Shotcut tutorial · companion page
The free-software half of the whip pan. Nothing in these four minutes happens inside Shotcut: GIMP doubles one exported still to 3840 × 1080, lays the two frames either side of the cut next to each other, stretches a 78-pixel sliver of the join out to 687 pixels to manufacture the smear, feathers it with a gradient on a layer mask, and writes a single PNG. The Shotcut side lives on the Photoshop page.
Reading in another language? Use the translate picker in the header, or your browser’s own translate command — the GIMP menu, dialog and value names are marked to stay in English so they still match what is on your screen.
A whip pan in Shotcut is a still image sliding sideways fast enough that the eye reads it as a camera whip. This video builds that image and stops there. Everything below happens in GIMP 2.10.20 on Linux.
From 0:05 to 4:32 the window on screen is GIMP, and Shotcut never opens once. No timeline, no filter, no keyframe, no export dialog. Ben’s own description says as much in its first line: watch the Photoshop version first, because that is where the editing half is taught.
Image → Canvas Size takes the width from 1920 to 3840 and leaves the height on 1080. With the offset left at 0, 0 the original still stays pinned to the left and the whole 1920 pixels of new space opens on the right, as transparency.
GIMP has no blur-across-a-seam command and none is used. A 78-pixel-wide rectangle is selected at the join, copied, pasted as its own layer and scaled to 687 × 1080. That is an 8.8× horizontal stretch, and the streaking it produces is the whole effect.
The stretched strip still has a hard right border. Layer → Add Layer Mask… puts a mask on it and the Gradient tool is dragged across that mask from right to left, ending on X 1920. On a mask black hides, so the smear fades away into the second still instead of stopping.
[ STOP: you need to watch this video first in order for this to make sense ]
from the video description — not spoken; this tutorial has no narration
This video carries no chapter marks at all — not in the description, not in the video data. The nine boundaries below were worked out by reading the frames: the title bar, which reports the canvas size and the layer count on every single frame; the Undo History panel; and the status bar. Click any screencap or timestamp to play from that second, right here in the card.
0:12 · The video opens on an empty GIMP, a file manager holding frame1.jpg and frame2.jpg, and the About GIMP dialog opened deliberately at 0:12. It reads GIMP 2.10.20, Copyright © 1995-2020. The desktop is Linux in Spanish, the recorder in the taskbar is OBS 25.0.3, and the home folder is /home/ejmillan.
0:32 · frame1.jpg is open and the title bar reads 1 layer, 1920x1080. The dialog is titled Set Image Canvas Size: Width typed from 1920 to 3840, Height left on 1080, Offset X and Offset Y both 0, Resize layers: None, Fill with: Transparency. The preview underneath shows the picture sliding to the left of a wider box.
0:47 · By 0:42 the title bar reads 3840x1080 and the right-hand half of the canvas is transparent chequerboard. A vertical guide is then pulled off the left ruler and released on 1920 — the seam, and the line the second still has to meet.
1:02 · The file manager comes back and the second still is dragged straight onto the canvas. Undo History logs Drop layers, the title bar flips to 2 layers, and the new layer lands over the left. The Move tool then pushes it right until its edge sits on the guide, after which frame1.jpg is dragged above it in the Layers panel.
1:44 · A second guide comes off the ruler at 1842. The view zooms to 200 % and Rectangle Select draws a box filling the gap: the status bar reads Rectangle: 78 × 1078 (0,07:1). That 78-pixel band of frame one’s right edge is everything the smear is made from.
2:06 · Edit → Copy answers Copied pixels to the clipboard, and the Edit menu is opened again for the paste — the screencap catches Paste as highlighted with its submenu open. The result is a third layer called Pasted Layer, which Tools → Transform Tools → Scale then drags out to 687 × 1080 before it is anchored and merged down.
3:05 · The dialog is titled Add a Mask to the Layer and its subject line names the target: Pasted Layer-8 ([frame1] (imported)). Seven initialisation options, Invert mask unticked. Once added, the Gradient tool drags right to left across the mask with the end handle parked on X 1920, Y 546.
3:38 · Three Merge Down calls take the title bar from 4 layers to 1 layer, then both guides are dragged off. This is the finished plate: the pool shot on the left, the underwater shot on the right, and between them a horizontal streak with no edge on either side of it.
4:32 · File → Export As… writes frame_combined.png at 1,5 MB into the same pictures folder, and the title bar changes to [frame_combined] (exported). A Save Image dialog follows for frame_combined.xcf in Documentos. The subscribe card is already fading up over it; the video ends here with no return to Shotcut.
Steps one and nine touch the files that cross between the two applications; everything in between is GIMP only. Every value was read off the screen in the video. Where something was never shown, this page says so rather than filling the gap.
The video opens with both frames already sitting in the home pictures folder. They are the frames either side of the cut, exported out of Shotcut with File → Export Frame... — that part is taught in the Photoshop version, and this one starts after it.
Open frame1.jpg in GIMP. The title bar confirms what you are starting from: 1 layer, 1920x1080.
On a current Shotcut, that menu entry has moved. It sat at the top level as File → Export Frame... for years, including on the 2020 build these tutorials were recorded on; by 25.10.31 it lives in a submenu as File → Export → Frame..., next to Video/Audio..., Markers as Chapters... and EDL.... The Ctrl+Shift+E shortcut and the PNG (*.png) type are unchanged. Neither spelling can be confirmed from this video, because Shotcut is never on screen in it — the old one is read off the pixels of the Photoshop video, the new one off a later tutorial in the series.
The dialog that opens is titled Set Image Canvas Size. Break the chain link between Width and Height first, or typing the new width drags the height up with it, then type the doubled width and press Resize.
Leaving the offset on 0, 0 is what anchors the existing picture to the left. Pressing Center instead would split the new space evenly either side, and every measurement below stops lining up.
Click on the left-hand ruler and drag right. The status bar counts the position out as you go — let go on 1920, the exact midpoint of the new canvas and the line the second still has to meet. The Undo History logs it as Add Vertical Guide.
Guides are reference only. They are dragged off again at the end and never reach the exported file.
Back to the file manager, and drag the second still straight onto the GIMP canvas. It arrives as its own layer — the Undo History calls it Drop layers — sitting over the top left. Pick up the Move tool and push it right until its left edge lands on the guide.
A dropped layer lands above whatever was already there, so frame2.jpg starts as the upper layer. Drag frame1.jpg above it in the Layers panel — logged as Reorder Layer. The smear is going to be built out of frame one’s pixels and has to sit over frame two, not under it.
Pull a second vertical guide off the ruler and let go at 1842, exactly 78 pixels left of the seam. Zoom in — the video goes to 200 % — take the Rectangle Select tool and drag a box that fills the gap between the two guides, top to bottom.
The status bar readout wobbles between 78 × 1078 and 78 × 1081 while the box is being dragged, because it is drawn by hand rather than typed into a field. The width is what matters and it holds on 78 throughout.
Nothing makes 78 special. It is a narrow band of frame one’s right edge, picked by eye. Wider gives a longer, softer smear; narrower gives a shorter, harsher one.
Edit → Copy — the status bar answers Copied pixels to the clipboard — then Edit → Paste. It arrives as a floating Pasted Layer in the Layers panel. Now Tools → Transform Tools → Scale (Shift+S), and drag the right-hand handle outward across the second still.
Press Scale, then anchor the result: the history shows Floating Selection to Layer followed by Merge Down, which drops the stretched band onto frame1.jpg.
Layer → Add Layer Mask… opens Add a Mask to the Layer. Leave it initialised so the mask starts fully white — nothing hidden — and press Add. Then take the Gradient tool, check the foreground and background swatches are still the default black and white, and drag from the far right of the stretched band leftwards to the seam.
In GIMP 2.10 the endpoints stay live after you let go, and the small floating panel lets you type an exact X and Y rather than trying to land the drag on the pixel. The video uses it to park the end on 1920 after a rough first pull.
Two more Merge Down calls flatten everything to a single layer, then both guides are dragged back off the canvas. File → Export As…, name it, and set Select File Type to PNG image before pressing Export.
The .xcf saved straight afterwards is GIMP’s own project file, written to Documentos rather than beside the picture. Shotcut does not need it; it only means the layers can be reopened.
The picture you have just written goes onto a second video track above the join, gets one filter that slides it sideways, and one more that stands in for motion blur. None of that is demonstrated here. The Photoshop companion carries the whole Shotcut half step by step — the filter, the two keyframes, the trails, the export settings, and the two traps that bite.
Read directly off the frames. The pixel positions are the numbers the GIMP status bar and the on-canvas dialogs reported at the moment each action was committed.
| Setting | Value | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| GIMP version | 2.10.20 | Help → About GIMP |
| Source still 1 | frame1.jpg | /home/ejmillan/Imágenes/ |
| Source still 2 | frame2.jpg | /home/ejmillan/Imágenes/ |
| Starting image size | 1920 x 1080 | Title bar |
| Canvas Width | 3840 | Set Image Canvas Size |
| Canvas Height | 1080 | Set Image Canvas Size |
| Offset X / Offset Y | 0 / 0 | Set Image Canvas Size |
| Resize layers | None | Set Image Canvas Size |
| Fill with | Transparency | Set Image Canvas Size |
| Resolution reported | 94 ppi | Set Image Canvas Size and Scale |
| Guide 1 | x 1920 | Dragged off the left ruler |
| Guide 2 | x 1842 | Dragged off the left ruler |
| Seam selection | 78 x 1080 | Rectangle Select |
| Zoom while selecting | 200 % | Status bar |
| Pasted strip scaled to | 687 x 1080 | Tools → Transform Tools → Scale |
| Horizontal stretch factor | 8.8x | 687 divided by 78 |
| Foreground / background | black / white | Toolbox colour swatches |
| Gradient End Endpoint | X 1920, Y 546 | On-canvas gradient handle |
| Gradient end colour | BG (t) | On-canvas gradient handle |
| Layers at the peak | 4 | Title bar, 2:50 |
| Layers at the end | 1 | Title bar, 3:35 |
| Exported picture | frame_combined.png · 1,5 MB | File → Export As… |
| Project file | frame_combined.xcf | /home/ejmillan/Documentos/ |
| Screen recorder | OBS 25.0.3+dfsg1-2 (linux) | Taskbar |
| Recorded on | 27 sep, 14:24 | Desktop clock |
The recording clock and the file dates put this session on 27 September 2020, three months before the video was published on 1 January 2021. The desktop is a Spanish-language Linux with an English GIMP, and the home folder is /home/ejmillan: Ben credits Shotcut forum member ejmillan in the description for building this GIMP version of the tutorial, and the screen is his.
| # | Undo History entry | What it was |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | [ Base Image ] | frame1.jpg opened |
| 02 | Resize Image | Canvas widened to 3840 |
| 03 | Add Vertical Guide | Seam guide at 1920 |
| 04 | Drop layers | frame2.jpg dragged in |
| 05 | Move Layer | Second still pushed right to the guide |
| 06 | Reorder Layer | frame1.jpg raised above frame2.jpg |
| 07 | Add Vertical Guide | Second guide at 1842 |
| 08 | Rectangle Select | The 78-pixel sliver |
| 09 | Paste | The sliver back in as its own layer |
| 10 | Scale to 687 x 1080 | The stretch that makes the smear |
| 11 | Floating Selection to Layer | The stretched sliver anchored |
| 12 | Merge Down | Smear dropped onto frame one |
| 13 | Add Layer Mask | Mask added to the merged layer |
| 14 | Gradient | Black to white across the mask |
| 15 | Merge Down | Flatten, first pass |
| 16 | Merge Down | Flatten, second pass — one layer left |
| 17 | Remove Guide | Seam guide dragged off |
| 18 | Remove Guide | Second guide dragged off |
That list is the whole tutorial. Eighteen entries, no filters, no plug-ins, no scripts, and nothing that needs a paid application.
| Step | Photoshop version | This GIMP version |
|---|---|---|
| Order of the first two moves | Paste still two in, then double the canvas | Double the canvas, then drag still two in |
| How still two arrives | Select All and copy from the other document | Dropped straight onto the canvas from the file manager |
| The smear | Marquee a band, Edit → Transform → Scale it in place on the same layer | Copy the band, paste it as a separate layer, Scale, anchor, then merge it down |
| Where the mask goes | On frame one’s layer | On the merged smear-plus-frame-one layer |
| Gradient direction | Shift-drag left to right, to the midpoint | Drag right to left, end handle typed to X 1920 |
| Gradient controls named on screen | Black, White preset, Linear Gradient, Opacity: 100% | Only the endpoint panel: X 1920, Y 546, BG (t) |
| Source stills | frame1.png and frame2.png | frame1.jpg and frame2.jpg |
| Finished file | frame-combined.png, hyphen | frame_combined.png, underscore |
| Application version shown | Never — Photoshop’s version is not on screen at any point | GIMP 2.10.20, from the About dialog at 0:12 |
| The Shotcut half | Twenty minutes of it, filters and all | None of it |
The layer-mask initialisation, honestly. In the Add a Mask to the Layer dialog the selected button sits on Layer’s alpha channel, and that label is drawn greyed out. Because the pasted strip is completely opaque, that choice produces exactly the same all-white mask that White (full opacity) would — so what happens on screen is unambiguous even though the radio state is not. If you are following along, pick White (full opacity) and you land in the same place.
What this video never shows. No Shotcut window, so no filter, no filter name, no keyframe, no track layout and no export settings — all of that is on the Photoshop page. GIMP’s Gradient tool options dock is never brought forward, so the gradient shape and blend mode are not on screen; the straight horizontal drag and the picture it produces are consistent with a linear gradient, and this page will not name a preset it cannot read. The PNG compression options are never opened either.
The Shotcut version. Ben’s description names Shotcut V20.09.13 for this tutorial, and the Photoshop video confirms 20.09.13 in its own About Shotcut dialog. It cannot be confirmed from this video, because Shotcut is never on screen in it. On a 2020 build there are no filter sets, and the filter you will want is already called Size, Position & Rotate rather than the older Rotate and Scale — the Photoshop page carries that detail.
There is no narration and no voice of any kind. A music bed runs unbroken from 0:00 to 4:32 with no speech-shaped gap anywhere in it, the video carries no uploaded caption track, and no instructional text is burned into the picture at any point. You are meant to watch the mouse. That is why every number on this page was read off the interface rather than off a transcript — there is no transcript to read.
Ben’s description adds two pointers this page carries forward: the Photoshop version at youtu.be/vaxCSPkSeF8, which you are told to watch first, and a third route at youtu.be/lDJCHiApD80 that reaches a whip pan with no photo editor at all.
