final cut pro equivalent

[BlackLLama]

if i am one who is trained to use final cut pro well, what video editing software would i most be comfortable using with linux

[ad_267]

Cinelerra is probably your best bet. I'm not sure how it compares to FCP, but it's probably the best video editor for Linux.

http://cinelerra.org/
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2003/12/30/cinelerra.html

Lumiera is a rewrite of cinelerra that has just begun, and might be good to keep an eye on. http://lumiera.org/

[diablo75]

I'd check out kdenlive too. It's pretty good!

[wkulecz]

Why I'd love to see good video editing and color managed photography workflow on Linux, to be honest if you actually use any but the minimum feature set of any of the "Pro" or even "Prosumer" video editing packages on Windows or Mac I'm afraid you are in for dissapointment on Linux for the time being.

IMHO too many Linux video editing projects and not enough talent to support them all, thus real-world usabality is low.

I do successfully cut out DV clips and encode them for power point presentations with Kino, but much more and its too much pain so I fire up Windows and Vegas Video to get 'er done.

Older versions of Vegas Video (2 & 3)appear to work in Virtual Box, but I haven't had time to try anything complicated with it.

--wally.

[kayosiii]

Cinelerra is the closest thing on native Linux....
It does take a bit to get used to and definately does not have as comprehensive as FCP is - but it is workable.

Keep in mind that it is designed for use with uncompressed video formats so I would be careful about what I tried to put in
and probably use something else to do final video compression (unless the h264 exporter is now unbroken)

[cotcot]

cinelerra and blender : I guess less performant than FCP but still very good especially when you take enough time to learn all features.

[Athiril]

"Cinelerra is the most advanced non-linear video editor and compositor for Linux." (from the cinelerra webpage).

I find that completely suspicious...

Esp when all the professional NLE's are only available for Linux (FCP, Premiere, etc are prosumer, not high end), for exampel - Piranha.

And there is Nuke, Fusion, Shake (compositors) all available on Linux :/


I'll try out Cinelerra though... my interest is in kdenlive though.


Originally when I tried to try and get Cinelerra ages ago.. the only mirror I could find was broken :/

[commanderzhao]

Why I'd love to see good video editing and color managed photography workflow on Linux, to be honest if you actually use any but the minimum feature set of any of the "Pro" or even "Prosumer" video editing packages on Windows or Mac I'm afraid you are in for dissapointment on Linux for the time being.

IMHO too many Linux video editing projects and not enough talent to support them all, thus real-world usabality is low.

I do successfully cut out DV clips and encode them for power point presentations with Kino, but much more and its too much pain so I fire up Windows and Vegas Video to get 'er done.

Older versions of Vegas Video (2 & 3)appear to work in Virtual Box, but I haven't had time to try anything complicated with it.

--wally.

I hate kdenlive, its nothing like after effects or final cut

[GhostofJohnToad]

Unfortunately video editing on linux is poor at the moment. Cinelerra while being the closest thing to a "pro" video editing software is horrible IMHO. It always seems to be broken and when I could get it to work the workflow seemed clumsy and I could never get basic files to load.(maybe it works ok for some but I lost patience) In my situation I have to keep a windows box around to get things done when it comes to video. This is unfortunately a case where, linux is highly capable, but doesn't have the software to take it to the next level.

But, there are some editors around that can get some basic editing done and a few that could turn into something in time:

http://www.openshotvideo.com/

http://lives.sourceforge.net/

http://www.pitivi.org/

http://www.openmovieeditor.org/

Not ready yet, but if development keeps progressing could be promising...
http://lumiera.org/

Another one to keep an eye on...
http://trac.videolan.org/vlmc/

[andrew.46]

Another one to keep an eye on...
http://trac.videolan.org/vlmc/

You can build a copy of this btw following a recent addition to a guide I have been working on for a while:

Howto: Build the development version of vlc under Ubuntu
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1398119

A bit of a monster guide to work through though... vlmc is at the bottom...

[Funckyfizz]

I wish that people in the community would stop making different versions of the same thing. I'm no media expert but I would of thought that all we need is a good non-linear editor for professional work and one linear editor for simple tasks. e.g. Apple iMovie and Final Cut Pro

[fdrake]

if you use final cut or logic studio (photoshop/ after effect/ cinema 4d and 3dsmax) for your profession, make sure you keep a partition available in windows or mac os in you pc so that you can use that for your work. Do not expect linux-os to have software like those just because you want to use the Ubuntu Desktop. Linux is mainly for servers not for Desktop users so if you are a professional who is being working for several years with a specific application I suggest you to keep a partition of the native os of that app.

I may sound a little bit cynic but I have been in this forum for too many years and I have been reading this kind of threads tooo often. Linux its just an option its not going to solve all your existential problems...

[Funckyfizz]

I'm sorry fdrake but I disagree with you, Ubuntu is designed for the desktop. If you want to use Linux for a server, I would advise you use a distribution like Red Hat that is designed for a server.

Ubuntu is a brilliant, politically correct and beautiful operating system that was made by people for people. There is no reason why there cannot be good open sourse sofware for anything including video editiing. I'm sure people would have said the same thing about web browsers and media players before the birth of Firefox and the VLC player. These are both programs that are regarded amongst the best browsers and media players and are in high mainstream usage.

The problem we have (in the open source movement) is that instead of improving what we have, people regularly start new projects and fork projects. The reason for the success of Firefox is that it is the accepted community browser and VLC is becoming the accepted community media player as well as many Windows and OS X users choosing it. Ubuntu has improved so dramatically over the past few years because when the UN chose it as the operating system for the under $100 computer, Ubuntu has become the accepted desktop operating system.

All we need, to achieve a good standard basic and professional video editor is the the same as everything else- to choose a basic video editor, choose a sophisticated editor and to stick with them, dump the rest and improve. I believe that, like has happened with other software, this will happen for video editors and there is a good chance that VLMC will become the community professional video editor considering the good work the VideoLAN project has done in the past.

[fdrake]

I'm sorry fdrake but I disagree with you, Ubuntu is designed for the desktop. If you want to use Linux for a server, I would advise you use a distribution like Red Hat that is designed for a server.

Ubuntu is a brilliant, politically correct and beautiful operating system that was made by people for people. There is no reason why there cannot be good open sourse sofware for anything including video editiing. I'm sure people would have said the same thing about web browsers and media players before the birth of Firefox and the VLC player. These are both programs that are regarded amongst the best browsers and media players and are in high mainstream usage.

The problem we have (in the open source movement) is that instead of improving what we have, people regularly start new projects and fork projects. The reason for the success of Firefox is that it is the accepted community browser and VLC is becoming the accepted community media player as well as many Windows and OS X users choosing it. Ubuntu has improved so dramatically over the past few years because when the UN chose it as the operating system for the under $100 computer, Ubuntu has become the accepted desktop operating system.

All we need, to achieve a good standard basic and professional video editor is the the same as everything else- to choose a basic video editor, choose a sophisticated editor and to stick with them, dump the rest and improve. I believe that, like has happened with other software, this will happen for video editors and there is a good chance that VLMC will become the community professional video editor considering the good work the VideoLAN project has done in the past.

I agree with you but I wasn't talking about regular Desktop user but about professional Desktop users who pay their bills working with CGI, image, video and sound development. Those software are expensive not only because of the proprietary licenses but manly because of the libraries and the plug-ins that they carry with them. If we were talking about MS Office I would strongly agree with you , but this is not the case. Again in this case I am referring to the professionals working in the industry of movies/music/advertising, not the regular user who is just trying to make a movie editing to impress his friends.

fdrake

[sgx]

Linux is not a community, in the group-hug sense. There are many many
communities, teams, and individuals, as well as bitter rivalries, and opposing factions, at critical development levels.

The software authors themselves have a wide array of motives and goals, and many have graciously shared their work far beyond those borders. So we linux users sometimes fall into the trap of overly
high expectations. A coder, or team, may have spent a man-year
or much more on a software, spread out over a number years, but it is not ours to expect this to be unending, or competitive with funded
commercial products.

It's nice when two linux users meet, but when a third one shows up,
that's when the chairs start flying :guitar::lolflag:

[kayosiii]

I agree with you but I wasn't talking about regular Desktop user but about professional Desktop users who pay their bills working with CGI, image, video and sound development. Those software are expensive not only because of the proprietary licenses but manly because of the libraries and the plug-ins that they carry with them. If we were talking about MS Office I would strongly agree with you , but this is not the case. Again in this case I am referring to the professionals working in the industry of movies/music/advertising, not the regular user who is just trying to make a movie editing to impress his friends.

fdrake

Even by those criteria you are only half right. There are many CGI professionals and companies that primarily use Linux but some areas are covered better than others.

The primary applications are commercial and the best covered areas are 3D and Compositing. Short list applications include SoftImage, Maya, Houdini and Nuke. There are a bunch of auxillery tools (Mari,Mudbox etc) and in the case of large studios inhouse software.

Image manipulation can be an issue simply because the market is dominated by one product and that product is not available natively on linux. Professional studios get around this by running Photoshop non natively (via wine or via a vm).

Equally sound is dominated by protools almost to the same extent in the professional arena. The computer and OS are typically only a small percentage in the investment in a protools rig.

Video is kind of the odd man out. It's not a market particularly dominated by a player but none of the popular commercial offerings run on Linux.

For these areas we must rely on either emulation or opensource projects.

Blender is now at the point where I would consider it for commercial work depending on the requirements of the job. Blender covers 3D, compositing and video. There is no one piece of software that I find completely satifactory for 2D image manipulation. Gimp has colorspace limitations and lack of non destructive editing capabilities, Krita has the capabilities but not the performance. I do find these tools (and Mypaint) sufficient for texture work).

I find Ardour competitive with the commercial offerings in most areas of audio production except producing virtual orchestral music. The caveat I would add though is for this you do really need to know your sh*t, you won't get by on presets and pushing buttons until it sounds pretty.

And video I don't have a really good answer for. Currently I think the closest to being descent is Kdenlive (I haven't tried to do anything complex with blenders sequencer yet). If that isn't good enough for you. Then you are probably better off using a different platform for these tasks.

[no2498]

if your on a good computer lives works well

[tgerbert]

Lightworks is high-end, Academy & Emmy award-winning NLE that's been around for decades, and used for projects like Pulp Fiction, The Departed, The King's Speech, and so on.

Lightworks is currently in the process of becoming an Open Source project, and releases are scheduled for Linux & OSX (I think the Linux version was scheduled for this past December, but has been pushed back, so it must not be too far in the future). Currently you can download the Windows version for free (though technically not Open Source yet).

http://www.lightworksbeta.com/

[shimoda]

I prefer Kdenlive than Cinelerra.

Is easy and works well!!
http://www.kdenlive.org/

[BrandonDaAwesome]

LiVES is a pretty descent video editing software for linux and the best part is that its free.