I am a novice and I hope the questions I am asking aren’t too advanced. I am just getting the hang of things. I recently downloaded shotcut and I like how simple and easy it is to use. However, there are some drawbacks to the software when it comes to features. I would like to create different styles like blur and text overlays in html and I tried a couple of examples but the style wasn’t what I had in mind. I hope my request doesn’t come in like “spam” I really don’t know what I am doing and I would like some help/answers on how to achieve these type of features on Shotcut.
Here are some features I’d like to create:
3:30 mark how do you create blur feature in the background like this youtube video? I’d like to focus on one picture and have the rest of the background blurry. The image in the center is animated and it slowly moves inward and outward.
This topic is more of a “How to” so I switched the category of the thread to it from “Suggestion”.
Your second request with the circle animations seems like something that would be done with a compositor or a 3D animation program. It could be done with Shotcut but you would have to bring the images of the circles to animate them. You can create those shapes in GIMP and bring those pieces into Shotcut. The other two you asked about are easily possible with Shotcut.
You can create this by taking the image and repeating it on two video tracks. Let’s say it’s V1 and V2 and let’s assume the image is that magazine cover they had in that video. Take the image on V1 and use the Size & Position filter with the Distort option ticked to stretch the image to fill the screen. Then use one of the Blur filters to blur the image to your liking. Now on V2 have the magazine image in regular size and use either the Size and Position or the Rotate and Scale filters to keyframe the zoom in and out.
To achieve the effect as seen in that video, you would need to apply one of the Blur filters as well as the Brightness filter and keyframe both filters to time when it is you want the blur to come in and the image to get darker. Then on the video track above it add a transparent clip with text on it. You can access it quickly by clicking on Open Other then picking Text. Write the text and set the size, font, color, placement, etc… Then you can drag the text to the place in the timeline where you want the text to appear after the blurring and shading of the video happens. You can also hit the + button on the playlist menu while your text clip is in the Source tab of the preview window.
I’m not sure if you are saying you know how to write HTML but if you do that Text HTML could achieve great effects with text. Our @jonray has done some really good tutorials on the Text HMTL filter. There are 4 parts to them:
Thank you for the informative reply. I checked out his youtube channel and tested out those examples. But I didn’t see any videos on blurring backgrounds while focusing on one particular image or text in the center like the examples in the video I provided above. I guess I’m just kind of stuck and haven’t mastered html I only know the basics. I get frustrated when I have something in mind but can’t create it. Are there any videos on using animation from one application then to Shotcut?
jonray’s videos were not about blurring backgrounds. I gave you tips on how to achieve that effect. I mentioned jonray’s videos in regards to the Text HTML filter in case you want to explore that option and also recommend his channel for his other tutorials in case there are useful tips you see that you would want to apply to your videos.
You don’t have to use the same image twice to get the blur effect, but just copied the idea from your example video. But you do need to bottom image/video to be on V1 or the bottom most track when applying filters.
Can you show me a frame by frame breakdown of the process of the last two images? I tried it and when I click open + folder to click text and I write in the box the screen I’m working on is black with the text in the middle and no image in the background. I know how to add blur to my images and I do that successfully but I am unable to achieve the text and blurred background like the image above.
v1 and v2 I put a picture in and I blur v1 and in v2 I am unable to add text and have the blurred image in the background. I can’t figure out what step I am missing.
From your original video example, they gradually blurred in the image then put text up, which is why you need to use Keyframes for a nice transition into a blurred state from a non-blurred state. Otherwise the image will immediately turn blurred. I suggest going through the Keyframe tutorial just practice keyframing. I’m sure I could have used more points in my keyframe example, but that is up to the person doing the editing in what style they prefer.
This was done with multiple masks, text filter, size and position, rotate and scale, and opacity. The tricky part is synchronizing key frames across multiple tracks…
@Hudson555x Thanks! It definitely works! @sauron I like the visual graphics. What are the opacity dimensions/percentage used to achieve the look? Did you use an animation application to make the circle move upward? If so which one? What type of masks are used (categories: mask apply, mask from file or mask simple shape)? Can you provide a breakdown with pictures?
You don’t have to use the Shotcut text editor, as you could make up text in a graphic editor like GIMP to get the exact desired look you want. Shotcut’s text editor is great for what it is, but it’s not a graphic editor. The image is exported at 1920x1080, the same size as my video mode. That way it’s positioned exactly where I want it. No filters on V2.
One trick I do in GIMP is to take from Shotcut (File - Export Frame) then open that as a base layer, then make a text layer on top, then just hide the bottom layer, export as transparent PNG.
