[Kdenlive-devel] Introduction

[Dan Dennedy]

On Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 4:52 PM, Oceanwatcher <video at datahverdag.com> wrote:
> On Wednesday 03 June 2009 04:06:59 Dan Dennedy wrote:
>
>> As we discussed in the forum, and I as mentioned here previously, I do
>> think we need to cleanup the names of the transitions. Let's put aside
>> the issue with the Composite transition for the moment. I am thinking
>> namely about "Luma" and "Wipe." I had proposed a new one named
>> "Dissolve" that would become the default - basically a featureless
>> version of today's Luma. Then, I think Wipe should be called Slide
>> (please confirm). Finally, what is currently Luma would be called
>> Wipe. Do you agree? JB, are you ok with this?
>
> I think it is a good idea to pick up on what is the normal thing to use in the
> industry. It makes it easier for experienced editors to start using the

but not if it obscures the meaning to non-experienced users.
Industries tend to develop their own lingo and jargon.

> program, and for anyone that use Kdenlive, they will be able to relate to
> things if they read a general book about editing.

that is a good point - at least for the small number of people who
will read a book let alone the documentation provided! (If provided,
my former project Kino actually includes a fair amount.)

> Dissolve - is the name used for an effect that takes two video clips and fades
> from one to the other in the transition. You will sometimes hear people call
> it crossfade, mix and a few other things depending on language, but the most
> known term is dissolve.
>
> Wipe - this is a group term for a lot of effects. Common for all of them is
> that they do not resize either outgoing or incoming picture (two other
> standard terms :-) ).
>
> One list of these wipes (the SMPTE wipes) can be found in this document:
>
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/WD-smil-boston-20000622/smil-transitions.html

Yes, I know about SMPTE wipes and SMIL.

> The names used in this document (under Taxonomy...) are quite familiar and
> would be very ok to use. Let me know if you have any questions. If you need to
> see examples, I will try to find videos that show each of them.
>
> A wipe can normally be customized to a certain degree:
> Softness of the edge

we do this

> Border/thickness of border
> Border color

not these and I'm fine with that

> Reverse direction

and we do this

> All SMPTE wipes have a number and these numbers are used when making an EDL to
> be used in some other systems. EDL's are not used too much any more, but
> sequence data still need to be moved around. As I am not a programmer I can
> not be totally sure, but I would be very surprised if they do not use the
> standard SMPTE numbers for these wipes in the AAF format that is more and more
> common for moving sequence (timeline) data.
>
> I can try to get a list of the names used in MediaComposer and post it here
> (just need to reboot into Windows...) There are other wipes than the SMPTE
> ones, but those we can talk about later :-)

My drinking buddy and I don't give a rat's ass about SMPTE and the
proper names and standard numbers. I am not going to provide all and
only the SMPTE wipes. Our system is better because it is extensible
and because we share our wipe definitions as grayscale images online
through KDE Get Hot New Stuff.

> Another word on effects: Please try to aim for single track transitions as soon
> as possible with a special button for dissolve and drag and drop for the
> lesser used. This is actually the most important on the effects side. If you
> want to make a priority, drop all other effect, only do the dissolve and make
> it work exactly the way it should. An editor can live without effects in
> general. The only one he really needs sometimes is the dissolve.

We would not need to remove transitions to improve the UI. Our code is
not that rigid and tightly coupled.

BTW, I had asked if "Slide" is a good name for what is currently named
"Wipe." According to some feature pages of some other editors I found
online, it seems so.

-- 
+-DRD-+