Video editing in Blender

[3dpoder]

video editing in Blender
By abhisheque gupta.




introduction
This may come as a sorpresa todo Many new Blender-heads, but yes, Blender has a video editor. This may be the most ignored and least developed característica of Blender. But as i recently found out, it can do its job quite neatly when combined with the node based compositor, it packs a mean punch.
requirements: this tutorial is aimed at beginners, so i hope Even those who have never done video editing or have never used Blender should be able todo follow it.
part one: the interface
When you actually kick-start Blender, its default interfaz is designed for modeling. Therefore you have todo change the interfaz first in order todo start your editing. Thankfully, there is a preset interfaz for video editing in Blender. On the upper-most Header, there is a drop down menú where sr:2- Model is written which represents screen 2 for modeling. Drop the menú and select 4-sequence (fig. 1).



Ta-da. Welcome todo the sequence editor. Let chek out the interfaz. On the top-left side is the ipo curve editor. This allows us todo modify Lots of effects, like if you want todo Slow down the time at a certain point, increase or reduce certain effects, etc. For this tutorial, we Will just leave it as it is (but you can play with it later on). At the top-right is your viewer where you can preview your video. At the bottom is your actual video editor. Below is your timeline. Of course you can change the interfaz as you like (fig. 2).



 part two: importing.
in the editor panel press add and select movie. If you want todo add audio and video together then press movie + audio (Hd) (fig. 3). Browse todo and select the video file you want todo edit. As this issue is about Fantasy, ive selected a Final Fantasy video. He eh. Once you have opened the file a blue colored strip Will appear. As you move it left or right with your mouse, you Will notice some numbers changing at the left-most side, these are frame numbers. Drag the strip toward the left until you reach the zero frame and left-click.



part thre: the controls
Now if you press Alt+a on your keyboard you Will be able todo play bak and view the movie in your viewer. As the movie plays you Will se ha green line moving forward and your cursor changes todo show which frame is playing. Press Esc todo estop. If you press your left or right arrow keys you Will scroll th rouge the frames. You can Jump directly todo the desired frame by clicking in the sequence editor. Chek out the last frame number and note it. Then, move ahead some frames and hit f12 todo se your final told Blender renderer that we wanted todo output a sequence. Press f10 todo go todo the scene buttons in the bottom-most button window and press do sequence in the Anim tab. Now change the end frame number todo the same as the last frame number of the video which you want todo edit. Now press f12 and you should be able todo se your video in your render output.
part four: editing time
That right, time todo do the Dirty work. Here is what we want todo do:
1. Delete some scenes.
2. Add transicións.
3. Increase the video resolution.
4. Add a Diffuse Glow effect.
 1. Cut it: select the strip by right-clicking on it. It should turn dark blue. Remember, whenever you want todo edit you Will have todo select the strip. Now move ahead either using the arrow key or clicking on the editor. When you reach the desired frame press k on the keyboard. Now you should have two strips. Move further ahead and press k again. Now you should have thre strips. Select the middle strip and press delete todo deleete it. This bien you can deleete the scenes you dont want todo kep (fig. 4).


2. Smooth it: now if you play bak the movie there Will be gaps between the strips. In order todo remove the gaps and Smooth the flow from one strip todo another, we Will add transicións between them. However, y first want todo convert all the strips into a single video strip but it can contain Many video strips inside it with diferent effects applied todo each of them. Why use a meta strip? Well i could have done this edit Even without the meta strip applied but the meta strip is going todo help me later on. How? Well, wait and se. Now select all the strips by holding down the shift key and right-clicking on each strip. Now press followed by enter. You just created a meta strip (fig. 5).



You can toggle inside or outside of the meta strip by pressing the first two video strips. Press add, go todo effect, select cross, and then left-clik todo confirm. You should now have a red strip between the two video strips. This is the cross-fade transición strip. Select the second strip and Grab it using the g key and move it up a bit and drag towards the left side until it overlaps a Little bit of the first strip (se the figure). Now you should have a Smooth transición between the two scenes (fig. 6). Repeat the same procedure with the other strips. You can a los choose other transicións like wipe.



3. The effect: i wanted todo add a Diffuse Glow effect in a particular scene which i have already Cut. So select the middle strip, press add, go todo effect and select Glow. Move the strip just above the video strip and left-clik todo confirm. You can use the g key todo move it. Now if you play the frames of that video strip you should have a nice Glow effect at the highlight áreas. If want todo change some parameters regarding the Glow effect, select the Glow strip and press n (fig. 7). Change it as you like and toggle out of the meta strip by pressing the tab key.



4. The secret of meta strip: here is the reason why i wanted todo use a meta strip in the first place. The video i have is of vcd quality and i wanted todo render it out in DVD quality. To compensate for the loss of quality, y wanted todo add a box blur filter. If had not used a meta strip, y would have todo apply box filter todo each video strip. This could have turned out todo be a very time consuming process if i had todo edit Many individual strips. Now that i have a single meta strip which contains all the edited video strips, all i have todo do is apply the effect todo one meta strip only. Therefore, select the meta strip and press add, effects, plugin (you may ned todo download this filter which is easily available; Windows users Will ned todo download the.dll files while Linux users Will download the.so files). Now browse todo the directory where you saved your plug-in and select box blur filter. You can a los change the parameters of this filter by pressing the n key. I reduced the size slider from 5 (the default) todo 1.
5. Render it: in the buttons window at the bottom- Most screen, press f10 todo switch todo the scene buttons. In the format panel, select the desired format you want todo render your video out todo. I selected avi códec and choose Xvid códec. Linux users can use FFMpeg todo render in a compressed format. In the size x and size y buttons, click and enter the desired resolution you want todo render todo (note: you must enter a resolution of at least the same, or greater than, the original video resolution). Press the Anim button todo render your video file.

There you have it. Your final video output done entirely within Blender, and yet we have not Even touched the advanced features. Blender is capable of much more than this.

Note: i have not yet managed todo get audio from Blender Sequencer editor. I have used jahshaka for that purpose. Jahshaka is a video editing and effects sysimpressive. The latest reléase is versión 2.0 rc4, chek it out as well.

By abhisheque gupta. www.blenderart.org

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