit point between the 98A-amanda clip and 98B-man clip. | 3. | In the Timeline, type 1.00 to roll this edit point to the right 1 second.
| 4. | Press Return, and play the edit. As with any new edit, the playhead jumps to the edit point after completing the adjustment. NOTE If the clip handle is not long enough to cover the duration you entered, it will roll as many frames as it can in that direction. | 5. | To further finesse this selected edit point, press the left or right bracket keys to roll one frame left or right. To roll the multi-frame trim amount, press Shift-[ (left bracket) or Shift-] (right bracket). TIP Pressing the Shift key with the Roll tool on the pointer will temporarily change the pointer to the Ripple tool. Then you can make a change on both edit points at the same time (Roll tool) or just one edit point (Ripple). | 6. | Play the last 98A-amanda clip in this sequence. To roll the beginning of this clip into the previous clip so that it begins earlier, you can also use the extend function. Again, this will extend the Out point of the outgoing clip and the In point of the incoming clip the same amount in the same direction. This is essentially what the Roll tool does, but you can perform this function with the default Selection tool. | 7. | Press A to return to the default Selection tool. | 8. | Move the playhead toward the end of the previous 98B-man clip, and select the edit point between this and the 98A-amanda clip. This time use the Extend Edit shortcut key, E, to extend the edit point to the playhead location.
Since the playhead was parked where you wanted the new edit point to be, pressing E extends, or rolls, the selected edit point to that location. TIP You can also use the bracket keys and Shift-bracket to extend or roll edit points selected with the default Selection tool. | 9. | Play the new edit, and press Cmd-S to save your work. |
Project Practice To practice rolling edits, continue working in these Rolling sequences. Remember to toggle linked selection off or on depending on whether or not you want to roll both the audio and video of a linked clip at the same time. |