I'm brand new to Kdenlive and I've not been able to find any resources describing how I might add simple shapes to my video. In particular, I'd like to place an arrow pointing to a particular spot on the screen for a few seconds. My videos are going to be mostly screen recordings of how to use various software, so being able to add arrows pointing to certain areas of the screen is very helpful.

What I've done is to create a title clip and import clip art (.svg files). But it is a bit cumbersome working with these objects. For example - as far as I can tell - the only way to rotate the object is to manually type in the rotation angle into the x, y and/or z rotation fields. Also, it appears I am stuck with the object's original color.

I can certainly make do with this procedure for my purposes, but before I make a habit of this workflow I wanted to make sure I'm on the right track. So, is this how it is generally done when adding arrows, lines, circles, etc.?

Hi there,
sorry for not only not being able to answer your question, but also asking another one: how did you import the svg? I can't find any way to do it when editing a title clip. And if I simply import the svg file, it comes as a solid rectangle.
Maybe it's a version thing? I'm using 19.12.3, what about you?

Thanks

mytenrabbiterrors wrote:I can certainly make do with this procedure for my purposes, but before I make a habit of this workflow I wanted to make sure I'm on the right track. So, is this how it is generally done when adding arrows, lines, circles, etc.?

I am afraid this is the only way to do this. kdenlive does not have the ability to draw or add shapes. There is a new titler in the works but not sure whether it will have this kind of capability.

You could use different title clips for your different shapes with imported SVGs. One for an arrow, one for a circle, etc. If the SVGs are all white you can use the colorize effect to change the color of the title clip. It is not as easy as picking the right color from a matrix or color wheel but you can play with the parameters hue, saturation and lightness to find the right color. Just make sure the imported SVG is centered because that makes rotating and moving the shape so much easier through the transform effect applied to the title clip in the timeline.

Hope this helps.

Theo wrote:how did you import the svg? I can't find any way to do it when editing a title clip. And if I simply import the svg file, it comes as a solid rectangle.
Maybe it's a version thing? I'm using 19.12.3, what about you?

I am on 20.08.1 on Windows 10 and also on Linux (Modicia). The title clip editor has several icons in the top left of the screen. The fourth from the left says Add Image (Alt+I), and several file types are supported including SVG.

You may need to change the background setting in the title editor to see imported image and change the zoom (top right hand portion of the screen). I have imported SVG files that were very small and I had to search for them and then scale them by 500%.

Hope it helps