[CinCVS] Fixing the faders and automation lines

[Leo germani]

Hi all,

I am happy to announce that we are about to effectivelly contribute to cinelerra. This could happen through the Pontos de Cultura project of the ministery of culture of Brasil, who have hired Estudiolivre.org.

Rafael (slackware packages maintener) is soon starting to work on cinelerra code. Our aim is to fix the faders and automation lines.

We beleive they are great features (the faders for audio and video, and the possibility of automating camera and projector...) but the way they are today they are not very usable.

Of course we want to do this together with the community. So, first, Im gonna ask your opinions on whats the best way to deal with these issues. Later, I'll ask you to help Rafael, who is going to go deep in the code.

We have two plans so far, depending on how complex the thing gets:

Plan A:
Build Ardour-like automation tracks: it means you would have, on the left panel, the option to show or hide the automation tracks of your choice, wich would be subTracks of the track you are working in. On this track all you see is the automation line of the selected automation (fade, CameraX, etc...). You would be able to see one or as many automation tracks as you like at a time.
I think this is the best way cause also opens the door for, later on, someone add all the effects to this. For example, the PluginKey frames could migrate to the automatinoLine style. So I could automate, lets say, the HUE parameter of the Color Balance effect. It would substitute the yellow keys in the future in a much better way.
(Please let me know if my english is too confusing, maybe I can draw some snapshots)

Since we dont know how hard is to do this we have a second option:

Plan B:
just adding a selection box on the left panel for the user to select wich automation he/she wants to see/edit. It would be possible to see only one at a time. And the scale would be automatically adjusted for the selected automation.

Much simpler.. but does the job...

Please share your opinions!

cheers

Leo,,