Wednesday 31 March 2010

VSE comparison Blender 249b and 2.5a2

I think that 2.5a2 isn't stable enough for me to work with yet but it does have some very desirable features over 2.49 that are tempting me in that direction. So here is a direct comparason while trying to do the same thing on both:

  1. 249, when you add new material has it glued to the mouse pointer and allows you to move it immediately to where you might want it. 2.5a2 dumps it in the same place every time and you have to move it yourself. Fortunatey it doesn't overwrite any clip already there.
  2. 249 has a load of meaningless buttons and properties in Scene/Sequencer buttons and 2.5a2 has a very nice and comprehendable set of buttons and properties at the end of the sequencer window. ( you can remover this with the 'n' key)
  3. In both cases the video and audio track are not locked to each other. To operate on both you must select both.
  4. 2.5a2 offers a preview thumbnails on in the file browsing dialoge box, which, seeing as there is no facility for a 'bin', is very useful.
  5. 2.5a2's right click drag works very well here. if you want to trim a clip in 2.49 you have to press 'G' after selecting the handle.
  6. Blender still shows information after you have trimmed a clip as to footage you have not used. 2.5a2 still does this after the clip has been cut with the knife 'K' where as 249 does not.
  7. Big downer. 2.5a2 does not support the space bar to stop and start playback on the preview window. Alt A works but its not quite as easy. I hope someone writes a script to return all the Spacebar functionally back from 2.49 if you want it.
Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound, I think its time to reedit my movie in Blender and see how it goes. My experiences of using the 2.5a2 version is that it crashes a lot so I think I'll stick with 2.49 to maintain my sanity.

Mind you I am very pleased with this layout I did this evening. One preview can look at the final output while another can look at a specified channel. Drag and Drop from the file browser. Kind of gives you a Bin and a triming window.

Tuesday 30 March 2010

Practical Video Editing with the VSE

An easy second post. Read this tutorial
This is the first really usable tutorial for video editting I've found. Definately download the 'Video Editing Preset' blend file. Suddenly I feel the VSE could actually be easy to use.

(http://indiworks.wordpress.com/2009/01/21/editing-with-blender-ubuntu-screenshots-workflow-from-my-notic-nastic-live-clip/ if the link doesn't work)