Video Editing On Linux Ubuntu Using Cinelerra
In a previous article I spoke about What Is The Best Video Editing Software? You probably know about video editing software for Windows and Mac, but what about Linux the open source operating system?
One particular software that many Linux users refer to as the ultimate video editing application is Cinelerra.
In this article I will talk about an Xtranormal State animation I made and how I edited it in the Linux distro Ubuntu using Cinelerra.
Why Use Linux?
This is probably the first question you’ll ask, so I’ll try and make it brief. Linux is free as in freedom. Yes I would love to use Final Cut Pro on a Mac, but I can’t afford it. Which I’m sure a lot of you are in the same position especially with the GFC (Global Financial Crisis).
The same goes for Windows, especially Windows 7 the operating system is expensive and NLE (Non Linear Editing) software ranges between $AU1,000.00 – $AU1,500.00. That doesn’t include sound editing software.
Why Use Cinelerra Video Editing Software?
There are quite a few video editing applications you can use on Linux, but I found Cinelerra filled my needs:
- Viewer to view imported footage
- Compositor with many functions to manipulate the camera, projection and view timeline footage
- Timeline with unlimited video and audio tracks
- Rubber bands, keyframes to adjust video transparency, video/audio fade
- Video effects
- Audio effects
- HD editing (Bonus)
- Render Farm (Bonus) using several computers on a network
- Network file sharing
I could go on about the fuctions available in Cinelerra.
Here is the Xtranormal State video I edited with Cinelerra. You can watch it in HD (High Definition 1280 x 720p)
Linux Challenge Editing Video Produced On Windows
I have been making animated movies using xtranormal state, because it’s easy for anyone to make a movie. The problem is, I’m a perfectionist when it comes to video production. Don’t get me wrong xtranormal state is a great program when it comes to exporting your movie in HD.
What I wanted in my movie was:
- Introduction Title by importing a picture and titles
- Add sound effects and music (sound mixing)
- Cutting the movie, where the actors movements jolt
- Add scrolling, closing credits which you always see in movies
Recognition For Youtube Subscribers And Youtube Video Producers
In the closing credits I wanted to thank:
- The people who subscribed to my Youtube channel
- Thank the Youtube video producers whose videos helped me install Ubuntu and learn how to use Linux multimedia programs
There are 3 Youtube video producers I would really like to thank:
- Nixie Pixel – who helped me finally to install Ubuntu on my computer
- Vaasnaad – who helped me learn how to edit video with Cinelerra
- OSGUI Tech Show – because he’s an ozzy like me and because his videos helped me screen capture, webcam and interesting stuff, like using a network on Linux.
The only challenge I faced was the xtranormal state animation was created on Windows XP and exported to the .AVI format.
Cinelerra had problems with the sound. In fact the only sound I could hear was a popping sound. This meant I had to convert the video to a format that Cinelerra could recognize. Thank goodness for the FFMpeg multimedia software(Linux). Converting the video took only a couple minutes as opposed to +1 hour on Windows.
Editing the video on Cinelerra was easy, using the skills I learned editing in Adobe Premiere on Windows. The editing processes are similar.
The closing credits in the movie took some work because apparently the titling function in Cinelerra crashes. I hate it when a program crashes especially when it crashes the whole computer.
I followed vaasnaad’s Cinelerra Titleling tutorial on Youtube using Linux applications:
- Open Office Writer (Linux) – typing out the credits and convert to pdf
- Gimp (picture editer on Linux) – adding the pdf pages in layers and save as one long image
- Cinelerra- importing credits picture and move image (beginning/end) in/out of the compositor camera view.
- Audacity (sound editor) Mixing sound, adjusting levels
Rendering Video In Cinelerra
It was really tricky rendering the video with Cinelerra. Guess what? It wasn’t Cinelerra’s fault it was mine because I didn’t select render the video and audio (Dummy!!!)
Get this, it only took 2 ½ minutes to render 1:17 minute HD video. That is amazing. It would have taken way longer on Windows.
Conclusion
Just writing this article made me reailize, I’ll have to produce some videos on how to use Cinelerra, so you can see what it’s like to use.
