Ghetto Hiero

Project Ghetto Hiero

The workflow for editing and color work in Blender is not as streamlined as other tools, like Nuke or Hiero from The Foundry (please name your favor tools here). The workflow in Blender pushes professionals and indy filmmakers away. Here are some ideas to improve Blender that I would like to add when I have a little spare time. I will improve this list as time passes and my experience with editing in Blender grows.

Pictures will follow...

1. Revisit UI for Node editing.
1. Remove the use of the Backdrop.
1. Some people have voiced an appreciation for this, but it seems counter productive to have your workspace occlude your results.
2. Use dedicated image editor as a space for editing selected Node. You need a mouse for many tasks. This is the space.
1. Specify a mask.
2. Specify a tracking point and visualize track frames.
3. Specify pan,crop,scale transformations.
3. Use dedicated property panel for editing non-image values in Node.
1. Some nodes need input, like a file. This property can be specified on a property panel.
2. Other node properties might include checkboxes or other options. Put them in a property panel instead of in a mini-widget in a giant web of other nodes.
4. Node editor should simply show the graph of all nodes, not a complex editor.
1. This graph gets pretty complicated, so there is little room for seeing anything else.
2. You just click on the node of interest to see its settings/properties in the property panel.
2. Support video clip interchange format
1. As discussed with Troy S., support for even a new format, call it BlenderClipXML, would be a good start toward making Blender more relevant for video work. This includes support export and import and the VSE and composite graphs should be created upon import.
2. Support for other formats will continue to show holes in the video workflow. Troy provided a list of formats.
3. Support assignment of comp graphs to VSE strips.
1. credit: JP Bouza

Another request is to support more interaction between the VSE and the composite nodes. The VSE can currently use the result of comp nodes, but comp nodes cannot use the result of the VSE. This feature request seems reasonable at first. I'm sure some great effects can be achieved with this (feedback loop control!). However, I think this feature request might be rooted in the fact that we don't have a great definition of what are the responsibilities of the VSE and the compositor. In my view, I think all image effects should be performed by the compositor. The VSE should only be responsible for the timing of these effects. If you want a blend of 2 sources at some frames, the comp node editor is the appropriate place to setup this effect. Why do people want the comp editor to use the results of the VSE? Probably because Blender makes them think they should be performing comp-type operations using the 'effects' options the VSE offers. Let's remove those effects, and help everyone be more efficient by providing the same effects in the comp node editor (already there actually). At some point, you will definitely have a comp node graph appropriate for one shot, but you don't want to apply that effect to all shots. The VSE should be able to handle this situation. I'm not sure it does not handle it already. I'll need to dig a little to know for sure. This is the motivation for #3, above.