Looking for a video editor that makes adding text/overlays easy

Support Software & Applications
1

I have been using Kdenlive to edit videos, but adding text as an overlay is quite a faff.

(You need to create a title clip separate from the video, guess the location of the text, save, check, re-edit the title clip, move the text, save, check, re-edit, etc. because you cannot edit the title clip/text with the video as a background and dynamically see where your text is in the frame. Plus, keyframing movement to a text overlay is at least quadruple the effort.)

So, I am looking for a video editor that will make adding text/overlays to a video way easier.

Anyone who has worked with Openshot, Shotcut, Flowblade, Cinelerra, Lightworks or Davinci Resolve who can comment on this particular use case before I start downloading and spending time? Or maybe an altogether other suggestion what application to use?

2

Yes you can:

  • place the cursor timeline on the frame you want as background
  • edit the title
  • check “Show background”
1 Like
3

*facepalm* That’s a big improvement!

Still, I need to make a lot of title clips and drag them around on the timeline. If only there was something like a continuous, keyframeable (text)overlay that at each keyframe you could change what it was showing and work on that by dragging through the timeline. Hope my explanation makes sense!

4

If the text changes, i think there is no choice but to make distinct titles.

But if the text is (globally) the same, you may find some effects useful, such as:

5

Thanks! Those I have used before, but as you say, changing texts means lots and lots of title clips. (Right now I have 20 frames of text, 20 frames no text, 20 frames next text, etc., etc.)

Too bad also that you can’t stick the movement of a title clip to the motion tracker, so you could have a text follow an object on the screen more naturally instead of only plotting a straight line between the start/end viewport of the title clip.