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Titler 2.0

After the first step to rewrite the Titler was succesfully achieved, now we need to:

  • MLT-QML producer
  • Write a UI
  • Add features

Features ideas:

  • General

  • keep the funcition from the exsiting titler.

  • Minimum function see https://kdenlive.org/en/video-editing-applications-handbook/#titler

  • Should work like basic text tool in Microsoft Word.

  • Backwards compatibility: Convert old titler file to new (qml) titler.

  • Text

  • Text editing feature is very limited and not user-friendly https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=420455

  • text size vs clip size https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=265&t=165643

  • Strong Multi-Stroke (for asian users). Several colorful contours can be created around an object or text. image

  • Make borders/shadow of text more customizable (like opacity/progressive-opacity/edge-size) , this make screen texts more "readable" on complex background of the same color of text.

  • 3d text with vanishing point

  • Make that the centered/aligned flags (now only buttons and not flags) auto-refresh image on screen when selected (now adding lines or changing text size doesn't change the text centering.. and lines/words are exiting screen bounds) .. this also means that these centering flags will un-flagged if the text is moved by mouse in a custom place.

  • A Natron and/or Blender integration for animated text

  • Ability to handle subscripts and superscripts

  • The shadow features of the text is really lacking. Ideally it should have as many properties as CSS's box-shadow, like adding multiple shadows, XY coordinates, blur, spread and color (with alpha).

  • The text object also seems to not support multiple text styles within the same object (highlight a word and change its point size or color). Don't know if this is good or bad but I would expect it to behave like GIMP's text tool where you can set font face and bold/non-bold for specific parts of the text, for example. This makes it hard to do definition lists where you have the definition in boldface and the description in normal face.

  • I don't understand why the animation tab exists. In my opinion it should be forgone for using the default effects with keyframes that Kdenlive provides.

  • Subtitle see #666 (closed)

  • Support for subtitle track. See here: https://phabricator.kde.org/T2960. Instead of using: http://www.aegisub.org/ -> maybe a separate feature like "clip subtitle"

  • Integrating a subtitle feature that exports a .srt file

  • Graphic

  • Handle and modify SVG files (vector graphics) in the titler. That would open a way for some kind of animation (maybe as an new feature for the future in Kdenlive). Some input here: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=405249.
    Check the new glaxnimate producer in MLT (https://glaxnimate.mattbas.org/).

  • Shadow for shapes, lines, images

  • New line(size, colors)

  • Outline or border for line

  • Value custom scale for animation

  • Grouping of graphic elements to which settings can be applied.

  • Animated presets

  • Being able to animate lines/text boxes individually within the titles. Right now, if I want parts of a text to animate one after the other, I have to duplicate a title and then add the additional text. If I want to make any modifications to the text, I have to start from scratch. This feature could work kind if like PowerPoints animation pane

  • Effects: SMOKE/DISTORTION/SOFTNESS/FOCUS/NOISE

  • Image

  • Images cannot be resized freely, they must keep their aspect ratio. This should be a switch like in the transform tool.

  • The color picker is really weird. It doesn't allow me to select/copy the current color of the object that I have and when I try to add a new color it always resets to #000000.

  • Template

  • Better integration of the downloadable user-generated title templates (right now, in Windows, you can download the titles from inside the titler (from: https://store.kde.org/browse/cat/335/é0, but the downloaded templates don't appear inside of the titler; the user has to comb through the Kdenlive folders to find the downloaded files). I definitely want to contribute by making more title templates, but this has been my main issue.

  • Typewriter preset would be cool too (see https://youtu.be/9-32fs5lloI for example)

  • Usability

  • When I create a title clip, I have to drop it to the timeline----the drop accion can be saved---when you create a clip, it locates at the playhead automatically which will be more efficient (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=404264#c10)

  • When you want to edit, you have to locate it first in the libary---why can´t be edited the title clip directely at the timeline---especially when we have a lot of title clips (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=404264#c10)

  • Tile clip automatically capture the firest line of its content as its name. When you are creating a title clip, you can not edit the clip name in the same window. To modify the name of the clip you have close the text editing window first and then modify it in the libary. When the text in the clip is too small to see the content, have to rename the clip to identify each one. (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=404264#c10)

  • Optional rulers and guides. These movable guides can be used to align exactly graphical objects and text.
    image

  • Make convenient keyboard navigation due to logical tab order. See https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=407615

  • Make sure cursor on title-clip editor is visible with alpha background. See https://invent.kde.org/kde/kdenlive/issues/165

  • Undo and redo buttons within the titler

  • Being able to edit titles by double clicking the clips in the Timeline (right now, we can only edit the clips from the Bin/Library)

  • A way to duplicate items. I couldn't find any way to do this.

Edited by Eugen Mohr