Tutorial to edit your video with OpenShot Video Editor

Tutorial to edit your video with OpenShot Video Editor

Last modified April 24, 2020

This site has been automatically translated with Google Translate from this original page written in french, there may be some translation errors

Object

This page aims to provide you with the basics to be able to edit videos with OpenShot Video Editor. This is not a master class on video editing, but this page will allow you, by example, to make your first edits. For the installation of the software you can consult the page on the installation of video editing software.

You can also consult this page which gives a small glossary and the general principles of video editing.

You can also check out the video tutorial below which is about version 1.4.1:

Quick overview of the interface

OpenShot Video Editor is launched from the menu of your favorite distribution or by typing openshot-qt in a shell. By default, Openshot launches with the simple view, the visualization screen is at the top right, the timeline at the bottom and the project files in the box at the top left. In this last box, we distinguish the project files (your raw audio and video multimedia files, commonly called rushes), the transitions and the effects.

From the menu View->Views->Advanced View we will have a more loaded window, the transitions and effects appear permanently, as well as the properties of the selected object. I advise you to work rather on the simple view less loaded.

Be aware that there is always a way to go back from the Edit->Undo menu or redo an action with Edit->Redo, these commands are also accessible via the buttons

Also note the button

that allows you to take a photo of the video in the video preview and save it to an image file.

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Configuration

We will now take a look at the software preferences via the Edit->Preferences menu. We first come across the General settings tab where we can define the default theme, the blender path and the choice of the title editor, by default we can also set the duration of an image imported into the timeline and the default sound volume.

In the Preview tab you define by default the profile of your video with the resolution and the size at the final rendering, be careful for the choice of the size of the video it will be necessary that the original raw videos can allow it to avoid the black bands.

Then there is an Automatic Save tab to, as its name suggests, configure automatic saving to avoid losing data during possible crashes. Then the Cache tab where you can choose to work in memory (by default) or by leaving temporary files on disk (slower, to be avoided!). The Debug tab allows you to activate debug mode (disabled by default).

The Performance tab is quite important because it allows you to activate hardware acceleration and use parallel computing and the GPU, you should not hesitate to use it if your machine allows it.

and here is the choice available with hardware acceleration options

The last tab Keyboard allows you to configure keyboard shortcuts. You will need to restart the software for the changes to be taken into account.

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Importing files

You import the video and audio files from File->Import Files or by clicking the button

under the menu bar. You can also drag and drop your raw files into the timeline. You can also select the videos in the project files and right-click and click Add to Timeline.

Check the format of your images to avoid ending up with two unsightly black bars on each side of your video. To check the format, select a raw file and then right-click on File Properties. This is what I get for a video from a GoPro camera:

Choose your project profile from the Edit->Preferences menu then Preview tab and Default profile (or File->Choose a profile ), the default profile 1080p 50 frames/s will be suitable for HD video like GoPro. Another easier way to access the profile is to click on the button

. In the list of profiles a wide range of profiles is available it would be surprising not to find the one that suits your project. It goes without saying that your rushes must have a profile at least of the same quality/format as your project, choosing a project in HD when you have rushes in PAL will not give a good quality result.

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The assembly

The principle of assembly

Please refer to this page to learn the main principles of assembly.

Arrange clips on the timeline

By default there are 5 tracks that can contain audio or video, their number is largely sufficient for basic editing, if however it is not enough for you, at the level of the track names click on a track then with the right button you can make the following menu appear and add the number of tracks that suits you.

You move your first rush on the timeline by drag and drop. You can view your sequence in the Video Preview section with the VCR buttons provided for this purpose

, you can also click in the timeline at the dated strip

to move the blue cursor associated with the vertical red line

(Note: you must click at the graduation numbers and not in the area where there are only the lines).

The principle of editing is to keep only certain parts of the raw files and put them end to end in a particular order with transitions between the different selected parts (which we will call sequence or clip) and to add some video or audio effects.
The first step is therefore to select the clips that will be part of the final video and to delete the rest. To delete a part of a clip, you have the scissors tool

, you have to select it, it must appear pressed, with the blue cursor you move to the beginning of the clip to delete, it will give something like this

once the cursor is well positioned we click, it will cut the clip into two clips as we can see below

We do the same at the end of the clip to delete. We will play on the zoom

to visualize the complete track, we can also use the

Center the timeline on the playhead tool , which as its name indicates adapts the timeline to place the cursor in the middle. We click again on the scissors so that it no longer appears pressed and we select the clip to delete which appears highlighted in red (see below).

From the right-click context menu, delete the clip ( Delete Sequence ).

You will notice that it is not necessarily very precise, for better precision you will have to place the cursor precisely at the right place, select the clip then bring up the context menu with the right mouse button and choose Cut you then have the choice between Keep both sides, Keep the left side or Keep the right side.

The timeline will look like this with a gap between clips

The next step is to select on this track the parts of the video that interest you by cutting the video as we have just seen. Once this work is finished for this track, you can arrange the clips on the track or even on another track. Now you can drop another rush from the project files on another track (or on the same track, it's up to you) and you proceed in the same way. Be careful if you find yourself in the configuration below with a clip on each overlapping track, in playback you will only see the clip from the upper track (here track 5), to see the selected clip from track 4 below you will have to move it on the track to a place where there is no clip above.

Note that you can use the marker tool

which will place blue markers on the timeline like this

We will then use the buttons

to move from one marker to another and from the beginning to the end of a clip.

Little by little, you will select your clips from your different rushes and position them in the chronological order you want. Don't put them all on the same track, to start with we will be satisfied with two tracks, or even three, you will see later that this arrangement then allows you to manage the transitions discussed later in this document. Make sure that the attraction tool is well pressed,

it is an aid so that the clips connect more or less automatically on the timeline (basically that the end of a clip falls on the beginning of another).

In the end you should get something like this with clips staggered from one track to another in a chronological order that you have defined.

Be careful at this stage you will have to evaluate the duration of your final video and adjust the clips in the timeline accordingly. If you plan to make a 3 min video while you have selected almost 20 min of clips (as above), there is still some selection work to do...

At this point it will be high time to save your project File->Save Project As...

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Create a title

We will now create a simple title sequence that we will place on a separate track, from the menu we click on Title->Title. We have a choice that is rather rich, I choose the title Bubbles 2

If that's not enough for you, you'd better click on Use Advanced Editor which will launch Inkscape. This gives you this:

Once you have saved and exited Inkscape, you will find the title in the list of project files,

For more information on using Inkscape you can consult the online documentation. This type of title remains relatively simple and static, if you want something sexier you will click on Title->Animated Title.

We choose a model from the list then we modify the parameters in the fields on the right, be careful you will have to check if the text fits well in the image, to do this you have to generate an image by moving the Image cursor, we can then play on the size of the font. When we click on Generate, blender will generate one by one the images of the animation, it is quite greedy in resources and time but it is worth it.

Then you will have to place your title sequence at the beginning of the timeline by drag and drop, if necessary you will have to shift the other clips. Below I have optimized the selection of clips to have a video of a little more than 5 min.

Now to view your work, place the cursor at the beginning of the timeline and use the VCR buttons.

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Add a soundtrack

We can now add a soundtrack by loading an mp3 file into the project and dragging it onto track 2, as the first audio clip is too short to cover my entire project, I added a second one after. Here is what it looks like:

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Add transitions

Transitions are video effects to go from one clip to another, we can obviously do without them in this case we will go abruptly from one clip to another. To set up a transition, we must prepare the clips by overlapping them (for the duration of a transition) from one track to another like this:

you will notice that we will not put them everywhere because the excess of transitions can make the video heavy to watch. We now click on the Transitions tab. You choose the transition and you drag it between two clips and between the two tracks as we can see below, that said if the transition is not between the two tracks, it is not very important, it must be on the track above and automatically the transition will be done with the track below. In the example below I chose the Fade transition, the transition is between the 2 tracks between the 2 clips, and the duration of the overlap between the two clips corresponds to that of the transition. Switch to playback mode and you should see the effect of the transition.

	You can play with the duration of the transition by selecting a side and dragging.
	You access the transition's context menu by selecting it and then right-clicking or by clicking on the small arrow at the top left of the transition. It is sometimes useful to reverse the transition, you will need to visualize what it looks like in the video preview, you will immediately understand when you will need to reverse.
Clicking on Properties gives you the transition configuration settings.

This is what it looks like with the Deformation 14 transition.

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Add effects

An effect is a special video treatment that changes the appearance of a clip, you will quickly understand what it is by selecting the Effects tab. Select the effect that suits you and drag it onto a clip in the timeline. In the example below, I chose the Color Saturation effect, the clip concerned is given a letter at the top left of the clip

at the top left of the clip.

Right-clicking on this button

brings up the context menu and the properties of the effect which is displayed on the left of the main screen. For the saturation effect, I change the value from 1 to 2 and the effect is immediate in the preview.

To remove the effect, click on the letter of the effect and with the context menu, click on Remove effect. To make the properties of the effect disappear, click on the cross at this location.

Note that there are a certain number of effects and transitions accessible by directly selecting a clip and making the context menu appear from a right click.

We will see later what this is about. First, we will keep it simple and stick to the method for transitions and effects presented above.

On the other hand, we will remove the sound from the clips so that it does not overlap with that of the soundtrack, in other words we will mute the clips. To do this, we will select all the video clips by holding down the Ctrl key, the clips all pass with a red watermark all around. Now on one of these clips (still holding down the Ctrl key) we bring up the context menu and set the sound level to zero by choosing Volume->The entire clip ->Level to 0%

We return to the soundtrack which is too long compared to the final content, we place the blue cursor at the chronological end of the last video clip. Once the cursor is well positioned, do not touch anything. We can always use the technique of cutting the clip seen above but you risk moving the cursor, in this case we will have to be satisfied with selecting the audio clip and from the context menu choose Cut->Keep both sides or Cut->Keep left side. In the first case we will delete the excess audio clip on the right.

Now we will add an audio fade effect to the audio clip of the soundtrack. We select it and bring up the context menu, we choose an audio fade with the volume that will decrease little by little until it becomes mute at the end of the clip by choosing Volume->End of sequence->Fade out (fast) or Fade out (slow) depending on the considered duration of the volume decrease.

The audio fade at the end of the clip is visible with the two small green lines with a linear decrease in volume between the first and last green lines. We will see later that they materialize key frames.

Fades from a clip will be removed from the same Fade->No Fade menu.

A noter que vous pouvez sélectionner un groupe complet de clips avec transition et effet tout simplement en les englobant dans un rectangle qu'on tracera avec la souris en maintenant le bouton gauche enfoncé, c'est assez pratique pour pouvoir déplacer en bloc un groupe d'éléments.

De cette manière vous pouvez appliquer un seul effet à plusieurs clips en même temps, c'est à dire que pour un clip on va appliquer un effet particulier, puis le clip sélectionné on va choisir dans le menu contextuel Copier->Effets puis on sélectionne les autres clips comme vu précédemment, puis toujours en maintenant les clips sélectionnés, avec le menu contextuel on clique sur Coller, et l'effet du premier clip avec ses propriétés se retrouvent appliqué sur les clips sélectionnés.

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Other refinements

Note that by selecting a clip and from the context menu View->Show waveform, it allows you to visualize the sound volume of the clip. We will use this function to pace the sequence of clips according to the rhythm of the soundtrack. To do this, we will display the waveform of the soundtrack, the principle is to position the cursor during a change of rhythm and we place the passage from one clip to another in the same place, in this case it is not necessarily necessary to put a transition, a sudden passage from one clip to another punctuated by the soundtrack goes quite well.

Still from the context menu, you can create an animation at the beginning or end of the clip or even over the entire duration of the clip. This animation will allow you to zoom in or out or translate the image.

Note that if you add an animation with reduction or displacement of the image, the video will be completed by a black background. On the other hand, if there is a clip on the track below as in the configuration below, in this case it is the clip of track 4 that appears instead of the black background.

From the same menu it will also be possible to rotate clips, be careful in case of rotation of 90°, black bands will be added on both sides. Otherwise you can from the Layout menu arrange a view with 4 different clips, for this they must all overlap on different tracks, the first will be at "scale 1/4 - top left", the second at "scale 1/4 - top right", etc. This is basically what we call a split screen.

Otherwise, still from this menu, we can play on the speed of the clip, in normal speed or can scroll it backwards at x1 speed, in fast mode in accelerated forward or accelerated backward (from 2x to 16x), or even in slow speed forward or backward (from 1/2x to 1/16x). The Freeze & Zoom command is also interesting because it allows you to freeze the image and zoom it little by little, it gives a nice effect.

We saw previously that we could add fades and animations, by default they have a fixed duration, we can play on that, by making the properties of the selected clip appear. In the image below, we have an audio fade in and by moving the cursor from the first to the last green line we see that the Alpha parameter goes from 1 to 0.

If the duration is not sufficient or on the contrary too long, we will move the cursor to the place where we would like to see the first green dash. Then at the Alpha parameter level, we will make the context menu appear with the right click of the mouse and Insert a keyframe. On the image below, a third green line has appeared under the red line of the cursor.

Now we must consider that the first green dash is the 1st keyframe, the second the 2nd keyframe and the third the 3rd keyframe. For the 1st keyframe we will put a value of 1 for Alpha , we can delete the 2nd keyframe which is no longer used and put a value of 0 to the 3rd keyframe. In fact we will have extended the duration of the fade. To obtain an even finer management of the progression between the keyframes, you have the choice between a Bézier or linear curve.

Note that this keyframe principle also applies to most of the properties settings as well as those of animations, effects and transitions. Below we find the properties of the transition Tournoyer 34 which is configurable via keyframes and the Brightness parameter.

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Exporting to the final video

Now you can export your video by clicking on the red button

. You have the choice between a simple export with file format templates or a more advanced and highly configurable export.

If we stay at the Simple tab level, we have different choices of destination format, using hardware acceleration (faster) or not, I prefer the HEVC (H265) or H264 format in an MP4 container.

For the video profile, we have a bunch, I prefer the HD format (1920*1080) with 50 frames per second. For information, an MP4 container with a video in HD resolution using an H264 or HEVC codec is perfectly suitable for youtube.

Complete the export by clicking Export Video

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Securing

Tutorial to edit your video with OpenShot Video Editor

Object

Quick overview of the interface

Configuration

Importing files

The assembly

The principle of assembly

Arrange clips on the timeline

Create a title

Add a soundtrack

Add transitions

Add effects

Other refinements

Exporting to the final video