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Blueprinting a Next Generation VSE

In order to adequately discuss where the VSE should be driven for the future iterations of Blender, some reasoning is required to figure out what such a view should accomplish in the larger picture. This document will attempt to outline some typical motion picture / animation needs in conjunction with the respective pipeline, while drawing differences to existing choices artists may have out in the wild.

Blender's Goal

Any VSE implementation should be congruent with Blender's history and overall vision. Blender's current mission statement is:

We want to build a free and open source complete 3D creation pipeline for artists and small teams.

In particular interest to any VSE-NG discussion, is this relevant quote:

Pipeline: We are aware of how CG production works (for animation, film, vfx, games) and we want Blender to work sufficiently in each and every aspect of such creation pipelines. This to to make complex creations possible and to enable people working together

This hints at a very unique pipeline that many artists may not be entirely familiar with nor aware as to why it exists in the first place.

Typical Production Pipeline

A typical production pipeline can be loosely broken down into the following discrete phases:

1. Preproduction
   • Storyboarding
   • Animatics
   • Planning and logistics
2. Production and Acquisition
   • Shooting
   • Animation voice work
3. Editing
   • Logging / Trimming
   • Assembly
   • Rough cut
   • Fine cut
   • Final cut / Picture lock
4. Postproduction
   • Visual effects
   • Rendering
   • Complex image generation / techniques
   • Sound and music work.
5. Finishing
   • Grading
   • Conforming for answer print
   • Mastering for various media such as BluRay, DVD, YouTube, native file, etc.

An animation would follow a very similar path, without the obvious need to shoot real-world footage. Editing would take on a larger role regarding the blocking in of elements in such cases, but the general process remains largely intact.

Where Would VSE Next Gen Fit

The VSE-NG could be leveraged as a useful view component at several of the above production phases:

1. During Preproduction
   • Use of the VSE-NG to assemble storyboards into an animatic
2. During Production
   • Test timing of beats during acquisition of voice work or shooting.
3. During Editing
   • Work a project from assembly to final cut / picture lock.
4. During Postproduction
   • Use the blueprint laid from editing to inform entry points for visual effects timings.
   • Use curves from editing to commence work on complex sequences.
5. During Finishing
   • Use the VSE-NG view to control overall grading process per-shot in conjunction with typical node-based grading view.
   • Use the VSE-NG view to ship edit to conforming for final mastering into an answer print; blueprint for transitions, cuts, and other such details.
   • Use the VSE-NG view to control trim-passes for delivery to various formats.

Why Not Kitchen-Sink It and Do-It-All?

The needs of the various phases outlined above are very unique, and each comes with particular design problems that must be addressed. During editing for example, it is of little importance to worry about the heavy weight of rendering out complex visual effects or like matters; pacing and timing is of the utmost importance. During postproduction work, the massive task of thousands of nodes working in conjunction outweighs the worry of realtime as the project is working from the blueprint defined during editing.

No application can hope to achieve both ends without making certain concessions. 32 bit float buffers coupled with deep compositing, hundreds of nodes, and other details will ram against the realtime performance required for editing frame accurate footage. If concessions are made however, the resultant product will inevitably suffer on image quality.

The question then becomes knowing that concessions must be made, where should they be made in a way that doesn't interfere with delivering the utmost quality in a project?

We can loosely break the two discrete design needs into:

• Frame Accuracy and Realtime critical
• Pixel Accuracy and Processor critical

Glossary

Answer Print 

A final master set of frames that form a work.

Grading 

The process of manipulating imagery to develop looks and aesthetics, often involving extensive colour manipulation.

Trim Pass 

A slight tweak to a final answer print as required due to nuances of delivery format.