First Steps - With - Shotcut
First Steps - With - Shotcut
First Steps - With - Shotcut
Video editing program for Win, Mac, Linux - based on version 18.08.14
Shotcut is free software. You can find the latest version at: www.shotcut.org
CONTENTS 1
Shotcut 2 features
Advanced export 5
Hints
First steps with Shotcut - Version 8/2018 © Daniel Schär ( sc haerdaniel@gmail.com ) 1/17
1 SHOTCUT PROPERTIES:
IMPORT
3. Tracks on the timeline can contain different formats (you can mix formats and resolutions)
EDITING
7. Drag-n-drop concept
8. Playback control
14. Audio and video filters for individual clips or entire tracks
POST PROCESSING
VIEW
21. Different color scheme selectable (skins): native-OS, custom dark and light
22. Translated into German, Chinese, Danish, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Gaelic, Greek, Dutch, Italian,
Japanese, Catalan, Norwegian, Nepali, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Slovak,
Slovenian, Spanish, Turkish, Czech and Hungarian.
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2 GETTING STARTED WITH SHOTCUT
2.0 introduction
It doesn't matter whether you have already worked with a video editing program or not: Shotcut is an easy-to-use program
and you will quickly find your way around. If you already have experience with other programs, here are some advantages
of Shotcut: It is not as limited as that Windows Movie Maker, it is also not as complex and difficult to use as, for example Lightworks
or Davinci Resolve. It doesn't crash as easily as e.g. OpenShot on Linux (Debian derivatives) and finally it is not limited to a
single platform such as Final Cut Pro. There are of course some disadvantages compared to other advanced programs
such as full-screen playback, among others. However, these and other features are being planned and will be incorporated
in future versions of Shotcut. See roadmap: https://www.shotcut.org/roadmap/
2.1 Download
1) Open a browser (Chrome, Firefox, etc.) and enter the following address: www.shotcut.org
2.2 installation
Open the download folder where the downloaded file
is located. Open it with a double click. Follow that
Click the following buttons: For a snap / app image you have to make the file The program is not signed. This means
executable. To do this, right-click on the file (or Ctrl + that when you open it, you double-click
I agree, I) and select the file properties Run the file as a the
next, program. Command- Button must be held down.
install There you choose To open.
2.3 Open
Press the Windows key and Press the Windows key and write Press the Command + Spacebar.
write Shotcut. Shotcut. Confirm with the Enter key. Or open Then write Shotcut. Confirm with the
Confirm with the Enter key. the folder where you extracted the file. Double Enter key
click on
Shotcut.app
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2.4 Get to know the program window
Before we get started, you need a video clip. Better to copy it to your hard drive, if it is on an external memory card (SD
card, USB, etc.). When you open the program for the first time, the program may come in English. We can change the
language to German. Click in the menu Settings on Preferences and choose there
Now the window still looks pretty empty. We will now fade in the individual modules step by step and get to know their
function. First of all, we get to know the timeline. Click on the top bar where the various buttons are arranged Timeline. Now
a new area appears: The timeline will be used to store the clips and to arrange them in chronological order. So far we don't
have a clip on our timeline. Now let's add one:
1) Select the clip in Explorer (where you copied it). Now drag this into the Shotcut preview window and release the mouse
button there. Shotcut will automatically play the clip.
2) Press the spacebar to stop playback. Note: The spacebar is used to play and stop!
3) Now drag the clip from the preview window down to your timeline or use the button A
or press the button with the + symbol on the timeline. Your clip is now inserted in the
project and appears with a blue rectangle on the timeline. If it contains a soundtrack, you TIMELINE
can now see it with one
SHOW
3rd 1
Drag and drop Pull the clip
and in the
or on the button
preview window
with the
lay down.
press +
Silhouette.
4) Look at where it starts. Usually the clip is inserted at the beginning. The timeline shows you the seconds and minutes.
Move it once to the right by clicking and holding the button and dragging to the right. Now drag it back to the beginning of
the timeline.
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Zoom out - enlarge
Enlarge timeline. Drag it to the left to zoom out of the timeline. So you will see the entire clip and you don't always have
to scroll back and forth.
Before we start editing the video: Let it be said that you can undo any changes with the button Undone in the main bar
or the key combination
Ctrl + Z.
Note: Even if you delete your clip from the timeline, it does not mean that it is deleted from your hard drive, but only
from the timeline. In any case, it can still be found in your folder on the hard drive.
Video editing primarily involves cutting clips. Maybe you just want to delete a part or maybe you want to divide it
into small pieces that you can then rearrange. In both cases this means sharing the clip.
First you have to place the cursor in the timeline on the place where the division should take place. Now the easiest way to split the clip
is by pressing the button S to press. The other way is by right clicking the option
to choose: Split at the cursor. The third way is to press the button on the
timeline where two squares are next to each other. You can now delete the
first part, for example. In this case there is a “gap” in the time axis. You can
also delete them by right-clicking on them and then on Clear
click.
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You get the same result if you position the cursor on the position in the clip and then the button I. press to cut the
beginning to there, or the button O, to cut off the end of the clip there
While dragging, you can watch the still image on the clip so that you know where to drag.
Main bar
Filters
(audio and
Video)
a) Click the button To save. You can also save by clicking on the menu file - to save or with the key
combination Ctrl + S.
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b) A window opens in which you select the folder for your project. Now enter a name. The suffix «.mlt» (eg
«meinprojekt.mlt») is automatically added.
c) Click on To save.
d) To open a project, simply click the button open file and select the folder and your project there. You can also get there by
clicking on the menu File - Open file or Ctrl + O.
Now you will find the list in the window on the left
default and on the right the different ones
Settings for resolution, aspect ratio, frames / sec, etc. Shotcut takes these settings from the first clip that you inserted on the
timeline. Click the button below Export file. Now a window appears where you can choose the target folder and a name for
the finished video. Click on
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3 FADERS AND FILTERS
Note: Just like editing a clip, adding a transition or a filter is non-destructive, which means that the clip is not really
“damaged”: you can always bring it back to its original state or the parameters of a filter change afterwards.
However, in the current version it is not possible to undo the last step. This means that you have to make a change
manually.
You can change the type of crossfade in the tab properties change where you like other crossfades Cut out, Barn
door, beams, matrix, iris, box, etc. You can adjust the softness of the transition with the corresponding slide button. Tip: try
and apply what you like, but use it sparingly.
You can remove a transition by clicking on it and Delete press. As with editing a clip, applying a transition or filter is the
same non-destructive, this means that you can change it at any time or remove it if necessary.
3) There we click on the plus sign +. A long list of different filters for appears Audio and Video. If you only want to see those
for video either click the small screen icon and or those for audio click the CD icon.
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Find a suitable filter, for example Show video.
Click on it. A window appears where you can make the settings. In this case, it is the
time in seconds that the filter will take from black to full color. Attention: The value before
the last colon indicates the number of seconds. Enter a new value or change the time by
pressing the small plus sign. Play your video (you remember: with the play button or
simply with the spacebar). Can you see what the filter does? Well. If you want to remove
it, press the small minus sign - which is next to the plus, not the Delele button. Pressing
the Delete key in this case would delete the entire clip, not the filter. Repeat this process
with the filter to practice Hide video.
Tip: To find a filter that you need frequently, you can click on the little star * to the left of
the name. From now on
this filter is displayed directly when you click on the Filters tab. You can also insert the two filters Show Video and Hide
Video directly if you drag the upper left corner of a clip to the right (show) or the upper right corner to the left (hide).
Note: If you filter all clips on a track want to apply, it is advisable to apply the filter directly to the track. To do this, click
on the track below the track name and select your filter.
So that you can better understand how the individual filters work, here is a list and next to it the functionality and the
purpose.
VIDEO FILTER
3D text With this you insert a text that has a three-dimensional effect.
Alpha Channel: This allows you to enlarge or reduce a selection that appears as transparent. Makes
Customize sense in connection with blue screen technology (a color mask).
Alpha Channel: Watch Shows the current selection that appears as transparent.
Old film: scratches Adds vertical lines as visible when playing old films.
Old film: Grainy Adds film grain, which is often visible in old films.
Old film: projector Adds the flickering effect that was present when playing old films.
Old film: grit Adds the effect that is visible on old films where the film grain is visible
Old film: dust Adds dust that is visible on the old films.
Old film: Technicolor Adds a color saturation that was common with Technicolor films.
Chroma Key: Extended Inserts a color mask with which you can convert a color to transparency.
Chroma Key: Simple Inserts a color mask with which you can convert a color to transparency
with a single choice of colors (tweezers).
Rotate and scale Rotates and scales the picture. If you activate the third button in the track,
the track underneath will be visible and thus
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the so-called picture-in-picture effect is created.
Color correction Serves the shadows, mids and the highlights. If your video is too dark, you can try to help the
middle up here.
glow Used to make the highlights glow. Better use the color curves if you want to lighten
a clip.
Size and position Serves to enlarge / reduce and position the clip: Ideally by dragging the white corner points
that are displayed in the preview window. If you activate the third button in the track, the
track underneath becomes visible, which creates the so-called picture-in-picture effect.
Hue / Lightness / Saturation Increases or decreases the hue, brightness and color intensity of the image
Lens correction Allows you to correct the lens of a lens (to correct the image).
LUT (3D) Loads a look-up table file and applies it to a clip. LUT files assign a different color to each
color. This allows you to give your video a certain "look". LUT files can be downloaded from
the Internet.
Reduce noise Reduces the film noise that often results when shooting with a faint camera.
Round frame Used to insert a frame in the form of a circle in a specific color.
(HTML)
Rutt-Ezna-Itzer Makes the clip a three-dimensional mosaic with lines (special effect).
Key color shimmer: Allows you to adapt the mask created with the alpha channel or blue screen filter with a wide variety
expanded of parameters (color channels, edge, shape, etc.)
Key color shimmer: simple The same as above, but with simpler means.
text Is used to add a simple formattable text, among other things also with the field commands:
time code, picture number, date, file name.
Video in / out video Used to show the beginning of a clip or hide the end.
Vignetting Hides the image after the four corners (after black).
White balance Used to adjust the color of the white light, which is useful if it is in
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there was a color cast during the recording (e.g. in daylight or artificial light).
Crop Used to crop the image, for example to add the cinema effect (black stripes at the top and
bottom).
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AUDIO FILTER
Hide / show audio Used to show and hide the sound. Can also be inserted directly on the clip at the top left and
right corner with the mouse (via drag-n-drop)
balance Used to position the sound between the left and right speakers.
expander The opposite of a compressor: Increases the dynamics of the sound, so that quiet parts are made
even quieter (eg noise that becomes inaudible).
High pass filter Cut off all basses below a certain frequency.
Copy channel Used to copy the left or right audio channel to the other side.
Notch filter If a certain frequency is greatly reduced, it filters it out (e.g. a whistle, etc.).
compressor Serves to limit the dynamics of the sound and to make quiet parts louder. It is less drastic
than one Limiter.
Limiter Limits the dynamics of the sound strongly. More drastic than the compressor.
Normalize: One pass Serves to raise the loudness of a clip to a desired level with various parameters and
visual feedback.
Normalize: Two passes Serves to raise the loudest point to the maximum with one two steps
1) Determine the loudness and 2) Apply the desired loudness
Low pass filter Cut off all highs and mids above a certain frequency.
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4 EXTENDED EXPORT
The advanced options should only be changed by someone who knows what they are doing, as it is very easy to choose a
combination of codecs, resolutions, bit rates and formats, which is then not valid. To help you better understand which options are
available to you when exporting, you will find an overview of the most important options here.
● resolution in pixels - this defines the size of the video in width and height. If the resolution is low, for example
640 x 360 pixels, round objects appear angular, i.e. pixelated. It is recommended that the resolution be higher
than these values. However, it also depends on the medium. There is no point in choosing a high resolution if
you only want to watch the video on your mobile phone. It is also important to know that the poor resolution of a
clip is not improved just because you increase the resolution when exporting.
Blender.
Tip: Make a trial export! Instead of the entire video, you can only choose a section so that it doesn't take hours to export.
Finally, a few recommendations on the export settings for the selected playback medium:
• DVD player: Codec mpeg2, bit rate 8 Mbps, resolution 720 * 576 (PAL)
• Blu-ray player: Codec H.264, bit rate 20 Mbps, resolution 1920 * 1080
• PC playback (HD): Codec H.264, bit rate 8Mbps or VBR, resolution 1280 * 720 or 1920 * 1080
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• Variable bit rate: No specific bit rate is required. The bit rates below are recommendations for uploads. The bit rate for audio
playback is not related to the video resolution.
• Chroma subsampling: 4: 2: 0
• Frame rate: Content should be encoded and uploaded at the same frame rate as when it was captured. The usual frame
rates include 24, 25, 30, 48, 50 and 60 frames per second. However, other frame rates are also permitted.
For interlaced content, line unbundling must be done before uploading. For example, 1080i60 content should be
unbundled to 1080p30 content. The rate is reduced in line unbundling from 60 interlace fields per second to 30
progressive frames per second.
Recommended audio bit rates for uploads: 256 kbit / s (stereo) or 384 kbit / s (5.1)
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5 REFERENCE: KEYBOARD SHORTCUT
Main menu
open file Ctrl + O Cmd + O
Open others Ctrl + Shift + O Cmd + Shift + O
to save Ctrl + S Cmd + S
Save as ... Ctrl + Shift + S Cmd + Shift + S
Conclude Ctrl + Q Cmd + Q
Undone Ctrl + Z Cmd + Z
Restore Windows: Ctrl + Y, Linux: Ctrl + Shift + Z Cmd + Shift + Z
Full screen Ctrl + Shift + F Ctrl + Cmd + F
reproduction
Play L or Space
Break K or Space
Back J
Play faster L
Set the entry point I.
Set the starting point O
Next frame Right or K + L
Previous frame Left or K + J
1 sec forward Page down
1 second back Page up
2 seconds forward Shift + Page down
2 seconds back Shift + Page up
5 seconds forward Ctrl + Page down Cmd + Page down
5 seconds back Ctrl + Page up Cmd + Page Page up
10 seconds forward Shift + Ctrl + Page down Shift + Cmd + Page down
10 seconds back Shift + Ctrl + Page up Shift + Cmd + Page up
Jump back to the beginning Home
Jump at the end End
Jump to the next marker Alt + Derecha
Find the next marker Alt + Izquierda
Change of view between source and Esc
program
Timeline
Add a soundtrack Ctrl + U Cmd + U
Add a video track Ctrl + Y Cmd + Y
Conclude Ctrl + W Cmd + W
Add the current clip A
Delete ripple X or Shift + Del or Shift + Backspace
Delete clip Z or Del or Backspace
Insert clip V
Overwrite clip B
Share clip S
Choose the track below Arrow down
Choose the track above Arrow up
Zoom in =
Zoom out -
Reset zoom 0
Reduce the track Ctrl + - Cmd + -
Enlarge track Ctrl + = Cmd + =
Reload F5
Select the clip below the cursor Ctrl + Spacebar Select clip
left Ctrl + links Cmd + links
Select right clip Ctrl + Right Cmd + right
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Select clip above Ctrl + Up Cmd + Up
Select the clip below Ctrl + Down Cmd + down
Deselect everything Ctrl + D Cmd + D
Select as clip Enter
Mute / unmute track Ctrl + M
Hide track / Show Ctrl + H
Block / unblock track Ctrl + L
Recently
Append Shift + C
Clear Shift + X, Del or Backspace
Insert Shift + V
To update Shift + B
Move Up Ctrl + up arrow Cmd + arrow up
Move down Ctrl + down arrow Cmd + arrow down
Select element N. 1234567890
Abrir lo seleccionado Enter or double click
Go to / Search ... Shift + Enter or Shift + double click
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6 NOTES
6.1. Play window
Press and hold Shift to skim with the mouse - that is, searching the clip in the timeline without having to hold down
the mouse button.
6.2. Timeline
While dragging the button Old Press to temporarily prevent snapping. In Linux the Old- Button normally used to move the
current window. In this case you press the Old- Button, after this you started pulling.
If you insert a colon (:), however, this will automatically be as timecode understood (hour: minute: second: Frames) or ( Hour:
minute: second. Millisecond). The difference between the two is that the last value follows a period instead of a colon.
Furthermore, it is not necessary to fill in all fields. For example, you can type ":: 1.0" for one second. Not all separators have
to be specified either. - It is always evaluated from right to left. That means you can also enter "1:" for a second or ": 1.0" or
": 1." ATTENTION: "1.0" is not a second because it does not contain a colon. Other examples: ": 1.5" is one and a half
seconds, "1 ::" is a minute, "1:30:" is one and a half minutes, "1 :::" is an hour
1) Go to the menu file > Open others ...> screen. Select the options and click OK.
Now you can see your screen in the working window.
2) Open the tab Export and choose for example lossless / HuffYUV. Then click on
Recording file, et Shotcut starts recording automatically.
4) Switch back to the Shotcut window. Click the menu again Export and up
Stop recording.
5) Shotcut now automatically opens the new clip, which you can now edit if you want.
HuffYUV needs a lot of CPU power, but the files are large, so need a fast hard drive. It is therefore worth the codec x264
with a ultrafast preset to use. Otherwise it is
WebM also recommended to take a picture on weaker PC.
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