Learning a new skill, be it for a hobby or a professional obligation, comes with its share of rewards and setbacks. It can be hard to know where to begin when you’re first loading up that new 3D modeling program, office suite, or video editor.
In the open-source world, we tend to rely on each other when starting out. Users teach other users through tutorials, videos, and online forums. Community is the strength of open-source projects like Kdenlive, and below, in no particular order, are some of the best YouTube channels where you’re able to learn Kdenlive.
Focusing on free and often FOSS software specifically for creatives, his channel offers content on just about anything you would need to be a creator on a budget—whether your end goal is tolearn how to make it big on Twitch, or simply upload a few videos to YouTube.
There is a lot available to dig through here for those wanting to learn Kdenlive. That includes a Kdenlive playlist going over everything from beginning to end, taking the user through the entire process of editing a video—from setting up and personalizing the interface to your liking, to what settings to use to export your project for the best results.
The playlist follows a logical progression from beginner to more advanced, making it pretty straightforward for a learner to work through them sequentially and come out the other end feeling truly comfortable with the program.
The channel includes videos about editing your audio and adding transform effects, as well as some more advanced techniques such as color grading and green screen effects.
Ryndon Ricks, who created the TJ FREE channel in 2009, also maintains an official website,TJFREE, with more information about each of the programs his channel focuses on, as well as a download section for templates, effects, and graphics.
2.Victoriano de Jesus
Similar to TJ FREE, Victoriano de Jesus doesn’t focus only on Kdenlive. But it’s a smaller channel with much more focus on only a few of the larger open-source apps like Kdenlive, GIMP, and Inkscape.
Where Victoriano de Jesus shines is in his updates. He creates a new playlist each year for each new version of the program, keeping his viewers up to date with all thenew Kdenlive featuresthat have been released. While some channels can fall behind and risk having information that is no longer valid, Victoriano de Jesus works prolifically to make sure that his channel isn’t one of them.
Victoriano de Jesus' channel follows the same basic format as TJ FREE. You’ll find videos progressing logically from beginner-level tutorials to more advanced ones, and you can work up from the basics of cutting your clips properly to more advanced techniques like motion tracking.
The channel also delves into some of the experimental features of the program that, while available, have not been fully tested or implemented. This includes how to set up Kdenlive to use your computer’s GPU for rendering, which, while available, is not fully supported.
3.Arkengheist 2.0
Arkengheist focuses less on the basics and much more on the specifics. There are dozens of quick tutorials on various text effects, compositions, transitions, and effects.
The channel does presume that the user has learned most of the basics from the other channels on this list, and as a result, it focuses more on the fun stuff that comes afterward—like how to create a spinning cylinder of text or an animated logo.
While Kdenlive isn’t a dedicated compositing app, her results are easily on par with most of the commercial video editing packages available. There are certainly a number ofcool things a program like After Effects can accomplishover a simple video editor. But with the right knowledge and skills, Arkengheist is able to get you impressively close to those same results with Kdenlive.
4.Geek Outdoors
Another prolific YouTuber, Geek Outdoors is a very broad channel similar to TJ FREE. He keeps his channel up-to-date regularly with shorter, bite-sized videos that are easy to follow and sit in a comfortable middle ground between beginner level and expert.
Geek Outdoors has tutorials for most of the free video editors available like Shotcut, OpenShot, and DaVinci Resolve, and offers camera gear reviews. He also has a playlist dedicated to helping others who are interested in starting their own channel onYouTube or one of the similar alternatives that pay you to create content.
His Kdenlive-specific videos range from straightforward tutorials like how to use color clips or how to blur your background, for example, to videos comparing Kdenlive to other open-source video editors in order to give users a full picture of which will work the best for them.
One thing that makes Geek Outdoors unique is that the channel also maintains a curated playlist of other content creators' Kdenlive tutorials.
5.EZ Tutorials
Finally, we have EZ Tutorials. It’s one of the best resources for learning Kdenlive if all you need is fast, quick, snack-sized bites of know-how.
Most of his tutorial videos clock in at less than a minute long and are hyper-focused on a specific task, such as recording your voice or panning your shot. Like Arkengheist 2.0, it presumes that the viewer has at least a basic understanding of Kdenlive and gets right to the task immediately, which can be very valuable for those who have very little time in their day to learn new skills.
Being short, punchy, and focused, there are plenty of topics that you don’t find on the other channels offering Kdenlive tutorials. Videos such as how to change your font in your title tool or how to merge clips, for example—topics that are so specific that most other channels cover them only as a part of a larger tutorial, rather than giving them their own minute to shine.
This comes in handy for those learners who have a very specific question and have little time to sit through a longer video in order to find an answer to it.
These Channels Are Great Resources for Kdenlive Users
While the above channels don’t provide the only Kdenlive tutorials in existence, they are among the best. As open-source software becomes more popular, the number of creators who devote a portion of their time to training others continues to grow on sites like YouTube. As a result, video editing has become a fun and easily accessible hobby for beginners to pick up.
While a couple of the channels that did make this list are for users who already have some experience with video editing in general, most are still simple enough for beginners to get a handle on as they start their video editing journey.
