Video Editing Ideas

Reality ^Cat Cut is an Open-source video editor SDK with a Digital Compositing workflow. It is designed from the ground up to reduce cognitive overload in graphics software for modern touch and spatial devices.

Comic Effect

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Brief Explanation

The Comic Effect of a video is combined with that of the original video with a Swipe Transition. This creates the VFX effect of the kitten stepping on a 'cartoon like' floor.

 

Join Video Clips (Beta)

Brief Explanation

There are a total of 3 input video clips: with 1 cat, 2 cats, and 3 cats. The video clips are merged/concat with multiple Join nodes. The final video is one that shows video clip 1, followed by video clip 2 and finally video clip 3.

Photo Effect Noir

Cut Video (Beta)

Brief Explanation

Trims the video with the specified start and stop time.

Pointillistic Stripe Effect

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Brief Explanation

Stripes Generator is a node requiring no input. The Pointillize node applies the pointillistic style on the Stripes Generator. The Multiply Blend Node in step 4 is a composite node that multiplies the output of node 3 with that of the original video in node 1. This creates a patterned effect overlayed on the original video.

Zoom Blur

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Brief Explanation

This pipeline applies a swipe transition, at an angle of 33 degress, from the Zoom Blur output of the video to that of the original video. The final video shows the Zoom Blur covering half of the video at an angle.

Video Editor SDK

This Video Editor app and SDK is fully Open-Source. Please feel free to extend, fork, or contribute to the project.

The initial part of the project will be focused on the techniques described in the following Digital Compositing books.

• Digital Compositing for Film and Video by Steve Wright

• The Art and Science of Digital Compositing: Techniques for Visual Effects, Animation and Motion Graphics by Brinkmann, Ron

Auto Chaining

Whenever a node is added to the Digital Compositing node-graph, it is assumed to be automatically taking the output of the previous node. For example, node 2 is assumed to be taking the output of node 1 for Comic Effect processing.

                       
1. Read Video
2. Comic Effect (1)
3. Zoom Blur    (2)
                   

If the nodes are rearranged, for example, if Zoom Blur is shifted to occur before Comic Effect, the previous nodes in the node graph will be automatically reassigned.

                       
1. Read Video
2. Zoom Blur    (1)
3. Comic Effect (2)
                   

This auto-chaining behavior occurs automatically and replicates the behavior of existing digital compositing software of "adding a node to the node graph by first selecting an existing node".

Now, you may ask, what happens if you do not want to use the previous node as your input? Or what if, you need more than one input node such as a background or a mask?

Reverse Compositing

The auto chaining, or automatic preceding node referencing, behavior can be altered by the user by changing the properties of a node. For example, node 4 (Color Correction) below can be modified to use node 1 as the input instead of the automatically assigned preceding node.

                       
1. Read Video
2. Premult          (1)

3. Read Video
4. Color Correction (3)
5. Gaussian Blur    (4)
6. Transform        (5)
                   

to

                        
1. Read Video
2. Premult          (1)

3. Read Video
4. Color Correction ("1")
5. Gaussian Blur    (4)
6. Transform        (5)
                    

The double quotes, as shown above, or other mechanisms such as color coding, indicate an altered node on the pipeline.

Viewer Cycling

By default, the Viewer displays the output of the last node in the node-graph. You can 'long press' on the Yellow Socket of a specific node to set the Viewer to temporarily display its output.

You can also 'cycle' through and view the output of each node by "long pressing" on each of the nodes. This 'Viewer Cycling' through the nodes helps us visualize and understand what is going on in each step of the node-graph.