Create Classy Slow Motion Videos In Linux With slowmoVideo

Create Classy Slow Motion Videos In Linux With slowmoVideo

slowmoVideo is a Qt application for Linux and Windows that can be used to create beautiful slow motion videos. But dont think all it does is change the video playback speed! The tool can smoothly slow down and speed up the video with optional motion blur.

The application is not new and is actually quite popular, but I just realized I never covered it on failsdownloads, so I though Id let you know about this cool application, in case youre not familiar with it.

To get an idea on what the application can do, you can watch a video created by the slowmoVideo developer from an image sequence:


Timelapse retiming (slow motion) from Simon A. Eugster.
He explains:

"Source material for this video was an image sequence shot with a Nikon D90. The clouds were moving so quickly that even with shorter intervals (9 seconds; For a different timelapse I used 20 s which was still enough for the clouds there) the video was playing too fast."

Heres another video which has only some parts in slow motion:


Short dream � Hair in slow-motion from Simon A. Eugster

slowmoVideo features:

• can be used with any video format supported by ffmpeg;
• supports loading image sequences;
• motion blur can be added to the videos.

As you can see, the application doesnt offer a huge amount of features and instead its specialized on doing one thing only: creating amazing slow motion videos from your footage.

slowmoVideo isnt exactly intuitive, but the documentation available on its website should be enough to get you started. Youll find it HERE.

One note though: I recommend trimming your video before importing it into slowmoVideo because it extracts frames from the video when importing it and that will take a long time if your video is relatively large.

Install slowmoVideo in Ubuntu

slowmoVideo can be installed in Ubuntu by using its official PPA (there are no packages for Ubuntu 14.04 yet!). To add the PPA and install slowmoVideo, use the commands below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:brousselle/slowmovideo
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install slowmovideo

Download slowmoVideo

Arch Linux users can install slowmoVideo via AUR.

Download slowmoVideo (for Windows or source files). The downloads page includes build instructions for Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE.

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Converting videos using viDrop

Converting videos using viDrop

Converting videos to different file formats can sometimes be useful when different device only support certain formats. Luckily, there is a handy program for that viDrop transcoder.
Simply install it by running the following commands from terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://download.learnfree.eu/repository/skss / #SKSS"
wget http://download.learnfree.eu/repository/skss/repo.pub.asc -q -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install vidrop

Start the program from the Dash and convert your videos by first choosing the video which you want to convert.

Then you can just click convert or choose Advanced settings for further modification, which would look something like this:

Also read my article on converting mp4 to mp3 via ffmpeg.

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Creating and editing webcam videos with Windows

Creating and editing webcam videos with Windows

So, you have a webcam and you want to create some simple videos and post them to youtube?

Recording with your webcam software

Your webcam probably comes with software that lets you record a video. Look for it.

Recording with (free) MovieMaker

If you couldnt find a video recorder that came with your webcam, lets see if your MovieMaker program lets you record video. First, see if you have this program: C:Program FilesMovie Makermoviemk.exe. If you do, run it and see if the File menu has the option named Capture Video. If it does not, you cannot record with MovieMaker.

Recording with (free) ManyCam

Download and install ManyCam (http://download.manycam.com/)

After you start ManyCam, you see an Effects tab. It has "Text over video". Uncheck the little box by Show ManyCam Logo.

Under the Sources tab, click Cameras and select your webcam. (Or, if you want to record whats visible on your Desktop, click Desktop and experiment with its options (Full desktop, partial desktop, custom desktop).)

Just below the video display, do you see a red "Rec"? Can you click it and start recording?

Editing a video with MovieMaker

[[to do: add basic split/delete steps]]

Adding words/titles

Split (Ctrl-L) where you want a title to be added. Highlight the segment after the split.
Tools > Titles and Credits.
Select "title before the selected clip"
Put text in the top portion if you want it big. Put text in the bottom portion if you want it to be a subtitle of the upper part or all on its own if you just want the smaller text.
Click Done
Click-hold-drag the right edge of the resultant clip to increase its duration upon playback.


Fading out

Right click the segment you want to fade out at its end.
Click Fade Out. (Similar works for "fade in" at the start of a segment.)


Adjusting the length of a segment without further splitting of it via Ctrl-L

Click the segment. It is "highlighted" as evidenced by the darker border on it.
Click-hold-drag either end of the segment and drag toward the middle of the segment to move that end inward. You can later drag that end back to its original length if you want.


Saving the project

File > Save Project
This lets you save the editing facts but doesnt actually create a movie.


Saving the project as a video/movie

File > Save movie file
My computer (next)
Provide a first name, and set the second box to Desktop
Either leave it as "Best quality" OR select Show More Choices and select High Quality, either Large or Small
Next or Finish...whatever it takes :)
Soon you will have a wmv file on your Desktop and you can upload that to youtube, email it, whatever

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Creating Instructional Videos in Google Hangouts On Air After School P

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Create Videos from Photos and Screen Captures QlipBoard

Create Videos from Photos and Screen Captures QlipBoard

QlipBoard is free application that lets you create movies from photos and screenshot images. The interesting part is that QlipBoard has an in-built screen capture feature and voice recorder.

The images (or screen captures) appear in the timeline of QlipBoard (like most other video editors) so you just have to drag-n-drop to change the position of any image frame in the timeline. Further, you can easily record voice narrations, annotate or add text to images.

And all your pen highlighter movements over the screenshot are recorded as part of the movie itself - so as you speak and move the cursor pen over the image, the exact movements are captured by Qlip Board.

You may think of QlipBoard as a blend of Microsoft Photostory ^# and SnagIt. The free version of QlipBoad is supported by advertising.

Overall, the software interface is not very intuitive but the application is still useful for creating screencast movies, photo slide shows or for annotating images.

Get QlipBoard at www.qlipmedia.com [Thanks Murali at Hindu]

Related: Turns Boring Video Clips & Still Pictures into Movies

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