Maybe the new workspace branch will allow access to more scenes from the same screen, so it would be possible have a source 3d View/Outliner/sequencer(linked to a source scene) at the same time as the edited project in another sequencer(with the project scene) and thereby allow for real 3 point editing from the same screen:
Scenes
Blender already allows having multiple scenes open at the same time. Right now, it is done by having the active scene stored in the screen layouts. That means it’s possible to open two Blender windows with different scenes and to toggle back and forth between scenes by toggling the screen layout. However, it also means that changing the screen layout may change the scene, which is not always wanted. We should keep UI and data separate.Thus, the scene should be stored within the window, it should not be tied to a screen layout or workspace. If users want to have multiple scenes open, they can do so by opening multiple windows.Note that following this new layer design, scenes now don’t need to be abused as a way to organize different render engines anymore. This would be done through render layers instead.The Global Scene option should be removed from the User Preferences then.
When you’re thinking about doing the storyboards in Blender, are you thinking grease pencil or 3D previz?
If you’re thinking 3d previz would you use Adding scene/camera strips? In this case, I read that it is not advised to use the same scene for the sequencer as the scene you use as scene strip,
Keep up the good work, there are interesting subjects discussed here ! keep up exploring
I was thinking more of a tool based on the grease pencil, in fact it would be just automate a few things to speed up storyboarding. as it’s set in a 3D space I have room to manage differents things, also previz. I prefer to work with an edit file, and shots file in other .blends that I can link into the edit. I found working in the same scene a bit confusing . Especially when you’re editing that scene.
About EDL : that’s great, on bigger project it may help to comunicate between an true edit aplication and a true grading tools. It depends on the scale of the project. For now I prefer do as much as I can in blender, I’ve looked into Natron as well for compositing complex shots. Having external apps is fine but it also takes more time to see the end result.
Also I don’t get bad frame dropping when there are many modifier layers. I am surprised to read that you are having performance issues with proxy playback, that should not be the case.
I’ve made some tests because I do find that a bit weird too. At poxy size 75% (proxy is a .jpeg sequence) I’ve got no issue it plays fine at 25fps. If I put one modifier it goes down to 15 fps. If I then set proxy size to 50% I get 24.4 fps . I dont know if there are trick to improve performance, that’s quite not bad in fact.
I was just surprised about the slowdown with effects at 75% . I know I can increase the cache size but you then have to play twice the animation to feed the cache.
I just noticed some guys are working on a Storyboarding software here(it’s very young and many things implemented in the UI are missing their functions): https://github.com/wonderunit/storyboarder
Awesome ! I wasn’t aware of such a tool. It looks quite cool. I see it’s in a early stage but it’s already great. Thanks for the link !
Ah well, to ansewer this one myself, what they call Window is a separate instance of Blender. What would needed to edit different SCENES in the same SCREEN as the sequencer, using it to assemble the scenes, is that it would be possible to access other scenes from an AREA: https://docs.blender.org/manual/ja/dev/interface/window_system/areas.html
Hey the sounds like one of my VSE editing examples at my youtube channel. I ran a seperate window of Blender but the interaction suffers a bit. If its another Blender instance you cannot copy/paste between them.
In 2.8, when you duplicate a window(now: Window > New Window) there’s no longer the Blender header, so there’s no longer an option to manually select another scene in the new window, than the first Blender window.
(The new window is permanently locked to the scene selected when you made a duplicate window, but the playback is still local - meaning not affecting the playback of another scene selected in the first Blender Window, unless it is the same scene selected both places.)
If the playback is local to the window at least you can use the “offset source media” method. That is where you hide all the source clips waaaay down the end of the edit timeline.
@3pointEdit Have you tried the 2.8 alpha with the new workspace feature? Does this give us some new options to improve source managing and editing with the sequencer?
Yeah 2.8 is driving me nuts, so much does not work that I won’t bother with it until it settles down a bit.
I am hopeful that Eevee becomes a background renderer available to the VSE, they suggested as much in the Dev AMA at Bconf 2017
I’ve been doing further research on what needs to be hardcoded for a more user-friendly VSE. I hope some GSOC project could give the VSE a much-needed update.
On the top of the list is faster video playback and faster export. I think everybody can agree on that.
Here’s a mock-up using existing functions and add-ons for an user-inviting(conventional) workflow:
Send your suggestion to the BF. I think there is a wiki to gather ideas for students. You can also send it on the mailing lists. https://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/
As someone who edits daily with the VSE I’d definitely appreciate core improvements on performances, controlling playback speed, and the possibility to add footage with different framerate without messing up the project. Say you forget to transcode some raw footage from 24 fps to ntsc-film (~23.978), it can mess you up pretty bad without warning.
When it comes to accessibility I think these are more important than the interface, they’re the biggest source of trouble getting start. It’s not too hard to teach editing with Blender. One of the limitations is you need some technical knowledge at the moment to not blow up your project.
Our add-on Power Sequencer tries to help with some of these issues with import warnings for instance or a hack for faster playback (that does the job but it’s clunky) but the sequencer itself needs fixes/improvements.
Regarding the UI changes though I don’t think patching it to make it feel and work more like other editing software is a good idea. One of the sequencer’s strengths is that it feels and works a little bit like the rest of Blender. It does lack some features out of the box but it’s efficient as it is to edit the kind of projects it was designed for: cg movies.
I’d rather have people work on refining and building upon the current UX than trying to make it more like other programs. There’s already kdenlive, pitivi, openshot and a few other projects hard at work on typical FOSS editing suites. Better support one of them (the KDEnlive team is quite active and they’re doing good work).
