How to make a seemless back and forth video loop? Ping Pong? Rebound? Boomerang?

[Austin]

Step 1: Make the forward motion video like normal.

Step 2: Export the project from Step 1 with an intermediate or lossless format like FFV1 or DNxHR HQ. There are stock presets for these formats in the export panel.

Step 3: Add the video from Step 2 to the end of the timeline.

Step 4: Reverse the video from Step 3. (Look at the clip Properties panel and click the Reverse button.)

Step 5: Export the whole video using a format that supports looping, such as Animated PNG. Export settings for APNG can be found here:

Transparent gif background

If project requirements allow, Animated PNG is a good alternative. Compared to GIF, it can sometimes produce smaller file sizes along with color and transparency depth up to 24-bit. Browser support for APNG is documented here: https://caniuse.com/apng To export as APNG, go to the Export panel and click the Advanced button. Then: Uncheck “Use hardware encoder” Change “Format” to apng Video tab: nothing special is needed for APNG; use your normal settings Codec tab: change “Codec” …

Note that Animated PNG does not support audio.

Theoretically, looping WebP could work too with a loop=0 line on the Other tab, but I have not personally tested this. The file size should be notably smaller than APNG.

EDIT: I forgot, there is already an export preset for Stock > WebP Animation built into Shotcut. If you want a clean video look with no GIF-like pixelation, the quality will probably have to be bumped up to 95% or higher.