Olive 0.2.x Quickstart

This guide is a short introduction to users who want to try out Olive 0.2.x. Please note that as development continues, changes are made all the time so this guide might get outdated quickly.

Sequencer Presets

Fig 1a. Sequencer Window

The window that appears when you create a new sequence has been redone. I think this is self-explanatory.

When you save a preset, it currently only saves it to the "My Presets" folder.

Node Editing

Fig 2a. Node Editor

This is another way of compositing/applying effects to a clip. Rather than the Adobe-style effect stack, effects are built modularly. It gives the user more flexibility in the kinds of effects they are able to create, and reduces the need for individual plugins.

In the default configuration, the Node Editor should be enabled.

After you have selected a clip in the timeline, add a node by right-clicking on the Node Editor canvas, then hover over "Add".

Let's add a Transform effect by adding two nodes: "Orthographic Matrix" (under Generator) and "Math" (under, uh... Math).

Fig 2b. Add Math Node

Place the Math node over the line that connects the Video Input with the clip. (Fig. 2b)

Fig 2c. Connect Ortho

Now connect the Ortho and Math nodes by holding Ctrl while the cursor is placed on the Ortho node, then click-dragging in the direction of the Math node. You can use either the left mouse button or the middle button to drag. Once the cursor is placed on the Math node, you will see two fields pop up, both named "Value". You'll want to connect to the bottom field. (Fig. 2c)

Fig 2d. Math Parameters

Select the Math node. Make sure the Parameter Editor panel is visible, then change the Method from "Add" to "Multiply". (Fig. 2d)

Fig 2e. Ortho Parameters

Now click on the Ortho node. You should see the controls for 0.1.x's Transform effect pop up, and it functions the same way (since it affects the footage via the Math node we connected earlier) (Fig. 2e)

For now, you may want to scrub the timeline to see the effects.

Editing Values

The value slider has also been redone. Instead of holding Shift for more precision, this slider now appears.

To decide the precision (x100, x10, x1, ...), you drag up or down while holding Ctrl (as of fd8116a9). Changing the value with the specified precision is done by dragging left or right.

Fig 3a. Editing Values

Caching

During editing, Olive pre-renders a portion or all of the sequence to disk as small images. This is done to make previewing edits faster since Olive doesn't have to render everything all over again when nothing has been changed.

Fig 4a. Disk Cache Settings

You can change how Olive caches sequences from the Tool -> Preferences dialog. (Fig. 4a)

Fig 4b. Project Cache Settings

You can also set the cache path on a per-project basis using File -> Project Properties. (Fig. 4b)

Color Management

Fig 5a. Without color management	Fig 5b. Color managed star image

Olive 0.2 introduces a proper color management system using OpenColorIO.

While this may not be of much use for the common user, the importance of color management can be simplified as such:

• Given a camera image, the values captured by its sensor can't be displayed properly as-is on a standard screen, so it must be encoded.

• If manipulation/processing is simply done to the encoded image, any kind of math applied (effects, blending, etc.) will be incorrect.

  • A blur effect won't look smooth. If you blur an image of a red star over a cyan background this way, you would see dark fringes around the edges. (Fig. 5a)

  • Color blending won't look right. It'd go from red -> gray -> blue instead of shifting the hue.

• If the image is decoded before processing, then re-encoded afterwards, the math would work on the true values and therefore would be correct (and look nicer as well!) (Fig. 5b)

Fig 5c. Project Color Settings

Color management can be set on a per-project basis. (Fig. 5c)

Olive comes bundled with a basic configuration akin to Filmic Blender, which you can replace with your own configuration file containing the color space definitions compatible with your camera. ACES is commonly used and contains configurations for several brands of camera.

Fig 5d. Footage Color Settings

The "Default Input Color Space" settings determines the default color space in which your footage is imported in. You can still change the color space of your footage individually through right clicking on a footage and choosing "Properties". (Fig. 5d)

Fig 5e. Sequence Viewer Context Menu

If you right-click on the Sequence Viewer, you will also find submenus related to color management: Display, View, and Look. (Fig. 5e)

The Display submenu should be set to the type of display of your screen. For PC users, this is usually "sRGB", unless you have a specialized monitor.

View is the type of function to be used when converting the processed color data to displayable values.

Look is basically the type of color grading or filter to use. By default, it comes with various contrast grades, a greyscale grade and a "false color" grade, useful to determine clipping.

Fig 5f. Pixel Sampler

0.2.x pre-alpha also provides a pixel sampler, where the "Display" panel is the color value that gets displayed onto the screen, and the "Reference" panel is the "raw" color value. For precision, these are expressed as floating point values. It also isn't always in the range of 0-1 because of the contextual nature of color values. (Fig. 5f)

Some resources you can use to better understand color management (and digital color in general) is Hitchhiker's Guide to Digital Color, as well as the Cinematic Color paper.