,
If the PPA wasn't big enough news to get you excited, how about this: Effects have finally arrived for OpenShot!!!
We have included 33 video & audio effects (30 video and 3 audio). This feature is available now (in version 0.9.42). You can install OpenShot from the PPA or .DEB installer to get the newest version.
Effects are used to modify the video, image, or sound a clip outputs. For example, an "echo" effect will cause the audio of a clip to echo. A "black and white" effect will cause the video to be in black and white. You get the idea. =)
[Drag and drop effects from the tree onto a clip]
Chroma Key effects are also included in this update. Chroma Key (or Green / Blue Screen) is an effect where you choose a color in the video and make it transparent. You can adjust the variance (i.e. how exact a match you want). This is commonly used to replace the background of a scene with another image or video. I put together a quick video demonstration with a few different effects. Check it out. And yes, that is my hand. =)
Not only do we have lots of exciting effects, they can all be stacked and combined in any way you can dream up. And in the spirit of OpenShot, it's as easy as dragging and dropping an effect on a clip. That's it. Of course, every setting can be manipulated also, but it's not required.
[View and edit effects on the clip properties screen]
Another big feature is our new "preview window" on our clip properties screen. This allows you to "try before you buy"... so to speak. Any settings applied to a clip (including effects) can be previewed over and over again to be sure it's just right. This is also an effective way to trim a clip, especially audio clips, since you can keep previewing the IN and OUT points. Once you are happy, click Apply. If you Cancel, then your changes are not saved, and everything goes back to normal.
Here is a nice big image which has all of our effects showcased. Click the image to view a larger version. Enjoy!
I would like to sincerely thank Andy, Helen, TJ, Olivier, and all of our bug reporters, and feature suggesters. I am very proud of our international team of programmers, contributors, and enthusiasts. Just think how far we've come in such a short time. OpenShot is just barely a year old.
To put this into perspective, consider PiTiVi, and their feature set (Sorry Edward... not trying to start a fight). They have been working on a video editor since 2004. They have been funded by a company since December 2008. They have 2 full-time paid developers (according to the Wikipedia). PiTiVi still lacks the following features that OpenShot already has: basic blending and compositing, transitions, effects, key-frame animation, and titling support. The point? We are moving really, really, really fast. Just to point out, I said nothing negative about PiTiVi... just laying down the facts. I wish them well. =)
I hope everyone enjoys the new effects. Also, please be sure to report any bugs you find (just don't submit duplicate bugs... it tends to slow us down). I do have some additional news to report, but I think this blog post has gone on long enough. Stay tuned...
To put this into perspective, consider PiTiVi, and their feature set (Sorry Edward... not trying to start a fight). They have been working on a video editor since 2004. They have been funded by a company since December 2008. They have 2 full-time paid developers (according to the Wikipedia). PiTiVi still lacks the following features that OpenShot already has: basic blending and compositing, transitions, effects, key-frame animation, and titling support. The point? We are moving really, really, really fast. Just to point out, I said nothing negative about PiTiVi... just laying down the facts. I wish them well. =)
I hope everyone enjoys the new effects. Also, please be sure to report any bugs you find (just don't submit duplicate bugs... it tends to slow us down). I do have some additional news to report, but I think this blog post has gone on long enough. Stay tuned...
September 30, 2009 3:41 AM
Is there any chance you could hook into VirtualDub add-on filters?
There's a great one called Deshaker ( http://www.guthspot.se/video/deshaker.htm ) which would be wonderful from OpenShot :)
Well done
September 30, 2009 4:55 AM
love your work
September 30, 2009 7:43 AM
Nice video Jonathon and great news on all the new effects!!
Question: Which editors have you used in the past, you said you were on Windows before Linux in 08'. So I gather it would have been Avid, Vegas, Premiere, Ulead Media/Videostudio.
September 30, 2009 12:09 PM
Thank you very much for all the work you're devoting to this. I dual boot Ubuntu/XP, but mostly work in XP because my main design package is SketchUp. I hope a Windows installer can be made someday in the future.
September 30, 2009 2:13 PM
@Miguel
Hola
Muy bien y muy rapido.
Muchas gracias para todo el equipo
Olivier/Cenwen
September 30, 2009 3:42 PM
awesome!
September 30, 2009 4:11 PM
I looked for that song but it seems another one. Are you sure is Pollen Nébuleuse?
September 30, 2009 4:29 PM
@Garret,
I totally screwed up on the name of the song. Oops. I'll update the video later tonight. The name of the song is Pollen Harpe (same album). Here is the link: http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/30054/. It's track 14. Great album by the way. =)
September 30, 2009 9:21 PM
I just wanted to say thanks and congratulations. I moved to Ubuntu from WinXP almost 2 years ago and was a bit disappointed/frustrated with the video editors on offer.
I couldn't find a text based replacement for avisynth, nor could I warm to LiVES, Open Movie Editor or Cinelerra. I eventually settled on Blender (a bloody fantastic program but requires quite a bit of effort to learn). Now with Kdenlive and Openshot it seems like I'm getting spoilt for choice. It amazes me how far things have come in such a short amount of time. Cheers.
October 1, 2009 1:56 AM
Hello Jonathan,
Thanks for the link to the source of the Creative Commons music you used.
I've been looking for some suitable CC licensed music to augment my own on my CC licesed videos. :-)
Best wishes, Helen
October 1, 2009 3:50 AM
Muchísimas gracias por este magnifico editor de vídeo.
October 1, 2009 8:05 AM
Impressive. Keep up the good work
October 1, 2009 8:11 AM
Thanks for all the effort, but I think that I'll pass on OpenShot. It seems that since I do not run Ubuntu, you have locked me out of OpenShot, and I'm not going to put the effort into undoing your locks just to get your software.
If your "install from source" actually worked on anything other than Debian-derived systems (like most other "install from source" apps do), then I wouldn't have this trouble. But, instead of just supplying a source tarball with the usual makefiles (and perhaps a configure script), you used a python download script that wipes out parts of my existing installation, only works with debian-derived systems (requiring apt-get, for instance), and generally works contrary to good system maintenance practice.
Too bad. Your software looked good. Perhaps that other video editor you mentioned will be easier to install
--
Lew Pitcher
lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca
October 1, 2009 8:50 AM
Lew, it's his right to support whichever Linux based operating system he can have time for.
I'm sure however that support for other systems, as well as proper source code will eventually be established.
But OpenShot is moving fast and there's a reason for that. Perhaps at least a small part of the reason is that they don't bother with the usual bureaucracies and support of all Linux based operating systems under the sun.
Linux users should realize Linux isn't an OS. It's an OS framework. Ubuntu is an OS. Fedora is an OS, etc.
Awesome work Jonathan!
October 1, 2009 9:36 AM
Fantastic work! Linux really needs a competent, easy to use video editing solution and OpenShot is shaping up to be that exactly. Please do continue your work and know that is greatly appreciated by many!
October 1, 2009 9:37 AM
Is there any documentation or how to use instructions for OpenShot Video Editor? Something that show how to use all the "bells and whistles" of the application.
I have not used a video editor yet so I am unfamiliar with ALL video editors. I would like to know how you get the videos to use in OpenShot? I have a DV camera and firewire, how do I get the camera footage captured in computer?
October 1, 2009 10:13 AM
Great work! Video editing on Linux is a big need, and I have been looking for something like this.
October 1, 2009 12:45 PM
i would share this on my blog, hope this awesome software will grow up and bring more creativity on video editing for Linux...
October 1, 2009 12:49 PM
You guys rock!!!
Open shot seems to be shaping up EXACTLY as it should. I mean you are putting in all the obvious bells and whistles while not requiring a Phd to run it, but still making an apllication that:
1. Is great to use
2. Does the job
3. Is easy to pick up
4. It 's open source
is not something we see everyday (unfortunately). Go on and amaze us even more!!!
October 1, 2009 1:20 PM
@Lew: I look forward to your contribution. Oh, but *you* can't be bothered...
@Jonathan: You're doing a great job - don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
There are those who do and those who moan about others not doing enough for them.
October 1, 2009 1:51 PM
Like many others I am very excited about this app. I need to ask though, for my own sanity, is everyone having the same slow playback performance as I am.
By this I mean simply setting a clip onto the timeline and pressing play. Both video and audio are very choppy to the point where I can't edit to audio cue points.
I'm cool with this if the program simply hasn't been optimised yet. However I have a very fast system76 laptop(Bonobo Professional) and I want to be sure the performance issue isn't something on my end.
Thanks and keep up the great work.
October 1, 2009 1:58 PM
Hi. OpenShot looks very great. I will tell you more once I tried it.. but for now when I do sudo apt-get install openshot it wants to remove a bunch of packages on my system.. I understand that dependencies can cause that.. Its just that... its too much, maybe... ?
Here : ffmpeg2theora kdenlive libavcodec52 libavdevice52 libavfilter0 libavformat52 libavutil49 libmlt++1 libpostproc51 libswscale0
libxine1-ffmpeg vlc vlc-nox
VLC ??? why ? Is there a way to not loose all this stuff when installing openshot ?
October 1, 2009 4:11 PM
@Lew,
You have the facts a bit wrong. OpenShot is a Python program. We use distutils (i.e. setup.py install) for installation. This works on every distribution of Linux.
So, we are not locked into Ubuntu at all. However, I and many other people in the world use Ubuntu, so that is the distro I've focused on (as far as installers, PPAs, build scripts, etc...).
You can get the source of OpenShot as a tarball, but we have no makefiles or configure scripts... because we are Python.
Each distribution of Linux will need to package up OpenShot in their own unique way, just as Gentoo is doing... just as we've done for Ubuntu / Debian. If you happen to be an expert "packager" for a distro that doesn't have OpenShot yet, please contact our team and we would love to work with you.
We've created the .DEB installers and PPA to help ease the installation for the majority of our testers & users.
As I've learned the hard way, almost no open-source project packages it's own program... it simply creates the makefiles and configure scripts (in our case distutils), and then lets contributors and volunteers package up everything for their favorite distros. We are no different.
October 1, 2009 4:23 PM
Hello all
There is some concern being expressed by some users commenting on this blog, concerning the conflicts and dependencies issues which result in some packages conflicting with the OpenShot dependencies.
This will not always be so. It is only because OpenShot has been developed to use the "bleeding edge" of those dependencies which are not yet in the official distributions of Ubuntu, Mint, Debian etc.
OpenShot is beta software under development. By the time that Ubuntu 10.03 LTS Lucid Lynx is released next year, all the dependencies will be in the mainstream distribution which should help matters a lot.
The best explanation as to why there are these problems please read the following FAQ on the OpenShot Launchpad site
https://answers.launchpad.net/openshot/+faq/723
These are matters which are not under the control of the OpenShot developers team. But they are issues which will be addressed by the Ubuntu and Debian projects.
Once that point has been reached in the distributions that OpenShot does not have to depend on difficult work arounds to get its dependencies installed, it will become much easier to port OpenShot to any OS where the dependencies are available.
Best wishes, Helen
October 1, 2009 4:29 PM
Hello JohnH
Yes there is a manual bing written by myself and by Olivier. There is also a FAQ which I am building on the OpenShot Launchpad site.
The openshot-docs package will be made available as soon as possible. But you have to remember that both Olivier and I have other commitments (not the least of which being doing other jobs which earn a living). I have been giving OpenShot the highest priority I can. I am also heavily involved in bug management and question management.
Best wishes, Helen
October 1, 2009 5:45 PM
Guys, you have already done so much. Thank you a lot.
If you still can squeeze it in, here's a feature I would love to see: The ability to export that chroma-keyed video as a sequence of transparent PNG files.
Best wishes from South America!
October 2, 2009 4:06 AM
Performance could be better, but I may be asking too much from Celeron CPU (on a laptop). I had some problems with audio when previewing clips (imported but not yet on a time line) - seeking didn't work always, audio was "dropping". On a time line, playback was fine and seeking works. Exporting with multiple effects was slow, but usable.
Simplified export options are great. Of course it'll need some more options (and help from people using these presets), but the principle how it works is already how it should be, I think. Much more user friendly now, and I can imagine "avarage user" using it.
I really like availability from PPA until Openshot finds its way to official Ubuntu repositories. One day it'll get installed by default with every desktop Ubuntu, I hope.
Superb work. If you keep improving, I'll run out of words.
October 2, 2009 7:25 AM
Jonathan, I believe the jab at PiTiVi to be unnecessary, unfair and insulting to the work those folks have been doing in perfecting and pushing the limits of GStreamer over the years. It's easy to implement effects and transitions (and all the rest) very quickly when you're using the same framework as KDEnlive, which had effects and transitions for years. I don't think KDEnlive/MLT just implemented this stuff "in a day".
Anyway, back to my point: competition is nice, but degrading other projects' public image is not. You don't see me blogging around that OpenShot doesn't have what I consider "basic features" (ie: not crashing/lagging/doing weird stuff with my camcorder's files or ogg theora files just by scrubbing in the timeline), now do you?
October 2, 2009 10:52 AM
@jeff
Thanks for your comment. However, I disagree.
I didn't say one thing about PiTiVi that wasn't factual. They are missing transitions, effects, compositing, and titling. They have been in development since 2004. There is nothing derogatory about these facts.
You have to agree that it's fair for me to compare OpenShot to other video editors, as long as it's done in a tasteful way, right? That's why I only mentioned the facts, and the source of my facts. I didn't list some ambiguous and vague usability issue, or something silly like that.
I also never mentioned that PiTiVi is lacking "basic features". You read between the lines a bit. The phrase "Basic Blending and Compositing" comes straight from the PiTiVi roadmap: http://www.pitivi.org/wiki/Roadmap.
I would love to see PiTiVi develop these features with Gstreamer. I would love to see Gstreamer grow into a video editing framework. I am a big supporter of video editors on Linux, period. I hope the day comes when users have many different great video editors to choose from.
October 2, 2009 10:55 AM
Jonathan/Helen,
You are underestimating the importance of configure scripts. Their main advantage is not compilation, it's dependency checking and specification. It's the ability of specifying and using alternative library directories, precisely the feature that would solve all dependency problems people are having.
It's good that all current dependencies are expected to arrive in Lucid Lynx, but what if until then some even newer versions of the libraries arrive and Jonathan decides to use them? Will all the problems start over?
All those problems would be solved by a configure script.
As an Openshot user and admirer, I hope you take this as constructive criticism and don't feel your huge efforts so far are being questioned.
October 2, 2009 11:37 AM
@Donny,
Thanks for the suggestion. My expertise is not in the Debian packaging arena, but I'm always open to suggestions. We will certainly consider this as we move forward.
October 2, 2009 1:17 PM
Hello Donny,
You are right about the configure scripts.
Unfortunately these are configure scripts which are not in our project. It is the configuration of those packages which are removed, which is the problem. Coupled with the constantly changing way in which ffmpeg is split between the cut down version and the full version of each release. Please read the explanation given by TJ in the following link:
https://answers.launchpad.net/openshot/+faq/723
Best wishes, Helen
October 2, 2009 4:48 PM
You have to consider that people not only use the official packages from Ubuntu. For example, Kdenlive recommends installing from this repository: [ http://www.kdenlive.org/user-manual/downloading-and-installing-kdenlive/pre-compiled-packages/ubuntu-packages ] To install VLC also exist repository containing related ffmpeg packages. It would be a good idea to agree on criteria between all of software packagers for that no exist problems of conflict in dependencies.
Bye.
October 2, 2009 5:11 PM
Helen,
I've read the FAQ item you mentioned, but the points there are only valid if you maintain the current approach of *replacing* the distro libraries.
What I'm suggesting is to change this approach to one where you install the new libraries *alongside* the distro versions, in an alternative directory and tell Openshot to use this directory.
It's actually a simple procedure: it only requires changing the ffmpeg, mlt and x264 packages to install the shared libraries in /usr/local/lib/openshot instead of /usr/local/lib and create a shell script that sets the environment library LD_LIBRARY_PATH to /usr/local/lib/openshot before opening OpenShot.
I've actually done this myself by hand and it worked.
October 2, 2009 5:11 PM
(Anonymous above is me)
October 2, 2009 6:48 PM
I understand that you meant no harm with your comment at PiTiVi. But the problem still remains, because of two things:
1- The comparison to put things in perspective still seems unbalanced.
What you are not telling your readership is that MLT framework was already "there" and mature for video editing. PiTiVi pretty much has to write the framework as they go. No wonder it takes a while, especially when gstreamer in 2004 was nowhere near mature for serious scenarios (anyone here remembers what it was like before the 0.10 gstreamer series?)
Of course, explicitly mentioning all that would be cumbersome, and I understand that. However, to avoid sounding like you're gently mocking them, it might be easier to refrain comparing the progress of a "video editor" vs the progress of a "video editor and its still-maturing framework".
Correct me if I'm wrong in the interpretation of it all. I'm just "assuming" that you are "users" of MLT and not the ones who developed it.
2- It is not meant as a harmful mockery, but it still degrades their public image in the eyes of your readership.
What I mean is that yes, PiTiVi, as we speak, is less advanced that OpenShot in terms of commonly expected features, but what you are implicitly saying, with such a paragraph in your blog post, is that "we, openshot, are moving fast. Look how good we can manage this, while others have 'failed' to attain this status so quickly. Even paid developers can't do as good as we do!"
This is obviously not what you meant explicitly. But here's the problem: that's *still* what will be parsed implicitly by your readers. Your paragraph *implies* that the gnonlin/pitivi guys are less apt and agile at what they do.
Thus the reasons I was saying it was an unnecessary public downgrading. That said, thanks for your response and keep pushing OpenShot forwards!
October 3, 2009 2:22 PM
Hello Everyone
We have just had a very interesting question on our Answer Tracker from Trever who asked if there was a way for users to contribute to the collection of transitions and effects etc.
I have replied by explaining how to set up an OpenShot Users Group.
If any users are interested in setting up an independant OpenShot Users Group along with Trevor, please read the entry on our answer tracker:
https://answers.launchpad.net/openshot/+question/84662
Then join the irc channel #openshot and start discussing your new OpenShot User Group there.
If a few of you follow the suggestions I have given in that article about how to set up a successful user group, you should be able to do it easily.
I wish all of you the best of luck with it.
Helen :-)
October 3, 2009 6:18 PM
A couple of hours ago I posted about OSVE on Videohelp, so I hope you're ready for some traffic. :-)
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/OpenShot_Video_Editor
October 3, 2009 6:24 PM
When I try audio effects it randomly closes out. I kinda forget but I think some video effects do it too... Anyone else?
October 4, 2009 7:08 AM
It's a good app, but also very unstable on Ubuntu 8.10. I hope that on 9.04 will be better :)
October 4, 2009 12:21 PM
This is the first video editor that doesn't crash on my computer. I'm an amateur-hobbyist playing on Ubuntu on a pretty lame PC and OpenShot is working anyway. Thanks to all the team!
Now, the begging begins ;)
* I would love some kind of "frame" with the "safe zones" on the video preview.
* I like to create slide shows with Ken Burns effects, so anything to help make it easier would be a blast!
Thanks again!
October 4, 2009 3:20 PM
@tintwotin
Thanks for posting on VideoHelp!
@Marina,
Be sure to report feature requests on our "Support" page (at the top of this webpage). We will then add them to our "wishlist", and you can monitor the progress of the requests. Thanks!