User experience

Is the interface intuitive to a mere human or only to a Cyberdyne T-800?

Whatever their interface and design philosophy, all video editors perform similar function. To begin, the tools enable you to manipulate a single video file, or a series of them, and arrange them into a sequence. All along, you can deploy different effects to smoothly transition from one clip to the next. You can also insert a title to the video, to give it proper introduction.

In common parlance, a track comprises video clips, effects and title file. The tools make it possible to work in parallel on several different tracks, where one is for audio, another for effects, and so on. The tracks are all visible on a single interface referred to as the timeline. The final part of working with these editors is rendering, which turns your work into a chosen output format, such as DVD, online publishing, and so on.

We’re looking for a tool that seamlessly integrates these different tasks into an easily navigable interface.

Flowblade presents a simple interface when you first launch it. While the interface is riddled with buttons, you don’t feel overwhelmed with options. You can’t maximise the application window, and it appears as if the interface cuts off abruptly at the bottom, but don’t worry, this is all there is to the application window. The timeline at the bottom comprises a series of grey rectangles, on to which you will drag-drop the clips that make your film. All your media files are stored in what

Flowblade refers to as bins and your project must have at least one bin. To apply a filter, you must drag-drop it on to a clip on the timeline. The application automatically pops open a dialog providing useful information on what the filter does.

The limited number of undo/redo actions and insufficient documentation are key reasons why we can’t recommend

Flowblade, despite its clean interface.

Before anything else, you must go through the Kdenlive documentation,. Not only will this serve to help you make sense of how

Kdenlive works, it’s also an excellent introduction to video editing in general. Of course, the different tools have different approaches to the workflow, but understanding the process will help you easily master the different tools.

The left-most panel holds the different clips that you wish to work with. The right of the screen is reserved for monitors.

Kdenlive features a Clip Monitor, which displays the clips you’re working with. Click the Project Monitor button to view how the finished project will look like with all the effects and transitions. Below the monitors are the timelines, where you will work to manipulate the audio and video files. If you drop a video file on to an audio track on the timeline, Kdenlive retrieves the audio from the clip to work with.

Unlike the other applications, which heavily rely on buttons within the interface to handle the different operations, LiVES is old school. It features a plain old toolbar at the top with different heads such as File, Edit, Play, Effects and Audio. along with a handful of buttons.

The tool defaults to the Clip Editor mode when you run it. You begin by adding files from the File menu. For each file you add to your project, LiVES will display the first and last frame in the video clip and the total number of frames. If the video has sound, it’s relegated to the audio track at the bottom of the window.

To edit clips, you must launch the Play window, which has its own playback control buttons. Unfortunately, these buttons disappear as soon as you hit Play, making it difficult to stop the video, or select the portion of it you want to work with.

Unlike LiVES, where a lot of the toolbar entries remain disabled until after you’ve added files into it, you can freely navigate

Openshot to get a sense of how it organises the workflow without importing any files, or starting a new project.

As with all the other tools, the timeline is restricted to the bottom of the interface while project files, available effects and transitions can be accessed by pressing the appropriate buttons on the left panel. You must resize the panel at the bottom to be able to access the complete timelines. When you overlap two clips on the timeline,

Openshot automatically creates a smooth fade between them. With the other tools, you must work to put in a fade effect.

Whereas the other tools feature separate tracks for video and audio clips,

Openshot enables you to add all files on to a single track, which makes things more convenient for new users.

Shotcut and Kdenlive have the distinction of having cluttered interfaces. While the latter makes up for its with its vast documentation, the reliance on video tutorials exclusively to introduce Shotcut feels ill-advised.

The interface features a toolbar at the top with several useful buttons. Clicking these opens the relevant element within the interface itself. It’s easy to miss the new elements on the interface, since everything’s fairly crowded already. For instance, keep your eye at the bottom of the window as you alternatively click Timeline and Timeframe. You’ll notice the different elements appear without any fanfare. Ditto when you switch from Filters to Export, which affects the left panel.

For each new element that pops up within the interface, you’re also presented with a number of additional buttons to control the different settings