I present a pdf on the video editing. It is for beginners and only concerns generic and synthetic notions. I translated it with DeepL so excuse me for the bad shape.
Any criticism, advice and modification is welcome.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5jf2mny11xpso15/Intro-editing-beginners.pdf?dl=0
Very good introduction and synthesis of basic editing processes with Cinelerra-GG.
All functions and steps are discussed and explained. It is obvious that much of what is mentioned will require the user (especially if he is a beginner) to read carefully the sections concerned in the manual, but he will have been introduced to the basic principles here.
The only aspect I would reassess is the very beginning "1- Collecting material".
At first, when I started using Cinelerra, I too classified my different project sources into separate and ordered directories. I even grouped all the xml files of my different projects together to make it easier to save them automatically and regularly on a space on the cloud.
I no longer do this... it causes too many problems for xml files (which lose their link with sources) when you want to move the directories of a project elsewhere on the computer's disks or on another computer.
Now I place all the sources (of all kinds) of the same project in a single directory along with the xml file (or files) that will be associated with it. I can then move this directory anywhere without the xml file(s) losing track of the sources it uses.
The way each source file is titled is very important to easily recognize them and I always start with an indexing number structured to facilitate a convenient grouping in the list of sources under Cinelerra-GG
Nice! (I emailed you a couple of corrections, if you are interested.)
This is very helpful to anyone who wants to get a good understanding of what an NLE actually can do for a user. I wish I could have had this to read about 5 years ago before starting to work on Cinelerra as I had no idea of what an NLE was even good for. Some parts I found particularly illustrative:
Describing "snapping" as like at "magnet" makes it so obvious what is happening.
"Color Correction and Color Grading. A subject so vast it could make history on its own." I think this statement says it all !!
The emphasis made in the Final render section, especially with the line "So we need to do a lot of testing to get an idea of the results we can achieve." was important to include so that the user either does not get discouraged with initial results, or does not think that using an NLE is trivial. There will be a considerable time investment for better results.
Since I do not use any other NLE, it is difficult for me to ascertain if all of the features described are available in most others, but I think you made it clear that the NLE's all have some differences and some things mentioned may be specific to CinGG only (like background rendering?).
The closing with the line "You can get an idea of CinGG's capabilities by visiting its beautiful website, full of clear and useful information" is especially NICE !!
Phyllis:
I was inspired by a book by an Italian director/editor (Gigi Oliviero). Surely he doesn't know Cin so the workflow is absolutely generic and valid for all software. It is comforting to see that every step is fully supported by CinGG.
In other softwares, background rendering is called Pre-Rendering.
Thanks for the tips. I've changed the text. Is it OK for you?
Pierre:
Thank you for your valuable advice. I have changed the text, let me know if there is a need for further details.
"It is comforting to see that every step is fully supported by CinGG." - I am giving Sam a lot of credit for this completeness as a result of his Feature requests that brought CinGG to what he referred to as the "tipping point".
Thank you for your kind words of praise. I take the opportunity and gladly give my appreciation back to you, I only make the suggestions and you implement them. You and the many other supporters and users deserve my thanks for the great work.
Great work Andrea, unfortunately I could only skim the text. I have to finish another video project for one of my clients. If I have more time in two or three days I will be very happy to take a closer look at it.
Ahem...
Reading the manual does not mention to set a maximum of 12 audio channels (not tracks). In fact, more can be set from "set format" or "new project". Does anyone know if there is a limit? (I wonder where I got the 12 channels out of!).
Max channels for audio is 32 per gg in file maxchannels.h.
