Just recently switched back to Linux after more than a decade away. (I’m currently running Mint Cinnamon if anyone is curious) On Windows I was using the free version of Davinci Resolve for all of my video editing. I quickly discovered that the free version of Resolve for Linux doesn’t support H.264/H.265 so after trying every Linux video editor I could find (even Blender) I’ve settled on using Kdenlive. I’ve been having a good time getting everything dialed in and learning Kdenlive. I was able to get hardware acceleration working with my Nvidia GPU, and I really appreciated that it could natively utilize the proxy clips that my DJI Action 3 generates when recording. I’ve been reading all kinds of tips and tricks articles but most of it is just basic stuff. Anyone using Kdenlive have more advanced tips to share? Particularly anything around title generation and animation as I’ve found Kdenlive’s system to be a little clunky. Let’s talk!
Davinci Resolve doesn’t support H.264 or H.265 on Linux??? I was planning on installing it soon, that’ll be a huge problem for me…
Correct. I was disappointed to find this out as well. Supposedly it’s due to these codecs requiring a paid license to use. With windows the license cost is baked into the cost of the windows license itself, but of course that doesn’t exist with Linux. It CAN work on Linux if you purchase the studio version of Resolve, but I wasn’t ready to shell out $300 for a video editor when I’m only producing content for Youtube as a hobby and for the fun of it.
It might be quite hard to give full tutorials - I suppose it depends a little on what you’re trying to do - and are your titles intro sequences or other onscreen graphics etc?
The titler within Kdenlive is perfectly functional for static text/shape work, but you may find it easier to produce things externally - I certainly found myself producing the majority of titles in Inkscape - both onscreen graphics and intro pages etc. Basic stuff, i just put the full page in, faded in and out as appropriate. Kdenlive will take SVG and PNG, so you’ve got transparency for different layers of title component.
For bits with moving/sliding/fading components (like in an interview, a coloured bar slides onto the screen in the bottom left, then the person’s name fades in, then their position/workplace fades in, then it all fades out together) - I’d do those with individual components in Inkscape, imported as separate svg files and layered up in Kdenlive, then individually positioned, cut and faded in/out as separate clips (My timelines are normally 8-10 tracks high).
More complex motion graphic work I used to render out in Blender, but I think these days I’d probably use Natron for some of it.
Also, copy and paste as much as possible - work with reusable templates where you can.
If you’ve got a better idea of what sort of thing you’re aiming for (maybe an example of what you want to (re)create?) - I might be able to offer a few pointers at least :)
Yeah, the Kdenlive titler is perfectly workable, and I’ve already created a template or two for quick re-usability. I was being a bit nit-picky ecause everything else has honestly been great. I guess I’m just more used to Resolve where you can have premade title templates that have their own animations already built-in and dynamically adjust to the size of the content. This makes adding titles a snap as opposed to Kdenlive where I have to add my template, then add the content, then manually resize the elements to fit the content then add to the timeline and finally apply animations. What takes maybe 30 seconds in Resolve can be a 3-5 min job in Kdenlive. This could probably be cut-down a lot as I become more efficient though. My title needs aren’t really that complicated.
I would say one of the few downsides Kdenlive has is the lack of the premade templates. I feel like there’s gotta be a site out there for those premade templates that us hobbyists can download and use, but hopefully they’ll just bake that in directly in the future.
The other issue I have is the effects plugins aren’t always up-to-date, so not all plugins work with the latest version.
Not the easiest thing to find, but there is a site for templates and stuff here: kdenlive templates.
There’s not loads on it, and quality may vary. Note that quite a few of these are more like snippets of a project to copy and paste in, so might take a bit of fiddling to get running, compared to just picking “swooshy title #3” and putting your own text in it - but in some form it exists at least :)
Appreciate the link, thanks!
For anyone who’s curious, I went ahead and created a “default” project with the title I normally use already setup on the timeline. That way when I start a new project I can just copy the default template and my title with animations is already there ready to go. Just need to modify the text and it’s good. It’s not a perfect solution, and certainly wouldn’t work for someone who desires to use different or multiple titles per project, but it’s good enough for me. Here’s what it looks like: https://youtu.be/dlGUT0c46Ts