Video editing cheat sheet

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A very comprehensive guide for video editing with Blender and additional packages… Use the TOC for navigating.

Blender

Jargon

  • Clip or Strip: A piece of video with or without audio.
  • Trimming: Remove the head and or the tail of the clip.
  • Cutting: Literally, break one clip into two or more parts, new clips, like a knife cut. Alternatively the term is used for removing a part somewhere, like a clipboard operation.
  • Splicing: Joining seperate clips together as one clip.

Procedures

  • Zoom actions:
    • Zoom extents: Home
    • Zoom object: . (period numpad)
  • Cut: K – handles on sides of strip can still be used
  • Hard Cut: Shift-K – for speeding and slowing strips
  • Move: Drag // G-drag // constrain G-<XorY>- LMDrag // G-MMB drag
  • Duplicate: Shift-D
  • Move to time-line: Shift-S
  • Position time-line: To start or end, Shift-LA or Shift-RA
  • Set start and end frame: Location time-line and Ctrl-Home or Ctrl-end
  • Nodes: I – at frame, set parameter (transparancy, volume,…)
  • Fading: Add > Fade…
  • Cross (gamma): Select in order, Add > Transition > Gamma Cross
  • Group: Metastrip, Video+Audio… G, toggle wit Tab
  • Export: Ctrl-F12 or Menu: Render -> Render Animation

FFmpeg

Compression

Example:
ffmpeg -i holly-day.mp4 -vcodec libx264 -crf 30 “holly day.mp4”
or more general:

ffmpeg -i IF -vcodec libx264 -crf 30 OF

IF is Input File, OF is Output. For example holly-day.mp4 or “holly day.mp4”.
-vcodec: Codec is x264 (2024: best choice) or for example x265.
-crf: Quality is 30. 24-30 is okay, much compression, low losses, 34 ~acceptable, c40 visible losses.

Conversion

mkv -> mp4ffmpeg -i “input.mkv” -map 0 -c copy -c:a aac “output.mp4”

ffmpeg -i “input.mkv” -map 0 -c copy -c:a aac “output.mp4”

Alternative resolution

Examples:
ffmpeg -i back.mp4 -vcodec libx264 -crf 27 -preset veryfast -c:a copy -s 960×540 back-s.mp4
ffmpeg -i C0007.MP4 -crf 25 -preset veryfast -s 960×540 test.mp4

Etcetera

Examples:

  • Screencast 5 frames per second: ffmpeg -i IF -vcodec libx264 -crf 30 -r 5 OF

Audacity

Key bindings

Procedure, example, to create key binding, menu:
Edit > Preferences > Keyboard > Search “export selected” > Select “Export selected audio” > Do the keystrokes “Ctrl-Shift-S” in the field > set >…

Extra key bindings for:

  • Ctrl-Shift-S for File > Export > Export selected audio

Existing key bindings:

  • Alt-. : Select > Clip Boundaries > Next Clip
  • Ctrl-B :> Edit > Labels > Add Label at Selection
  • Ctrl-Shift-L : File > Export > Export Multiple

Split stream 1

Basic approach…

  • Position marker -> Ctrl-I (Edit>Clip boundaries>Split) -> repeat
  • Select: DLMB
  • Ctrl-Shift-S
  • Repeat

Advanced…

  • Position marker -> Ctrl-I -> repeat
  • Select: DLMB
  • Ctrl-B > Alt-. > repeat
  • Ctrl-Shift-L

Deeper voice

Drag clip to Audacity, you see voice channel.

Menu:
Effect -> Bass and Treble -> <+10
Pitch -> >-5

Export to mp3 and reposition in Blender

Other tools

Examples:

  • Video information:
    ffprobe file
  • Concatenate, for example security camere clips:
    https://trac.ffmpeg.org/wiki/Concatenate
    LibreOffice Calc example:

    Editor, que file q1.txt:
    Comment
    file ‘filename1’
    file ‘filename2’
    …

    Bash:
    ls -1 > tmp.txt

    Calc, example with B(ack) and F(ront) clips in one directory:
    ctrl-v A
    Data -> text to columns -> _ -> B…
    C: -> =”file ‘”&A1&”_”&B1&”‘”

    FFmpeg:
    ffmpeg -f concat -safe 0 -i q1.txt -c copy 1.mp4
  • Removing silences, for example: https://pypi.org/project/silencecutpy/ .

Create your work space

Installation

Set up, install the programs involved.

  • Blender, download at https://www.blender.org/, use a snap package at https://snapcraft.io/blender or use your repository.
  • FFmpeg, download at https://ffmpeg.org/, use a snap package at https://snapcraft.io/ffmpeg or use your repository.
  • Audacity, download at https://www.audacityteam.org/, use a snap package at https://snapcraft.io/audacity or use your repository.

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