Hello, welcome to this short tutorial dedicated to OpenShot Video Editor,
a free to use open source product that allows to make your own videos
quickly and easily, also in case you start from a beginner level. It
is available for all the major platforms of Windows, Mac and Linux.
OpenShot has a very easy user interface that includes the Project Files
panel on the left, the Video Preview on the right and the project Timeline
at the bottom. Now let's see how to realize a video!
At first the project is completely empty. You can add your own media files
by either using the Import Files button on top or dragging and dropping
these from your folders directly into the Project Files panel. This lists
your files with name and thumbnails, organizing these by video, audio and
image files.
Once added you can drop these files on the Timeline. These are represented
as blocks called clips contained inside several Tracks and composing your
final video. By default you have five Tracks available but you can add or
remove any with the options under the arrow button on the left.
These Tracks welcome both visual and audio content complete with file name
and thumbnails. You can also switch to audio waveforms by right-clicking
on any clip and going to Display, Show Waveform. This shows the envelope
of the volume level through time.
To check the content on the Timeline you can hold down the CTRL (or CMD)
key and use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out around the red marker.
Hold down the ALT (or Option) key to move through time instead.
To check the content in detail you have to use the Video Preview on the
right. This shows the result of the Timeline content that is under the
red playhead that you can replace and drag through time to see different
frames. Whereas to playback all with audio use the player below the
Preview. You can adjust the preview properties such as size and frame
rate by going to Choose Profile on top.
Let's see how to edit the Timeline clips. You can click on a clip to
select it and move it through time in the same Track or in a different one.
These multiple Tracks allow you to get different clips overlapping in time
and set their order of visibility. All the clips placed on the top Tracks
are put in front of all the others on lower Tracks.
You can also click and drag the clip edges to adjust its duration. In case
of videos and audio clips, this operation also cuts part of the content.
To copy and paste any selected clip just use CTRL (or CMD) and C or V
respectively. The pasted clip is put right after the red marker in time.
Whereas to delete any selected clip just use the Backspace key, using
CTRL (or CMD) and Z to undo.
Moreover if you right-click on a clip and go to Properties you get the
list of all the clip properties you can adjust such as cropping,
positioning, rotating, scaling and shearing. You can also use Scale to set
the way to get rid of the black bars automatically, by either stretching
the clip or cropping it. Whereas use Volume to adjust the volume level.
To edit these values you can either drag on these or double-click and type
in directly, applying with the Enter key.
Some of these properties are applied statically on the whole clip but some
others change through time becoming green in color and creating keyframes.
Keyframes are green markers placed on fixed instants of time on the clip
that save the current property value set. This way, if you place multiple
keyframes in time you create a transition where the property changes
according to the values saved by such markers.
By default, each clip has one keyframe placed at the very beginning of it
saving all the default property values. If you place the playhead on
another instant of time and change the property, a second keyframe is
created, making a transition between the default and the current keyframe.
With the playhead on the keyframe interested you can right-click on the
property and change the transition envelope or remove the keyframe you
are on.
Whereas if you prefer to edit the same property without adding any keyframe
just place the playhead on the default keyframe at the beginning of the
clip and edit its value. This way no keyframes and no transitions will be
applied.
Besides the Properties panel you can right-click on the clip to apply
other options such as quick animations, video and audio speed rate under
Time and basic clip editing with Transform, moving and scaling the clip
on the Preview directly.
You can also go to Separate Audio to separate the audio content from the
video frames, making these two independent.
Whereas if you want to split any clip it is easier to enable the Razor
tool and click on the clip directly.
With OpenShot you can also apply great visual and audio transitions to
introduce and end content with nice effects.
When you right-click on any clip you can go to Fade to apply fade
transitions that change the transparency level of the clip in time or to
Volume to add audio transitions that change the volume level instead.
Other amazing visual transitions can be found inside the Transitions
panel. Just pick one and drop it on the timeline, creating an independent
blue transition clip that you have to put on a clip content through its
entire duration. By default, this applies a fade-in transition, useful
when introducing a clip content. If you need to apply it at the end of it,
you can right-click on it and go to Reverse Transition.
You can also change the transition length in order to change its speed
as well.
Next to the Transitions panel the Effects panel collects several visual
effects you can apply by dragging and dropping these on any clip. With
the Properties panel open you can click on the effect letter to change its
values while checking the Video Preview. Whereas to remove the effect
just right-click on it.
You can also add great titles by going to Title twice above. Choose the
text template on the left and then adjust its appearance on the right,
including text font and style, content, text and background color. This
creates a new image inside the Project Files panel that you can import
inside the Timeline and edit it as seen for the other clips.
You can also make advanced pieces of text if you own Inkscape or Blender
in your computer.
To save your project use CTRL (or CMD) and S. Your work is saved as a
OpenShot project under a .osp file format.
Whereas to export your final video use Export Video above. On the dialog
box set name, destination folder and choose the Profile to start from. At
the bottom set the video format, resolution, aspect ratio and its quality.
If you switch to the Advanced tab you can choose to export both Video and
Audio or just one of the two, the last frame to take to stop rendering
and all the video and audio properties to use in detail.
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