About Lumiera

The goal of the Lumiera project is to build a free open-source non-linear video editing and compositing application (NLE).

On the one hand, it must meet the rigours of a professional film and video production environment; on the other hand, it must be flexible enough to satisfy the needs of more modest single-user equipment. In other words, Lumiera will be scalable.

Two key factors were identified to achieve these ambitious goals:

The Lumiera project draws directly on the power of collaborative development and the use of prevailing open-source technologies — relying on knowledge documented by the work of other programmers, to avoid solving problems which have already been solved.

There is a serious lack of good video editors in the open-source community. This is particularly relevant when it comes to handling professional grade high-resolution image formats. Commercial solutions tend to reduce freedom of choice in exchange for “secret sauce”, keeping the user in the dark about how results are achieved while gravitating towards the walled garden of subscription models and cloud platforms. Many distinctive features of Lumiera are provided to overcome the well known limitations imposed by video editors currently available on the market.

Lumiera builds upon a flexible and open architecture. It is composed of modular blocks connected together to form the application that processes data. Lumiera is a tool for craftspeople, delivering both reliability together with flexibility in combination to build your film edit and compositing. High-quality processing combined with freedom of choice however increases complexity — and, thus, the ability to handle complexity with precision is one of the tenets found in the Lumiera architecture. Another pillar in the design is clarity, transparency of decisions, documentation of choices and the open exchange of ideas and solutions within the community of volunteers behind this project.

→ read more about the Design and Vision

The roots of the project can be traced back to the Cinelerra-CV community.
While Cinelerra was held in no small esteem by many, it suffers from a number of limitations, which are nestled deep within the code base. One consequence of this is the difficulty in expanding its functionality beyond its current set of features. A number of users started an initiative called “Cinelerra-3” at that time which attempted to rework some of the fundamental parts of Cinelerra.

An in-depth analysis revealed, however, that most aspects of the application either needed or would substantially benefit from a redesign so as to aspire to the expectations of users and to engage with contemporary tooling. This dilemma was met by a drive to develop a new application and a community vote settled on a new name: »Lumiera«.

Lumiera has grown and expanded in scope since its emergence as an independent project, while retaining the core of the original vision. So, technically, Lumiera is not a fork of Cinelerra, but is developed from scratch, starting with the engine core. Regular developer meetings, active open-source Community participation and stimulating communication over the net contributed to form a slowly but steadily maturing project.

→ read more about the Project History