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4 Dec

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Twas the night before Christmas, four years ago, I released the first screenshots of OpenShot Video Editor on this very blog.  Over the years, many improvements have been made to OpenShot since those first screenshots were taken, however, none quite so dramatic or important as the new video editing library I am currently developing.

Waveform visualizations can be composited over video, with animated colors.
Waveform visualizations can be composited over video, with animated colors.
As many of you know, I've been working for the past year on a new cross-platform video editing library to power future versions of OpenShot.  This library is built from the ground up to excel where OpenShot has struggled the most:
  • Stability (Crashes)
  • Performance (Multiple processors & cores)
  • Animation & Keyframe Limitations
  • Glitchy Transition Alignment & Compositing Artifacts
  • Audio Crackles & Pops (and lack of speed and direction of audio)

My work on the OpenShot Library is nearing completion, and I will soon release it under GPLv3 license, and begin the journey of integrating it into OpenShot Video Editor.  Here are some of features and highlights of the library so far:
  • Multi-threaded, Cross-Platform (Linux, Windows, Mac)
  • Curve-Based Animation and Time Shifting
  • Powerful Image Editing & Compositing
  • Sub-pixel Positioning & Animation
  • Audio Waveform Visualization
  • Powered by FFmpeg (Formats & Codecs)
  • Written in C++ (with Python Bindings)

While the main purpose of this library is to power a Desktop video editor, it can be so much more than that. For example, it can easily integrate into website back-ends and provide video conversion, watermarking, transcoding,  thumbnailing, video meta-data (such as height, width, aspect ratio, sample rate), and even web-based video editors.  I am happy to provide consulting, programming, or advice, if you are interested in integrating this library into your business.

Okay, so enough with the words and boring technical details!  Here is a quick sneak peek of the new OpenShot library, showcasing a few of the it's features: compositing, curve-based animation, color animation, sub-pixel positioning & rendering, and waveform visualization (with animated color).


OpenShot Library Preview from Jonathan Thomas on Vimeo.

If you want to show your support of OpenShot and our new cross-platform library, be sure to share this video with your friends, make a donation, join our Facebook page, post an inspirational comment, or just spread the word. =) Thank you and Merry Christmas!