Working With Containers
Another important new feature with the Fast Studio XL software is the concept of containers. This is a convenient way to take complex sections of the timeline and compress them into one easily manageable track. There’s that “simplify” theme again. For example, if you’re editing a weekly series with an elaborate opening sequence, and each week you have a different guest, it’s a simple matter to change that guest deep within your composite without changing any of the other elements. Also, (if you haven’t changed anything) you can move that container around within the time line without needing to re-render the complex sequence.

To do this, define an area on your timeline with a mark in and mark out. Make sure you have the tracks active that you’d like to include in the container.  Select Build Container and then the software combines the selected tracks into one.

Now that you’ve built your container, you’ll notice it’s a slightly different color than the others on the timeline. Now step into the container by right clicking on it and select Step Into Container, and the timeline shows the contents of the container. To get out of the container and back into the main timeline, click on the tab on the left of the timeline that’s labeled Main Sequence – Layer. Again, keep in mind that if you change anything inside that container you’ll have to re-render. Another strength of the container concept is that if you’d like to apply an effect like sepia tone to a composite, you’re able to add that effect to all the clips within a container.

Next: Effects Editor/Easier Interface