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I'm wondering if Blender VSE can gradually slow down/speed up a movie strip. At VSE I add> movie strip. Now I want to have the strip gradually slow down, or gradually speed up.

I am not referring to gradual speed up/slow down of animation here. That I know how to do.

Thanks for any ideas.

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Yes, add a speed effect to the selected movie strip. Turn off the option "Stretch to input strip length", then keyframe the value Speed Factor.

  1. Start with a value of 1.0.
  2. Then move to the next frame that should be normal speed and keyframe that 1.0 as well.
  3. Go to the frame that should be stretched out, change the Speed Factor value to a smaller value for slow e.g. 0.5 is half speed, or a higher value e.g. 2.0 is double speed. You won't see any effect until you press the Refresh Sequencer button at the bottom of the VSE timeline.

VSE speed change

Alternatively if you don't need to ramp the clip's speed you could apply a "Stretch to Length" effect.

  1. Place your play head at the point you want to start slowing down. Select the Strip and make a hard cut (Shift+K key)
  2. Make another hard cut (Shift+K key) at the end of the region of slow motion. Select the middle strip and add a Speed Effect, leave it in "Stretch to input Length" mode.
  3. Move the cut strip up to the channel above and stretch it to the right length, the speed effect will slow the clip down.
  4. Select the third piece of the clip and move it to the end of the speed effect, this will continue to play at the original speed.

Alternative VSE speed change

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    $\begingroup$ Brilliant! Thanks so much. Wow. the capabilities of Blender are truly amazing. Your reply helps me get the gradual speedup and gradual slowdown results I was looking for. Amazing really. Thanks again. $\endgroup$
    – frew
    Apr 4, 2018 at 1:58
  • $\begingroup$ I've included an extra version of the speed effect for others that want an easy "non-keyframe" approach. Don't forget that you can also reverse the playback with a negative Speed Factor value. $\endgroup$
    – 3pointedit
    Apr 4, 2018 at 2:19
  • $\begingroup$ can that same curve be used to audio? Thanks $\endgroup$
    – Westack
    Jun 29, 2022 at 20:40

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