# Flowblade Movie Editor Quick Reference

## Introduction

### Application description

Flowblade Movie Editor is a multitrack non-linear video editor for Linux.

With Flowblade Movie Editor you can compose movies from video clips, audio clips and graphics files. Clips can be cut at the desired frames, filters can be added to clips, and you can create multilayer composite images using compositor objects.

### Film style editing

Flowblade Movie Editor employs editing paradigm that could be called film style editing or insert editing. Other applications that have similar editing paragims include Avid Media Composer and Final Cut X, which calls the concept "magnetic timeline".

In film style editing clips are usually automatically placed tightly after the previous clip - or between two existing clips - when they are inserted on the timeline. Edits are fine tuned by trimming in and out points of clips, or by cutting and deleting parts of clips.

Flowblade Movie Editor provides functionality to set sync relations between clips to help with audio split editing, and creating composite images using two or more clips on different tracks.

## Basic Editing

This section describes the minimal workflow for making a movie using only a single track. Full editing workflow is described in detail in the later sections.

### 1) Creating a New Project

### Menu

- Select File New from menu.

### Project Tab

- Press New button in Project tab.

### Keyboard Shortcut

- Press Control N.

Flowblade Movie Editor saves work in project files. A project contains one or more Sequences of edited media and a collection of Media Files stored in Bins.

#### Project Profile

The main parameter that can be selected for a new project is the project profile.

##### New Project Window

NOTE: Since version 0.8 you can also select number of tracks for the first Sequence here, not shown on the image above.

Video material might internally be scaled to profile dimensions, so selecting Project Profile with smaller pixel dimensions than the rendered output leads to decreased quality. Flowblade Movie Editor handles image data internally as YUV420 frames, so the encoding generally associated with a given profile has no affect on quality before rendering.

For best possible quality the input material, Project Profile and Rendering Profile should all have the same pixel dimensions and pixel aspect ratio.

### 2) Adding and removing new Sequences

A Project contains one or more Sequences. Use Add and Delete buttons in the Project -tab. All Sequences use the same Profile.

When creating a new Sequence, you can choose how many Tracks there initially are in the Sequence. This can be changed later, but the operation destroys the Undo / Redo stack and all the Timeline Clips that do not fit in the newly created version of the Sequence.

### 3) Working with Media Files

Flowblade Movie Editor holds files in Media tab. Files are listed in unnamed table that displays contents of the currently selected Bin. Bins are listed in the Bins table.

#### Opening Media Files

1. Press Add button above the unnamed Bin contents table in the Media tab.

2. Use dialog to find and select files.

3. Files are displayed in unnamed Bin contents table with thumbnails.

Note that creating thumbnails for many simultaniously opened files will take some time.

#### Working with Bins

#### Adding a Bin:

- Press Add button above Bins table.

#### Deleting a Bin:

- Press Delete button in above Bins table. Bin must be empty before removing. A project must always have at least one Bin.

#### Renaming a Bin:

- Double click on the Bin name.

#### Moving files to another Bin:

- 1. Select one or more files in the unnamed table.

  2. While holding down the left mouse button after last selection drag files on top of a Bin in the Bins table.

### 4) Using Timeline

#### Scrolling Timeline

1. Press and Drag Scrollbar below Timeline

2. Scroll Mouse Middle button on top of Timeline.

#### Zooming Timeline

1. Click Zoom In, Zoom Out or Zoom Length buttons.

2. Scroll Mouse Middle button on top of Timeline while holding down Control key.

#### Changing Current Frame when Timeline is displayed on Monitor

1. Drag with Right Mouse button starting from an empty space in the Timeline.

2. Drag with Left Mouse button on the Frame Scale.

3. Drag with Left Mouse on the Monitor Position Bar.

4. Click Left Arrow key or Right Arrow key to move to next or previous frame.

5. Click Up Arrow key or Down Arrow key to move to next or previous cut on topmost active track.

6. Click Next or Prev button in Monitor Buttons area to move to next or previous frame.

#### Changing Current Frame when Clip is displayed on Monitor

1. Drag with Left Mouse on the Monitor Position Bar.

2. Click Left Arrow key or Right Arrow key to move to next or previous frame.

3. Click Next or Prev button in Monitor Buttons area to move to next or previous frame.

#### Switching between Timeline and Clip Display

1. Click Timeline or Clip button in Monitor Buttons area.

2. Drag Media File on top of Monitor to display Clip.

#### Setting Active Tracks

Click Track Active Switch on the right side of Tracks Column area.

#### Tracks Column

#### Effects of Track Active State

1. Cuts are only performed on active Tracks.

2. Inserting Media File currently displayed in Monitor using Insert From Monitor, Append From Monitor or 3-Point Ovewrite buttons places clip on the top most active Track indicated by arrow icon.

#### Selecting clips

#### Selecting single clip

- Click on a clip with Left Mouse Button.

#### Selecting multiple clips on the same track

- 1. Click on a clip with Left Mouse Button.

  2. Click on another clip on the same track with Control + Left Mouse button.

  3. All clips between clicked clips will be selected.

  There is no box selection or any other means of selecting clips from different Tracks at the same time.

#### Deselecting all clips

- Click on Timeline area background.

### 5) Adding clips to Sequence

#### Drag'n'Drop

Press on a Media File in Media tab and drag it on top of the track you want to place it on.

Clip will be inserted on the track at the nearest cut.

#### From Monitor

#### 1) Open clip in Monitor by either:

- 1. double clicking on thumbnail icon,
  2. dragging Media File on top of Monitor or
  3. selecting Open in Clip Monitor from Right Mouse context menu.

#### 2) Select insert range

- Use Mark In and Mark Out buttons to select insert range. If range is not set, then the full clip length will be inserted.

#### 3) Press 'Insert From Monitor' button

- Clip will be inserted on the first active track at the cut nearest of the currently displayed frame. First active track is marked by down arrow in the track Active Switch.

### 6) Cutting and Trimming Clips

Once you have placed clips on the Timeline to form a Sequence, you will probably need to refine the cuts between clips.

#### Cutting Clips

#### 1) Select cut frame

- Cut is always made before currently displayed frame on all active tracks.

  If you wish to cut off piece from start of the clip, drag Current Frame Pointer to the first frame you wish to have displayed after cut clip piece is removed.

  If you wish to cut off piece from end of the clip, drag Current Frame Pointer to the last frame you wish to have displayed, and then move one frame forward.

#### 2) Cut clip

- Press Cut button or press X on the keyboard.

#### 3) Select and delete cut clip piece

- Click on the cut clip piece and either press DELETE key or Splice Out button of Lift button.

##### Use Keyboard Shortcuts

It is much faster to use X key to cut clips and DELETE key to splice out clips than it is to use buttons for the same operations.

#### Trimming Clips

#### 1) Select trimmed cut and side

- Drag Current Frame Pointer near the cut you wish to trim, on the side of the clip you wish trim.

#### 2) Enter 'One Roll Trim' mode

- Press One Roll Trim button or press T key to enter One Roll Trim mode.

#### 3) Select new in or out frame

- Left drag on track to select frame of press Next Frame or Previous Frame buttons.

#### 4) View trimmed cut

- Press Play Loop to view edit.

#### 5) Select new trim

- Holding down CTRL key and clicking Left Mouse on clip starts new trim edit.

#### 6) Exit 'One Roll Trim' mode

- Clicking Left Mouse on empty part of timeline or pressing Insert Move button begins Insert Move edit mode.

### 7) Moving Clips

### 1) Enter 'Insert Move' mode if necessery

- Press Insert Move button or press I key.

### 2) Select clip

- Click Left Mouse on a clip.

### 3) Select other end of clip range if moving multiple clips

- Click CTRL+Left Mouse on the clip you wish to be the other end of move clip range.

### 4) Drag Clip(s) to new position

- 1. If moving single clip, click Left Mouse and drag clip to a new position.
  2. If moving multiple clips, click CTRL+Left Mouse and drag clips to a new position.

  Yellow arrow displays insert point.

### 8) Rendering Movie

#### Selecting Parameters

1. Folder File Select Button will select folder to place the output file in.

2. Name Entry provides means to set the name of the output file.

3. Encoding / Format Drop Down Menu and Quality Drop Down Menu make it possible to select the type of file to be rendered.

#### Rendering output

1. Press Render Button to begin rendering.

2. A Render Window will open displaying information on file path of render file, estimated time left, render time and Progress bar widget.

3. After rendering is complete, Render Window will close automatically.

## Edit Modes

Flowblade Movie Editor has four edit modes, two move modes and two trim modes. When editing user will always be in one of the four modes, except when selecting a Sync Parent Clip, which is indicated by cursor changing to a target cross.

### Insert Move

Splice out one or more clips and insert them at desired cut on any track.

### 1) Enter 'Insert Move' mode

- Press Insert Move button or press I key.

### 2) Select clip

- Click Left Mouse on a clip.

### 3) Select other end of clip range if moving multiple clips

- Click CTRL+Left Mouse on the clip you wish to be the other end of move clip range.

### 4) Drag Clip(s) to new position

- 1. If moving single clip, click Left Mouse and drag clip to a new position.
  2. If moving multiple clips, click CTRL+Left Mouse and drag clips to a new position.

  Yellow arrow displays insert point.

  You can also move clips to a different track.

### Overwrite Move

Lift out one or more clips and insert them at any point to overwrite on any track.

### 1) Enter 'Overwrite Move' mode

- Press Overwrite Move button.

### 2) Select clip

- Click Left Mouse on a clip.

### 3) Select other end of clip range if moving multiple clips

- Click CTRL+Left Mouse on the clip you wish to be the other end of move clip range.

### 4) Drag Clip(s) to new position

- 1. If moving single clip, click Left Mouse and drag clip to a new position.
  2. If moving multiple clips, click CTRL+Left Mouse and drag clips to a new position.

  Red shadow clips show overwrite area.

  You can also move clips to a different track.

### One Roll Trim

Make clip longer or shorter from either clip's end or from clip's beginning.

### 1) Select trimmed cut and side

- Drag Current Frame Pointer near the cut you wish to trim, on the side of the clip you wish trim.

### 2) Enter 'One Roll Trim' mode

- Press One Roll Trim button or press T key to enter One Roll Trim mode.

### 3) Select new in or out frame

- Left drag on track to select in or out frame, or press Next Frame or Previous Frame buttons.

### 4) View trimmed cut

- Press Play Loop button to view edit.

### 5) Select new trim

- Holding down CTRL key and clicking Left Mouse on clip starts new trim edit.

### 6) Exit 'One Roll Trim' mode

- Clicking Left Mouse on empty part of timeline, or pressing buttons for other modes exits One Roll Trim mode.

### Two Roll Trim

Move edit point between two clips so that their combined length stays the same.

### 1) Select trimmed cut

- Drag Current Frame Pointer near the cut you wish to trim, on the side of the cut you wish be displayed during edit.

### 2) Enter 'Two Roll Trim' mode

- Press Two Roll Trim button.

### 3) Select new in or out frame

- Left drag on track to select cut frame of press Next Frame or Previous Frame buttons.

### 4) View trimmed cut

- Press Play Loop to view edit.

### 5) Select new trim

- Holding down CTRL key and clicking Left Mouse on clip starts new trim edit.

### 6) Exit 'Two Roll Trim' mode

- Clicking Left Mouse on empty part of timeline or pressing buttons for other modes exits Two Roll Trim mode.

## Creating Composited Images

Flowblade Movie Editor uses Compositors to mix images from two different tracks. By combining multiple tracks and multiple Compositors complex composite images can be achieved.

Compositors have a Source track and a Destination track. On the Timeline Compositor is displayed as a dark rectangular object that is displayed on top of two tracks. Source track is always the one above Compositor, but Destination track may be any of the tracks below it.

Parameters defining the resulting composite are edited in the Compositors tab.

There is a subtype of Compositors called Blenders. Blenders do the standard blends like Add, Softlight and Darken, but offer no transformations, nor any method to control the amount of blend.

### Compositor Workflow

#### Creating a Compositor

Click Right Mouse on any clip on tracks from V5 to V2 and select for example Add Compositor Dissolve or Add Blender Softlight from popupmenu to create a new Compositor.

#### Trimmimg or Moving a Compositor

To trim Compositor start and end points: Press and drag Left Mouse near either end of Compositor on Timeline.

To move Compositor: Press and drag Left Mouse in the middle of Compositor on Timeline.

#### Editing Compositor Parameters in Compositors Tab

Double click Compositor with Left Mouse.

Click Right Mouse on any Compositor and select Open In Compositor Editor

Edit parameters using value editors.

#### Deleting Compositor

Click Left Mouse on any Compositor to select it and press Delete key.

### Compositor are executed from top to bottom

#### Rendering Composited images

In Flowblade Movie Editor the order of rendering is top-to-bottom, instead of bottom-to-top like in Gimp or Photoshop.

When attempting certain type of multilayer composites this yields results that seem unintuitive, unless the user is aware of rendering order of Compositors.

#### Rendering A Composited Frame

1. For each frame it is checked if there is a Compositor covering this frame that has track V5 as Source track. If such Compositor is found, do composite on Destination track.

2. If next track is Source of Compositor covering this frame, that Compositor is rendered. This is done until there is track that isn't a Source track of any Compositor. That frame on last this track may already been a Destination of a Compositor.

#### Example

#### 1. Creating a 3-layer composite

- In this example we demonstrate how top-to-bottom Compositor order affects compositing. We are trying to make word 'GO' apperar on top of 2-color background made by combining red and blue Color Clips using 'Free Stripes' wipe.

  To make alpha transparency work the GO.PNG graphic has to composited using 'Dissolve'.

  #### clips: RED and BLUE Color Clips and GO.PNG graphic with alpha transparenscy.

  #### Desired result

#### 2. Gimp/Photoshop style layer order yields wrong result

- Here we have arranged clips on the tracks as we would arrange layers in Gimp.

  #### Gimp style layer order

  What happens here is that first 'GO.PNG' is composited on 'RED' Color Clip, and the resulting image is composited using 'Free Stripes' wipe on top of 'BLUE' Color Clip. We get the wrong result.

  #### Wrong result

#### 3. Correct layer order when compositing order is top-to-bottom

- Here we have arranged clips in correct order for the desired result.

  #### Correct layer order

  Here 'RED' Color Clip is first composited using 'Free Stripes' wipe on 'BLUE' Color Clip. After that 'GO.PNG' is composited on top of the resulting image (that is already rendered on track V1) using 'Dissolve' to get final output image.
  Destination track in 'Region' Compositor is V1, Source track is V3.

  #### Correct result

### TABLE: Compositors

### Compositors

Compositor | Description
Affine | Does affine transform (move-rotate-skew) before compositing. Has keyframed mix, position and rotation, and non-keyframed skew.
Dissolve | Does keyframed mix.
Picture in Picture | Does picture in picture composite with keyframed mix and transform.
Dissolve | Does picture in picture composite with keyframed mix, wipe and transform.
Dissolve | Does a non-keyframed full wipe that has the same duration as the clip.

### TABLE: Blenders

### Blenders

Blend Mode | Description
Add | This blend mode simply adds pixel values of one layer with the other. In case of values above 255 (in the case of RGB), white is displayed.
Burn | The Burn mode divides the inverted bottom layer by the top layer, and then inverts the result.
Color Only | Color blend mode preserves the luma of the bottom layer, while adopting the hue and chroma of the top layer.
Darken | Darken takes the darkest value for each pixel from each layer.
Difference | Difference subtracts the top layer from the bottom layer or the other way round, to always get a positive value. Blending with black produces no change, as values for all colours are 0. (The RGB value for black is 0,0,0). Blending with white inverts the picture.One of the main utilities for this is during the editing process, when it can be used to verify alignment of pictures with similar content
Divide | This blend mode simply divides pixel values of one layer with the other.
Dodge | Dodge blend mode divides the bottom layer by the inverted top layer. This decreases the contrast to make the bottom layer reflect the top layer: the brighter the top layer, the more its colour affects the bottom layer.
Grain Extract |
Grain Merge |
Hardlight | Hard Light combines Multiply and Screen blend modes. As opposed to Overlay, the contrast is also increased.
Hue | Hue blend mode preserves the luma and chroma of the bottom layer, while adopting the hue of the top layer.
Lighten | Lighten takes the lightest pixel from each layer.
Multiply | Multiply blend mode multiplies the numbers for each pixel of the top layer with the corresponding pixel for the bottom layer. As a simple multiplication for 8-bit/channel can get values as high as 65025 (255*255), which is far higher than the maximum allowed value, 255, the result is divided by 255.
Overlay | Overlay combines Multiply and Screen blend modes. Light parts of the picture become lighter and dark parts become darker. An overlay with the same picture looks like an S-curve.
Saturation | Saturation blend mode preserves the luma and hue of the bottom layer, while adopting the chroma of the top layer.
Screen | With Screen blend mode the values of the pixels in the two layers are negated, multiplied, and then negated again. This is in some way the opposite of multiply. The result is a brighter picture.
Softlight | This is a softer version of Overlay. Applying pure black or white does not result in pure black or white.
Subtract | This blend mode simply subtracts pixel values of one layer with the other. In case of negative values, black is displayed.
Value | Value blend mode preserves the hue and chroma of the bottom layer, while adopting the luma of the top layer.

Blend descriptions are from Wikipedia and are under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

## Adding Filters

In Flowblade Movie Editor you can add a Filters to all clips to modify output image and audio. Parameters defing output are edited in the Filters tab. Clips will display small filter icon if a filter has been added to them. To have any effect, the filters that modify alpha channel have to be mixed with images from other clips using Compositors.

### Filter Workflow

#### Adding Filter

1. Click Right Mouse on any clip and select for example Add Filter Blur Pixelize from popup menu.

2. In Filters tab: double click on a filter in the currently displayed filters group.

3. In Filters tab: drag a filter from the currently displayed filters group to the Filters Stack table below.

#### Opening Filter for Editing in Filters tab

1. Click Right Mouse on any clip and select Open in Filters Editor from popup menu.

2. Double click on any clip.

#### Cloning Filters from other Clips

1. Click Right Mouse on any clip and select Clone Filters From Next Clip or Clone Filters From Previous Clip from popup menu.

#### Deleting Filters from Clips

1. Select filter in Filters Stack table and click Delete button above.

2. Select filter in Filters Stack table and press Delete key.

3. Select clip or range of clips in Timeline and select Edit Clear Filters From Selected from application menu.

## Clip Synching and Audio Split Editing

In Flowblade Movie Editor you can set clips' positions to follow another clips' positions on request.

This is done by setting clip to be a Sync Child Clip clips by selecting a clip on track V1 as its Sync Parent Clip.

Only clips on track V1 can be Sync Parent Clips. This is done to encourage edit style in which the main body of the Sequence is on track V1 and composites and audio split edits are done relative to the clip sequence on track V1.

Sync feature helps preserve earlier work an multitrack composites and audio split edits when clips are no longer in correct positions relative to each other, because of edits elsewhere on the Sequence.

Resyncs are only done on request to avoid jumping of clips on the timeline while editing. Explicit resyncs are also better from the point of view of avoiding side effects when doing edits.

### Setting Sync Parent

1. Click Right Mouse on clip and select Select Sync Parent Clip... on any clip NOT on track V1.

2. Cursor turs into a Target Cross. Click on clip on track V1 to select it as Sync Parent Clip.

3. Sync Relation is established between the two clips. Cursor turns back into a default pointer. Sync State Stripe appers on the Sync Child Clip.

### Sync State Indicator Stripes on Clips

1. Green means that clip is in sync with parent.

2. Red means that clip is NOT in sync with parent.

3. Gray means that Sync Parent Clip is no longer on track V1.

### Resynching Sync Child Clips

1. Select Edit Resync All to resync all Sync Child Clips.

2. Select Edit Resync Selected to resync selected Sync Child Clips.

3. Click Right Mouse on Sync Child Clip and selectResync from popoup menu to resync single clip.

4. Press Resync Selected button to resync selected Sync Child Clips.

### Synching Composited Clips

1. If apporiate set all clips that are part of a multi track composite synched to the same clip.

### Audio Split Synching

1. Click Right Mouse on clip in track V1 and select Split Audio Synched.

2. Do Audio Split Editing using Two Roll Trim mode to maintain sync with parent clip.

3. Resync Audio as needed.

### Clearing Sync Parent relation

1. Click Right Mouse on Sync Child Clip and select Clear Sync Relation.

## Slow / Fast Motion

In Flowblade motion effects are achived by rendering slow / fast motion versions of video clips and placing those on the timeline.

## 1) Open Motion Render Dialog

- Right Mouse click on a Media File and select Render Slow / Fast Motion File from menu

## 2) Edit parameters for the new motion Clip

- a) Set speed

- b) Give name and location for motion Clip

- c) Select rendering parameters for motion Clip. It is probably a good idea to use a lossless format here to avoid any generational quality losses.

- d) Select render range, either: a) Full Source Clip, b) From Source Clip Mark In to Mark Out

## 3) Create Motion Clip

- Click Render button to create a new motion Clip

## Rendering

This section gives in-depth information of rendering output in Flowblade Movie Editor.

### Rendering behind the scenes: MLT and libavformat(FFMpeg)

Flowblade Movie Editor is a Python application interfacing to MLT multitrack media framework. Other video editing applications build on top of MLT include OpenShot and Kdenlive.

MLT uses C-library libavformat(FFMpeg) to render output files, and rendering is defined by setting FFMpeg encoding parameters. These parameters are delivered from Flowblade Movie Editor to MLT by creating a "avformat" Consumer object for a given Render Profile, and then setting its Rendering Args. These latter arguments are exactly the same which are used when using FFmpeg to encode video files.

Rendering arguments for encoding different types of video files are pre-packed and can be selected using Encocing / Format and Quality Drop Down Menus. Arguments can be refined by checking Render with args Checkbox and changing args values and/or adding/removing args.

Any kind of video files supported by the installed version of MLT can be encoded by creating a user defined Render Profile and setting its Rendering Args. Google for FFMpeg encoding to find Args combinations for different video files.

Search web for information on encoding files with FFMpeg to get examples of Rendering Args that can be used.

### Flowblade rendering pipeline

## Tools

### Titler

### Working with Titler

1. Add and remove layers in Layers area

2. Edit layer properties and text in Active Layer area

3. Set text position by dragging the active layer around in the View Editor area.

4. Set background image from Timeline to position texts appropriately by dragging frame pointer in the Position Bar

5. Load and Save layers data in Layers Area

## Appendix A: Buttons

### Timeline Buttons and Position Timecode Display

#### Buttons Functionality

#### 1. Position Timecode Display

#### 2. Edit Mode buttons

1. Overwrite Move

2. Insert Move

3. One Roll Trim

4. Two Roll Trim

#### 3. Undo / Redo buttons

1. Undo

2. Redo

#### 4. Zoom buttons

1. Zoom In

2. Zoom Out

3. Zoom To Sequence Length

#### 5. Edit Action buttons

1. Lift Clip

2. Splice Out Clip

3. Cut Clip

4. Resync Selected Clips

#### 6. Monitor Clip Insert buttons

1. Range Overwrite

2. 3 - Point Overwrite

3. Insert At Closest Cut To Current Frame

4. Append At Track End

### Monitor Buttons and Position Bar

#### Buttons Functionality

1. Timeline and Clip Monitor buttons.

2. Position Bar

3. FF and Rewind buttons.

4. Previous Frame and Next Frame buttons.

5. Play and Stop buttons.

6. Set In Point and Set Out Point buttons.

7. Go To In Point and Go To Out Point buttons.

8. Clear In And Out Points button.

9. Monitor View Select button: Program Video/Vectorscope/RGBParade.

## Appendix B: Keyboard Shortcuts

### General Shortcuts

These are always available.

Keyboard Shortcut | Function
Control + n | Create New Project
Control + s | Save Project
Delete | Delete selected item
Escape | Stop rendering waveform image
Control + q | Quit application
Control + z | Undo
Control + y | Redo
Control + o | Open Project

### Timeline Shortcuts

These are only available if timeline or related widget has keyboard focus.

Keyboard Shortcut | Function
- | Zoom Out
+ | Zoom In
Left Arrow | Previous Frame
Right Arrow | Next Frame
Up Arrow | Next Cut
Down Arrow | Previous Cut
j | Next Backwards Playback Speed
k | Pause Playback
l | Next Forward Playback Speed
t | 3 Point Overwrite Insert
y | Insert
u | Append
x | Cut Clip
Delete | Deleted selected clips on blanks
i | Set Mark In
o | Set Mark Out
Space | Start/Stop playback

### Geometry Editor Shortcuts

These are only available if Geometry Editor widget (in Picture in Picture or Region Compositors) has keyboard focus.

Keyboard Shortcut | Function
Left Arrow | Move Source Video Left
Right Arrow | Move Source Video Right
Up Arrow | Move Source Video Up
Down Arrow | Move Source Video Down