If you’ve ever used YouTube for any amount of time, you might have noticed that some users have started adding little logos on top of their videos. These things are known as watermarks. They’re very important as they help the creator convey whatever brand or logo that they are pushing in their videos.
So, how do you create watermarks in Linux? Well, you’ll need a program by the name of Kdenlive. It is perhaps the most powerful open source video editor available on Linux today.
Installation
If you have not installed Kdenlive, you should be able to find it in your package manager. In Ubuntu, you can also install it with the command:
sudo apt-get install kdenlive
and for those distros using yum:
sudo yum install kdenlive
Making a watermark in Kdenlive
Before you can make a watermark, you’ll need to add the actual video file you plan on using to the project. Open your file manager and drag the video file you plan on using into Kdenlive. It’ll import it directly into the project.
After that, drag the video file onto the timeline. Place it into the video 2 slot.
It’s time to add your watermark to the project. Once again, go inside of your file manager and drag the image you wish to add as a watermark. Try to stick with the PNG image format as it works best for this.
Note: Don’t worry about doing any graphical preparation on your water mark image. All of this can be done in Kdenlive.
Move the watermark file onto the timeline and place it in video 1 slot.
For the watermark to show up for the whole video, you’ll need to stretch the image to fit the length of video slot 2. Simply put your mouse on the end of the image. This will turn your regular pointer icon into a scale icon. Just drag it to fit.
Once video slot 1 and 2 are the same duration, it’s time to apply the effect to create the watermark. Right click on the image in the timeline and make your way to the “Add Transition” option in the context menu.
Inside the “Add Transition” menu, find “Composite” and click on it. This will create a composite effect for your image.
Now that the effect is added, put your mouse on the end of the yellow Composite effect and drag it to make it the same size as the image and video clip on the timeline.
With the effect applied to the project, it’s time to configure the watermark. Inside the project monitor, you’ll notice your image depicted over the top of the video clip. Inside the project monitor, you’ll be able to scale your watermark to the size and position you desire.
Once you’ve tweaked your watermark to exactly how you want it, save your Kdenlive project and then render the video file.
Make your watermark transparent
Want a transparent watermark? It’s easy to do! Just go to the timeline and click on the yellow Composite box. This will open up the effects options.
To make the watermark image transparent, just go to the opacity slider and adjust it as needed. After that, your watermark will be as transparent as you want.
Conclusion
Jumping through all these hoops in Kdenlive just to place a static image over the top of some video footage might seem silly to some. Still, If you’re a video maker, adding a watermark is very important. This little image makes it a whole lot easier for people to better identify the brand or name you’re trying to push in your content.
Do you use watermarks on your videos? Tell us in the comments below!
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