Edit timing once, then 2 different layouts that depend on it?
Hey all. I'm doing a "talking head tutorial" type thing where my head speaks overlaid onto a desktop screen recording. Pretty easy in KDEN but now I'd like to do something more complicated.
Current Workflow
Here's my workflow so far:
- Make separate sequences each for the Camera and Desktop; Make sure audio is in sync with video, but don't entangle Camera with Desktop at this step.
- Make another sequence called "Layout 1", which pulls in the Camera and Desktop sequences. The Camera is cropped and positioned over the Desktop, with perhaps some transparency/borders/etc. The Camera and Desktop sequence are time-aligned and grouped.
- Make another sequence called "Edited" that directly uses the "Layout 1" sequence. I trim the beginning/end, cut out bad moments, tighten the timing slightly.
- Render the "Edited" sequence as the final movie file.
Desired Workflow
I would like to support multiple layouts without redoing the editing. For example, I might want to render two different versions of the same video, with the same edits/cuts/trims, but different layouts. Here's an example of what I was thinking:
- Make separate sequences each for the Camera and Desktop; Make sure audio is in sync with video, but don't entangle Camera with Desktop at this step.
- Make another sequence called "Edited" that directly uses the Camera and Desktop sequences, where I trim the beginning/end, cut out bad moments, tighten the timing slightly. This sequence would not implement a real layout. I'd probably setup a temporary layout so I could see both the Camera/Desktop while editing, but would revert when finished.
- Make another sequence called "Layout 1", which somehow can pull the Camera and Desktop tracks from the "Edited" sequence, but separately onto their own tracks. This would allow quickly applying transform and other affects to create the actual layout for each of the Camera and Desktop sequences.
- Make one or more additional "Layout" sequences that also pull from the "Edited" sequence, in order to lay out the Camera and Desktop sequences in some unique way.
- Render each "Layout" sequence on its own, producing several videos that are identically edited yet have different Camera/Desktop layouts.
Thoughts
I would love to hear your ideas and suggestions. Perhaps my workflow is totally off, but the goal can still be achieved in some other way. I'd prefer to avoid intermediate rendering or other hacky tricks that might cause lots of repeated work if the project should change later. I love the way sequences help keep things tidy and minimize work.
I'm not sure, but I think at some point awhile back, I made a sequence for two layouts, each directly using the Camera and Desktop sequences. Then a sequence called "Scene Switch" that I used to switch back and forth between the 2 layouts. Then, as a last step, I made the "Edited" sequence. I feel like I could use that idea to render two totally different layouts without scene switching, but instead to totally wipe the timeline and place only 1 layout on it, then render, then wipe again and place only layout 2 on it, then render again. But I'm mostly against that idea because it would require me to "wipe and replace" that timeline every time I wanted to change something or re-render (thus, kinda hacky and potentially creating lots of extra work).
Any ideas?
EDIT: Here's a diagram of what I'm doing right now. Unfortunately, this makes KDENLive slow even though many of the extra sequences just "pass through" without applying FX. Currently I can barely get 5fps by using very small proxies and 240p in the timeline.
