I come from an audio editing and composition background, and my
cinelerra projects are heavily dependent on music. So, my perspective
on cinelerra is based on that. I have worked with many audio sequencers
over the years, from dos based trackers, to the early days of
vision/studio vision/vision dsp, then logic, cubase, and now returning
to my roots using modern advanced trackers. I think they all have
something to teach us as users and developers of what can be a killer
video editor.
I am committed to cinelerra and linux in general, and I would love to be
able to compose my music in linux also, but it is simply not there yet.
I've been really struggling with being productive while editing video.
With the material I use, I cannot draw out a timeline, and work in a
linear fashion. There is no story. It is simply effects, transitions,
and lots and lots of edits, none of which are composed in a linear manner.
I may start with the point in the audio where there is the least number
of edits, to get the most source material placed right off the bat.
This may be the middle of the piece. Then, I might place some clips
leading into and out of this area. After editing the video to different
areas in the music, usually I'll want to go in and change something that
just doesn't work. With complex edits across multiple tracks, multiple
keyframes, and video material on both sides of the edit point, it is a
lot of trouble to get things back to where they were when all I want to
do is replace a video chunk.
I find myself in the position where I need to audition some small chunks
of video on top of complex automation. How is this done? Even without
the automation loss, how does one swap out a video clip that is
surrounded by video on all sides? How do you get the new clip to the
proper size so that all the edits behind it are not offset? It has to
be done on multiple tracks? What if it shares attributes with other
clips on the track?
Suggestions from my perspective (please let me know if you can already
do these things):
- keyframes, and automation data should have the option to be separated
from an edit operation
If I set up an automation for a video track that is based on the audio,
I don't want that automation to move when I copy/paste. I don't want to
lose it when I replace a clip, and I don't want to lose it when I delete
something. (see suggestion 3)
- subsequences could allow grouping at a higher level.
If I find a sequence of edit clips that work well together and want to
use them across multiple areas of the track (as music usually repeats),
I can copy and paste, but if I want to go back in and make a change, I
need to do this across every instance of that copy/paste. Rendering it
out to a clip bring a similar problem.
- deleting or cutting a clip off the time line should not move anything
Imagine how frustrating this would be if you were working with music.
The beat just got totally scrambled. All the clips are now off beat.
Sure you can insert silence, but for every edit? Can we have a
preference for this?
- cue list
There should be a top down (vertical scrolling vs horizontal scrolling)
view, which would allow replacing any clip in the grid by renaming it to
another clip name (or number). It would retain all of the attributes of
the previous clip (start time, duration, automation, keyframes), but
simply replace the source. Additional rows could allow for editing of
the important attributes in the same panel. You get a lot of
information presented in a single screen with very little scrolling (and
no visual representation of the material) simply a page of numbers.
Best,
-ed
marquitux caballero wrote:
if you edit copying and pasting, maybe cinelerra is faster, but if you
edit cuts at the bit of the music, and need to dynamically try
different clips in different beats... forget it, download and crack
premiere is faster for that user (and cheaper actually).
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