Author Topic: Updating the UI: Play & Save Edition  (Read 12136 times)

DDR

  • Krontech
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 111
    • View Profile
    • Krontech
Updating the UI: Play & Save Edition
« on: February 26, 2018, 04:38:38 PM »
I've redesigned the current playback screen. This is a more theoretical design, since I'm not sure we will actually be able to do what we want to do. (I think it's important that we know what we want to, though, so we can explicitly deal with not being able to do it.)



I've only made up one version of this screen. It's a pretty direct iteration on what we have now; we've got the same controls along the side, in pretty much the same layout. However, we've added two major features:
  • A seek bar along the bottom to take advantage of the increased horizontal resolution there. The seek bar will display the colour of the middle column of pixels of the frame of video under that position on the bar. This should help you spot motion when you're reviewing footage and trying to find where the moment the interesting bit happened is. Also, it's nice and big and has a slider that lets you see the bar pattern. ;D
  • Multiple marked regions. Regions show up as different coloured boxes near the top of the timeline. They're red and yellow in the mockup. Right now, when you mark in and mark out, you have to wait for the region to save before marking and saving the next region you want. Having multiple regions should fix that. 8)

Since all this UI does eat into the video window a bit, we are planning to let you zoom the video itself in and out with pinch-to-zoom. (And tap-tapdrag like on Android phones? It's a little hard to discover but I really like it. What does iOS have to say about this? Hmm... 🤔 )



If you hit the "Edit Marked Regions" button in the top-left, it slides out a menu:


This lets you delete regions, rename regions (which will be reflected in the saved file name), and modify region start/end. I'm a little fuzzy on how closing the box will work. I think 'swipe left to close' would work, or tapping on 'edit marked regions' again. If it turns out to be confusing, we can always add an ✕ to the top-right of the menu to make it nice and explicit. :)
« Last Edit: February 26, 2018, 04:42:06 PM by DDR »

jasonfish

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 81
    • View Profile
Re: Updating the UI: Play & Save Edition
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2018, 09:04:36 PM »
Wait, we'll be able to save multiple sections of the same recording? Will they be saved as separate files, or stitched together?

My only feedback on the screenies: The + and - speed buttons appear to be reversed.

DDR

  • Krontech
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 111
    • View Profile
    • Krontech
Re: Updating the UI: Play & Save Edition
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2018, 09:11:19 PM »
Wait, we'll be able to save multiple sections of the same recording? Will they be saved as separate files, or stitched together?
They'll be saved as multiple files.

My only feedback on the screenies: The + and - speed buttons appear to be reversed.
Well, I'll be. You're totally right. I've fixed them now -- thank you for catching that.

Here's the fixed version. :)

jasonfish

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 81
    • View Profile
Re: Updating the UI: Play & Save Edition
« Reply #3 on: February 26, 2018, 09:20:05 PM »
Ok, one more feedback re "the middle column of pixels of the frame of video under that position on the bar."

I suspect that most videos are tripod-based with little to no movement, yes? I think it's a cool idea, but developing for the 90% use case, I wonder if the effort is worth the essentially-zero payoff, as the entire strip would be full of perfectly identical columns.

Carry on and do what you do, but if there's another feature or bug on your plate, maybe ... ummmm ... ehhhhh. ;)

DDR

  • Krontech
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 111
    • View Profile
    • Krontech
Re: Updating the UI: Play & Save Edition
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2018, 07:25:13 PM »
I was figuring that whatever you caught the video of would move through the middle frame, so you'd be able to see when the event occurred by looking for the change in colour along the film strip. I was sort of banking on having steady shots, because - I think - you could better see when the event is then. What use-case did you have in mind, jasonfish?

patrickrebstock

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 114
  • playing camera
    • View Profile
    • patrickrebstock.com
Re: Updating the UI: Play & Save Edition
« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2018, 10:18:45 PM »
looks good

jasonfish

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 81
    • View Profile
Re: Updating the UI: Play & Save Edition
« Reply #6 on: February 28, 2018, 09:21:49 AM »
I was figuring that whatever you caught the video of would move through the middle frame

My shots have been mostly of objects near the center of the frame. But yeah, for shots with an object moving across the frame, this could be useful.

Electra

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 55
    • View Profile
Re: Updating the UI: Play & Save Edition
« Reply #7 on: February 28, 2018, 09:27:22 AM »
You could always average a stripe of pixels from the center and make it into a single colour.
That way any activity near the center of shot will change the 'preview's colour.  I can't imagine too many events that wouldn't change at least colour or brightness.
I actually think it would be less useful for handheld footage compared to tripod where you'd get 'static-background' for most then 'orangeandredexplosion' then back to 'new-static-background'.
This is another feature that might be worth taking some footage, some python and making up some 'real' bars to see the effect rather than pure mockups before depending on this feature being in the camera. :)

aaronkondziela

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 11
    • View Profile
Re: Updating the UI: Play & Save Edition
« Reply #8 on: April 04, 2018, 03:20:30 PM »
Another random thought on the frame preview strip:

Perhaps a histogram-type display that indicates the variance in the frame. Base it from the first frame, or a moving average behind current. Overlay on the averaged strip, as a line chart.

Half-baked, just tossing it out there =)

DDR

  • Krontech
  • Full Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 111
    • View Profile
    • Krontech
Re: Updating the UI: Play & Save Edition
« Reply #9 on: April 04, 2018, 05:35:08 PM »
Oo, that does sound really cool. :D