Editly is a tool and framework for declarative NLE (non-linear video editing) using Node.js and ffmpeg. Editly allows you to easily and programmatically create a video from a set of clips, images, audio and titles, with smooth transitions and music overlaid.
Editly has a simple CLI for quickly assembling a video from a set of clips or images, or you can use its more flexible JavaScript API.
Inspired by ffmpeg-concat, editly is much faster and doesn't require much storage because it uses streaming editing. Editly aims to be very extensible and feature rich with a pluggable interface for adding new dynamic content.
This GIF / YouTube was created with this command: "editly commonFeatures.json5". See more examples here.
- Edit videos with code! 🤓
- Declarative API with fun defaults
- Create colorful videos with random colors generated from aesthetically pleasing palettes and random effects
- Supports any input size, e.g. 4K video and DSLR photos
- Can output to any dimensions and aspect ratio, e.g. Instagram post (1:1), Instagram story (9:16), YouTube (16:9), or any other dimensions you like.
- Content is scaled and letterboxed automatically, even if the input aspect ratio is not the same and the framerate will be converted.
- Speed up / slow down videos automatically to match the
cutFrom/cutTosegment length with each clip'sduration - Overlay text and subtitles on videos, images or backgrounds
- Accepts custom HTML5 Canvas / Fabric.js JavaScript code for custom screens or dynamic overlays
- Render custom GL shaders (for example from shadertoy)
- Can output GIF
- Overlay transparent images or even videos with alpha channel
- Show different sub-clips for parts of a clips duration (B-roll)
- Picture-in-picture
- Vignette
- Preserve/mix multiple audio sources
- Automatic audio crossfading
- Automatic audio ducking and normalization
- Create a slideshow from a set of pictures with text overlay
- Create a fast-paced trailer or promo video
- Create a tutorial video with help text
- Create news stories
- Create an animated GIF
- Resize video to any size or framerate and with automatic letterboxing/cropping (e.g. if you need to upload a video somewhere but the site complains
Video must be 1337x1000 30fps) - Create a podcast with multiple mixed tracks
See examples
- Windows, MacOS or Linux
- Node.js installed (Use of the latest LTS version is recommended, v12.16.2 or newer on MacOS.)
ffmpeg(andffprobe) installed and available inPATH- (Linux) may require some extra steps. See headless-gl.
- Editly is now ESM only
npm i -g editly
Run editly --help for usage
Create a simple randomized video edit from videos, images and text with an audio track:
editly \
title:'My video' \
clip1.mov \
clip2.mov \
title:'My slideshow' \
img1.jpg \
img2.jpg \
title:'THE END' \
--fast \
--audio-file-path /path/to/music.mp3Or create an MP4 (or GIF) from a JSON or JSON5 edit spec (JSON5 is just a more user friendly JSON format):
editly my-spec.json5 --fast --keep-source-audio --out output.gifFor examples of how to make a JSON edit spec, see below or examples.
Without --fast, it will default to using the width, height and frame rate from the first input video. All other clips will be converted to these dimensions. You can of course override any or all of these parameters.
- TIP: Use this tool in conjunction with LosslessCut
- TIP: If you need catchy music for your video, have a look at this YouTube or the YouTube audio library. Then use youtube-dl to download the video, and then point
--audio-file-pathat the video file. Be sure to respect their license!
import editly from 'editly';
// See editSpec documentation
await editly(editSpec)Edit specs are JavaScript / JSON objects describing the whole edit operation with the following structure:
{
outPath,
width,
height,
fps,
allowRemoteRequests: false,
defaults: {
duration: 4,
transition: {
duration: 0.5,
name: 'random',
audioOutCurve: 'tri',
audioInCurve: 'tri',
},
layer: {
fontPath,
// ...more layer defaults
},
layerType: {
'fill-color': {
color: '#ff6666',
}
// ...more per-layer-type defaults
},
},
clips: [
{
transition,
duration,
layers: [
{
type,
// ...more layer-specific options
}
// ...more layers
],
}
// ...more clips
],
audioFilePath,
loopAudio: false,
keepSourceAudio: false,
clipsAudioVolume: 1,
outputVolume: 1,
audioTracks: [
{
path,
mixVolume: 1,
cutFrom: 0,
cutTo,
start: 0,
},
// ...more audio tracks
],
audioNorm: {
enable: false,
gaussSize: 5,
maxGain: 30,
}
// Testing options:
enableFfmpegLog: false,
verbose: false,
fast: false,
}| Parameter | CLI equivalent | Description | Default | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
outPath |
--out |
Output path (mp4, mkv), can also be a .gif |
||
width |
--width |
Width which all media will be converted to | 640 |
|
height |
--height |
Height which all media will be converted to | auto based on width and aspect ratio of first video |
|
fps |
--fps |
FPS which all videos will be converted to | First video FPS or 25 |
|
customOutputArgs |
Specify custom output codec/format arguments for ffmpeg (See example) | auto (h264) | ||
allowRemoteRequests |
--allow-remote-requests |
Allow remote URLs as paths | false |
|
fast |
--fast, -f |
Fast mode (low resolution and FPS, useful for getting a quick preview ⏩) | false |
|
defaults.layer.fontPath |
--font-path |
Set default font to a .ttf | System font | |
defaults.layer.* |
Set any layer parameter that all layers will inherit | |||
defaults.duration |
--clip-duration |
Set default clip duration for clips that don't have an own duration | 4 |
sec |
defaults.transition |
An object { name, duration } describing the default transition. Set to null to disable transitions |
|||
defaults.transition.duration |
--transition-duration |
Default transition duration | 0.5 |
sec |
defaults.transition.name |
--transition-name |
Default transition type. See Transition types | random |
|
defaults.transition.audioOutCurve |
Default fade out curve in audio cross fades | tri |
||
defaults.transition.audioInCurve |
Default fade in curve in audio cross fades | tri |
||
clips[] |
List of clip objects that will be played in sequence. Each clip can have one or more layers. | |||
clips[].duration |
Clip duration. See defaults.duration. If unset, the clip duration will be that of the first video layer. |
defaults.duration |
||
clips[].transition |
Specify transition at the end of this clip. See defaults.transition |
defaults.transition |
||
clips[].layers[] |
List of layers within the current clip that will be overlaid in their natural order (final layer on top) | |||
clips[].layers[].type |
Layer type, see below | |||
clips[].layers[].start |
What time into the clip should this layer start | sec | ||
clips[].layers[].stop |
What time into the clip should this layer stop | sec | ||
audioTracks[] |
List of arbitrary audio tracks. See audio tracks. | [] |
||
audioFilePath |
--audio-file-path |
Set an audio track for the whole video. See also audio tracks | ||
loopAudio |
--loop-audio |
Loop the audio track if it is shorter than video? | false |
|
keepSourceAudio |
--keep-source-audio |
Keep source audio from clips? |
false |
|
clipsAudioVolume |
Volume of audio from clips relative to audioTracks. See audio tracks. |
1 |
||
outputVolume |
--output-volume |
Adjust output volume (final stage). See example | 1 |
e.g. 0.5 or 10dB |
audioNorm.enable |
Enable audio normalization? See audio normalization. | false |
||
audioNorm.gaussSize |
Audio normalization gauss size. See audio normalization. | 5 |
||
audioNorm.maxGain |
Audio normalization max gain. See audio normalization. | 30 |
transition.name can be any of gl-transitions, or any of the following: directional-left, directional-right, directional-up, directional-down, random or dummy.
See examples and commonFeatures.json5
For video layers, if parent clip.duration is specified, the video will be slowed/sped-up to match clip.duration. If cutFrom/cutTo is set, the resulting segment (cutTo-cutFrom) will be slowed/sped-up to fit clip.duration. If the layer has audio, it will be kept (and mixed with other audio layers if present.)
| Parameter | Description | Default | |
|---|---|---|---|
path |
Path to video file | ||
resizeMode |
See Resize modes | ||
cutFrom |
Time value to cut from | 0 |
sec |
cutTo |
Time value to cut to | end of video | sec |
width |
Width relative to screen width | 1 |
0 to 1 |
height |
Height relative to screen height | 1 |
0 to 1 |
left |
X-position relative to screen width | 0 |
0 to 1 |
top |
Y-position relative to screen height | 0 |
0 to 1 |
originX |
X anchor | left |
left or right |
originY |
Y anchor | top |
top or bottom |
mixVolume |
Relative volume when mixing this video's audio track with others | 1 |
Audio layers will be mixed together. If cutFrom/cutTo is set, the resulting segment (cutTo-cutFrom) will be slowed/sped-up to fit clip.duration. The slow down/speed-up operation is limited to values between 0.5x and 100x.
| Parameter | Description | Default | |
|---|---|---|---|
path |
Path to audio file | ||
cutFrom |
Time value to cut from | 0 |
sec |
cutTo |
Time value to cut to | clip.duration |
sec |
mixVolume |
Relative volume when mixing this audio track with others | 1 |
This is a special case of audioTracks that makes it easier to start the audio relative to clips start times without having to calculate global start times.
detached-audio has the exact same properties as audioTracks, except start time is relative to the clip's start.
Example of detached audio tracks
Full screen image
| Parameter | Description | Default | |
|---|---|---|---|
path |
Path to image file | ||
resizeMode |
See Resize modes |
See also See Ken Burns parameters.
Image overlay with a custom position and size on the screen. NOTE: If you want to use animated GIFs use video instead.
| Parameter | Description | Default | |
|---|---|---|---|
path |
Path to image file | ||
position |
See Position parameter | ||
width |
Width (from 0 to 1) where 1 is screen width | ||
height |
Height (from 0 to 1) where 1 is screen height |
See also Ken Burns parameters.
fontPath- Seedefaults.layer.fontPathtext- Title text to show, keep it shorttextColor- default#ffffffposition- See Position parameter
See also Ken Burns parameters
fontPath- Seedefaults.layer.fontPathtext- Subtitle text to showtextColor- default#ffffff
Title with background
text- See typetitletextColor- See typetitlebackground-{ type, ... }- See typeradial-gradient,linear-gradientorfill-colorfontPath- See typetitle
fontPath- Seedefaults.layer.fontPathtexttextColor- default#ffffffbackgroundColor- default#d02a42position- See Position parameter
fontPath- Seedefaults.layer.fontPathtextfontSizecharSpacingcolorposition- See Position parameter
color- Color to fill background, default: randomize
colors- Array of two colors, default: randomize
colors- Array of two colors, default: randomize
🌈🌈🌈
See customCanvas.js
func- Custom JavaScript function
See customFabric.js
func- Custom JavaScript function
Loads a GLSL shader. See gl.json5 and rainbow-colors.frag
fragmentPathvertexPath(optional)
audioTracks property can optionally contain a list of objects which specify audio tracks that can be started at arbitrary times in the final video. These tracks will be mixed together (mixVolume specifying a relative number for how loud each track is compared to the other tracks). Because audio from clips will be mixed separately from audioTracks, clipsAudioVolume specifies the volume of the combined audio from clips relative to the volume of each of the audio tracks from audioTracks.
| Parameter | Description | Default | |
|---|---|---|---|
audioTracks[].path |
File path for this track | ||
audioTracks[].mixVolume |
Relative volume for this track | 1 |
|
audioTracks[].cutFrom |
Time value to cut source file from | 0 |
sec |
audioTracks[].cutTo |
Time value to cut source file to | sec | |
audioTracks[].start |
How many seconds into video to start this audio track | 0 |
sec |
The difference between audioTracks and Layer type 'audio' is that audioTracks will continue to play across multiple clips and can start and stop whenever needed.
See audioTracks example
See also Layer type 'detached-audio'.
You can enable audio normalization of the final output audio. This is useful if you want to achieve Audio Ducking (e.g. automatically lower volume of all other tracks when voice-over speaks).
audioNorm parameters are documented here.
resizeMode - How to fit image to screen. Can be one of:
contain- All the video will be contained within the frame and letterboxedcontain-blur- Likecontain, but with a blurred copy as the letterboxcover- Video be cropped to cover the whole screen (aspect ratio preserved)stretch- Video will be stretched to cover the whole screen (aspect ratio ignored).
Default contain-blur.
See:
Certain layers support the position parameter
position can be one of either:
top,bottomcenter,top-left,top-right,center-left,center-right,bottom-left,bottom-right- An object
{ x, y, originX = 'left', originY = 'top' }, where{ x: 0, y: 0 }is the upper left corner of the screen, and{ x: 1, y: 1 }is the lower right corner,xis relative to video width,yto video height.originXandoriginYare optional, and specify the position's origin (anchor position) of the object.
See position.json5
| Parameter | Description | Default | |
|---|---|---|---|
zoomDirection |
Zoom direction for Ken Burns effect: in, out, left, right or null to disable |
||
zoomAmount |
Zoom amount for Ken Burns effect | 0.1 |
This should help you use editly as a containerized CLI, without worrying about getting all the right versions of dependencies on your system.
$ git clone https://github.com/mifi/editly.git
$ cd editly/examples
$ git clone https://github.com/mifi/editly-assets.git assets
$ cd ..
$ docker-compose up
$ docker-compose run editly bash -c "cd examples && editly audio1.json5 --out /outputs/audio1.mp4"
$ docker cp editly:/outputs/audio1.mp4 .- If you get
Error: The specified module could not be found., try:npm un -g editly && npm i -g --build-from-source editly(see #15) - If you get an error about gl returning null, see Requirements.
- If you get an error
/bin/sh: pkg-config: command not found, try to use newest Node.js LTS version
This project is maintained by me alone. The project will always remain free and open source, but if it's useful for you, consider supporting me. :) It will give me extra motivation to improve it.
This package would not exist without the support and help from all the contributors and sponsors!
Special thanks to:
- Patrick Connolly - docker-compose support
- Skayo - Typescript support
- https://github.com/mifi/reactive-video - React based alternative to editly
- https://github.com/JonnyBurger/remotion - React based alternative to editly (not open source)
- https://github.com/pankod/canvas2video - Similar project based on Cairo
- https://github.com/h2non/videoshow - Inspired editly
- https://github.com/transitive-bullshit/ffmpeg-concat - Inspired editly
- http://www.quasimondo.com/BoxBlurForCanvas/FastBlurDemo.html - Fast blur effect used in editly
- https://github.com/transitive-bullshit/awesome-ffmpeg
- https://github.com/sjfricke/awesome-webgl
- https://www.mltframework.org/docs/melt/
- Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com
Submit a PR if you want to share your videos or project created with editly here.
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