,
I am very excited to announce our new advanced mask feature, as well as some new advanced transition options! OpenShot already has a powerful grey-scale based transition system, but now you have even more control over how it wipes across the transition.
This is the new transition properties window:
New Transition Properties:
- Direction: Track A to B, or B to A (i.e. Up or Down)
- Softness: The size / sharpness of the wipe (really large blurry fade, or a sharp clean fade)
- Mask Threshold: Keep reading...
Here is a circle transition as a mask:
Now let's look at the final setting in the transition properties window, "Mask Threshold". If you imagine a wipe transition, it wipes between 0% and 100%. If you use the circle transition as an example, 10% would be a tiny dot in the middle of the screen (i.e. the transition is only 10% completed), 75% would be a huge circle (revealing much of the lower track). Think of a mask as a transition that never progresses. It sticks to the point you tell it. Small circle, large circle, soft circle, sharp circle, you decide.
Here is the mask threshold property (only for masks):
Here is the best part... any grey-scale image can be a mask. It could be black and white (i.e. a super sharp mask) image, or contain grey-scale and allow you to control the softness / sharpness of the mask in OpenShot. It can even be a grey-scale image sequence (i.e. an animated mask).
To create a custom mask, simply drop a grey-scale image (SVG, PNG, or PGM) in the ~/openshot/transitions/ folder. Drag and drop it as a transition on your timeline. Resize it over the clip you want to mask. Right click on the transition and change it to a mask. Use the properties window to edit the mask's properties. Enjoy.
There are still a few usability things I would like to do with the "mask" feature, but the core masking engine is in place. I hope everyone realizes that this is much more powerful than a simple rectangle... or a simple polygon shape, as some video editors have implemented.
Also, I would like to thank all the people who have sent me suggestions on the advanced mask feature. As always, I listen to feedback... unlike many other projects. =)
July 6, 2009 1:54 AM
This _IS_ powerful concept, if I undestand it correctly. Basically it allows not just fancy transitions, but composition of video tracks - video overlay, "picture in picture" or two video tracks side by side (or in any other imaginable layout)?
I'd imagine this could be later expanded to green screen work? Creating a mask automatically from certain colors...
July 6, 2009 11:56 AM
I've tried OpenShot 0.8.2 on Ubuntu 9.04 using clips from my Panasonic HDC-SD100 AVCHD camera. I am extremely impressed, and have decided to switch over from kdenlive to OpenShot. Where OpenShot works, it works better than any other editor I've tried.
Here is some feedback on what I would like to see in it:
1) An HDV 1080p format which allows true 1920x1080 instead of just the 1440x1080 with an anamorphic pixel ratio for widescreen.
2) Integration of Jokosher to edit the sound within clips on the timeline.
3) Snapshot facility to work.
4) Effects library.
5) This one is wishfull thinking because I think the unreliability of direct editing on AVCHD is nothing to do with your programming, but it would be nice to be able to directly edit AVCHD and to be able to write it with all the descriptors needed for an AVCHD disc!
I am using this as a member of a community circus troupe (Mists of Time) in Britain, specialising in aerial acrobatics on trapeze, silks, ropes and tightrope. I am making promotional and training movies which we need in both HD and DVD formats. OpenShot is the only editor I've found on Linux which will edit HD footage and write it as both HDV and as DVD vobs.
Many thanks for all your hard work.
Helen
July 6, 2009 1:35 PM
tjh, picture-in-picture is not possible with masking. That would require changing the "geometry" of the video clip and positioning it around the screen. This is a feature I'm working on right now, but it's not quite ready yet.
I think the most common use of masks is to simply block out part of a video clip, for example the sky-line, or part of the environment. A mask can't scale the video, or move it around the screen. It can only hide & show areas of the video.
Green screen (or chroma key as it's known by some) is really the same thing as a mask (i.e. an animated mask), that hides a certain color. This is a specialized example of a mask, and I haven't really attempted to tackle it yet. =) Thanks for the comment.
July 6, 2009 1:39 PM
Helen, I'm glad OpenShot is working out for you. Thanks for the suggestions! Just for fun, you can try adding your own "project-type" to the list in OpenShot that has the correct 1920x1080 resolution:
Go to ~/openshot/main/profiles/, copy paste one that is similar, rename it, modify the height, width, fps, etc... and then launch OpenShot again. It should be in the list of "project types".
If you find a magic combination that works, please let me know. I'll include it with OpenShot. =)
July 6, 2009 2:23 PM
Thanks Jonathan. Here is the profile I wrote:
description=HDV 1080 25p 1920x1080
frame_rate_num=25
frame_rate_den=1
width=1920
height=1080
progressive=1
sample_aspect_num=1
sample_aspect_den=1
display_aspect_num=16
display_aspect_den=9
This preserves the full quality of my AVCHD clips, without any of the artifacts like rippling on stripes which came from the anamorphic pixel conversion.
OpenShot is definitely better than anything else I have used. No other editor has produced the quality I just rendered using this profile.
Many thanks, Helen.
July 6, 2009 3:01 PM
Hello Helen. Could you tell us your configuration and the choice have you done, please. Thanks.
July 6, 2009 4:04 PM
Hello Cenwen,
I am rendering my HDV files using the profile HDV 1080 25p 1920x1080 which I wrote in my previous blog.
The default video settings are perfect for this:
Video Format: mp4
Video Codec: mpeg4
Bit Rate/Quality: 15.00 Mb/s
Audio Codec: mp2
Sample Rate: 48000
# of Channels: 2
Bit Rate: 256 kb/s
I can read in my AVCHD files and edit them directly (mostly!) and then save to the above format etc to give me very high quality HDV movies I can play with vlc on my Linux workstation.
I can edit AVCHD directly like this, but it is a bit jerky, and on some clips it just jerks to a standstill. So I am first using OpenShot to convert my AVCHD clips to the 1920x1080 mp4 files as above, and then editing using the converted clips. When the edited movie is rendered as above, it results in a very high quality HDV mp4 movie.
To then render this edited movie as a .vob file for making a DVD I use the following profile and settings:
Project Type (profile): DV PAL Widescreen (in USA use DV NTSC Widescreen)
Video Format: vob
Video Codec: mpeg2video
Bit Rate: 5.00 Mb/s
Audio Codec: ac3
Sample Rate: 48000
# of Channels: 2
Bit Rate: 448 kb/s
This produces a very high quality DVD when the .vob is processed by DeVeDe to make a DVD image.
I haven't yet worked out a way to preserve the Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound, but the stereo sound I get is suitable for my purposes, and DeVeDe converts this to a 5.1 format if I want it.
Best wishes, Helen
July 6, 2009 4:27 PM
Hey jonathon I tried openshot. It keeps crashing when I try importing .mp4 and .avi files. what can I do?
July 6, 2009 4:49 PM
66666er, please post this as a question: https://launchpad.net/openshot/+addquestion. Please include your Linux distribution name & version, and what options you selected during the install. Also include any errors you got. Thanks!
July 6, 2009 4:50 PM
Hello 66666er.
I might be able to offer a clue here.
I am able to successfully import and edit .avi and .mp4 files.
The only problem I have encountered when OpenShot crashes on importing, is when there is a fault in the file being imported.
The most obvious one is where the file is completely empty 0-bytes. This caught me out once when importing a whole directory and forgot about an aborted file in it.
Check if your files are incomplete or corrupted in any way. Also check to see if they were properly constructed in the first place. I have as yet been unable to get a good mp4 file rendered by kdenlive. Other software can also screw up on rendering or converting.
It is also very easy to create silly settings with any video conversion/editing software, which would leave you with a severely customised format un-useable by any software!
Helen
July 6, 2009 5:39 PM
ok i posted in launchpad. I think its the version of ffmpeg, I chose 3. dunno the difference.
Thanks helen, no it's not that. All my clips are fine and have worked in premiere cs3. I'm pretty sure it's openshot not the clips, or the configuration I have.
Btw, Jonathon, How come there's no option for a 24p timeline? only 25? which is PAL. I get it that it is part of mlt or ffmpeg. But for openshot to be taken seriously it needs to be able to accommodate a 23.97 progressive timeline.
July 6, 2009 5:54 PM
ok so I ran the builder again and chose ffmpeg 1. and it didn't work again. Is there a way that I can remove openshot?
apt-get remove doesn't work.
July 6, 2009 6:09 PM
Hello again Cenwen,
I just realised that your question might have been asking what configuration and settings I used in installing OpenShot.
I am running Gnome on Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) amd64 version. My computer is an HP Pavillion 6718 with triple core AMD processor, and an nVidia graphics engine. I am using the restricted nVidia graphics driver.
On installing OpenShot I replied "Y" to all questions, and selected option "3" for ffmpeg because I wanted to use AVCHD.
After installing OpenShot, I noticed that it had un-installed several packages I use. I therefore re-installed the following packages:
fmpeg (3:0.svn20090303-1ubuntu6)
ffmpeg-doc (3:0.svn20090303-1ubuntu6)
ffmpegthumbnailer (1.3.0-1)
kdenlive (0.7.3-0ubuntu2)
libffmpegthumbnailer2 (1.3.0-1)
libtidy-0.99-0 (20081224cvs-1)
python-feedparser (4.1-12)
python-urlgrabber (3.1.0-4ubuntu1)
python-utidylib (0.2-3.2ubuntu1)
winff (0.45.1-1ubuntu1)
I then discovered that kdenlive wouldn't run anymore, and just crashed with an error message that it couldn't find libmlt.so1
The three libmlt packages were still installed, so this library must have been deleted when I installed OpenShot.
I therefore re-installed the following three packages:
libmlt++1 (0.3.8-0ubuntu1)
libmlt-data (0.3.8-0ubuntu2)
libmlt1 (0.3.8-0ubuntu2)
This corrected the problem, and I can now run both kdenlive and OpenShot without any real problems.
I hope this answers your question.
Helen
July 7, 2009 2:58 AM
Sorry, Helen but my questions were on our installation (distribution, desktop,32 or 64 bits and the choice that you have done at the end 1,2 or 3).Thanks a lot for yours others explications.
It's important for the equipe.
July 7, 2009 5:06 AM
I'm very sorry Helen but i haven't seen your last post. Thanks, it was what i want to know.
Another thing, to do your dvd try 2mandvd (for movies) and Smile (for the pictures) , it's better than devede. It's a sumerize software for quick dvd. here there are the link:http://smile.tuxfamily.org/
http://2mandvd.tuxfamily.org/
You can mixte smile with 2mandvd.
When you choose the option ffmpeg, it had un-installed severals packages for me too, different but it's very interrest to know the version 's packages about MLT.
Thanks a lot.
Now in france it's 12 oclock and you ?
July 7, 2009 5:10 AM
I have forgotten one think about 2mandvd and smile.You can install it with synaptic, you must add the Lprod 's deposit
July 7, 2009 3:25 PM
Thanks Cenwen,
I added Lprod to my apt sources, and installed Smile and 2ManDVD. My poor French was fortunately good enough for me to navigate the Lprod site to find instructions in French for adding the Lprod depositories to my apt sources.
Smile looks particularly useful, but will take me a bit of time to learn to use it to its full potential.
2ManDVD is amazingly powerful, but I cannot get it to produce an iso image for burning. It just produces a 0 bytes file!
I tried forcing it to re-generate the vobs, and it did indeed re-generate perfectly good vobs - so the problem is not the movies I'm importing. But it still will not produce an iso image, or burn a disc. ManDVD will with the same input files, so this must be a problem with 2ManDVD!
At least I have now been introduced to Lprod, and will be studying this site more, along with the other French sites it links to which I have never heard of before. I think my very bad French is likely to improve over the coming weeks!
Many thanks, Helen
July 7, 2009 9:34 PM
Helen 2 thinks
1er, i'm surprise for 2mandvd, it works great for me
2de; a english and spanish version exist for lprod.
2mandvd is the best for create a dvd in france.
June 29, 2010 11:28 AM
Salam
Thanks for the Tut but i want to know:
"To create a custom mask, simply drop a grey-scale image (SVG, PNG, or PGM) in the ~/openshot/transitions/ folder."
What do you mean by ~/openshot/transitions/ folder? where can i find this folder?
I am using Ubuntu
thanks,