Re: [LAU] LightWorks for Linux Demo

On Wed, March 13, 2013 10:48 pm, Thomas Vecchione wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 12:38 AM, Patrick Shirkey <
> pshirkey@email-addr-hidden> wrote:
>
>> There are several options for professional AV editing on Linux.
>> Lightworks
>> has some industry clout because it has been used on several award
>> winning
>> and many successful box office hits. However they have been sitting on
>> a
>> beta release for over 2 years now so that's a bit lame.
>>
>>
> There really aren't several options for professional AV editing, if by
> professional you mean AV editing in need of more advanced workflows. I
> spent some time a year or two ago looking through every available option I
> could find, and even for my, pretty dang basic(*), workflows I need at my
> work they were all exceedingly limited and didn't hold a candle to
> commercial proprietary options out there. Remember professional can mean
> more than just you get paid in terms of both audio and video editing, it
> can also mean something that allows you to work FAST and work through
> particular workflows.
>

If you can't get basic video editing done with Blender then you should
consider trying a new career.

> * In this case I was just looking for something with a usable titling
> solution, I would have used Openshot with Blender integration myself, that
> could easily and effectively do a basic chroma key and mask to allow me to
> overlay the video on top of other video or generated backgrounds. This is
> really what I would consider 'entry' level for most professional video
> applications, and everything out there, if it could even do it, took a
> multiple of the amount of time I could do it in FCPX (Or FCP7) in, time
> which frankly I just don't have, and again my workflow isn't nearly as
> demanding as other studio workflows. This doesn't even touch on grading
> requirements, etc. I should note that I tested the NLE in Blender before
> Tears of Steel was released and that work pushed into main or released, so
> it may have improved there some at least.
>
>
>> With a combo of Blender, Cinelerra, <FLOSS DAW>, kdenlive, Openshot,
>> FFMPEG you can achieve almost everything that Lightworks is offering
>> without spending any money on software. Cinelerra and Blender are
>> capable
>> of pulling off the vast majority of what Lightworks is offering. IMO the
>> Lightworks interface is not more intuitive than Blender or Cinelerra.
>> They
>> all have a steep learning curve and require extensive background
>> knowledge
>> to generate professional quality output.
>>
>
> Blender is decidedly focused on integrating 3D into the workflow, which is
> a good thing. It does mean that using it for straight video work is much
> more time consuming as well though. Cinelerra was just a hassle in many
> ways when I tested it, it was actually one of the least succesful for the
> time and workflow aspect I mentioned above, in no small part due to the
> instability, but also from an aspect of workflow as well.
>

The video timeline and compositor allow a huge amount of flexibility in
Blender. Just because the learning curve is steep and you don;t have the
patience or time to get your head around it doesn't mean it is not
possible for others to achieve seriously high end results.

>
>> For proprietary Linux NLE software you can use Smoke and Maya from
>> Autodesk or Fabric Engine ( basically a proprietary clone of Blender
>> funded by AMD ) and for proprietary 3d generators you can use Massive
>> from
>> the people behind Peter Jacksons animation technology or a selection of
>> 3d
>> game engines like Unigine, Unity, etc... For a proprietary version of
>> FFMPEG you can purchase a license from multicorewareinc if you are a
>> large
>> studio, scientific organisation or government agency and you meet their
>> strict guidleines on gaining access to their proprietary codebase. Hint.
>> First you need lots of money and second you have to be on the official
>> technology sharing whitelist.
>>
>>
> I wouldn't call either smoke or maya a professional NLE for a video
> editor. They are tools to use in the pipeline primarily, for VFX or 3D
> generation much moreso than an NLE.
>

That's your opinion. Lots of studios and professionals use them for editing.

>
>> There are also several open source 3d game engines like cube2 that have
>> advanced features and potential if you don't want to spend money on
>> software as well as the one built directly into Blender.
>>
>>
> Not sure what this has to do with an NLE at all.
>

Content generation. It allows to synthesise your entire 3d environment.
Similar to what you can achieve with ams or ingen. Combined with other
synthesis applications you don't even need an NLE.

>
>>
>> All the big names in the movie industry have embraced Linux (except
>> AVID).
>> It's taking a while longer for the music software industry to get it.
>>
>>
> We have been through this before, you are severely overstating things.
>

So which big names in the movie industry do you know that haven;t embraced
Linux?

>
>> The truth is if they don't catch up soon they will miss their chance. I
>> give it 6 months before the companies stubbornly clinging on to the
>> windows/mac platforms get slammed now that Steam for Linux has been
>> released and all those people who were only keeping a Windows box to
>> play
>> games on are released from that burden.
>>
>>
> I would say you are VERY overly optomistic. This is coming from a gamer
> that uses Linux for his professional audio work, and coordinates video
> work
> with three other people, and none of them would he consider Linux an
> option
> for right now.
>

I would say that you and your team are going to be left behind if you keep
holding onto the past like you are now...

Linux users have already eclipsed Mac users the Steam user stats and Steam
for Linux was only released 1 month ago.

http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey#cat0

It's ok though. When you decide to let go you will find you can fly ;-)

What sucks is that Blender and FFMPEG get ignored by companies like AMD
while proprietary solutions that implement exactly the same tools even
going so far as to use the same language and UI design get funded simply
because the developers are mates with the guys who make the decisions on
funding...

--
Patrick Shirkey
Boost Hardware Ltd
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