Re: Editing solutions on Linux

On Thu, 2004-04-08 at 21:29, R. Douglas Barbieri wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 07, 2004 at 08:59:37PM -0500, Michael Duffy wrote:
> > Greetings,
> > 
> > We are considering Linux as part of our pipeline for our next project.
> > Right now we are evaluating the software that we will need to pull off
> > production of a feature film.  One area I'm not familiar with though
> > are the editing solutions for Linux.  Our animation department needs
> > to be able to edit together the shots that the various animators work
> > on.  Currently I think they use Premier on Windows, but that's not
> > available for Linux.  They need to be able to graphically (timeline)
> > assemble the footage and adjust in and out points.  Input can be
> > either a sequence of images (TGA, TIFF, etc), or possibly AVI input
> > would work as well.  It does need to be pretty fast and simple to use,
> > since these are animators, not editors.  The frames from animation
> > will probably be rendered at 1K, but might be in the 800 pixels across
> > range.  Wide aspect ratio images will need to be supported (we aren't
> > working with SD here).
> > 
> > So what is available?  Either a commercial or an open source solution
> > is fine.  Jahshaka doesn't look like it is finished enough for
> > production use.  Kino?  Cinelerra?  Cuisine?  
> 
> I've used Kino and Cinelerra before, but not for any big production.
> I take video footage of my Linux User Group's meetings and edit them
> together. For that, I use Kino. Kino is really easy to use, works great
> with DV cam input, and automates the process of conversion to mpeg2,
> divx or even back out to raw DV. Unfortunately, it doesn't hold a candle
> to Premiere. And I think you might find it's features a bit lacking.

As a developer of Kino, I agree a lot with Douglas' assessment, and it's
nice to have the consideration. How will you output the finished
product? If NTSC/PAL and DV compression are OK, then Kino would be very
simple and quite stable at assembly, basic editing, and very light
effects. However, if you need higher resolution or uncompressed output,
then it will not suffice. DV will do a very good job at holding your
audio/video sync all the way to output. I collaborated on the
development of the Linux 1394 DV driver with a 3D animator who produces
animations for NASA. He made the driver specifically for outputting his
animations because his older, more expensive, NT + proprietary hardware
solution did not have reliable, stable output.

I don't really know this complete workflow; however, I think with
animation work, it is quite often difficult to get the audio track
synced up just right to each shot. Kino completely fails to help here
because all you can really do is import a separately mastered audio
track. Would the audio engineer prefer to just work with video that has
timecode burned in? Would they need a way to sync the DV
output/transport with that of the audio editing app? Or do you just want
an app that handles both audio and video very well?

> Cinelerra is much more sophisticated, offering a timeline a bit more

Cinelerra might be better at handling the audio requirements, and it can
do a lot more in general. However, I understand it can be frustrating to
use as well.

MainConcept MainActor5 for Linux is another low cost commercial
solution. It's not final and released yet, but they have made several
beta releases. Maybe it will be released for NAB?

Then, there is discreet smoke for a cool $68k :-)

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