Hi all,

 

I'm looking for a way to generate an on-scren countdown timer in AVID.

 

There's a point in a talk I'm cutting where a slide pauses so people can read it, and I want to put up a countdown timer on screen so people know 1) the video hasn't frozen and 2) how long until the talk resumes.

 

Is there a favoured plugin that will allow me to configure this? I don't want to have to round trip through After Effects or any other program - I'm really looking for a way to do this within AVID.

 

The only google results are pulling up threads from 2010 full of dead links.

 

Thanks,

Matt

 

P.S: Running AVID 8.5, perpetual license.

I just tried this free countdown clock AVX plugin on MC 2020.4, and it worked.

http://www.hlinke.de/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=en:clockdisplay_avx2

Thanks very much! Do you know of something similar that has more visual customisation options?

Sorry, that's the only one I know of.

Thanks for your help regardless!

 

It seems stupid that the only way to do something as simple as adding a clock in AVID is to download a beta version of an unsupported plugin from 2011. AVID should really add a robust clock feature to future versions of MC.

How long do you need the countdown to be?

Could an animated progress bar do the job? That can be created with a Paint Effect in a minute and easily reused.

 

If numbers are needed - and a solid background is ok - one way could be to create a sequence long enough with random content. Then add the effect Generator --> Timecode Burn-In to filler. Set it to Timecode; Current track; Remaining. Ajust text size and background color. Then mix down the timeline.

Add mixdown to the slides with a 3D warp cropping everything but the needed numbers.

 

If the countdown is relatively short (30 seconds) a SubCap effect could be a solution too. Add it to filler in the needed length. Type +1:00 on the num pad to forward one second. Add edit. Push enter (num) to forward another second. Add edit and so forth.

In the effect editor click "Edit master caption list" and fill in the numbers.

 

You could do this with the Title Tool pretty easily. Just make a title for each second and then place them on the timeline at one second intervals. You'll have complete control over the look, size, etc. 

But, making something in AE would be my preferred method because you could create it once with an alpha channel and then import it and place it wherever you need it to appear. 

Timecode generator with 'remaining' could work. You'd have to mixdown though as it only counts remaining time for the seuqence. 

I made this quick video to demo how I'd do it using titles. https://vimeo.com/420084207

First, I created a title for each "second" of time that I wanted to represent. 

Then, I marked in/outs on each for 1 sec exactly. 

Then, I dropped them into my sequence. I made the titles big so I could easily scale/position if I needed to put it in the lower corners, upper corners, etc. 

If I were doing it for real, I'd probably change the font color when it got to 3 secs remaining and stylize the text a bit more or something, but let your imagination run wild. 

I'd also probably just rip this out in After Effects though and save it with alpha and import it.

I made a similar counter for the football show that I worked on last season. https://www.patriots.com/video/patriots-this-week-titans-preview Go to about 9:15 into the show to see the segment with the clock. 

 

 

Kenton.VanNatten:

First, I created a title for each "second" of time that I wanted to represent. 

Then, I marked in/outs on each for 1 sec exactly. 

Then, I dropped them into my sequence. I made the titles big so I could easily scale/position if I needed to put it in the lower corners, upper corners, etc. 

This is how I'd do it, too.

Kenton.VanNatten:

I'd also probably just rip this out in After Effects though and save it with alpha and import it.

Because I'm way more lazy than you (and much less skilled at After Effects), after I got the first one how I liked it, I'd subsequence just the title track and save it to a bin. Then the next time I needed the title, I'd drag the subsequence into the source monitor.

 

 

Don't be too hard on Avid.  I just a quick searh on Premiere and Resolve count down timers, and it looks like you would have to build them yourself there as well.

FWIW, spending 5 mins to build one ahead of time, save it, and bring it back in as a media item...there is nothing wrong with that approach.  That is what I did for my various formats of countdowns for the head of broadcast shows for different regions.

Small pain for a life of gain.

Glenn Sakatch:

Don't be too hard on Avid.  I just a quick searh on Premiere and Resolve count down timers, and it looks like you would have to build them yourself there as well.

One of the things I've noticed being on this forum for so long is everyone thinks the thing they do on a regular basis is something everyone else does, too.

The number of times I've seen someone post something like "I can't believe there's no animated alligator wipe* in Avid! It's ridiculous! I have to animate an alligator munching its way across the screen* all the time! This should be built in!"

 

*Feel free to substitute your own incredibly specific requirement here.

camoscato:

One of the things I've noticed being on this forum for so long is everyone thinks the thing they do on a regular basis is something everyone else does, too.

The number of times I've seen someone post something like "I can't believe there's no animated alligator wipe* in Avid! It's ridiculous! I have to animate an alligator munching its way across the screen* all the time! This should be built in!"

 

*Feel free to substitute your own incredibly specific requirement here.

Precisely Carl. I was just about to reply something similar after going back to re-read this thread. 

 

Thinking specifically of -

OWSucks:

AVID should really add a robust clock feature to future versions of MC.

The secret to being an editor is knowing how to solve problems. In my 20+ year career 9/10 times I've found that the solution is NOT a preset, but rather something that I've made custom for the project. Making a countdown clock using either the built-in Avid Titler tools gives you loads of customization abilities, but if that isn't enough, it's a good opportunity to dip your toe into using After Effects or some other compositiing & graphics program. 

 

As Tom Stoppard once said, 

"Digital's days are numbered."

Reading the OP's original ask, I thought about using a PiP of an egg-timer, along with Fit to Fill.

No typing, just back-timing...

https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/item/77140058-egg-timer-running-down-closeup-timelapse

Kenton.VanNatten:

In my 20+ year career 9/10 times I've found that the solution is NOT a preset, but rather something that I've made custom for the project.

And the beauty of that is, it's YOURS!  I've always found it better to create your own effect rather than download what everyone else is using.  By the time that you've worked out how to use effectively what you've downloaded you could usually have made your own anyway.

Couldn't agree more, Kenton.