Jahshaka
Quick and Fast: This is an underdeveloped program that falls short of the hype on it’s own website. The development is so stale, (last info/development in 2006!) that many have come to avoid this program like the plague. The next upgrade, Version 3.0 is promised to be awesome, but is a long time in coming. Even so, THIS IS THE BEST VIDEO EDITING FREEWARE I’VE FOUND SO FAR.
Where to get it: http://jahshaka.org/ Windows, Mac and various Linux systems.
It looks to me like the developers of Jahshaka hope that some day, Jahshaka will be the only (or at least biggest, most popular) media software around. The program is supposed to be Adobe After Effects and Premiere combined with 3D capabilities. The Jahshaka slogan is “Powering the New Hollywood”. Some people online who have used various editors, feel that Jahshaka is one of the best out there (the other is Cinelerra, which is for Linux systems only. Cinelerra has no versions for Windows or Mac). After messing around with the program, I really like what it can do.
Jahshaka has six main “modules” or sections;
The Desktop is where you load (import), organize and view content from photos, to video clips and audio clips. Jahshaka imports the following formats: Video - AVI and MOV. Audio - WAV and MP3. Photo - JPEG, BMP, PNG. 3D models automatically open in the Animation module and you can only use OBJ (Wavefront) files. The Desktop also has some “mini-modules” (my own term) on it including Keyer for chroma keying, Encoder for encoding, and Player for playing your footage. I’ve only got the Keyer to work, so far.
Animation is where you can manipulate photos and 3D objects with the normal transform properties like After Effects (move/translation, rotation, scale and opacity/transparency). You cannot create 3D models inside the Animation module or anywhere in Jahshaka. You’ll have to import them from a 3D program. You can’t do anything with video or audio here.
Effects is where you add visual effects to video clips. The effects are hardware-based and computer (RAM?) based (the complicated After Effects stuff). This module was the hardest for me to grasp and I still don’t exactly get it. I’m still learning as I go, but this seems to be the Animation module for Video.
Editing is where you can edit video and “mix” audio on a timeline and do superimpositions, some chroma keying and stuff (Premiere). As far as I can tell, you get an unlimited number of tracks, a huge plus compared to Free DV, Movie Maker and VideoSpin. This module is where everything in the other modules ends up, since the other modules render everything out as Jpeg sequences and this module is the only one that renders out actual movies. Fortunately, this module can import what the others export, since they each render their own proprietary format of Jpeg sequence. (Oh brother!)
Paint can do many of the things the paint tools in After Effects do. This module works a lot like the Animation module in many ways.
And last but not least, Text CG which gives you the tools to make better titles/graphics. The Animation module will let you add text, but if you really want it done right, this module is where you go. This works somewhat like the Paint and Animation modules.
In reality, Jahshaka has some large problems at this time. One main problem is the lack of instruction on how to use it. The developers (including the one for whom it was named, a certain Mr. Jah Shaka) are going to bring out the great Version 3.0, but have already removed the chapters in the wiki explaining how to use Version 2.0. The few tutorials on the site are not done very well. I had to struggle to understand what was going on. Because of this, I’m making my own tutorials for Jahshaka, using CamStudio (see below).
Some people have told me that Blender can do some of the same things Jahshaka is supposed to do. From what I’ve read online, Blender users think of Jahshaka as a funny little program that might be able to match Blender someday.
Tip: There is another option if you don’t want to put your rendered stuff from the other modules through the Editing module. Use Avidemux or some variation of VirtualDub to import the JPEG sequence and render out as a video. I used VirtualDub and it works very well. I will go through this in my tutorials.
Jahplayer: This is a separate program that seems to depend on Jahshaka to work. The only way I found that Jahplayer might work, is through the Player button in the Desktop (but that can’t be right. ???). This however, caused Jahshaka to shut down. Jahplayer is the next focus by the developers, who will work on Jahshaka Version 3.0 after the next Jahplayer is done.
Tutorials: The website has a wiki, tutorials and forums. The wiki has had all the Version 2.0 info removed, so it won’t help you. The tutorials I read were the one for the Editing module and for the Animation and Desktop modules. Both tutorials are not very well explained, but if you can understand them, you can build off of them. There is also another tutorial about the Effects module. It helps to have used After Effects or Motion before.
I also found some tutorials on youtube, but they were silent and the guy had a text box that came and went with explanations. His tutorials were about the Desktop, Animation, Effects and Editing modules. If you would like to investigate these, go Here.
There is also another guy who talks in his video tutorial, but he only has one, which is a really good one about the Effects module. I asked him to make some more, but he’s waiting for Version 3.0. Go Here.
My Tutorials: I’m working on some good quality, easy to understand tutorials with audio about Jahshaka as I get time. The link is Here.
License and Use: GNU GPL
