Video editing

Huge video fail last night. it is frustrating, but it is frustrating for a good reason. It isn't me.

The KDENLive that installs by default in Ubuntu 11.x does not have all the features turned on. That is, the one I needed last night, the one that would have made it a five minute edit, was not there. "custom Filters" is greyed out in this version of KDENLive.

I know, I know. Download it, switch on the features you are willing to troubleshoot and build it yourself. I've heard this all before. I've done it before. I do not have six months to get this one to work only to start all over again when the next version comes out requiring a whole new tool set to work. I just want it to work. I just want it to work for free. I'm an evil consumer. I admit it.

I was trying to do another clone effect. However, I was also trying to throw in a dissolve. KDENLive would simply not let me do a mask, nor would it let me control the centering of a crop. Nor, would it let me do a region select. The tool is simply too flawed to get any kind of real editing done.

I've seen some of the special effects done by people on YouTube. it is amazing how easy these things are to perform in a $600 software package where, wait for it, everything you click on works. People go out of their way to show how they did the things that made their video special. It is awesome. It took them so long to learn how to do it that they show it off. This works out well for idiots like me.

If only I had a working software package to make these things work for me. The really bad thing is, there will never be a free video editor for Linux that works and does all the cool stuff that the pay software does. This is because of the support issue. The people in charge of the open source projects do not have time or resources to follow up on every support issue. They must be prioritized. The most common and most used broken things get fixed. Then comes new features that make them all look good. Then come bugs that make them look stupid. Then come bugs that are noticeable and easy to fix. The complex tools that only 2% of people will ever use are bumped far down the list as "I'll get to it." and really never sorted out.

In a money making venture, anything that is said to work, must work, or you might look like you are incompetent and loose customers to someone who has a less capable, cheaper software, but what is there, works. Adobe.

I'm not giving up. I'm just been clobbered by the failure of my tools again. It looks like there is a newer version on KDENLive's site for Ubuntu. "The packages in the default repo for Ubuntu 11.04 are deprecated." No shit. At least I have some options. Hopefully the only thing I have lost here is an evening spent cussing at my computer.