Unfamiliar Editing

This week I took a closer look at the Video Editor that I will be using to edit my short film. The Blender Video Sequence Editor is a free video editing program that come bundled with the Blender 3D animation software. In keeping with the theme of the story, becoming a creative being, and the idea of making a film as an example of self reliance, utilizing the Blender VSE is a must. The editor is free, just like the program and I had stated my intention of trying to keep the budget to a minimum. The idea behind this being the hope of inspiring those who don't have the financial means of creating a film to be able to do so by using limited funds.

With that said, learning the Blender VSE was an interesting process, particularly learning the shortcuts, the terms that is uses to reference a specific tool and the way in which it renders the edited clips. To experiment with what the VSE could do I took the opening rough clip of my animated short, an opening shot of The Plant and a slow pan to reveal an artificial light source, and added a fade in to it. I also wanted to start making the title for the animated film as 3D object. So I modeled the title "Frames" utilizing a metal material as lining and then wooden material as filling of the letters. I then took it and placed it overtop the original clip and had it fade in and then out. I still need to work on the timing of the clip but other than that I would consider it a success.

Overall, learning how best to navigate the VSE now, rather than later when actual editing takes place, will hopefully streamline the process of using the unfamiliar (now somewhat familiar) editor.

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