In addition to the ability to watch content, review metadata, and add custom metadata, the Preview player allows users to create a clip from a selected range of a source file. This is referred to as Ci's Smart Clipping feature.
In order to do this, a user should click on the scissors icon in the bottom-right corner of the Preview player after starting playback. In order to use this feature in Catalog, Catalog users must have appropriate permissions to create a clip (Collaborator or above).
Figure 1: The scissors icon location
Upon the click, the Smart Clipping modal will open and a pair of handles will appear on the filmstrip. By dragging the handles to left or right (or using the respective icons), a user can set a start and end timestamps of a clip, called mark in and mark out respectively:
Figure 2: Drag the handles to set the clip's start and end timestamps
You can also type a specific mark-in/mark-out time on the upper-right side of the modal (see figure 2). There are additional settings such as:
— Output format (by default is an H264/MP4, but if Custom Render Profiles are turned on for on-demand generation, then those profiles will be options for the output format as well)
— (Optional) Extend the handles on the beginning of the clip (before mark In), at the end of it (markOut), or both:
Figure 3: The clip's settings modal
The Social Media profiles allow you to select aspect ratio and add fade in/out to prepare your clips for Instagram, Tiktok, and more (see figure 3). Once you've selected one of the Social Media render profiles, click the aspect ratio drop-down menu to choose between several landscape & portrait options. Depending on which platform you plan to post your clip, we've specified which aspect ratios fit those platforms (YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.):
Figure 4: Choosing Social Media Aspect Ratio
In order to add fading to your clip, click the Fade in/out drop-down menu. The different options are as follows:
— No Fade
— Fade-in at the head
— Fade-out at the tail
— Fade at both ends
After selecting the fade option, you can determine how many seconds the fade will last by typing the amount in the Fade in/out (secs) text box. The default fade color is black. In order to change the Fade color, select the drop-down menu. We've created several color options to choose from. We've also provided an option to type a hex color code at the bottom of the drop-down menu. Click Preview Clip to playback your clip. Once you are satisfied with these edits, click Next:
Figure 5: Editing Social Media Clip
The resulting page will show the final steps including additional settings such as:
— Name (by default, equals the source file’s name);
— Clip destination (a user can either specify a folder within any Workspace they have access to or keep the clip on the current preview page by selecting “Save clip as an element of this file”):
— (Optional) Whether or not source's custom metadata should be copied to clip:
Figure 6: Final step to create clip
To start the rendering process, a user should click on the “Save Clip” button; If a clip has been saved as a new file, users will be able to check its current status in UI. At first, the clip will be rendered and then processed (preview proxies and thumbnails will be created):
Figure 4: The clip's settings statuses
The default output that the clip is rendered is an H264/MP4 proxy format. However, it is possible to have other options, including same as source for certain formats and other spec outputs based on what a Customer would like to achieve. The Ci Team can help setup those Custom Profiles for rendering out as a transcode or same as source clipping, which actually clips out the content straight from the original source file as it creates either the new asset or an element tied to the source.
For any additional questions, please reach out to the Ci Customer Success Team by submitting a request here in the Help Center.