Automove clips to insert new

[Santiago Romero]

Hi.

 This is not a bug, it's a suggestion, but I don't know how to classify it as "wishlist" / "suggestion".

 The main problem in OpenShot is removing and adding new clips in the beginning/middle of the timeline when your project has grown, as you end moving manually all clips or counting "duration" to use the "Shift clips" tool to move them with offset.

1. REMOVING CLIPS:

 Currently I check clip properties, write down in a paper the Duration, and use the "Shift Clips" feature with -duration (negative value) to move all clips back in time and fill the gap, but it would be very nice to have the option to "autocollapse" clips to fill gaps:

[CLIP1].....[CLIP2][CLIP3].....[CLIP4]

(You click in AUTOCOLLAPSE)

[CLIP1][CLIP2][CLIP3][CLIP4]

 This way you can happily remove clips and rearrange the timeline automatically. If you need to insert a new clip,

[EDIT - this is now implemented, see comment #4]

2.- ADDING CLIPS:

 Currently I check the new clip properties, write down in a paper the Duration, and use the "Move Clips" feature with +duration to leave gap for the clip, and then I move it.

 It would be nice to have an option to add an item to the timeline automatically moving all the clips in that point after or before it.

 Besides those 2 suggestions, if you also correct the following bugs, Openshot would be almost perfect, surely the best video editor available in Linux:

3.- Fade In/Out Glitches Bug:
 https://bugs.launchpad.net/openshot/+bug/520941

4.- Icons etc. disappearing
 https://bugs.launchpad.net/openshot/+bug/505578

 Please, keep the GOOD work.

 A release adding / correcting the previous 4 features / bugs would be highly celebrated :-)

 Thanks!

PS : Versions.

[sromero@compiler:~]$ lsb_release -a
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 11.04
Release: 11.04
Codename: natty

[sromero@compiler:~]$ dpkg -l openshot
ii openshot 1.3.0-maverick1 Create and edit videos and movies

[FairMiles (fermilesi)]

Or at least multiple clips should be selectable (shift+click?) so you can move all of them at once (for example, to fill a newly created gap, or to create a gap for a clip insertion)

THANKS

[Andy Finch (fincha)]

So I'm working on adding these features to OpenShot and need a bit of feedback.

Regarding adding new clips to the timeline and auto shifting any subsequent clips, I can think of a couple of ways to do this:

1. Have an 'Insert Clips' item on the clip context menu - this will open the existing 'Add To Timeline' window. Either you have to preselect in the project files tree the clips you want to insert, or it would populate with every clip in the project (you would then have to manage which one(s) you want added).

2. Just use the existing Add To Timeline functionality, but adjust so existing clips after the playhead position are moved. The problem with this option is there is not so much control over which track to add the clips to.

Any feedback or other ideas on how to do it?

[Santiago Romero (sromero)]

Hi.

Thanks for choosing this "wish" to implement it.

I've never used Non Linear Video Editors widely before, I tested kino, kdenlive and openshot and I selected openshot because it was easier to use for me and because it was written in python... so I can only answer about "what I was expecting" and not "what other video editors implement".

About removing clips, it's all said:

[CLIP1]...(gap)...[CLIP2][CLIP3]...(gap)...[CLIP4]

(You click in AUTOCOLLAPSE)

[CLIP1][CLIP2][CLIP3][CLIP4]

About adding clips, maybe you could click in a given clip and have 2 options in the context menu:

"Add clips before this clip"
"Add clips after this clip"

(or "before selected clip" or "before current clip"...)

It's directly intuitive (text describes it correctly) and adds the 2 possibilites that an user could need.

Both options would bring up the "Add to timeline" menu but will add the selected clips before or after the current clip. By default, the track of the selected clip should be "configured" by default in the "Add to timeline" menu but you can change it to use a different track or even a new track.

Allowing to add clips to a different or new track would allow the user to add music or clips for transitions just at the exact time as the current clip without having to place them manually. As an example, if you want to add music starting exactly when a concrete clip, you can click over it, select ("add clips before this clip"), select an audio file, select a NEW track, and the audio will be inserted at the exact time than the selected clip, but in a new track, without displacing any item, so music + current clip will be synchronized.

I hope this helps.

[Andy Finch (fincha)]

As a start, I have committed a change that works in the following way:

Holding down the 'Shift' key while activating the 'remove clip' menu item will remove the clip and close the gap.

[Santiago Romero (sromero)]

 It's a very good start!!!

 Now, we can take a concrete camera scene, split it in 2 (portion to keep, portion to dismiss) with the scissors and remove/collapse the result :-)

 Thanks.

[Andy Finch (fincha)]

I have edited the original request to reflect that 1 part of it has been implemented.

[Sean Porterfield (moravia)]

I have OpenShot version 2.4.1, and this feature does not work for me. Both the allegedly implemented and requested portion would be tremendously helpful.

[Scott Taylor (scott.taylor.mcpd)]

As a new OpenShot user, the ability to insert new clips before or in the middle of an existing timeline and have the existing artifacts automatically adjust was just about the first non-trivial workflow task which came up.

I arrived at this page from GitHub "Feature Request: Insert Clip #704", which appears to still be open (last activity dated 2017-12-05), at https://github.com/OpenShot/openshot-qt/issues/704.

For now, I've found the following workaround:

1 - add new clip to empty track in timeline
2 - use mouse to select group of existing clips in active tracks
3 - drag selected group to new location before or after new clip
4 - move new clip into empty space of main timeline track

At least the auto-alignment features seem to work well! (Adding the new clip to an empty track first avoids having to deal with side effects such as automatically-added transitions.)

Is anyone currently working on a fix for this feature request/usability bug?