Would Natron be appropriate to make 2D PVs for songs with moving images and lyrics ?

Software Natron
#1

Hello, I am a music producer new to the field of video editing and stuff and I would like to start making PVs for my music.
The kind of PVs I tend to take as examples are of this kind

Do you think Natron would be an appropriate choice to realize this kind of animated PV ?
Or would I have to use After Effects ?
I do own After Effects but I tend to prefer when I can to use open source tools due to the fact I can use them on Linux as well.

#2

Hey,
I am also music producer and with Natron you can do actually everything you need.
Here is an example of animation I done in Blender and Natron.

There is a lot of tutorials on youtube how to use it. Natron gives you endless possibilities.

#3

Thanks for the reply, do you have links of tutorials you’d recommend for a total beginner ?

#4

Hey, I have created the list for you (I am still adding videos there): https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpGI_lMz6b6X4ewBT37n3wPn_CWvFPK37

Also if you are finding issues with natron here you can find some useful information: Natron Troubleshooting

1 Like
#5

Here also you have some keyboard shortcuts I found useful:

Viewer

  • F - Fit screen
  • L - Play forward
  • J - Play Backward
  • K - Stop
  • S - Project Settings Node
  • 1, 2, … - connect selected node to the viewer

Nodes

  • Autoconnects nodes if you hit CTRL during drag and drop
  • CTRL+SHIFT and drop to another node - merge!
  • SHIFT+X - swap sources eg. A <-> B
  • SHIFT+I - hide,show connections between nodes (green lines)
  • TAB - Search Node
  • Write Node
  • R - Readnode, OR just drag and drop
  • Translate
  • Merge
  • Blur
  • Color Grade
  • Color Correction
  • Roto
  • RotoPaint draw on canvas
  • D - Disable, Mute Node
1 Like
#6

Also in Natron you can use GLSL for the effects (!).

Here is nice tutorial from FOSS365 about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nJ1nQ-jpi0

Also more about GLSL with examples is here: https://www.shadertoy.com, but keep in mind read about licensing for your projects you can find there.

#7

@mapoart: Thanks for the list!
Keep in mind that the masking tutorials from TJFree do not work.
Here are the ones which work:

@SeleDreams: I am producing projection mapping shows with Natron and Blender on Linux. When coming from AE keep in mind that switching your workflow might take a few months and sometimes it makes you feel lost. After around 4-5 months my workflow was a lot faster than ever before and all tools are legal and you even can talk to the guys who write the code!

for stuff you posted, try out https://vidifold.com/, its realtime and has a lot of fx stuff you might like.

#8

Well in a way I am not familiar with after effects either, I own it because i have a creative cloud subscription but basically i’m totally new to the field of video editing and creation, i’m more of a music producer and programmer (so if i have a crash or something one day i might contribute to the source to fix it)
so i won’t need to “port over” my workflow but learn it from scratch

#9

Nice videos and music.
Natron should be good for just some layers of animated pictures and text.
If you want to use a 2.5 (After Effects) or real 3D space for your videos, and or some drawn animations, Blender would be the way to go. It has a seamless fusion of 2D and 3D, a compositor and a video editer is also included.
It opens a lot of possibilities to get creativ with.
Just search on youtube for blender grease pencil. There are tons of examples and tutorials.
Or look here for npr’s (non photorealistic renderings) for some of the possibilities with Blender.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BlenderNPR/videos

But I can understand if you want to stick with animated 2D layers.
As I said, cool videos on your youtube site.