INSERT/OVERWRITE EDITING

Liquid can work in either insert or overwrite modes. If inserting footage you set an in and out point on the footage and an in point on the timeline. After pressing the insert button the footage is placed on the timeline and all the other footage is moved to accommodate it. You can also lock tracks so that all tracks are effected or just the selected tracks. Overwrite will overwrite existing material. Premiere can work in the same mode but it does not encourage you to do so, where as Liquid does. If you are used to Premiere this may take a little bit of getting used to; AVID users will be intimately familiar with it.

GROUPING CLIPS

Clips can be inserted grouped or ungrouped. If a clip is grouped the video and audio occupy one track. You cannot see the audio as a waveform but you can manipulate both sound and picture. This saves screen space. Clips can be ‘disbanded’ so that you can see the audio as a separate file and then you can choose to view the waveform - the visual representation of the peaks and troughs of the sound.

The size of individual tracks can be changed by simply dragging the top or bottom of the track, giving much more flexibility that with and Adobe Premiere timeline. The tracks can be repositioned by dragging and dropping as well.
 

CONTAINERS

A container is a timeline within another timeline. You can create containers either by marking out an area of the timeline and pressing a button, or by dragging an existing timeline into a new one. You can choose to ‘step into’ the container which opens up into a new timeline. The container can be manipulated just like any other clip - you can add effects, picture in picture etc. and these will be applied to all the clips in the container. Containers can be incredibly useful tools for keeping your main edit tidy.

 
 
TRANSITIONS

Transitions can be placed between two adjacent clips on the same timeline, and can be added to clips on any time line, not just the A & B tracks as with Adobe Premiere. This means that any transition available can be used, for example, on title.
 

SLOW MOTION/TIMEWARP EFFECT

Slow motion can be added to clips on the timeline. These can be either set to certain speeds to set to fill the space provided. There are various ways of rendering the slow motion, as shown here.