Introduction to the Video Sequence Editor
by Enrico Valenza, Pierre-Armand Nicq, Romain Caudron
Blender 3D: Designing Objects
- Blender 3D: Designing Objects
- Table of Contents
- Blender 3D: Designing Objects
- Blender 3D: Designing Objects
- Credits
- Preface
- 1. Module 1
- 1. Straight into Blender!
- 2. Robot Toy – Modeling of an Object
- Let's start the modeling of our robot toy
- Using the basic modeling tools
- Modeling the head
- Modeling the antenna
- An introduction to the Subdivision Surface modifier
- Modeling the thunderbolts
- Modeling the eyes
- Modeling the chest
- Modeling the neck
- Modeling the torso
- Modeling the buttons
- Modeling the fork
- Modeling the main wheel
- Modeling the arm
- Using Blender Internal to render our Robot Toy
- Summary
- 3. Alien Character – Base Mesh Creation and Sculpting
- 4. Alien Character – Creating a Proper Topology and Transferring the Sculpt Details
- 5. Haunted House – Modeling of the Scene
- 6. Haunted House – Putting Colors on It
- 7. Haunted House – Adding Materials and Lights in Cycles
- 8. Rat Cowboy – Learning To Rig a Character for Animation
- 9. Rat Cowboy – Animate a Full Sequence
- 10. Rat Cowboy – Rendering, Compositing, and Editing
- 2. Module 2
- 1. Modeling the Character's Base Mesh
- 2. Sculpting the Character's Base Mesh
- 3. Polygonal Modeling of the Character's Accessories
- 4. Re-topology of the High Resolution Sculpted Character's Mesh
- 5. Unwrapping the Low Resolution Mesh
- 6. Rigging the Low Resolution Mesh
- Introduction
- Building the character's Armature from scratch
- Perfecting the Armature to also function as a rig for the Armor
- Building the character's Armature through the Human Meta-Rig
- Building the animation controls and the Inverse Kinematic
- Generating the character's Armature by using the Rigify add-on
- 7. Skinning the Low Resolution Mesh
- 8. Finalizing the Model
- 9. Animating the Character
- 10. Creating the Textures
- Introduction
- Making a tileable scales image in Blender Internal
- Preparing the model to use the UDIM UV tiles
- Baking the tileable scales texture into the UV tiles
- Painting to fix the seams and to modify the baked scales image maps
- Painting the color maps in Blender Internal
- Painting the color maps in Cycles
- 11. Refining the Textures
- 12. Creating the Materials in Cycles
- 13. Creating the Materials in Blender Internal
- 14. Lighting, Rendering, and a Little Bit of Compositing
- 3. Module 3
- 1. Overview of Materials in Cycles
- 2. Managing Cycles Materials
- 3. Creating Natural Materials in Cycles
- Introduction
- Creating a rock material using image maps
- Creating a rock material using procedural textures
- Creating a sand material using procedural textures
- Creating a simple ground material using procedural textures
- Creating a snow material using procedural textures
- Creating an ice material using procedural textures
- 4. Creating Man-made Materials in Cycles
- Introduction
- Creating a generic plastic material
- Creating a Bakelite material
- Creating an expanded polystyrene material
- Creating a clear (glassy) polystyrene material
- Creating a rubber material
- Creating an antique bronze material with procedurals
- Creating a multipurpose metal node group
- Creating a rusty metal material with procedurals
- Creating a wood material with procedurals
- 5. Creating Complex Natural Materials in Cycles
- 6. Creating More Complex Man-made Materials
- 7. Subsurface Scattering in Cycles
- Introduction
- Using the Subsurface Scattering shader node
- Simulating Subsurface Scattering in Cycles using the Translucent shader
- Simulating Subsurface Scattering in Cycles using the Vertex Color tool
- Simulating Subsurface Scattering in Cycles using the Ray Length output in the Light Path node
- Creating a fake Subsurface Scattering node group
- 8. Creating Organic Materials
- Introduction
- Creating an organic-looking shader with procedurals
- Creating a wasp-like chitin material with procedural textures
- Creating a beetle-like chitin material with procedural textures
- Creating tree shaders – the bark
- Creating tree shaders – the leaves
- Creating a layered human skin material in Cycles
- Creating fur and hair
- Creating a gray alien skin material with procedurals
- 9. Special Materials
- Bibliography
- Index
The VSE or Video Sequence Editor is a method of video editing in Blender. It is really simple to use and could be very powerful. The best way to use it is to use the Video Editing layout located in the menu bar. We usually don't use the Graph editor here, so we can join it back. We have now an interface with two Video Sequence Editors and the Timeline at the bottom. On the head of the VSE, we have three icons that are used to display Sequencer, the place where we edit strips, and Image Preview, where we see the result of our editing, or both. In Sequencer, we can add different types of strips with Shift + A. We are mainly using Image, Movie, or Sound. We can import Image Sequences with the Image option. You can select a strip with RMB and move it with G. When you have a strip selected, you have access to two buttons to the left and right represented with arrows that define the start and the end of the strip. You can cut a strip by placing the timeline where you want the split to be and pressing K (for knife).
We are not going to go deep into every setting of the VSE, but for each selected strip, you have some options in the right panel of the editor (N), such as the opacity of an image or movie strip or the volume of an audio strip. Of course, you can animate each option by right-clicking on them and choosing the Insert Keyframe option, or by simply pressing I while hovering over them. You can press Ctrl to snap a selected strip to another strip. You can also use the Shift + D shortcut in order to duplicate a selected strip.
Let's now create the editing of our sequence with the shots that we've composited and rendered before:
- In order to edit our sequence, we will open a new fresh file. We will also change the layout of our interface so that we have two VSEs, one with Image Preview and the other with Sequencer.
- Now, we can add our first shot by pressing Shift + A in the sequencer and by choosing Image. In the file browser, we will go to the Render folder and select the 01-compositing folder in order to select every
.targafile with A. We will now have a new strip that corresponds to the first shot. We will repeat the same process with the other shots. - Now, we can move each shot one after the other to create continuity. Be sure that each strip is snapped to the previous one by pressing the Ctrl key while moving them.
- We will also need to readjust the animation start and end in the timeline from the beginning of sequence to its end frame.
- If you want, you can add Sound strips in order to add music or sound effects.
- We are now ready to render our final edited sequence. To do this, we will change the Output path in the Render tab of the Properties editor, and we will choose the H.264 file type. In the Encoder section, we will use the Quicktime type, and we will, finally, press the render button.
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