hi, my name is marcos caballero (from Argentina), I actually am a linux fan at home, using cinelerra mainly, but the develpers are too eclousured to listen the user (that´s my point of view at least). I work as a Tech support for a company wich provides Tv equipments (Pinnacle, Matrox, etc), and I get the GREAT oportunity to learn the top systems out there (http://www.mdpsistemas.com.ar), and I must show them in expos, tv channels, studios, etc.

But open software (I think ) has a great future, and is my weakness, I love linux and the more I make tech support, the more I hate windows (Osx, is great too).

somehow, I like to come close to different projects to give some HELP (if you can say that), but from the NON-CODER kind of help :(

I am giving some suggestions (actually, Adobe´s workarounds, to get more features), wich I think are EASY to implement, and would help a lot the editor.

basically there are 4 features I made, that could be used in KDENLIVE (or other open NLES), giving the user (myself for example) control over 3D transitions, DVD templates, Vectorial Title templates, etc, so tell me if you think this are valid propposals for the kdenlive editor (until recently, i hated kdenlive, but I see the version from the repositories is old, and watching the current state, kdenlive, is very advanced compared to what i thougth).

------------------------------------------------------------------

Proposal 1: VECTORIAL TITLES (currently being implemented in openmovieeditor)

Making VECTORIAL TITLES with inkscape. wich means that the soft has many paird of files, transparent PNGs and pre DRAWN SVGs:

0000.png 0000.svg

0001.png 0001.svg

0002.png 0002.svg

so the editor LOADS by deafult the first PNG (wich is fully transparent, and makes nothing) but when doubleclicked the NLE, opens its correnpondent SVG inkscape file like this:

inkscape 0001.svg

(if you pick other one, you get a predrawn SVG).

so when you close (and save) inkscape, the NLE (KDENLIVE) could run a background command like this:

inkscape --export-png=/tmp/title001.png --export-area-canvas -w --export-width=720 -h --export-height=576 -y -export-background-opacity=0

here is an axample of how this all could look like:

http://www.freewebs.com/anubis4d/imagenes/openme%5Ftitulador.jpg

wich exports the modified title, and overwrite the PNG file, and when the timeline refreshes, the png is already there! but now is not transparent, has some overlayed title (thete is no need to have SVG files in the timeline like cinelerra does, crashing the app).

here are some themplates I made:

http://www.freewebs.com/anubis4d/imagenes/0001.svg

http://www.freewebs.com/anubis4d/imagenes/0002.svg

http://www.freewebs.com/anubis4d/imagenes/0003.svg

http://www.freewebs.com/anubis4d/imagenes/0004.svg

------------------------------------------------------------------

Proposal 2: ADVANCED AUDITIONING

I teach Adobe Creative suite to many profesionals in the area, so i got to know some Adobe trick like audition does, actually, you rigth click an audioclip, and go to "edit in audition" option, and the advanced audio editor opens with that audio inside (adobe had to buy SOUNFORGE to Sony FOR SEVERAL MILIONS to get this working), so the NLE (KDENLIVE) could make the same trick, RENDERING a copy of that audioclip, and opening it into an audacity with some simple (but hidden) commandline:

audacity teporaryKDENLIVEfile0001.wav

so you could stop being worried about the audio filters, and that´s a lot, this is aconceptual image of how this could work (for openME):

http://www.freewebs.com/anubis4d/imagen ... openME.JPG

------------------------------------------------------------------

Proposal 3: 3D transitions (just like Hollywood FX, or borisFX, or softXplode)

this is actually a very tricky way to add transitions, but millionaries copanies raised with this kind of packages, so making aviable 3D transitions externally is a proven NEED for many editors, adding eyecandy FX to the editing.

I am a blender 3D fan (max user from 1997 to 2005), and a 3D animator, so I say why not making any animations in a single blendFILE, alowing an EXTENAL NLE (like openME or KDENLIVE), to call a scene, and render in background (net render if possible), and render 2 or 3 second animations between several 3D objects, with the videos as texturemaps:

so a blender friend wrote a python script to make it possible, so still is in a very starting stage of develpment, so only 100 frames transitions is possible, but scaling the keyframes is actually very simple with python, just needs a blendfile, a TXT file (i couldn´t think about other way to BRIDGE parameters between the NLE and the blender script).

if you want to know hor this works, HERE IS EXPLAINED:

http://www.openmovieeditor.org/board/vi ... php?id=400

the openMovieEditor developer was willing to add as an experimental feature, so if KDENLIVE could add this as a feature, I could make a bigger transition library (I know of many blender users willing to make more) and this would grow exponentially.

you CAN SEE HERE SOME TRANSITIONS added to the library:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=7193DA3C5782F4D1

I know this IS NOT the best way to have 3D elements in the timeline, but we can´t wait until jahshaka be usable, so many NLES could have this library, to HAVE NOW many transitions, and give users the power NOW to make new creative work, until coders have the time to come up with a better solution (actually this is what happened in the commercial soft world).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Proposal 4: DVD Menues from the timeline, with animated buttons (made in blender)

Adobe Premiere PRO 2, has a interesting feature, so you add markers in the timeline, and then go to "DVD template" option and a window opens revealing the different kind of menues (animated, with animated buttons)



LINUX has some apps and scripts to make DVDs, the problem is that the user needs to make many steps to get the job done, wich is fine for a programmer but not productive for a professional editor.

the templates can be made in inkscape with a similar process used to get the png/svg titles, but making animated buttons is another thing, so EXPANDING the ALEX script, wich replaces texture-video-clips inside a blender file to get 3D transitions, could help to map many planes as buttons, and get a background render for a DVD menu.

this is a 5 minutes template made in blender to explain how this could be:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-hWGV7yjEU

you can read a more explained version of this here:

http://www.openmovieeditor.org/board/viewtopic.php?id=438

-------------------------------------------------------------

I´m sorry if the post is too long, but still I think this could help EDITORS to have more tools, and coders to make LITTLE changes to the soft, and let the users do the rest as TEMPLATES while they use their time to focus in OTHER features like SEQUENCES (precomposing/nesting timelines, color correction features, keying Fx,etc).

thanks for reading and please, thell me if you think these are CRAZY suggestions, like many cinelerra developers did or GREAT and NOT COMPLEX to implement features, like the Openmovieditor think.

the editors can help coders. I am willing to help.

cheers.

Marcos Caballero - MDP Sistemas Digitales

http://video-mardelplata.blogspot.com/

We started a blog to organize this project, I think Kdenlive can have our transition package working with minor modifications.

Blender 3D Transitions for Video Editing tools:



GNU Video FX Package Blog: http://gvfx.blogspot.com

3D transition example: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ewrbU-_Y9go

If some coder is interested, we would LOVE to help in any kind..

Marquitux.

Very interesting!

It's been a while since you posted this topic, but six years later your project/approach is still interesting! I use Kdenlive a long time now for basic video-editing. I like the compatibility with Inkscape for making the movie-titles, although the options to creating nice looking animated titles are still limited.. I'm interested in your open source experience at this moment concerning titling and 3D-transitions and stuff.

Cheers!