"I have a simple mission: To create an open-source, non-linear video editor for Linux. Many have tried and fallen before me, but for some reason I feel compelled to try myself. I am documenting my journey in this blog for all to read. It will be a dangerous journey, and I might not make it back alive. Hold on tight, and enjoy the ride! By the way, I'm calling this project OpenShot Video Editor!"

Need a Trim?  

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Someone pointed out to me that trimming a clip on the timeline in OpenShot is like being blind-folded with a pair of scissors in one hand. That sounds dangerous doesn't it! So, we have improved the trim / resize feature in OpenShot to work like this:

  1. User switches to 'Resize' / 'Trim' mode (i.e. which you can now do with the TAB key)
  2. As the user starts to trim the edge of the clip, the video window switches to 'Preview' mode for that clip
  3. As the user drags the edge of the clip back and forth, the preview window automatically seeks to the trimmed frame. In other words, it shows you a live preview of exactly where you are trimming.
  4. When you user stops trimming (i.e. they stop clicking their mouse button), the video window returns to it's original preview of the timeline
We only preview trims of video or image sequences, not audio or images. Although this isn't exactly how Adobe Premiere works, it seems to work really nicely. It's really the same concept as a separate trim widget with IN and OUT markers... but just integrated into the timeline.

6 comments

  1. pjman  
    July 3, 2009 12:02 AM

    Sounds awesome!

  2. tjh  
    July 3, 2009 12:56 AM

    Excellent! My layman opinion is that trimming is one of the key features in video editing. Optimizing UI for key tasks is the Right Thing to do. I very much like intuitive interfaces where I can immediately start working efficiently, without going through 500 page manual.

    As a contrast, I _DO_ like blender, but learning curve is just too deep for me (also it's very powerful and targeted at pros).

    If any one can make a software that is both powerful, flexible and easy to use... that's just genius.

    Thanks again for your ongoing work on OpenShot. I believe this project will get lots of attention in the near future (next 1-2 years). I hope to see it included in major distributions as a default video editor. Even if it doesn't, I love that it's easy to install - it's not always the case with video editors (which are nor pre-packaged).

  3. Yorian  
    July 3, 2009 11:03 AM

    I hope you will continue with this project! It sounds promising, and a good free video-editor is exactly what the open-source world needs :)

    Have you thought about getting a twitter-account? Might be good for PR.

  4. Jonathan Thomas  
    July 5, 2009 11:34 PM

    Thanks for the nice comments! I have thought about using twitter, but I can barely keep up with this blog... much less twitter. Maybe in the future.

  5. Anonymous  
    August 1, 2009 10:43 PM

    ImportError: No module named mlt

    thats what i get when i try to run it
    9.04 32bit

  6. Ole  
    September 11, 2009 2:55 AM

    After installing with the wizard on Ubuntu 8.1 if got the same error:

    ImportError: No module named mlt

    ..this is a python binding error.
    So I copy the mlt.py and the _mlt.so to my site-packages.

    sudo cp ~/mlt/src/swig/python/mlt.py /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages

    and

    sudo cp ~/mlt/src/swig/python/_mlt.so /usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages


    ...everything is fine.
    Thanks for openshot...i hope i got enough time for testing it.

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