Pinnacle Studio is a paid video editor for Windows that combines footage, photographs, titles and sound into movies. It also captures screen and webcam material, assembles multiple camera angles, exports media files and prepares projects for DVD menus.
| Project capacity | Standard | Ultimate and Ultimate Bundle |
|---|---|---|
| Video and audio tracks | Six | Unlimited |
| Multi-camera sources | Two | Six |
| Video output | HD | HD and 4K |
| DVD-menu templates | 20 | 100 |
Ultimate Bundle includes the Ultimate editor plus a separate PaintShop Pro photo editor, photo-editing scripts, video overlays and motion graphics. These additions extend the supplied applications and creative material; the editor's listed project capacities remain the same as Ultimate.
Timeline arrangement and trimming
The Library catalogs video, photos, audio and creative assets for use in projects. Dragging an asset onto a timeline track creates a clip. Upper tracks cover opaque areas of lower tracks, while track controls lock editing or disable monitoring.
Pinnacle Studio's storyboard shows the clips on one chosen track as a sequence of icons. Rearranging them changes the timeline too. Supported inputs include AVI, MOV and AVCHD video, MP3 or WAV audio, and JPG, PNG or PSD images.
Trimming adjusts clip boundaries or gaps, with previews showing the frames beside a cut. Insert mode shifts later material on that track; overwrite mode can replace neighboring material. Opening a trim point on each track preserves relative timing during multitrack trimming.
Slip trimming changes which source frames appear while keeping the clip's timeline position and duration. Slide trimming moves the enclosed clip or clips and adjusts adjacent material. Extending a clip beyond its source footage freezes its first or last frame.
Titles and animated properties
A title starts with a transparent background on a track above the footage. Text controls set its font, alignment and fill, with optional outlines or shadows. Positioning controls or dragging in the preview determine where the overlay appears.
Title motion can act on complete lines, individual words or letters, including their rotation and opacity. Keyframes also assign clip properties such as position, size or opacity to chosen moments, producing changes over the duration of the clip.
Groups of keyframes can be copied between clips or parameters to reuse timing and values. Moving points changes when adjustments occur. Turning keyframing off removes that control's points, so it does not preserve the animation for later reactivation.
Color correction and compositing
Standard provides white-balance adjustments, correction for underexposed footage and Selective Color to isolate a hue. LUT presets apply a color transformation to a scene. Corrections change the project's appearance while leaving the original media files unchanged.
Ultimate expands color grading and adds masks for targeting effects or combining areas of clips. Smart Object Tracking follows the recognized masked object through a selected sequence. Blend modes combine a clip's color and brightness with the footage beneath it.
Soundtrack editing
Video sound can be muted, faded or detached for separate editing. Pinnacle Studio also records microphone narration and supplies music and sound effects. These sources join the timeline soundtrack alongside the audio already present in the footage.
Track volume changes the output of an entire track; clip volume changes the selected clip at the playhead. Volume keyframes vary that level over time. The master indicator shows the combined output, helping the editor assess the resulting mix.
Screen and webcam recording
Included MultiCam Capture Lite records computer actions and mouse movement within a chosen capture area. It can capture system sound, microphone audio and webcam footage. The recordings are then imported into Pinnacle Studio for timeline or multi-camera editing.
Multi-camera editing
The Multi-Camera Editor builds a single sequence from synchronized recordings of the same event. Standard handles two camera sources; Ultimate handles six. Its assembly process separates source assignment, sound selection and recorded camera switches:
- Assign the imported clips to camera sources and synchronize their timelines. Automatic audio-based synchronization is available when all the clips contain audio.
- Choose the original camera audio or a separate audio track to accompany the compilation.
- Play the synchronized sources and click the desired camera in the multi-view pane. The editor records those switches in the compilation, which can be reviewed and refined before returning to the main timeline.
Further edits made outside the Multi-Camera Editor may be reverted if the project is reopened there. Camera selection and refinement therefore precede the main editor's subsequent finishing work and output of the compilation.
Movie and audio-file export
Export renders the edited composition into a media file. Output choices include AVI, MOV, WMV, MPEG and H.264 video. Presets supply encoding settings, while Custom and Advanced controls expose further adjustments. Compression settings balance file size and image quality.
The soundtrack can also be exported separately as WAV, MP3 or MP2 audio. An individual frame can become a still image, while image-sequence output produces a series of pictures from a selected portion of the project.
DVD menus and chapters
Pinnacle Studio uses the author toolbar to add chapter positions to a movie before transferring it to MyDVD. Export to MyDVD renders the project and opens it in that companion application. Templates provide the disc project's menus and music.
DVD and AVCHD disc output are available, with Standard providing 20 menu templates and Ultimate providing 100. Blu-ray authoring requires a separately purchased plug-in in either edition, so that output remains an additional purchase alongside the editor.
