[Bf-committers] Adding image format in the VSE

Jehan Pagès jehan.marmottard at gmail.com
Wed Jan 30 13:59:44 CET 2013


Hi,

On 1/28/13, Ton Roosendaal <ton at blender.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I think artists would love to have .xcf import to read as Multilayer images,
> working in compositor and with good support for image textures.

Well indeed. That would simplify and speed up editing process for some
artists, especially when they do 2D animation (mixed to 3D or not).
:-)

> If that's coded well, Sequencer could support it too, I think it's an
> unnecessary complex feature to want even.
>
> By design (and focus for work) the Sequencer is meant for Blender projects,
> to manage own Blender renders efficiently. Input files are typically
> openexrs or pngs, and export to whatever (mmovie) format you like.
>
> Blender Sequencer just isn't a generic multi-purpose video editor system.
> Not by design, and impossible to manage with our limited resources. The more
> narrow we can keep our Sequencer, the better it will work. :)

Well I totally understand it is not considered a generic multi-purpose
video editor *to the Blender Foundation*, as Blender is meant for 3D
as the first place. But as one could say, good programs are used ways
that were not originally intended by their creator.
And the fact is that Blender VSE is not perfect, but still is one of
the best video editors out there (among Free Software). On Linux in
particular, I have tried a few and there are no perfect NLE, some even
had issues that I found really blocking for quality work. I found
Blender VSE quite OK on the FLOSS market, and nothing to be ashamed
of.

So yes, when and if something like Lightworks actually becomes a Free
Software (as promised by the editor for years, hopefully it will
really happen someday), that could be a game changer. Until then, we
do with what we have... And Blender still is a valuable generic
multi-purpose NLE, in my opinion. :-)

So I do hope that if some people provides patches to improve the video
editor, which will make it a little more multi-purpose indeed, at
least it won't be rejected. :-)
Thanks.

Jehan

> -Ton-
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation   ton at blender.org    www.blender.org
> Blender Institute   Entrepotdok 57A  1018AD Amsterdam   The Netherlands
>
> On 28 Jan, 2013, at 3:23, Campbell Barton wrote:
>
>> On Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 3:18 PM, Jehan Pagès <jehan.marmottard at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I have a question about adding a format for creating VSE sequence.
>>
>> Just a note that adding image formats for sequencer is really no
>> different to adding image format support for image loading or
>> rendering.
>>
>>> I had a small look at the API, and see a way of doing, which I see is
>>> done
>>> for similar plugins: converting to an intermediate format which is known
>>> to
>>> Blender (png for instance, or whatever).
>>
>> This seems an unnecessary step, if you can load the data - why not
>> just read the pixels directly? - especially for sequencer where you
>> want to playback faster if you can.
>>
>>> But is there a cleaner way to add format support to Blender? Hence
>>> making
>>> Blender be able to understand directly the format, and not rely on
>>> intermediate files that the user may not know about and which would
>>> clutter
>>> the user directories?
>>
>> You would need to add ImBuf format - see:
>> ./source/blender/imbuf/intern/*.c png, jpeg are good references for
>> basic 8 bits per channel format support. hdr is a good reference for
>> float image support.
>>
>>> For information, I have 2 separate projects for which I search this
>>> information:
>>>
>>> 1/ I want to add support for GIMP XCF files. I know there is already a
>>> plugin to import XCF files as 3D planes, but I want to add them as image
>>> sequence directly in the VSE (1 layer, 1 image). And I wonder how I can
>>> do
>>> this without converting my XCF into an intermediate sequence of png
>>> files
>>> (I see the intermediate png method is what does the XCF import plugin
>>> for
>>> instance).
>>> Real XCF support in other words.
>>
>> Not sure about this, XCF is meant as gimps native image editing
>> format, not an interchange format. Though having support for XCF or
>> PSD would have some nice possibilities - to have layer groups for
>> spec, normal, diffuse, alpha... for eg.
>>
>>> 2/ I want to add some raw file support (like DNG), with demosaicing, and
>>> all this (of course I know this one is a long shot, and good raw support
>>> requires much more than just this, but you have to start somewhere).
>>>
>>> In other words, is there an API to add new format support in Blender?
>>> Thanks.
>>
>> support for raw formats could be fine just to load the data in. but Im
>> not sure about demosaicing, if its just some automatic calculation on
>> load - ok. but if you want to configure it though blenders UI and
>> there are many settings to tune, Im not sure this would be accepted.
>> Maybe users should just use an external batch tool to convert the data
>> into a common format.
>>
>> Best check with module owners of Imbuf...
>> http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Template:ModulesOwners#Render.2C_Video.2C_Audio
>>
>> When proposing new features it would be good if you could explain the
>> work-flow you'd like to support - who would find this useful, is this
>> specific to certain hardware for eg.
>>
>> Ton & Kent - any comments?
>>
>>> Jehan
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Bf-committers mailing list
>>> Bf-committers at blender.org
>>> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> - Campbell
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>
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