Blur Busters Forums

In a Photoshop like editor, you can have N layers. you can adjust the order of the layers. you can adjust the opacity of each layer.

I want to make a film in the same way.

I want to have 5 different streams/clips going concurrently and dynamically change the order and the opacity of each layer.

Does anyone have any ideas for a program that could do this?

With a little looking at free video editors like daVinci Resolve, it does not appear to do it.

I see some list having multiple cameras so perhaps that is what I need. but looking at those you switch to one, or another, you dont layer them.

I guess stop motion of doing it in a Photoshop like editor I one way but I would not have the patience for it.

Adobe Premiere has layers features -- not sure if you can realtime change these -- but I suspect you could use Premiere scripting to change each layer settings on a frame by frame basis. There are adjustment layers and there's video layer capability. And there's scripting too. I suspect you combine all these features to create what you're describing.

Cheapest route: Adobe Premiere Pro is expensive to buy standalone, but you can one month of Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, to get one month rental of all major Adobe products including Adobe Premiere Pro to get the job done. Alternatively, rent Premiere Pro for under 30 per month.

If unfamiliar, study a few YouTube tutorials, google "Premiere Adjustment Layers" and "Superimposed Premiere Video Layers" and "Premiere Pro Scripting" and such, and combine these skills to figure out to pull off what you need done.

There are probably other options, including possible open source command line methods, if you're doing simpler stuff. ffmpeg and other processors can do adjustments and video merging. So through some processes (e.g. pre-adding adjustments to a video, then overlaying the video on top of another video, etc). With enough steps (within tool limitations), you may be able to pull off what you need in a many-sequence command line scripting. Probably best use an uncompressed interim format through the multiple steps from the first decompress to the last recompress (final file), though.

I'd be surprised if there weren't other software.

It's hard to figure out what software fits your preferred workflow though, but be prepared for some learning-experience overhead to pull off what you need done. All routes will definitely require at least some learning-curve patience, but some workflows may have faster learning curves that fit you better.