Add leaders and trailers

You can use the Auto Stitch feature to attach leader and trailer footage to the footage that you originally imported. Leaders and trailers can be either still or moving images (including WPF Canvas XAML files) and they can be any file format that Microsoft Expression Encoder supports (see Supported file formats). For example, if you have imported footage of a bicycle race and, before it starts playing, you want to attach a separate video that shows your company logo and, at the end of the original footage, a separate clip that displays credits, then you would use the Auto Stitch feature. The result is a single video file that is actually a combination of two or three video files.

You can only use two videos for the Auto Stitch feature, one to attach at the beginning of your file, and one to attach at the end. If you want to attach more than two video files to your originally-imported file, you should first create the necessary combination of files in a non-linear digital video editor such as Microsoft Movie Maker. If you want to trim your leading or trailing clip, you should also use a non-linear video editor.

To use Auto Stitch

1. If you cannot see the Auto Stitch category on the right side of the application window, on the Window menu, click Enhance to open the Enhance panel. If Enhance is already selected, but the Auto Stitch category is still not visible, on the right side of the application window, click the Enhance tab.

2. In the Settings panel, click the arrow next to Auto Stitch to expand the options.

3. Click the box next to Add Leader and/or Add Trailer to select the kind of video that you want to add.

4. To browse to a leading or trailing clip, do one of the following:

   • In the Auto Stitch category, in either the Add Leader or Add Trailer section, click the Browse button .

   • In the Timeline, click either the Leader or the Trailer button.

   • In the Timeline menu, click either Add Leader or Add Trailer.

   • In the Auto Stitch category, drag a supported file onto the Leader or Trailer section

5. When you locate a clip to append to the original clip, click Open. The Timeline indicates the attached clip by displaying a vertical green line at the corresponding In or Out point. You can drag the In or Out points of the original clip, but you cannot adjust the In or Out points of the appended clip. It will always play in its entirety.

6. If you want to put an overlay on either the leader or trailer clips, then, in the Apply To menu, click Whole Sequence. You can also set a duration for the overlay by clicking Custom and then typing start and end times. You must have already specified an overlay in the Overlay category of the Enhance panel. For more information about setting overlays, see Overlays.

7. If your leader or trailer videos are not the same dimensions as the job output dimensions, in either the Add Leader or Add Trailer section, click an option from the Resize Mode menu in order to specify how Expression Encoder will modify the leader or trailer videos to compensate for the difference in dimensions.