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# Copying Soft Effects between Clips

You can quickly copy soft effects from one clip to another as long as the sources used to create the soft effects are the same sources to which you want to copy the soft effect. This can speed up your work if you need to reapply soft effects to an updated offline or are working with multiple versions of a timeline since you do not need to copy each effect separately.

You can copy soft effects from a source clip in the Source Area to an entire record timeline, thereby copying all soft effects from matching sources. Or, you can limit which soft effects from matching sources you copy by selecting specific timeline elements instead of the entire record timeline.

If you are using EDLs, make sure you capture your material creating one clip per event. Select the source clip containing the soft effects you want to copy and then the record clip to which you want to apply the soft effects. If matching sources are found, the soft effects of the first instance of a source are automatically applied to the corresponding source in the record clip. For Smoke to be able to detect the same sources in source and record clips, the following information must be identical between sources:

- Tape Name
- Source Timecode In
- Source Timecode Out

The following attributes affect how soft effects are copied between matching sources:

- All soft effects from the source clip are applied to the matching sources in the record clip. If the same type of soft effect exists on both the source and record clips, the source clip's soft effect overrides the record clip's soft effect. Any soft effects on the record clip that are not on the source clip will be preserved. This is illustrated in the following example.

  (a) Source clip(b) Source clip with Axis Key soft effect(c) Updated offline with Axis Resize and Colour Corrector soft effects(d) Record clip after copying source clip effect with Copy FX option. Axis Key from source clip is copied. Colour Corrector from updated offline is preserved. Axis Resize is not copied.

  Image courtesy of Technicolor (formerly Toybox)

- If the source clip's timeline contains multiple layers and the record clip's timeline contains only one layer, elements that are above the source elements on the lowest matching layer of the source timeline are transferred to the record timeline such that their relationship to the media is maintained. This is illustrated in the following example.

  (a) Source timeline with three layers.

  (a) Record timeline with one layer. All layers above the lowest matching layer —guy_fishtank1—from the source timeline will be transferred to the record timeline with the Copy FX option.

- If a source is used more than once in a source clip but with a different soft effect, the soft effect of the first instance of the source is the one copied, as shown in the following example.

  (a) Two identical sources are used in source clip.(b) First instance of source uses imported Colour Corrector soft effect.(c) Second instance of source uses imported Axis soft effect.

  (a) Soft effects from the source clip are copied to the new record clip. Only the soft effect from the first instance of the source—Colour Corrector—is copied to each instance.

- If a layer on a record clip is locked, no soft effects from the corresponding source clip's layer are transferred to it. However, any matching unlocked video elements above the locked layer are transferred.
- Timewarps and containers are copied.
- Matchframe edits are not copied.
- Basic transitions such as dissolves and wipes are not copied. Gap effects are not copied since they are not associated with sources.
- Audio is not copied.

To copy soft effects between clips:

1. Select the source clip whose soft effects you want to copy.
2. Select the record clip or timeline elements containing the sources to which you want to apply the copied soft effects.
3. Select Copy FX and confirm.

The selected element or every element on the primary video track of the record timeline is compared against every element on the primary video track of the source timeline. If a match is found, the source's soft effects are applied to the corresponding sources in the record clip. The soft effects are slipped such that their relationship to the media is maintained.