[Addon] Editool - toolset for VSE

Coding Released Scripts and Themes
1

Hi all blenderheads !

I’m currently writing a new addon to try to make the blender vse more « efficient », which is called « Editool »
I come from an editor’s background (avid media composer) and, of course, blender can’t currently compete with these kind of profesional editing software, that’s not the aim of it, but, matter of fact, it has some good capabilities when it comes to editing !

One of the big problem for me is that the software itself is not properly setup graphically, for example the fact that you have to keep a file browser and a property panel somewhere in the ui.
By doing this, the ui is flowded by unwanted properties, button… from the 3d part of the soft.
And all of that and a certain lake of performance (monothreaded render…) make the editing part a bit clunky (according to me, just an opinion)

So i’m not a coder, but i tried to write some code (not really beautiful i think, sorry about that) to bring all important editing functions to thumbnail of file browser. I write a few of my own and here it is !
Keep in mind this is an alpha version, i have to reorganised all ui, add some functions…
But a lot of stuff are here so i thought let it go out there for potential testers !
Feel free to comment, tell me if you have idea of missing functions… but again, i’m not a coder, and this is an alpha version (pre-alpha ?) so it could be a bit clunky, the code could be lame…

To use it :

  1. install like any other addons
  2. turn the addon on in a file browser, under the category Misc

Screenshot1.PNG809×408 53 KB

  1. it will add two thumbnail in the file explorer, and a timecode window in the n panel of the timeline, the idea is to get rid of other panel, keep only timeline, monitor and filebrowser.

Screenshot2.PNG813×410 45.9 KB


  1. and let’s edit !

Here are the main function of the addon :

Thumbnail EDITING TOOLS

BIN TOOLS

  • bin tools, set editing filters : this function sets filebrowser filters to show medias only, and set the size and the thumbnails of them

TIMELINE TOOLS

  • import and replace operator : pretty common operators, use it to put something on timeline or replace selected strip, for replacement, you have to select same type media, currently i didn’t find a way to put several selected clip from filebrowser, i’m open to suggestion !
    For the image, you can choose duration on import
    For videos with sound, you can also choose to import video only or sound only
  • Work area section : this pretty straightforwar, setup your work area by in out, set start or end, or set to selected clip, for now just one (the active one), but going to change
  • Waveform : activate all waforms visualisation on timeline, hide them
  • Scrubbing operator : all in the name
  • show list of strips : this command generates a pop up menu with a list of all strips used in timeline with number of times they’re used. You can click of the name to select them, or on the reveal operator to see them in a new explorer window (this works on windows but untested on mac and linux)

FORMAT
this section just use existing property to setup your project before editing. A few user preferences are here for conveniency

  • timecode format
  • sync mode
  • framerate
  • presets
  • dimensions
  • memory cache limit for sequencer
  • audio output device

MARKER TOOLS
this section is a WIP, currently just jump to next/previous marker operator, see the roadmap for future addition

REFERENCE STRIP
This section allowed you to define reference clips, which works like « reference clip » or « guide layer » in after effect by example. It means clips marked as reference clip will work like common clips in Timeline, but will not be rendered.
All type of strips can be reference strip, and you can spot them by the custom property « ___reference_strip ». Here are the operators :

  • Make ref strip : turn selected strips to reference strips
  • Cancel ref strips : opposite of the previous one
  • unhide/hide : all ref strips will be hide unhide on timeline.
  • select ref strips : select them all

PROXY MANAGER

  • Auto setting : use the proxy settings below in the section and apply them to all clips imported by the import operator of the timeline tools if activated
  • Auto creation : if activated, when importing a clip, blender will begin proxy creation in background, great but for now, impossible to cancel, open to suggestion again:D
  • proxy settings to setup
  • Apply to all
  • Rebuild all
  • Apply to selected
  • Rebuild selected

Thumbnail EXPORT VIDEO

EXPORT SETTINGS :
Here you can setup your output settings and export video (or screenshot of the current frame, overriding the export settings). The exported video will be stored in the path of the filebrowser, so don’t forget to type a name !
You also have the ability to override reference strip, and add them to the export

METADATA SETTINGS
As in the common Property Render Panel !

TIMECODE WINDOW
in the n panel of the timeline, this windows display dynamically the current tc and the length of the active strip in tc, there’s also a Reach TC operator . For now, the TC has to be in 25 fps, i’ll change that in the future !

These are the main features for now, but as i said, it’s a WIP, here is the

ROADMAP :

  • Fix all clunky operators like import and replace (several files…), timecode windows… so don’ hesitate to report bug here:D

  • Add marker list, with ability to jump to marker, rename it and change frame of the marker

  • Add « Bin list », custom bookmark list, stored in scene, to have for example, rush for this particular scene

  • Add Scene list, with ability to import scene, open it rename it and get infos on it (length if it is a vse sequence…)

  • Add Search on timeline function, to be able to quickly find by name, a marker, or a clip

  • Add send to functions (gimp, krita, ardour, natron) with no dynamic link option (like natronizer), just keeping the length if clip were edited

  • Add export edl function (CMX36), to be able to quickly communicate with resolve, scratch or ardour or protools

  • Add tag strip system, same as reference clip operator (with custom property) with ability for user to create a custom tag, stored in the scene, displayed in a list, and to select all tagged clip…

  • Add Retrieve media info with popup menu to get info from the source before importing it on timeline

And that’s all folks ! Here is the script !

Hoping it will be as useful for you as it is for me !

Waiting for your feedback (including for the name, not sure about it:) ), what do you think of it ? Would you use it ? Idea to improve ? C&C would be greatly appreciated !:smiley:
Happy blending !

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Great to see you’re having a go at this. Unfortunately there is an error when installing/running your script in 2.78c:


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hi tin2tin, this is weird, just tried on windows 2.78c and linux 2.78c, and no problem, a little digging on google told me this error may come from an unused .py file from old script or something, making blender called an operator from wrong place. Can you try to delete your pycache or cleaning your addon folder ? from what i understand of this error, the problem is in importing a library, not really problem with the addon itself (i may be wrong)
You can also try to download a portable version of blender (free from your previous addons or prefs) and install it on it, if it works, the problem comes from some unused or old file, i think !

Tell me if it solves your problem ! sorry for the inconvenience !

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Thank you for this - I will try it out at home :smiley:

Maybe think about using github or something like it for keeping track of the versions as you improve it.

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hi Craig Jones, glad this addon could be useful for you ! yep i’m gonna use github in a bit, just need time to organize all this ! i’ll post here the link to the github when it’s up !
And tell me if everything went smoothly with the addon, C&C welcome ! :slight_smile:

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Two scripts you might find useful:


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hi tin2tin ! thanks for these two, cinematic aspect ratios could be very useful with this addon, and going to give a try to vse center image !
Did you solve your installation problem ? and did you have a chance to give the addon a try ?
Thank for your interest !

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For inspiration have you been across the various vse makeover scripts like easy-loggin, blendervelves and kinoraw? There was also a script which added a lot of edit functions to the sequencer top bar, but I can’t remember the name.

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hi tin2tin, yep i took a deep look at all these addons, and i think the one you’re speaking and can"t remember name is icon tools !
And if you want to try another one, quick vse is great too !

yep a lot to learn from these one ! but my aim is not the same, i intend to add some different functions and still use icon tools or ardour exporter, for example, in addition !
I think my goal here is more oriented on the workflow (except for in out edit, which i think is currently too clunky to integrate in blender) and bring panels for them in the right place (according to me of course)

For example, right now i’m integrating a marker list for scene, with ability to add custom comment (to make some derush in blender), export transcriptions of these comment as a text file, and import them into another blend (creating all markers…). Like i said, i think this addon is going to be more focused on the workflow ! :slight_smile:

Again thanks for your interest and your tips ! Did you manage to make my addon work and test it ? :slight_smile:

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Yes, I tried it. It is very nice. I’m not sure I get the advantage of having all the functions in the file area, but it seems to me that you know where you’re heading, so I’ll just follow along. :slight_smile:

On markers, there is a script here: https://github.com/sobotka/blender-io-timeline-markers
And on EDL, I did a script to export to edl(search my posts), however it exports one file pr channel. The edl format does not support more than one video track and four audio tracks(like premiere edl export), but Davinci allows you to import and append one track at a time(but Davinci does not import audio from edl).

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cool that you made it work, what was the problem ?
Glad you liked the addon !
thanks for the marker script, i didn’t see that, and already make my version of import/export marker work (with the custom comment in addition :slight_smile: ) just a little bit too late !
and yeah, i saw your edl script, i’ll look into it if it’s ok for you to integrate it in editool ?
Thank for your feedback and addon suggestions ! and if you encounter any bug, let me know :wink:

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I had to delete all folders containing old installed scripts.

On edl export, I think the export would be more logic if you could select one video channel and four audio channels like Premiere: https://youtu.be/rrezCN9mwBQ
But I’m not going to work on that anytime soon. Feel free to use it any way you like.

Image-sequence edl export script: https://github.com/dfelinto/edl-exporter

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Sorry for the slightly OT but single track EDL import to Davinci for color grading is a typical workflow. As a colorist generally prefers to grade a collapsed sequence. That is where all clips occupy only the one track. This is not great for dissolves of course. In the past they would import only the fine cut as a single piece of media then add edits/metadata via the edl.

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With the upcoming v. 14 of Davinci extensive audio mixing features are added, so hopefully this be a reason to add audio import from EDL files.