And my comment about the interface isn't just opinion. I suspect that if you went from FCP to Avid you'd find real problems too. Finding a tutorial that covers what I'm having a problem with is difficult when the terminology is completely different though. I will read the forums and watch more tutorials (I have watched several). Some things look similar in LW, but they don't function the same.
The tools in Final Cut Pro made so much sense to me, and Adobe Premiere is very similar. It would be hard to get used to a Brake button on a steering handle.
Why would you want to make something harder to use, more difficult to understand? I can't see how anybody thinks this is intuitive, especially for folks who've never used computers to edit before, but I guess it's like learning how to drive a car in another country, or another planet. I do not understand the reasoning for hiding things. If I hadn't come here for help, I never would have found how to use the alpha channel. At times I have just given up because my project became so messed up.
Just adding a simple dissolve and adjusting it takes me entirely too long because I keep grabbing the wrong thing. I keep finding that I accidentally move things or shift frames without meaning to. Moderator edit - link to video tutorials updated - briandrys That's why they have the "Features" forum. Once you master it I predict that you too will be glad you took that time.Īnd of course, any features that you believe could be added or improved, I know that Editshare would like to hear about. Spend the time necessary to really learn it and you will see why Lightworks users wouldn't trade it for any other editor. Give it time - get your head around mark-and-park rather than drag-and-drop. Is it perfect? Of course it isn't! Is it the answer to every editor's needs? If it was there'd be no other editors available. The results would be unpredictable to say the least. It sounds like you were attempting to use a key, which is effectively a key-on-key situation. To use it all that you usually need to do is add the blend effect without doing another thing.
Unlike a lot of other NLEs, Lightworks always imports a graphic with the alpha channel intact, which you can then opt to use or not. Don't worry that some of the tutorial information relates to earlier versions - not a lot has changed.Īs shown in the tutorials, you've blundered across the method used to access the alpha channel. In the Lightworks unofficial wiki you'll also find a lot of useful information. There are very good user tutorials in the Video Tutorials & FAQ forum. But if you try to blunder your way through you risk making it one of the slowest and most frustrating.Īny first-time user needs to go to the Lightworks Video Tutorials and check them out. When handled the way that it was designed to be used it's one of the fastest out there. So what makes Lightworks so good is exactly that - it is not like the others. A film editor (do they still exist) can to this day sit down at a Lightworks with a console and begin cutting almost immediately. As a result a lot of the mechanics are hidden. It was created over a quarter century ago for film editors, who didn't want or need to learn a whole lot of new jargon to do the job that they already knew how to do. Lightworks is definitely different to other high-end tools, and it takes time to master. What am I missing? I even found a tutorial online about the node editor, and that didn't help.Ĭlick to expand.You're absolutely right. It just doesn't seem possible to me that this functionality would have been excluded from the software. I can find nothing about alpha channels in Lightworks at all! This is something so simple and widely used that I can't believe there is no option to use alpha channel in Lightworks. The background of the truck scene should be transparent. I figured I could just drop this on the timeline, and overlay it over my other scenes, the way I used to do in Final Cut and Premiere.
I rendered out the truck going by, with an alpha channel. I got the idea that I could use an animation of a delivery truck passing by as a wipe transition. I'm doing the animation in Anime Studio Pro 9. I am currently doing an animated commercial for a local client. I have edited on Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere. I have used all kinds of software, Lightwave 3D, Adobe After Effects, etc. Just a little background on me, I have been working in the video industry as an animator and effects artist for 20 years. While I am grateful that I can use Lightworks for free, it gives me no end to frustration at every turn.