AMV Relish: OpenShot 1.1!

OpenShot is an excellent example of free and open source software. It is easy to use, even for people who have never used an NLE (non-linear-video-editor).

About OpenShot

Behind every great program, is a great story. Well... I'm not sure if this is a great story or not, but here it is. The author's name is Jonathan Thomas. He is a resident of Arlington, TX, USA. Jonathan Thomas is a professional software / web developer (12+ years experience).

In early 2008, Jonathon first installed Ubuntu. He was very impressed, but like many people, realized immediately the lack of a video editor. For weeks he researched, downloaded, configured, compiled, and installed any Linux video editor I could find. It turns out there are many, but none that met his simple criteria.

easy to use
stable
powerful

It doesn't get much easier then OpenShot, not that microsoft movie maker ins't easy, it's just that it only gives has two options, so it doesn't even count. With openshot, adding a slideshow is super easy, but you can spend hours making look the way you want, by adjusting transitions, picture in picture, add text, and more.

Another cool feature is, you can edit a picture that is black and white, and open shot will fade the shape of your pick, in or out.

OpenShot 1.1.0 Released! from Jonathan Thomas on Vimeo.

It seems that open-sourcing his project was a good idea, because the project has been moving ahead of schedule.

OpenShot's Features include:

Support for many video, audio, and image formats (based on FFmpeg)
Gnome integration (drag and drop support)
Multiple tracks
Clip resizing, trimming, snapping, and cutting
Video transitions with real-time previews
Compositing, image overlays, watermarks
Title templates, title creation
SVG friendly, to create and include titles and credits
Scrolling motion picture credits
Solid color clips (including alpha compositing)
Support for Rotoscoping / Image sequences
Drag and drop timeline
Frame stepping, key-mappings: J,K, and L keys
Video encoding (based on FFmpeg)
Key Frame animation
Digital zooming of video clips
Speed changes on clips (slow motion etc)
Custom transition lumas and masks
Re-sizing of clips (frame size)
Audio mixing and editing
Presets for key frame animations and layout
Ken Burns effect (making video by panning over an image)
Digital video effects, including brightness, gamma, hue, greyscale, chroma key (bluescreen / greenscreen), and over 20 other video effects

OpenShot provides extensive editing and compositing features, and has been designed as a practical tool for working with high-definition video including HDV and AVCH

Screencast of OpenShot Chroma-Key Effect

Screencast of OpenShot Chroma-Key Effect from Jonathan Thomas on Vimeo.

OpenShot Key-Frame Demo!

Getting to understand and use key-frames is very important for getting into more advanced control over your videos. Say I put a thirdy second clip in the timeline. A key-frame can be placed at, the five second mark and another at the end, and then set it to fade, rotate, zoom, and many other thing much more precisely with key-frames.