The Video Sequence Editor - Reworked (a ready to patch suggestion)

Center Playhead, or Frame Playhead?

In my opinion “cursor” could be confused with the pointer ( mouse pointer ) for new users.

I do not know if it’s the best method for name usability but:
If i type “cursor” in the browser and i search for images i find the mouse pointer.
If i type"playhead" in the browser and i search for images i see usually the vertical time line reference.

If we use “Frame” for the other options i would prefer Frame Playhead.
For me it would be ok to use also “Center” but i’m not an english native speaker.

I worked as video editor and i’m more used to “Playhead” term.

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Yes in any other circumstances I would also call it a ‘playhead’, but in Blender lingo, there is no such thing: https://docs.blender.org/api/2.79/search.html?q=playhead
(0 hits in the api)

In Blender lingo it is called ‘time cursor’:
https://docs.blender.org/api/2.79/search.html?q=time+cursor
(30 hits in the api)

This seems to be a constant balancing act between consistency and understandability.

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From the API link i see that “Cursor” is used also for the Mouse pointer cursor and 3D cursor.
Anyway i’m ok with the Time Cursor.
For consistency if we use “Frame” or “Center” we should use the same term for the similar functions.
So in the case i suggest:

  • Frame All
  • Frame Selected
  • Frame Cursor ( or Frame Time Cursor )
    Or:
  • Center All
  • Center Selected
  • Center Cursor ( or Center Time Cursor )

Eventually i prefer “Center” and “Playhead” ( “Frame” as verb can be confused as “Frame” as noun).

  • Center All
  • Center Selected
  • Center Playhead

NB: my personal opinion is from a non-native English speaker perspective.

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What about title tool? Yesterday I tried to edit a simple video and I wasn’t able to even change text font.

There is a patch waiting for code review, which will handle this: https://developer.blender.org/D3621

@Andrea_Monzini
I’ll just use “Frame Playhead” for now. What I’m doing is just a suggestion - so they can always change it to whatever they prefer, if they’re going to use any of it.

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That’s good news, now we need on screen controls / widgets for placing text.

Try this add on: https://github.com/doakey3/VSE_Transform_Tools
And for any other missing features check out this list of VSE add-ons:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1K7MM-JpcrRIclhXKHOpBHCpBVLq0KZ0W5BocKaEUu6o/edit?usp=sharing

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Ty @tintwotin I’ll give it a try. Now it needs to be ported to 2.8 right?

Yes, please. Go ahead. :wink:

Did you guys know that with alt+select handle, you will select the adjoined handle too? Or with ctrl+ drag time cursor or strip to snap to nearest strip?

It would be great to expose these functions in the menu. Or in the info footer bar. Who want to help us do this work?

github.com/samytichadou/blender_vse_reworked/issues/17

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The built-in strip selection and manipulation tools is a mess of working on either active strip, selection, at the time cursor position, at mouse cursor position or even how strips are located in all channels.

In other words, it is extremely inconsistent. And in most cases impossible for the user to figure out how the functions actually work and the tooltips are non-descriptive.

How should this be designed so there will be consistency in how the tools work?

Should the concept of the “active” strip be removed?

Should “mouse cursor position”, be removed?

Should Channel selection/channel lock/unlock be introduced?

Should handle selection by box selection be introduced?

Should there be different work modes(like the 3d view) where you would work in different modes on ex. all, selected, time cursor, mouse position, channel?

This is not anything I’ll be able to change from python, but I think it is really worth discussing how the design of the editing tools should work.

So which of the existing tools are working the way you would expect?

And which of them should be improved in what ways?

And how should the grand design of selecting, moving, trimming and editing strips be?

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For anyone wanting to test what seems like a 20% speed up for VSE rendering of strips ( with thread_count set to 0 / max ), check out what is the start of a fix…

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Not directly related to UI, but how feasible do you think it would be to have the text strip able to use different fonts? Is that something that would fit in with the intended workflow? I could potentially look into it code-wise but I was wondering if there’s a need/want for it.

There is a patch for this, which has been waiting for a review for a very long time: https://developer.blender.org/D3621
I guess you could take it for a test drive - or improve it if you like?

That might evoke some dev interest into reviewing and ultimately accept this patch?

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Thanks for the patch link! I guess since it’s been made it only needs some testing. I will try it and see if it still works. Other than that it’s up to the devs to approve it.

If you want to help out with improving the VSE - there are a lot of ideas here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uk9QTEi5fmjY_E5K2vSVCuLM8Lr7vyrMwpw6tKvH1ZA/edit?usp=sharing
And can be discussed either here in this forum or here: https://blender.chat/channel/vse

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‘VSE Menus - Reworked’ - updated:
Extract selection - bug fixed.
Zoom X/Y mapped to Numpad 4+6 & Numpad 2+8
Get it here: https://github.com/tin2tin/blender_vse_reworked
Install this way: https://youtu.be/nN4xG3FMH-o

Btw. Almost everything in this document has been implemented, so unless some add-on coders step up with additional functions, I’m at roads end with the suggestion for reworking the VSE Menus: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lVPxEgR5bnMr4jV-OkLifeU4v9Qp9x-eoCOWADn8u7I/edit?usp=sharing

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Replaced ‘Reset Offset’ with ‘Match Frame’ which will open duplicates of the selected strips in the first empty channels in full source length and frame matched:
matchframe
github.com/tin2tin/blender_vse_reworked

New Post:
The vse cut function - reworked. Now it only cuts selection if there are selected strips, or else it will cut all. And it doesn’t cut locked strips anymore. (Locked strips can’t be deleted anymore either)

Get it here: https://github.com/tin2tin/blender_vse_reworked

split_fix

The current menus:
vse_menus_7_dec

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Damn @tintwotin you’re on fire.

The superhero of VSE.