Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 11
Working with the Video Sequence Editor
Blender is primarily known as a 3D modeling and animation application, but as you have seen throughout this
book, in truth it is much more than that. In addition to all of its other functionality, Blender also quietly holds the
distinction of being the only cross-platform open-source video-editing application worth its salt.
Although Blender is not gunning to replace high-end professional video-editing and compositing suites anytime
soon in large studio pipelines, the Blender Video Sequence Editor (VSE) and the corresponding composite node
system that you read about in Chapter 9, “Compositing with Nodes,” are more than adequate for many common
video-editing and compositing tasks. When the Blender VSE tools are used together, they're much more power-
ful than the majority of inexpensive consumer-grade video-editing tools. This chapter shows you how to use the
VSE to put your animations, video, sound, and composited scenes together into a coherent whole.
In this chapter, you will learn to
• Import, edit, and render video with the Blender VSE
• Create transitions, overlays, and effects for your videos
• Incorporate content directly from 3D or composited scenes into your videos
Introducing the Video Sequence Editor
The Blender VSE was originally created to meet the needs of 3D animators who needed a way to edit individual
animated sequences together to create a completed whole. Previously, there had been no viable open-source al-
ternative for this kind of work. As the development has progressed, the VSE has begun to come into its own as
a viable alternative for many video-editing tasks. Among its advantages is a simple, easy-to-use interface that is
fullyintegratedandconsistentwithotherBlenderenvironments,soitisespeciallyintuitivetouseforpeoplewho
are accustomed to Blender's hot keys and workflow.
Another very nice quality of the VSE is the ease with which it works with a wide variety of formats and
codecs. Because it is not married to any specific proprietary format, it is equally comfortable with
.avi
files,
.mov
files, and most other video or image formats, provided you have the appropriate third-party codecs in-
stalled. Even high-end proprietary codecs can be easily used by Blender, enabling you to work with professional
video formats. This flexibility makes Blender a terrific tool for file-format conversion. No other software makes
it easier to output a video as a sequence of stills, or vice versa.
But this is not all there is to the VSE. The VSE is also a fully functional, nonlinear video editor capable of
handling multiple video and audio channels and compositing them, both with and without the full backing of the
Blender node system. A variety of built-in effects are included in the default installation of the VSE, and it can
be expanded even further with external plug-ins, as you will see in this chapter. In addition to all this, the VSE
