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In this series of tutorials, I’d like to show you the basics of video editing using the KDE application Kdenlive. Many people seem to think there are no good video editing apps on Linux, Kdenlive (I think) proves them wrong.
There is a Kdenlive in the official repositories, but it is now old and I’d recommend that you install the latest version (0.9 as I write this) by loading up your software center/package manager and adding the PPA to your software sources:
ppa:sunab/kdenlive-release
Reload your list of packages, and then install the kdenlive package.
If you prefer the terminal, use:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sunab/kdenlive-release && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install kdenlive
Here’s Kdenlive when you first load it up:
Top left of the window is the area where all your clips will be stored; every clip that you will possibly use in the current project will be loaded into here. In the middle is your stack of effects and their properties. Top right is the monitor area. It’s here that you view clips or preview your project. The bottom half of the window has three video tracks (horizontal rows) and two audio tracks. At the very bottom right of the window are some controls, but the one you’ll use here is the slider to zoom in/out of your previews.
Essentially, you drag your clips from the top left to one of the audio/video tracks and arrange them in their preferred playing order. There’s more to it than that, but we’ll come to that in later parts of the tutorial. Let’s do a quick import and arrangement to get you used to Kdenlive.
First thing you want to do is make sure that your new project (which is currently open) is set to the right video size, and so on. So, in the Kdenlive menu, click Project > Project Settings.
Kdenlive comes with ‘Profiles’ which you can see in the drop down menu below ‘Video Profile’. These profiles are a group of settings which you can use if you’re making a DVD, (S)VCD, HD and so on. I’m just tinkering here, so I’m going to choose DV/DVD PAL (PAL since I’m in the UK). You choose what works best for you or your clips. When you choose a profile, you’ll see the information below the drop-down change to show what your project will be in size, frame rate, and so on. Click OK to return to the main screen.
Now, go to the menu and click Project > Add Clip, and select however many audio/video clips that you’d like to use in your project.
You may see a window appearing to tell you that some clips are not the correct size for your project. If your clips are too small they’ll be enlarged and frame rates adjusted. This could cause problems later, but for now I’m clicking OK to continue.
Now is a good time to go to the menu and click File > Save, and give your project a name.
Here I have two clips, both with sound. What I’ll do is drag the first clip down to the ‘Video 1’ track, and then drag the second clip down to the ‘Video 2’ track – but place it at the end of the first clip (shown below right)
If you click in the timeline (just above the ‘Video 1’ track), you’ll be able to jump/scroll through the video. Or, if you like, you can watch by clicking the play button below the monitor (top right). The squiggly line below the video preview in each video track is a graph showing the sound volume of each clip.
Having one video finish and abruptly start the next isn’t always pleasant, so before we wrap up this part, let’s add a quick fade effect where we’ll fade from the Video 1 track to the Video 2 track.
OK, zoom in to your previews which are showing on the video tracks. Either use the slider at the bottom right of the window, or the + and - buttons at either side of the slider (next page, top right).
What we need to do here is overlap the two tracks. The amount of overlap is how long the fade will take (next page, middle right).
This fade should take about two seconds.
Right click on the Video 1 clip and choose Add Transition > Dissolve. You’ll see a box overlaying both tracks (next page, bottom right). Click it and you’ll see some properties showing up beside your list of clips.
In the properties, tick the ‘Reverse’ box.
Scrub through the video (click, hold, and drag through the timeline), or play the video, and you’ll see the fade from Video 1 to Video 2.
To create a final video – with your clips joined and the fade effect – go to Project > Render.
In the left panel you choose which type of video you’d like to export as, and, on the right, the size and so on. Above that you give the file a name; the other stuff we’ll leave as is. Click ‘Render to File’ (at the bottom left of the window) and off it’ll go.
If there’s anything you’d like to see covered in this series, please drop me an email at: ronnie@fullcirclemagazine.org.
Next month we’ll talk about effects, and more on adding clips.