Here’s some fades that work fine. 2 Video tracks. One for video the second for text.
The only issue I had was when pasting the fades they went from 1 second to 3 seconds. Might be a bug. SC 18.05.08
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“The only gotcha here is not willing to try out simple tools within Shotcut.”
I’m willing to try anything, Hudson.
I see what you did in your demo video. I’ll give that a try.
“Given your specific scenario, is this possible with a different editor?”
Yes it is, but the other editor lacks things I need. Actually what I’m trying to do is pretty generic.
This guy shows you how to trim a clip without sliding it on the timeline, but Shotcut doesn’t quite work that way any more.
In addition, the fade in/out filter lets you fade video without fading audio. There are some audio artifacts doing it my way. For fading titles in and out you don’t need to change the audio.
Hey Chris,
If you highlight the text you want to quote, a small popup will appear which when clicked will quote that text in your post automatically.
This makes it easy to follow who and what you are responding to.
OK, I finally got it working.
I am a total beginner at editing with Shotcut. I have worked with Shotcut’s color grading and video levels and that has worked very well. But this is the first time I have used the timeline, worked with transitions, etc.
You guys left out too many details from your explanations and examples for me to duplicate your results without about three hours of trial and error. I also found a gotcha which no one has thought of and devised my own solution. My notes for re-creating this effect consist of 11 steps.
It is a wonderful thing that Shotcut exports to several lossless formats. I will be running my lossless video through a custom ffmpeg script.
EDIT:
You posted that you succeeded whilst I was composing the post below. Well done on getting it working 
I’ll leave the post as it is in case the methods shown below make it any easier for you than the 11 steps you mentioned…
It does Chris. I’ve put a video below which demonstrates me adding titles to a random piece of video using the copy/paste method Steve described back in post 2. It may not be the method I normally use, but it’s straightforward and above all it works. Rather than use the opacity filter I have used the fade-in/fade-out filters because I find it slightly quicker and means you don’t have to worry about moving your key-frame boundaries if you change the length of the clip.
I’ve displayed the version of Shotcut I’m using (18.05.08) and everything works, copies, snaps, fades etc. as it should. If you copy the steps I take in the video you should achieve the same results. I’ve tried to do everything via the mouse rather than use keyboard shortcuts in the hope it will be clearer. I’ve also used both common methods of applying the fade filters (using the add filter dialogue and dragging the tar-balls). The resulting video file is included after the screengrab/how to.
There is no commentary but there is a selection of cheesy70s/80s TV theme tunes to fill the silence 
For reference, the video file I used can be found here:
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Well we tried hard and frankly the instructions I and others gave were quite complete. I’m sorry if they seemed lacking, but we don’t know your level of comprehension and personally I find brevity over verbosity to be a better way to pass on knowledge. Evidently though, it’s not suitable for everyone.
At least now you are a few more degrees into the Shotcut learning curve than you were a few days ago.
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Thanks to everyone who helped with this.
Below are the 11 detailed steps I use to create this effect. They are the product of hours of trial and error. I’m open to suggestion if anyone has a more streamlined way to accomplish the same thing. It’s a lot of verbiage to type so I can understand why the explanations were abbreviated.
I have found that when pasting the video clip to the second track, the beginning of the clip will align with the current location of the play head regardless of whether or not “snap” is enabled. If done correctly, everything will be in sync. That’s why you work from right to left when using the “split video at play head” function. Note: the video alignment will be frame accurate but the audio will not be sample-aligned, so it may be necessary to mute one of the audio channels during the transition.
If the same audio content is on both channels, it may be desirable to mute the audio on the clip that has the title.
What you’ve outlined there Chris is the same as in the video I did for you earlier and Steve suggested initially. Well done for working it out.
The other methods suggested by Hudson555x and myself are alternatives that don’t require you to slice, copy & paste a track, but what matters is that you have found a method which works for you. Maybe you’ll prefer a different method further down the line. I’ve worked with vector GFX for years so I prefer to design my titles/GFX in 3rd party software and import a transparent PNG into Shotcut, but had I not had that previous experience I’d possibly have used Steve’s or Hudson’s method. Experiment with different ideas until you settle upon a workflow that feels comfortable and enables you to produce work you’re happy to put your name to 
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Yup, this is also one method I’ve used when required. Additionally as Xara Designer has an animation module I can create scrolling credits and other animations, export them as .avi with alpha transparency and import this into Shotcut.
I consider this as par for the course when gathering project assets to import into a video editor for assembly. I don’t expect any video editor to have the tools to create everything I need. Which is why I have various tools for various purposes.
Animation examples created in Xara Designer for use in video editors.
(Sound is added later)
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Thank you.
Yes, but as I stated before, those examples lack an explanatory narrative and lack a significant amount of detail, such that I was unable to duplicate the results without spending quite a few hours of trial and error. That’s why I wrote out the 11-step procedure.
If you have a more streamlined way to do it, please share it in words and in sufficient detail that others can follow the steps and duplicate it as I have done. Posting only a screen shot or an un-narrated video doesn’t do it. If you will describe only the steps that make it more streamlined, I will try to incorporate them into my step-by-step instructions, provided they are comprehensible. The demo you posted is very nice but is not explanatory.
For the simple titles that I’m doing, Shotcut’s inbuilt title filter is just fine. If someone had more ambitious title designs, such as scrolling text, I can see the need for an external program.
I’ll make this point again: “Less is more”. Sometimes the understated approach gets the message across better than the overembellished approach.
Personally I find it easy to learn from videos rather than from text instructions. It’s hard to understand what is being talked about if the text instructions are even a little bit ambiguous.
The instructions I posted are for my benefit. They live on my computer so I can refer to my “cheat sheet” when I want to re-create this effect two years from now and I’ve forgotten how (been there, done that). Cheat sheets are your friends. You can’t necessarily look at the effect and remember all the little tricks you used to create it.
Could you be more explicit, please? Do these methods involve the use of an external graphics program?
Restricting ourselves only to tools found in Shotcut, I don’t see a more streamlined way to do this.
Everybody learns in different ways Chris. I’m quite happy with a set of explicit instructions and work well with them, but a video demonstration, with or without commentary, helps too. I have trained people for many years in my day job, and it is my experience that plenty of people cannot follow written guidelines, only demonstration or hands on practice will work for them. Some people don’t have the attention span or patience to read and follow instructions such as you do. Some even find them condescending, hence the contemporary overuse of the “RTFM” & “LMGTFY” tropes. There are book-learners, want-it-on-a-plate learners, can-only-work-it-out-for-themselves learners and multitudes in between.
Yes they do. Restricting ourselves to one piece or type of software in the expectation of it performing every task we want is a sure way of restraining our creativity. Using only the tools available in one program may be effective and productive, but it can often speed up our workflow AND enhance the options at our disposal if we open ourselves to using a multi-discipline approach to achieve an improved result.
Personally I write my script in a word processor, draw/edit my graphics in a graphics editor, do much of my animation in an animation program, process my sound in a sample editor and compile the results in Shotcut.
For the benefit of yourself and any others who prefer step-by-step instructions, here’s an alternative method to adding titles with effects to your video in Shotcut.
- In your graphics program of choice set the canvas size to the same resolution as your video (e.g 1920x1080)
- Draw or import your title/logo/graphic and set the size and position exactly as you want it on screen.
- Export image in full canvas size as a PNG (Portable Network Graphic) which should have a transparent background.
- Import resultant image into Shotcut.
- Place the image on a track above the track(s) bearing your background video in the correct position in the timeline. The image and/or text should appear in the same place onscreen as it did in the graphics editor.
- Apply any filter effects to the image such as fades, brightness etc, or you can use size&position filters with key-frames to produce effects like scrolling titles, zooming text etc…
Once you have grasped this method you can experiment with the tools at your disposal to create more ambitious effects with layers of movement if you so wish. You can also dispense with the need to use images sized to the same resolution as your video once use of the size&position filter becomes more familiar to you.
That is often very true, however not everyone likes or wants the same thing, and audience expectations change over time. We each work in the style that is determined by the client brief we are working to or that (we hope) appeals to the audience we want to reach.
As I stated earlier, my titling requirements are very, very simple so there is not need to go outside of Shotcut for my titles. For me, text with a border around the characters is sufficient. However, some people have more ambitious titling needs, so thank you for writing up the tutorial on using an external program for titling. Shotcut can certainly use more and better documentation.
I’m sure you provide some sort of verbal explanation when you train people by demonstration, do you not? I know I do. So a video without any verbal explanation isn’t of much help.
Pity the person who cannot follow step-by-step instructions. What is a cookbook but a collection of recipes which are themselves step-by-step instructions?
You’ll be pitying a pretty significant section of the population. We have an obesity epidemic in the western world, largely because too many people don’t know how to cook their own food from raw ingredients any more. The trouble with “common sense” is that it isn’t actually that common.
We all took the time and made the effort to try to help Chris, but we didn’t know the specifics of how you prefer to be instructed until you told us. Now we know what you require of us in the way of detailed step-by-step guidance we may be of greater assistance in the future, should we be so inclined.
I’m brand new to Shotcut as stated previously. I finally figured it out after several hours of trial and error.
I can’t be the only one at the bottom of the learning curve 
We’ve seen comments like the above before Chris, so for us to believe that you didn’t need to be led by the hand was a fair assumption, however new you may be to Shotcut itself. If I was training a complete novice to my specialist field IRL I would assuredly go into plenty of detail. For an old hand learning a new trick such as an updated or novel piece of equipment that performs an established task in a new way, I would normally provide far less background information. One doesn’t want to patronise. Now we know the level of detail you ask of us, we can refrain from addressing the problem until we have the time to offer step-by-step instructions, or video with commentary/annotation as you require.
Let it go, Quinn.