Hi,
I am semi-professional in video editing and recently I decided I will try to do a project in Linux, KDEnlive is the best video editor for Linux (or, to be more precise the most intuitive and user-friendly, while allowing advanced editing - so "Congratulations" and "Thank you!" for development team), yet there are things that I think could be improved. So I will try to post them here (and also in future posts as I go along with my project). Hopefully there will be some discussion if my ideas make sense, are feasible and necessary or other improvements.. I will try to add to separate topics based on area

So I start with compositing..

Currently there is Composite transition/effect, which allows to resize and move clip. This approach works, but in my oppinion it would be better to let each clip have properties such as

opacity

width
height

position

(rotation)

that would have numerical values instead of current red rectangle (could have both, but numbers are better since they are more precise) and treat them as if they were composited with bottom video track with z-position determined by clip's position in video tracks. With current approach (using the Composite transition) there is in my oppininon problem determining which is on top (the one on top is the one that has been added most recently, or is there some trick to switch them without deleting and readding the composite?). It does make sense to me that if you have clip in one track and in any track below you have other clip(s), ten if you resize/change opacity it would show the ones in tracks below..

I would like some reactions.. Does this make sense? Could it be done easily?

As a professional video editor I use NLE compositing to simulate what a final composite will look like. This way clients can get an idea of how their final shot will appear before they send it off to a visual effects lab for actual compositing in an application like Shake or Nuke.

Often, visual effects labs ask to see my rough edits, so they can get a better idea of what they need to create. By not being able to accurately control the position of a clip I am unable to produce an accurate simulation to the clients and the visual effects lab.

In Final Cut and Premiere when you click on a clip it will display a dialog showing position (using numbers) scale, opacity and speed (I never use speed) of the selected clip.

I actually like the idea Kdenlive has used better, in that each of these effects is added separately, after all, there is no need to add what you don't need.

It sounds to me that the “Pan and Zoom” effect should be deleted and two new effects, one called “Position” and the other called “Opacity” should be created. Position should be able to be key framed and control the position in numbers. Opacity would control the opacity of a layer (obviously).

Yes, that is what I meant. I thought it would be best to have all these attributes there for all clips, but I don't see problem in having them as separate effects (keyframable of course)..

hi
i'm not a professional video editor, but i am agree with you ....

the composite is a very powerfull feature, but it's not easy to use ..as i don't use another nle, i can't say how to improve usability ...but the idea of kane seem to be a good idea ..

nyme

I might have to make some big changes in MLT to make composting more automatic, but I will give it some thought. In the meantime, "the one on top" is the one that is on the upper (visually, not numerically) track. Also, the next release already has numeric controls, but they are somewhat hidden in the Resize and Align option menu on the transition parameters panel, alongside the key frame controls, under the "Geometry" menu entry.

I might have to make some big changes in MLT to make composting more automatic, but I will give it some thought. In the meantime, "the one on top" is the one that is on the upper track. Also, the next release already has numeric controls, but they are somewhat hidden in the Resize and Align option menu on the transition parameters panel, alongside the key frame controls, under the "Geometry" menu entry.