New developments in the technology behind Adobe’s products allow some incredible video manipulation from attaching graffiti and text balloons to scrolling and enhancing the video based on the subject’s motion.
“This demo illustrates our research to bring interactivity to video editing: Our system analyzes videos using computer vision techniques, enabling interactive annotation, browsing, and even drag-and-drop composition of new still images using video footage.
This is a joint research project of Adobe and the University of Washington”. (From Vimeo)
A new technology developed at Stanford University called ZunaVision is able to insert an image onto any flat surface in your videos, effectively turning them into a possible revenue system. The technology analyzes the video and compensates for camera and object motions.
This effect is nothing new for the professionals. However this technology has never been available to the open public before. It allows the average youtube video uploader to insert an advertisement image or video directly into their video. This could revolutionize the ads based revenue business model completely.
Loiloscope is a freestyle non-linear video editing software. This is, unlike other video editing software packages, Loiloscope uses a virtually unlimited desktop where you can arrange and organize your clips while editing them. It comes in two versions, one of them free. The only limitations for the free version are the watermark and the video output size constraint.
Loiloscope uses a simple yet very flexible interface that allows both on-the-fly and precise to the frame editing. Probably the best feature of Loiloscope is that you are not limited by the environment. Other software uses a cramped window where they try to fit everything the multi functional editor needs. The screen real state goes away fast with any of this packages. Loiloscope on the other side uses the screen flow to its best. You might not be able to see everything in this workspace at once if you do not have a gigantic display, but with the smart focus feature, you do not need to. You can focus and zoom into any part of the workspace with the roll of the mouse wheel or a single click.
Here you can see their introduction video. It is a bit long, and not the best editing ever (ironically enough), but hopefully you will see all the possibilities of this piece of software:
Loiloscope is produced by Loilo Inc. a Japanese startup funded by Koji Sugiyama and Ryutaro Sugiyama in 2007. Based on the Ecou engine for lightning fast video rendering and the ScopeUI for that ’so simple you do not need a manual’ interface.
NewBlueFX surprised me with an amazing pack of effects. They are the Paint effects and Paint Blends Video plugin collections. They are available for most of the video editing software packages:
Adobe After Effects 7.0 and higher (Video Essentials only).
Adobe Premiere 7.0 or higher, Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 or higher, Adobe Premiere Pro - all versions.
Apple Final Cut Pro version 5.1 and higher, Apple Final Cut Express version 3.5 and higher, and Apple Motion for Intel Macs. (Note: AudioFX are not compatible with Apple Final Cut products.)
Avid AVX 2.0 compatible NLEs for Windows, including: Avid Media Composer, Avid NewsCutter, Avid Symphony and Avid Xpress. (Note: AudioFX are not compatible with these Avid editing systems.)
Avid Liquid version 7.1 or higher
Corel (formerly Ulead) VideoStudio version 9 and higher.
Pinnacle Studio versions 10, 11 or higher (Note: AudioFX are not compatible with Pinnacle Studio products.)
Sony Vegas and Sony Vegas Movie Studio versions 4 and higher (Note: Not compatible with 64-bit Vegas Pro 8.1).
Thomson Grass Valley (formerly Canopus) EDIUS version 4.6 or higher.
This collection brings some good additions to the already outstanding plugin selection NewBlueFX has. One of the most noteworthy plugins is the Cartoonr Plus, which adds important functionality and flexibility improvements over the free version made available last spring. Some others include:
I spent the whole day yesterday figuring out Cinelerra. It is possibly one of the best video editing tools I have used so far. I will say it upfront: It is not user intuitive, period. I spent a few good hours watching over and over the tutorials at Cinelerra’s Documentation Page. I learned the most out of the video tutorials by The Source Show. As with most software, there were a few bugs and crashes, but if you follow the installation instructions for your distribution and steer clear of the know issues, you should be fine. I have tried other solutions, like Kino and KDEnlive, but none of them came close to the functionality and flexibility of Cinelerra.
So let’s summarize the pros and cons real fast.
PROS:
Open Source (FREE)
Works on Linux (Linux uses less memory and CPU power than Windows or MacOS)
Extreme Flexibility
Professional Quality results
Tons of features
CONS:
Poor design (horrible GUI)
Steep Learning Curve
Not intuitive at all
ONLY works on Linux
OVERALL RATING: 4 out of 5
I truly believe that Cinelerra can be great and lacks only a few features of other professional video editing software packages. If you are serious about getting your video just right, or you do it professionally, but do not have the money to buy one of the high end products, Cinelerra is your best bet. You need to take some time to learn the different controls and just how the whole program works, but once you get that under your belt, you will be on your way to make professionally produced videos.
Adobe After Effects 7.0 and higher (Video Essentials only).