Improve Experience with Editor

  • This idea comes from my experience with the Timeline primarily.  The timeline is pretty useful...UNTIL a project has more than about 20 elements in it.  When that happens, timeline management becomes cumbersome and painful.  As I look at this problem, I see that maybe there should be a review of how the editor actually works.


    The problem is, we think of elements arranged spatially as well as temporally, so at the very least there should be two independent views of the data.  A Canvas View and a TimeLine View.


    But as I thought about this, I recognized that there is a third problem--and maybe I'm the only one who has ever run into this: the positioning of an element in the timeline correctly determines its drawing order, but gives me no control over whether an object is drawn in front of, or BEHIND, another object that is in the same x-y position in the Canvas.  So  maybe a third view is required that allows for the Vertical Placement of objects in the visible space.  I'm not sure what you'd call this view, maybe something like Stacking View.


    In my ideal world, here's how I see things:


    A. Canvas View

    1. Allows me to position, size, align and distribute elements.
    2. Can zoom in or out to arbitrary depth
    3. Has snap & grid features.
    4. Has tools that allow me to insert new elements wherever I want them
    5. Has tools to allow for multiple selections at once (lasso, or rectangular select)
    6. Has tools that allow me to specify things like Appearance Effect, Paths between Start and End point for a particular object, etc.
    7. Has (NEW) tools that allow me to draw simple shapes like lines, polygons, ellipses, spirals, etc.  These are inserted as embedded SVGs with properties  (especially fill/line/stroke colors/opacities) that can be changed after the objects have been created.
    8. Preview feature allows me to see how the element is going to be rendered (disregarding Moves, Paths, or Morphs--just Draw or Appear)

    B. TimeLine View
    1. Multi-track view that allows for multiple renderings to take place simultaneously.  (At least 4 tracks would be nice)
    2. The vertical positioning of tracks could define the Z-order for drawing of multiple items (which would eliminate the need for a Stacking View).
    3. It would be awesome to have a dedicated track or 2 for overlay images.  These images are never actually rendered according to current TimeLine rules, they just appear on screen (perhaps with an effect) and stay on screen until some predetermined end time, or even to the very end of the video.
    4. In the same way it would be great to have a dedicated track for or 2 for overlay text that stays visible in the final video as long as I want it to.
    5. I can see all the objects on all tracks or on any individual track.
    6. Left and right arrow behave in the expected way.
    7. Home key takes me to the start of the track, End key takes me to the end.
    8. PgUp and PgDn move me along the timeline a "chunk" at a time.
    9. Items on the canvas are not on the timeline until I put them there. (This could be a preference that could be overridden so that newly created elements are always added to the end of  one of the tracks in the TimeLine.
    10. Items in the timeline can be selected individually or in group selections, and moved to different places in the timeline as a group.

    I've got lots more ideas about this, but I don't want you to hate me!!!

    1 person likes this idea
  • Hi David thanks for your detailed post and we welcome your suggestions (we never hate a good idea).

    We are working on a number of improvements to the timeline and some will be implemented in version 2.1.

    Also there will be the ability to add grid lines on the canvas.

    You will also be able to add sound effects to individual elements on the canvas.


    If you could, it would be great to have suggestions on individual posts as it makes it easier for users to comment, vote and add their views on particular points you raise.


  • David McLeod is in my head, and then some! Videoscribe is great, and I'm working on my first scribe, but there's just so much I can't do (it seems) that one might think would be normal. The above suggestions are just some of them. :)

  • Hi Joe Clarke

    How could you add a sound effect to individual element?

    That feature will be great


  • Hi Marlene, thanks for your question.

    Version 2.1 beta had a sound effects feature although it did not pass the Beta stage.

    We are reviewing the whole Sound effects feature and once working well, we will implement it going forward.

    If you are a Pro or Edu user and want to take part in further Beta trials, you can register on Your Account page

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