[kdenlive] Best workflow for large projects

Wed Dec 3 11:26:38 UTC 2014

On Wed, Dec 3, 2014 at 12:49 AM, Simon Cropper <
simoncropper at fossworkflowguides.com> wrote:

> Hi Pascal,
>
> Wow, that is much easier.
>
> After reviewing what I did yesterday I found that I was actually
> physically cutting a segment out of my originals. Considering the size of
> my files I have no desire to create new files as I intend only to use
> kdenline to do my work.
>
> Your drag and drop method, from what I can tell by looking at the XML
> project file actually literally references the original file resulting in
> no new media being created. This is exactly what I was after. Your workflow
> was very intuitive, so I will persist with this for the first few projects.
>
> A quick question. I note that next to the time for the clips used in the
> project a '(2)' appears. If I add two segments from one video a '(4)'
> appears. What does this mean? I presume '2' refers to the video-audio
> combo. Can a clip library be sorted or filtered using this data? That is,
> show only clips used in the project or clips not used in the project, or
> can once you review a directory of clips purge those clips not used in the
> project?
>

Yes, it is the number of clips on the timeline that need this particular
video file. If there is no number, it means it's not used at all, and you
could safely remove it. I believe there is a context menu item that lets
you cleanup all the unused clips. There is also a menu item that lets you
show where on the timeline it is being used, but that has not always helped
me finding it. Not sure how it's supposed to highlight it.

I am not sure if you can actually sort by that number.

>
> [off topic]
>
> Bye and bye, I would like to comment how easy and stable kdenlive is to
> use. I have played with quite a few video packages and by the second day
> after installation, I am usually looking for alternatives. With kdenlive I
> am busy using the gigabytes of video I have accumilated and feel empowered
> to create some fantastic videos for the family, for my work and for the
> foss communities that I am involved. I am dragging clips around, splitting
> audio, applying effects and exporting new media; and the program has not
> missed a beat. No crashes, now weird GUI problems, no file corruption; just
> working as you would expect... :) :) :)

If you go with supported version of distros, and the releases, I found it
to be very stable too. I have at times been using SVN versions, or compiled
it myself, and then you need to hegde for issues sometimes :-)

>
>
>
> On 03/12/14 03:45, Pascal Fleury wrote:
>
>> Hi Simon,
>>
>> I am just finishing such a project, with a few (~15) video files from 2
>> cameras, each file in the 2GB range.
>>
>> My workflow is this, and it assumes that you will watch the whole thing
>> at least once fully:
>> 1- import the videos in full as clips into a project
>> 2- optional: if playback is a bit slow, then switch on proxy clips, and
>> wait for them to be computed.
>> 3- I then prepare a video track called "stock", and watch the clips.
>> While it's playing I use keys to set in- and out-points. When I press
>> 'out', the clip is dragged to the timeline (just drag the clip monitor
>> view to the timeline, it will add a clip taken between the current in
>> and out points). [see this
>> <https://kdenlive.org/user-manual/quickstart-guide/first-
>> project/dragging-clips-timeline>]
>> Once the clip is in the timeline, set the current position to 'in'
>> again, and press play. If I want to skip material, I just wait until I
>> get to the end of junk, then press 'in' again.
>>
>> At that point, I'm not worried too much about exact frame cuts, I merely
>> want to strip off the material I will not use (I had one camera in hand,
>> and I did not stop it even while walking around the public at the event,
>> so I filmed a lot my feet...)
>> You will end up with a chronological set of clips on the timeline, which
>> you can then further edit, reshuffle, and push together if you did not
>> do it yet when adding them to the timeline.
>>
>> I am using Kubuntu 13.04 (I know, should be updated...), kdenlive 0.9.8
>> and have a ShuttlePro-2
>> <http://ergo.contour-design.com/ergonomic-mouse/shuttlepro-v2> so I am
>> actually not sure about the keyboard shortcuts, but I know they exist or
>> can be configured.
>>
>> --paf
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Dec 2, 2014 at 9:03 AM, Simon Cropper
>> <simoncropper at fossworkflowguides.com
>> <mailto:simoncropper at fossworkflowguides.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     Thanks Vincent,
>>
>>     I appreciate your comments.
>>
>>     My responses in-line.
>>
>>     On 02/12/14 18:12, Vincent Pinon wrote:
>>
>>         Le mardi 2 décembre 2014, 16:03:36 Simon Cropper a écrit :
>>
>>             Pretty typical, I presume.
>>
>>         Absolutely common ;-)
>>
>>             I presume when you create a clip with the Clip Monitor and
>>             save it is is
>>             only saving the start and end time, rather than making a
>>             copy of the
>>             segment.
>>
>>         That's it: "Non-LInear Video Editing" (what KDE-NLiVE means)
>>
>>             Consequently I expect there would be memory constraints to
>>             consider on a large project. Multiple files in memory would
>>             eventually
>>             result in a crash.
>>
>>         Segments are not held in memory, the multimedia backend (MLT)
>>         pulls only the
>>         displayed frame at any moment (roughly).
>>         If not, this is a memory leak bug: this sometimes happen under
>>         certain
>>         combinations of MLT version & codec library version
>> (ffmpeg/libav).
>>         Unfortunately the situation in Ubuntu 14.04 is such :-\ => add
>>         ppa:sunab/kdenlive-release or upgrade to 14.10.
>>
>>
>>     I am currently using
>>     http://ppa.launchpad.net/__sunab/kdenlive-release/ubuntu
>>     <http://ppa.launchpad.net/sunab/kdenlive-release/ubuntu> as my
>>     repository
>>
>>             Is it better to create a clip and save it to disk, then
>>             create the final
>>             product using the smaller clips?
>>
>>         No, don't alter your original media.
>>
>>         If your computer seems unable to provide comfortable editing,
>>         try to enable
>>         "proxy clips" in kdenlive configuration (reduced resolution
>>         copies are
>>         automatically generated).
>>         Final render will point back to full resolution originals.
>>
>>         Look at userbase.kde.org/Kdenlive/__Manual
>>         <http://userbase.kde.org/Kdenlive/Manual> for any info!
>>
>>
>>     That's great to know.
>>
>>     For the record, I had searched the manual referenced above but
>>     sometimes it is hard to find the answers to specific questions like
>>     this and the 'Project Monitor' issue Brian helped me with earlier.
>>     Little issues that prevent you from getting your feet wet.
>>
>>     I feel comfortable now, got my togs on, and raring to go :).
>>
>>
> --
> Cheers Simon
>
>    Simon Cropper - Open Content Creator
>
>    Free and Open Source Software Workflow Guides
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