Someone emailed me about the patches I had for https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=415360 , which inspired me to update them for git master/head, and also made me take another look at this feature (And PiTiVi in general; I haven't given it any attention in the last several months). I've tried to think of a good way to implement this feature, but I'm stuck. :-/ Everything I think of seems to me to have serious drawbacks. Here are the ways that I've thought of:
1) Default framerate for image files (the solution I came up with in the patches attached to the above bug). Right now, PiTiVi creates clips from image files with a default length of 5 seconds. My patch changes that default to 0.25 seconds, and let's the user manipulate it by setting a 'default framerate' in the configuration screen - 4 frames/sec is the default, with a range of anywhere from 10 second/frame to 72 frames/second. The problems I see with this are: a. The user has to hunt for the configuration option. b. There's no way to 'resize' a bunch of frames/clips once they're imported. c. The user may end up with an arbitrarily large number of clips to deal with. 2) Project -> Make Stop-Motion clip (Jeff's suggestion from awhile back). In this scenario, the user would import his image clips, select several of them, and use a menu option to create a single clip from them. The user can select the framerate at that time. This solves problems a and c from my solution, but it seems to me that it creates a few more: a. If the images are merged into a single clip, I don't see an easy way to edit the movie on a frame-by-frame basis. For example, if I want to cut three frames out of the movie, how does the user find the exact spot on the timeline where it transitions from one frame to another? b. If instead we generate a clip for each image and 'group' them, this allows for easier manipulation, but ends up with the large number of clips problem. c. If the menu item is only clickable when a bunch of image clips are selected, then it seems like the user might have a hard time figuring out the workflow. 3) Add an 'Import Images...' button A slightly different take on Jeff's suggestion. Instead of creating the stop-motion clip after importing the images, create a parallel to the 'Import Clips...' button to work specifically with images. This dialog would let the user pick the framerate, and maybe also how the images should be combined - radio buttons to create a clip from each image or create a single clip from all of the images. I'm less sure about specific problems with this approach (creating a single clip out of several images still has the problems I mentioned above), but I don't know if it would fit with the way PiTiVi is meant to work. What do you think? Are any of these worth exploring, or is there a better idea out there? I'm trying to make some time for work on PiTiVi, since I think it's an important and fun project, but as I'm sure you all know, life interferes. :-) -RN -- Robin Norwood "The Sage does nothing, yet nothing remains undone." -Lao Tzu, Te Tao Ching ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ThinkGeek and WIRED's GeekDad team up for the Ultimate GeekDad Father's Day Giveaway. ONE MASSIVE PRIZE to the lucky parental unit. See the prize list and enter to win: http://p.sf.net/sfu/thinkgeek-promo _______________________________________________ Pitivi-pitivi mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/pitivi-pitivi
