2016-05-08

Kdenlive UI: Insert Mode -- Odds and Ends

Now that timeline insert and overwrite operations have landed in the development version of Kdenlive, we finally get the long-time missing insert mode. Formerly, insert mode wasn't implemented at all, and the mode switch disabled in the user interface. So how do the two modes insert and overwrite work...?

2016-05-03

Kdenlive UI: Timeline Insert & Overwrite -- Odds and Ends

Recently, new advanced editing operations have been landed in the development version of Kdenlive: so what are timeline zone insert and overwrite good for and how do they work...?

Kdenlive UI: Track Status LED -- Odds and Ends

As part of the new advanced timeline editing operations that have been landed in the development branch, Kdenlive now has new track status indicators. Each track got its own little signal LED. It can either be unlit, or red, yellow, or green. But what does this status actually signal...?

2016-04-26

Kdenlive UI: Timeline Lift & Extract -- Odds and Ends

As part of an ongoing effort to make Kdenlive more appealing to professional users, a set of new timeline operations have landed in Kdenlive's development version. Thus, they will be released to the general public as part of the next stable version 16.08.0. So what are these new extract and lift edit actions good for...?

2016-04-24

Kdenlive UI: Clip in Project Bin -- Odds and Ends

As part of the ongoing polishing of Kdenlive's usability, the existing function Timeline > Current Clip > Clip in Project Bin has been improved. So far, after selecting a single clip in the timeline, Clip in Project Bin simply selected the same clip in the project bin, with the clip monitor switching to this clip. But the playhead was reset to start and in/out points lost. If you happen to splice long clips a lot, as I do in my screencasting projects, you were probably constantly hunting for the correct out point to work from further...

2016-04-11

New PPAs for Kdenlive on (*)ubuntu

For those on (*)ubuntu-based systems, three new PPAs maintained by the Kdenlive project offer quick access to the most recent stable Kdenlive, as well as to the next upcoming stable version and the current development version. Very importantly, these PPAs also come with corresponding MLT, ffmpeg, and frei0r packages. In particular, some recent Kdenlive features will only work with very recent MLT packages.
  • kdenlive-stable: the most recent offical stable release. For production use.
  • kdenlive-testing: the feature-frozen upcoming Kdenlive stable release. If you run into problems with the current stable, try this if a fix is already available. Also, this gives you early access to bug fixes in advance of the next stable release. May be used with great caution also for production, especially within a bug-fixing release cycle, such as version 16.04 to 16.04.3.
  • kdenlive-master: bleading-edge Kdenlive from git master. Contains new features, fixes, and probably also bugs.
Please note that the ffmpeg package in these repositories is restricted due to licensing restriction. It thus lacks some video and audio encoders.

2016-04-10

Kdenlive UI: Keyframe Interpolation -- Odds and Ends

The upcoming Kdenlive 16.04 will feature enhanced keyframe editing. Kdenlive finally unlocks the multiple keyframe interpolation modes that were, until now, deeply hidden in its MLT engine so far...

2016-04-06

Kdenlive UI: Black is Beautiful -- Odds and Ends

Some seemingly small features may be actual workflow boosters ... but black is actually more than simply beautiful...

2016-04-01

Kdenlive UI: Title Editor -- Odds and Ends

Recently, some nice upgrades to Kdenlive's title editor (so-called titler) have landed in the soon-to-be released stable 16.04 version. So what are we to expect from the titler editor feature improvements...?

2016-03-26

Kdenlive Transitions: 3 Things in 1 -- Odds and Ends

Kdenlive's video transitions are a little bit of a misnomer, at least if the term «transition» is taken literally. This can cause some confusion, especially for Kdenlive newcomers. Kdenlive (by means of borrowing MLT terminology) puts three different things under the same «transition» umbrella...

2016-03-07

Kdenlive UI: JogShuttle -- Odds and Ends

This is another example of the small polish happening here and there all over Kdenlive's user interface: the Configure Kdenlive dialog got a proper jogshuttle section icon. The previous mouse icon was simply too misleading, so I drew up the new icon as a good exercise in Breeze icon design.

2016-03-06

Kdenlive UI: Copy & Paste Between Projects -- Odds and Ends

One of the most important new features in Kdenlive is copy & paste between projects. But instead of a forgetful clipboard, Kdenlive gives use its new library to permanently remember all your best timeline stuff...

Kdenlive UI: Split View -- Odds and Ends

Kdenlive's split view mode allows to split the clip monitor in half: left half with effects applied, right half without effects. Recently, this feature has finally  arrived in the project monitor and improves Kdenlive's workflow significantly...

2016-03-05

Kdenlive UI: Project Bin -- Odds and Ends

Recently, Kdenlive's project tree has been revamped into the project bin. Luckily, there's more to it than just a minor name change...

Kdenlive UI: Transparent Tracks -- Odds and Ends

An important new feature of Kdenlive are transparent tracks. This feature is directly aimed at newcomers of Kdenlive, but may also please some old hands.