[Kdenlive-devel] Image sequence option in Add Clip file dialog

[Dan Dennedy]

On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 9:49 PM, Albert ARIBAUD <albert.aribaud at free.fr> wrote:
> Le 22/08/2010 21:24, Dan Dennedy a écrit :
>> On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 7:35 AM, Alberto Villa<avilla at freebsd.org>  wrote:
>>> On Sun, Aug 22, 2010 at 3:56 PM, Albert ARIBAUD<albert.aribaud at free.fr>  wrote:
>>>> BTW: my wife's almost only complaint about kdenlive (1) is not having a
>>>> 'one-click' or 'one-dialogue' way to make a slideshow from a bunch of
>>>> stills with random transitions. Does it exist and I missed it?
>>>
>>> no, it doesn't exist. it can be easily implemented as a plugin... i'll
>>> see if i can make it before the feature freeze
>>
>> Yes, it does; it is a Slideshow clip. Currently, it does not randomize
>> transitions, but you can't please everyone all of the time. Please do
>> not make redundant features. Also, see my recent improvements in MLT
>> that will allow us to improve it:
>>
>> http://sourceforge.net/news/?group_id=96039&id=290791
>>
>> It should not be too difficult for me to add a special 'random' value
>> to the component responsible for transitions.
>
> Thanks Dan for pointing this out. This is great for both demonstrating
> MTL's capabilities and for doing no-frills slideshows, however not
> exactly what is required here, at least by my wife and, I suspect, by
> many other Kdenlive users, for two reasons at least, one which is
> trivial in the sense that it could be fixed easily, and one that is not.
>
> The trivial point is that the source clips may come reside in multiple
> folders, and conversively not all the files in one folders are expected
> to end up in the slideshows.
>
> The less trivial point is that the user may want to let Kdenlive provide
> transitions at random, *then* be able to select any transition and
> modify it to better suit their taste or remove it altogether; or add a
> specific effect to a specific slide; or change a slide's duration for
> some reason; or basically do whatever they want to the generated slideshow.
>
> Thus what I am looking for is not a "slideshow clip" that would hide the
> slideshow to the kdenlive operator, but a "slideshow generator" that
> would automate the creation of a slideshow on a track, e.g. take all
> currently selected clips put them on a track, adding a randomly chosen
> transition.
>
> This, I believe, is not the same feature as the slideshow clip, as it
> does not cover the same need and does not provide the same functionality.

Like I said "you can't please everyone all of the time." What you want
is more-or-less essentially already possible - just with more work.
You have entered the grey zone between automatic and manual. For
example, you can easily add multiple images to the Project tree (aka
clip bin) and drag multiple clips to the timeline - automatic
functions one could argue. What you do not have today is a function to
automatically add random transitions between them - that is currently
manual.  I could ask "Make up your mind; do you want to be lazy or
not?!" ;-)

I think we would need to brainstorm some more about how to some or all of:
1) make transitions easier by overlapping and not requiring tracks
2) how to apply transitions in bulk - does that happen when dragging
multiple clips to the timeline? Is that a function applied to multiple
selected clips on the timeline? Is that a function applied to an
entire track?
3) how to apply filters in bulk (e.g. center crop) (Does the existing
Paste Effects work with multi-selection?)

In the meantime, are you aware of the tool named imagination?
http://imagination.sf.net/

-- 
+-DRD-+