User:Massimo

== Kdenlive keyboard shortcuts. ==

During the first Kdenlive café we talked about to open a page about keyboard shortcuts. Someone said that professionals won't use Kdenlive because without the right shortcuts the job isn't fast enough. I'm a professional video editor who wants to sustain Kdenlive development so I studied the problem but, as I wrote in the chat during the Café, we don't miss the shortcuts but the functions (insert and extract with IN OUT point as references, a good trimming window and all the 4 different kind of timming functions.) As first step I checked again how the main professional systems I used in the past (AVID, Premiere and FCP) are mapped. For the moment my first list for basical functions is this one:

IN: I

OUT: O

Go to IN: Q

Go to OUT: W

PREVIOUS EDIT: A

NEXT EDIT: S

Go at the beginning of the timeline or of a clip: HOME

Go at the end of the timeline or of a clip: END

Next Frame: RIGHT ARROW

Previous Frame: LEFT ARROW

Delete IN: D

Delete OUT: F

Delete IN and OUT: G

Play Pause: Space

Stop Pause: K

Play: L (for multispeed press more times L)

Play backward: J (for multispeed press more times J)

INSERT: V

OVERWRITE: B

LIFT from IN to OUT point: Z (this function still miss)

EXTRACT from IN to OUT point: X (this function still miss and in FCP and Premiere X is used for cutting at the editline position)

Standard video or audio TRANSITION: Shift+D (you have to be with the edit line between two clips and we need single track video and audio transition function)

ZOOM IN: T

ZOOM OUT: R

RENDER: ENTER

NEW BIN: N

Menu Acess: Alt+letter for the menu (but you never use menu during editing. You use it for preparing the project and for managing the editor program)

MATCH FRAME: M (this function still miss)

Maybe the first step we can do is to use these references for creating a new default map. I hope we can start a discussion on this.

Massimo Stella

== Advanced trimming tools ==

ROLLING

A rolling edit trims an adjacent Out point and In point simultaneously and by the same number of frames. This action effectively moves the edit point between clips, preserving other clips’ positions in time and maintaining the total duration of the sequence.

RIPPLE

A ripple edit trims a clip and shifts subsequent clips in the track by the amount you trim. Shortening a clip by ripple editing shifts all clips after the cut back in time; conversely, extending a clip shifts the clips that follow the cut forward in time. When you’re making a ripple edit, empty space on one side of the cut is treated as a clip and shifts in time just as a clip would be.

SLIP

A slip edit shifts a clip’s In and Out points forward or backward by the same number of frames in a single action. By dragging with the Slip tool, you can change a clip’s starting and ending frames without changing its duration or affecting adjacent clips.

SLIDE

A slide edit shifts a clip in time while trimming adjacent clips to compensate for the move. As you drag a clip left or right with the Slide tool, the Out point of the preceding clip and the In point of the following clip are trimmed by the number of frames you move the clip. The clip’s In and Out points (and hence, its duration) remain unchanged.

All these operation are possible in AVID, FCP and Premiere by using the keyboard. A trimming windows is useful for checking how the new in out point match with the previous and following edit cuts. These descriptions come straight from the Adobe Premiere user manual.

== About trim window and trim previews==

In all major video editing system we can find a trim window or a trim mode where the clip window and the program become the trim interface. These tools are very useful for these reasons:

1. It gives you access to control the trim by keyboard (frame by frame control, 5 or more frames control, depending on the software, and jog function in both directions).

2. It allow to switch between different modalities (rolling, ripple, slip and slide)

3. - In rolling and ripple modes you can watch simultaneously the new IN and OUT point of both clips so you can decide where is the best point for the new cut.

4. - In slip and slide modes you can watch the OUT point of the previous clip, the IN and the OUT points of the clip you are trimming and the IN point of the following clip. (Slip mode it's very useful for news and documentary editing on speech or interview)

== About INSERT EXTRACT OVERWRITE and LIFT operations==

Even if I'm pretty sure everybody knows the differences between these operations I'll try to make a short recap:

- INSERT: in AVID is called also Splice-in operation. It is when you insert marked source material into the timeline without replacing material already in the sequence. Existing material moves beyond the spliced material, lengthening the overall duration of the sequence or of a track.

- EXTRACT: is the opposite operation. You remove selected material from a track in the timeline and automatically close the gap. When you extract material, you shorten the duration of the track or sequence.

- OVERWRITE: replaces a section in the timeline with the selected source material. An overwrite edit replaces existing material and does not lengthen the overall duration of the sequence unless the material used to overwrite goes beyond the end of the sequence.

- LIFT: removes selected material from a track in the timeline and leaves a gap.

Each software has different ways to perform these operations. The first difference is the way they set target tracks. In AVID you have a panel on the timeline head with buttons which represent the source (1 video button and a number of audio buttons equal to the number of the audio channels) you have to move near the target tracks. Then you have to activate/deactivate (arm the tracks) the tracks you want to work on.

On Premiere and FCP (even if in the latest version Premiere works same as AVID) you have source buttons too to allign to target tracks but instead of activate or deactivate tracks you have to lock or unlock them. The operation you perform act on all tracks except the ones you locked.

I guess this can be the way Kdenlive could work because its development is already in this direction. At today you can select a target track and you can lock tracks. The problem is that the action is performed only on the target track and you can't control the audio. (About the audio workflow I'll express my opinions later)

When you perform an INSERT or an EXTRACT operation you have to decide not only the target tracks but also other tracks you want to cut, for inserting materials or a blank space, or, if you perform an extract, where to remove the gap. For eg: if you want to insert a small part of an interview in the middle of a scene edited by 1 video track, 2 video tracks with graphics and 4 audio tracks (environmental sounds, sounds efx and music) you have to open a gap on all tracks. If you don't want to stop the music you have to create a gap on all tracks except the one where music is. And so on.

During an OVERWRITE or a LIFT operation you can overwrite video and audio and also remove materials in other tracks by overwriting them with a blank space. For eg: I want to substitute a video clip, an audio track and I want to delete audio efx or music which correspond to the previously edited scene. Or I want to remove, by leaving a gap on a timeline, all the materials which correspond to a previously edited scene and that they are on several different tracks.

For selecting the time position where to perform the actions, we have two ways: the first is to use the IN and OUT point on the timeline so we can remove, or fill, or replace, or let a blank area where indicated. The second way is to start from the point where the edit line is: in this second situation we can only perform an EXTRACT or an OVERWRITE operation. The clip lenght is determinated by the selected area of the clip in the source window