I am trying to take 3 video clips ( that are 1920x1080 ) and rotate them all on their side ( so they are 1080x1920 ) and put them into the same video in of itself, side by side by side.

The problem is, no video rotation tools I know of or have tried will rotate the vidos like this. They all rotate them, scale them, and put them back into a 1920x1080 container with huge ( 420x1080 ) letterboxes on either side. This just won't do at all.

I also need to know the best possible program for layering these all together. I _think_ I can do it in iMovie ( though for some stupid a reason iMovie seems to apply the project aspect ratio to all clips therein ) but I'd imagine Final Cut would work. But I am trying to do this for as cheaply as possible.

And because I _may_ make money off of the final product, everything is going to be legal. Just have to make sure I point that out.

Also, in case you didn't know, or didn't pick up on it. I am on OS X, specifically 10.6.6. So, if you find software, keep that in mind.

You should be able to do this with any multitrack video editor.

If you do end up near a Windows machine, I can heartily recommend Sony Vegas (I have used it for a similar task to the one you mention myself), but I don't know the first thing about Mac OS video editors, sorry.

When I need to edit certain video segments differently (regarding aspect and such) I place them in a new project, apply the edits then export. Afterwards, import them into the project I originally wanted them in.

However, side by side by side is not something iMovie can do.

Blender is very nice for this job, but you're going to have to muck with 3D (more like 2D for what you're doing). If you don't need this done instantly, I can assist you with doing the side by side. Of course, if you learn and master it before me, you can probably do it yourself.

Blender is FOSS, and can be found at blender.org.

Blender for video editing, even though it's a 3D editor and renderer? Did I miss something somewhere? Surely there are better ways to edit videos than playing them in 2D rectangles in a 3D space and taking a video screenshot of the result.

ffmpeg will do it in a pinch. Use the overlay and transpose video filters.
Might be a bit tricky to figure out exactly the configuration you want, but knowing how to use ffmpeg is very useful in any case.

Well, there is a video sequencer built in - you just have to find it.
2D rectangles in 3D space isn't that bad... And it certainly isn't a video screenshot - texture, ShadeLess, and set the video output format, and click Anim. Not a video screenshot.

Of course, Tari's method is probably a lot cleaner and faster, if done right.

Ah, now I know. That seems like an odd set of features to add, but I suppose if it works, it works.

I found the easiest way to do it, it seems, was in Adobe AfterEffects ( I downloaded the demo ) just import the videos into a new composition, scale and rotate. And this was after I had edited them in iMovie '09 ( someone again said iMovie '11 _may_ be able to do it )



Not going to end up near a windows machine any time soon that can handle some of the stuff I would need in the future. Afterall, this is just a test for other things to come.



But the rotation wasn't happening for some odd reason. And for what it's worth, every time I have used ffmpeg directly I get un-acceptable results. I don't know what my issue is.