Tutorial: Using Cinelerra to create PIP videos (Page 1 of 1)
Written by
Doug Bonnell
Posted on: Oct 07, 2009 at 07:37pm
Section:
Tutorials
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While the vast majority of my video editing is very simple "linear" editing to remove commercials, join in a title section, etc, there are times when I need to get a little more creative. Things
such as Picture in Picture (PIP), split screen and multi-screen effects can be done fairly easily with
Cinelerra. Cinelerra allows for multiple video tracks and can size/position each track as desired within the overall video frame.
Step 1: Determine the
format of the resulting video
The first thing you'll want to do is
determine the format for your resulting video. Cinelarra's "Set Format"
panel makes this quite simple. For PIP, I set the size to height and
width of the background video. For split screen, I set the width to
twice that of the narrower track and then scale down the wider track.
Step 2: Load your working files
Loading your working files
into Cinelerra's "Resources" window is simple and straightforward. Just
be certain to set the "Insertion Strategy" to "Create new resources
only" in the "Load" window. Select the files you want (they will be
highlighted) and then click the "green check" icon to submit your files.
Select the files you want (they will be highlighted) and then click the
"green check" icon to submit your files. You will see previews of your
files in the Resources window.
Step 3: Setup the tracks for the
resulting video
For this example, I decided to dispense with the audio track. The
default program setup is for one audio track and one video track. I
delete the audio track by right clicking on it and selecting the
"Delete track" option from the drop down menu.
I then add a second video track by right clicking and selecting the
"Add track" option.
Step 4: Drag the work files into the tracks
Notice the red diamond icon
for each track? This lets you "arm" or
"disarm" a track. When inserting a media file into a track, make
certain that it's the only track that is armed.
At this point, both tracks are
"loaded". However, notice that the video for track 2 is longer thant
the video for track 1. Now is the time to click and drag to highlight
the longer section of track 2 and trim it off to make both tracks the
same length.
Step 5: Use the Compositor window to resize/position the tracks
Now the fun begins! The
Compositor lets you see how the two tracks will look in the resulting
video. You can use the mouse cursor to resize and position the tracks.
Initially, the Compositor just shows the last track we loaded, track 2
in this example. We will need to activate the "Adjust projector
automation" mode by clicking on it's icon and then enable the Z axis
projector so we can see both tracks at the same time.
Step 6: Preview your work and render it
Once everything looks right in
the Compositor window (you can even play your resulting video "on the
fly") all that's left to do is render your resulting video. Bring up
the "Render" panel and select the desired options. I usually render to
an AVI file for further editing where I do things such as bring in an
audio track, etc.
A progress bar will appear at the bottom of the main window. Your
video masterpiece is now done!
Conclusion
I tried using Blender for this task, but it's interface isn't nearly as
intuitive as Cinelerra's. However, Cinelerra is complicated enough that
I foresee myself spending a lot more time with it to master all of it's
"video magic".
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