Difference between revisions of "Free software video editing tools"

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(Added information on Blender as a video editor)
m (Apparently I forgot how lists work in mediawiki syntax :P)
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Though very powerful, Blender has a few caveats as a video editor:
 
Though very powerful, Blender has a few caveats as a video editor:
- It is very difficult to pick up unless you are already familiar with Blender's user interface concepts.  Although these user interface concepts are consistent throughout the application, they generally do not resemble user interface ideas found in other applications.  This may lead to a high learning curve.
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* It is very difficult to pick up unless you are already familiar with Blender's user interface concepts.  Although these user interface concepts are consistent throughout the application, they generally do not resemble user interface ideas found in other applications.  This may lead to a high learning curve.
- It does not presently support rendering directly to OGG Theora, so you must use a tool such as ffmpeg2theora to complete such a process.  This could likely be added without much difficulty, and importing videos with theora is already supported.
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* It does not presently support rendering directly to OGG Theora, so you must use a tool such as ffmpeg2theora to complete such a process.  This could likely be added without much difficulty, and importing videos with theora is already supported.
  
 
More information:
 
More information:
- [http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Sequencer Start of blender's wiki documentation on the sequencer/video editor]
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* [http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Doc:Manual/Sequencer Start of blender's wiki documentation on the sequencer/video editor]
- [http://blog.rfquerin.org/2009/01/26/how-i-edit-videos-using-blender-maybe-part-one/ Video editing with Blender tutorial screencast part one]
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* [http://blog.rfquerin.org/2009/01/26/how-i-edit-videos-using-blender-maybe-part-one/ Video editing with Blender tutorial screencast part one]
- [http://blog.rfquerin.org/2009/02/14/really-basic-blender-video-editing-part-2/ Video editing with Blender tutorial screencast part two]
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* [http://blog.rfquerin.org/2009/02/14/really-basic-blender-video-editing-part-2/ Video editing with Blender tutorial screencast part two]

Revision as of 09:18, 9 July 2009

This page is to hammer out the ideas, problems, solutions for free software video editors

Many users are seduced into using proprietary software for video editing because they are unable to achieve the effects they want using the current state of the art in free software video editing and production software. More and more everyday computer users are becoming amateur videographers, and we need to make sure that their operating systems come complete with free software to meet their needs.

Ways to help. There are a number of quality, free software video editing programs, such as Kino, Cinelerra, AVIDemux, Kdenlive, LiVES, Lumiera, as well as PiTiVi, the Open Movie Editor and Blender's Video Sequence Editor (VSE). Along the way, the easiest way to help is to use these editors and to encourage others to do the same. You can help these projects directly by submitting bug reports, adding features, improving usability, and creating tutorials, guides, and documentation.

Please join us, and improve this page, by adding your ideas and suggestions for improving the state of free software video editing tools.

It would be helpful to produce an in-depth list of software currently available in this space, as has been done on the priority project page for Donor and Contact Management systems.

Sources of Video for Free Software Video Editing projects

If you need some some stock footage with which to experiment, please feel free to visit the Internet Archive's Digital Tipping Point Video Collection (the IA DTP VC for short). The IA DTP VC contains interviews of many of the most prominent contributors to the Free Software movement. The purpose of the IA DTP VC is to support the production of a feature-length documentary about Free Software, called the Digital Tipping Point; and to provide casual viewers with video with which to learn a bit about the Free Software movement; and to provide video editors with remixable video files that they can use to create entertaining video shorts about Free Software. All of the footage on the IA DTP VC is released under licenses which encourage the re-use of the video. The license for each video is plainly stated on each page.

Existing Projects

Blender

Although primarily a 3d modeling/animating/rendering system, Blender also contains a powerful video editor (the "sequence editor") that is also scriptable via python. It contains most of the standard transitional effects and etc expected of video editors and many more features, including compositing nodes which may be used to enhance video / do greenscreening / many other things.

Though very powerful, Blender has a few caveats as a video editor:

  • It is very difficult to pick up unless you are already familiar with Blender's user interface concepts. Although these user interface concepts are consistent throughout the application, they generally do not resemble user interface ideas found in other applications. This may lead to a high learning curve.
  • It does not presently support rendering directly to OGG Theora, so you must use a tool such as ffmpeg2theora to complete such a process. This could likely be added without much difficulty, and importing videos with theora is already supported.

More information: