Advice for work

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
1

Hey everyone…
A filmaker asked me to edit her videos, and also to do some camera mapping. I already know that i will use Blender for the camera mapping. But for the actual edit, i am not sure.
So i wish to ask if there is any reason for wich i should just go with the “usual” apps instead of trying to do also the editing inside Blender? I dont have much experience in editing, so i’m evaluating what software to use for the project.

I would like to only use open-source software (found lightworks is going open source too, and my first choice for me is that one, but the transition seems to be causing many problems and is still in beta).

In short:
-if for example i import a raw video inside Blender 2.57 and edit it, at the time of render will it degrade the quality of the frames?
-is it good (not only capable, i mean GOOD) to edit audio along with the vid?

Please be objective, we all love Blender and i will keep using it as long as i can, but my current impression si that the VSE isnt up to a professional edit…or is it?

2

Well, I use the VSE all the time for stringing together images, of course. As for actually editing video with it, well…it’s different. There’s some things that seem really cool, but it doesn’t seem like the most stable part of Blender, I had a lot of issues…enough that I gave up and did the project on a Vegas Pro trial (which I also didn’t like much, I might add). (I regularly used/use Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro at my work)

So anyway, to answer your first question, I would guess it would really depend on the codecs being used, like any other program. Somebody more knowledgeable than I will probably be able to tell you more specifically.

As for audio, I would say it is merely capable, and definitely not “good”, but thats for me.

I will say that it doesn’t really playback well in real time, even on a reasonably powerful system such as mine (i7-740Qm). I had to select frame-dropping or something else to get it to play back in real time, while working with 720p video. I am using Windows 7, for some reason the thought is sticking in my mind that the VSE works better under Linux??

In conclusion, the VSE is a different beast than any other editor I have used…maybe it’s not actually an NLE, and I’m unfairly comparing it or something? lol.

3

http://www.virtualdub.org/ if you need more afvanced filters and effects there are over 200 pligins/filters for it at http://www.infognition.com/VirtualDubFilters/

4

This is another option perhaps:

http://www.cinefx.org/cinefx/

5

The question is what the requirements are. Just some cutting, or actual video editing: compositing, color corrections, masking, font overlays, chroma keying, resizing, resampling, de-noise, de-flicker …

For pure cutting you can take from Windows Movie Maker, VirtualDub, some FOSS Linux Tool up to AVID.
For video editing you can go from AVID, FinalCut, Lightworks, Premiere Pro, Aftereffects…

Lots of choises. I don´t know the feature list, but for semiprofessional use maybe the “light” version of Premiere however it is called might be a good choise.
Otherwise I´d go with Lightworks, it is as professional as it can get in free software.

In our studio we got AVID, Premiere Pro and Aftereffects, and all the cutting is done with AVID. It´s expensive, a behemoth but the kind of russian swiss army knife tank :wink:
We´re also thinking of switching over to Lightworks at some point, but only if it allows video cutting over the net, where the master footage remains on the server and the clients work with proxy files of the footage and on export it takes the master footage. AVID´s not so great there - there is a addon package do do it with AVID but you´ll get a bill with 5 digits not including the cents :wink:

Personally I´d say if it is a thing you´ll do repeatedly, get aware of your requirements and invest in good software. It will save you a lot of time and wrinkles and if you got a few gigs it should pay of quite fast.

Ah remember it… Adobe Premiere Elements. Just like Photoshop Elements. Be sure to check out what features are missing in comparison to the “big brother”.
However, there are several versions, also Premiere Elements Pro… They range from ~60USD to 120USD which I consider very cheap.
There are also Elements packages where you get Photoshop too.

And if the “light” version isn´t for you, you can rent Adobe software now… You got work for a month? Just rent a Premiere Pro and After Effects License for a month. I think thats a great service.

That all said, with the above listed weapons in my arsenal I´ve never used Blender for Video editing, but I think it will become one of Blenders strenghts with upcoming/ongoing Project: Mango. - you´re just too soon with your gig :wink:

hth

6

I’m probably good with some basic video and audio cutting/transitioning on the editing side, and some 3d camera mapping of a few paintings that she wants to add some depth to. There could be some roto involved, but we still have to decide that.

What i wish to make sure is that the software i use will not degrade the audio and video footage in any way.
However i’m waiting further details, i dont know yet if i will be asked something very elaborated, but i doubt it.

7

The degradation question will have more to do with the choices you make when exporting than anything. If you are using a compression codec then you’d want to be sure the quality settings were set to the highest and that the resolution is the same as the original footage. With compression of course there will always be a loss, but it can be negligible if you keep the compression level as low as possible and the quality setting to the highest. Then it just depends on what she wants you to do on your end. It depends on the source footage and what she wants delivered. If she is providing uncompressed video and wants you to export some sort of compression codec then yes, there will be loss. But that is expected. But it all depends on what is required from you.