Many modern video recording devices generate multiple video files during the recording process. (For example, a camera/phone/tablet may create three separate videos while recording a 30-minute lesson. The first might cover 0-10 minutes, the second 10-20 minutes, and the third 20-30 minutes. If a student wished to extract a fifteen-minute segment from the lesson covering 8-23 minutes (thereby spanning all three clips), he/she would have to find a way to extract the final two minutes from the first clip, all of the second clip, and the first three minutes of the third. These three segments would then need to be "stitched" together to make the desired fifteen-minute video.) Fortunately, after all, component clips are (simultaneously) opened in Shotcut, they can easily be edited individually, and then combined into a single (composite) video file.
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Whether you are trying to join together a sequence of video files created by your camera/phone/tablet or attempting to combine multiple segments from a (non-copy protected)
video
DVD, the following technique should allow you to accomplish your goals. Although four
.VOB
files are used in this example, the same technique should work for any number/type of video file supported by Shotcut.
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To combine all (or only portions of) multiple video clips into a single (composite) file, please\ proceed as follows:
- Make sure all video clips you want to combine are located in the same place on your computer. (If the files reside on a camera/phone/tablet (or DVD),
copy
them to your machine before proceeding.)
- Launch Shotcut.
- Click the
Open File
button on the left of the Shotcut button bar. (See
Figure 23
, below.)
- In the
Open File
window that now appears,
simultaneously select all of the clips you wish to merge together
, and then click the
Open
button at the bottom. (To select multiple files, click on the first clip with your mouse, and then
control-click
on each of the remaining clips. As can be seen in
Figure 24
(below), this will result in all files being highlighted, indicating that they all have been properly selected.)
- You should now see the
Playlist
window open on the left, where all of the videos you just selected are displayed in ascending alphanumeric order. (See
Figure 25
, below.) If the clips in the
Playlist
window are not displayed in the proper (top-to-bottom) chronological order, click and drag on any of the thumbnails to change their position in the list. (If you are not certain whether they are in the correct sequence, you can play the entire (composite) video to make sure. To play the combined video, click the
Project
button at the bottom of the Shotcut window, press the
Home
key on your keyboard to move the play head to the beginning of the (composite) video, and then press the space bar.)
- Before exporting the (composite) video file, perform any necessary editing operations (such as compression, rotation, etc.) If you want to only combine portions of particular clips, rather than all clips in their entirety, select each clip individually by double-clicking on it in the
Playlist
window and use the "
i
" and "
o
" keys on your keyboard to mark the desired
in
and
out
points, respectively.
- After you have finished any editing operations, click the
Project
button at the bottom of the Shotcut window and play the (composite) video in its entirety to see a preview of the finished product.
- When you are ready to generate the final (composite) video, click the
Export
button on the right of the Shotcut button bar (assuming the
Export
window is not already open). (See
Figure 26
, below). Then, click the
Export File
button at the bottom of the
Export
window, navigate to the place on your computer where you would like to save the video file you are creating, give it an appropriate name, and click the
Save
button at the bottom of the
Export File
window to complete the process.
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Figure 23:
The image below shows the Shotcut program window with the
Open File
button highlighted in red.
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Figure 24:
The image below shows the Shotcut
Open File
window with the videos that are to be merged selected, and the
Open
button highlighted in red.
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Figure 25:
The image below shows the Shotcut
Playlist
window (on the left) and the
Project
button (near the bottom), both highlighted in red.
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Figure 26:
The image below shows the Shotcut program window with the
Export
button highlighted in red.
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