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Insert and Overwrite: Advanced Timeline Editing

Kdenlive offers advanced timeline editing functions. In this chapter we are looking at the Insert timeline-insert and Overwrite timeline-overwrite advanced editing functions.

When inserting or overwriting some part in the timeline with some part from a clip, we now face two zones, so how does this work out at all? We only want to deal with three points, that is, with one zone and a point (for that reason this is also sometimes called 3-Point Editing). In consequence, there are two different insert/overwrite operations:

  1. Insert/overwrite a clip zone into the timeline at some point (cursor/playhead), or

  2. Insert/overwrite a clip starting at some point into a timeline zone

Kdenlive’s timeline IN/OUT system has one basic difference to other video editors: Kdenlive doesn’t have :

  • IN/OUT points for 3-point editing and

  • IN/OUT points to set the rendering area.

In Kdenlive we use the same timeline IN/OUT points for both functions. For this reason, we have a button to enable timeline-use-zone-on / disable timeline-use-zone-off the timeline zone for the task. Instead of removing the reference points you just disable timeline-use-zone-on the timeline zone. This has the advantage to preserve a set area (IN/OUT zone) and be able to work on the playhead/cursor reference only, without having to cancel the zone.

Insert Clip Zone into Timeline at Timeline Cursor​

As we are going to insert a clip zone into the timeline, first make sure that the switch for Using Timeline Zone timeline-use-zone-off is crossed out (it is off).

The timeline zone bar is now dimmed and does not show the zone duration.

Next, mark the clip region of the source clip you want to insert into the timeline. You do this as usual, using either the I and O shortcuts, or the set Zone In zone-in / Zone Out zone-out buttons of the clip monitor.

Now place the timeline cursor to where you want to start with the insert.

Also make sure to select the correct track using the Up and Down keys to navigate up and down the track list and then Shift+T to mark the track as the target for the operation. The currently selected track is marked with a semi-transparent selection color (depending on your particular color theme); the active track is marked with a green box (see (1) in the screenshot)

Finally press the V shortcut, or click the Insert Clip Zone toolbar button timeline-insert, or use Menu ‣ Sequence ‣ Insertion ‣ Insert Clip Zone in Timeline.

Note that the insert shifted also not-active tracks to make room for the inserted clip. In order to avoid that, lock the other tracks by clicking on the track-unlocked icon in the track header (see (2) in the screenshots).

Note

  • Insertion starts at the timeline cursor, and not at the timeline zone start (because we chose to ignore it in our very first step).

  • Locked tracks are unaffected, such as the topmost track in our example.

  • Unlocked tracks get affected in that whatever is at the insertion point and later in the timeline gets shifted away to make room for the insertion.

Insert Clip (from In Point) into Timeline Zone​

This time, we are going to insert some part of a clip to exactly fit into the timeline zone. So we now need to switch on Using the Timeline Zone timeline-use-zone-on.

The timeline zone bar is now bright and shows the duration of the timeline zone.

We only need to set the in point for our source clip. The out point does not matter, as it will be determined automatically by the length of the timeline zone.

Now, mark (using I and O or zone-in or zone-out ) or place (drag the zone left or right) the timeline zone into which you want to insert a part of your source clip. The timeline cursor position now does not matter.

Make sure to select the correct track using the Up and Down keys and pressing Shift+T to mark the track as the target for the operation (see (1) in the screenshot).

Finally press the V shortcut, or click the Insert Clip Zone toolbar button timeline-insert, or use Menu ‣ Sequence ‣ Insertion ‣ Insert Clip Zone in Timeline.

Note

  • Overwrite starts at the beginning of the timeline zone, and not at the timeline cursor position (because we chose to enable the timeline zone in our very first step)

  • Locked tracks are unaffected, such as the top-most track in our example

  • Unlocked tracks get affected in that whatever is at the insertion point and later in the timeline gets shifted away to make room for the insertion

Overwrite Timeline with Clip Zone​

As we are going to overwrite a clip zone into the timeline, first make sure that the switch for Using Timeline Zone timeline-use-zone-off is crossed out (it is off). This is also shown in the screenshot.

The timeline zone bar is now dimmed and does not show the zone duration.

Next, mark the clip region of the source clip you want to insert and overwrite what is in the timeline. You do this as usual, using either the I and O shortcuts, or the set Zone In zone-in / Zone Out zone-out buttons of the clip monitor.

Now place the timeline cursor to where you want to start the overwrite.

Also make sure to select the correct track using the Up and Down keys to navigate up and down the track list and pressing Shift+T to mark the track as the target for the operation. The currently selected track is marked with a semi-transparent selection color (depending on your particular color theme); the active track is marked with a green box (see (1) in the screenshot)

Finally press the B shortcut, or click the Overwrite Clip Zone toolbar button timeline-overwrite, or use Menu ‣ Sequence ‣ Insertion ‣ Overwrite Clip Zone in Timeline.

Note that the overwrite removed the same portion also in not-active tracks. In order to avoid that, lock the other tracks by clicking on the track-unlocked icon in the track header (see (2) in the screenshots).

Note

  • Overwrite starts at the timeline cursor, and not at the timeline zone start (because we chose to ignore it in our very first step).

  • Locked tracks are unaffected, such as the topmost track in our example.

  • Unlocked tracks get affected in that whatever is at the insertion point and later in the timeline gets removed for the duration of the clip region.

Overwrite Timeline Zone with Clip​

This time, we are going to insert some part of a clip to exactly fit into the timeline zone and overwrite what is in it. So we now need to switch on Using the Timeline Zone timeline-use-zone-on.

The timeline zone bar is now bright and shows the duration of the timeline zone.

We only need to set the in point for our source clip. The out point does not matter, as it will be determined automatically by the length of the timeline zone.

Now, mark (using I and O or zone-in or zone-out ) or place (drag the zone left or right) the timeline zone that you want to overwrite with part of your source clip. The timeline cursor position now does not matter.

Make sure to select the correct track using the Up and Down keys and pressing Shift+T to mark the track as the target for the operation. The currently selected track is marked with a semi-transparent selection color (depending on your particular color theme); the active track is marked with a green box (see (1) in the screenshot).

Finally press the B shortcut, or click the Overwrite Clip Zone toolbar button timeline-overwrite, or use Menu ‣ Sequence ‣ Insertion ‣ Overwrite Clip Zone in Timeline.

Note

  • Overwrite starts at the beginning of the timeline zone, and not from the timeline cursor position (because we chose to enable the timeline zone in our very first step)

  • Locked tracks are unaffected, such as the top-most track in our example (see (2) in the screenshot above)

  • Unlocked tracks get affected in that whatever is at the insertion point and later in the timeline gets shifted for the duration set by the timeline zone.

  • For more details about how to set the tracks as source and target check 3 point editing

Notes

Sources

The original text was submitted by user TheDiveO to the now defunct kdenlive.org blog. For this documentation it has been lifted from kdenlive.org, updated, extended and adapted to match the overall style. *[RGB]: Red Green Blue *[VFX]: Visual Effects *[feathering]: Smoothing or blurring the edges of a feature *[LFO]: Low-Frequency Oscillation *[dB]: decibel *[LUFS]: Loudness Units Full Scale *[AI]: Artificial Intelligence *[LLM]: Large Language Model *[HSV]: Hue, Saturation, Value *[SOP/Sat]: S(lope), O(ffset), P(ower) / SATuration *[CDL]: Color Decision List *[HSL]: Hue, Saturation, Lightness - Using HSL color space is useful for subtle color changes *[px]: pixel *[hh:mm:ss:ff]: hours:minutes:seconds:frames *[Hz]: Hertz *[CIE]: Commission internationale de l'éclairage, French for International Commission on Illumination *[DCI]: Digital Cinema Initiative *[nadir]: direction pointing directly below a particular location *[OS]: Operating System *[decibel]: Unit of measurement (dB) for sound levels *[clipping]: A form of distortion that limits a signal once it exceeds a threshold *[Spectrogram]: Visual representation of the spectrum of frequencies of a signal as it varies with time *[prevent clipping]: Dynamic range compression (DRC)is an audio signal processing operation that reduces the volume of loud sounds or amplifies quiet sounds, thus reducing or compressing an audio signal's dynamic range. *[SNR]: Signal-to-Noise Ratio *[dbFS]: Decibels relative to full scale *[QHD]: Quad-HD *[UHD]: Ultra High Definition *[XML]: Extensible Markup Language *[fps]: frames per second *[NTSC]: National Television Standard Committee - defined the TV system used in the United States, Japan and many other countries *[PAL]: Phase Alternating Line - a colour encoding system for analogue television *[LFE]: Low Frequency Effects *[RAW]: The RAW file format is digital photography's equivalent of a negative in film photography: it contains untouched, raw pixel information straight from the digital camera's sensor *[DSLR]: Digital Single Lens Reflex *[DOF]: Depth of Field *[NDF]: Neutral Density Filter *[AVI]: Audio Video Interleave *[BT.601]: A standard from 1982 defining how RGB color primaries get turned into the YCbCr channels used by modern codecs *[BT.709]: A standard from 1990 which does the same at BT.601 but the transfer coefficients are slightly different *[grep]: A Unix command-line utility for searching plain-text data sets for lines that match a regular expression