Blender and Inkscape Guide
OpenShot uses both Inkscape and Blender for advanced features, by executing those programs in the background while OpenShot is running. Each Operating System has different ways of installing these 2 programs, and this guide is designed to provide notes and best practices.
For reasons outside the scope of this guide, Ubuntu installs snap packages of many programs installed from the Ubuntu Software store. This is not currently supported by OpenShot, due to different working/home directories and various snap-related quirks. If you are not able to launch the Advanced Editor (i.e. Inkscape) or use the Animated Titles feature (i.e. Blender), please uninstall the Ubuntu Software versions (i.e. snap packages), and use the following command to install the pre-packaged versions:
sudo apt install blender
sudo apt install inkscape
Note: Using the apt versions might not be the latest versions, but they should be relatively recent, and fully compatible with OpenShot.
Both Blender and Inkscape can be installed on Windows by downloading their official Windows installers:
Once installed, open up the OpenShot Preferences and click the Browse button next to each one. Each folder (usually located in C:\Program Files\..., and should have an .exe at the end of the file name):
- Blender:
C:\Program Files\Blender\blender.exe - Inkscape:
C:\Program Files\Inkscape\inkscape.exe
Both Blender and Inkscape can be installed on Mac OS by downloading their official Mac *.DMG installers:
Once installed, open up the OpenShot Preferences and click the Browse button next to each one. Each folder (usually located in /Applications) is an installed App bundle. NOTE: If the Inkscape *.dmg download is not compatible with your version of Mac OS, it can also be installed using brew install inkscape (See https://formulae.brew.sh/cask/inkscape). If you use the brew version of Inkscape, simple enter inkscape in the OpenShot Preferences for the path... it does not need a full path.
